City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everyone. I would like to call the August 24th meeting of the governing body to order. Madam Clerk, would you please take the roll?

Dr. Aldrich? Present. Mayor Collins?

Present.

Dr. Emmons? Present. Mr. Escobel?

Here.

Mr. Laybourne? Here. Mr. Moody?

Present.

Dr. Rennie? Present. Mr. Seagrave?

Present.

Mr. White?

Present.

Mr. Wolfe?

Present.

All members are present. We do have a quorum.

Would you all join me, please, in the Pledge of Allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Number four, consent agenda. All agenda items listed with the designation of CA are considered to be routine items by the governing body and will be enacted by one motion. There'll be no separate discussion on these items unless a member of the governing body so requests and support by two other members is received. Any item removed from the consent agenda will be considered in its normal sequence on the agenda.

All right, are there any items a member of this governing body would like to remove from the consent agenda? Mr. Mayor? Yes, Mr. Laybourne. Number 10.

I concur. I concur.

Mr. Mayor, 9a.

I concur. OK, we've removed 9a and 10. I think the only thing left is the minutes. All right, I'll entertain a motion so we can approve the minutes. So moved.

Second.

And that was Dr. Aldridge. All those in favor of the consent agenda with items 9a and 10 removed, please signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Opposed? All right, the consent agenda is approved. We will consider 9A and 10 in their normal sequence on the agenda.

Number 6A, public hearing, transfer of location and ownership of retail liquor license application. File with the city clerk's office for Capital City Hospitality, LLC, doing business as Wyoming Discount Liquor, 3501 East Lincoln Way, Cheyenne, Wyoming. License currently held by 1734 Partners, LLC, 1734 Meadowland Drive, Cheyenne, Wyoming.

All right, at this time, we'll open a public hearing and give folks here in the audience an opportunity to comment on this transfer of location for a retail liquor license. And Mr. Johnson, I didn't know if you wanted to come up and start us off. Is it your application?

Good evening, Mayor Collins and members of the Cheyenne City Council. I'm John Johnson. I'm here to represent Capital City Hospitality. I have one item that I'd like to hand out if that's possible. Please. So Capital City Hospitality, we just purchased the building that used to be the Big Lots building down there at 3501 East Lincoln Way down there in the Cheyenne Plaza Shopping Center. And our intentions for this property are to put in a retail liquor store, a restaurant, and a potential third tenant of an OTB. When we're done with that project, well, the first, let me just talk about it. We're going to do it in phases. The first phase will be the retail liquor store. And our intentions are to start on construction right after the first year and be open by the end of the first quarter. The second phase will probably be, and like I said, we're still in negotiations on this, would be Valley's OTB. And then the third phase will be our restaurant, Wyoming Aleworks. You're probably wondering why the delay on the restaurant. Well, we're in the middle of a big project up in Billings with a restaurant right now. And that one's going to open in the either end of first quarter, second quarter of next year. And, you know, just our company's not that big where we can do two in one year. So that's the purpose for that. Yeah. I feel like this is the highest and best use for a retail liquor license. We're going to have a retail liquor store. We're going to have a full-service sit-down restaurant. When the restaurant's completed, we'll be able to do off-premise catering from that facility as well. And then, of course, the OTB would be an entertainment component. The other half of our building, as you know, is the Frontier Trampoline Park. So that's the building that we bought just for reference for everybody. If we didn't have all three components of this project, we would not be able to make a project of this size work and not in Cheyenne, not anywhere in the world. So, you know, not for us anyway. So I would hope that you would support the transfer of this license for us.

Thank you, Mr. Johnson. Is there anybody on the governing body that would like to ask a question of the applicant? Dr. Aldrich, I know you're going to have a question.

You always do.

I do.

Mayor, through you, as I'm looking at this floor plan, it appears that there is a... meeting room, if you will. And then it actually looks like there's two that are part of the Wyoming Ale Works restaurant or that have entrances off of the restaurant. Is that accurate?

Mr. Johnson.

Yes, Mayor, through you. Yes, Dr. Aldrich, that is correct. There is a 60-person meeting room and another 20-person meeting room.

Follow-up, Dr. Aldrich?

I guess the only other question I had was the restaurant looks like it opens, the entrance to that is on the west end of that building. Is that correct?

That is correct. So, yes. So the liquor store entrance, which is the current, you know, the entrance to the former Big Lots still exists and will exist. And that is the entrance to the liquor store. On the west side, we're going to put two new storefronts. And one will be the one to the restaurant, and then the other one would be to the third tenant, the potential OTB.

Thank you.

Dr. Edmonds.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So when we're looking at this as far as orientation, are we looking this way? Or are we looking this way? This way.

