City Government - Regular Meeting

And if you'd like, please join us in the Pledge of Allegiance.

City Clerk, if you can please call the roll.

Bolling. Here. Freed.

Here.

Lockhart.

Here.

Newman. Here. O'Doherty. Absent. Shumway.

Here.

Vigil. Here. Richardson. Here. Cumbee.

Here.

That's eight present and one absent, Your Honor.

Thank you, City Clerk. Mayor. Mayor. Councillor Newman.

I would like to make a motion to suspend the rules to allow the public to comment on consent agenda items during the public comment section.

Second.

I have a motion by Newman and a second by Richardson. Councilors, I think we can do this by voice vote. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? That motion passes. So we will go to public comment on non-agenda and consent agenda items. Mr. Glass.

Thank you. Good evening, honorable mayor, members of council, Brett Glass. I would like to request that item 9G be pulled from the consent agenda for the purpose of providing transparency and informing the public about a very large... Mr. Glass, we're not at that point.

I'm sorry. We're not at that point in the agenda that comes up next. So we are allowing right now public comment on non-agenda and consent agenda items. And then next I'll ask that consideration.

There's been a change in rules. So you just go right into your comment right now. Okay, I can do that.

We can start again. I'm sorry. That's okay. It gets confusing for all of us. Okay. But we'll start your time. Thank you.

Yes, anyway, I'm commenting on item 9G on the consent agenda. We have here a request by a corporation that we've never heard of before. It's Third Street Operations. to ask a favor of the city, to ask that fees be deferred for a very big construction project. And so, well, when you see a construction project of this magnitude, 126 units built on a fairly small lot that used to be Foster's in West Laramie, there's a lot of questions about what is this about? Who's financing it? What corporation is behind it? Are they trustworthy? Are they going to be a good landlord? And, well, the public really doesn't know anything about this. I did a little research into this, and I found out that this corporation that is making the request, it's named on the contract, which is coming before council, has its... has its registered address as a post office box in Sheridan, Wyoming, and a physical address as a middle building by the railroad tracks in Cheyenne, doesn't seem to have any local presence at all. Also, when I checked with the county assessor, I found out that the address for tax purposes of this company is another post office box in Fort Collins, Colorado. where there are more than a dozen corporations with some interesting names registered to that address. And so this is very mysterious and it seems as if a lot of this is done to obfuscate what's really going on. I hope that's not the case, but it sure seems that way. And so I'm concerned about this item. I think this should be given more consideration and we should do more due diligence. And also, if this is legit, we should inform the public about what this is about and present the facts so that people will know what's coming. So that's my comment. And again, I hope you can consider that when the time comes. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Glass. Mr. Matamor.

Good evening. Tom Matamor, honorable mayor, counselors, thank you for the time. I too would like to address item 9G on the consent agenda. I've been a big fan of this and I've mentioned this for a number of years in both the planning commission and on the comprehensive plan meetings. I believe if there's any question about an ability of a developer or contractor, I actually believe this should be the norm and not the exception. I think that under the, at the discretion of the city manager, he can require a bond, be posted if there's any doubt about whether or depending on the size and scope of the project he could also phase it in in phases and we need to be flexible if we're going to build anything in this town and I think if we can do that we can be flexible and we can get some stuff built I'm not so sure about the ownership of this corporation but everything's negotiable, you can ask for a bond if there's any doubt about who they are. I'm sure checking their bona fides and their experience is just a matter of asking and we can go from there. But I think we should write up new set of regulations that give the city manager the discretion to do this on a regular basis and see if that helps speed up some development in this town without costing us money. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Matamor. Yes, Mr. Schmeichel.

Good evening, Honorable Mayor and Council. Plus one to everything Tom just said. Wholeheartedly concur with that. I really want to point out that this is a solution that has come forward from constituents here within town. It's come through our boards. It's come through our Albany County Housing Coalition. This is a ground-up proposal for ways that we can make this... problem of housing shortage go away. And it's a way so we can facilitate the builders in getting the houses up. It doesn't cost anything to make this happen. The risk is highly minimal. And if it does fail, there's pipes in the ground that can be built on by somebody else. There's not a significant risk to the community. I really urge you to move forward with this and just keep it on the consent agenda. Thank you.

Thank you. Any further public comment?

Sally.

Reverend Dr. Palmer.

