Board of County Commissioners Meetings - Regular Meeting

ALREADY, I'LL CALL THE REGULAR SCHEDULED MEETING FOR JULY 20TH, 2026, TO ORDER. CAN I GET A ROLL CALL?

CASEY COATES? HERE. COMMISSIONER LAYARD? PRESENT. PETER NICHOLASEN? COMMISSIONER NORTH?

HERE. HERE. COULD YOU ALL STAND AND SAY THE PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE, PLEASE?

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you. And Sabrina, you've got a couple things for us today, it looks like. One or two? Or three? Or four? Or four?

Mr. Chairman and commissioners, am I working?

Try the other one.

Oh, it sounds like, there it is.

There we go.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman and commissioners. You know that you're happy to see our smiling faces first on your list. I'll let Brad start with us. His part is most of it and going through some changes and some updates and any questions you all have.

Mr. Chairman, commissioners, I'll start with the adoption of the NEC. Basically, we're just adopting the new 2026 National Electrical Code. There wasn't any significant changes to mention in the actual NATIONAL ELECTRICAL CODE FOR 2026. NOTHING MAJOR. I MEAN, THERE'S ALWAYS SOME CHANGES, BUT NOTHING TO REALLY TALK ABOUT OR INCUR EXTRA COSTS ON THE CITIZENS THAT I FOUND. IN OUR RESOLUTION, WE BASICALLY ADDED TWO AMENDMENTS. were the two big changes to our resolution. So the first one, we spelled out, we've never allowed EMT to be in the ground. We just clarified it in an amendment. We had somebody try to do it, so we thought we'd better put it in. The code does allow EMT in direct bury. We consider the ground around here to be corrosive, so we don't allow it. No one uses it. Everybody uses PVC. But we figured we had to put that in there. The other one is for mobile homes. We've never allowed your service to be mounted to a mobile home. It's really confusing in the NEC, not really nailed down. So we wanted to clarify that and define an actual mobile home and state that, yeah, you cannot mount the service to a mobile home. You can a manufactured modular home, but not a mobile home. And the mobile home is defined as a being built on a permanent steel chassis. So we basically just clarified that. Other than that, it was just italicizing terms that are defined.

I think that's about it.

Is there any questions on that?

Any questions? Looks good. Next.

Next, the attorney county contractor licensing rules and regulations. So the last time this document was touched that I could find was in 2020. Or 2000, I'm sorry, the year 2000. So it's been 26 years since anything's been changed in this resolution. uh... we have been it we have implemented in previous building officials have implemented different contractors licenses that we've offered past few years that's never been nailed down in this resolution so i figured it was time we had to go through it and just updated the majority of the big changes in the regs would be the new licenses that we offer and a few different definitions of licensing and just updating a lot of uh... verbiage and getting everything in line to the way we're actually operating because it was pretty outdated did anybody have any specific questions or anything I need to point out in it so with these changes are there going to be any

changes to the document. Are there going to be any changes to how you operate at all?

No, sir. Okay. No. It was basically getting the contractor's licenses that we offer in the resolution. Oh, okay. We've been offering new licenses for different contractors for quite a while now, and it didn't reflect in the resolution, so...

And, Chairman, if I may, a lot of what we did in this was just trying to, like, get what they actually do on paper because it was missing certain things. We were also trying to define a lot of the stuff, and that's pretty much what we were doing. That was the main focus.

Okay.

Sounds good. Thank you. Hey, Brad, on the contract for licensing, with the changes that came out of the state as far as reciprocal licenses and everything like that. And this is more for the record so everybody knows what's going on. How are we now within Natrona County and with other counties as far as that portion of it goes?

As far as the reciprocity, The reciprocal law that the state requires now, we basically always done it that way. So there wasn't really any change there. It is spelled out a little more clear in our regulations now about that, but really no change. We've always reciprocated licenses that we felt were equal to what we require within state. No real change, but clarified.