So... Because we're both looking at it. If the arrows to my right would be, this is East Lincoln Way here. And this is Ridge Road, the top of the map. Yes, the top of the map. No, sorry. The entrance, I'm sorry, you guys. The bottom of the map, the top of the map, we have floor plan on the bottom, is Ridge Road.

Thank you. Thank you.

You're welcome.

Mr. Wolf, you have your light on? Oh, I'm sorry.

Mr. Siegert. Thank you, sir. It looks like a great project. Tell us a little bit, if you can, about Wyoming Aleworks. What's going to be your your restaurant, what's it gonna be like?

Well, so Wyoming Aleworks, I should say the Cheyenne version of Wyoming Aleworks is gonna be a blended concept of our Wyoming Aleworks that we have in Casper. So it's not just beer where we have a full liquor, you know, a full bar with liquor, wine, beer, 40 taps of beer. And then we're going to blend it with the best menu items from Wyoming Elworks Casper and the best menu items of Jay's Pub Casper. We feel like there's the best of both. We've worked really hard in Casper not to have our restaurants compete with themselves. But here we think that we can blend those two and have an awesome concept. And it'll operate under the brand name of Wyoming Elworks.

Fabulous. Thank you.

Sounds great.

Mr. Esquivel. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Through you, sir. I think it'd be a great addition to my ward. And I was curious about the parking on the Ridge Road side, about how many spaces would you have over there?

You know, we haven't had that redesigned yet. As you know, that west side of that parking lot is in real disrepair. So we have not had the civil engineers work on that yet. I mean, we're obviously going to try to get as many as possible. But truthfully, our main parking field is still going to be out in front of the building.

Okay, thank you. You're welcome.

And can you, Mr. Johnson, maybe just tell us a little bit of what your plans are for the actual building itself from the outside and in the parking area out in front and all that type of stuff and what your plans are, maybe not specifically, but overall what you hope to accomplish?

Well, when we get completely finished, Mr. Mayor, we're going to want it to look like a multi-tenant building. And so we're going to work really hard on the storefronts on that west side so that people don't miss what's really going on over there. We don't want... Obviously, the restaurant's going to need a lot of traffic, so we're going to work. The front, in general, I know the building's going to get repainted. We haven't gotten into the complete design phase on this yet. We're still in the very, very early conceptual part, but just from the talks that we've had with our architects and what our vision is, is to have it where when you drive down Lincoln Way, you can tell, or Ridge Road, that you can tell that there are tenants on that West side as well. You know, our businesses, I don't want to call them tenants, but businesses on that West side that, and in addition, and you don't just think that when you look at the front of it, it's just a big liquor store.

Very good. Mr. Wolf. Mr. Mayor, thank you. Through you. Thank you, Mr. Johnson. Really appreciate you coming before us and for this information. Did I understand you correctly that you own this space now where the Frontier Trampoline is located and they're a tenant of yours?

That is correct. So that entire building, if you remember from, or I should be the one that probably needs to remember, but anyway, I believe back in the day that used to be the Hobby Lobby and it was a 60,000 square foot building. And then it got subdivided and the trampoline park has 25,000 square feet of that. So yes, they are a tenant. So the building consists of everything from the rent-a-center to the west, right? And all the parking lot that goes all the way out to Lincoln Way, you can kind of tell what some of the new seal coat looks like out there from the previous owner. And then it just carves out those two other buildings, the Aaron's Rentown and what used to be one of the dollar stores up there in the corner.

Mr. Mayor, follow up? Yes, sir. Thank you, sir, through you. So who owns the parking lot and is responsible?

We own the lot that's in ours. I mean, it's a parcel.

Oh, okay.

And, you know, I mean, and of course you have the cross parking and easement agreements for the entire Cheyenne Plaza.

Great.

So we share with, I mean, you know, you share cross access with what the old Sherry's building that, you know, Ace Hardware, you know, all of that. Ace Hardware, Rent-A-Center, and on down. I mean, everybody shares everything.

Mr. Mayor. Mr. Wolf. There's the Durbar's Indian restaurant, and then there's a new restaurant going in next to it. Is that related at all to what you're doing?

No, sir, not at all. Okay. I mean, it's all different. It sounds like I did not know about that other restaurant, but that's exciting because I think, as we all know, you know, McDonald's and Burger King and Wendy's, they all build across the street from each other because it's great for business. So I think the more restaurants we can attract into that area will be awesome.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Dr. Aldrich.

Mayor Collins, I just want to remind my colleagues that when a few years ago, when we were looking for a restaurant to have a council straw poll vote dinner at, we had a really tough time in Ward 3 finding a sit down restaurant that was not ethnic cuisine that would have suited everybody's taste and, you know, food allergens and things like that. So, and we limited, there is really limited space in our community for restaurants that have meeting rooms where there can be meetings and meals occurring at the same time. So, I appreciate that you're looking at Ward 3 for this project and think it will be a great addition to Ward 3. We definitely have a lot of quick-serve restaurants, but it'll be nice to have some more options for sit-down restaurants.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

John, I'd just like to say thank you for, I know we've been talking for a number of years about you coming to this community and for being a Wyoming company, investing in the capital city. Really appreciate that. Really much looking forward to sitting down at your restaurant and seeing what you do.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Councillors. I appreciate you. Look forward to your support.

