GOSHEN COUNTY – The Goshen County Commissioners met for their regular meeting on Wednesday, August 21. The normal Tuesday meeting fell on the primary election, August 21, and the commission moved all business to the following day. 

Present at the meeting were chairman Michael McNamee, vice chair, Justin Burkart and commissioner Aaron Walsh. McNamee called the meeting to order at 9 a.m. which was followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. 

In business formalities, McNamee noted there would be some changes to the agenda. 

“We need to revise our agenda. There are a couple of different things on there. We are going to remove the treasurer’s report as well as the public health report. So, those two reports would be removed,” McNamee explained. “When we get into new business, we are adding we will visit about Cindy’s TANF grant so I would entertain a motion to revise the agenda to reflect those changes.” 

A motion was made by Walsh which was seconded by Burkart. Burkart also mentioned the commission would be adding an executive session to the agenda as well which would take place after monthly business. The motion carried and the new agenda was adopted. 

The previous meeting minutes were posted and approved by the commission. 

“This morning I have the distinguished pleasure of yielding my chairman’s opening comments to our reelected commissioner Burkart,” McNamee said.

Burkart thanked the community. 

“I just want to thank everybody. You know, when you go into an election year you never know what to think and kind of where you stand. You hope that throughout your previous four years, you’re doing good things for the community overall,” Burkart said. “You’re not going to make everybody happy. But the goal is to obviously improve you community and see good things happen. So, you kind of hope that shines through come election time. It was a relief last night to see that I was reelected, and I am humbled for all of those folks who voted for me to put me back here and continue to work for them for the next four years.”

Burkart gave a hats-off for the campaign efforts of his opponent and McNamee congratulated the efforts of all of the candidates who ran for public office.

“I don’t think we can ever diminish that involvement and the importance of that involvement from people that are willing to put themselves out there and to pursue those positions,” McNamee said. “Again, a big thank you to all of those who ran for office. Kudos to the people who got out and voted and congratulations to the winners.”

Moving on to department reports, the commission skipped the sheriff’s report and heard from Mary Feagler for the clerk’s report. 

“I do have a couple of earnings reports for those departments. Brandy Correa couldn’t present her earnings report at the first meeting because their computer system was down, so her July earnings are $6,091.50 and I have that for your signature. The sheriff’s earnings report for the month of July was $2,225,” Feagler explained.

Feagler further explained there was also an updated vendor list for the commission.

“I have a resolution from the county attorney’s office to appoint a special prosecutor and that is a Wheatland attorney,” Feagler said. “Douglas Weaver. So, I will need your signature on that.”

McNamee noted the resolution was listed under new business for the commission to discuss. 

Feagler also noted there was a bill for the emergency management vehicle to be fitted with equipment. Fealger also noted the election went smoothly for her office. 

McNamee commended Feagler and her office during the election. Burkart also added the commissioners have no concerns of voter fraud in Goshen County.

A motion was made by Burkart to accept the clerk’s report, earnings report and commissary report which was seconded by Walsh. In the vote, the reports were then approved.

Moving on to the emergency manager/fire warden report, McNamee introduced the new grant writer for the county, Hannah Fullmer, and Thom Bozeman spoke to the commission. 

“I have come to you with a whole lot of information this month compared to most,” Bozeman began. “I sent my report to you electronically, but I will go over some of the highlights of the month of July. It’s a little bit into, so far, in August.”

Bozeman noted there have been meetings and trainings attended and the county is in the works of getting new AEDs for those which have expired. 

“The active shooter drill at EWC (Eastern Wyoming College) went well. I think it went really good,” Bozeman explained. “I think the officers there, from the first time I saw them go through these seniors to now, I see improvement in their tactical skills, not being in law enforcement now, just watching.”

Bozeman also spoke about the three large fires the county had last month. 

“Fires we will talk about in a minute, but we had three big ones, the Road 22 Fire, of course, the Haystack Fire which ended up becoming the Pleasant Valley Fire,” Bozeman said.

