GREEN RIVER -- The three Sweetwater County commissioners have a big job.

The commission oversees some 10,000 square miles in the state's largest county and an annual budget of about $48 million. There are 27 boards and entities that are the responsibility of the commission.

County voters will decide Tuesday if the commissioners will get some help.

A special election is scheduled to decide if the Sweetwater County Commission will be expanded from its current three members to five.

The idea of expanding the commission has been floating for years around this southwest Wyoming county of about 44,000 residents, mostly blue-collar workers in the soda ash and oil and gas industries.

A group of nonpartisan residents formed the Time for 5 Committee in January with an eye toward adding two more commissioners to the three-member board. The group was able to garner the necessary 1,636 signatures during a petition drive this summer to have the special election scheduled.

For years, some residents have endorsed the idea that the 140-year-old Sweetwater County would simply be better off with five commissioners. Time for 5 Committee members contend that three lone commissioners can't adequately manage the sheer size of Sweetwater County, which is the seventh largest county in the lower 48 states.

Supporters of the change believe the county is too big, the budget is too large and the responsibility is too much for just three commissioners. They note that sometimes events -- most recently the death of Commissioner Joe Oldfield in 2008 -- can leave the board with only two commissioners and that no county business gets done if there is a tie vote.

Or if two commissioners are continually at odds, that leaves all the decisions up to the third member.

Some also contend that adding two more commissioners would give the outlying areas of the county better representation in county government, which has traditionally had most of its commissioners come from the county's two largest municipalities, Rock Springs and Green River.

But opponents of the expansion worry about the additional costs of adding two commissioners, estimated at about $100,000 per year. They also believe it will be hard to find enough candidates to fill the vacancies.

The last big push for five commissioners came in 2002, when Jim Boan -- now a Green River city councilman -- unsuccessfully spearheaded a petition drive to increase the commission from three to five members and to divide the county into districts.

Last year, several county residents circulated similar petitions seeking a special election on the issue, but county officials weren't able to verify enough signatures on the petitions submitted to schedule an election.

Tuesday's ballot measure does not call for dividing Sweetwater County into districts. That move would require an additional ballot initiative.

County officials have said the election is expected to cost around $60,000.

Southwest Wyoming bureau reporter Jeff Gearino can be reached at 307-875-5359 or at gearino@tribcsp.com.