PINEDALE – A hearing for a grant application to the Wyoming Business Council to pay 50 percent of a dump-and-fill station to be located at 957 W. Pine Street and for additional power at the American Legion Park drew a crowd at the Aug. 13 Pinedale Town Council meeting.

Many were uninformed that the council’s previous idea to locate the facility on Mill Street had been abandoned weeks earlier, after the owners of Rocky Mountain Car Wash had voluntarily offered an easement, at no cost to the town, to locate the services on their property.

Included in the town’s plans as far back as 2013, the Aqua Flow system will have an overhead arm to allow commercial water haulers to fill trucks as well as a side hose to fill the many RVs coming through Pinedale enroute to Yellowstone or for the fall hunting season. The dump station would allow those same RVs to dump sewage from holding tanks for treatment in the town’s wastewater treatment facility.

Mayor Matt Murdock said the generous offer by Rocky Mountain Car Wash owners Mike and Sherri Irwin provides a location near the main thoroughfare and is close to restaurants, a gas station, an auto parts store and other services that could draw business into Pinedale. The dual-sided service center will enable RVs to queue on two sides, eliminating lines backing up into main streets.

The station accepts credit cards and is a self-service unit that will not require staffing.

To keep the site clean, a non-potable water hose and trash will be provided and the area will have curbs to contain any accidental spills.

The power box, with a cost of $30,000, would eliminate the need to run generators for vendors who set up for events at the American Legion Park, including the High Altitude Farmer’s Market, Rendezvous and weekly concerts.

A couple of residents indicated concern for traffic lining up and causing traffic problems.

Paul Ulrich, representing Highland Mobile Home Park in Daniel, 12 miles north of Pinedale, said the town is using taxpayers’ money to compete with a private enterprise.

An email was read from a constituent that said it was not the type of business Pinedale should take on. “We’re already Teton’s dump, do we want to be their toilet, too?

A representative for the Wyoming Business Council said the application should address the competition issue, because that has always been a sensitive issue when awarding grants.

Council member Tyler Swafford questioned the 12 miles to the nearest competitor. Highland Mobile Home Park, the closest business to offer a dump-and-fill station, is 12 miles north of Pinedale at the Daniel Junction.

The council voted to approve the application. A motion later in the regular meeting accepted an easement from the Irwins that will allow the station to be located there. Both motions passed, 4-1, with council member Jim Brost voting against the motion.

The council also approved payment for the engineers who did initial planning for the Mill Street location, until they were asked to halt when this new location was proposed.