A burning discussion

The Medicine Bow Town Council met at on July 12 at the Community Hall with all council members and mayor in attendance. The council quickly approved routine matters before listening to town clerk/treasurer Karen Heath go over the bills. The total expenditures came to $79,035.27. The Council ratified the financials.

Mayor Sharon Biamon opened up the meeting to a public hearing on the rodeo grounds.

Council member Sharon Kahl asked about the idea of trading the land which a resident had shown interest in doing. The mayor and other council members said there was no interest in trading the land.

The rodeo grounds in Medicine Bow have not been used for a rodeo since 1998.

“People had said four or five years back that they wanted to fix the grounds up and get rodeos going again,” Biamon said. “But nothing has happened.”

Council member Lucy Schofield said ranchers she had talked to about the rodeo grounds were seriously considering trying to get a ranchers rodeo going.

“It could be started that is for sure,” Biamon said. “It needs repair, but it could be brought back.”

The public hearing adjourned and went back into the council meeting.

The discussion about a possible solar farm coming into the town of Medicine Bow was tabled because there was not enough information about what it could cost the town from the company proposing to install them.

Wee Folks had once said they wanted open a daycare center in Medicine Bow about eight years ago, but it never happened. Toys and chairs had been bought by the town, but were just sitting in storage for the most part, Heath told the council. Heath wanted to donate the children’s items to the Wee Folks in Hanna. The council approved sending the toys and chairs to Hanna Wee Folks.

The council approved hiring a part-time town custodian.

Public Works Director Charlie George said the water tank had been cleaned. He said the parks were looking good. Mosquito spraying continues in the town. George suggested the town consider looking at buying a second mosquito sprayer. Public works summer hours are from 6 a.m. until 3 p.m. George said the change was to keep workers out of the heat as best as possible.

Marshal Dave Redding said in the past month he gave out 23 traffic warning and 48 citations. The office had eight agency other assists (AOA).

“For the most part, it has been a quiet month,” Redding said. “We are out there being visible and I think we are doing good job on that.”

Medicine Bow Fire Chief Peter Andrews told the council the fireworks on 4th of July went well. He said the department has 18 members and two auxiliary volunteers. He said there was a lot of training going before the fire season hit hard.

“I do have a report on the fire district being proposed,” Andrews said. “The report will be presented at CCCOG (Carbon County Council of Governments) on July 21, and you will have a least one county commissioner, probably the fire warden and a few fire chiefs attending.”

Andrews said he wanted the Medicine Bow attendees to be aware of information he had been researching about creating a fire district for the county.

“The idea of (a) fire district can be a good thing,” Andrews said. “It insures revenue for a fire department because the county fire department has no budget. There is some information on how much money they will make and to make it work, they want not only the county to be in it, but also all the municipalities to join. At (a) full three mil levy for the entire county would generate $1.95 million dollars. The question that I have is, would it effectively fund every fire department in the county to same level of service that we are providing now?”

Andrews said he did some basic math and isn’t sure about how a fire district will work.

“If the proposed is a max of $1.95 million; I googled the Rawlins city fire department just to see what was there and for 2021 they requested $1.7 million. Last year it was $1.5 million and $1.2 million the year before,” Andrews said. “I urge and encourage our representatives at the meeting to please ask questions about how the funding will be distributed.”

Andrews made clear he would like to see fire district work if it is fair to all fire departments in the county.

“I would love to see it work, but the numbers I have seen so far, just don’t add up to me,” Andrews said. “Some people are pushing really hard for it.”

Andrews said he doesn’t want to say the fire district can’t be good. He just wants to make sure all questions are answered on how funding will go to each municipality.

“Everything needs to be spelled out,” Andrews said. “I am just here to tell you this is what I understand, and I might be wrong on numbers, but it is worth making sure it is the right thing to do to make a fire district.”

Yvonne Johnson, director of the Carbon County Economic Development Corporation told the council there were positive events going on in the county. She said there was interest by businesses in coming to Carbon County she couldn’t disclose but Johnson was encouraged by the interest.

The next regularly scheduled meeting will be at 7 p.m. on August 9 at the Medicine Bow Community Hall.