Puffer fish and sand pits

Carbon County Road 351, also known as Seminoe Road, may be seeing far more traffic than normal. It also may be seeing more attention than normal.

During the April 20 meeting of the Board of Carbon County Commissioners (BOCCC), Kandis Fritz discussed a potential road use agreement for County Road 351 as well as potential grants for repairing the deteriorating road.

Sand mines

Fritz informed the commissioners that she had received a call the day before the meeting about potential hauling on Seminoe Road connected to the mine reclamation project in Hanna. According to Fritz, while the company that had contacted her had not yet been awarded the bid by Abandoned Mine Lands (AML), they had reached out to inquire as to whether they would need a road use agreement with the county.

The company would be hauling sand from a pit maintained by the Bureau of Land Management and would need to use Seminoe Road to haul the sand to Hanna.

“My question to you; are you going to require a road use agreement on that?” asked Fritz. “I told the company I would discuss that with all of you today.”

Commissioner John Espy replied that he would like to see a road use agreement as the hauling was commercial in nature and would generate increased traffic on an already busy road. When Commissioner Travis Moore asked how much the company would haul if they were awarded the bid by AML, Fritz stated that there would be approximately 20,000 tons of sand hauled over a six month period with anywhere from 30 to 80 loads a week between June 1 and October 31, 2021.

“I know we talked about staying under legal loads, so depending on how many axles they have, anywhere up to 116,000 pounds,” said Fritz.

While no formal action was taken, the consensus of the BOCCC was that should the company that contacted Fritz move forward with hauling they would need to engage in a road use agreement with the county.

RAISE-ing roads

In previous meetings of the county commissioners, Fritz had informed the board that she would be looking for various grants that could be used to repair Seminoe Road. Since Seminoe State Park sits on the northwest side of Seminoe Reservoir, Fritz stated she would contact Wyoming State Parks about potential grants.

The morning of the meeting, however, the Department of Transportation had published a Notice of Funding Opportunity that could potentially be used for Carbon County Road 351.

Called the Rebuilding American Infrastrucutre with Stability and Equity (RAISE), the grant system was formerly known as BUILD (Better Utilizing Investment to Leverage Development) and TIGER (Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery). 

According to a press release from the Department of Transportation, there was $1 billion available through RAISE grants. The press release went on to read that projects for RAISE funding would be “evaluated based on metric criteria that include safety, environmental sustainability, quality of life, economic competitiveness, state of good repair, innovation and partnership”.

“Now, if we apply for this grant, we’re going to be a very, very, very, very, very small fish in a big, big pond,” Fritz said. “Would you like me to go forward with that and apply for this grant?”

“Be a puffer fish and go for it,” replied Commissioner Byron Barkhurst.

Fritz requested that Moore be her point of contact with the commissioners in applying for the RAISE grant due to his other contacts that would potentially aid in being awarded the grant.

“The idea with the other points of contact is we’ve had collaboration of ‘Hey something needs to be done and nobody wants to take ownership of that stuff’,” said Moore. “Now that the Department of Transportation, the fact that it’s passed through for this Federal money, the endorsement of said agencies would not hurt one bit for the viability of this project.” 

Catherine Miller, a nurse practitioner at the Medicine Bow Health Center, added that President Joe Biden had just approved $31 million to improve Miracle Mile, a section of the North Platte River downstream of the Kortes Dam. While accessible through County Road 351 from Rawlins, Miracle Mile is also accessible through County Road 291 from Hanna.

“I think you probably have a better than fair chance of getting some money,” said Miller.

The next meeting of the Board of Carbon County Commissioners will be at 9 a.m. on May 4 at the Carbon County Courthouse in Rawlins.