715 South 11th Street. I just wanted to come for one minute to say What you have been doing together is worth your time and extreme effort, your persistence. But if any of you heard the mayor's presentation on Freedom Has a Birthday, it's like, all right, this is a place that is certainly community. And bringing different groups together and celebrating volunteerism, yeah, it's like, wow. So I want to say thank you to each of you because you put two hours on paperwork, you know? But you make this a place that's so good to live in. Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Sally. Any further public comment? Okay, thank you seeing none we will move on to our next session section Consideration of changes to the agenda. Is there a public request to move a consent agenda item and place it on the regular agenda? Mr. Glass

yes honorable mayor members of council breck glass i would like to request that for the purposes of transparency and discussion item 9g be moved from the consent agenda to the regular agenda thank you i do not have a counselor bringing that forward

So we will move on. Vice Mayor, if you want to set the agenda, please.

Thank you, Mayor. I move that the agenda be set as submitted. Second.

I have a motion from Richardson. I'm going to call it for Vigil, second. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? That motion passes. Next, we have no proclamations this evening, but we do have some public hearings. So city clerk, our first public hearing on the transportation alternatives program.

Thank you, Mayor. The title of this is Transportation Alternatives Program Application for Construction Improvements to the West Landing of the Garfield Street footbridge where the bridge meets Pine Street. Notices hereby given that a public hearing of the Laramie City Council will be held at 6.30 p.m. on July 7, 2026. and City Council Chambers Laramie City Hall, 406 Ivinson Avenue, Laramie, Wyoming. The meeting shall be held with both online Zoom and in-person option to take public comments on the following. TAP application, the City of Laramie is seeking public comment on a transportation alternative program or TAP application for proposed construction improvements to the west landing of the Garfield foot. Street Foot Bridge, where the bridge meets Pine Street. The project includes ADA accessibility, sidewalk ramp, crosswalk, and landing improvements to improve pedestrian and bicycle safety and access. All applications, plans, and specifications relative to these matters are available for review at the City of Laramie Planning Office at 405 Grand Avenue, Laramie, Wyoming. Anyone wishing to be heard should be present or may be represented at the meeting. Thank you, Mayor. Sorry, that was really hard to get out today.

Thank you, City Clerk. Is there any public comment on this public hearing? Mr. Matamor.

Honorable Mayor, thank you for your time. I would like to express strong support for this. I just wish the grant would be big enough to do what they did in Edinburgh and put an elevator on each end of the bridge. But alas, we don't have that much money. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Any further public comment?

Mayor, we have a hand raised online from Nancy Sindelar. Okay. Okay.

Honorable Mayor and Council, I can be even faster than Mr. Matamor. I'm 100% behind this. I think this will be a great thing for our city.

Thank you. Thank you, Nancy. Any further public comment? Thank you for those comments. City Clerk, we will move on to the second public hearing, New Resort Liquor License number RT-5 for University of Wyoming, doing business as University of Wyoming Catering and Events.

Thank you, Mayor. Notice is hereby given that on the 16th of June, 2026, an application was received in the office of the city clerk for a new resort liquor license number RT-5 for University of Wyoming doing business as UW catering and events located at 1000 East University Avenue, Laramie, Wyoming for a license term of July 8th, 2026 through May 7th, 2026. Public hearing to hear comments or protests relative to this license application and action on this application will be held Tuesday, July 7th, 2026 at 6.30 p.m. at City Council Chambers, 406 Ivinson Avenue and via Zoom. Anyone wishing to be heard should be present or may be represented by his or her agent at the meeting. Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, City Clerk. Is there any public comment on this public hearing? Seeing none, we will move on to announcements. City Manager or Assistant City Manager, are there any announcements? Councillor Bolling.

Sorry, just to back up to the public hearing. It says the dates are July 8th, 26th through May 7th, 26th.

You were absolutely correct. It should be May 7th, 27.

Okay, just so it's corrected.

Thank you. I appreciate your diligence. I missed that one. All right, now we'll move on.

Are there any announcements? Honorable Mayor, there are no announcements this evening.

Okay, thank you. Counselors, any disclosures and or conflicts? Seeing none, Vice Mayor, approval of the consent agenda.

Thank you, Mayor. I move that the consent agenda be approved and that each specific action on the consent agenda be approved as indicated.

Second. I have a motion from Richardson, second from Bolling. City Clerk, if you can please call the roll.

Bolling.

Yes.

Freed. Yes. Lockhart.

Yes.

Newman. Yes. O'Doherty. Absent. Shumway.

Yes.

Beehill. Yes. Richardson. Aye. Cumby.

Yes.

That's eight yeses, zero nos, and one absent, Your Honor.

