Ambulance building renovation is underway

At the Washakie County Commissioners meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 17, ambulance station project manager Tom Schmeltzer said he obtained a building permit and renovation has begun at the site at 603 North Road 11.

He said, “It’s finally underway and we’ll try to knock it out as fast as we can.” The fire suppression system is still in the engineering phase, and will be the last part of the building to go in. Schmeltzer said that the blueprints will be sent to the state fire marshal as soon as possible.

COTTONWOOD GRASS CREEK WID DISSOLUTION

Jim Butterfield attended the commissioners meeting to discuss the dissolution of the Cottonwood Grass Creek Watershed Improvement District. Butterfield said, “We started this in 2008. The sole purpose was to build a reservoir. We’ve done a level one and a level two study, and there’s just no feasible way. There’s no place on either drainage to store water.”

Butterfield said that they have continued operating for small water projects, but ultimately, he said that “it’s too much for nothing happening,” between the associated costs and meetings. According to Butterfield, the board voted unanimously to dissolve and the surrounding landowners are also in support of the dissolution.

Before a final dissolution, County Attorney Tony Barton said they likely need to have a final public hearing. Barton will be looking over details of the case and will work with Hot Springs County (where a portion of the watershed is located) on the dissolution.

OTHER BUSINESS

In other business Tuesday:

•Washakie County Public Health Nursing Manager Amanda Heinemeyer got approval from the commissioners for the public health building to be closed on Friday, Oct. 20 to complete their flooring installation. Heinemeyer said that public health has done 302 flu shots and has started doing COVID-19 booster vaccines.

•The Washakie Prevention Coalition set Thursday, Jan. 25 as the date for their annual prevention night in Worland. They have also started having Tuesday night meetings to be more accessible to youth and adults who are unavailable during the day. Their next evening meeting is Tuesday, Oct. 24 at 6 p.m.

•Interim Planner Mike Robinson said he has received around 10 bids for the chip sealing project and that bids are due Monday, Nov. 6 by 5 p.m. Robinson said revised regulations for campgrounds have been released to campgrounds to review, and they must respond by the end of October.

Commissioners will hold a public hearing about the revisions on Tuesday, Dec. 5. Robinson said they will try to put the proposed changes on their website for people to review. Robinson additionally requested approval for the Deromedi subdivision, which was granted. This subdivision was originally a purchase agreement that fell through in the 1980s and is located north of Worland on West River Road.

•The commissioners meeting was briefly in executive session/closed for attorney-client privileges. Present were Commissioners Aaron Anderson, Terry Wolf and Morgan Martinez, County Clerk Lily Rakness Parra, County Attorney Tony Barton and Washakie County Sherriff Austin Brookwell.

•County Clerk Lily Rakness Parra brought to the attention of department heads and elected officials the issue of social media archiving. Per Wyoming state statute, the county needs to archive all social media activity. According to Barton, if an account represents a county office, regardless if it represents an elected official or who operates the page, all the account’s activity needs to be retained. Barton said he thinks it is a good idea to archive the activity to mitigate risk in the long run. The county will continue to work on a solution and determine which program they would like to use for archiving social media

activity.