City Council - workshop

Never mind.

We have a full long schedule, long agenda. Alright, meeting follow up. Does anybody have anything from last week? Anything like that? Questions.

So we did on the on the grid as far as. I know the answer, but. As far as. I was kind of thinking the liquor license stuff with the resort license. Drive up window and those things were going to come up earlier, but maybe. Discuss just quickly. With that, because is what I was told was it's all going to get combined. See that I think if the work

July 28th. For the liquor license or the resort, all that stuff.

Yeah, all combined. Is what I was told so. I just wanted if it's going to be earlier or if it's going to know. Because it that's not the way I thought it was. Oh OK, so gotcha. I didn't know if anybody had any updates on Mayor and Council.

I understand Floor had a conversation with Councillor Sweeney talking about how we will approach that in kind of two sections and dealing with the one section within the timeframe that is necessary to accommodate forthcoming catering permit. I believe it is for the Indian relays and for feel free to stand up and chime in. I'm pulling up your email. So yes, the longer term policy issues will be pushed out. The more imminent issue of ordinance change for that purpose will proceed sooner and allow for that to happen. My understanding if that is a way that we need to go with the Indian race relays and fair and rodeo grounds. Did I answer your question? Am I hitting the mark?

No, I'm trying to talk and look at my. My understanding in my conversation with floor is everything is going to get. Discussed. On July 28. About. I mean, please feel free, I mean. Because I thought drive up windows. Resort liquor license. Um, all of that was going to be discussed simultaneously not.

28 yeah. Yes, so that is correct. We plan to do a quick review of all of the liquor rules. Go over the resort and then also the drive out window all at the same time so that those changes should Council want to make those changes can all happen in those three readings following the 28th. So will establish I think on the 21st. for the first meeting August, which I believe is August 4th. And so then those three readings will occur and it will all the ordinance will go into effect prior to the Indian relay races, which is September 19th, which is so on schedule.

I mean really is. It for me wasn't part of the discussion. I was just trying to get things rolling so.

Only thing I would add is if other counselors have ideas for longer term policy. level changes that could alter that. And that's the unknown that I don't know. And Florida doesn't know as of right now. If everybody is on the same page, then this schedule would be doable.

Yeah, I guess I maybe I heard wrong. I thought we weren't going to be able to rush it as fast as we want to, but wanted to get it sometime in July. That's kind of how I thought. But I understand what you're Anything else from meeting follow-up? Okay, awesome. All right, let's move on to recreation enterprise plans. Gates, business.

Mayor, I think Zulema will be presenting on council. As you know, we've done part one of your business plans for recreation. This is part two. You've got three business plans Zulema is going to walk us through this evening after staff level review and also review by your parks staff. Advisory Board parks and Recreation Advisory Board.

Share my screen here so we can.

Start already.

OK, the first slide.

Here counselors great to be with you this evening. Thank you for having us for part two of this important conversation as the city manager indicated will be reviewing three of the remaining rep enterprises tonight will go over Hogan on Casper Recreation Center in Fort Casper Museum. But before we do that, I do want to just do a very quick recap. Again, this is some. of some information that you heard in the last presentation, but I feel like it's important just to refresh your memories about what we believe that business plans are and the goals for these updates. And then just recap the process that we went through to make updates to the business plans. And we'll go over those three business plans. We'll talk about the priority based budgeting considerations that we incorporated into the business plan strategies to generate revenue and reduce costs. And then we'll show you our five-year performance projections and talk to you about recommendations for cost recovery goals, if any. And then after that, I had promised that I would provide performance overall in my department of the seven funds over a period of time. And I did some comparisons to the municipal price index. And for those of you who are not aware of what that is, I'll do just a brief recap of what the municipal price or cost index is. and why I sort of chose to use that as our comparison point, and then we'll dive into those. So again, just wanted to refresh your memory that we have pretty specific goals in parks and recreation. We want to create opportunities for all people in the community to have a place where they feel like they belong. We want to create social connections with people. We want to encourage intergenerational connection. We want people of all ages and social and cultures to come together in the spaces where they enjoy recreating to do the things that they love when they want to do that. We want to make sure that our offerings are not hindered by our people participating in our offerings are not hindered by their economic status, and we always want to support inclusive inclusivity. And of course, one of the benefits of all of this is that we are able to strengthen family through generational ties and otherwise. So the goals of our updated plans. Again, we want to improve cost recovery, increase long term sustainability of our operations, ensure accessibility to all, bolster the quality of life for the community residents. We want to support that physical, mental and social health that comes from being active and social. And we also want to drive tourism and our local economy here in Casper and Matrona County. So when we talk about our five-year business plans, I just want to be really clear about what me and my staff believe that these are, how they benefit us, and then maybe just as importantly, what they are not. So certainly they are strategic roadmaps. I want to point out the fact that the three enterprises that we're covering tonight are supervised by supervisors who have been in their role less than a year. So this is a pretty significant dive for anybody who has not ran an operation or managed their own business. This is a very challenging, beneficial certainly, but challenging way of sort of looking at the operation, really thinking very strategically about how to grow business, reducing our expenses over time, You know, try to get ahead of community trends and what we think our citizens want, and so it's really different way to look at operations and they have done an outstanding job and that will be really evident in the work that you see tonight. But very new supervisors working on these, but so they are absolutely strategic roadmaps for us. They are five year plans. They are living documents that we will use to guide our rates to guide our staffing to get our programming. and to inform our capital agenda and decision making when it comes to capital priorities. They are used to forecast fund performance, which you'll see tonight, of course. They help us to establish our priorities over the five-year period. And we hope that they help us ensure that our operations align with what city council wants and what our community priorities are. What our business plans are not are one-time tasks that we then sit on a shelf and don't look at. told my staff, you know, we need to work our plans and let our plans work for us. And so we are constantly revisiting those plans, making sure that we are following through on the things that we said that we were going to do. Certainly pivoting if we need to, because they are living documents, but there is not my intention that we do this massive body of work and then just set it on a shelf. So and they are absolutely not a guarantee that all of the strategies that we talk about tonight will be implemented exactly as written or have the outcomes exactly as predicted, right? Because at its core, it's still a best estimate of how we think those strategies will impact our fund, and we can't predict everything. Nobody in early 2020 would have predicted COVID, right? And that had massive impacts. And so we just want to make sure that everybody's on the same page, and certainly among some of my newest supervisors, there's a little angst, right? Like, what if this doesn't work? And I really try to encourage my staff to be innovative and we can take risks as long as there's not an imminent catastrophe. It's OK to try things even if they don't work, and then we just adjusted. The bottom line is that we want our plans to remain relevant, to be realistic and responsive to current conditions in markets, cost participation, trends, funding, availability and community expectations. So that's what we hope to achieve through these plans. So the process to update our plans was pretty much the same as it has been in past iterations, with few exceptions. So as always, we utilized all the available resources to inform our five year plans. We of course had master plans that we built off of that were completed in 22 and 23. But we've since also done feasibility studies. We've done parks and rec master planning. We've done other master plans and we went through the exercise of priority based budgeting. So we were able to utilize information from all of those resources to help inform the five-year plan updates. We then selected realistic opportunities for us, identified logical timelines for implementation of those strategies. We applied forecasts for each opportunity, and these forecasts really utilize past performance data and are rooted in data that was existing to help inform what we felt were conservative growth projections for our operations, and then we reviewed those draft plans with the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board subcommittee. So a subcommittee of that board comprised of five of their members got together, heard staff present. We literally went line by line. And so they got a little bit more detailed information in terms of how we came up with the dollar figures that we came up with. In some cases, we would solicit their advice if we weren't sure about what Percentage of increase we should, you know, count on or or try to project and they were able to give us that feedback. They certainly provided some strategic direction. More so than like in the weeds of the day to day operation, but they were able to help us balance like the sentiment around cost recovery versus affordability for our users and revenue generation versus community access again at that affordable level. They helped us to consider long-term sustainability for each enterprise and advise us on cost recovery targets where that was appropriate. And so we really valued their perspective on community impact and equity, user experience implications, risk tolerance and priorities, and then the investment return that we would see with each strategy potentially. And so their feedback was really invaluable. I think my staff appreciated hearing from them. I think they appreciated learning more about the experience and understanding you know how deep we really dive into trying to manage and plan our operations over the short and long term. And so it was a really good exercise. I'm glad that we engaged them and it is my intention that we will always do that from here on out as we're developing updates for our clients. So I'm going to pause there and see if you have any questions about that.

Any questions for Zulima?

Alright, let's dive into Hovedon. All right, so starting out, we'll talk about those priority based budgeting considerations. So again, we went through the exercise of establishing the programs that the city of Casper has, and then we gave that data, uploaded that data into the priority based budgeting platform and our consultants had access to that data. And in many cases, the consultants provided information from their other customers in terms of what they were doing to either Increase revenue or decrease costs related to some of similar programs that we had. And so when I'm going through the considerations, the description is the recommendation they made based on what another one of their clients is doing. And then the bullet points sort of summarize how we either intend to try to implement that or how we have in the past tried to implement that and what the result has been. So for this first one, the recommendation was to partner with local ski clubs and volunteer organizations to support ski race programming and to establish formal volunteer programs to reduce paid staff hours. So as you know, Hogan on already partners with local clubs, i.e. the Cast Mountain Racers and volunteer organizations such as Special Olympics to support our race programming. We do not actually offer race programming as part of our operation. But staff is exploring the feasibility of expanding night race training opportunities to new clubs and user groups. And so Ryan and his team are in the process of evaluating our capacity, seeing what that would need to look like for us to expand night skiing into potentially Monday or Tuesday nights in addition to the Wednesday, Thursday training that we do and the Friday, Saturday public night skiing that we have. Then the second one is that Casper Mountain Ski Patrol is a full volunteer ski patrol. Polkadot only utilizes three of our paid employees to supplement the volunteer ski patrol, and that's really only when patrol staffing is limited, particularly during night skiing. So our night skiing starts at 4 p.m., As you can imagine, most of our volunteer ski patrol work full-time jobs. And so getting up on the mountain by 4 p.m. to start patrolling on a volunteer basis is pretty challenging for some of our controllers. And so oftentimes we have to supplement that with paid staff. But really, we only have three employees that do that. The lion's share of our patrol is completely volunteer. And then while waste programming is quite a popular and critical offering in Hogan on sustainability, We identify that recreational snow sports are growth opportunity that we are going to explore for the future. So if you think like sports leagues that we have in other areas, there may be a potential to just create a recreational club. People who are interested in skiing in groups or even racing, but not quite as competitive as like Casper Mountain Racers high schools are. So we are looking at that as a future opportunity for us. Then, in terms of Hogan on and consideration number 2, the recommendation was to secure grants throughout direct development funds and for partnerships with regional tourism boards to gain funding and support for skiing initiatives. They suggested that we offer branded merchandise camps and new fee based services that appeal to families and tourists. And so staff, of course, has and will continue to prioritize seeking grants through the state of Wyoming and other grantors to obtain funding for infrastructure and expanded programming. Thankfully, we've been pretty successful in that and we'll continue to seek those opportunities. Staff has also worked closely with Visit Casper to promote Hogadon as a destination for individuals and families, especially those looking for affordable alternatives to the large regional ski resorts, primarily those at the Front Range in Utah, that can be quite expensive. So the business plan includes closer collaboration with Visit Casper, as well as area hospitality providers, i.e. our hoteliers, to develop and promote visitor packages so that if we bring people from outside of the community, they have a place to stay, they go ski, they maybe get some kind of tip or coupon to have a nice meal somewhere, and then it creates a package experience for people to take advantage of, which we think will be attractive. And then finally, the Friends of Hogan on actually purchased all of our branded merchandise that sold at Hogan on and proceeds from that branded merchandise are always reinvested into the area, and they've done that to purchase train park features. A lot of the furniture, the movable furniture that's in the lodge, which purchased by the Friends of Hogan on through those proceeds, as well as slope cameras that allow mostly parents and grandparents to sit inside the lodge and watch their kids. So because of Hogan on our great nonprofit partner that we have up there and they do quite a lot for us in terms of funding support.