Thank you. Anybody else in the audience want to speak under this public hearing on this opportunity? I got it.

anybody all right jennifer who do you have mr miller you can go ahead can you hear me yes we can hear you mr miller are you there uh yes i am uh mayor collins members of the city council charles miller for the permanent administrative record My comments tonight are strictly germane to item number 6A, the public hearing regarding the retail liquor license transfer of location and ownership to Capital City Hospitality, LLC, doing business as Wyoming Discount Liquor at 3501 East Linkaway. As citizen auditors, our role is not to simply watch you govern. It is to ensure the paper trail you sign is lawful, complete, and free of defects. A municipal ordinance or administrative action is only as strong as its foundation. When we audit the public records uploaded for tonight's meeting, we find a glaring unresolved defect on the face of the supporting documents for this license transfer. The application submitted under WS 12-4-104 and 12-4-201 contains a temporal collapse. The official forms attached to tonight's agenda pack list the filing date as July 30th, 2024, and the statutory public advertisement dates as August 13th, 2024, yet we are standing here on August 24, 2026, being asked to approve this transaction tonight. While this administration may dismiss this as a mere clerical error or a harmless artifact of form recycling, the law does not operate on close enough. The Wyoming Supreme Court has made it clear that strict compliance with notice publication administrative timelines is a jurisdictional prerequisite. You cannot lawfully execute a binding municipal action based on an active application packet carrying two year old dates. It leaves this license transfer structurally vulnerable to future administrative challenges. If the city can routinely demand that small private property owners adhere to the absolute letter of our unified development code under the threat of misdemeanor prosecution, then this governing body must hold itself and major corporate applicants to the exact same standard. I demand that the city clerk explain the discrepancy in the filing and advertisement dates on the record tonight. If the application forms are indeed outdated, the public hearing must be continued, and the applicant must submit a corrected packet that reflects the actual current timeline under Wyoming Statute 12-4-104-D. Let's clean up our own paperwork before we vote to approve. Govern yourselves accordingly. Thank you.

Is there anybody else that would like to speak under this public hearing? Hearing none, the purpose of the public hearing has been met. We'll assign this item to the Finance Committee. Next item, please.

Next item is 9A on page two. Memorandum of Understanding Between the City of Cheyenne, Cheyenne Police Department, and Laramie County School District Number One for the School Resource Officers Program.

All right, is there anybody here in the audience today that would like to speak to this item? Okay, let Mr. Miller in.

Mr. Miller, you can unmute yourself.

Mr. Miller, are you there? Can you hear me?

Yes. Excuse me.

Mr. Miller, do you have a comment?

I do. mayor collins members of the city council charles miller for the record um tonight right now i'm trying to discuss item 9a the sro memorandum of understanding extending through august 31st 2027 While this contract reads clean on paper, we must view it through the lens of Cheyenne's actual history with school-based policing. As our own local SROs have pointed out on the record, specifically Officer Fadella, the school resource officer at South High and president of the Wyoming SRO Association back in 2011 and 2012, national reports ranked Wyoming as the number one state for funneling juveniles through the court system. Our SROs are trained in the National Association of School Resource Officers triad model. They're not just law enforcement, they're educators and mentors. But if we are going to formalize this model through contract number 149959, we must ensure that the statutory citation notice duty under Wyoming statute 146206C is actively utilized to keep kids out of municipal court and directed instead toward pre-court diversion and rehabilitative programs. True community policing means looking at the why behind student behavior, not simply writing a ticket. When our youth alternatives program is already managing high case volumes for juvenile crisis shelter and probation services, we must guarantee that our SROs are using graduated restorative sanctions. I urge this council to approve this MOU tonight, but with a firm directive to the chief of police, we expect an annual public reporting of all school-based citations, searches, and diversion referrals. Let us ensure that our SRO program is serving as a protective shield for student rights, not as a conduit to the juvenile justice system. Thank you.

Anybody else in the audience want to speak to this SRO contract, which is our school resource officer contract? Hearing none, Mr. Escobar, may we have a motion, please?

Mr. Mayor, the recommendation of the Finance Committee is to approve, and I so move. Second. Seconded by Mr. White. Mr. Escobar. Mr. Mayor, I move to amend by substitute dated August 18th, 2026.

