‘Border Czar’ urges jails to take ICE prisoners

The Big Horn County Commissioners met on March 18. Commissioners in attendance were Bruce Jolley and Dave Neves.  

Sheriff Ken Blackburn appeared before the commission.    He explained that at the Western State Sheriff’s Association meeting, Tom Homan, the “border czar,” asked every county jail that could hold ICE prisoners to do so. Blackburn said the paperwork from ICE went from 400 pages to 20 pages.  “They will take any facility that is state approved” to hold ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) prisoners, he said.  The six-week training course has been reduced to two weeks. ICE personnel are willing to come to Wyoming to do the training. At this time, no beds are available for ICE detainees, he said.

Blackburn noted that the detention center has seen an increase in revenue so far this year. He told the commission that the U.S. Marshal’s Service told him they would use all the beds they could in this detention center. However, he is having a hard time keeping younger staff on the payroll. One recently left to go to the detention center in Cody because it pays more per hour. 

In other business, the sheriff along with Dispatch Supervisor Tony Giles discussed a repeater for the county road and bridge department. He has been waiting for Cowboy Communications and US Forest Service Big Horn lease contract. 

County Clerk Lori Smallwood gave a breakdown of the lease, which totaled $4,800 yearly. She said some of the road and bridge radios don’t work.  There was discussion about if road and bridge should go digital versus the analog they are using now. 

ENGINEERING 

The Engineering/Road/Bridge update was given by County Engineer Willie Bridges. 

Bridges informed the commission that the county engineer budget was running short.  “In the whole budget we are running about 10% behind. At some point we are going to have to look at supplementing the budget.” He jokingly said he would take a long vacation. 

Commissioner Jolley stated that the county was going to have to figure out a way to scale back. “Because I’m afraid we are probably in for some rough times coming around the corner. I don’t know what the long-term picture is, but wouldn’t you agree Dave?” (Jolley was referring to property tax bills that will impact the amount of money going to towns, counties and special districts.)

Bridges said he understands this and that is why he wanted to bring the topic up earlier rather than later. “We have these things that just come up that we don’t control. Road issues happen that you don’t expect to put any hours in. Then the next time you turn around you have to put 10 hours in.” He told the commissioners that the department has used 75% of its budget and 67% of the year is done. He estimates they will be short $10,000. 

County Clerk Lori Smallwood said she could move money from one line item to another, then see how much money would need to be augmented closer to the end of the fiscal year. 

Bridges also discussed Beaver Creek Road. He said the road will be dug across that week to put in a pipeline for Leavitt Reservoir. Neves asked if the detour would be put in and the road repaired in a timely manner. Bridges said yes but that the project was long and intensive. There will be the one cut at the location he talked about. They also had to cut across some oil on Horse Creek and Lane 31. Those are done but there are locations that will have to be patched and fixed at the end of the project. “So, I don’t know if they will want to have asphalt people up there twice to do something. But they are aware that they have to maintain the crossings. They do have the equipment there to do that with. I don’t think we will have any issues with these guys. They have been really good to work with so far. We will keep abreast to what is going on.” 

He also told the commissioner that the language in the right of way permits has been modified as the commission requested. He hopes the language will achieve the desired result. “It just states upon commencing all work must be completed within 30 days unless a written request is approved by the commissioners.” The commission voted to accept the change in the permit language. 

Neves noted he had been in a meeting the day before where there was discussion about the Medicine Wheel Road. He handed documentation from the meeting to Bridges. He asked Bridges to make sure the information regarding the roads was the same as the county records. 

ROAD & BRIDGE 

North end supervisor Eric Mann and south end supervisor Shannan Hovey gave their department updates. 

Hovey said the south crew has been plowing snow and trimming trees. He said he appreciates a landowner in the Burlington area that has been trimming a bunch of trees. His ditch is currently full of the trimmed trees. He is hoping the man will clean the ditch up so the county doesn’t have to. 

A culvert on Antelope Creek near Rairden had to be riprapped. Bridges explained there is a WYDOT project there and traffic is heavier than normal.

The roads in that area were not built to handle this much traffic. 

 Hovey noted there are some culverts the crew will be replacing throughout the south end of the county. 

Mann presented two right of way permits. Both were approved by the commission. He said the pipe on Cannery Road has been sleeved and it turned out well. The crew was putting down pit run to Crooked Creek to improve a couple places washed out a while back. 

The crew has also spent a lot of time thawing culverts. They have been plowing and blading roads as well. 

Mann discussed that one of the semis in the fleet has almost 2 million miles on it. The motor has been rebuilt three times.  The head gasket is out again. He presented some options and the costs of those options including rebuilding and/or purchasing one.