So. There's any checking spell that first part.

So in terms of our revenue generating and cost reduction strategies for revenue up at Hogan, the number one thing is to replace the chairlift to improve safety, accessibility and capacity. And while We understand that the chairlift itself likely isn't going to generate a lot of revenue. What it really does for us is keep us from having to close and lose the opportunity to have snow sports up at Algadon. There will be, we believe, modest increases in revenue, one by expanding into summer operations potentially. two by attracting families who may be reluctant now because of the perceived safety concerns with the existing lift not having safety bars only being able to see two people we do believe that those are hindrances and we've heard that anecdotally even members of the parks and rec advisory board have shared that concern with us and so we do believe that we'll see a moderate increase of families that may be more willing to try skiing with their young children than they are now with the new lift then of course With the lift, we hope, comes tower-mounted lighting that will light Dreadnought, which is arguably one of our most popular runs at the area, as well as the terrain park. And that will certainly expand our night skiing capabilities, both for race training as well as for recreational night skiing. We certainly want to look at improving our marketing, including digital and targeted marketing, outside of. Our area to attract those visitors to come to the ski area. We want to continue to examine advertising, sponsorship and naming opportunities for the assets up on the mountain. Grow partnerships with local hospitality providers and regional ski areas. Again, that was an item in the priority based budgeting recommendations. Expand trails and shelters to attract more summer outdoor recreation use and charge a summer trail or lift fee so. We believe that in order for us to sustain summer operations, we will have to charge a modest fee because we will have to have staff that operates the lift. A lot of our full time staff are actively working to do maintenance to the ski area during the summer months, and so they don't have a lot of capacity to man lift. During the daytime hours, so we would have to hire non full time staff to do that, and so there would need to be a fee We would want to improve lodge outdoor spaces and work with partners to bring more summer events. So currently we feel like there's some opportunity to improve the aesthetics of the exterior to attract more events like weddings. We get a fair number of weddings up there because it is a beautiful space, but we believe that making the exterior more attractive in terms of landscaping and trees in the summer months could really expand that even more. And then we also are looking at some concepts that allow us to construct like a small stage, things like that to accommodate additional concerts and other events. And then we would like to look at investing in camping and glamping amenities. So RV hookups, you know, maybe some small shelters like they have recently built at Wilkins State Park, fairly inexpensive to construct, but but are quite popular among travelers these days in terms of sort of novel places to stay. And we believe that those could serve wedding parties or in other parties really well, allowing people to have a great time and not have to drive down the mountain and create a hazard for themselves. And then in terms of cost reductions, we're really looking at eliminating the insurance costs that we use to cover ski patrol. So currently the Casper at the Casper Mountain Ski Patrol again is 100% volunteer, but the way the statutes are written, they are not covered by workers comp. And so we are actually advocating for a statute change to allow coverage for them through workers comp, which would eliminate our need to purchase work comp insurance or accident insurance for them while they're working. And then finally, just personnel management. We actually did recently have a an employee resign. He was 0.5 full time equivalent because he was shared with parks and we have operationally decided that we could shed that half a full time position and just backfill during the winter months if we need. that position with not full times support. So that's potentially a cost savings for us as well. So this is a lot of information on what that kind of looks like in a chart and again.

Yeah. So in cost reductions, eliminating ski patrol insurance, so that would only happen after a statute changes.

Yeah, we don't want to eliminate that coverage until we know they're covered through another means.

So is. Are they? Basically. Currently. Through warm or. What? How are they covered?

Mayor, Councilor, that's a that's a great question. So actually warm 100% excludes ski operations. So we have to purchase separate insurance for the ski area through hub, which we actually insured the mountain guard. However, we have to buy an additional policy to cover any injury. So The general coverage that you have is liability coverage so that if you know our employees are acting in the scope of their duty and there's some kind of accident or call for a liability claim that insurance would kick in and cover that, but it does not cover. That patroller being injured while they're working, so we have to purchase a separate policy for that, and that's what we're trying to shed. to ensure if workers' comp covers them for any injury while they're acting in the scope of their duty as volunteer patrollers, then we would eliminate that cost. It's about $9,000 a year.

And on the overall insurance policy, I mean, does that have an umbrella on it? Because that can, you know, if you have a catastrophe, that could get pretty pricey, you know, in multiple millions. So is there a base policy plus umbrellas?

Mayor, counselor, I can't remember the specific details of the insurance policy. We're happy to get that information and share it with you, but it does follow best practices for ski area industry coverage. Mountain Guard is a leader in ski industry. So we feel confident that we are adequately covered and the premium that we paid a mountain guard is based on our sales.

Yeah. No, yeah, good money.

While we're still on this part, I was I was happy to see you mentioned the the expansion of the the outdoor year round use of the area and stuff. So I I. Just feel like that has a lot of potential for all the, you know, kind of piggybacking all the other uses you mentioned about, you know, partnering with hospitality, creating those packages, and the, you know, making that more of a year-round usability. So kudos, and I hope you're, I'm hoping, wishing good luck to you and your staff as you kind of flush that out. That's an exciting prospect, I think.

Councilor, we agree and it, you know, expansion into summertime activities has been in the feasibility studies since the master plan was completed in 2013. And we do have about three mile loop of trail that has been constructed up there. It is a single track, relatively rough trail, but it's a start and it is used. So we definitely agree that that is an opportunity area, and it allows us to sort of hedge our bets if we have a rough winter like this winter. That being said, though, and you'll see it in our plan, we don't want to create an unrealistic expectation that next summer we're going to be full on summer operations.

Because some of that's contingent on the new lift.

Most of it is. But in addition to that, you know it's going to take us. Probably a good year, maybe even a little longer to figure out the appropriate staffing levels and and just really what all we can offer in a responsible and affordable way as we sort of transition into that separation. Yeah, thank you. We don't want to create. An unrealistic expectation with our citizens that even even, you know, the summer after the lift is built, we're going to be open, you know, five days a week for summertime operations. That's just probably not realistic, but we're certainly working.

Happy to see it on your radar.

Along the same line, and I think you answered a lot of what I was wanting to understand better, but I think there was some maybe like some pilot concerts or you know what the series that happened in the summer last time. So it seems like a few of these items are relatively like lower hanging fruit that we can be working on now. So can we expect to see any of those activities this summer or is there a timeline for some of the easier to implement or earlier to implement things coming forth at Hogadon?

Mayor, counselor, absolutely. I do know that OBG is is planning to continue their concert series into this year, so you should expect to see live music up there a couple of times. In addition to that, they've been expanding their events other than just weddings or other parties that create rentals. They're doing their own events, including the wine tastings up there have been very, very popular and so they OBG has been a great partner and that they're really trying to identify ways to attract people up to the mountain. you know, for reasons other than skiing and snowboarding. I would expect we can continue to see that ramp up this summer as well as into next summer. Next summer may depend on what kind of construction could be going on up there. We hope it's construction, so that could impede a little bit on some of the activities that we can do, but certainly this summer you'll see some activity. So again, I feel like the Parks and Rec Advisory Group really batted these numbers with us pretty thoroughly, so I'm happy to provide information, but I think that really, in the end, this is probably what you're most interested in seeing, and that is sort of our projection over time. So, of course, you'll see figures since fiscal year 21. We are in fiscal year 26 in terms of what we're projecting or how we project to finish out the fiscal year, and then the plan begins from 27 on. No surprise that we had a pretty significant dip in our cost recovery this year due to reduced revenues from a pretty bad snow year. We have alternatively had some really great snow years like we did in 23 that produced much better than our cost recovery goal.

Can you go back? I didn't get a chance to.

I would say that while you're sort of looking at this, I will introduce Ryan Butler again, who is our ski area superintendent. Been in this role for just about a year now, and so certainly if you have detailed questions about the operation, happy to bring Ryan up and help me answer those.

So are we suggesting hopefully leaving things alone.

At Okinawa Mayor, counselor, great question. I'm sorry I glossed over that their current cost recovery goal is 60% for Hogan, and we're not proposing a change this time. I mean, as you can see, our projection would put us closer to 70% on average. But again, so much of that hinges on whether or not we get the new lift, so we don't. We don't want to suggest a change that needs to be passed by resolution. in case that doesn't come to fruition in the timeline that we're hoping.

So do we, on a going forward basis, look at this every single year?

Mayor, so it's been about three years since the last time council reviewed our business plans. So certainly we would do what Council would like to see. If you want us to come back annually, we can certainly do that. Otherwise we can come back when we intend to make significant updates to the plan. We generally cover performance during the budget each year without quite so much detail about specific strategies.

I think it was last year. I haven't been here that long, but we're I believe we changed a lot of the cost recovery and did a user fee and a lot of modification at least my first year.

So we do come to council about every other year per fund. So you'll see us likely every year to talk about rates for all of the enterprises because we do seek your approval to increase membership daily fees, those kinds of rates at our facilities. Again, those discussions are generally focused specifically on rates, and we may give you some performance data that helps you understand why we're coming up with the proposed rates that we're coming up with, but it's not necessarily a deep dive into our business plans.

Have you ever come with a ask for a reduction?

Mayor, Councillor in in the rates. Not that I can remember in my tenure.

Inflation doesn't go backwards.

Snow sure has.

Mayor, Councillor, if I may. So that's actually an excellent point and I haven't had a chance to review the proposal in detail yet, but. It is our recommendation that we do offer a discount to pass holders. Who? Purchased a pass in. This last season. And so I think it's 15% discount if they purchase their pass by a certain date. So we are looking to offer that as sort of a thank you for your continued support. we can't control the weather, but we'd like to see it back, so.

Because a lot of season pass holders felt pretty screwed. Not necessarily by Hogan and staff, but lack of snow they understood and they tried to produce as much snow as possible, but there's limitations there too, so.

