5A - Cody Enterprise - Thursday, June 18, 2020

PUBLIC NOTICE

The U.S. Department of Commerce, Economic Development Administration (EDA) is considering a request for Federal assistance from Forward Cody

Wyoming to construct a Meat Processing Facility in the City of Cody, Park County, Wyoming. Pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act of

1969, as amended, EDA is conducting an environmental assessment (EA) of the proposed project.

The project will consist of the construction of a 12,000 square foot steel building on a parcel owned by Forward Cody (Tract 2 of the CLDC

Subdivision). The approximate project address is 84 Road 2AB. The project will be leased and operated by Wyoming Legacy Meats. Project information is available for review at the office of Forward Cody 1130 Sheridan Avenue #200,

Cody, Wyoming. If you have any information regarding potential environmental impacts

associated with this proposed project, please email jbenz@eda.gov. If you do not have access to email, you instead may contact EDA’s Denver Regional

Office at 303-844-4715.Comments received by the EDA Regional Office by 5:00 pm on July 10, 2020

will be considered. A copy of the NEPA decisional document will be available upon request at the above EDA Regional Office.

Gunfights resume

The Wild Bunch gunfighters cast, including Bob Ferguson, Dan Rodri-guez, Jane Friday, Andy Di Piazza, Linda Rodriguez, Tami Aune, Paul Launchberry and Micheal Roberts perform Tuesday at the Irma Hotel.

photo by LAUREN MODLER

Large item pick-up service to be year-round starting July 9

By ZAC TAYLORzac@codyenterprise.com

Cody’s large item pickup service will now be available year-round for residences, but at a cost.

The city council on Tues-day unanimously approved an ordinance on final reading that adds 70 cents per month, or $8.40 annually, to all residen-tial customer invoices effective July 1. Another ordinance approved year-round service.

Starting July 9, Cody resi-dents may schedule a Thursday pickup by calling (307) 527-7511 or (307) 527-3492.

The City of Cody implement-ed a free large item pick-up service in 2008.

With the amended code, instead of the streets depart-ment picking up large items for disposal at no charge each

Thursday Nov. 1-March 31, sanitation workers will pro-vide the curbside service every month, with one pick-up per address per month and a maxi-mum of six pick-ups per calen-dar year.

Public works director Phil-lip Bowman said the 70-cent charge is roughly in line with the city’s cost to provide the service. Initially he’d set the cost at $1 per month; however, upon council inquiry during first ordinance reading, Bow-man suggested the fee upon second reading.

The city will collect the large item fee the same way it collects for its recycling service. Cody residents pay $1.30 per month for recycling operations regardless of how often they use the service.

Bowman said the new fee will provide more than $32,000

in revenue, while he estimated costs at $35,000-38,000 per year. He said that number could change because the ser-vice is moving from the streets to the sanitation department, which made budgeting less exact.

Streets expenses are paid for with general-funds revenue. The sanitation department is a solid waste enterprise account, meaning the city offsets costs by revenue collected through monthly utility bills.

The city’s tree and brush removal service will remain available November-March each year with one tree limb and brush pick-up per month allowed per resident who pays for solid waste services within the city.

(Rhonda Schulte contributed

to this report)

Meeteetse business one of first to get state grant

By ZAC TAYLORzac@codyenterprise.com

A Meeteetse business was one of the first in the state to receive grant funding from a new Wyoming relief program.

Carter Mountain Massage & Yoga received more than $8,000 in CARES Act funds as one of the first 13 busi-nesses to receive grants last week.

The payments are posted on the WyOpen.gov website created by state auditor Kris-ti Racines to provide the pub-lic with easy access to state of Wyoming expenditures.

“I’m glad to report that the state has begun issu-ing these payments,” Gov. Mark Gordon said. “I want to thank both the Wyoming Business Council for their expeditious work in setting up this program, and the Auditor for her support of our

desire for transparency.”The first eight businesses

received nearly $150,000 in grant payments to date. An additional $2,661,158 in pay-ments have been approved.

The Business Interrup-tion Stipend is a $50 mil-lion program created by the Wyoming Legislature and funded by the federal CARES Act. It is designed to provide grants maximum $50,000 for eligible businesses with up to 50 employees and headquar-tered in, or operating princi-pally in, Wyoming.

Wyoming businesses can still apply for grants through the program. For more infor-mation regarding eligibility, or to apply, visit wyobizrelief.org.

The Wyoming Business Council is creating rules and administering the three Wyoming Business Relief programs developed by the

Legislature during its May 15-16 special session. A grant program for businesses with 100 or fewer employees, as well as a reimbursement pro-gram for coronavirus-related health and safety expenses incurred by businesses of all sizes, are expected to launch in early July. Eligible businesses will be allowed to apply for more than one grant program.

“The Business Council is proud to execute the grant programs, and is grateful to the secretary of state’s and auditor’s offices for their assistance in creat-ing a secure application and smooth payment processes in a short amount of time,” Business Council CEO Josh Dorrell said. “It’s a thrill to see the result: Money being delivered to Wyoming busi-nesses so they can continue to operate and employ people. Unemployed workers called

back must accept workUnemployment claim-

ants called back must accept work, the Depart-ment of Workforce Services reminds unemployment claimants. Federal law requires that those who have been placed on a tem-porary layoff related to the COVID-19 pandemic must return to work if called back.

Not returning to work when there is available work could be considered a “refusal of work” and could potentially disqualify claimants from receiving unemployment insurance benefits.

DWS advises that claim-

ants called back to work should not cancel their unemployment claims but instead leave their claim open and not file a weekly payment. However, claim-ants called back but only for reduced hours may continue to file a weekly request for payment, though they must report all gross earnings for the week to possibly receive a partial benefit.

Those receiving the Pandemic Unemployment Emergency Compensation 13-week extension of Unem-ployment Insurance ben-efits must also be registered in WyomingAtWork.org and must be actively seeking

employment. PEUC benefits are an extension of regular Unemployment Insurance, and the law requires those claimants to complete job searches weekly.

The CARES Act spe-cifically provides for seri-ous legal consequences for fraudulent cases. Individu-als are responsible for pay-ing back benefits deemed as overpayments due to ineli-gibility.

Businesses may report employees who have refused to return to work by report-ing fraud at the wyoming-workforce.org webpage by clicking on the “report fraud” button.