Streets, SCWEMS and taxes

At the regular meeting of the Riverside Town Council on Sept. 12, Mayor Leroy Stephenson informed Councilmembers Fred Lorenz and Ed Golden of the frustrations he had in dealing with the Wyoming Department of Transportation (WyDOT) in cutting an extension into Carbon Street.

The council also heard an update from South Central Wyoming Emergency Medical Services (SCWEMS) representative Helen Weiland and read a resolution concerning the Joint Powers Board for the One Cent Specific Purpose Sales and Use Tax (6th penny tax).

Carbon Street

“Mark Rauterkus applied for a building permit through us last month and we approved his building permit to put in a long-term RV storage on the side of the highway, on Carbon Street and Highway 70. He’s going to build a six or seven unit building over there and store them indoors,” said Stephenson. “We told him we would file the application for access with the Wyoming Department of Transportation to cut that road in from Highway 70 and we did that. Today, exactly one month after I initiated that contact, I got an email from WyDOT.”

Stephenson read from the email, which explained that additional information would be needed before the department of transportation could process the application. According to the email, additional information needed would include an engineered plan that includes elevations, drainage for Carbon Street and the future development of the residential lots.

“I called this guy up, who gave me the number of his supervisor who didn’t answer his phone and I went over his head to Tom DeHoff, whom I met at the Carbon County Council of Governments meeting over in Baggs a couple of months ago,” Stephenson said.

Stephenson told the council that a conference call was being set-up so that the Town of Riverside would be able to know how much information was needed by WyDOT to extend Carbon Street.

SCWEMS

Weiland informed the council that SCWEMS had approved positions for two full-time EMS supervisors, one for the south side of the district and one for the north side of the district. 

“We have not posted that position, but the job description has been made. We will post that position and hopefully have some of those full-time people in place,” said Weiland.

Stephenson added that the next meeting of the SCWEMS joint powers board would be on Oct. 21 in Riverside.

Boarding Tax

Near the end of the meeting, Stephenson addressed two final pieces of housekeeping that needed to be signed by him. Following the special election for the 6th penny tax, the towns of Hanna and Dixon opted to join the One Cent Specific Purpose Sales and Use Tax Joint Powers Board. Due to this, the joint powers board agreement had to be rewritten.

In addition to the inclusion of the two additional towns, the agreement was also rewritten to allow for the joint powers board to remain from one 6th penny tax election to another. This would mean that a new joint powers board would not have to be re-formed should the tax pass in the future.

The next meeting of the Riverside Town Council will be at 6 p.m. on Oct. 10 at Riverside Town Hall.