And I would remind everybody that we were open. while it wasn't ideal and not every run was open, we were open. So we were staffing, the lift was spinning. And so, and that has costs associated with it. So, um, you know, they, they don't necessarily pay for snow. They pay for the lift. And so that's sort of the same concept that we're transitioning when it comes to summertime operations, right? If they're going to ride the lift to mountain bike or hike, that's really what the pass piece for.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Zulima, for all this information so far, specifically in regards to this model. You know, it looks like FY26 is a one-off in kind of the projections, and for the next five years, kind of a return to baseline. I'm going to continue to be the negative Nancy on this. I just, you know, this is something I continually try to keep myself educated and aware of. I'm always reading climate assessments and trying to keep myself abreast of research. I just don't see, you know, this last winter is maybe a one off in the sense that it's a little bit more drier than usual and hopefully these next few winters are better, but. I just don't. Despite my best efforts, I can't find any reasons to believe that that's not going to become a more frequent occurrence and that our snowpack is going to continually decline. And so I'm wondering if these projections even in the next five years are optimistic.

Mayor, Councillor, you are correct. We went back to FY 25 data to inform options moving forward, hoping that 26 is a novel year. We understand that hope is not a plan. And so we have also reached out to UCAR and NCAR trying to get data specific to our region in terms of climate projections into the future, what we can anticipate with snowpack, and then we would use that information to help us inform the plan a little bit better. Unfortunately, we have connected. We have made a couple of phone call We have had a couple of phone calls to discuss this and they are interested in working with us and providing some data. We just weren't able to obtain it before. This exercise was completed, so that will be something if if the data comes back dramatic, then we may look at revising this plan sooner. And again, Hogan is an area that we may have to look at sooner anyways, depending on what happens with the

Thank you.

That being said, we are optimistic. And in case you didn't see on our Facebook page, on Friends of Hogan on Facebook page, on the Jonah Bank Facebook page, we were surprised with a $20,000 contribution from Jonah Bank for the lift project. So again, to me, just signals that local business and the community supports this project generally. And I'm hoping that will help us to continue to gain momentum towards the purchase of the project.

Sorry. So. Do you need approval from us as far as the discount? Because I I think that's a great idea. And I think we should move forward with that, but Mayor, counselor.

So generally speaking, no for a one off situation like a The resolution is written to allow the director to make special accommodations or provide special pricing under unique circumstances. And so I would say that's probably one of those circumstances where I would have the authority to implement. But I do appreciate knowing that you support that. And the next one we are going to go over is the Casper Recreation Center. So again, starting with priority based budgeting, the recommendation was to centralize facility preparation and equipment maintenance into a shared service unit instead of having dedicated staff per program. And this is very similar. You saw the same concept with the Aquatic Center and the ice arena. In that we are looking at a different structure for custodial maintenance services for full time custodial maintenance employees are going to be shared among the three operations and the cost of those full time employees will also be shared among those operations, hopefully providing adequate coverage in terms of custodial service at the most efficient and affordable cost. So that is a change that is coming and in fact has been implemented this year. Those employees were actually hired in January. on consideration number two excuse me is to partner with low-income senior housing communities to develop to deliver senior programs on site thereby reducing overhead costs such as transportation and facility maintenance this leverages existing community spaces and volunteer networks achieving increased participation without a proportional increase in staff and facility costs So we we liked this recommendation in that it really aligned with the Casper Area Parks and Rec master plan, which showed that our senior population is underserved in Casper. Despite the best efforts of the Casper Senior Center, we were hearing through feedback for the master plan that there wasn't a lot of opportunity for seniors in the community to access recreation. And so staff does plan on contacting areas, senior living and care facilities to gauge interest and identify opportunities to develop and implement senior programs that will complement what the Casper Senior Center is doing. And I do sit on the board of the Casper Senior Center, so I'm pretty aware of what they are doing in terms of programming, and they have done a lot of really amazing things that are great for their members and people who frequent that establishment. But in terms of seniors outside of that space, we want to be able to offer them affordable recreation as well. And so this is The second record, excuse me. The third recommendation would be to implement a tiered fee structure for senior classes and outings based on income to maintain accessibility. See grants focused on health promotion for seniors and corporate sponsorships for social club events for seniors. Develop a partnership with Medicare Advantage programs to expand access to fitness classes for seniors. These programs enable billing Medicare for eligible participation in fitness activities, increasing revenue while maintaining services for all seniors. So as you know, scholarships are offered for the Community Recreation Foundation to all qualifying participants, including seniors based on their income. Scholarships pay for 75% of the class or membership for the recipients of those scholarships, so we already have a mechanism in place by which they can access more affordable recreation if they need it. The five year plan also includes, however, adding new events and programming for seniors. Propose events. a big pitch such as a senior prom and grandparents focused classes and events at the Casper Rec Center and Aquatic Center. So these would be classes where we invite seniors to bring their grandkids and participate in our activities. And then finally, the city did explore Medicare Advantage program, i.e. Silver Sneakers is actually the program that we evaluated in the past. And we did encounter some challenges with contracting. due to terms that were unfavorable for the city in their standard contract. But we do feel like it's been several years since we examined that program, and we'd like to circle back, excuse me, and re-evaluate that as a potential for us.

Mayor? Yeah, go ahead. What does that mean that we'd contact Medicare?

So Silver Sneakers and similar Medicare programs Advantage programs allow seniors to access like fitness classes and there's eligible programming that they can participate in and then Medicare pays for a portion or all of that programming on their behalf. Intended to keep seniors active and healthy.

Hopefully people aren't. Signing up for the advantage programs so. the last couple of years.

Yeah, and Medicare Advantage program is is what the priority based budgeting. Term was we likened that to silver sneakers, which we evaluated. There was actually one other program that we evaluated and again they were kind of new and we had staff that. Was frustrated by. The process. By which to negotiate the contract terms and get it done and so. I think that there's an opportunity to reevaluate that and actually get something done that would allow us to try the program.

Lima was was hinge elf one of those.

No, I don't. I don't remember the name of the program, but it wasn't that I remember it. If I heard it, I apologize. questions about activity. That's right. Of course you would remember that well. That's reviewing now.

Okay, thank you.

And then finally, consideration number four is to implement new fees for facility usage and program participation, including personal training, identify government and nonprofit grant opportunities that target health and wellness initiatives. And the five year plan does include regular evaluation and moderate adjustment of our fees for facility rentals and programming. And then staff, again, has been successful in securing grants to assist in capital purchases and bolster programming. One that we're working on right now, of course, is related to third spaces. So we'll continue to explore grants and really to this particular recommendation, grants that expand health-focused fitness programming for the rec center. We'll try to take a look and see if we can find anything that's So in addition to those, we have a few other ideas for generating revenue and reducing our costs to secure sponsorships. Sponsorships are going to be a big focus across the board, and I know that you've heard me say that before. But we're starting to gain some traction with that, and we think that there's still some growth opportunity there. We want to promote programs and events through improved marketing, evaluate and increase our admissions, membership, and camp fees, as well as facility rental fees, as appropriate, of course. balancing that affordability with sustainability, maximize our gym usage schedule. So we're finding that oftentimes during the day when we have open gym time, our gym is not being utilized. It's fairly vacant, but there are user groups out there that are looking for indoor space. And so, you know, we want to be able to offer public time for people to drop in and do activities. But if we can evaluate that schedule and maximize the use of the gyms in a way that makes sense, we would like to try to do that. Evaluate and expand classes, paid events and adventure camp. So Mariah is going through the exercise of evaluating our classes now, identifying which ones are our revenue drivers and which ones are lost leaders, and probably going to make some hard decisions about some classes that may need to get cut. but also balancing that with new classes that could attract new interests to the rec center. Evaluate and expand concession and merchandise opportunities. So we have a pro shop, things that we sell at the recreation center now. Some of those things don't do very well. And so really just reevaluating what is it that people want or need when they're at the recreation center, you know, whether that's some kind of like Gatorade drink or energy drink or other things that may enhance the experience while they're there. We're looking at those opportunities. Develop outdoor recreation programming. We do feel like introducing kids and adults into the outdoor rec space to get them more comfortable with activities that we have to offer in our community and region are really important. Sometimes those activities can be intimidating to people who have never rock climbed or Mountain bike or things like that, and so we feel like we can offer some introductions to those activities and help people get comfortable in that space so that they can go enjoy the amenities that we have in our community in third space and programming is something that we're actively working on now and we do feel like will pay dividends into the future and then constructing an auxiliary gym, although. That was a proposition for the specific purpose sales and use tax that did not pass. We do feel like that is important for us to be able to grow programming and access to programming through the Recreation Center, so it is a project that we would like to continue to pursue and you'll see in the plan that without it were really kind of stuck with in terms of how much revenue we could generate with the space that we have. In terms of cost reduction. Mariah has already evaluated that camp staffing can be tweaked ever so slightly to save us a little bit of money, but still provide the coverage that we need with our kids in camp. And then also looking at, and this would probably not apply only to the recreation center, but really looking at ways that we can convert facility lighting to LED to save on some energy consumption costs. And I've actually spoken to the city manager and through buildings and structures, we're looking at doing an evaluation to see, you know, enterprise-wide What game there?

Energy efficiency. So much a question, but kind of going. Outdoor wreck on the other pro. Develop outdoor recreation, different programming and stuff. When you were talking about that couple ideas just floated through my brain and I'm not sure if you've thought about him, but. especially with seniors and things like that, non-athletic people, locals, tourists, other people, if this chairlift does come to fruition, that would be a good program, I think, for seniors and for a lot of people, too, and even your youth for your day camps, summer camps that you have going on is to utilize Hogadon in that aspect and just charge, you know, like a tram ride, but, um, it would get them out to be able to see the mountain and what the mountain has to offer. And you can even do the hiking up there and just utilize those grounds that help it on. I'm not sure if you've thought of anything like that. Um, yeah, I was just writing down nature hikes and hiking and things like that for the kids up you know they always go to the museums which is awesome support that but also they need to get outside just the same way that we have hoping on for like the ski programs and the ski school through the natural county school district um just to expose them to it because it's something that is so accessible but yet a lot of them just don't go up there so throwing that out there and your counselor thank you for those suggestions and

For instance, we have developed quite a great relationship with the supervisor over at Park, and so we're partnering on some programming with her. And then in addition to that, I did attend the outdoor recreation summit just a couple of months ago, and one of the sessions that I attended was specific to outdoor learning, just becoming really, really popular. And in fact, Casper already has an outdoor learning program where the classroom is outside 100% of the time. And so really kind of looking at opportunities there to provide outdoor education and certainly Hobodon is top of my list in terms of opportunity to provide space where there could be some great learning that happens. Transportation up there tends to be sort of challenging, so we would have to work through that. But I think there are a lot of opportunities there. Yeah, and just get the public to use our facilities more too.

Good city.

Go ahead, Amber.

I don't want to get ahead of you, so this could be coming later in the presentation, but is there any sort of like look back or evaluation of the success of the progress of the past iterations of these business plans?