Thank you, City Clerk. That motion passes. Next, the Mayor's Announcements. Tonight, on behalf of the City Council and myself, I would like to congratulate our two newly appointed Assistant City Managers, Jen Wade, who will be Assistant City Manager, Chief Financial Officer, and Brian Brown, who will be Public Safety Chief. Along with the city manager, Todd Fieser, the council believes that we have an extremely dynamic team that is going to bring us fearlessly into the future. Along with that, so as not to let anyone escape embarrassment, I'd like to congratulate Jay Smith on his recent appointment as Director of Public Works. Council appreciates how dynamic this team is. And I think, I just look forward to the work together and to making our vision for our wonderful community come true. Thank you very much. So now we'll move on to the regular agenda. Item 11A, Councilor Lockhart.

Thank you, Mayor. I move that the Laramie City Council approve Resolution 2026-45 authorizing the submission of a TAP grant request to the YDOT to support safety-related improvements to the west side landing of the Garfield Street footbridge in an amount not to exceed $250,000 and authorize the Mayor and Clerk to sign.

Second. I have a motion by Lockhart and a second by Vigil. They're very quick tonight. Good evening, Philip.

Good evening, honorable mayor and council members. Tonight, staff is requesting the approval of resolution 202645, which would authorize the city to submit a TAP grant application to YDOT for safety and accessibility improvements to the west side landing of the pedestrian bridge. The request is for an amount not to exceed $250,000. It's not a large amount, per se, for grants usually, but this pot of money really is only $1.2 million statewide, so if we get it, we'll be happy, and to Mr. Matamor's point, the point of this, we're not proposing elevators in the near future. Sorry. We do hope that if we are granted this award that it will grow into bigger things because we know there's Garfield Street, there's other connections that could stem from this amount. So amount not to exceed $250,000. The purpose of the grant is to help address long-standing safety issues at the west side landing. There's no sidewalk there. There's the ramp to Pine Street there. It always gets... a lot of silt in it from runoff, so we're really trying to remediate all that, proposing ADA-compliant curb ramps, truncated domes, and sidewalk construction about 300 feet from the landing to Garfield Street, or to Grand Avenue, rather, and Westside. um so as we all know the footbridge one of laramie's most important non-motorized transportation connections i don't know how many people knew this but it's reaching its uh centennial celebration 2030 so we're hoping that the award of this grant and subsequent grants and the funding that this council approved in the most recent budget around 1.2 million dollars for design and for conceptual design and construction of improvements. We'll really make that an exciting year to highlight the bridge. We recently put trail counters out there. We've been recording approximately 400 trips a day across the bridge. We all know it's heavily used, but it's kind of nice to include that data in our application. The project directly implements a recommendation from the Reconnect West Laramie Plan, which this body just approved as well earlier this year. So we're excited to get that plan implemented and strategies directly from that plan. It's consistent with goals identified in the Parks and Recreation Plan as well. The local match is about 10% here, so approximately $24,000. AARP has been open to partnering with us and have pledged $8,500 to make our total around $15,400. So that's what we're pledging with this resolution essentially is that, and we would get that money out of the budgeted items. So we're really getting our most bang for our buck, trying to leverage the money that this body has already allotted to that project through this grant. So of course, we as staff recommend approval of the resolution and we'll be happy to answer any questions.

Thank you, Mr. Gabba-Tuller. Counselors, questions? Counselor Bolling.

Just this is for my own clarification, just because so much reading this afternoon. This is directly related to item 9H or 11H, is that is the 250 related to the 215 that we're gonna discuss later in terms of the total recommended changes in the capital construction fund. Yeah, okay, yeah. Just making sure that I was connecting the dots. Thank you.

Thank you, Councillor. Councillor Lockhart.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Phillip. How long before you would start and how long of a project from start to finish would you anticipate?

Yeah, through you, Mayor. So we would hear in October whether we were awarded the grant. And regardless of what we get that's grant or not, I think this project is going to happen. We're just trying to leverage our funds here with this. So we'll hear in October, so certainly next construction season if we're awarded. It's not a huge project. It could lead to bigger things, but definitely next summer we could get this done.

Further questions? Thank you. Oh, wait, a follow-up?

Sorry about that. Thank you, Mayor. That's okay. With that in mind, would it shut it down for an extended period of time for people to utilize, or would there be a workaround?

Mayor, through you, so it's not actually part of the bridge, right? It's the landing. So I could anticipate probably a close for a little while for the concrete to set and all that, but not an extended... not the whole summer or anything like that probably a week or two or something like that.

Thank you. Is there any public comment on this agenda item? Seeing none at this time I'll return back to council for any comments final comments. Philip, I just want to say how much we appreciate the work of the planning department in finding this grant and the work that it takes to write it, to offset it by a quarter of a million dollars. I think that's significant and I just appreciate the work that you do. City Clerk, if you can call the roll, please.

