Town Lots Purchased

Med Bow sells lots at regular council meeting

The Medicine Bow Town Council met at 7 p.m. on March 8 at the Medicine Bow Community Hall. The room was packed with seats hard to come by. Mayor Sharon Biamon, councilmember Trevor Strauch and councilmember Lyle Flansburg were in attendance.

It was business as usual as the agenda was approved as were the minutes from the regularly scheduled meeting of February 10 and a special meeting held on February 26. The financials were the next item to be approved.

Liz Ellis of the Medicine Bow Conservation District spoke to the council about working with the town in getting the community garden back. She said there were grants available. The council approved a partnership with the Medicine Bow Conservation District to get the community garden going again.

Medicine Bow Librarian Bonnie Culver said a patron who had done upkeep on the grounds for the past two summers was unable to volunteer this year. Culver asked if public works could help with the maintenance. Public works director Charlie George said the town would help her.

Town resident Kay Embree came before the council to ask if a committee could be formed to get the rodeo arena back open. The council approved a committee to be formed.

The reason for the large audience became apparent as the mayor read the bids for lots made available by the town. The bids came in as low as $50 per lot to as high as $2500. Ten lots were put up for bid and all were sold.

The second reading of Ordinance 1-2020 was approved. It is an ordinance amending Section 12.3.101 (b) (iii) of the Medicine Bow municipal code to clarify speed limits in the town of Medicine Bow.

“All this is amending is that our books say we have 40 miles per hour speed limit on Highway 30,” Biamon said. “We don’t even control Highway 30 and the state has put a limit of 30 miles per hour so we need to amend it to 30 miles per hour.”

The council approved the request for bids on the water tower.

Town clerk/treasurer Karen Heath recommended taking $100,000 in impact funds currently in a checking account to be put into a WYOSTAR account. The council approved a workshop at 6 p.m. on March 30 to work on the budget.

Kani Flansburg, representing the Lions Club, asked the council to consider putting up an electric sign somewhere on Medicine Bow’s main thoroughfare that informs residents and visitors about upcoming events in town.

She said that Saratoga and Hanna had signs that did a good job of keeping the respective communities informed of what was happening in town. She thought the museum grounds would be a good place.

Biamon said the land the museum is on is owned by Union Pacific and they would have to be asked. The mayor also said a sign could get damaged by snow removal vehicles. She said signs put up by the museum have been damaged in the past due to snow plows.

She said if a business was willing to have a sign that was an option, but it could not be on land owned by the state. In Medicine Bow, the state owns the land to almost all businesses doorsteps along U.S. 30.

The mayor said she would ask Union Pacific.

In his public works report, George said the street paved design was 60 percent complete. He said the roads were being bladed in anticipation of work on the streets.

Toby Smith, chairman of the High Country Joint Powers Board said the meeting on March 5 had changed how the town of Hanna might be doing their trash (See “Back to the drawing board” on page 2 of the

March 11 Saratoga Sun).

“It all went to hell in a hand basket pretty quick that night,” Smith said. “We were planning to build a convenience center in Hanna but the building is coming in at $420,000 instead of under $150,000, This means we are going back to the drawing board and I am going to the Town of Hanna tomorrow night to explain the situation.”

Smith wants the Town of Hanna to adopt the plan that the communities of Medicine Bow and Elk Mountain have committed. Dumpsters are placed throughout the towns for residents to deposit their trash and is picked up and taken to Laramie. He said he didn’t know how it was possible to do it any other way in Hanna and keep the price of trash removal reasonable. To go with the building, it would mean a substantial price increase for Hanna residents.

Planning and Zoning had Strauch being approved the chairman and Kani Flansburg and Frank Fischer were approved to the board.

Dan Massey was appointed municipal judge.

The council went into executive session at 7:58 p.m. It came out of executive session at 8:40 p.m. The council announced that the recent candidate for Medicine Bow Marshall resigned. The council will start looking for another candidate.

 

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