Shoshoni Mayor Joel Highsmith plans to run for a seat on the Fremont County Commission.
He made the announcement during a Shoshoni Town Council meeting Tuesday, expressing his displeasure with the current District 2 representative on the County Commission: Larry Allen.
“I’m very disappointed,” Highsmith said. “I do not feel that Shoshoni has been served well by (our) District 2 Commissioner. I have issues with (that).”
For example, Highsmith said, Allen was one of three commissioners that voted to tax the town medical clinic in 2022.
That decision was later overturned.
Shoshoni has also gotten “zero help” from the county “on the ambulance issue,” Highsmith continued, and he is “not happy with how solid waste has been going.”
“I mean, we’re taxed three mills and we have one of the higher tipping fees at the scale in the state,” Highsmith said. “I don’t know why we’re paying taxes and paying a tipping fee.”
Allen will “not be easy for me to beat,” Highsmith noted, adding that, if he loses the Commission race, he will remain in his position as the mayor of Shoshoni.
If he wins, however, Highsmith said he is confident Shoshoni is “in awful good hands,” with a “real good team” of employees and councilmembers who can “continue what we’ve got going on.”
“I think I can do a lot for Shoshoni at the county level also,” Highsmith said. “So I just wanted to put (that) out there.”
For more information, call the Town of Shoshoni at 876-2515.