Lockhart, yes. Vigil, aye. Shumway, yes. O'Doherty, absent. Newman, yes. Bolling, yes. Freed, yes. Richardson, yes. Cumbee, yes. That's eight yeses, zero noes, and one absent, Your Honor.

Thank you, City Clerk. That motion passes. Item 11B, Councillor Vigil.

Thank you, Mayor. I move that the Laramie City Council approve the application for a new resort liquor license number RT-5 to University of Wyoming doing business as UW catering and events located at 1000 East University Avenue for the licensing term of July 8th, 2026 through May 7th, 2027 and authorize the Mayor and City Clerk to sign.

I have a motion from Vigil, second from Newman. City Clerk.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. The application before you came to the City Clerk's office on June 16th. This is a little bit unique in nature, as you know. We haven't had the University approach us before with this type of license request, which is a resort liquor license. This came about as a result of them learning that LCCC in Cheyenne has also acquired a license about five years ago, similar in nature. So we did a little bit of investigation since there are qualifications that a resort liquor license has to meet. We did include that in the cover sheet for tonight. They have to have a million dollar valuation invested into the property. They have to have a restaurant and convention center. And they have to have 100 rooms that are available to the public use. So we did present the university with these questions and on page six of their application, you can see the responses that we received back. With the North Hall residential dining facility, I was like, I know that's not what you call it. But with the new dining facility, that is open to the public as well as the residents on campus. When we asked about the rooms, they said they have 1,400 rooms that are available for conferences and camps and things to that nature. Folks can rent out those rooms during their events and stuff. So they do have that outside facility use as well. So... With that, if they have a request for an alcohol catering permit, they can pull those such as Holiday Inn and Hilton do. So if they had an event off campus at one of their other locations, they could pull an alcohol catering permit to cater that event. But with that, Derek Jones is here from the University of Wyoming as their representative. So if you have any questions, he's happy to answer them as I am.

Thank you, City Clerk. Councilor's questions? Councilor Lockhart?

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, City Clerk. I just have a quick question on the cover page. It says something about Attachment, Momo House, and Grill. What's that all about? I don't understand quite what that's all about. Thank you.

Yes, thank you for pointing that out. That would be because I've reused Momo House's... Yeah, it has nothing to do with this. No, I apologize. I thought I got all the way through that.

Counselors did their reading tonight. They did. Counselor Bowling.

Thank you, Mayor. Again, just for my own edification, Nancy, can you just brief me on the differences or the advantages that something like the university might have by having a resort license as opposed to what is current?

So currently, they have to pull alcohol catering permits through other vendors for all of their events on campus. They do have their license currently in the bottom of the student union in the beer gardens area, so they have that. But other than that, they contract everything out to other vendors for their events and stuff. What this would do would create an opportunity for them to host their own events. So if they did have an event right there in the conference center, they could open up their bar. However, Derek could answer some more questions about that though.

Yeah, so it really gives us the opportunity to provide a full service operation for our conference and event centers, both in the conference center and the Gateway Center. As Nancy said, we currently contract with local vendors to provide that service, which we plan to continue. It's not something that we're wanting to take all that away. We're still going to work with all of our great vendors here in the city to provide that as well. have no interest in any of the stadium operations or wildcatter operations. So we're still going to be working with all of our vendors and all of our friends in the public as well.

Further questions? Thank you.

Thank you.

Is there any public comment on this agenda item? Back to council for comments.

Thank you. I will say I was pretty hesitant when I read this at first in thinking about the short-term occupancy. It felt like a stretch to me, to be honest. But recognizing that Cheyenne has done that with LCCC and it seems to have, you know, kind of passed the test, I feel better about it. And so now I'm feeling more on board, but it did feel a bit of a stretch to me with that short-term occupancy. So good to hear that other information.

Further comments? City Clerk, I just want to thank you for your due diligence in working with the university to do the research to provide them the opportunity to answer necessary questions and establish the appropriateness of this licensure. So thank you for your work with that. If you can please call the roll. Did we do public comment, Mayor? I might have missed it. Did we do public? I did public and then back to comments.

Thank you. Vigil? Yes. Shumway?

Yes.

O'Doherty? Absent. Bowling?

Aye.

Freed?

Yes.

Lockhart?

Yes.

Newman?

Yes.

Richardson? Yes. Cumbie? Yes. That's eight yeses, zero noes, and one absent, Your Honor.

Thank you, City Clerk. That motion passes. Next, we move on to item 11C, Councilor Newman.

Thank you, Mayor. I move that the Laramie City Council approve the business ready community grant agreement between the Wyoming Business Council and the City of Laramie, Wyoming for $5 million grant awarded to the City of Laramie by the Wyoming Business Council to support the Wild Tech Training Expansion Project and authorize the Mayor and City Clerk to sign where indicated.

