KEMMERER — At the start of the Kemmerer City Council meeting held on Monday, Feb. 12, the board revisited a previous request from Lions Club President Mark Ristau for the city to help support the organization’s annual ice fishing derby. Ristau asked that a banner of theirs be applied to the town’s trash truck as a form of advertising the event.
In response to his request being turned down, Ristau told the Gazette he is disappointed that Kemmerer would not put forth an effort to help their nonprofit organization; but he did, however, ask the town of Diamondville for help and got it. Once he got the go-ahead from the mayor of Diamondville, he said not only did they allow them to put banners on the garbage trucks but offered to help pay for them next year.
Ristau said he appreciated the town of Diamondville and their approach to leadership.
“The fact that they were willing to do this for our local group, but Kemmerer was not, is sad,” he said. “Diamondville has got it together.”
Ristau said he was grateful to Diamondville Public Works Director David Waldner for his help. After Waldner spoke with Ristau, he ran it by Diamondville Mayor Clint Bowen, who was happy to help a nonprofit organization such as the Lions Club, Ristau said.
In other matters, Kemmerer City Administrator Brian Muir said the state fire marshall’s office requested the city to register building inspection employees online and adopt the international building code with no exceptions.
Muir said exemptions in the code will be going away. For years, commercial inspections have been done locally, but the state will take over if the city does not comply. Muir encouraged the council to adopt the new code so the city can continue doing inspections of commercial buildings.
“We are better off doing the non-electrical inspections ourselves,” he said.
After discussion about residential versus commercial verbiage in the code, the council decided to move ahead with the changes made to the commercial code.
Deb Archibald and David Harwood thanked the council for the assistance with the removal of garbage in the Hamsfork Museum building. Archibald said groups have come in to help and carpet has been torn out.
“We are making a lot of progress,” she said. “Progress is a beautiful word. It is so easy to get overwhelmed because of the things that need addressed. A lot of things had been neglected. Even little steps are progress.”
Archibald said their nonprofit organization is applying for grants to get money for the roof and boiler. She said they were not asking the council for money but were asking for some help.
“You have the ability to make a big difference in our cleanup efforts,” she said, adding that she hopes the city can support them with services.
Harwood invited council members to take a look at the museum’s progress and said the carpet where there was flooding damage had been removed. They plan to open on June 1, and to be open all summer long, attracting visitors on their way to Fossil Butte National Monument.
“We are hoping you find this is a worthwhile project and great benefit to the city,” Archibald said.
She said she hopes to make the museum a unique attraction for tourists coming through town.
The board members decided they would add the motion to support the museum to the next scheduled council meeting agenda.
