Thumbs down to council: Notice of work session should have been given

It’s that time again where we need to give a thumbs up to a few people but, unfortunately, also, a thumbs down.
We start with the thumbs down to the Basin Town Council. The council called a special meeting Monday night to conduct two items of business. Following the business, which took about 15 minutes, the council went into what Mayor Phil Juillard called a work session with the town attorney.
A work session is fine. No action was taken but direction was given to the town attorney. We don’t have a problem with discussing contractual and agreement issues with the town attorney. We do have a problem that the media was not notified of the work session and the items to be discussed and the fact that some of the people involved in the discussions were also not notified.
Over the last several months the council and the Basin Planning and Zoning Commission has been working on a final plat submitted by Greyco Investments. The plat was approved at the Nov. 3 meeting. Developer Karl Bertagnole probably feels that everything is completed.
However, there is still more to be done with the council now seeking changes to the final plat. Mr. Bertagnole should have been notified that they would be discussing the item again so he could be privy to the discussion instead of getting an e-mail from P&Z Chairman Amy Kania (per direction of the mayor) mentioning the changes that are now being requested.
Some of the items had been previously discussed, and some appear to be inadvertently left off the final plat so the discussion is warranted, but notification as required by statute, should have been made.
Wyoming Statute 16-4-404 (b) states that special meetings may be called … by giving notice to each newspaper of general circulation … The notice shall specify the time and place of the special meeting and the business to be transacted. No other business shall be considered at a special meeting.
It would have been easy to give the newspaper a quick call and say a work session has been added to the meeting to discuss these particular items with the town attorney. Notice, by statute, did not have to be given to Bertagnole. We encourage the council to make sure notice is provided of all special meetings, including work sessions.
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We’d like to give a thumbs up to the St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church that, for more than 10 years now, has been offering its friendship dinner at noon on Thanksgiving, free to the community. All the food is provided and prepared by church members willing to give of their time and culinary skills to help make their friends’ and neighbors’ holiday something special by providing a nice meal and a nice social gathering.
Another thumbs up goes to the Big Horn Clinic for offering its Tree of Hope in hopes of making Christmas that much happier for children in South Big Horn County.
There are many other programs and opportunities to give this holiday season and we give a thumbs up to all the volunteers that make these programs happen like the Thanksgiving and Christmas food baskets and Toys For Tots.
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We’d also like to give a thumbs up to the Student Council who is leading by example in this community by adopting pen pals in Macedonia, participating in the Tree of Hope program and participating in the Angel Tree at Wyoming Retirement Center. The council is showing that they are young people wanting to give back to a community who supports their efforts such as UNICEF and Make-A-Wish.
---Karla Pomeroy