Second. I have a motion from Newman, second from Richardson. City Manager.

Yeah, hope you can hear me all right. I'm coming to you from Chicago of all places. So what you have before you tonight is the final step in the BRC process to award the grant side of the project for the Wyoming biotech expansion project that we've been working on for a little bit over a year now. It just commits the responsibilities of the city to manage the grant through the development agreement, the lease agreement, and the REVENUE RECAPTURE AGREEMENT THAT CITY COUNCIL HAD APPROVED ABOUT FOUR WEEKS AGO. SO WITH THAT, I'D BE HAPPY TO ANSWER ANY QUESTIONS THAT YOU MAY HAVE.

THANK YOU, CITY MANAGER. QUESTIONS, COUNCILORS?

VICE MAYOR? THANK YOU, MAYOR. IN READING THIS, IT LOOKS LIKE IT'S GOING TO TAKE BETWEEN 18 AND 24 MONTHS. DO WE, AND SORRY IF I MISS THIS, DO WE KNOW WHEN CONSTRUCTION WILL START ON THIS, JUST TO HAVE A SENSE OF THINGS?

The honorable mayor through to count to vice mayor Richardson. The wild tech has been working through the planning and design process and may potentially take a little bit longer than that at this point, but we don't have any knowledge or anticipation. If anything, I would assume we're looking at spring of 27 for construction beginning.

Thank you.

Follow-up? And then this may not be a question for you, City Manager, and maybe someone else can jog my memory. I know before the question had come up about this is coming online, which is awesome, but will the dorms be... What is the timeline for those dorms being built? I know this was talked about at some point. Does anybody remember the answer to that so that we can be thinking about... And Chief, you kind of look like, do you have an answer to this? You look like you maybe do. I'm breathing your face and pretending like I know things.

Honorable Mayor, through you to Vice Mayor Richardson, the Wild Tech is currently working on both projects kind of simultaneously. The intent behind this grant was to release some of their capital to be able to work towards the dorm project. So the intent is for projects to kind of come together. However, with time constraints and such, things are gonna move and they may not move concurrently, they may move a little bit independently of each other, but it is an intent of WyoTech to continue to try to grow their dorm properties at this point.

Thank you for that reminder. Thank you.

Further questions? Seeing none, is there any public comment on this agenda item? Mr. Matamor.

Honorable Mayor, Councilors, thank you for the time. I would like to applaud the efforts of the city and the city staff and city manager to get this done. It's a big nut to crack to build what Wyo Tech wants to build out there, but I think it'll be a real gem for the city of Laramie. And just want to say thank you for all you do.

Thank you, Tom. Any further public comment on this agenda item? Seeing none, back to council for comments.

Councilor Vigil. Thank you, Mayor. This project is really exciting. I think this is going to be huge for Laramie and just reading and seeing just the estimate of number of jobs that will be coming in is really incredible, which is also like jogs my mind about housing too, right? So yeah, exciting stuff and more work to be done. Thanks. Thank you. Councilor Lockhart.

Thank you, Mayor. My exact sentiments, plus it just reiterates the commitment Wyo Tech has for Laramie. They want to grow, they want to bring jobs in, students in, and so it's very exciting, especially for West Laramie, in my opinion. The whole town, but West Laramie in particular.

Thank you. Further comment? In... I just want to say that WyoTech over the years, the past few years, has become increasingly active and committed to partnership with not only the city, but with other institutions of higher learning. They are participating in Town & Gown, they're participating in the Housing Coalition. I mean, they are at the table. And I really appreciate that because they are becoming integrated as a part of our city. And that is a very apparent goal that one can derive from their actions. City Clerk, if you can call the roll, please.

Newman.

Yes.

O'Doherty, absent. Feehill. Yes. Shumway.

Yes.

Lockhart.

Yes.

Freed.

Yes.

Bowling.

Yes.

Richardson, yes. Come be.

Yes.

That's eight yeses, zero nos, and one absent, Your Honor.

Thank you, City Clerk. That motion passes. Item 11D, Councilor Bolling.

Thank you, Mayor. I move that the Laramie City Council approve Amendment 02 to the Professional Services Agreement with ABI Professional Corporation. Am I on the right one? Yes. Sorry. AVI Professional Corporation for Construction Management and Construction Administration Services for the PRV replacement Pierce Street project in the amount of $76,151.48 with a contingency of $7,615 and authorized the mayor and city clerk to sign.

Second. I have a motion from Bowling, second from Vigil. Director Smith, good evening.