Okay. Well, like I said, that basically just so it would be on the record that that was the case. Okay. Thanks.

And we'll move on to our permit fees. Now we didn't change. any fees. We're still on the same fee schedule that we've always been on. I think this was changed back in 2020, if I remember right, is when these fees went into effect. The big thing was we've always charged a $25 application fee. It was never on this document. And then we added in the zoning certificate fee And the temporary dwelling permit fee that we've always charged, it was just never spelled out in our resolution, in our document. So it's basically getting that on paper that was never there or got missed. So the fees all just stayed the same.

Any questions on the fees? Sounds good.

Mr. Chairman and Commissioners, also regarding fees for the planning department, we did both of our fees together because ours needed cleaned up a bit on the planning and zoning side. Some of the subdivisions that the processes that we have were just clumped under one, and so it was really difficult to see what it actually was supposed to be charged. Another place that was clumped under was the conditional use permit, and it looked like if you needed a conditional use permit, then you had this fee. But if you had a project and you didn't have a conditional use, you could argue that you didn't have to pay that fee just because the way it was listed previously. So we kind of extrapolated all that out. We did increase the fees for the wind, like a wind farm and a solar farm. We. Received we asked for and received multiple counties from around the state, their permit fees. We were fairly low on those 2 projects. So we increase those fees by a 1000 dollars. They were. We went to 2000 on that. And then the other fee in the planning that we added that I was asked about last year was a utility and right of way permit. Road and Bridge has this for county property. But if so, a fiber is going through a property that is not county property, there's essentially no permit. So we now have an application and a permit fee if we want to implement that, that we can do that. and then uh kind of a final ceo on that is that the building department will give the final ceo and say yeah you've put the property back to where it should be we've had some messes on the mountain i've been aware of that where contractors have not filled back in appropriately so that's one fee that's on here as well and it's just a 50 fee and that's what rodent bridge charges so that's where we got that fee that uh price from

Any questions on that?

So is that implementation of the cable fee and stuff like that? That's in here tonight. So once we do that, we don't have to worry about these contractors coming in and just running rampant all over the county and doing stuff without having to come in and get get a permit to do so, and then we have some ramifications if they don't follow what they're supposed to be doing.

Well, we have oversight now.

Yeah.

As far as any repercussions, that's kind of tough, but we do have oversight, and we can help with...

But if they're doing something they're not supposed to, you can suspend that permit. Yes. So... So that gives us a little bit of teeth in what we're doing. And I guess that's, I know a lot of us have had phone calls from different places all over the county as far as some of these companies going in and doing things. And it's like, they didn't get a permit. How are they doing this? And so I think this is something that should have been done a long time ago, but I'm glad we're moving forward getting that taken care of.

Yeah, I just kind of want to jump on that as well. I think generally it's important for people to understand that right away is with Fiverr and things like that. I mean, there's some There's some layers above county government, there's some federal government, there's some FCC things that allow those utilities to be installed. There's very, I guess, some limits that the county can put on. And this is one of those limiters that we can do. We can say, you know, you have to do things right or you don't get your permits to go in their place. And this is so... it's what we can do i think it's the appropriate step to take without being a little bit too much or putting too much on this on the planning and building department to chase people all over the county and inspect every hole but i think this is one of those things that you guys can target appropriately so this is good thank you i think we're good

have one more document to cover is we went through the contractor license fees also and basically just updated a lot of them and made them make a little more sense and the big thing too was is we wanted to put all of our fees contractor fees permit fees planning fees all onto one resolution a little more organized and easier to deal with But as far as the contractor license fees go, there wasn't a lot of change. It was just making a lot of them make sense. Some of them got lowered. The main thing was we want our initial fees to be twice as much as our renewal fees. We raised a few of the individual license fees, like the apprentice license fees went from three to 10, just to align more with the what other jurisdictions are charging. But nothing real major on fee changes there either.

Commissioner Laird. Have we had any complaints? No, sir. Well, if there's no complaints, it's always a good thing. When fees get raised, there's complaints.

