Council - Regular Meeting

But I use three out of

So something has changed the building since this morning cuz I wasn't near as attitude this morning. just a little bit. It was way lighter feeling, right? I don't understand. Maybe it's trying to find a way out somewhere else. Yeah, it's going to find it. 58. Did you make that time big?

Right there. I can see it. I just gota 59. Get the angle right. DFS funding.

Don't forget. Yeah. Okay. Just because I have a feeling they'll be So you won't need it. Even though mine doesn't set up. Oh, I just usually hold mine. Oh, you do? Oh, I totally thought you were like I'm just like mine doesn't do that.

God, you've turned me into a damn clock watcher.

I hate watching the clock. The Evansville Town Council meeting for February 23rd is now called to order. Mayor Eddie Blackford here. Council member Dea Edwards here. Council member Ray Las Vegas to be excused tonight. Council member Monavino here. Council member Chad Edwards here. Town attorney Scott Murray here. Town engineer Shane Porter here. Um Chief of Police Mike Thompson here. Assistant Fire Chief Mark Cornet here. Public Works Director Robert or I'm sorry, Den. Town Court Janelle under one arrested citizens.

I aliance 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. I still in the library. Okay, I'll grab it. Oh, keep track of the motions. I'll go grab it quick. Just write that motion. I'll go grab it real fast. Okay. Okay.

Quick pause. Sorry about the little pause here. We just got to get something in order. Okay. Um we'll have the approval of agenda. Under that we have consent of tonight's agenda. Under that we have approval of minutes regular meeting and executive sessions for February 9th and approval of business licenses. That'll be the CTC pause construction silicon construction and power plus electric. Do I have a motion for the consent of the agenda?

So moved. Second. I have a motion and a second. Uh any discussion? No discussion. I call for the vote. All those in favor? I opposed. Motion passed. Mr. Mayor, I if I can interrupt, I think that we do need to get a motion on just the overall approval of the agenda as well. Oh, I missed that one, didn't I? Okay, that interruption there. So, thank you. We'll back up. Do I have a motion for the approval of agenda? I move.

Second. I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All uh all in favor? I

opposed. Motion passed. Okay, we will now open this up for public comments. Public comments will be limited to five minutes. Uh Ryan Perry, 324 Curtis Street. I'm here tonight because something is not adding up. It took over nine months for this town to produce a storm water permit that was supposed to be here at this council that is still not presented on the agenda for something that respectfully did not require reinventing the wheel. The city of Casper already has a storm water permit framework in place. In many respects, this could have been as simple as adapting, copying, and pasting language that has already been vetted and implemented successfully next door. So my question is simple. Why did it take nine months? And more importantly, how much did that delay cost the taxpayer of Evansville and attorney fees? Because every month this dragged on, every revision, every delay, every back and forth, the meter was running. Taxpayer dollars were being expended for what? For something that should have been straightforward, administrative in nature. This isn't just about one permit. It's about efficiency, accountability, and priorities. At the same time, we're told our code code of ethics ordinance exists to hold people accountable. But when actual ethical concerns arise, we hear that the ordinance has no enforcement mechanism, no meaningful penalties, no independent review. In other words, it has no teeth. So again, I ask, what are we paying for? We reportedly spent thousands of dollars in legal fees drafting or revising an

ethics ordinance that cannot effectively address misconduct. If it cannot be enforced, if it cannot resolve disputes, if it cannot hold officials accountable, then what exactly did we buy? Good governance requires three things. Clear rules, efficient administration, accountability for results. Right now, residents are seeing delays, rising legal fees, uh, legal bills, and ordinances that do not function as intended. When routine administrative processes take the better part of a year, and legal costs stack up with little to show for it, the public starts to lose confidence. And that loss of confidence is far more expensive than any attorney invoice. This is not personal. This is about stewardship of taxpayer money. Evansville is a small town. We do not have the budget of a large municipality. Every dollar spent on unnecessary delay or ineffective drafting is a dollar not spent on infrastructure, public safety or lowering the burden on residents. So I respectfully ask, what is the total legal cost associated with the storm water permit delay? Why is a neighboring municipality's framework not used to expediate the process? How much was spent on drafting the ethics ordinance? And when will this council consider amending it so it actually has enforcement authority? Transparency should not be controversial. Fiscal responsibility should not be optional. The citizens of Evansville deserve timely ordinance governance and ordinance that work. And I have one question. Alona, do you support ICE? Do you support the mission? You're not going to answer.

Do you support ICE and its mission? Point of order. Point of order. Can Can you Can you tell me maybe what that has to do with the town? Well, the town should support ICE and its mission. Are you asking her as an individual or as a as a council member? So maybe that's I would say maybe that's a question maybe that is more of a a town question like maybe not just her individual. I feel like that's an I'll ask everybody. Do you support Ice Nation? U

Mr. Perry, I don't think that has anything to do with the town right now. So I'm going to um probably not answer your question, but I thank you very much for you coming tonight. That's pretty bad. It does involve our town. If our town has illegals here and they're going to comply with ICE and help them, then shouldn't we know if if you're going to be on the side to support them or if you're going to be on the side that doesn't support them? Mr. Perry, I would like to say that I'm I'm very glad that we have a chief of police here as well as our town attorneys who deal with all of that. So I let them do their job and if and therefore they have any questions and therefore they refer to our topic to see how that protects our town. But thank you very much. You got elections coming up. I get you want to hide behind it.

