County's money has been moved out

All of the county’s funds have officially been pulled out of Bank of the West.

During the Sweetwater County Commissioners meeting Tuesday morning, Sweetwater County Treasurer Robb Slaughter said the there was about $540,000 left in the accounts at the bank, but by Friday all the accounts were closed.

The only county exception is with Sweetwater County Community nursing, which will take a little longer than they thought it would. However, Slaughter said Commerce Bank is ready and willing to work with them to make the transition as soon possible.

Slaughter said they are still working through some issues closing all of the accounts, but he will make sure everything is taken care of.

For example: a warrant came in after the account had closed, but Slaughter said he will just write a check to cover that. He said they did their best to notify everyone they could think of about the change over, but he’s sure there might be a few that have slipped through, but that’s nothing he can’t handle.

Other business

The Commissioners heard an update on the fire season from Sweetwater County Fire Warden Mike Bournazian. He said this has been an abnormally long fire season and until rain or snow comes, most of the big fires won’t be out.

This year, the department has received 100 phone calls, which is more than last year already and there are three more months to go.

“One saving grace in this county is a lack of timber,” Bournazian said.

However, with the county still being in a drought the sagebrush, grass and junipers are already dry.

The biggest fire the County had was the Laney Rim, which was 13,000 acres of mostly Bureau of Land Management with about 160 acres of private land.

As for the Roosevelt fire, which was human caused, is at about 60,000 acres in both Sublette and Lincoln counties. He said 55 homes were lost, but 160 were saved. About 100 structures have been lost in the fire. The estimated cost for fire suppression is estimated at about $20 million.

That doesn’t include the damages to homes and structures, just the cost for putting it out. He said the state currently has $22 million in its state budget and $9 million of that has already been used to cover a big fire in Albany County.

Bournazian said for the second time in the past 20 years, that fund may be completely drained. Sweetwater County Fire has been helping out with the Roosevelt fire and they are getting tired. He said it’s about 60 percent contained, but won’t be completely out until a lot of snow falls.

“It was a season that didn’t want to stop and give us a break,” Bournazian said.

He’s hoping the fall season will be better than the summer has been.