Well, most of the fees actually, some of them were reduced to match other contractor fees that we do. Some of them really didn't make sense, so we basically matched them up. A lot of them got dropped. A few of them got raised, but the majority of them didn't change at all.

Any other questions?

That was easy. Scheduled way too much time for you guys. Thought you were going to be more in depth. Normally she has way more for us.

All righty.

this might be an interesting day then moving on can you fill two hours up no um so we're still waiting on several of the east end road easements uh we checked today where it looks like we're still missing six of them Um, so we're, I know we've talked to several people and they're like, we have some people that are out of state and stuff. So, um, but that's kind of where we're at with that one. Uh, Bill Farringer is still working on that road vacation that we started. Um, I know he was working on it last week. I'm should be getting it here fairly soon. Uh, additionally, I'm working with the health department. They're having some issues with their opioid program stuff. So, um, Anna and I are meeting tomorrow to kind of go over that stuff so I can help her draft a letter for them.

I'm also working with Sabrina concerning Allendale.

We're going to be working on that memo on Wednesday. Allendale, the application is changing a little bit. Instead of being four parcels, looks like they're going to just make it into one large parcel. But we're waiting on the actual flat

from Paul, I believe, who's doing it.

So once we have that, then we can do that memo, that back in front of you all. Additionally, we received two ISD disestablishments that we were working on. One is for Week Creek, the other one is Park East Ranchettes. So we're doing those letters to get that process. A couple of those kind of fell through the cracks on us a little bit, so the state was asking if we had received them. I hadn't seen it, but we're getting that remedied as quickly as we can, given we have to have so much notice for these people. Additionally, I met with Dinosolar, County Fire, Mills, bar none last week to discuss contracts. They're going to keep me updated on how that's going, but it was a very productive meeting. know dino solar is really wanting to try to make sure that everyone has what they need for that project um other than that we're just kind of been answering other departments questions and just helping them out where we're neat now we're still working on the animal control act i'm going through that because we're going to do a whole That act, there's a lot of pieces in it that I don't think that we need anymore. And so we're trying to do a whole overhaul on that. So it's going to take a little bit of time, but we are going to get it done. We're definitely going to get it done before your term ends, Chairman. Because I know that was a request.

He made quite early.

That is true.

Doubtful, though. Thank you, I appreciate it. Any questions?

Ashley, how are Title 25s going? Are we seeing an increase in volume, or are we holding steady?

Right now, I think we're holding more steady. The month of May, we saw a huge uptick. Since then, it's calmed down. Just month of May, I think we just had a huge uptick, but lately it's been a little bit more calmed down. And yeah, I think it's just, I think that was a one month off or weird month. We still have a pretty steady stream. You know, we have usually a few every day. Um, there's a couple of days where we don't, we haven't had any, which is rare for us, but yeah, it's seems to be holding a little bit more steady.

Yeah.

Other questions.

I was surprised when I saw that it was starting at three.

All righty. Is there any reason we need to go into exec? All right. Okay, we're going to recess. Well, Sadie just left.

Yeah, I know. Are you bored?

We'll go into recess, come back at 5 o'clock.

Yep. Wonderful. It's been for my gas, making me come down here as many times.

It's a nice shirt, Ellis.

I like that shirt. It's the only thing cool I could find. It's kind of got a knit thing on the back of it. I didn't even know I owned it.

It's a whole time more efficient.

That looks snaky.

I'm a lawyer, dude.

That was good. I was trying to feed you the pain.

It's great. Yeah, you were.

Later.

Chairman?

Yes.

What if you came and closed the door?

Yes. Just leave that running.

Sure.

Good.

Wait. Thank you. Thank you.

I mean, when I have a client and I have like five of their cases, I'm like, like you said, I'm like, oh, look. It's been a simple enforcement.

That's it. Yes.

i know but i'm just like guys just go like i haven't dropped this no i was gonna say no

You know, the statute only requires us to have one meeting.

