County Commissioners pick phones, buy halfpipe

by Cat Urbigkit

It's business as usual for county road crews, Road Superintendent Dan Holgate told Sublette County Commissioners Tuesday.

Holgate told the commission he has taken action to split the crew in Pinedale, with three people covering the weekends now through February, so the county now has seven-days-a-week coverage.

Holgate also presented the commission with a proposed five-year plan for his department, with everything from widening the shoulder and putting an overlay on the Calpet Road in 2005, to construction of a new county shop.

Sublette County Sheriff Hank Ruland and Undersheriff Henry Schmidt spoke with the commission, with Schmidt proposing the county pursue purchasing a halfpipe for the Pinedale skate park for this spring.

He has proposed that the county purchase a halfpipe that is four feet high, 16 feet wide and 37 feet long. The cost would be about $25,000. The commission talked about funneling the funding for the project through the county recreation board. County Clerk Mary Lankford said she'd talk to the rec board about the subject.

Fencing the vehicle impoundment area at the two county shops was the next topic. Schmidt said he requested cost estimates from several local fencing contractors, but John Linn was the only one who provided a cost estimate, be it verbal. He said Linn's cost would be $5,960 for each facility, to install an eight-foot tall, chain-link fence with one strand of barbwire on the top, and each with a 30-foot gate.

No action was taken at this point.

Schmidt notified the commission that another SCSO deputy, Andrew McKenzie, will be deployed on Dec. 15 to Iraq.

John Culbertson of Victory Telecom and Clearwater Communications presented a proposal to the commission to provide an expanded, upgraded version of the county's current telephone system, for an estimated cost of $50,512.

Scott McKenzie of CenturyTel presented a proposal as well, for an entirely new system with a maximum number of phones, for a cost of $86,729. McKenzie said of the other proposal, "clearly its going to come in much lower in cost" because these are "two very different systems."

Culbertson indicated that that the CenturyTel proposal is somewhat overkill, but McKenzie cited the increased functionality and capacity of the system in his proposal.

Commission Chairman Gordon Johnston noted the difference in the proposals is $32,000, a large sum of money.

The commission eventually voted to accept Culbertson's proposal.

In other business, the commission also agreed to advertise for three weeks seeking bids for operating the Pinedale Trash Transfer Station and hauling refuse to the Marbleton landfill.

Ann Noble and Clint Gilchrist of the Sublette County Historic Preservation Board, spoke with the commission about the possibility of having a ceremony honoring people in the county that have been involved in the preservation of historic buildings in the county.

Noble said the board wasn't appearing before the commission asking for money, but instead was seeking the commission's blessings, which was quickly granted.

Noble noted that in the future, the board would also be making nominations for buildings for historic preservation designations.

Attorneys involved in the Wagstaff v. Grindstone Cattle Company private road dispute attended the commission meeting to hear the commission take action to appoint three viewers for the road to establish the before-and-after value for the affected land.

Grindstone attorney Betsy Greenwood noted that the statute calls for three disinterested freeholders and electors of the county, with a knowledge of local conditions and common sense. The commission agreed to ask the following three people to view and appraise the road: Buzz Wassenberg, Paul Scherbel and Charles Price, with Bob Beard as an alternate. The commission requested attorneys for both sides submit to the county commission by Dec. 16 their proposals for instructions to the viewers. The commission will choose what instructions to give to the viewers at that time.