Seconded by Mr. Seagrave. The only thing I think that this substitute does, it clarifies that the school district will pay 75% of the salaries of the police officers, which basically is the school year, and then the city will pay the 25% in the summer when the school's not in session. Anybody wanna speak to that substitute before us? Hearing none, how about from the governing body? All those in favor, please signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Those opposed? The substitute is adopted and we're back on the main motion. Comments? Yes, ma'am.

Mayor Collins, through you. I wanted to ask about 4D on the contract. The city will provide cellular phones for use in official communications with district employees. Are these cellular phones that are in addition to the... equipment that we already provide to the police officers or the SROs?

Captain James.

Mr. Mayor, Captain David James, Cheyenne Police Department. Historically, the school district has provided the cell phone, the actual cell phone. But recently, we wanted to start using our dispatch integration with the phone. And in order to do that and follow NCIC rules, it has to be a department-owned device. So they still are issued a phone. It's just owned by the police department, and the school district reimburses us for the phone. So that's the big difference.

Dr. Rogers, does that answer your question?

It does, Mayor Collins. I just had one follow-up comment, and that is that having worked in a school where we had a very strong SRO presence for all 15 years that I was there, the SROs are quite honestly a vital part of our educational system and our student safety. And I would highly encourage my colleagues to support this contract and understand that a lot of the prevention of what happens in our community or could happen in our community as criminal activity is prevented through the SRO relationship with our students. So I would highly support this.

Other comments? Dr. Emmons.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I would like to echo what Councilwoman Aldrich just said. As a member of the Juvenile Justice Joint Powers Board, every month we hear the reports of juvenile justice issues in the community. And I want to make sure that everybody does understand that we do have a very strong diversion program in conjunction with the SROs. And every month we hear about the successes that the SROs are able to achieve and pick up with our kids who may just be teetering on that line. So I think it's incredibly important and I would also encourage all my colleagues to approve this.

Anybody else in the governing body? All right, hearing none, all those in favor, please signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Those opposed, this MOU is approved as amended.

Next item is number 9B, professional services agreement between the city of Cheyenne and Ardura Group Inc. for operation modification at the Pershing Converse and 19th Street Roundabout.

All right, go out to the audience. Is there anybody here in the audience today that would like to speak to this contract about online? Hearing none, Mr. Escobar, may we have a motion, please?

Mr. Mayor, the motion to approve failed in the Finance Committee. Therefore, there is no recommendation. However, for the sake of discussion, I move to approve in the amount not to exceed $186,500. Second.

Seconded by Mr. Seagrave. A lot of comments from members of the governing body. Mr. Mayor. I want to just make sure we got the amount right. Is it 185,600 or is it 186,500? I have 186,500. And I wrote down 185,600. I just want to make sure I didn't write it down wrong. It's probably me, Mr. Escobar. 186,500? Okay. Thank you, sir. All right. Comments from the governing body? We already did. Already did.

Mr. Claiborne. Thank you, Mr Mayor um I wasn't able to attend the finance committee and so very curious as why that recommendation didn't occur and know what exactly is going to be covered by this contract.

Well, we had one vote yes and one vote no. So it was split. And Mr. Cobb, if you could maybe just outline for Mr. Laybourne and for the committee and the audience, what you hope to accomplish with this contract.

