Council talks safety, opens truck bids

With Moorcroft Mayor Dick Claar gravely ill, the town’s regular Monday night council meeting was directed by Mayor Pro Tem Ben Glenn.

Talking trash trucks

Moorcroft has been holding onto two town-owned garbage trucks for the possible event of picking up and transporting community waste again. After years of inactivity, though, the machines, a 1999 Peterbuilt and a 1994 Ford, are not reliable, according to Public Works Director Cory Allison.

“If we were going to keep doing our own garbage, we would have to get a new truck,” he said.

Councilman Austin Smith voiced concern regarding selling both, perhaps needing one in the future; a concern recognized by Glenn, who said, “That’s the reason we’ve always held onto them. We’ve always wanted to know that if we had to, we had an option, [but] I went out and looked at them [and] my thought on it is they’re going to sit out there and they’re just going to rot in the ground out there.”

Allison agreed, stating, “The problem is, they sit there and even to get them fired up and moved – we had to go buy three new batteries for one and three for the other one. I swapped them out, but still, you have to buy them [and] that’s $500; the tires are getting tire rot from sitting for three years now.”

He noted the four hours he and a crewman spent getting one of the trucks in shape to be examined for bid.

Western Waste Solutions was the only bid offered at $5000 and $2500 respectively. Councilman Paul Smoot expressed his dismay at the “lowball” bid for the Peterbuilt, but Smith disagreed: “I looked it up and that’s about where they’re going.”

Both bids were accepted.

Dangerous building

Moorcroft Police Chief Bill Bryant and Crook County Fire Marshal Doug Leis discussed the cost of condemning the structure at 220 Cheyenne after the fire last week and found that option to be “the worst case scenario for the town.”

Instead, responsibility for the safety of passersby is the homeowner’s, he said.

“Rusty [Williamson] and the fire warden recommends that we have a letter drafted to the homeowner, explaining the danger it’s posing, liabilities they’re taking on and basically stating the town is not going to be responsible.”

The building is so dangerous, according to former fire chief Ben Glenn, that it is not even appropriate for structural fire training purposes, “It’s past that.”

Still in touch

Glenn later spoke frankly regarding the current situation with the mayor’s health: “We will give it some time and just see what happens. We haven’t discussed anything as a group; we’ll just hang out and try to remain positive. Dick still contacts all of us through text and email; he’s very much trying to remain in the loop.”