In training, Bozeman reported there was a lot of election planning through the emergency management department and a white powder response plan and additional plans for election safety which were reviewed by Feagler and staff. The plans will remain in effect through the November election cycle, Bozeman noted. 

Bozeman also noted the CodeRed services for Goshen County are now obsolete and the mass notification system, CivicReady has taken its place. 

Bozeman noted CodeRed did not send the county a list of subscribers of the previous system and therefore the public at large would need to sign up again to receive the mass emergency notices for the county from CivicReady at https://public.alertsense.com/SignUp/?RegionId=2237

Bozeman reminded the commissioners; Goshen County is still under a stage one fire ban.

“On the fire warden side, we’re still on the stage on fire restriction, Goshen County. We had 36 fire calls during the month of June which 21 were grass fires. There were two structure fires, several vehicle fires and unknowns and stuff like that, like gas leaks and things like that. They are still considered ‘fire calls’ but they weren’t actually fires,” Bozeman explained. “We had one fire in June that I didn’t really put it in the report. It was what we called the first Pine Ridge Fire. It was about 1,800 acres.”

Bozeman reported the Road 22 Fire near Hawk Springs burned 5,500 acres, the landfill fire which burned for several days and the Haystack Fire which became the Pleasant Valley Fire two days later to the commissioners. Bozeman reported the Haystack/Pleasant Valley Fires burned a total of 28,984 acres. There were 19,126.11 acres were in Goshen County, Bozeman added.

“That was a pretty sizeable fire. It’s the biggest one I have worked so far, and I think several people have worked so far. That fire, there was a lot of confusion with the political aspects of that fire due to the Haystacks being on BLM (Bureau of Land Management) land and starting two days prior to the Pleasant Valley Fire,” Bozeman said. “Each of those fires, and I am talking all the way back to the Road 22 Fire and the Pine Ridge in June were all lightning strikes. Most of those were actually seen.” 

Bozeman and the firefighters on the commission agreed the road and bridge department was a valuable asset in controlling and gaining containment of the fires and a discussion was made about preparing employees to assist with fire suppression efforts during the next fire season. 

The commission also thanked Bozeman for his work during the fires.

“Also at that meeting, the commits that were made in regard to your efforts in combination with the emergency manager from Platte County, I know that you’re not going to pat yourself on the back, but we’d like to,” McNamee told Bozeman. “According to the reports that they gave that day, it was instrumental, and things could have been so much worse had there not been the communication, the joint effort, from both counties.” 

Bozeman thanked Platte County crews for their assistance with the Road 22 Fire as well. 

The commission motioned to approve the emergency manager and fire warden reports.

Moving on to the library report, the commissioners heard from Goshen County Library Director, Cristine Braddy. 

The library reported on the WyoGives fundraising efforts where the library was ranked third in the state for receiving the most donations. It was also noted, the library is working on different grants. 

The library was also nominated for the national medal for museum and library service for the second year in a row. 

It was also reported there had been unforeseen expenses for the parking lot project which recently began.

“So, we started demo on the library lot on Monday (August 19) and today I noticed before they all came barreling into my office that there was a meeting of the minds out in the lot,” Braddy explained. “They thought they were going to be able to use the same base and it doesn’t even hold up their heavy equipment. What they need to do is pull it out and they will put in layers of new stuff on just the north side which is going to add $30,690 to our original bill.”

Braddy noted there was $10,000 available for unforeseen expenses and asked for the additional funds to continue the project. 

The commission approved the library report and additional funding. 

Amy Smith, Agriculture and Natural Resources Educator with the University of Wyoming, presented the University of Wyoming Extension report to the commission including the process of hiring a new youth 4H educator which was accepted by the commission. 

The commission next moved on to the fair report and the IT department reports which were accepted in vote. 

Moving on to old business on the Wednesday agenda, there was no business to discuss so, the commission moved on to the only new business item of approving a special prosecutor for the county should the current prosecuting attorneys have other commitments, which was approved by the commission.  The TANF Grant was also approved by the commission.

The commission next entered into executive session and the meeting was adjourned thereafter.