Mayor counselor, so we didn't go so far as to compare. The actual business plans with the performance, but we we do have a performance model that shows you from 2021. through 2031. Okay.

Well, so I'm, I think like a number of these revenue generating ideas are probably sort of like perennials, like they we've seen them before, they're likely we would see them again. So I'm interested like sponsorships, merchant concessions, optimizing the schedule, those sorts of things. I'm wondering if you can provide Just your kind of like evaluation of progress we've made since we started implementing some of the things we've implemented over the last several years and sort of where you see things that have yet to be implemented that we like to implement or or you know how we can even enhance further the progress that's been made over since the last business plan.

Air Councilor, I think it would take us a little bit of time to pull that together. Do know that some of the supervisors have actually gone through that activity of just really saying, OK, these were the items that we identified in the last plan and this is the result of that, but not all of them. OK, and so absolutely have So this is the business plan in its chart or charge form and then this is the projection. So for. The rec center in particular, our current cost recovery goal is 50% and you can see historically we have struggled to get anywhere close to that 50% mark. I will explain 23 because that's clearly an anomaly, right? And so and and you may remember that I tried to warn. Council during budget time for fiscal year 23, but this would likely happen. But what happened there is that historically all of the custodial maintenance and some facility maintenance staff lived in the recreation center fund. Shortly after I became the parks and rec director, I believed we could gain some efficiencies by centralizing custodial maintenance out of our buildings and structures division. And so we removed all of those personnel out of the rec center fund, transfer them over to buildings and structures, and then the model that we were using for allocation of expenses for buildings and structures went on a three year average of the three previous years, and so that was artificially. in like reduced in terms of what the rec center fund should have been paying for services. And obviously we had a significant reduction in cost because we took hundreds of thousands of dollars in personnel costs out of that fund. And so that's why you're seeing a very significant spike there. It's the result of significantly decreased expenses from those personnels. And then the next year when we had we moved buildings and structures to a fee for service model, where we were invoicing based on work orders every month, then that sort of corrected itself and moved on. Since then, we discovered that it was that centralized custodial was challenging when we were spread out so much throughout the community. And so again, we've transitioned back to the three enterprise complex ice aquatic center and rec center sharing those four employees. And so, but the cost of those employees are not only in the rec center fund, they're spread across all three of those funds, as opposed to historically, they were just all they lived in the rec center.

100%. I know they've only been on since January, but preliminarily, do you feel like that was the right direction? Intuitively, I would tend to agree with what you said in the recommendation on number one, which was to centralize some of those things like to me that seems like it would make good sense, but it sounds like that was not the experience. So I think reverting back to what we're doing, have you seen that trend is in the right direction?

Mayor, counselor, so it is a little confusing, but what we did was centralized, but it was sort of to an extreme. And then and now we're decentralizing slightly. I mean, the rest of the custodial maintenance services are out of buildings and structures. But in particular, this you know, three building complex could benefit from their own supervised custodial staff. Edwin Lures, our assistant rec manager, is actually supervising those employees, so I would invite him up if he wants to share his experience. But I can tell you anecdotally, we've gotten a lot of feedback that the service that's being provided is better. The cleanliness of the facilities is being noted by our visitors and so that of course is a plus because during that time and one of the reasons I felt like it was not working to have that centralized service out of buildings and structures was because we started getting a lot of complaints about the cleanliness of the facilities and that doesn't do well for our membership or our visitors and our sort of perception in the community. And so, but Edwin, did you add anything?

I honestly couldn't say it better than myself. Mayor, I can see that we've seen a lot less complaints. There are still complaints and we're still working towards those, but a lot less for sure.

And in terms of costs, we are seeing a significant reduction because through buildings and structures, you know, the work order system is not based on an hourly salary. It's based on a rate that we pay for service. And so it was a rate that included overhead costs that we won't have with those employees being divisions or funds. So it is a more cost effective solution for the REC enterprises that are served by that. So the third enterprise that we're going to cover in detail tonight is Fort Casper Museum. So the first priority-based budgeting recommendation that we discussed was to merge certain museum exhibition functions with local universities' museum studies programs, creating internship and joint research partnerships. So Fort Casper has been in discussion with Casper College regarding any collaborative opportunities through their museum and gallery studies program. They do have A degree program at Casper College specific to this and we have utilized their stuff in the past as interns, but that it's been several several years and so Steve Gaynor, our new museum supervisor, is re engaging Casper College as not just in the museum and Gallery Studies program, but also in the history program to see if we can identify some opportunities for internships at the museum that would benefit the student and the And then the second thing that I would know is, you know, Joe Nardone's research archives on the Pony Express have been provided to Fort Casper. We are still not in a position where we feel like we're going to get the remainder of the collection, but his intellectual property had been donated to another agency who didn't have room for it and were unsuccessful at raising the funds to expand their facility to house it. And so that was donated to the city. We have it in our possession. And once it's appropriately cataloged, we really feel like we can explore how to incorporate his research work into the Fort Casper Museum experience. So there's a lot of information in there. He was the lead research expert in the Pony Express. And so there is some notoriety there that we believe we can gain. And if we are able to utilize his research in a way that attracts people to either come research his research or partner some other way and enhancing Pony Express. You know, exhibitions and and discussions at the museum. We certainly want to do that. It is a popular. Remains a popular topic of interest The second recommendation is to introduce a tiered fee system for traveling exhibits, including rental fees that we would assess libraries or museums that were utilizing our traveling exhibits, plus premium add on workshops or lecture series that we could conduct ourselves with our staff while those facilities are exhibiting our. traveling exhibitions and so the other part of that recommendation was to pursue state or National Endowment of the Arts grants to co-fund traveling exhibitions. We just wanted to note that the Fort Casper Museum Association or FCMA has financially supported the creation of several of our traveling exhibitions and we do that to feature Fort Casper offerings, travel those around the state and region and in a way to market for Casper to attendees that go to other museums throughout the state. And so we'll continue to seek funding from FCMA as well as other areas to co fund these traveling exhibitions because we do see value in having our name out there in the museum community at large. Museum staff will also explore pairing our traveling exhibitions with premium add on workshops or lecture series. So in conjunction with the traveling exhibit that we create, We could prepare some lectures or workshops that then we could offer to those facilities that are going to host our exhibitions, and that could be something that we certainly feel like we could charge a fee for that they may be willing to pay. But I will note that I believe that our ability to do this really hinges largely on resurrecting the museum educator position. a position that existed at forecast for for a number of years. It was co-funded. I have been trying to County School District and when the district pulled their funding, we eliminated the position. And so we would like to revisit that as an opportunity area for the museum to attract students and continue sort of that sustainability piece, right? We want to. encourage young people to gain a love of the museum so that they continue to come into adulthood. And so really finding ways to engage a little bit more with our youth, I think is a big part of, I know Steve's plan moving forward. Consideration number three or recommendation number three was to develop a sponsored exhibit program where local businesses and educational institutions can fund or sponsor traveling exhibits in exchange for branding and partnership recognition. They also suggested that we explore grants targeting education to supplement funding. So our business plan does in fact include a focus on expanding partnership partnership or excuse me, sponsorship revenue for the museum, not only for our traveling exhibits, but also for the galleries or meeting space or temporary exhibits and then other events that Steve is interested in bringing to the museum. And then staff will continue to seek grants to supplement funding for exhibits and events, including those that could be attractive to sponsors. So if we could get a grant that helps us to build an exhibit, but then a local business is really interested in sponsoring, that's a win for everyone. So we certainly will look at that. And consideration number four is to implement a modest admission fee on special exhibits and create a dedicated fundraising campaign targeting local history enthusiasts to support collection preservation. Expanding grant applications to federal culture preservation funds was another recommendation of the priority based budgeting consultants. And so again, the business plan does include charging a moderate admission fee for special exhibits. So you would get into the museum at a set fee and for this special exhibit pay additional dollar. the case may be that's very common in the museum world it's something that we have not historically done but certainly could and so we will evaluate that in addition staff has been successful again in securing grants to assist in both capital purchasing and in expanded programming and so we will explore grants specifically aimed at expanding and preserving our existing collection and any collection that we are able to gain from this point on and so i know that Steve has a lot of ideas on how we could expand space primarily to free up our classroom so that we can expand education. And in fact, the IMLS grant that you all approved us to write was a $25,000 grant really focused on education. Included identifying alternative storage for that collection that's currently in that classroom so that we could use the classroom for education. So that's just one example of how we've already looked at preservation or collection preservation. In a way that that allows us to offer.

Or from the museum that were able to get now so.

And then. Speaking of grants, I did want to mention on June 2nd, of course, I came for the council and asked for permission to submit a grant to the National Endowment of the Humanities for a documentary film that we would like to produce about Fort Casper and particularly the Battle of Platte River Bridge. And so I just wanted to be 100% transparent that grant is due this week and we do intend to submit the grant. But as we were developing the grant application and the budget. It became apparent that because of Steve's role as the museum supervisor and then his likely role involved in the film, there are some conflict of interest things that we will have to work through. And so I just want to put that out there. We are going to submit the grant application. We'll do a deep dive with financial services, with our legal department, to make sure that everything's on the up and up before we accept any kind of award for that grant. We want to make sure that Steve's adequately compensated for the work that he will be doing on the film if that's going to be the case. But we also don't want to get sideways with our grantor on the fact that he will actually wear two hats in particular with this project because he is, of course, very well suited to help us accomplish this film. So any heartburn about that? All right, so here are revenue generating and cost reduction strategies. And I have to say, Steve gave me such a long list. It was an effort for me to condense it into five bullet points, but we are going to evaluate and adjust our memberships and admission fees for special exhibits and for out of county visitors. He's identified an opportunity whereby we should likely be charging more for out of County visitors than we do right now. Everybody pays the same admission whether you live here or not. Again, really common in the museum world to charge more if you're not from that location. So we're looking at that expand school and public programs, workshops and signature events to drive admissions, increased donor engagement and sponsorships through exclusive benefits and events, increased facility rental opportunities and rates. I think that Steve sees a lot of opportunity to increase the utilization of our multipurpose room of the grounds themselves for events that people would bring to the museum. And then explore and implement tourism and destination initiatives, including a ride on train, which I think is his passion project right now, as well as expanded partnerships with Isaac Walton Campground and commercial film and photography opportunities. He has actually already people are very interested in having their photographs taken with the carriages that we store in our carriage house that have really not seen the light of day in quite a long time, and so we've already had groups that want to come out and they are willing to utilize those as props in their photographs. We're happy to accommodate that in terms of cost reduction. We want to pursue partner based resource sharing opportunities. So again, if there's an opportunity for us to engage with other museums to share. maybe an educator or other resources that would help both entities save money. We're all about that. We want to increase our volunteer engagement. We want to continue evaluating energy efficient operational practices, facility use patterns. So again, getting back to some of the LED lighting opportunities and other things to save energy. And of course, continue to expand our grant supported programs. Think the museum is a is a real opportunity because there's generally a lot of cultural funding available for museums. Willing to put in the work to go for those grants so you'll see a lot of activity on this business plan and we tried to be realistic about what he will be able to accomplish year over year and the. Limited amount of time that there's daylight each day, but this is what that. forecast looks like for Fort Casper. The current cost recovery goal for Fort Casper is 20%, and at this point, we are not proposing a change. Again, we want to be realistic. Steve's only been with us six months, and we don't want to put undue pressure on him, so we'd like to see how some of these things materialize for us before we commit to an increased cost recovery goal. You can see historically we've floated just under that 20%. We've averaged about 18%, but with some of the ideas that he has and many which he has already started down the road of implementing, we certainly see an opportunity to increase that to 40%.

