Different approaches

The Carbon County Council of Governments (CCCOG) met at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday in Rawlins for their regularly scheduled meeting.

CCCOG usually meets every other month, but met in December to make up for the November meeting that had been canceled due to weather.

Although there were several towns not represented, there were enough representatives for a quorum.

The council quickly approved the minutes from the December 18 meeting and the agenda.

The treasurer’s report was approved next after Travis Moore, and treasurer representative for Carbon County said all municipalities had paid their dues. Moore said $1,100 had been collected.

Chairman Morgan Irene, representative from Elk Mountain, started the meeting by thanking everyone for coming to the meeting.

“I did want to take time and I wanted to thank everybody who is here for their efforts you put forth for your communities or whatever it is, because your time is precious and your efforts mean a lot to everything that you are doing and I doubt you hear it very often, but it is so true,” Irene said. “When you stop caring and everyone stops putting their shoulders together, then that is when things go wrong. It is a big deal what you are doing and I wanted to thank you.”

Irene said that there was no topic to be discussed in new business. Since many had driven a long way, he felt CCCOG should have ongoing subjects to concentrate on in addition to specific subject matter.

“I think we at CCCOG should take on subjects that benefit the whole county,” DeBari Martinez, Rawlins council member, said. “A good example would be dispatch.”

Martinez said he wasn’t sure if having one dispatch center would work for all municipalities, but it was a subject to be researched.

Irene pointed out that most communities had a shortage of Emergency First Responders and he valued all CCCOG members input on how to solve the problem.

“We all have different issues, we all have different approaches to the same situation,” Irene said. “Collectively, we need to find the middle ground that will benefit all.”

Moore said the dispatch center, the shortage of responders and whether two part time emergency managers versus a full time manager should be topics to consider.

“All these could be related and worked on together instead of it each being in a vacuum,” Moore said. “I would love to see all these things worked on as a group to increase the safety for the people of Carbon County. I think CCCOG is a wonderful place for all this to begin.”

Irene agreed communication between all places would be informative and useful.

“I am familiar with our situation. Hanna and Medicine Bow is dealing with the shortage, but places like Baggs and how Rawlins is set up, I am not aware of,” Irene said. “If we don’t look at everybody’s situation and approach this right way, it is never going to fly.”

The members present agreed to start looking into how to entice emergency first responders into the different communities in a cohesive manner that worked after several representatives explained how it worked in their town.

Steve Nicholson, Rawlins mayor, asked the members what was happening with their towns far as snow removal. He said Rawlins struggles to keep the three main streets cleared and their budget allocated was getting eaten up quickly by this year’s winter.

Jon Nelson, town councilmember from Saratoga, said because of the population size of Saratoga, between 1,500 and 5,000, it was eligible for an assistance program.

Bob Patton said Hanna had an understanding with Wyoming Department of Transportation) WYDOT for helping keep the state road cleared that ran through town. He acknowledged this winter was eating away the allocated budget for this year.

The members decided to contact WYDOT to help figure out solutions for the towns.

The next scheduled meeting is at 6:30 p.m. in Sinclair.