After enjoying a much-needed break for the holidays, the Goshen County Commission met Tuesday morning at the Goshen County Courthouse at promptly 9 a.m. to discuss both ongoing as well as fresh business moving forward.
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![By Rhett Breedlove
rbreedlove@torringtontelegram.com
GOSHEN COUNTY – After enjoying a much-needed break for the holidays, the Goshen County Commission met Tuesday morning at the Goshen County Courthouse at promptly 9 a.m. to discuss both ongoing as well as fresh business moving forward.
County Chairman, Michael McNamee was in attendance, along with fellow Commissioners Justin Burkart and Aaron Walsh.
“A welcome to our visitors this morning,” began Chairman McNamee. “We have a very busy agenda, so we will get started with a couple of comments and a big Happy New Year to everyone. We hope everyone had a happy holiday season. We are glad to be back at it and ready to rock and roll for 2024.”
“We have lots of things going on in Goshen County,” McNamee continued. “We have just come out of a year when I look back at what we were facing with the weather. We certainly have been blessed with nice weather so far this winter, which has allowed several departments including Road and Bridge to catch a breath. Everything in 2024 will be equally important in Goshen County and we as Commissioners are ready to tackle that.”
One matter of business which came up before the Commission was the welcoming of new Goshen County Fire Warden, Tom Bozeman. Bozeman is also Goshen’s current active Emergency Management Coordinator.
Bozeman presented his first monthly report as current active Goshen County Fire Warden.
“We had a pretty busy month of December,” Bozeman began. “There was a lot of paperwork and going over file accounts, all the duties the Fire Warden does. Some of the things I was able to accomplish in that month was Shop with a Cop, and we had our big senior bucket giveaway where we passed out 150 total [survival] buckets for seniors in our communities. We had 66 or so left over that we passed out at the Senior Center here in Torrington. That was a great giveaway we had, and Goshen Public Health participated as well.”
Bozeman then proceeded to present before the Commission both current and future projects that will hopefully come to fruition sometime soon as 2024 gets further underway.
“With our drug testing policy, we are getting ready to present that to you,” Bozeman continued. “We did have a kickoff meeting with City Plus. As far as the solar project I’ve got more homework to do on that. We are going to take the employee manual and break it off into separate policies, so it becomes easier in renewing it next time. For January, my goal is to complete that manual and get it off the plate. Today we are programming the communications trailer and will be able to exercise that next month. So, I’m going to present you guys with signed grants from homeland security. These are grant awards that I’ll need the Commissioners to sign. These will extend radio communications down to the basement. If there is an incident, we will have the ability to commutate via radio and cell phone rather than having to run upstairs to talk. Another is the Sheriff’s Office rescue vehicle regarding a snow machine and trailer. The others are salary reimbursement grants the with the vehicle replacement grant being $154,000 that we were rewarded.”
Commissioner Burkart responded with, “Four grants for the new year, holy moly.”
Chairman McNamee concurred with Burkart, noting before all in attendance, “We can joke about the grant business, but it’s a huge part of your business. And congratulations on your new role, and we know you will do well. It’s a good fit, and a logical one with those two positions.”
The meeting continued with the Goshen County Road and Bridge report, with department members Val Hankins, Bob Taylor and Mike Tietjen all in attendance as well as offering valuable input.
The main topic of discussion pertained to an assurance of keeping all Road and Bridge positions filled with seasonal changes to come.
“It’s tough to fill positions,” Burkhart said. “When you look across the board at all our departments, it’s the same problem in how to be competitive while being able to reach out and get the kind of people we need.”
“One of our new machines will be in on Wednesday,” Hankins said. “When I have a time certain I can let you know as far as the delivery. We need to take a final look at that contract, and then just let them know they are available when they become available. We would really like to try and get a dura-patch machine. We still have an operator spot open, and we might actually have two operator spots open. I would suggest full time rather than part time.”
