No consignment for Starfish store

MTC Board chairman Nancy Feehan attended Monday’s meeting of the Moorcroft Council. After she reported on the work of the board, she spoke to the council’s previous discussion on possibly moving the operation of the town’s secondhand store, Starfish, toward offering consignment to bring in “higher quality” items.

Feehan stated unequivocally, “We will not be having a consignment store. It’s way too much work.” She added, too, that a local business owner had called her to protest such an action “would be infringing on their business”.

She also corrected the statement that the Starfish is currently using five full rooms and a half of a sixth, “We have five.” Also, in their effort to “thin out” the clothes, the second hand store is not accepting more for now.

The Easter Bunny will be visiting the MTC again on April 20. A breakfast will be served at 9 a.m. and the hunt is on at 10 with 500 eggs hidden by that sneaky rabbit. Those who plan to sign up for softball may do so at that time as well.

Help for Jubilee

The number of revelers at this year’s Jubilee is expected to be high because Moorcroft’s own Chancy Williams will be entertaining Saturday night.

Chief of Police Doug Lundborg brought his concern for his officers and the public before the body, saying, “I’m requesting extra budget money for more people.” He noted the anticipated help from the Crook County Sheriff’s office as well as a couple of other officers, “but that isn’t enough if there are thousands of people.” Lundborg hopes to double his enforcement, partnering the officers.

The “going rate”, according to the chief, is “about $32 an hour” and he only needs the extra assistance for the one night. He asked and received $2000 to assist his planned department funding for this caution. “I’d hate to see us get overwhelmed,” he said.

The matter will be further discussed at the next budget meeting.

Garbage change

Moorcroft Mayor Dick Claar as well as Public Works Director Cory Allison consider the first week of the town’s solid waste being picked up by Western Waste to be successful, though a few residents did not have their garbage out early enough for the initial drive-by.

Allison reported that the contractor had two trucks at the landfill gate at 9 a.m. As the town’s citizens were not familiar yet with the early morning pick up, Western sent another truck through to pick up any missed dumpsters during the afternoon this first week. The public is advised to set their garbage out either the night before or early Friday morning.

Planned road

The road proposed by Crook County School District, through Nelson Engineering’s Brent Bennett, faces more concerns, one of which was brought forward by Town Attorney Jim Peck regarding the reimbursement of the town’s firm, HDR Engineering, by the school.

“I would strongly encourage you to have somebody reimburse you for what HDR is going to charge you,” he said.

He advised the council to plan ahead in case of road failure due to faulty engineering by someone other than the town’s engineers. Councilman Ben Glenn told him that the governing body agrees with his advice.

Allison reported that the reason for the irregular lay of the roadway, according to Bennett, is planned future building on the surrounding school property. “They want to have the room to expand if they need it,” he said.

Glenn expressed concern about the flooding down that route: “It’s going to come down there at 100 miles an hour and there’s going to be a lot of it.” He advised not incurring problems with Burlington Northern by not considering and implementing some type of diversion for the water that will run down that hard surface right onto the flat land along their rail line.

HDR Engineering Heath Turbiville admitted, “With the information we have right now, that’s my biggest concern,” agreeing with Glenn the need of a “water mitigation feature” built with the road.

Bennett again declined to visit the council, citing “family commitments”. The mayor told him the he could talk to the council at the meeting on April 22.

The body asked Turbiville to contact Bennett before then with these questions and concerns. Councilman Paul Smoot opined, “You should have all of the same information so we’re not blindsided by anything.