Commissioner Mel Shumway stepped into the SVI Radio studio for the monthly report from the Lincoln County Commission. Shumway touched on the potential for the commissioners to begin streaming county commission meetings, the withdrawal of the Lincoln Star Improvement Service District, impact funding and a sewer modular plant in southern Lincoln County that would potentially help with a septic dumping needs in the county.

(0:00) It is the weekday wake up on SVI Radio Swift 98 and the Spur heading into today’s guest interview (0:06) segment in the monthly report from the Lincoln County Commission Commissioner Mel Shumway in (0:09) studio today. Commissioner, good morning. Appreciate your time today.

Thank you, (0:13) dude. Good morning to you. As always, thank you for coming in.

And as always, a lot going on (0:18) in Lincoln County and quite a few things we could chat about. I think one of the most recent things (0:22) that is on people’s minds right now is the streaming. And there’s been some resolutions (0:27) from some municipalities and whatnot.

So just bring us up to date on the latest discussions (0:32) and what the county is considering right now that way. Sure, sure. Streaming has been on our radar (0:38) for a number of months.

We’ve talked about it. We’ve been visiting other counties, reaching out, (0:43) seeing how they do that. There really is no standard out there.

And we’d really like to have (0:49) a nice standard. If we’re going to stream, we want to make sure that it’s done professionally, (0:53) that you can understand it, that the visibility is good. There’s a lot of questions surrounding (0:59) streaming.

You got to keep in mind, county commissions operate under state statute 18. (1:04) So we fall under state statutes, where municipalities kind of our home rule, (1:09) they can kind of do what they want. So we kind of have to tiptoe into this and make sure we’re doing (1:14) it the correct way.

There might be some legalities, how long do we have to archive these? (1:20) What if the streaming goes down mid meeting? Do we have to stop the meeting? (1:25) Things like that. So we’re exploring options. There’s some pretty obvious and easy ones that (1:31) I think could probably help.

But also, it might entail a little equipment upgrade. (1:36) Hopefully, we have enough personnel on staff that we can man these. Because remember, we do two (1:42) locations for our commissioner meetings, we have the Afton Annex, as well as the courthouse and (1:47) So a lot of questions that we still have, but no, we understand the need for streaming.

(1:53) It is nice to be able to see what’s going on with your government. So we’re still exploring options. (2:01) And hopefully, if we can come to something in the next few months, we can get that enacted (2:06) without really a lot more money involved.

We just don’t have the budget this year, (2:13) if it’s gonna, we’ve heard things upwards of $50,000. And I go, I don’t know if that’s true (2:17) or not. But if it is, we really need to tap the brakes till next budget season to plan for that.

(2:23) But no, we are looking at streaming. We’re gathering more information. We got a good team (2:28) and camera helping us out on that.

So I guess we do move a little slow at times. But we are (2:35) considering looking at that. Commissioner Mel Shumway in studio this morning on the weekday (2:39) wake up, Commissioner, one of the actions that was taken in the county commission meeting recently (2:45) was the ISD the Improvement Service District.

There’s been some questions on what this is how (2:51) it works, what the proposals even for and the commission decided to vote to have this withdrawn (2:58) the complete ISD for now. So maybe maybe give us an explanation. Start with what is the ISD? (3:04) And why was this being pursued? Okay, um, let’s see if we can untangle this.

(3:10) An Improvement Service District. It’s not a new idea. It’s spelled out pretty clearly in state (3:15) statute.

We have several ISDs in Lincoln County now some irrigation districts, water districts, (3:21) and some subdivisions and such. So it’s not a new thing. But there kind of is a need for it.

And (3:28) the goal with an Improvement Service District is to help get the infrastructure in place (3:33) for mid size to larger companies, not the big major corporations, they’re going to come and go as they (3:40) want. They have the money to do that. But it’s smaller industry that wants to come in.

So our (3:46) goal is to diversify the county’s economy. So we’re not so reliant upon our coal and power, (3:53) oil and gas that have large swings in production and large swings in assessed values. (4:00) Infrastructure is kind of the number one thing that recent report coming out of the state that (4:05) that’s the number one thing that people want is more infrastructure growth for more economic (4:09) development.

So Improvement Service Districts are a vehicle to get development for industry to come (4:17) in. So there was an Improvement Service District petition to the commission, the petitioners (4:23) withdrew their petition at the Tuesday meeting on the night 18th. So we’re back with no Improvement (4:29) Service District moving forward.

We’re still exploring options and working with the (4:35) consulting company to move forward to see if we can’t get this infrastructure mechanism put into (4:41) place, which is going to probably be an Improvement Service District. So it’s just going to take a (4:47) and we’re going to probably just keep exploring options. Yeah, just just a couple follow up (4:56) questions with that.

So what what was the reasoning for the petitioners to withdraw (5:00) the service district? Some of the land was out of the county and and other counties didn’t want (5:07) to be part of an ISD. So we couldn’t include them in and we just we just need more landowners (5:13) involved in it. That’s what happened was, was it just it just kind of run out of steam towards (5:20) the finish line.

And they just decided to pull that petition back to regroup and try to do something (5:24) else. Now, there’s also been some some questions on what the the loan for Criterium, who has been (5:31) the the consultant that you mentioned, the $500,000 loan that’s gone towards this, explain (5:38) what that was for. And and what happens now that this with was withdrawn for the time being? (5:43) Yeah, so the 490,000 was loaned to Criterium through the revolving economic development (5:54) fund from Lincoln County.

And it’s been set up on a scheduled interest payments annually, (6:01) and it will mature and have a balloon payment at the fifth year. So they’re, (6:05) they’re helping to move forward and bring in these industries that we’d like to see come in. (6:11) Couple that have been named has been like the asphalt and red diesel plant in Opal.