“This has been formal to keep you guys in touch with what’s been going on with activity in subdivisions,” Taylor stated. “We have subplans and preliminary plat for Hawk Springs. According to regulations we don’t have to do this, but I’d like to do that sometime in the next 30 days and get the revisions made before someone jumps you in public. It’s nice for you guys to know what’s going on, so here we are. These have been through the Planning Commission, and we will follow through with recommendations made by the Planning Commission.”
Taylor furthermore noted one particular county road has been a source of concern during the winter months in prior years.
“It wasn’t as difficult to reconstruct Road 15 on Deer Creek and it has been kind of a notorious bad section of road, but we’ve got it looking better than in years. But, due to terrain you just can’t do anything with it, even though we’ve always wanted to try and improve it. For maybe three years we have been going back and forth, and we currently have it posted as no winter maintenance. Pretty much what is on that road is pump stations, so that’s not a road we would necessarily run out there to get open.”
A final topic of business was the open public discussion of maintaining a strong and trustful ongoing relationship between the GCC and the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), particularly when it comes to feedlots and permits.
Chairman McNamee touched based on the issue, as well as sharing recommendations by Goshen County Attorney, Eric Boyer.
“We have no ability to force DEQ to speed up or change their approach in any way,” McNamee said. “Regarding the permitting process, it has been advised by attorney Boyer that we continue to research and continue with what the county approach will be with rules and regulations in the county. I’m saying at this point this is based on the advisement of the County Attorney and is something we need to continue to research and take under advisement without getting too far off. It’s very difficult for us. I don’t believe from my standpoint and the other two commissioners that we want to put ourselves in a position of policing. You are looking for our help in something that needs to be done, and we will continue to process the information to take it under advisement. Our county, with a lot of other feedlot situations, is operating on permits and are doing what is expected of them. This doesn’t fall on deaf ears. We are just going to be very careful with how we approach it.”
The commissioners meeting was adjourned at 10:23 a.m. and will reconvene at 9 a.m. on January 16 at the Goshen County Courthouse.
If you would like further information or have more questions pertaining to the Goshen County Commissioners, feel free to call 307-532-4051 or visit www.goshencounty.org.](https://alpha.creativecirclecdn.com/nmcwye/original/20240125-103954-adda0e64047ca5cb276bf936e356b78d.png.jpg)
GOSHEN COUNTY – After enjoying a much-needed break for the holidays, the Goshen County Commission met Tuesday morning at the Goshen County Courthouse at promptly 9 a.m. to discuss both ongoing as well as fresh business moving forward.
County Chairman, Michael McNamee was in attendance, along with fellow Commissioners Justin Burkart and Aaron Walsh.
“A welcome to our visitors this morning,” began Chairman McNamee. “We have a very busy agenda, so we will get started with a couple of comments and a big Happy New Year to everyone. We hope everyone had a happy holiday season. We are glad to be back at it and ready to rock and roll for 2024.”
“We have lots of things going on in Goshen County,” McNamee continued. “We have just come out of a year when I look back at what we were facing with the weather. We certainly have been blessed with nice weather so far this winter, which has allowed several departments including Road and Bridge to catch a breath. Everything in 2024 will be equally important in Goshen County and we as Commissioners are ready to tackle that.”
One matter of business which came up before the Commission was the welcoming of new Goshen County Fire Warden, Tom Bozeman. Bozeman is also Goshen’s current active Emergency Management Coordinator.
Bozeman presented his first monthly report as current active Goshen County Fire Warden.
“We had a pretty busy month of December,” Bozeman began. “There was a lot of paperwork and going over file accounts, all the duties the Fire Warden does. Some of the things I was able to accomplish in that month was Shop with a Cop, and we had our big senior bucket giveaway where we passed out 150 total [survival] buckets for seniors in our communities. We had 66 or so left over that we passed out at the Senior Center here in Torrington. That was a great giveaway we had, and Goshen Public Health participated as well.”
Bozeman then proceeded to present before the Commission both current and future projects that will hopefully come to fruition sometime soon as 2024 gets further underway.
