WHEATLAND – In a report of recent activity in the county road and bridge department, superintendent Chris Bookout said 605 road signs were delivered to replace faded or damaged signs across the county. The signs were paid for through a sign grant from WYDOT (Wyoming Department of Transportation) and will be installed in the next few months. Anyone interested in obtaining old road signs can contact the road and bridge department.
Bookout said the replacement of the Chug Creek bridge on Bordeaux consumed a lot of his department’s time, but his crews were able to continue working at cleaning up the field of view at the Palmer Canyon – Sybille Creek Road intersection west of Wheatland. The county’s loader did some cleanup on Grange Road, and there are plans to clean up the residual hay from a truckload of hay which burned on the road last month. Bookout said the fire burned the asphalt, compromising the integrity of the oil for the long-term, and while he hopes the road will last through the winter, there will need to be some repairs in the future.
In the last few months, Bookout said his office assistant Leanne Warren has been working to compile a digital file of all county roads, easements, accesses, and crossings by consulting county maps and scouring every page of past commissioner meeting minutes from the inception of the county in 1911. “We’re going to look at getting roads surveyed to see [how they match up with the paper records]. She paved the way for a lot of that with her work – everything she is doing is laying the framework for a lot of structure.”
Bookout warned commissioners they will be busy in the foreseeable future as the road names, easements, etc. are cleaned up to make an accurate and updated official record of the county’s road and bridge system. The information will be consolidated and put into a program recently obtained for the department that will give detailed information and history on any element of the county’s road system, facilitating a more streamlined method for work orders and decisions for maintenance of roads.
During their meeting, the county commissioners gave their approval for former fire warden Aaron Clark to do some grant writing for fire mitigation in the Glendo area. Commissioners said since he was successful in obtaining a grant for mitigation in the Hartville area, utilizing his knowledge and expertise to write a grant for Glendo was an easy decision.
Resolution 2025-05 rescinding the fire ban was unanimously passed by the commissioners.
They also appointed Sara Taylor and Jamie Hazen to the housing authority board; Molly Keil to the fair board; Tony Krotz as the fire warden; Mark Walker as the new assistant fire warden for the northern half of the county; Ron Lockhart, Josh Graves, and Caitlynn Harris to the weed and pest board. Harris’ appointment is with the condition pending supportive signatures from landowners in her district.
An application to create a simple subdivision near Glendo was approved by the commissioners. The Lazy T C Ranchettes will subdivide an 80-acre parcel into 20-acre agriculture-zoned lots with the condition FEMA flood zone information be included on the final plat map for clarity.

Courthouse phase II renovation
Commissioners began discussions of how they were going to conduct the renovations of the Platte County courthouse roof and exterior, which is being paid for by a 1% specific purpose excise tax passed by voters in the 2023 general election.
They concurred they will be pursuing a design-build style of construction, giving more flexibility throughout the construction process. They said they would also like to utilize a single general contractor for the entire project, but no official decision was made.
The commissioners did direct county treasurer Kristi Rietz to invest as much as possible of the current $494,000 collected from the tax. Rietz said she would put the funds in a CD for a six-month term, currently rated at 4.4 percent interest, with First State Bank. In the discussion between commissioners, the treasurer, and county clerk Malcolm Ervin, they think it will be possible to cash flow the entire project and avoid paying the expense of bonding the project’s costs.
Clerk Ervin said it is realistic not to expect any large bills coming in on the renovation for a few months, and since there are payments from sales tax coming in each month, the county could get the most back for the taxpayers by investing the currently accrued funds for the project and gain several hundred thousand dollars in interest in just the six-month timeframe. There is also potential to roll over additional funding into another CD until the funds are needed to pay project costs. “This is an easy decision because the amount of interest we could get in a year would pay for [the county’s recent purchase of two] snowplows. I’ll take some free snowplows.”
Those snowplows are scheduled to arrive in February, and while $600,000 was budgeted, the final invoices came in at just over $593,000.
Organization reports
Platte County Economic Development director Tracy deRyk addressed the commissioners, sharing the subject of prominent business buildings being empty, such as the Burger King building and the Taco John’s building. “It can be disheartening, but I went through and looked, and we have 11 businesses who have either opened or changed ownership,” de Ryk said. “We need to focus on the positive and give those people kudos for sticking their noses out and giving that a try.”
She encouraged people to support the businesses, especially in the challenging time of starting up.
deRyk is also working on multiple grants and invites businesses wanting more information on community grants to contact the PCED office.
Chamber of Commerce CEO Tresha Cancino said the chamber is organizing the annual agriculture appreciation banquet for Feb. 8, giving locals the opportunity to “have a good time, enjoy yourselves and some entertainment, and network with each other.”
Cancino said chamber membership is up 30 percent in the last couple months, and the business assistance organization is working to update membership platforms, websites, and more.
Commissioners also approved resolutions 2025- 1, 2, and 3 stating the county’s investment policy, authorizing direct deposit, and appointing special prosecutors who can assist in prosecuting cases where county attorney Doug Weaver may have a conflict of interest.
Resolution 2025-04 was passed, recognizing former county commissioner Kayla Mantle for her service to the county.
The commissioners went into executive session to discuss personnel before adjourning for the day.