(6:16) The other would be the Ag Depot, which would entail a around the Sage Junction area, (6:22) entail a meatpacking, mini feedlot and perchance a cell ring there too. So those are two of the (6:30) industries that Criterium was looking to help bring in. So again, we’re just we’re (6:35) continuing to move forward.

It’s just going to probably take a little more time to put (6:38) the pieces together. Thank you, County Commissioner Mel Shumway in studio this morning (6:42) on the weekday wake up starting to see impact funds come into Lincoln County, (6:46) Terra Power starting to make their payments have some more from some other industries coming. (6:51) There’s been an MOU, a memorandum of understanding for some of these industrial (6:56) sightings for for Southwest counties involved.

Tell us what this MOU is all about and what it (7:00) does for Lincoln County. Well, the MOU, like I said, the memorandum of understanding is is between (7:06) the communities, the municipalities, the county, and the industry coming in. So and then that’s (7:12) the way to disperse the funds.

The most recent is the dry piney helium project. It’s actually (7:19) in Sublette County, but it’s closest to Labarge. That was put together with the (7:26) surrounding communities.

Total dollars expressed in that sighting was about $14.7 million. (7:33) And the communities basically get the bulk of that because they’re going to be impacted more (7:37) like Labarge is going to get the bulk of that. They got a really good chunk coming in to help (7:42) them because it stands to reason their communities kind of on the front line.

They’re going to take (7:47) the bulk of that impact from increased traffic, people, construction, things like that. (7:55) The caveat with the dry piney is that Sublette County does not engage in that fifth cent sales (8:03) tax in the state. So they are not privy to industrial sighting monies from sales tax.

(8:10) And so this is where it’s broke out now that the surrounding counties are getting the money and (8:16) Sublette County has not, but they do have a special election coming up. I think it’s in May that if (8:23) they do pass that, they’ll have to reshuffle the deck and include Sublette County into that. So (8:29) industrial sightings, kind of a lot of moving parts to it, but our team has done a wonderful (8:35) job with the county attorney’s office, kind of ramrodding a lot of this.

And it’s really (8:41) benefited the communities around Lincoln County and the surrounding counties, Sweetwater, Uintah, (8:47) Sublette County. So understand there’s two different proposals, right? Depending on what (8:52) happens with the vote on the yes, there’s a plan A and a plan B. So Commissioner Mel Shumway in (8:57) studio this morning on the weekday wake up one of the impacts that especially Kemmer Diamondville (9:01) seeing right now is is in their water infrastructure sewer, especially understand there’s (9:06) so there’s something in the works to to help with the sewer in Kemmer, correct? (9:10) Well, that’s the mod you’re probably referring to the sewer modular plant. Yes, camera.

And that’s (9:15) that’s going to be outside of the city outside of joint power. That’s not a camera. The (9:23) there’s a need for industrial sewer out there for some of these companies coming in.

So the (9:30) Wyoming Business Council awarded Lincoln County four plus million dollars recently, I think that (9:35) was in September, and for modular industrial sewer system to go in to South Lincoln County, (9:45) just out there by camera. It’ll be located south of camera on some Lincoln economic development (9:52) property. The county will have a portion to match some of that funding.

But this will service new (10:00) industry coming into the county as well as providing septic services for county residents, (10:06) because as we’ve all realized that it’s having a hard time getting rid of a lot of the septic (10:11) dumping from the county citizens. So this will be an area that we could take septic dumping to. (10:20) Additionally, Cokeville will receive about a million dollars from the industrial siding to (10:25) improve their sewer system that will accept septic from Star Valley as well.

So that’s just (10:33) in its infancy. We’ve been awarded that it was an interesting exercise in state government to go out (10:39) and visit with the five elected at the Cheyenne and kind of plead your case why the money is (10:45) important, why the development is important. It’s economic development is driving a lot what the (10:50) state needs, what the citizens want.

And we’re trying to find solutions to some of the answers (10:57) to the problems, excuse me. Yeah. So the septic has been an issue that we’ve talked about before (11:01) in the past.

And so this seems like at least a potential partial solution, right? You said it (11:07) just barely beginning. So what is the timeline? Maybe? What are the next steps now? And maybe (11:12) what is the end goal timeline? You know, I don’t know that Duke, we’re just the these all came (11:17) through in September and October. We don’t have the money yet.

I don’t know what the plan do we (11:24) have engineering, we kind of do I think we got an engineering plan. This has been kind of an (11:30) ongoing study through some of the other economic development work going on. I don’t know the (11:35) timeline on that yet, though.

Okay, that’s Commissioner Mel Shumway this morning on the (11:40) weekday wake up anything else, Commissioner, we missed that you’d like to mention? (11:42) Um, no, it’s here we are mid November and happy Thanksgiving to everyone this week. And I hope (11:50) you get to enjoy some time off with your family. Enjoy a great meal and be grateful for everything (11:55) we have here.

Just keep in mind that we’ve not really had much winter yet. But we’ve never missed (12:01) a winter in Lincoln County. So let’s be prepared.

Be patient. We we always have more to do with less (12:09) to do it with. So our road and bridge and our plow drivers.

Let’s give them a little bit of (12:15) slack and they may not get there as quick as everybody wants, but they will get there. (12:20) As we get around our facilities in the county, if there’s things that need attention, (12:25) let us know reach out to the the courthouse and facilities and we want to make sure that things (12:31) are running well and safe. But it’s it’s a big task and things.

We need more people. We just (12:38) have a hard time getting them. So thank you, Duke.

Absolutely. Well said this (12:43) Commissioner Mel Shumway this morning. It’s all part of the weekday wake up on SBI radio.