County approves half mile of chip seal in Burlington

Acting county engineer Matt Leonhardt provided the engineering department update during the June 3 meeting of the Big Horn County Commission.

Leonhardt told the commissioners that Burlington mayor Gerald George had talked to county engineer Willie Bridges about Lane 38.

The discussion revolved around chip sealing the lane. George asked if the county would be willing to chip seal the county’s portion of Lane 38 on both sides of the highway. About one mile of the road is within Burlington town limits. The county had planned to chip seal the lane up to the town limits. 

Leonhardt said Bridges was willing to do this and had worked up an estimate around $56,000 for around one mile. The town of Burlington would be willing to pay the county.  Bridges doesn’t think it would be much of an issue if the county does the west side of the road. However, the county doing the east side could be an issue with contractors in the area that do chip sealing.

 Commissioner Dave Neves said Burlington Mayor George has resigned to work on a history book. Jessie Hamilton is the new mayor for the town. Neves said he spoke to Hamilton the night before and he is OK with the county doing the work, noting, “I can see how on both sides of the highway would help a lot. It works in with the west side with what we are doing really well. The east side, I’m not against that if that is what you decide to do.”

He later mentioned there are complaints about the dust on that road from county residents.

Leonhardt said the county had enough gravel, and time wise it won’t impact the county getting their project done. The commission expressed concern that it could be interpreted the county was taking work away from private contractors for the east side portion.

Commissioner Bruce Jolley said he didn’t think there would be a problem with contractors on the west side portion.

Commission chair Deb Craft added, “It is kind of a catch 22. As a county we want to help our towns. The money situation we are all in with our budget stuff, this would help them (Burlington).” 

 Jolley said his thought doing the west side would protect the county’s investment of the work that will be done on the road. 

Craft added, “I think the thing we have to be careful of is there are those issues throughout our county.” Jolley agreed. 

A motion was made for the county to chip seal the one-half mile portion of the town’s road on the west.

Two right of way permits were reviewed and approved. One for the Greybull Heights Water Users Association to move their line on Rimrock. The other permit was from Northwest Rural Water for a new meter on Road 16.

OTHER BUSINESS 

• Victoria Davis from Friends of the Basin Library addressed concerns about a library board member wanting to dismantle the friends group. She was told the library board has no authority over friends groups. 

• Representatives from the Basin Area, Greybull Area and Lovell Area chambers discussed Big Horn County tourism marketing.

• Paul Thur and Stephanie May presented the Airports and Land Planning department updates.

• County maintenance supervisor Jeremy Pouska gave his department report.

• A County Health Officer agreement was signed with the Wyoming Department of Health. 

• A comment letter for the 15-mile Wild Horse Management Area letter was approved.