Town discusses agreement with REA

The first Basin Town Council meeting of the month was August 13. One of the items on the agenda was a potential “Hold Harmless Agreement” with Big Horn REA.

Mayor CJ Duncan explained that town line foreman Ray Huggins approached REA about the agreement. REA agreed, sent over an agreement and asked for the town to sign it. 

Town Attorney Kent Richins shared his thoughts with the council:

 “I spoke with our representative. She told me that they typically would not charge us for the use of their employee. It states in here (the agreement) they ‘may.’ I would like to add to that ‘subject to agreement in advance.’ So, we know for sure whether or not they agreed to it.” 

The other item Richins addressed was the verbiage “holding them harmless against any and all claims.” He would like to add “pertaining to the work by Big Horn REA that falls within their scope of assistance.” 

Richins explained, “So that they don’t get injured doing something outside of what they are doing for us, then all of a sudden they have a claim. Just little things like that. Otherwise I’m in agreement with it.”. 

The agreement would expire in December. He asked Huggins for his thoughts. 

Huggins said he was just wanting to open the lines of communication. “If something happened and we needed somebody off the pole, we needed somebody out of the bucket truck, I wanted to know I could call them (REA). “

Duncan added that having a trained crew like REA responding to an emergency would be safer and quicker as the crew would know what to do. 

The council voted to approve the agreement contingent on adding the changes noted by Richins. 

OPPORTUNITY ZONE 

Councilwoman Weeks presented information regarding a potential federal “Opportunity Zone” designation.  Weeks said she spoke to the Wyoming Business Council (WBC) at length regarding the designation. Initial discussions indicated that portions of south Big Horn County could be eligible. As a designated zone, the communities would have some advantages for economic development. New private businesses could receive tax incentives. 

“However, your town has to have a 20% poverty rate and below 70% of the medium income. It’s for economic development. It would be really great to attract economic development to Basin. However, we really don’t fall under those numbers. They pulled the numbers and there is a little wiggle room. We are at the 11% poverty rate, and we are over the medium income.” 

She continued that it is unlikely the town will get the designation. The WBC recommended that Basin at least try. The WBC will do the request to add Basin to the list.  Weeks clarified that this is not a grant program. It is just an opportunity to attract businesses to Basin. The council voted to write a letter of support 

OTHER BUSINESS

In other business:

• An executive session was held to discuss contract negations and potential litigation. 

• A building permit for George on North Fifth Street was discussed. 

• A permit for 25 storage boxes on Willow Run was tabled. 

• A special events permit for a street closure for an outdoor dance was approved for Stockman’s Bar and Café. 

• A permission letter for Stockman’s Bar and Café to use their catering permit outside of Basin was approved.