County may house new medical shelter

Rawlins may become the new home of a 50-person emergency medical shelter.

At the Sept. 1 Board of Carbon County Commissioners (BOCC) meeting the board members stated their approval of housing the shelter in the basement of the Jeffrey Center noting that it would allow quick access to the resource if needed. John Zieger, Carbon County Emergency Management Coordinator, said that a study is necessary to determine if the basement meets the requirements for storage and access to the shelter. A Memorandum of Understanding between the county and the state for the storage of the shelter may be reviewed as early as next month.

The board of commissioners unanimously approved a two-year extension to the Power Company of Wyoming’s (PCW) conditional use permit for the proposed Chokecherry and Sierra Madre wind energy project. Espy and the other commissioners agreed that PCW has submitted necessary materials and plans to the regulatory agencies in a timely fashion and that the need for the permit extension was because of circumstances out of their control. “This is regulatory hoops and hurdles and roadblocks and corn mazes, whatever else they have had to go through,” board chairperson John Espy said. The permit extension is effective Oct. 2.

County Deputy Attorney Ashley Mayfield explained to the BOCC how worker’s compensation insurance works for probationers, volunteers and individuals in the county’s juvenile diversion program. Currently those completing community service requirements for probation and volunteers are covered under the county’s insurance. The juvenile diversion program is a judicial program in which youth offenders are sentenced to service work instead of being sentenced for a crime. The community service performed by juveniles in the diversion program is administered by the sheriff’s office. The BOCC approved resolution 2015-29, pending approval of the county attorney, to provide worker’s compensation coverage to the juvenile diversion program.

The BOCC also approved the use of 7 percent of the Rural School Funds Act disbursement to reimburse search and rescue and emergency management services for costs incurred on US Forest Service lands.