WORLAND – The Washakie County Commission will meet today starting at 9 a.m. to review and tentatively vote to approve the revised Washakie County Emergency Operations Plan (WC-EOP), and will hear new burn restrictions put into place by the Bureau of Land Management last week.

Once accepted by the county commission, and signed by Chairman Terry Wolf, the WC-EOP will be in effect for two years, unless modified or redefined by incident aft-action reports within the two-year period. After two years, the plan will be subject to review and the addition of new guidelines from the state or federal government.

As detailed in the introduction of the document, “the WC-EOP provides the framework for interaction with State, local governments; the private sector; and domestic incident prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery activities. It describes capabilities and resources and establishes responsibilities, operational processes, and protocols to help protect Washakie County from terrorist attacks and other natural and manmade hazards; save lives; protect public health, safety, property, and the environment; and, reduces adverse psychological consequences and disruptions.”

Effective July 13, fire restrictions were put into effect for all public lands administered by the BLM Cody, Lander and Worland field offices.

The restrictions include building or using a fire or campfire or smoking outside of a designated area, operating a chainsaw without a U.S. Department of Agriculture or Society of Automotive Engineers approved spark arrester and fire extinguisher and using a welder, either arc or gas, without the use of a chemical pressurized fire extinguisher.

The commission will also hear regular county agency reports.

All meetings are held in the commission chambers of the Washakie County Courthouse, and are open to the public.