Honorable Mayor, City Councilors, still a little weird to hear that. What you have in front of you is an amendment to the Professional Engineering Agreement for the Pierce Street Pressure Reducing Valve Project. This is the first of two items that you'll see on this agenda. So just a quick overview of what a PRV is. This one in particular sits between two pressure zones. So when there's a pull on the lower zone, it allows supplemental flow to make sure that we don't run pipes dry. And it kind of stabilizes the pressures. This is for the construction management and contract administration portion of the engineering contract. And with that, I would stand for any questions.

Thank you, Director. Counselor, questions? I see none. Oh, was that a question or just a gesture? Okay. Thank you. Is there any public comment on this agenda item? Seeing none, back to council for comments. I have a quick comment.

Vice Mayor. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Director Smith, for bringing this forward. Just knowing the amount of construction work that we have going on this summer, I think it's really wise that we have a construction manager for this project. process I think overall but the amount that we we talked about the efficiencies of scale of bringing on all these projects at once and if we have to spend some money to get this online at the same time and Allow those other projects to come together at one time. I think that's that's great.

So, thank you further comment City clerk if you can call the roll, please bowling Freed

Aye.

Lockhart.

Yes.

Newman.

Yes.

O'Doherty. Absent. Shumway.

Yes.

Beehill. Yes. Richardson. Yes. Cumbee. Yes. That's eight yeses, zero noes, and one absent, Your Honor.

Thank you, City Clerk. That motion passes. Next, Item 11E, Vice Mayor Richardson. Thank you, Mayor.

I move that the Laramie City Council approve the award of bid and contract with Mechanical Systems Inc. for the PRV replacement Pierce Street project in the amount of $704,065 with the contingency of $45,590 and authorize the mayor and city clerk to sign.

I have a motion by Richardson, second by Newman. Director Smith. Soon you'll hear it in your sleep.

Honorable Mayor, city councilors, I know this may come as a shock, but this is the second item that we just spoke about. This is the actual bid award for the construction of this project. And so it's not only replacing that large scale valve, it's also bringing it from below ground, where we have quite a bit of water intrusion through there, and bring it above ground and also building a building around it. And so with that, I would stand for any questions.

Thank you. Questions, councillors? Councillor Lockhart.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Director. Just a quick question because it seems we always go with the lowest bid or pretty much the lowest bid. Is that always going to be the case or do you look at qualifications also of the companies that solicited the bids to make sure we're just not going with the lowest? bid out there and then suffering the consequences maybe later on. You know, experience with the company, etc. Absolutely.

Mayor, through you. So there are certain criteria laid out by the state that we follow and that are also in our procurement and purchasing policy. So it is not only lowest bid. If you do not go with the lowest bid, you have to have justification on one of those other items also. So there's definitely been times in the past and I guarantee there'll be times in the future that when I'm before this body that we do not go with the lowest bid.

Thank you, Councilor. Further questions? Thank you, Director. Is there any public comment on this agenda item? Seeing none, back to Council for comments. Any comment? City Clerk, if you can call the roll, please.

Newman. Yes. Lockhart. Yes. Freed.

Yes.

Bolling.

Yes.

O'Doherty absent. Shumway.

Yes.

Vigil. Yes. Richardson. Yes. Cumby. Yes. That's eight yeses, zero nos, and one absent, Your Honor.

Thank you, City Clerk. That motion passes. Next, Item 11F, Councilor Vigil.

Thank you, Mayor. I move that the Laramie City Council approve the award of bid and contract with Big Hunks Excavation, Inc. for the Priority Sewer Replacement Project, Custer 12th to 13th Street, in the amount of $161,413.20, with a contingency of $30,000, and authorize the Mayor and City Clerk to sign. Second.

Have a motion by Vigil, a second by Richardson. Director Smith.

Mayor, counselors, probably going to get tired of seeing me. So what you have in front of you is a rehabilitation, as the title said, for a sewer line from 12th to 13th on Custer. Not only is this a bottleneck for flows, it also has some areas to where it's failing and we believe that it's been crushed in some spots. So with that, I would stand for any questions you have.

Thank you. Questions, Councillors? Councillor Shumway.

Thank you. Director Smith, do we offer advantages to in-state or local bidders on contracts such as this?

Mayor, through you, we do. So the state requires a 5% local preference, and so the 5% is pretty much the standard.

Thank you. Further questions? Thank you, Director. Is there any public comment on this agenda item? Seeing none, back to council. Council, any final comments? City Clerk, if you can please call the roll.

Shumway?

Yes.

O'Doherty, absent. Newman? Yes. Bolling?

Aye.

Vigil? Aye. Lockhart?

Yes.

Freed?

Yes.