Yeah.

We should go to that.

No. Why not? Because we'd never get anything done.

Just do it all in that one meeting. Next year you can do that. Huh? Next year you can do that. Maybe I could. I'd like to get a

Thanks, Ashley, for getting all of it. Yeah. Thanks, Bree, ahead, maybe, for getting ahead of it. Eric?

Yeah.

Yeah. Whoops. He's traveling. Yeah, there he was.

He's enjoying retirement. What are you doing back there? She was kind of in a hurry or I would have stopped and said hi. We kind of just plowed on through the court building there.

Jump starter for 2,000 bucks.

Hmm.

all righty you ready okay we're back in session so approval of the consent agenda motion so moved exactly the consent agenda Moved and seconded. Sorry. Those in favor, say aye.

Aye. Those opposed, say aye.

No. So, there you go. All approved. Any contracts agreements that we need to take a look at at all that snuck in? Nope. Probably not. Then we'll move on to public hearings. All right, I now declare the public hearing open for the consideration of Resolution 26-26 Approval of the FY26-27 Budget. Hearing will be conducted in accordance with state statutes, rules of the Maternal County Commission, and other equitable laws. May we have a report, Madam Clerk?

Mr. Chairman, Commissioners, Resolution 2626 is on the agenda for the approval of the proposed budget for the 2026-2027 fiscal year ending June 30, 2027 in the amount of $67,798,770. This figure includes proposed budgets for Natrona County's component entities, which are the Natrona County Library, City-County Health Department, Community Action Partnership, and Natrona County Fair. As shown, the FY27 budget provides funding for mandated services, provides for citizens' health, safety, and welfare, implemented salary recommendations from a comprehensive compensation and classification study, and provides funding for various one-cent number 17 projects. All publication requirements have been met, and with that, I will stand for any questions.

Any questions for Madam Clerk?

She has to stand.

Anywho. All right. Being known from the board at this time, I'd ask those individuals who wish to speak in favor of consideration of resolution 26-26, approval of the FY26-27 budget to approach the lectern. There is an electron, the table. Electron, whatever. It's good. We'll use the table tonight.

Second call for those in favor of resolution 2626, approval of FY2627 budget. Approach the table.

And last, those who wish to speak in favor of consideration of Resolution 26-26, approval of the FY26-27 budget, approach the table. And at this time, I'd ask those individuals who wish to speak in opposition of consideration of Resolution 26-26, approval of the FY26-27 budget, to approach the table. At this time, I'd ask those individuals who wish to speak in opposition Opposition of consideration of Resolution 26-26, approval of the FY 26-27 budget to approach the table. Last call. Those that wish to speak in opposition of consideration of Resolution 26-26, approval of the FY 26-27 budget to approach the lectern. BEING NO ONE TO SPEAK FOR OR AGAINST CONSIDERATION OF RESOLUTION 26-26 APPROVAL OF THE FY 26-27 BUDGET. I NOW DECLARE THE PUBLIC HEARING CLOSED. DO I HAVE A MOTION?

MR. CHAIRMAN, I MAKE A MOTION TO APPROVE RESOLUTION 26-26 APPROVAL OF THE FY 26-27 BUDGET. SECOND.

GOT A MOTION AND A SECOND. DISCUSSION? NO DISCUSSION. ALL THOSE IN FAVOR, SAY AYE.

Aye.

Those opposed? Did you say aye, Dave?

I didn't say anything.

Exactly. Are you abstaining? No, I'm going to say aye. Okay. Those opposed, say aye. And the budget resolution passes. On to the next. Hmm? Right? Ugh. I'm going to try to read this as fast as I can. But there's just so much I can do. I now declare the public hearing open for consideration of 2026. And you see code adoption. Can I just do this all in one?

Think you can. And Clark, they're all the same thing.

It's all what do you think?

Mr. Tarrant, if the county attorney disagrees, I would say if you refer to them B through F, you know, pointing them out as they're listed on the agenda, I think it would be okay.

