GOSHEN COUNTY – The Goshen County Commissioners convened for its second June meeting on Tuesday, June 20 at the Goshen County Courthouse. Chairman Michael McNamee was present with fellow commissioners Aaron Walsh and Justin Burkart.

During the chairman’s opening comments, McNamee addressed the public.

“While I certainly understand and appreciate the frustration that some of our county residents experience when it comes to the road and bridge department, I would like to remind everyone that there is a chain of command that needs to be followed when it comes to voicing those concerns,” McNamee said. “It certainly doesn’t include personally attacking the individual maintainers and the operators of the equipment. I think that at some point, it has become the norm for people to not only feel that they are empowered to tell the guys how to do their jobs.

“I think that it has gotten out of hand,” he continued. “We have had situations where there are personal attacks left in notes that are put into the maintainers. Not only do I believe that is trespassing on county property but getting into those maintainers and doing that type of thing is inappropriate. If there are concerns and complaints, then the chain of command needs to be followed.”

To get ahold of the Road Superintendent Dane Bolzer, you can contact the Goshen County Road and Bridge Department at 307-532-3716.

“I would like to see a little different protocol followed and a different level of respect given to not only the road and bridge employees but all county employees,” McNamee said. “We’re fortunate to have the employees that we have. I thank them for all they do.”

During the meeting, Burkart spoke about the budget amendment on the agenda. 

“We have a couple of budget amendments,” Burkart explained. “A lot of this is due to receiving grants that weren’t originally budgeted when we did it last year.”

The other amendments for departments were for the fairgrounds, fire warden, road and bridge and public defender. 

The fairgrounds requested an amendment for $25,000 in order to have an extra cushion for the 2023 fiscal year budget to ensure that they don’t go over budget. These funds will be supplemented by moving around other funds from the fairground’s budget, not the county’s general fund.

The funds for the fire warden’s budget are being amended by $166,465 to cover equipment and personnel for the county’s aid in federal fires. This is an amendment that comes around every year since it is impossible to predict these funds from year to year. 

The public defender department requested an amendment for $2,600 for an unexpected expense.

“I think the only budget that we really truly went over with that we have to account for with our general funds is road and bridge,” Burkart continued. 

The amendment requested for the road and bridge department was a total of $90,000 for equipment, repairs, shop tools and other supplies. Many of these extra expenses can be linked to the substantial winter weather that affected the county this year. 

“We are going to have some discussions about procedures better anticipate these types of expenses,” Burkart said.

The commissioners approved the budget amendments. 

At the last meeting, the commissioners discussed two applicants for county boards, the Care Center Joint Powers Board and the Library Board. They decided they would like to meet and interview both applicants before approving their positions. The applicant for the joint powers board, Peggy Holmstrand, was present at this meeting for her interview.

Holmstrand told the commissioners that she is a Goshen County native and has 40 years of experience in health care and long-term care. She said she recently retired but much of her career was at Evergreen Court as the manager. 

“I have to say that this has been my passion for 40 years,” Holmstrand told the commissioners.

The commissioners approved having Holmstrand fill one of the positions on the joint powers board.

During the staff reports, Goshen County Library Board Director Ellen Creagar reported on the library’s summer reading program, traffic and other updates.

“I have good news and good numbers for you,” Creagar said. “For summer reading, we are up to 331 registrants. We pretty much doubled the number of active readers (232), the number of minutes (70,073) and the number of badges (1,724). They’re reading like crazy!”

Also, Creagar said the traffic through the library between June 1 to 15 was 4,463 patrons. 

Every week on Wednesday at 10 a.m. the library has books activities and prizes for kids ages from 0 to high school. Beginning on June 27, the library will receive five blood pressure kits that will be available for patrons to check out.

Wyoming Gives Day is on July 12 from 12 midnight to 11:59 p.m. This is a day where all donations given to organizations, like the Goshen County Library, are matched by Wyoming Gives. You can go to wyogives.org to learn more.

At this meeting, the commissioners approved rescheduling the July 4 meeting because of the holiday. The next meeting of the Goshen County Commissioners will take place Tuesday, July 11 at 9 a.m. in the Goshen County Courthouse at 2125 East A Street.