Contested water hookup stalls opening of Hysham fire hall; commissioners seek cost estimates before committing county funds

A dispute over recent construction work on Main Street in Hysham dominated the meeting Tuesday of the Treasure County Commission, with residents saying a contractor's trenching for a town sewer splice damaged a private water line and left a house with intermittent pressure.

At public comment, a resident described losing water during the contractor's repair work and said the piece of pipe removed by the contractor was not returned. The commenter asked the county to treat the incident as evidence of improper work and to press the town and contractor for corrective action.

Commissioners said they could not order the town to act during that meeting because the matter involves the town's water system and required an agenda item and formal coordination. "We can't really act on any of this without it being on the agenda," one commissioner said, while acknowledging the board would raise the issue with town officials and examine permit and inspection records.

The public conversation moved into a technical review later in the meeting when county staff, residents and contractors inspected maps and deeds. County staff reported they found a mix of historical service connections: some private service lines run across lots, a manhole in the street served nearby buildings, and a non-exclusive easement recorded in the Jacobs Brothers addition may allow limited county access.

Tom, a resident affected by the trenching, told the commissioners he had marked his water line and said the new sewer work crossed his service. "There should not be any fittings anywhere near that sewer line," he said, pressing that code requires separation and that the county needed to require an inspector to confirm whether permitted work had been done to code.

The board asked county legal staff to pull the recorded easements and deeds for the blocks in question and asked staff to obtain hard dollar estimates for options the group discussed: (1) tie-in to a deeper, county-controlled curb stop and abandon the shallow private tap, (2) install a new county-owned service to the fire hall and meter the park separately, or (3) ask the town and contractor to remediate and reimburse affected property owners. Commissioners repeatedly said they would not authorize county payments until they had written cost estimates.

To move matters forward the board requested: that legal staff check recorded easements for 10-foot non-exclusive accesses the group cited; that county public-works staff locate and mark existing mains and service lines; and that the county schedule a joint meeting with Hysham town officials to negotiate cost sharing and responsibility before any county-funded trenching begins.

The meeting closed the water-and-sewer conversation with agreement to follow up: legal staff will retrieve easement documents; public works will provide price estimates for trenching and meter installation; and commissioners will schedule a joint session with the town.

Next steps include a survey of record lines versus physical locates and a report back to the commission with specific cost figures and recommended actions.