Questions? Building expansion. If you and Steve met with Michael Shakeesh.

Mayor, Councillor, I can tell you I have not met with Mr. Sikish. I do believe that Steve has met with him a number of times.

And, you know, we've we've

how this goes. There's a lot of data, a lot of time to prepare, and I've got, you know, some key points that I hope will be obvious. But first, let's talk about the municipal cost index. And for those of you who may not know, the municipal cost index is actually a composite index that measures inflation in municipal service delivery costs. So, you know, Municipalities are a little bit different and that we have some very specific cost drivers for us. We have labor, which is our largest share in most of our funds. Personnel is the highest expense line item. We have construction and infrastructure needs. We have materials and fuel needs, and certainly that is the case in parks and recreation. And then contracted services that are influenced by private sector input costs. And so because of those key drivers that are sort of somewhat unique to municipalities, the municipal cost index is made up of a composite of the consumer price index, the producer price index, and the construction cost index. It matters because I believe that it's the best capture of true budget pressures that are on cities or local governments, and it is often higher than the consumer price index. Although you'll see it actually turns pretty close over the last six years, but and it does reflect that sort of unique municipal spending mix that it does tend to be a little bit different from household consumption and inflation related to those traditional uses. So. The drivers of the increase in municipal cost index growth since 2020, of course, post-pandemic inflation, we saw that surge in 21 and 22. There were rapid increases in labor materials and supply chain costs. Just, I mean, astronomical. You can see 12 to 18% on average during that spike. Then construction cost escalation, materials and infrastructure costs increased. approximately 25% since 2020 to 2026. And, you know, some and I believe that you've all heard Tom Brower say that that is even enhanced in a place like Casper, Wyoming, where we're sort of this island and getting materials for construction and labor for construction here can be challenging. So he references a 20 to 25% increase even higher than what we typically see nationally. That was not incorporated into this, by the way, but Construction costs definitely went up, and I know that you've heard, I've heard Krista refer to the prices of pipe and other materials for construction that just increased pretty astronomically. And then, of course, those broad inflation pressures with that consumer price index alone increasing 25 to 30 percent over that same period, just seen unprecedented inflation, and we all know that. And then producer input costs. So continue to elevated costs for goods and services across the board, gaining at about a 6% increase that stat provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. So overall growth from 2020 to the 2025-2026 fiscal year. is about 20 to 30% total increase. So for the purposes of all of the charts that you will see today, I am using a central planning estimate of 25% cumulative costs growth from 2020 to 2026.

Questions about that?

No questions.

OK, so. I will say to my staff this is an alphabetical order, because that was the fairest way I could do it without anybody thinking I was favoring. However, I will preface that with golf is at the end, primarily because their chart looks dramatically different. They are the only fund that does not have a subsidy, so everything else is just an alphabetical order, and that's the order that we're going to go in. So this is the aquatics fund performance since actuals from FY 2020. through our estimated based on the projection in our business plan. Now I will say that the amounts from 2020 through 2026 are using that 25% increase that the MCI suggests from 2027 budget and beyond to 2031 to 3% inflation. That is what I used in the business plan, so I just wanted to remain consistent in how we're reflecting it in both plans. So for the aquatics fund you can see so the green bar indicates our revenue for the funds. The blue bar indicates our total expenses for the funds. The Brown line shows if we started with the exact same expense in 2020 and applied that inflation rate that I just talked about, that is the line that we feel reflects inflation spending. And then the orange line shows what our total subsidy has been over that period of time. And I did apply a trend mark to that subsidy to just try to help, you know, a straight line versus the inflation impact line will hopefully help us gauge. And in the case of aquatics, I think you can see our spending remains at or below inflation year over year. Our revenue is also increasing, and this is consistent among all the funds. We are gaining in revenue each year, generally speaking. Of course, with the aquatics fund, you know, we were shut down for construction several of those years. Those are those low revenue years that you see in and around FY23 through FY25. and then you see the total subsidy line. And I think that it's important to note that as you trend it, the widening of the total subsidy versus our inflation impact, I think is a positive place to be. You know, we recognize and I I displayed the chart up above so that you could see the actual dollar figures and then the cost recovery projection in terms of a percentage. But while our cost recovery performance has been pretty good. It's obvious that our expenses increase year over year because our revenue gains as well. Our cost recovery stays consistent, relatively speaking, but certainly we are spending more in the subsidy each year. But this is intended to kind of show you how that subsidy investment compares to inflation.

Questions.

Thank you, Mayor. Thanks, Zulima. I take it this modeling is based on the expectation that the one cent passes and that we continue infusing robotics with, I think it's $325,000 a year. Is that baked into this modeling?

Mayor, Councilor,

Yes, well.

So the subsidy. Our our expenses and revenues here do not include. Contributions from direct distribution or one cent. This is this is revenue specifically generated from. The. Bees. And then the total subsidy is what is made up by. fifth cent and direct distribution. And of course, the fifth cent only contributes to the products. I think I hope that answers your question.

I'm sure you answered it.

I'm just trying to be unchanged regardless of if the fifth cent passes or not.

Just the source of Yeah, the deficit would still be Yeah, investment would change. Now that fifth cent is fusion we would either have to take that from the general fund, direct distribution, or cut back to the point where we've reduced costs by the $325,000 investment. Anybody else? All right, so this is the Fort Casper fund performance. Again, glad to say that our expenses have tracked Fairly close to that inflation. And or or below and in some of the earlier years and then as we see, you know if we can realize some of the strategies that Steve is proposing for us, you know that. Again, total subsidy line. We hope to start widening the distance between the subsidy and the inflation rate. indicating that to me that indicates good performance. And you can see the green bar is is growing quite well, too, which we like to see in terms of revenue generation.

So I'm curious what we do on insurance. Basically, on that facility through more

Mayor, counselor, insurance on all facilities are through warm, including Hogan on. So I will say warm covers the Hogan on property. They just don't cover the Hogan on operation. So our liability coverage is not through warm. All property coverage is through warm and in all other operations. Warm covers the operation as well. Just not the ski areas are excluded. So this includes the cost of property and liability coverage for forecast reviews. All of the enterprises do. It's inclusive of all costs.

I'm curious on reenactments and things like that. I'm assuming most of those are volunteers coming in and doing that. So would they be covered under the general liability? In case something runaway horse or.

Mayor, Councillor, yes, our volunteers are covered under our policy through warm. As long as they are acting in the scope of their volunteers. And in some cases, we may contract with services, in which case we transfer that risk to the company. But if it were the case where they were volunteers, they would

Are the employees then covered automatically by Workman's Comp?

Mayor, Counselor, yes, they are. Our employees are all covered by Workman's Comp. Our volunteers are not, but their liability is covered. Okay, so this is the Hogadon and performance from fiscal year 2020 through fiscal year 2031. Again, assuming that next year and beyond we have average snow years, which certainly 25 was and that's what we based our projections on. 23 was a stellar snow year, we did not base our projections on that. So But again, pretty pretty happy to see that. Generally speaking, our expenses are trending right at inflation. Even even in the instance of. Hold it on where there's some pretty utility intensive operations. Snowmaking takes a lot of power, so. I think that we're doing. pretty good job and you can see that historically our revenue is growing right along with our expenses and that's what is helping us to keep that cost recovery performance pretty consistent over time.

Questions about the fund performance for Hobodong?

Not necessarily about the fund performance but kind of continuation of my comments from earlier. We've moved on to back center and I didn't want to backtrack But I saw in the capital five year capital outlay more expenditures for snowmaking equipment. And I guess I just want to reiterate my concerns. I don't think we need to be investing more in snowmaking equipment. I think that's a losing battle, especially, like you said, with how utility intensive it is, rising cost of utilities, increasing scarcity of water. I just don't see that as a sustainable solution. I am curious, though. I recently became aware of a concept called snow farming. I see some head nods in the back.

Utilize a lot of snow farming.

Oh, I didn't like preserving it over the summer months.

Mayor counselor. So at this point, not necessarily preservation over the summer months, although Ryan is. He is exploring new technology that would allow us potentially to preserve large amounts of snow over the summer months. But in terms of snow forming, we generally talk about that in harvesting snow from snow fencing and then moving it to other areas within the runs. Uh, to, you know, kind of bolster.

Yes, Mayor Counselor. Yes, snow farming. Like Zalina said, there's two different types of snow farming you can do. Obviously pulling snow off the fences. I'd say now at the ski area what we do is probably about 50% of snow farming off of those fences. We have a lot of buck rail fence that we pull snow off of, so when it does snow naturally, even A minimal snow we can generate quite a lot of snow off of those fences and it helps us throughout the year as for what you're speaking about and parking lots and parking lots.

No, and then you got on the slips, correct?

Yes, and so having that paper parking lot helps a lot with the clean so that we can put onto the trail. But as to the technology that you're speaking about, it is new to the United States. They've had it in Europe for awhile. I just attended attended a conference in Idaho where they spoke a lot on this. What's that? Boise. It was in Tamarack in Donnelly, Idaho, but bogus basin was there. They, they gave their feet on it. Big sky gave their feet on it. And I do see that this is something that we should be looking into and definitely investing in. There is a lot of benefit to this technology and, It is just something that we are just learning about now as a smaller ski area. I always like to say that Hogan operates as a big mindset, but with a little, little ski area of mine. So it is something that we are looking into and I hope to expand upon as for your snowmaking concern. I see that this is a way that will help with that too.

For the benefit of my colleagues, the snow farming, I'm glad to hear you went to that conference. That's cool to hear. But Bogus Basin in Idaho are using this European technology. It's just heavily insulated blankets. You essentially build up a football field or so worth of snow. You put these heavily insulated blankets over it. And then at least in Bogus Basin's pilot study that they did, 80% of that snow remained during their previous snow season, you know, their most recent snow season, which helps to lay the base, which, when it does naturally snow, helps preserve the natural snow, because if you just got bare ground and the temperatures are not in your favor, that's just melting instantly. And so, you know, that is something I, you know, I know I'm turning into a bit of a buzzkill when it turns to Hogan on. It's nothing personal, Ryan. My concerns, though, are sustainability. The snow farming, you know, again, it's new to the U.S., but I'm glad to hear it's on your radar that you're exploring it, because Potentially, that is an area that I could feel more comfortable with capital investment because you're not using electricity. You're not requiring more water. You are preserving the snow that's already accumulated over the summer months and then using that as your base, which seems to be our big issue is that developing that base in the early season. So, you know, I'm all for skiing up at Hogan on if it can be done sustainably. My concern is snowmaking is not sustainable. So I'm glad to hear that's on your radar, and I hope you keep us abreast of any updates along those lines.