Richardson. Yes. Cumbie. Aye. That's eight yeses, zero noes, and one absent, Your Honor.

Thank you, City Clerk. That motion passes. Item 11G, Councilor Newman.

Thank you. I move that the Laramie City Council approve Resolution 2026-46, amending the fiscal year 2025-2026 biennial budget of the City of Laramie, Wyoming, and authorize the Mayor and City Clerk to sign.

Second. I have a motion by Newman, second by Beale. Assistant City Manager Wade.

Good evening, Honorable Mayor and City Council members. So tonight we're asking you to consider just a few amendments to the fiscal year 2026 budget. So the budget we're just wrapping up. Spencer has been working hard with members of our leadership team and we think there's a couple of items that we need to get before you this evening to get out ahead of them. The budget amendment you are being asked to consider across all funds is $333,755. 65% of that amendment is for the grant actually discussed this evening, and we'll go into that a little bit more, but that number, $215,000 of it, is related to that grant. There are some other small changes that we will talk about in detail. In the general fund, the recommended change is actually a decrease of $13,000. That's comprised of two items. The first item is $52,000 related to the matters being disputed in arbitration with the local 946. Council is aware of that item. and because we have wrapped up those proceedings and are just waiting on the outcome of the ruling, we do have that final cost and the $52,000 is what you see before you this evening. Our budgets are not built to handle those types of contingencies and so that's why you're being asked to consider that budget amendment. We are recommending a decrease of $65,000 to reduce the LARC budget, for software fees that were budgeted in LARC that are going to be paid for in the E911 fund, which is our next item. And so I'll move right into that. In the E911 fund, we're recommending $65,000 to align appropriations to actually match those software maintenance fees. I had a conversation with my fellow assistant city manager last week to ask about if we were sure that we wanted to move to keep these items in LARC. the 9-1-1 fund because when these fees are a 9-1-1, they're not cost shared with the county, although honestly that 9-1-1 revenue is coming to benefit both the county and city, right? That conversation with the assistant city manager went something like this. You know, these 911 fees are being looked at by the legislature in this next year. We expect them to go up, and especially with the revenue constriction in the county, his recommendation was that we do pay for these additional software fees through 911, expecting that we are gonna see some legislative solutions here to these fees that have not changed, I'm pretty sure in decades. And so, just wanted you to know that we had that conversation, and I agree with that recommendation. In the capital construction fund, we're recommending the increase of $215,000 to basically appropriate funding for that TAP award that you heard discussed this evening. And so as you heard the planning manager talk about, we're asking for permission to apply for up to $250,000. You have appropriated $35,000 in match already in the 2027 budget. And so when you combine this 215 with the 35, that gets us up to the $250,000 that you heard talked about earlier this evening. And so that's the connection there in the full loop around. We are recommending this first appropriation in 2026, and then we'll just move that forward into 2027 with the rest of that funding. Of that match, 8,500 is actually a grant coming from the AARP. And so the city contribution is $16,500. And the final item is in the SPT fund in the parks project category. We are recommending to increase the scope slightly on the Labonte Park Pathway project in order to be able to fund a little bit more trail and basketball court resurfacing that was not included in the initial cost estimate. Staff are recommending this as a cost-effective purchase to get a little bit more out of those dollars. We do have additional funds on hand and unallocated in that parks ballot category, so certainly no issue there. And it's a $1.2 million project. And so when we say it's a small change in scope, that $67,000 amendment, it's about 5% of the overall project budget. And with that, I'm happy to answer any questions you may have.

thank you and counselors uh counselor bowling thank you mayor thank you assistant city manager wade um one question i had you answered already which was the 26 to 27 appropriation i do have two but i can ask one and then circle um going back to a light item 11a and the tap grant um and also this amendment allocation, I am under the assumption that we're in an application process for a grant, but the receipt or the award of that is not set in stone. So how are we planning for that for perhaps a declination?

That's a great question, honorable mayor, through you. What we will typically see, right, is kind of these out years phases of these project budgets, and you actually, if you look at your budget publication, you will see that. And so right now, we're planning to try to get some resources in. If we are not able to do that, we will go back to the drawing board, amend the budget downward and then really think about those next steps ahead. This is a project I'm sure you remember during the budgeting process that we talked about to do the whole thing we're definitely going to have to get grant funding and so I think the short answer is we'll keep trying until we're hopefully successful.

Thank you. Further questions? Do you have a follow-up?

This is unrelated. Okay. And unfortunately, Mr. Gavithuller is gone. Maybe Assistant City Manager, if you can, or I can wait, or perhaps a new Director of Public Works. But I was thinking about this during the discussion of the earlier agenda item if that bridge is shut down for improvements related to this allocation Are both sides shut down simultaneously? Because the east side has one, two entry points, and the west side has one entry point, right? I'm just thinking of ways that it can be an accessible pedestrian way. You know, people would have to climb stairs as long as possible because so many people rely on it, you know, for work. And that is a question that could be answered in email as well.