Mayor, I'd love to. Through you to the council as a whole and Mr. Laybourne specifically, So I think there was some confusion I actually only I did a different item and Aaron did present, but she did her very best to try to explain this, but i'll put it in a little bit simpler terms. This really the purpose of the agreement is to build on the previous study that was done. We did that in 2019 when I first came into my position, the former city traffic engineer had found that we were having an extensive amount of PDO accidents, so property damage accidents. Injury accidents were way down, but we still had an extraordinary number of these PDO accidents. So MTJ came in, made basically three recommendations to us, We never implemented anything. We had other priorities that were on the top of my list. And now I've been waiting to do this for quite some time. So I wanted to make sure that we did this. Now, as the purpose of the agreement itself is really it's an update. As I said, we want to build on previous work. And we want to look and to make sure that we've improved or included the latest RAB technologies because things change, right? In my world, we have new ways of implementing different things. Did MTJ still, is it still valid of what they looked at? So the purpose of this really is look, update what was done previously, and I guess update the traffic counts because those have changed. We're going to observe the current performance. We're going to do an operational analysis. And then we're going to compare the findings of that 2019 report. I've got a slide to show you what those were so you can kind of see. And then develop really the final improvements and the construction documents for implementation in the summer of 2027. That's the primary purpose is obviously getting this out on the street and making these improvements. So one of the additional things that we're looking at that it's it was should have been done when I first got into my position, could you go back for a second Jennifer I'm sorry. Sure. On the right side of the screen, the entry into the roundabout, this is going westbound. When Blue Federal Credit Union came in, we, Mayor Orr, had a separate agreement. We were on hook to do some I guess, medians and some extensions of those medians. We've been having wands out there. As you approach that westbound entry in from the east side, snow plows then hit all those. We've been trying to get that done for a long time. So that's one of the improvements that's going to come automatic without any debate. We have to get that in. And as you can see on the left, I just wanted to show you that crash history in 2014 through 2019. So the red numbers are those PDO accidents that I talk about. And then the blue are the injury accidents. Now, those are just ones, obviously, it depends on the reporting at the time, but they're minor injuries. There was no significant injuries. And you can see the highest was in 2015 with 84, 63, you can see various injuries. And then as it's been in the last few years, we saw another climb in this. So I've been watching the numbers from the MPO because they track that for me. I don't have the specifics, but off the top of my head, I would tell you they're in the hundreds now. So... It got it's getting worse, so I knew we had to do something and that's why I wanted to put this contract forward and again. This is for implementation we're not going to restudy a study we're simply going to ensure that what we have was the correct way to go and implement anything that we need to do with a modern roundabout now i'll go to the next slide. oops. I so there were three options that mt TJ came up with in 2019, and so they went from a very simple and call it, I saw I say option a. was to do some screening on the north side and all of you i've talked about this in several work sessions, but the issue is when you come down the hill. Going southbound into the roundabout, you have a clear vision of everything. And so what happens is drivers like to skip the gaps. They don't want to yield, even if there's traffic there. If they feel like there's a gap and they can build up speed, they sort of work their way around the roundabout. Not the way the roundabout should operate. So all three of the options, A, B, and C, included that screening on the north side. Now this screening is not a big wall, right? We can't do that because I would have snow drifting. So in this particular case, what I envision this would be is sort of at driver eye height and above, okay, just a small screen wall that a decorative art element that would go in. That would block the vision of you being able to see everything to the roundabout. Now the bottom side would be wide open, because I would allow then snow to go underneath the screening area that was, I think I picture it as a piece of artwork. I haven't really determined yet where we go with it, but an option for that to be art. And then again, snow could go underneath, no issues. Now, the other part of this, which we've already implemented some of this, is at the time that we did this study, the markings on the roundabout were in horrible shape. So we've since now, Rick Amon, my current city traffic engineer, has updated those markings. We have done some of that work already. So, A, I can say we've done part of it and haven't done all of it. So B was sort of what they would consider a moderate laneage modification. So you can see on Pershing going westbound again, you have to extend that median. We have a parking lot that's being used as business now on the north side. We want to make sure that median extends out so somebody can't make a left out of there going south to east. So that should have been done before. And then some of the simple things, and when I said this to you guys before, was we're not going to change from a two-lane to a one-way all the way around. What we want to do is make it practical and easier for people to use. So in this particular model, we were looking at, if you look on the right side of the roundabout as you're going around, Around and going north on converse it converted basically the northbound lane of converse into either having to go right or going straight, so it just simplifies what's being done you're not really changing the operational. characteristics, meaning the two lane is it's still a large roundabout, but the markings are going to show it smaller. And again, simplifying the entries is what really converting that roundabout does. And then the third option sort of, I didn't go through everything was more of the one we were looking at, and I'm going to go into detail on that, but that one had quite a few modifications, both on 19th converse and some of the others that I just talked about. I'll show you this in a little bit better scale.

Wrong, you gotta throw his mouse which would help.

Okay, so in this particular one that we had looked at trying to do, and this is the one we're gonna build off of, it includes changes to the southbound. We're gonna do southbound screening as I talked about, that's number one. We're gonna recondition all the pavement markings. We're going to extend the splitter islands or those protection islands on both eastbound Pershing and reduce the eastbound 19th to that single lane. And what that means is you can see that it doesn't convert the whole thing. It's just the single lane, as I talked about, going northbound on Pershing on the right side of the roundabout. And again, as you enter the roundabout from southbound to northbound, You either have to go right or straight. You don't have that second option on the outside. Everything else remains the same. 19th Street, again, gets converted to a one-way because all that does is just build up two lanes that way right now. And what happens is visually you can't see when you're looking to your left because you have two cars in that side of the roundabout. You're not changing it again from a two-lane roundabout to a single-lane roundabout. You're modifying entries to make it simpler for the drivers to actually navigate. Um, so the road diet for the West and South legs, we talked about, we're not sure if that's where we're going to go because we want to make sure from a volume standpoint with our current volumes that we're don't do anything that is going to take our service level down. And then again, the seventh one was reducing southbound commerce to that circulating single lane. As I talked about, I guess, hopefully that explains, I hope I didn't get too detailed, try to keep it pretty overview. I'll take that with any questions you might have. Thank you.

Anybody have any questions for Mr. Cobb? Dr. Aldridge.