Yes, definitely. And just again to talk about the snowmaking. Snowmaking would still be a large part of this. Snowmaking snow is a lot more durable than natural snow. Snowmaking obviously has a higher water content to it. And so when we are grooming every night at the ski area, this snowmaking snow does not break down because it does have that high water content to it. Whereas natural snow, it's more air and light, fluffy. So when you run over it or ski over it or snowboard over it, that snow does break down. And so it does not stick around as long as snowmaking snow does. So snowmaking is still a big part of this and would still have to Be invested in for this snow farming technology to really take hold and take effect to be used year after year after year again.

Thank you. Yeah, thank you. So I'm just curious what the elevation of bogus.

Is who that mayor counselor that I do not know off the top of my head. I got. So in.

Well, each 5800 feet. So really, they're they're much lower summit summit is 75 basis.

This this technology. As as Castle Gamroth stated, it is basically a a blanket that you put over these snow piles. It's essentially like a concrete blanket. If you will, you set this over the top of it. When we were at this conference, Big Sky showed what they had on the Hill at the time. There's a temperature inside and then the temperature outside on the inside of their current blanket. It was 32 degrees and on the outside with the sun beating down on it, it was 116 and so they retain between 70 and 80% of their snow. It is a little bit of time to get the snow into that pile, but

What can I just ask? I appreciate your. Further context about snow making, but correct me if I'm wrong, we gotta have at least 27 degrees or below. Just make smell right, correct?

So that is wet bulb temperature. So wet bulb is a mixture of the humidity in the air and the dry temperature. So yes, you need at least at least that in a wet mold form. So if we do not get cold, we cannot make some correct.

So. Was there any conversation at the conference about cloud seeding?

None of that. Thank you. Thanks for coming up, ma'am. Thank you.

OK, so the next one is the ice arena fund performance. And this is one area where we see that our expenses in general are trending a little bit higher than the inflation rate, particularly starting in about fiscal year 24 and 25. I will say that the FY29 spike Is in anticipation of opening the second sheet and so of course our expenses will tend to. Rise because of that additional expansion to the facility, but you see a sort of corresponding rise in revenue for those three years as well, and so didn't account for that in the inflation. Line there and so, but but that is sort of the explanation and then you can see projection for the total subsidy investment overtime also starts to. Fully improve trend line there can show you that it's fairly consistent with the inflation rate.

Yeah, go ahead. So it keeps. Seeing in oil city. That. You know they can't start construction because I don't know if it's planning or zoning. Building. Department keeps pushing back.

Mayor counselor not entirely accurate, so we do intend to come back to Council in July and give you a more detailed update on that project in particular. But I can give you a high-level overview sort of of what's happening now. So, yes, we did have an initial viewing by planning and zoning that they did not support with good reason. And we've just gone back and done some additional homework that we needed to do to make sure that that body is comfortable in bringing a recommendation to the city council. But in addition to that, we've got construction drawing review that in fact has started this week. And so the entire plan for the rent or for the expansion needs to be reviewed internally by engineering, by our building department, To make sure that everything that we're proposing meets code and all those things. So that is a process that has to happen before we can go to construction. And in addition to that, our construction manager at risk is in the process of bidding projects. So we actually haven't even been. We don't have a final cost. Final cost will inform the funding agreement with the donors. So there's a lot of things that need to happen. in order for us to actually break ground and go to construction. And we're working on it. And again, we'll give you a little bit more in depth update, but there's not one specific thing that's holding it up. And it's certainly not the Planning and Zoning Commission. There are just a lot of moving parts in a project this massive.

If I could, why would we need a traffic study?

Mayor, Councillor, You know, as I understand it. It is a requirement for all. Alex is here, but you know, essentially we're saying that the second sheet will allow us to host more large events. And so realistically, this particular traffic study is less focused on day to day traffic and more focused on event traffic and what kind of impact that will have. on the local surrounding streets when we have maybe both sheets with tournaments at the same time. And I think that that's a fair assessment that we should do to make sure that we're not negatively impacting the community without accounting for that.

I think Janine had something to add.

I think Zulima did a great job describing that. I would point down the street to Kenwood in second as to why traffic studies are warranted. When you are conducting a large-scale development, and as she said, there's regular traffic to the site, but imagine and layer on top of that as well episodic large volumes of traffic related to events. So we want to be a good neighbor to that neighborhood, and a traffic study is one way we anticipate problems. We don't react to them after we've caused them.

uh thanks again Zulima I am curious why we project the expenses to increase my understanding of the second sheet of ice is that expenses were to remain relatively stagnant and then revenues we were looking to now essentially double uh mayor counselor so when we first started this project uh

We had a feasibility study conducted by Ballard King, their industry experts in these areas. Again, that was completed in 2022. And particularly when it comes to the ice arena, the cost and utilities, particularly power, has really influenced that. We know that we will have increased power expenses because of the second sheet personnel expenses. We expect to stay relatively flat because we're not necessarily adding personnel to operate that second sheet, but the carrying cost of the building have to be considered and we want to be transparent and realistic about that. So we have adjusted our projections to account for the rising utility costs.

Still expecting personnel costs to stay relatively

Anything else about the ice arena?

And and I would also say again, we try to be fairly conservative. This is my goal that we're giving you realistic projections and not high in the sky projections just to make it look good. So I I believe that our revenue projections are conservative and then we will likely outperform. But again, we try to come with a plan that we believe is actually achievable. OK, here is the Recreation Center Fund. And so again, the sort of anomaly that I explained when I went over their business plan in 23. So we saw a. So kind of a combo here. So you see the green line also spiked in 23. That was actually the result of a grant that we received from the Department of Family Services, but that was really, you know, revenue in expense out. So I mean, we. received the grant and then just turned around and purchased all the proceeds of the grant. Items that would serve primarily or summer camp program. But so that's the spike in revenue there. And then of course you saw a dramatic decrease from FY 22 to FY 23 in the expenses, and that's that personnel delta that I was talking about earlier. And so what you can see that since 24 when we sort of stabilized the structure that we're currently in. Our total subsidy investment is really kind of trending with that inflation line pretty closely. It is a high subsidy. It is our highest subsidized operation.

Questions on recreation. Look at you, Pat. No, you're good, OK?

This is our sports and athletic fund. A shorter timeline because, of course, that fund did not exist before. And I'll just remind you that historically the athletics maintenance portion of this fund used to live in parks, which is general fund funded. So it was 100% subsidy for investment to maintain our athletic field. So now it's combined with our sports programming and able to at least maintain offset some of those expenses in athletic field maintenance. But again, this is a fund where we feel really good about our expenses trending right at our municipal cost index. And our subsidy is does appear to be rising in those latter years a little bit faster than the inflation rate. And that's something that we will evaluate as we go to see if we can align those a little bit better. But in general, we feel good about the fact that expenses are being controlled Right around that inflation rate and our revenue. Questions about sports. This is another area I would say, especially on the athletic maintenance side, we were fairly conservative in our estimates for what we could save from a maintenance standpoint by converting a lot of our fields to artificial turf. So really, once Field of Dreams is done, we'll have a much better idea for what we will realize in savings from a staff perspective. And then, you know, we have future plans to invest in artificial turf infields at other facilities, primarily crossroads, and that's something that could happen as early as 28. So we'll be able to really refine those numbers a little bit better in the next two years.

You know something about how Cheyenne has put all of those fields and stuff out. I think it's kind of around Menards and is that part of their sixth sense strategy?

Mayor, counselor, I'm not entirely sure exactly where all of their funding sources are. I do know that they have been the benefactor of a particular grant that we are now very actively pursuing. And so you know, I I believe like us, they're looking at many opportunities. I would be surprised if they haven't utilized land and water conservation funds for some of their athletic field improvements as well as we're doing the same, so. I'm not sure, but could research that a little more. Like I said, we we caught wind of the grant, and that's definitely something that we want to pursue. I'm not sure if. You know the the municipally funded portion of that is through their 6 cent or.

Looks like Menards was built on a. Public recreational space, so they had to use the 5.3 million in land sale, reinvested directly into the parks and recs, so that was a big part of it.

Sounds like anything about 6.

Granted fees, so looks like quite the diversity of.

answer is probably simple I've been staring at this chart trying to figure it out but why is the subsidy higher than the total expense for this fund uh the case for okay I missed it too on there but maybe it's in the bathroom that might have been a mistake okay I need to just go back and look at that okay I mean the trend line remains you know

I might have added instead of subtracted.

Cool, OK, well.

They're correct. Before we provide the presentation to you all, which we of course.

OK, awesome.

Then this is the municipal golf course. Yes, that negative subsidy is that is correct. Obviously this fund is above 100% in terms of revenue, and so again, you'll see that that. Their expenses are trending a little bit higher than inflation, but we justify that because our revenue is also trending significantly higher than inflation, and so we reinvest those dollars in the fund. Increasing our operational expenses to better. Serve the customer base there.

Golf course. So it is this take into account your sinking fund as far as the golf cart replacement and those type of things.

Mayor, counselor, no, this this is not account for any fund reserves, which is what those dollars are held in reserve for our fleet replacement. As well as the reserve that we have on hand for other capital investments, this is just operational performance. So I suppose the green line above our expenses adds to the reserve amount. And yes, 50 of that is automatically called out for replacement. Just a couple years.

Other questions?

Maybe not for you, maybe for Randy. I promised my friends I'd ask why we closed the driving range at 5 on Mondays. Oh alright, appreciate it. Caught me a couple times now we show up at 5 and the ranges are closed. They said that's the day so they they clean it and they pick it and then they. Yeah, so I assume Monday is like the least utilized day. I imagine. It's the best day to do it.

Minimal impact for users. Some schools.

I saw it in his eyes.

I'm switching to Tuesdays since you're here. Can't go golf anyway.

Any last questions about that whole presentation? Anything that's? I think we got all a lot of questions answered. OK, thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you to your staff and your.

Help you really did exceptional work.

All right, let's move on. We're talking about Kenwood actually. So I'm going to hand that over to our city.

Mayor Kelso, while Krista comes up to the podium, I'll share a little bit of background. As you know, in March we had a new business open on the corner of 2nd and Kenwood. Created a host of changes in that area of town affecting traffic. Also neighboring businesses and public parking and access. I think you're all fairly conversant in this issue. So I won't give you a ton of detail. What I will tell you is You were able to see temporary measures that were put in place at that site to try to mitigate some of the problems. We subsequently devised a more long-term plan, which we met with the property owners that were affected recently to discuss and invite their comment on that long-term plan. And Kristen is going to show you what that long term plan looks like now that we have incorporated their comments and what the permanent corrective actions we will take down there will look like.