“With our drug testing policy, we are getting ready to present that to you,” Bozeman continued. “We did have a kickoff meeting with City Plus. As far as the solar project I’ve got more homework to do on that. We are going to take the employee manual and break it off into separate policies, so it becomes easier in renewing it next time. For January, my goal is to complete that manual and get it off the plate. Today we are programming the communications trailer and will be able to exercise that next month. So, I’m going to present you guys with signed grants from homeland security. These are grant awards that I’ll need the Commissioners to sign. These will extend radio communications down to the basement. If there is an incident, we will have the ability to commutate via radio and cell phone rather than having to run upstairs to talk. Another is the Sheriff’s Office rescue vehicle regarding a snow machine and trailer. The others are salary reimbursement grants the with the vehicle replacement grant being $154,000 that we were rewarded.”
Commissioner Burkart responded with, “Four grants for the new year, holy moly.”
Chairman McNamee concurred with Burkart, noting before all in attendance, “We can joke about the grant business, but it’s a huge part of your business. And congratulations on your new role, and we know you will do well. It’s a good fit, and a logical one with those two positions.”
The meeting continued with the Goshen County Road and Bridge report, with department members Val Hankins, Bob Taylor and Mike Tietjen all in attendance as well as offering valuable input.
The main topic of discussion pertained to an assurance of keeping all Road and Bridge positions filled with seasonal changes to come.
“It’s tough to fill positions,” Burkhart said. “When you look across the board at all our departments, it’s the same problem in how to be competitive while being able to reach out and get the kind of people we need.”
“One of our new machines will be in on Wednesday,” Hankins said. “When I have a time certain I can let you know as far as the delivery. We need to take a final look at that contract, and then just let them know they are available when they become available. We would really like to try and get a dura-patch machine. We still have an operator spot open, and we might actually have two operator spots open. I would suggest full time rather than part time.”
“This has been formal to keep you guys in touch with what’s been going on with activity in subdivisions,” Taylor stated. “We have subplans and preliminary plat for Hawk Springs. According to regulations we don’t have to do this, but I’d like to do that sometime in the next 30 days and get the revisions made before someone jumps you in public. It’s nice for you guys to know what’s going on, so here we are. These have been through the Planning Commission, and we will follow through with recommendations made by the Planning Commission.”
Taylor furthermore noted one particular county road has been a source of concern during the winter months in prior years.
“It wasn’t as difficult to reconstruct Road 15 on Deer Creek and it has been kind of a notorious bad section of road, but we’ve got it looking better than in years. But, due to terrain you just can’t do anything with it, even though we’ve always wanted to try and improve it. For maybe three years we have been going back and forth, and we currently have it posted as no winter maintenance. Pretty much what is on that road is pump stations, so that’s not a road we would necessarily run out there to get open.”
A final topic of business was the open public discussion of maintaining a strong and trustful ongoing relationship between the GCC and the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), particularly when it comes to feedlots and permits.
Chairman McNamee touched based on the issue, as well as sharing recommendations by Goshen County Attorney, Eric Boyer.
“We have no ability to force DEQ to speed up or change their approach in any way,” McNamee said. “Regarding the permitting process, it has been advised by attorney Boyer that we continue to research and continue with what the county approach will be with rules and regulations in the county. I’m saying at this point this is based on the advisement of the County Attorney and is something we need to continue to research and take under advisement without getting too far off. It’s very difficult for us. I don’t believe from my standpoint and the other two commissioners that we want to put ourselves in a position of policing. You are looking for our help in something that needs to be done, and we will continue to process the information to take it under advisement. Our county, with a lot of other feedlot situations, is operating on permits and are doing what is expected of them. This doesn’t fall on deaf ears. We are just going to be very careful with how we approach it.”
The commissioners meeting was adjourned at 10:23 a.m. and will reconvene at 9 a.m. on January 16 at the Goshen County Courthouse.
If you would like further information or have more questions pertaining to the Goshen County Commissioners, feel free to call 307-532-4051 or visit www.goshencounty.org.
