Commission approves ‘open range’ signs

Acting county engineer Matt Leonhardt gave the engineering and road and bridge updates to the Big Horn County Commission on August 5.

A landowner requested “open range” signs be placed on Road 26. Leonhardt said he spoke to Willie Bridges about the request. Bridges was OK with the signs going up. He would recommend the person requesting the signs buy the signs; the county would install them. Commissioner Dave Neves recused himself from the discussion and vote. The area is allotted to him by the BLM for livestock range. Commission chair Deb Craft moved to approve the request. It was seconded by Commissioner Bruce Jolley. The motion carried.

REA put in an access permit for a new service in Shell, crossing Fourth Street. Fourth Street is not a street currently but is platted. The streets in Shell are not county roads. REA has applied for a right of way crossing permit from WYDOT for U.S. Highway 14 E.

Deputy County Attorney Jennifer Kirk shared with the commission email correspondence between County Engineer Willie Bridges and herself. Bridges said that the streets in Shell are not county roads but are platted streets for the town. The county does some minimal maintenance on them since there is no organized town. He does not know who has jurisdiction for those streets. He does not recall issuing permits for Shell in the past. The county will notify REA that the county cannot issue said permit. 

The commission also reviewed an access permit on Lane 42 to create a circular drive. BLM is also looking to straighten their access on Crystal Creek Road and considered another request from REA on Lane 8. The commission approved these three permits.

A final draft of the MOA (Memorandum of Agreement) for the Rairden Bridge near Manderson has not been received by the county engineer’s office. Kirk explained she had seen the draft. She was fine with it, however, there were some highlighted areas that needed to be completed. The commissioner agreed by consensus to approve upon the receipt of the final MOA. 

The county was approved for the U.S. Department of Transportation RAISE Grant for Orchard Bench Road. The grant is $4,074,642. Once the final documents have been received by the county, the design process will start. The county hopes to complete the project in 2029 or 2030. The county’s match portion of the grant is around $450,000. 

Leonhardt noted there is a Mineral Royalty Grant the county could apply for. It is a 100% grant that could be used as the match for the RAISE grant and/or for the Red Gluch bridge in Shell. Bridges recommended applying for the Red Gluch structure as it could fall under the “emergency” portion of the grant. 

The commission reviewed the cost on a request for purchasing traffic counters. Jolley said he had done some research and pricing since the original request. He has concerns about the county spending money in tight budget times.

Leonhardt explained that, when applying for grants, current traffic data is requested and important. That was an issue with the RAISE grant application. The data information the county supplied was 10 years old.  The cost to go to Cheyenne to borrow their traffic counters is costing the county $1,000. Plus, the time to use them is only six weeks at a time. If the county had their own counters, it would in the end save money and allow the county to use them year-round, he said.

The commission approved the purchase. Jolley said after they are purchased, he would like to see the plan on how they will be used.

OTHER BUSINESS 

• District Court Clerk Serena Lipp requested an executive session for personnel.

• Mike Thom, Powder River Ranger District, came to introduce himself as the new district ranger. 

• Big Horn County Library Board members Nikole Greene and Cari Waterworth discussed the cuts they were proposing to the library’s budget. 

• Susan Wynn appeared before the commissioners to address the complaints she had as a fair vendor. She provided a written copy of the compliant, as well. 

• Sabrina Burke gave the annual report of the Northern Wyoming Treatment Court.