Your counselors excited to talk about our plan for this area. Finally, in your Council packet you will see the map and unfortunately is not in digital format, so putting it on the screen won't help it. One on your screen will give you the best plan. So after speaking with these property neighboring business owners, they had two things that they're most concerned about, and one of which was keeping the traffic or the parking on the east side of Kenwood perpendicular. We had initially proposed to do that as angled parking, providing the best entry and exit angles. But the businesses over there did not want that. They wanted to be able to have access coming from traffic on Second Street, so coming from the north in off business times. So we didn't want to go against their wishes for these areas because they're the ones that are most impacted for that. So we are keeping that side perpendicular. we will be changing the parking on the west side to angled parking, including shifting the ADA parking spot a little bit to the south. What this will do is remove a parking block that is impeding the exit from the city-owned parking lot onto Kenwood and heading south onto Kenwood so that they have a better turning radius there. Additionally, we are going to keep that center turn lane as that's allowed traffic to queue in that area. We will also be installing a delineator post at that approach access between Kenwood and the greater city of Casper parking lot. One of the things that we found when we were researching this is that Although property owners had agreements talking about parking spots for them, those were more of an informal agreement. They weren't in a formal fashion. And so in the intent of keeping with that agreement and the intent of our forefathers, we are working on, or the attorney's office is working on agreements to license agreements that would allow those businesses to continue to use designated spaces. So we are keeping with the numbers and the spots that were previously designated according to this map here.

Crystal, will those parking spaces be labeled or sign it? Will there be signage saying they're designated for that business?

That's correct. We have we will put up a city parking signs so that it is and it is designated for those specific businesses as indicated on the map.

With the business name. Can I ask one more? So I'm. This is about the angle parking, so I understood the that the idea behind the angle parking. Actually was making more sense to me on the. West on the East side. Because I was thinking that it was to allow those. Cars were parked there. Easier access to escape and get back into the flow of traffic to get out. Yeah, so I'm not sure what the. I mean, is that still Kate the case on the West side of the street? It is still there having emerge. They're going to back up and merge into traffic to go south.

Mayor, Councilor, yes, they are going to have a wider turning radius to get into that. But the business owners were so concerned about having their parking spots accessible when people were turning in from the north. that they they preferred keeping it perpendicular and there is the space within our standards for it to remain perpendicular.

Don't tell anybody, but I always do that. I can do that. And I don't have all the time, but you know you get a diagonal parking space even if you're not going in the same direction. You know that's the diagonal, yeah? pretty skilled driver. I'll give lessons.

Well, give me a key for the agreements for the parking spots. How are we? Are we handling that through like? Is it an annual agreement? Is it into perpetuity? However, I mean, the city lot so there's a chance that the use changes at some point in the future, right? So I'm just curious. I mean, from time to time, this comes up where it was like, different processes at earlier times that people use to arrange these sorts of things. I can understand how it came to be likely because there was a lot of concern when the street was changed and whatnot. So I can understand what that conversation of the day probably looked like. But You know, just thinking about. 8 councils from now who are asking how did this agreement come to be when you know they're trying to make decisions about this property. So just curious about the thoughts there.

Good question through you, Mayor. I'm Councillor Pollack, so we anticipate using a license agreement and I think. Wallace may want to weigh in as well, but I'll just say one of our goals has been to leave all of the people who will be sitting at this table in 20 years after work long gone. better track record and a better record to work with. If you want to speak to the terminability of a license agreement, that's the part I think is best left with your office.

Sure, we can do a lot of various things with determination. Most of our license agreements have language in them that if the city needs to land for another purpose, we can terminate in 30 days. Or if it needs to be longer, we can make it longer because of weather, because of other things. But with our life, that's why we do it as a license agreement, not a permanent easement that runs with the land so that we can terminate it. Okay. Go ahead.

Yeah, I mean, I think that makes good sense. I don't have, I can't foresee a need for it right now, but I just don't want to be in a position where we have problems in the future, certainly, but hope that we could If that were the case, we could, you know, give some runway for folks to be able to make alternative plans in the future. But yeah, I was just curious how to how to not put somebody in the same position that we're in right now.

Exactly. We searched, you guys searched for IMO for the for an agreement and there was nothing, not even written in somebody's desk anywhere.

Impressive that somebody had that record. Well done. That's not me.

Yeah, go ahead, Pat. So on who is 1161 East 2nd?

Mayor, Councillor, I cannot recall the name of the business. It's Ink Paradise. And we've had a number of different businesses in there over the years. So I think we will stick with the address on that one and give them the same number of spots. You had previously, but make sure we have a little bit of flexibility in case that business shifts.

So is it down by Casablanca?

It is between Casablanca and Swan Studio in a small recessed building.

Like party stuff, right? What is that? Archie's, yeah, that's right.

And then. If I could, Mayor, so. In the past. Archie's has made. His own agreement. When let's say advanced isn't using their parking. Or.

Swan.

Is also let let them use. Uh, some spots if they needed them. So once we're done. We. If if nobody complains. Like advanced. Is it fine for them to make their own own arrangements? Say Archie's. Bands or are we just going to be totally strict and.

I think I'm going to refer this to the city attorney's office on how to. Force this right, so we're not going to send our officers down necessarily. Do you have any thoughts on that policy?

I don't know what those other agreements look like. Are they between two private businesses? They can always make an agreement with each other. If it's land that they own, they grant parking or easement on their own businesses. We have all sorts of cross-access easements between private businesses to meet parking requirements. So if it's land that they own, they can do that.

Yep.

This city city land.

There are a lot of. In house deal. Stir up soda and you can use my spot for a month.

We women dealing, you know it's stirrups property or the four parking spaces on their property. I've never seen anybody park there. What few times I've been by. But they they have every right to do. Whatever they want with it, correct?

Yes, that's correct.

And then one last one on the. I guess it'd be the West side. Of the street. where you kind of see a green grassy area is what I'm interpreting off the corner. Will there be any parallel parking in those either one spot or two spots?

Mayor, Councillor, that strip the right of way the distance between the corner and um the approach for our parking lot is too short to add parallel marking in that spot so i would not uh suggest doing as such okay i haven't gotten any phone calls so i'm assuming um that uh mr archuleta is

in a that made peace over the dumpster situation and those things are resolved.

Mayor, Councilor, yes, they are sharing one larger dumpster now between them.

Okay.

And then have we put into place up at the landfill, you know, so that somebody else can't hijack somebody else's dumpster?

Your counselor, yes, that conversation had happened immediately after this occurrence that whenever businesses are seeking to share a dumpster that we check with both parties independently to ensure that we do not have a repeat of this situation.

Oh, couple people. Go ahead, Amber.

So just clarifying the spots next to Swan Studios, there's like six or seven of them. Those are public parking or those are Swan's property? Those are public parking. So the signs along their entire building that say customer parking, staying there? I ask because it looks as though it is private parking for Swan only. But you don't have it listed as designated to just them. So.

Your counselor, I might refer to the city attorney's office because that is public parking.

I mean, I guess it doesn't say what customer, but it certainly does imply that it is not public parking, so that is in public right away, correct?

Well, then anyone can park there. They probably should get the signs down.

Mayor, counselor, we will speak with them when we go to put the signs in the city parking lot to discuss to discuss that.

Thank you.

It just seems like a lot since they have all those and then two in our parking lot too, so I just thought we would ask Jean said that updated as far as public customer parking could probably be done.

I should have started with this crystal, but just to say thank you to you. and your staff and Janine and Ray. And I know there's been a lot of man hours, a lot of time and energy put into this. And I just want to say thank you for that. And then just to, and I'm sure our Madam City Manager is right on top of this. You mentioned something about process improvement in terms of the whole business of the impact of business on traffic and And we're looking at, you know, 4000 plus dollars in. Man hours and. And some supplies and so forth. And I don't know if something like that could have even been foreseen, but I don't know what questions you would have asked to foresee it, but. But. I think you're right. I think that is a an opportunity for some. Some improvement there so.

I appreciate that. I'd like to think public services as well. They spent a tremendous amount of time down there and I asked him to start tracking it because it is significant. What I will say is, of course, I sent some information to the Council many, many weeks ago when this first rose its head and business licensing is one way that the city could. make a process improvement that would have helped head this off. That of course would require council action. Another piece would be potentially some refinements in your municipal code that would allow us to look at things like traffic studies maybe more often than is allowed under the code currently. And so if that's something the council is interested in, we'd be happy to visit with you about that. It certainly, you know, those policy changes come with tradeoffs. For instance, when you require business owners to do traffic studies, they're often not really happy at the outset. But you're weighing and balancing the pros and cons of knowing ahead of time versus knowing after the fact and that kind of thing. So there are things that we could do. I think as far as I know, most of them would require council action.

Thank you. So personal opinion. I'd leave Swan's Dow alone and let this thing die off and not continue to stir the pot. Just my opinion. You're no fun. So, and number two, it did take, and again, this is just me, but under the financial considerations, I appreciate it being there. But I took exception to that. I just see it as part of our jobs. And I know this one was pretty frustrating on a lot of fronts, but it does cost us man hours. And again, I appreciate seeing this, but I was like, okay, so is everybody supposed to just say there's not a problem and it's on city spots? And if I had it to do over again, the city never should have sold where Mr. Oaks' location is and just left the whole lot as parking. So if That would would have been and that's 2030 years ago so. And that would have avoided it all so.

I just want to mention one other thing that I probably should have mentioned of this. This situation was a little bit unique from the standpoint of the city as an actor or a player in the situation, because typically we would just regulate the right of way, right? We would have gone in and put in a turning lane and we'd have done whatever we wanted with parking. to try to maximize the safe flow of traffic, pedestrians, non-motorized things in that street. In this circumstance, we were wearing this hat of a government regulating our right-of-way and also of a neighbor, right? Because we own that parking lot down there. So it was complex. And I just want to acknowledge that and say that when I speak about things like traffic studies, I'm really referring more to the city and its governmental character as a regulator of our rights-of-way. And that's where a traffic study can be powerful. It would not have addressed the situation of us wearing the owner also wearing the hat also of being a property owner and a neighbor to those properties. So this one was special because we had two hats that we were wearing.

One other thing that came up here, if I could, was this. I think it's called stacking. Ordinance in I don't know if Kyle found that online or somebody brought it up. Previously, but I don't know if we still need to look at that down the line. City Attorney's Office is plenty busy with everything else, so but I don't know if that's something we should look at because there's more to come. because the old pretty time liquor, I don't know if we've had any calls on that. I don't know if he's opened up two lanes of dirty sodas. This is waste transitioning from CBD to this. And I have heard of other instances of people seeing the success of stirrups wanting to put other locations in, so maybe some place down the line we should look at something like that or put process into place so that we don't end up. Lastly, I believe the Starbucks on Center Street, is a huge example of a problem that the city totally participated, and I forewarned them at the time of blocking E Street into the hotel. And when we had major conferences, how it was going to be a problem, and I was assured five or six that that wasn't gonna take place. It takes place to this day. And there's, that definitely warranted a traffic study for sure. I also brought up the fact that I believe the alleyway needed paved and that the new business should pave that. And that went by the wayside. That was the city's call. So there's two sides to it too.