Mayor Collins, for you. I'm wondering if we have any data that is more recent than 2019 as far as accidents go. I think it was 2014 to 2019. And then we had COVID. And so I'm just kind of wondering if people have lost their collective driving ability through COVID or what has happened that you said we're now up to 100 property accidents.

Mayor Collins for you, Dr. Aldridge. I don't have the numbers in front of me right now, Dr. Aldridge, but I remember it's well into the hundreds now for the PDO accident. That's off the top of my head. I can get that exact data for you if you'd like.

And we do have that data. The MPO does that every year. So we have that information. It's not with us tonight. Anyone else? Thank you, Mr. Codd. Anybody else in the governing body?

Yes, sir. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, through you. Thank you, Director Cobb. What are you seeing in the way of changes in your traffic counts here as this street has become both the blue headquarters and all of its affiliated businesses? And then is there any more north-south traffic, particularly construction traffic, that's affecting this roundabout? Mr. Cobb?

Mayor, through you to Councilman Wolf. Sir, I actually, the counts are actually going to go down because before when they did this originally, you know, it was a grocery store. So that generates a lot more volume than what Blue does now. It's certainly, it's quite a bit different. Now, as far as construction traffic concern, that varies year to year. And right now, we're going to do an overlay project just to the south of this. And I didn't mention this before, but Obviously it's going to shut her down for a little bit. So I got to make sure we count at the right time. Mr. Klon is going to extend that South Island. You don't see it on this, but we've already going to implement that as well. We don't want to make people to make those turns out of blue federal credit union to the left. There are ones there now, but Mr. Klon is going to take care of that for me. So I'm sorry. I didn't mention that, but no, I don't see any major changes. I think, I think the volume might be what we expected it to be at, at about the time that is now based on the original study.

other comments all right hearing then we have a motion in a second for this professional services agreement all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye those opposed mr moody and dr rennie or knows the professional services agreement is approved next item is number 10 a on page three

Contract modification number one to contract number 8374 between the city of Cheyenne and the Cheyenne Downtown Development Authority for the fiscal year beginning July 1st, 2026 and ending June 30th, 2027. All right.

Do we have any comments from members of the public? Jennifer.

Mr. Miller, you can go ahead.

Mr. Miller. Can you hear me? We can hear you.

All right. Could I ask you guys to describe this a little bit better than just the title of it?

Mr. Miller, you have all that background information. All we're changing is going from the planning department to CRE.

I'm sorry, Charles Miller, for the record. I apologize about that. Yeah, it was just mainly for the sake of others who are not aware already. Do you have a comment, Mr. Miller? I'm sorry?

Do you have a comment?

Yes, I was just wondering if it would be possible for you to explain this a little bit

I did already. Mr. Miller, do you have a comment?

Yeah, I'm just, I'm a little bit confused as to why the public comments are before you guys explain with the staff reports.

Do you have a comment on 10A? Mr. Miller?

Yeah, the amendment before you moves the Downtown Development Authority staff out of planning and development and onto community recreation and events on the recommendation of something called the Cost Benefit Task Force acting at a special board meeting on August 7th. Before you approve it, some history the body should have in front of it. The DDA's contract run 1991, number 2891, then 2023, number 7704. then 2025 number 8188 and now the fiscal year 27 memorandum number 8374 which tonight's um number one amends four instruments in 35 years three of them in the last three years and an entity that restructures itself this often is either solving a problem or hiding one Here's what we know from the city's own January, 2025 audit session, the downtown development authorities, financial statements, direct qualified opinion. And I quote the record, the auditors weren't able to get adequate documentation and information from the previous board. The city itself passed clean. The DDA could not produce its paperwork. That is not my characterization. That is the auditors. I demand that you produce contract eight, three, seven, four itself. The underlying framework, fiscal year 27 memorandum this amendment modifies before you vote on its amendment you're being asked to amend an instrument that is not in your packet also produce the cost benefit task force roster in its report a recommendation that reorganizes a board arrived from a body that this public cannot name thank you mr miller anybody else all right hearing none mr escobel

Mr. Mayor, the recommendation of the Finance Committee is to approve and I so move.