I think it's fine if we do them all together.

Unless there's an objection to one or something like that.

Yeah. Unless someone in the public has specific, they can just refer to one of the specific ones.

Okay. So that's what we're going to do. Holy cow. okay this is what we're going to do then now declare the public hearing open for consideration of the public hearings b through f 2026 naec code adoption building department contractor licensing rules and regulations building department contractor license fee schedule building department permit fee schedule planning department fee schedule The hearing will be conducted in accordance with state statutes, rules, and the Toronto County Commission and other applicable laws. May we have a report from staff? Just the bullet points, since you already reviewed it this morning. Or afternoon.

Mr chairman and commissioners I have nothing to add from this afternoon unless you have any questions uh stands as reviewed earlier and just give kind of a bullet point thing so the updates are for the building uh mostly the building department and the contractors licenses some fees and then updating what we found hadn't been updated from until or since uh 2000 So for 26 years, we're kind of running under the same regulations. So really just updated how we're actually working and functioning right now. And then adding the fees that we had already been charging for many years. Make sure they are listed out on our fee schedules. Same for the planning department.

And the 2026 NAEC code adoption, that's just updating it to current. And then the two amendments were what?

Correct on the updates on that. And I'm going to defer to Bradford Amendments.

Mr. Chairman, Commissioners, the two amendments, one of them was to clarify that EMT is not allowed to use below grade. And the other one was to clarify... Could you speak up? I didn't hear what you just said. It was to clarify that electrical metallic tubing, EMT, is not allowed to be used below grade underground. And then the second amendment was to clarify mobile homes from manufactured homes and that you cannot... ATTACH THE ELECTRICAL SERVICE TO A MOBILE HOME.

ANY QUESTIONS ON ANY OF THIS FROM THE STAFF? OKAY. THANK YOU, STEPH. OKAY. AT THIS TIME, I WOULD ASK THOSE INDIVIDUALS WHO SPEAK IN FAVOR OF CONSIDERATION of agenda seven or eight part B through F 2026 NEC code adoption building department contractor license rules, regulations, building department contractor license fee schedule, building department permit fee schedule and planning department fee schedule to approach the table. I'm only going to say that once reach these At this time, I'd ask those individuals who wish to speak in favor of consideration of section eight, B through F of today's agenda, approach the table. At this time, I'd ask those individuals who wish to speak in favor of consideration of section eight, B through F of today's agenda, approach the table. Seeing none, at this time, I'd ask those individuals who wish to speak in opposition and consideration of section eight, through F to approach the table at this time I'd ask those individuals who wish to speak in opposition of consideration of section 8 B through F of today's agenda approach the table and last time at this time I'd ask those individuals who wish to speak in opposition and consideration of section 8 8B-F, which is the 2026 NIEC Code Adoption Building Department Contractor Licensing Rules and Regulations Building Department Contractor License Fee Schedule Building Department Permit Fee Schedule Planning Department Fee Schedule to approach the table. There being no one to speak for or against consideration of Section 8B-F to That approaches the election. I declare the public hearing closed. Do I have a motion?

Mr. Chairman, I would make a motion that we approve section eight, B through F. I don't believe we need to read those out individually.

Just be specific one time. Otherwise, yes.

Okay. All right. The 2026 NEC Code Adoption, Building Department Contractor Licensing Rules and Regulations, Building Department Contractor License Fee Schedule, Building Department Permit Fee Schedule, and Planning Department Fee Schedule.

Second. I have a motion and a second. Those in favor, say aye. Those opposed? Aye. Passed. There you go. Move on to public comments. Anybody wish to speak? You get to sit down for a public comment. Well, that's why we have a chair there for you, sir.

There's five up there on the timer. Better start that.