Just saying. I will say I'll push back a little bit on Pat. I appreciated the financial considerations being put on there at the time of hours on our staff. I agree with you that this is our job. However, being intimately involved in this and the work that went into it, these guys got a lot of shouting and yelling. It was rough for them. And I'm 100% behind our staff. And they did a ton of work. And so I appreciate putting this up there to say, you know what? Yeah, we're trying to figure this out. We're working with you. And so I have their back on this one. And I'm glad everybody came to a resolution, but staff took it pretty hard too.

I just wanted to reiterate that as well i like the financial considerations because there were a few people commenting that oh the city doesn't care the council didn't care they're not doing anything about it that shows that yeah we did we did care about it and things were done that shows the impact that it had so i appreciate having that on there anything else oh randy i'm sorry randy's gonna speak i just don't even look over

YOU GUYS BOTH EXPRESS THE NICE PART, BUT I LOOK AT THE FINANCIAL CONSIDERATION PART. I WANT TO SEE IT BECAUSE THEN WHEN WE DECIDE TO DISCUSS WHETHER OR NOT WE SHOULD BE LOOKING AT TRAFFIC STUDIES OR BUSINESS LICENSES, I CAN BE LIKE, WELL, REMEMBER THAT ONE TIME? LET'S PUT A DOLLAR AMOUNT ON THAT. HOW MUCH CHEAPER WOULD THE TRAFFIC STUDY HAVE BEEN? SO I'M LOOKING AT IT AT THAT. BUT ALSO, Hindsight is a gift and one of the reasons I do like you on here because you are a wealth of all the knowledge.

Why would we have assigned?

So learn so many things here. I think the handshake deals that we're now making upward just get me all fired up right now so. I love that you know these things because yes, I still want to talk about the stacking because this one I think I don't want to jinx them by any means, the neighbors or the business. It might have calmed down a little bit, but I am a dirty soda person now, so I'm kind of excited. But if this were a problem on McKinley, it doesn't just affect neighbors. It's going to affect fire trucks and ambulances. So I do still want to talk about the stacking, and I didn't consider the formerly known as Parkway, whatever it is now, known now. by the Starbucks. So I do still want to know about the stacking and whether or not that's something we should talk about. And I do want to maybe one day, not today, talk about business licenses, but the traffic studies in those considerations. So yes, I want to argue with you every time we ever have a conversation, Pat. But also, I'm also really glad you're here because I feel like I learned so much. I feel like I learned so much by us publicly educating.

I'm going to, Jeannie, really want to jump in real quick and then I'll get in.

I just want to address the stacking issue. So staff did research stacking requirements. And of course, that's specific to drive ups. Not all businesses are going to have that. Traffic plans or traffic studies pertain to all business. But stacking may be a way to address drive up activities. Anyway, they did prepare a great memo. We're going to put it in your information packet. And then if once you read that, you feel that you would like a work session to talk about maybe an ordinance change to implement something. of that nature, then we can proceed forward with that. So they did a great job researching it will happen to you soon.

I think Janine may have just covered it. I was just wanting to get a little more. It felt a little nebulous. Like what are we wanting further action? Are we not wanting further action? Is there a direction or not? So I just wanted to see if we were trying to put something on future work session or if you're just saying into the ether. At some point we should look at this.

Thank you, Amber. Yeah, I think I think that's I think that's a good idea that we do probably have something down the road to have a conversation on, you know. On something like this, you know, work session stacking. I mean. Ordinances just kind of looking at the whole thing to say kind of like what Janine was talking about, that there's some ways that we can look at it. You know, certainly private business. You know you want to. Don't want to overregulate, but but in the same context, you know, look what happened with this. Is that what you're kind of referring to member?

Yeah, I think they're just like three different. Yeah, I mean if we want to wait to read the memo and then. Yeah, that's like lose the thread. Once this issue is resolved and we forget about it.

Sounds good.

I mean, uh, we actually have on our grid for July 14th, We did queue it up.

OK, yeah, I'll get you the memo anyway and then you'll be extra ready for the work session.

You can let him go outside and we're done.

Yeah. With a pair of straps and chopsticks, right?

Thanks, Krista. Appreciate all your work on this.

Go outside.

Alrighty, let's go ahead and do any agenda review. I don't know if you have anything you need for us.

I don't. I don't. Other than just to note, maybe this would be helpful. You do have third reading coming up next week on the moratorium. Work group for gaming met today. please check your email inbox. I would say Thursday morning. We will send you an update and that will require some feedback from you. It will also pertain to third reading. So we'll get you some information by end of business tomorrow if you all look for that.

Do you have any questions about the agenda coming up next week?

So we need to do this. TO MOVE TO MOVE TO MOVE TO MOVE TO MOVE TO MOVE TO MOVE TO MOVE TO MOVE TO MOVE TO MOVE On the 7th is the first night rodeo.

Right.

So my plan is to go to the fairgrounds for our 5 o'clock meeting and then get back here by 6 o'clock for the meeting. And then if permissible, then I'll, as soon as the moratorium is discussed in public comment, myself. Absolutely, yeah.

Nope, I had it set in the meeting. Entire time during CNFR, so you get no special credit.

Pat, you can leave when you need to.

Thank you so much.

You just take whatever you need to.

Great. They weren't that kind to me.

Alright, council around the table. I'll start with Michael McIntyre.

Let's see, I'll let All I did this week we had to be this morning finished passing their budget. That's about all we did, so that's all I've got.

Yeah, I think you already left. Left already, but y'all heard now we have another 10 years with CNFR, so I'm just going to give a big shout out, so she's probably listening somewhere, but to. Zulema and her team and then Jake and Amanda over at the Ford Wyoming Center were really good. We all kind of got together and did all the numbers and the in-kind and the county and the fairgrounds and there were so many players and getting that and then of course our talk and entertaining and influential motivational speaking and history lessons to all of those young athletes to make them realize the importance of their events staying here in Casper was it took a lot, but I'm glad and it worked out so we're excited. So thank you to all of those that put a lot of work into getting it here. That's what I got. That's it. Thanks, Jenna.

Thanks for all your work.

Yeah. It was a lot of Pendleton. Long nights entertaining. I don't have a whole lot.

We did the cat and I hung out all day today. You guys super busy. Thank you.

Everyone that joined us in that committee for an extra hour because we're needy.

Tomorrow's Politics in the Park. It's the Governor Candidates Thursday's Municipal Band at the Bandshell at Washington Park. Both of them are at Washington Park, so guess where I'll be all week.

Then Friday, sorry. Friday night there's a Tabernacle Choir celebration. It's the 150th year. The entire community is invited. We're going to have the pickleball courts swimming for free for an hour, as well as a lot of long games, food trucks, and then we're going to show the Tabernacle Choir's 150-year celebration with the 250.

Wait, are they actually coming?

No, it'll be projected on a big screen. It's a pre-recorded Hollywood Bowl event that they've proposed.

Wow, I've got to listen to them in person.

Pretty cool, isn't it?

So moral of the story, every night, rest of the week, Washington Park.

Yep, starting at 5 30 on Friday.

And I feel like that's good enough for me, so I'm done.

I have a homeless coalition tomorrow and. Oh, I'm glad to be back in person.

Out in the ether isn't any fun, is it? What being out in the ether instead?

Yeah, you miss a lot.

Um? Last Wednesday I did Wyoming Business Alliance lunch of a Casper College on. Some of the data. I forgot to bring the flyer. I'll try to remember to bring that. On the 18th, had MPO. Actually, I finally figured out that it's every other month. And then hats off to visit Casper. What was the balcony called this year?

Rockstar for government night.

Yeah, government night. That was that was great. And Friday LGBTQ advisory actually had quorum and so that was great and. Got a lot of minutes approved and. Right. In which I missed so that sounded like the weather is somewhat cooperated for Saturday so. It's cool. And then I did make it out for Lemonade Day, but didn't didn't see at my stand. Well, I didn't get the memo. I almost called you because. I I found none in North gasp.

All over town.

But I did give one glass at on McKinley St.

Kid flagged me down and I was. Hardware drink from every single one, right?

Support them kiddos.

Can't give one kid a dollar and not the other.

Yesterday, the Disabilities Council, which thankfully only lasted about half an hour, ran out to the Business Alliance to deal with it, which was pretty fascinating. so um and then uh i appreciate your push but uh and i do recognize the amount of crap that krista took in particular um and uh which totally is unwarranted uh but um

expect enough to go back down pat during yours still my favorite counselor yeah you can't trust him amber

I was out all last week, so I don't have many updates, and I wasn't at the LGBTQ advisory meeting, but I can at least update. Thanks to aquatics folks for helping us make a quick shift from PV pool to the aquatics center due to the weather. We had 50 people come swim, so I'm glad we had somewhere for them to go, and I think we had to do a lot of last minute kind of maneuvering, but they made it work for us. So that was great news and about 2000 at the David Street event. So yeah, super well attended and everything went well. There's a one more event this month yet to come. I think it's yeah, it's this Saturday. We're going to go see the Spuds game and go shop for books downtown. So if people are looking for information on that, you can find it on Casper Pride's website.

Thanks, Mayor.

Thanks, Mayor.

It's really busy the past week, but not really Casper-centric stuff. CNFR was nice Thursday night. Congrats on the 10 years. Very exciting. And then, yeah, Lemonade Day, I just want to thank the community. This was my third year doing it with my daughter, and everyone's just so generous and supportive. And I just, you know, it's a reminder of why I like living in Casper. People come out and support each other. just good vibes that day. So yeah, I just want to thank everyone that went out of their way to get lemonade and it's just a cool day to live in Casper.

There's a couple things. CNFR went to that government night. That was a really nice time. As always, I snuck out to teach all weekend, but I snuck out to do a little lemonade day.

Didn't see you either.

Not his word.

Fresh squeezed. Where I went was fresh squeezed too. Strawberry puree? No, that wasn't it.

No lavender. That would have been great though. That's a great idea.

And I did also get a chance to go to the Father's Day event hosted by the Casper Housing Authority. A lot of great nonprofits there. A lot of great, just, it was really, really nice to be able to do it. Uh, politics in the park on Wednesday. I always encourage people to get to those just to see the elected. Those that are seeking election that are going to affect policy, local policy to be involved in that. So bringing my kids to that, making sure young people get involved, trying to bring along some kids that are going to be voting for the first time to these events as well.

Oh, you're not going to get out. I think the moth is dead and one more thing.

We do have a card for Liz. Please have a card here.

And so I'll have you guys sign that.

All right, that's it.