Second. Second by Mr. Moody. Comments from members of the governing body on the contract modification between the city and the Downtown Development Authority. Mr. Laybourne. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

I speak in favor of this contract modification and this arrangement that is going to really bring together a variety of elements of downtown that really can benefit from a coordinated approach. And it really is something that is going to have some meaningful results. And I make that comment in regard to what Clean and Safe Crew and CRE has accomplished already and knowing what we have coming into the future, particularly on the Reed Avenue corridor. And if I may, I'd like to share a personal experience I had recently. I have a downtown apartment building and it is really pleasant to be able to see how people want to live downtown more than they used to. And so I recently had a rental agreement with a fellow who was coming in as a contract manager for a data center project that actually is a tall grass out there. And so he came up from Texas with... very little knowledge of Cheyenne, Wyoming or where he was going, but he sure liked that job, a nice enough person. And he was very impressed and pleased with downtown that he saw. And that opened my eyes a bit to all that we've accomplished over the past 10 years, say, and certainly there've been some stumbles, but, uh, It was really interesting to hear him discuss the vibrancy, the different elements of the lights, the sculptures, and how he really was pleased to be living downtown in a community that measured up, in his opinion, to other downtowns that he was familiar with. So that was really a good experience. And I think it speaks to many of the things that have been accomplished. And I look forward to more knowing that the team at CRE puts things together and makes it happen. And so I think that this is a big step away from some of the problems of the past. Thank you. Dr. Aldrich.

Mayor Collins, through you. Well, I had the opportunity to speak to some of the downtown merchants and also with Director Sanchez about this proposal. And I would say that I'm cautiously optimistic that this may be an improvement. I think if there is anyone, and I think this was expressed in an email that we received today, that is capable in our city government of taking this on and rebuilding relationships and turning this situation around that we've had developed over the last couple of years between our DDA and our downtown business merchants. It is Director Sanchez. So I am cautiously optimistic I'm going to support this tonight and look forward to seeing it really become the powerhouse that it could be to help our downtown merchants as we basically spend the money that they vote on and tax themselves for on their behalf.

Anybody else in the governing body? Mr. Wolf.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, through you. I echo the support of Councilman Labor and Councilwoman Aldridge. You know, I've lived in Cheyenne for 52 years and seeing the downtown develop in lots of positive ways. I've tried to attend almost all the DDA board meetings in the time I've been on the council. And I think this is a very positive step. I applaud the efforts of soon to be deputy director Mays and And of course, Director Sanchez, who have contributed mightily and the fact that the six penny, the money in that ballot was approved by the voters and would indicate their support. And so I think with a lot of hope and encouragement that this is a good step forward and look forward to supporting it. Thank you. Any last comments?

All right, hearing none. We have a contract modification between the city and the DDA. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye.

Aye.

And those opposed? The contract modification is approved.

Next item is 11A, consideration of bid number S-22-26 for a contract between the City of Cheyenne and Legacy Construction Group for the Christensen Road Detention Erosion Mitigation Project, postponed from August 10, 2026.

Our city engineers informed us that the railroad, Union Pacific Railroad has added a considerable amount of conditions and would ask that this contract be voted down this evening so that they can go back to the drawing board and try to figure out how to do this in a fiscally responsible manner. And so we'll go out to the audience, but I think the motion is this is gonna fail tonight. Hearing none, how about from the governing body? Mr. Esquivel, can we have a motion, please?

Mr. Mayor, the item died due to a lack of a motion at the Finance Committee. Therefore, there is no recommendation. However, for the sake of discussion, I move to accept the bid in an amount not to exceed $314,905.00. Second.

And moved and seconded by Mr. Seagrave, comments from members of the governing body? Hearing none, are there any in favor of this motion? If not, how about those opposed? All right. This consideration of bid fails and we are on to the next item, please.

Next item is 12A, voucher report.

Is there anybody in the governing body or online that would like to speak to the vouchers? Seeing none, how about for the revenue? Seeing none, next item, please.

Announcement of a public hearing to be held September 14th, 2026 at six o'clock p.m. in city council chambers, 2101 O'Neill Avenue, Cheyenne, Wyoming and via electronic conference meeting to determine whether compliance of annexation conditions required by Wyoming statute 15-1-402 exists for about 162.42 acres of land located west of South Greeley Highway, south of West College Drive and southwest of and adjacent to the intersection of Apple Street and York Avenue. Announcement of a public hearing to be held September 14, 2026 at 6 o'clock p.m. in City Council Chambers 2101 O'Neill Avenue, Cheyenne, Wyoming, and via electronic conference meeting to determine whether compliance of annexation conditions required by Wyoming Statute 15-1-402 exists for about 652.67 acres of land located south of Interstate 80, southeast of Auto Road, and west of Interstate 25. Announcement that a Calcutta Benefiting Children's Western Wish Foundation will be held Sunday, September 27, 2026, at 3 o'clock p.m. at Frontier Park, Cheyenne, Wyoming, in conjunction with the 2026 Indian Relay Championship of Champions. 10% of proceeds go to Bono Verity. Announcement that due to city offices being closed for the Labor Day holiday on Monday, September 7th, 2026, regularly scheduled city council committee meetings will instead be held in city council chambers 2101 O'Neill Avenue, Cheyenne, Wyoming, and via electronic conference meeting as follows. Public services committee will be held Tuesday, September 8th, 2026 at noon, and finance committee will meet Wednesday, September 9th, 2026 at noon. Announcement that the following ordinances that were postponed in April 2026 will return to the Public Services Committee on Tuesday, September 8th, 2026 for consideration. Ordinance second reading annexing to the City of Cheyenne, Wyoming, land west of Round Top Road and adjacent to Happy Jack Road. Ordinance second reading amending the official zoning map of the City of Cheyenne, establishing the zoning classification of AG Agricultural MP Public for land annexed to the City of Cheyenne located west of Round Top Road and adjacent to Happy Jack Road. ordinance second reading amending the official zoning map of the city of Cheyenne, changing the zoning classification for land located west of Round Top Road and adjacent to Happy Jack Road from AG Agricultural to BP Business Park. Following committee review, the ordinances will be on the September 14, 2026 City Council agenda. Other business.

