Lessons to be learned
The community needs to learn two lessons from meetings that occurred in Washakie County recently.
Lesson 1: If you want the service it is going to cost you more. That statement is not one we want to hear right now with prices remaining high on many products or even rising. The Wyoming State Legislature tried to give people a break on their property taxes through a couple different initiatives. The problem with that is for hardship counties like Washakie County, they have to recoup that revenue loss somewhere.
The Washakie County Solid Waste Disposal District No. 1 Board earlier this year realized they would be losing nearly $200,000 in revenue from property tax reduction so after making as much cuts as they could — in staffing and hours — they decided to raise fees.
According to city council members and city department heads, residents are upset about both. District Board Member Thomas Younguist said at a recent meeting (board members attended the Sept. 2 commissioners meeting and Youngquist attended the council meeting that night) that the board made decisions that they believed would impact the fewest people.
They could have raised rates even more to keep the staffing and hours the same, and it was noted some board members advocated for that. They compromised. Their rates are in line with the rest of the state, according to a spreadsheet by the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality, who regulates landfills.
But, residents are not just paying more at the landfill. Next year Washakie County must decide how to fund ground ambulance service for the long-term. They advertised a community assessment meeting asking for people’s input but less than two-dozen people showed up Sept. 4 and the majority were not members of the general public. (We will get to that under Lesson 2.)
They outlined options for future ambulance services — form an emergency medical services special district and levy a mill or two (property tax increase), seek funding from the optional one-cent general purpose tax or a special purpose sales tax, go back to a volunteer service which would be less consistent and be a step down in service from what is currently provided by the paid ambulance service with the contract from Cody Regional Health; and finally, the worst-case scenario, no longer have an ambulance service.
You may think, but wait, they have to provide this service. Well by statute they do not, in fact, have to provide the service as it is not considered an essential service.
So, over the next several months the county will continue to seek input from the public (you can take an online survey at the county website or pick up a hard copy at the county clerk’s office). It is your chance to let your voice be heard and the time is now for you to decide what you are willing to pay for, what services you deem as essential, whether the government does or not.
Those at the EMS assessment meeting last week agreed they did not like either of the latter two options so they need your input on what and how much you are willing to pay for a professional, life-saving service.
They don’t want suggestions that are impractical (such as one social media comment, make the volunteer firefighters do it. As great as our volunteer firefighters are, we saw this summer those resources can be stretched thin and we do not want to wear out our volunteer firefighters).
They want and need practical, real input and they need to hear from you, directly.
This brings us to LESSON TWO.
Whining and complaining on social media is not the place to let your voice be heard. These entities as well as all government agencies have regular meetings and in the case of the EMS needs assessment they will be holding additional public meetings. This is your chance to speak to them directly.
In the case of the landfill, Manager Mike Siegfried said he received about 28 calls recently about the hours and costs and the majority of them, when he explained what happened and why decisions were made, were satisfied. The others were not and that is OK. What is important is that those people went directly to the source. They did not believe rumors at the coffee shop or on social media (remember President Lincoln tweeted you can’t believe everything you read on the internet).
He also noted no member of the general public attended any of the three budget meetings after they announced the changes in this newspaper, on the county website and with the city.
After the meetings last week, and a plea from a council member for the public to attend the landfill meeting, there were no members of the general public at the landfill board meeting Monday night. Outside of those associated with the landfill there was myself and Commissioner Tom Schmeltzer.
Perhaps with so much technology available to us and the time spent on social media people have forgotten to actually speak to one another and listen to one another but our government officials, whether elected or appointed (as the landfill board is) are willing to listen and to speak to you.
They want the correct information out there. They do not want to have to fight misinformation.
So in summation, the main lesson here is that if you have concerns, questions or comments about something that a governmental agency is doing, talk to them directly. You will get your best and most accurate information directly from the source and that is good for everyone.