Council catches up on town business

Monday night’s council meeting for Moorcroft was relatively quiet. However, a few important points arose from the staff reports.

Public Works

Lowes, the town’s contact for roof work on the MTC, came to town to examine the damage from the 2019 summer hail storms recently and their findings differed significantly from the town’s insurance adjusters. Public Works Director Cory Allison reported that the Lowes examiner described the destruction as “a lot” while the insurance adjuster had informed Allison that there “was hardly any”.

Clerk/Treasurer Cheryl Schneider has received a report of recompense the insurance company is willing to pay for the roof and other town-owned property and will share with the council upon her return this week and the Lowes examiner will be sending a report with photographs to the town soon.

While the road crew from Falcon Construction was utilizing a blade to work on the Powder River Sewer project, Allison asked and paid them to travel to the town cemetery and take up the severely compromised asphalt from the entrance to the flagpole and remove it from site before his crew laid road base.

“I think it turned out pretty good. It looks nice and it’s pretty solid right now,” he said. He advises citizens that, to maintain the integrity of the base, the plow will leave a light coat of snow along that path this winter.

Police

Semi-retired Bill Peters has been working for the Moorcroft Police Department part time, filling the fourth duty spot and alleviating the stress on the other officers of working without time off for several years. However, he is now hanging up his weapon and badge for the last time.

Peters’ last official day as a police officer for Moorcroft is Monday, November 4. For those who would like to say so long and thank this long time officer for his service, the department is hosting a retirement lunch in the council chambers at town hall on Tuesday, November 5 at noon.

Engineering

HDR Engineering’s Heath Turbiville reported that the Lagoon project as well as the Powder River Water project Phase 1 is with DEQ for approval and should be ready for bid “fairly quickly”.

With Sundance and soon Upton bringing their waste into the landfill, the cell currently in use is facing the end of its life span within the next two years. “So within the next year to two, we need to look at starting the application for another vertical expansion,” he said.

He advised the council that a workshop is probably needed at this point to examine where the town plans to go with the landfill in the future and “start working on those next steps a little bit more, to get those pieces in place for when we can’t do the vertical expansion anymore.” He warned, “We need to have a clear path forward” for the DEQ to continue working with the town.

Mayor Dick Claar assured Turbiville and the council that they would have this requested workshop after the first of the year.

The Moorcroft landfill is the least expensive solid waste disposal site in the area by far, said Town Attorney Jim Peck, and in this workshop, the town will be looking at keeping competitive while managing tipping fees at a more realistic point.

Attorney

The title company with which the town is working to get title insurance is questioning the existing and requesting more documentation on the VFW property that has been donated to the town, Peck advised the governing body. The company has already approached the VFW organization to correct several errors found in the provided documents including the wrong Post number and the signature, etc. “so it was probably a darn good thing you decided to get the title insurance.”

The meeting reached adjournment with no other significant issues discussed.