All right. Is there anybody here in the audience today that would like to speak to us under other business? Jennifer.

Mr. Miller, you can go ahead.

Mr. Miller, are you there? Apparently Mr. Miller's not there. Is there anybody else in the audience? Okay, how about from the governing body? Anybody under other business?

Mr. Wolf. Mr. Mayor, thank you. Just briefly, I've been gone for about two weeks, and first of all, I wanted to congratulate you and the rest of the council for the results in the six-penny election. Overall, if you look at what happened, it's, I think, a terrific affirmation of the efforts this council has made and under your leadership, Mayor, and under President's leadership. And I wanted to just ask you, I understand you were on the radio this morning, Mr. Mayor, and discussing the municipal building renovation. And if you could just share with us your thoughts on that.

Well, I think that, well, I love this building. This building is over 50 years old and the heating and air conditioning system, the plumbing and electrical are reaching the end of their useful life. And I think we owe it to our employees and really to future governing bodies to make sure that we improve the efficiency of this building for our employees, but also to improve it for the way we do business with the public. And so it will be my intention over the next six months or so to see if we can find a way to figure out how to do this project without having to wait until the next six penny. Anybody else under other business on the governing body?

Mr. Laybourne. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just have to express my personal opinion that I was influenced by some of the negativity that we've been having here at the meetings and throughout social media and really some questions under our growth and changes that concern me that maybe perhaps the public was not fully understanding and continuing our long history of improvement with the sixth penny. And I was wrong. I am really delighted that we could see that really strong belief out there in regard to those specific projects as they were chosen. And that was something that obviously that sorting through and all that work that went into that paid off. And I also want to point out that we're in a really unique position here with our reserves. Looking back, I can't imagine that anything remotely approaches this. I mean, we are having an opportunity here with the support of the public to really move Cheyenne forward. And I recognize that certainly as we can see in our upcoming agenda items here, there's a lot of controversy and difficulty in the data center. question and how uh those business parks are going to operate but um i'm really really delighted that the public had the confidence in us in the uh elected officials of those small towns who are once again going to benefit from people investing in their own community and their own county. So this is an exciting time and I'm certainly glad to be here and I'm particularly glad that my concern was unwarranted and that the public is very much aware of what we're doing and supports it. So I'm sure we're going to have an opportunity here that past councils probably didn't. to have that kind of money in reserve. I think we need to do a real thorough analysis of what we need to do with it because there's quite a number of needs and capital needs that are out there that we haven't been able to deal with yet, as well as this building here. But when you have the support of the public and you have those funds in the bank, good things can happen. And I'm certainly... Glad to be part of that and proud of what was accomplished.

Thank you. Mr. Laborn, to follow up on that, I can tell you that we are the envy, I think, of the state for the support that the voters and the residents of Laramie County give to all the communities, Albany, Pine Bluffs, Burns, unincorporated Laramie County and the city. you know last time we asked for was it 130 million we got 128 of it and you know it's made a difference in our downtown it's made a difference in our roads public safety is greatly improved with the new fire stations and in this one 148 out of 170 million dollars was approved And again, those dollars are going to go to downtown. They're going to go to the roads. They're going to replace the swimming pool downtown that we had to close after over 70 years of continuous service because the dang thing won't hold water anymore. And we're going to build another fire station and the Greenway is going to continue to expand and we're going to be able to maintain what we built over 30 years ago now or 35 years ago now. And so I just wanna say thank you to the voters for their leadership and their vision. When I talk to mayors from other communities, they are so jealous of the support that we get from our residents. And I think part of that is we bring good projects forward, but also the voters, they just understand that this is so critical to our ability to grow our community and do the things that need to be done. I mean, I look at the... expansion and the repair of the jail, you know, we just couldn't do those kinds of projects without the voters coming up and supporting us. And so, again, I just want to say thank you so much to everybody who took the time to vote and for supporting 13 out of 14 ballot initiatives. I think that's just epic. Anybody else? All right, guys, have a good night. I have grandkids to go home to, so I'm going to say good night. We'll see you all next time.