Actually I'm not hiding behind anything and I'm not up for election but thank you very much Mr. for your time. Yeah we we would just on those matters we would maybe defer to our our chief of police andor town attorneys. But I thank you very much for your comments.

Thank you. Do we have any other public comments? Any other public comments? There's no other public comments. I do have some public comments and that being we had a presentation that we were going to do tonight for our chief Leo Malsome. And since he has somehow wiggled himself out of being here tonight, we are still going to do this presentation in absentee. So Leo, if you're watching this, beware because you're not getting out of it. I am coming and crashing your retirement party and present this personally to you. But this is a plaque of presentation of of uh appreciation that the town of Evansville put together for Leo. And if anybody wants to look at it, they can look at it after the meeting. But I'm going to read what's on here. in honor and with deep appreciation of the distinguished and unselfish service given to the town of Evansville while serving with outstanding leadership, vision, and ability as fire chief. Thank you. And that's heartfelt from myself as mayor and I am sure the governing body and the entire staff of Evansville.

Okay.

I have a public comment. Actually, this weekend, um, Mayor Blackford and I had the opportunity to go to the fire and EMS promotion/retirement and, um, I want to say that we have some fine people, seven fine people who were promoted and off pro their probationary period, as well as, um, Chief Cornet getting his stripes, as well as uh, Chief Mson retiring, as well as some other people within the department moving up. And it was a wonderful service and we have some mighty fine men and women serving our community for the town of Evansville and I am fully heart. I I know that they can do their jobs and I am happy that we have seven more people as well as people moving up within the department to serve our community here and abroad. Thank you.

I will second that. And I'm going to add one more thing to this. Uh, this presentation was put together in pretty short order by Chief Cornet and he run the whole ceremony and he did an excellent job. So, I think kudos are in order for Chief Hornet. Thank you. Okay, any other comments? All right. Um, we now have the ordinance number 2- 2026, an ordinance setting the tax levy for 20 26. It's the third and final reading.

Mr. Mayor, council brought before you tonight is ordinance 2-2026. This is an ordinance fixing the tax levy for 2026 and provide an effective date. Therefore, um it was passed on first reading the 26th of January, passed on second reading the 9th of February. That's brought up for you tonight on third and final reading. Do I have a motion for ordinance 2-2026? A motion. Second. I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? No discussion. I call for the vote. All in favor? I opposed. Motion passed.

Renewal of daycare licenses, Little Scholars Playhouse and Wonderfully Made Child Care. Mr. Mayor, council brought before you tonight is the applications to renew the daycare licenses for the uh Little Scholars Playhouse and the Wonderfully Made Child Care. Um both of these applicants um has provided the necessary paperwork required by the state of Wyoming Department of Family Services and the bar department conducted fire inspections over there and they passed their inspections and I just ask for approval to renew these licenses. Okay. So, do I have a motion? A motion. I'll second.

I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All those in favor? I opposed. Motion passed. Engineers report. You're chain.

All right. Thank you, Mr. Mayor and Council. Just a couple of things tonight. Um first, well, both of them are related to the Scottill Tank Coding Project. So, on February 17th, 2026, we opened bids for the the Scottill Tank Coding Project. Uh we had eight biders. Uh they were classic protective coatings at 378 uh 672, Meguire Iron at 240,000, Mandro painting at 287,340, Eminem tank coating at 532,48. Uh Markley Precision Company at 389,000. Uh tmi coatings at 358,000. Viking Painting at 228,000 and Car Coating at 274,750. U so the low bidder was Viking Painting. Uh they're out of Nebraska. Um they sent a bunch of references and I did a bunch of research on them and and they're a very reputable company. They do this a lot kind of all over the country. So my recommendation, the budget for this project was 250,000. Uh so my recommendation is to issue the notice forward to Viking Painting in the total uh amount of 228,000 even. So recommend a motion to that effect.

Recommendation. Do I have a motion? Some move. Second. I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? No discussion. And all those in favor? I opposed. Motion passed.

So the second thing is just to I recommend a motion to have the mayor execute the notes to proceed and the agreements with Viking painting uh once all required documents have been provided to Viking. Uh I just kind of like to do this sometimes where there might be a time crunch. I have a feeling they might want to get started or get things in the works. Um if it happens that that those things show up, I'll bring it to the next council meeting. to um just recommend a motion to to execute those contracts once they once they all paperwork arrives if if we need to prior to the next council meeting. So that makes sense. Do I have a motion? I'll motion. I'll second. I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? No discussion. All those in favor?

I opposed. Motion passed. Uh that's all I had for a minute. Okay. Do I have a motion to accept the engineers report? So moved. Second. I have a motion and a second. Uh all those in favor I I opposed. Motion pass. Okay. Do I have a motion to to adjourn for to executive session? A motion. A second. Have a motion and a second. Uh all those in favor I

oppos. Motion pass. Get Just