This week, the Fremont County Commissioners revisited the discussion of transferring four county roads in the Fort Washakie area to the Wind River Inter-Tribal Council. The initial conversation in October concluded with the Commissioners being open to the idea but needed information on the process.
The possible transfer continues to move forward following this second discussion where the next steps were turned over to the Fremont County Transportation Department Supervisor Billy Meeks and the WRITC Transportation Department Director Howard Brown.
Meeks and Brown were tasked to confirm the newly elected Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho Tribal Councils still want to take the roads over. If so, a memorandum of understanding (MOU) would likely be the first official step in the transfer of Trout Creek Road, North Fork Road, South Fork Road, and Ethete Road.
Chief Civil Deputy Attorney Jodi Darrough was tasked with finding the process of transferring county roads following the October meeting. There is no set process for the transfer, according to the information provided during the meeting.
The main reason the WRITC Transportation Department wants to take over the roads is they have better access to maintain them, along with the funds to make safety improvements, Brown explained during the first meeting. “Our intent is to improve them for the general public.”
The Eastern Shoshone General Election happened on October 27th, and the Northern Arapaho General Election is today, November 19th. It is not known at this time how long the response from the newly elected council will take as to whether or not they would like to continue with taking over the 4 county roads.
County 10 will keep you updated as the process progresses. Click here to read our earlier post from the initial discussion.