No, I just wanted to thank you for consideration of the comp study and the implementation of it. Thank the people that worked on that, Tracy, Danielle, and others. I know it's a difficult thing to consider, particularly into the future, but I hope it continues. It's a real morale booster, and it's going to help a lot of people. I appreciate it.

thank you thanks mike boy is our most valuable asset by the way i agree okay thanks mike any further public comment commissioner's comments dave

The Governor's Cup was held up at the second office last weekend along with the outdoor rec symposium that they had downtown. Other than being very warm, there was a lot of people that showed up. They had approximately 300 different participants in the shoot itself, which is always good. That's about the same as what they had last year. It's a great event. It really puts Casper on the map, a lot of the shooting sports and things like that. And it was just a, it was a good event and I always enjoy going out there. I don't participate in the shooting part of it, but, uh, generally speaking, but I do, do enjoy being out there watching.

I've been invited to go down to Cheyenne and view some data centers. They have six of them and, uh, a couple of the people that I know very well that are highly educated in data center law and the issues that attend a data center. So I want to find that out because I know there's a possible request going to show up wanting to put a data center in this county. I don't know when exactly. I've talked to the people, though, about it. And they tell me they have it located in a place where it won't bother neighbors or upset people. So I need to find out some things about water and electricity and gas and how it all runs and what any costs may be to taxpayers, which they say are none. And they say that if they get it running the way they perceive it, it would mean $100 million a year in taxes to Natrona County, which if we got that, we would be flushed. So I want to go down and find out if this is true and if it's going to happen maybe. And just to find out more information because a lot of people don't even understand what a data center is. But if you watch Netflix, it comes through a data center. If you have a credit card and you pay, it comes through a data center. And then all the AI is going to start coming through a data center. So it's something that's happening now. It's the current state of the art. And if they're going to provide 600 jobs in Casper, Wyoming, I'd say that's a plus. If we're going to get unbelievable taxes, I'd say that's a plus. But I want to find out what the possibility of all that is so that I can then report it to the commissioners and the public here in Natrona County. And I can only tell you one other thing. It's really hot out there.

Mr. Coats.

So a couple things. Yeah, it's really hot. It's really, really dry. So fire danger is up. So please be extra cautious. Family and I took a little trip and there were fires all over the northwest. It was kind of kind of scary coming back and seeing the 100 plus degree heat. Another thing that I on our trip that was really nice and kind of reminded me of guess simpler time here it was really nice in northern idaho not seeing a gambling joint in every corner i really enjoyed that so just something to i guess ponder as we as we move forward as a community and i guess last on the i guess data center issue and doing a lot of reading on data centers and the rise of ai and it worries me a little bit just because i think there is a possibility out there that we over rely on AI and don't educate ourselves enough. And I would really hate to see the day where we have people sitting in elected seats that were making all of their decisions based on AI. So I think we need to be really careful and really cautious with how much trust we put into AI and how much we use it as a tool, although there are appropriate times and places for it. Thank you.

So it's almost a month and a lot of things get decided here in Wyoming. I hope that people become educated on What is going on in the state of Wyoming right now? Voting starts tomorrow for absentee. A lot can happen between now and a month. Scandals, people bailing out, this, that or another thing. If you don't have to vote absentee, I highly just suggest you don't know what's going to happen until it happens. Vote on the day of. There's too many things that can happen. But on the long short of it, I missed the governor shoot. I was suffocating a couple of fish in the air. So, but they were pretty tasty. As far as the AI and the data centers, I agree. Need to be educated. Everybody should be educated. The style of data center that is being looked at being to be put in Nechona, a little different than others in the state that are in operation we need to focus on what benefits are as well as the detractors of and determine whether we want to go down that alley or not now the one thing that is concerning I have heard from different entrepreneurs or whatever, is that it appears that Nechona doesn't want to grow and Nechona doesn't want to develop anything. That is very concerning for the future of Nechona. So we need to be very mindful of what we decide to do moving forward. As far as AI, I'm not, I'm as concerned as Casey is about politicians. following AI advice, but what the hell? They already follow social media advice, so I don't know about which is worse. With that, we're adjourned.