WHEATLAND – A full schedule of roadwork and public health projects are progressing across the county, and county commissioners hold the power of approval.
At their first meeting of the month on Tuesday, Sept. 4, commissioners moved to approve a community block grant with Community Action of Laramie County (CALC), who would be administering the grant with Platte County Public Health as a sub-grantee.
As administrator, CALC will take care of the majority of the paperwork for the grant. The funds for Platte County Public Health will be paired with a part-time position to help promote resources in the county to help youth and families in the county. The funds will also help pay for intense case management to help individuals change habits that are detrimental and helping them move beyond having to use the bridge of public funds to keep their bills paid every month.
Penny Simonton said “I think it’s nice they are the recipient, and we are a subgrantee so they handle all the big stuff, and we can just do good things in the community.”
Commissioner Kayla Mantle asked Simonton, since the grant is a one-year term, what will happen when the year’s out. Simonton replied, “As long as we do good work, they will keep the relationship going. That’s our goal – to really work hard.”
The other half of the money allocated by CALC this year will go to Services for Seniors, Inc. for their Meals on Wheels program and personal alarm units for the elderly. Public Health will only retain the portion of those funds for case management.
Chris Bookout, supervisor of the road and bridge department, reported an administrative assistant has been hired from several excellent candidates. He said the first task for the assistant is an arduous one: researching and compiling all information available on county roads and easements. The information will be input into a new computer program Bookout plans to use to better manage work orders and upkeep of all roads. For example, the program will have the capability of pulling up the entire history of a single culvert, bridge, or section of roadway, helping the road and bridge team make better decisions for maintenance and repairs.

The highway project to chipseal six miles on South Guernsey Highway and Tank Road is completed and took approximately three days. The chips (rock layer placed on top of the oil) came from Hell’s Fish Creek bed. The oil and sprayer for the project came from Ergon Asphault & Emulsions, Inc. of Cheyenne, and “working with [them] was fantastic…everything went really, really well,” Bookout said.
There was approximately one mile of material left over, which was laid down on one lane (the west-side lane) of South Guernsey Highway to help preserve the road where it was more worn and weathered.
Bookout said his crew will be getting the intersection of Palmer Canyon and Sybille Canyon roads “as wide open as possible.”
The last week of September, the culvert at Sybille Creek will be replaced, requiring the road be closed for at least three days. After the culvert is in, there will be a few days of one-lane travel as the roadwork is completed.
The road and bridge department also worked on culverts on Fletcher Park Road and performing maintenance on Cooney Hills cattle guards that had filled up with dirt over time, placed some new signs up, has continued mowing operations, is planning to build up Dickinson Hill with new gravel and rock to slowly work the area into being a more reliable road.
Engineer Hal Hutchinson discussed the conclusion of phase 1 Harris Park Road upgrades, a project that has been underway since 2021 in cooperation with the county and Hoskinson Ranch, under the supervision of Hutchinson. He told commissioners, the last payment for the project will reflect a $97,757.33 credit from the original estimate made for the project.
Some major items that lowered the cost of the project substantially were: a $200,000 low water crossing was eliminated, deemed unnecessary during construction; Wheatland REA needed line adjustments, which was reflected in a change order; the original contract said mechanical methods would be used to bust through the rock during re-alignment of the road, but during construction bulldozers were bouncing off the rock, so they were blasted through instead; culvert sizes were adjusted, and bottom line prices were lower than estimated; and fees from supervising engineer Hal Hutchinson, were lower than originally estimated.
Hutchinson also reported, as per commissioner’s stipulation the roads be tested through an independent third party to ensure quality of the road, every single test was performed the day-of onsite by testing firm out of Casper and Cheyenne. “Everything I heard from those guys and every report I saw said the compaction was above and beyond what was specified for the roadway.”
The change order reflecting the lowered cost of the project was approved by commissioners.
Other action items during the meeting included approving an annual Memorandum of Understanding with the Wyoming Military Department. In the annual agreement, the WMD contributes $36,000 for emergency dispatch services.
An MOU with Town of Guernsey for motor grader storage was approved.
Commissioners also voiced approval of a fiber optic line to be installed by Visionary along the county easement along Fish Creek and Harris Park Road, from El Rancho Road to Hoskinson Ranch headquarters.