Kept in suspense

The Hanna Town Council met on July 13 at the Hanna Town Hall. Mayor Lois Buchanan, Council members Jayson Nordquist, Sammy Sikes, and William Dys were in attendance. Council member Tracy Fowler was absent.

The minutes of June 8 and special meetings on June 14 and June 21 were approved along with the agenda.

Buchanan said board and department reports would be gone over if there were any questions from the council members.

Sikes asked if there was a representative from SCWEMS (South Central Wyoming Emergency Medical Services). There was not. Sikes asked if he could get a copy of a recent budget for SCWEMS to look over. Town clerk Leslie Birge said she would get it to him.

Jon Nelson from North Fork Engineering gave a status report on the water projects being done around town.

“We some equipment on site today from Viper Underground for the waterline projects,” Nelson said. “They will be starting on Monday, the 19th, and I will be here to help them get rolling. We will have our first weekly construction progress meeting on Tuesday at 11 a.m.”

After Nelson was finished, the board and department reports were approved.

Hanna town treasurer Ann Calvert went over the income statements and bills. After her report, the financials were approved.

There was no unfinished business and the council went into topics of new business.

Sikes told the council, the application submitted by Clair Hammond to join the planning and zoning board could not be accepted because she lived outside of town. Then Sikes said he would like to talk about the recreation board before the council voted on two board seat candidates.

“I would like to get rid of the recreation board,” Sikes said. “We brought this idea up before and tabled it, but I feel that rec board is running the rec center and the person we hired to run the rec center. I don’t any reason for that board any longer because I think it causes more problems than it helps.”

Buchanan said the running of the recreation center has to come through the town council and the board is supposed to be entirely advisory.

“I think after hunting season the council can get together and start redoing our policy manual and redo the descriptions of the roles of both the zoning and planning and recreation boards,” Buchanan said.”I suggest we suspend those boards until we can have some clarity on how the boards can be beneficial. We need to get our ducks in row for both boards.”

The Sun asked if suspension meant the boards would start with new members when they were brought back.

“I think when the new bylaws are structured, we will have the answer to that question,” Buchanan said.

The council voted unanimously to suspend both the planning and zoning board and the recreation and parks board.

Birge told the council there had been fowl permit violations. Interim Hanna Marshal Patricia Gonzales concurred with Birge’s assessment.

“Some people are raising chickens without any permits and when approached say they didn’t know that they needed one,” Gonzales said. “We have others that don’t house the fowl correctly and if the birds are attacked by animals, the individuals don’t want to take responsibility. Also, even though the town has an ordinance against roosters, some people don’t pay attention. These issues have been on the rise in the past month or so.”

Gonzales said she is giving residents a week after initial contact about permit violations to get everything in order.

“So far that has worked for most, but there are still some that some don’t,”

Gonzales said. “There is no fine schedule for fowls presently in the town the way it is done for dogs.”

Birge said if a resident does not follow the ordinance with fowls, they lose their permit.

Resolution 2021-538 was approved. This resolution allows an open container waiver permit for the comedy show and dinner on July 17 and during the mud races on August 7 at the Hanna Recreation Center.

The council approved Resolution 2021-539 which allowed the submission of an application fro the 2021 FEMA Fire Management Assistance Grant in the total project amount of $597,125 to stabilize soils by establishing vegetation, chemical treatments to areas to prevent invasive noxious weeds. The town will in-kind match $25,808.78

The council approved donating the town bus to the Carbon County Services Center to be used for the Hanna Senior Center.

The next scheduled regular meeting will be at 6:30 p.m. on August 10 at the Hanna Town Hall.