Honorable Mayor, unless City Manager Feazer has something, yeah.

Yeah, honorable mayor from what I understand and the multiple construction projects we do is through design and engineering will have to figure out how best to continue to support the use of the walk bridge for pedestrian connectivity. You know, as you pointed out, there's multiple entrances and exits and we can even keep it down to a minimal point where we pour the most impactful places last at the. immediate response time so they can cure and have the shortest downtime to the bridge. Unfortunately, there is going to be impact. All improvements come with some impact, but we've got to do everything we can to minimize it. Until we know for sure all the design and engineering that will go into the project, we are unable to ascertain how long anything might be closed at this time. Thank you.

Thank you, city managers and directors.

All right. Vice Mayor. Thank you. I just actually have a procedural question on the motion. Do we need to include that $333,755? No, it's okay just to make the motion on the budget. Okay, thank you.

Further questions? Thank you. Is there any public comment on this agenda item? Seeing none, back to council for comments. Thank you again, Assistant City Manager, for your explanation. It really helps get through some of these changes. I appreciate your walking us through that. City Clerk, if we can call the roll, please.

Newman.

Yes.

Shumway.

Yes.

Behill. Yes. Freed.

Yes.

Lockhart.

Yes.

Bowling.

Yes.

O'Doherty, absent. Richardson? Yes. Cumbee?

Yes.

That's eight yeses, zero noes, and one absent, Your Honor.

Thank you, City Clerk. That motion passes. Item 11H, Councilor Lockhart.

Thank you, Mayor. I move that the Laramie City Council approve Resolution 2026-47 authorizing the City Manager to establish a housing enabling infrastructure program and amending appropriations for the fiscal year 2027 budget of the City of Laramie, Wyoming and authorize the Mayor and City Clerk to sign.

Second. I have a motion from Lockhart, second from Richardson.

Honorable Mayor, City Council, before I turn this over to Assistant City Manager Wade, I wanted to have a chance to just describe some of the process of what we've been working on with this project. As you know, in fiscal year 2026, Council had set aside approximately $5 million in funding with $2 million from the general fund, $2 million from the water fund and $1 million from the wastewater fund to support housing enabling infrastructure. As myself, Assistant City Manager Wade, Community Economic Development Director Taney have been working with developers and having the discussions, our unified development code requires for most development to provide for its own extension of the municipal infrastructure that will be owned or used wholly by the public. This funding is intended to help support Those projects that need that assistance as it's become increasingly difficult for banks to loan or developers to finance the construction of that municipal public infrastructure is a term we've been using as we describe municipal public infrastructure and it's important to note that as my view is is that that's water trunk lines sewer trunk lines. roads, curbs, sidewalk and surface water drainage implements. So those are the items that we're talking about trying to be able to support with this and working on some sort of revenue recapture program similar to the Wyoming Business Council where we can make that money work more than one time for us. We wanted to work multiple times in our community to continue to support development as we move through and move into the future. With that, I'll turn it over to Assistant City Manager Wade for description of the financial changes that are happening.

Thank you, City Manager.

Honorable Mayor, City Council Members, and so kind of the first step, right? We've got this $5 million that is committed but not appropriated. And so that's one of the reasons you're being asked to consider appropriations this evening. And if we're going to consider appropriations, we need to think about what really is foundational about this financial transaction and where it should be administered. It's our recommendation to you that you administer this program in the Economic Development Fund. Every program in the Economic Development Fund is tracked separately. And one of the things that's gonna be really important about this funding is that the economic value of the contribution of each fund, and so as city manager Fieser noted, that's two million from the general fund, two million from water, and one million from wastewater, be returned to those funds eventually through the construction of municipal infrastructure. And then with this recapture money, that that money is there to build the program for the future for reinvestment in these housing enabling infrastructure programs. And so that's really what we're working on in terms of foundationally how we want to mobilize these resources to be able to provide. this incentive, especially in the area of housing, but in a way that makes sure that we're returning the value of that infrastructure back to the funds that benefit from that operation. And so that's really important, right? Because we know that donations are prohibited by the Wyoming Constitution, and that's not what we're in for. We're not in to just hand out this money without the city receiving equal value in return. And I would say it's even beyond that equal value in return, right, with that revenue recapture. And so the first step tonight is giving the city manager the authorization to set up this formal program. Until now, it's just been called like a pilot without much of a vision. And so we're putting some wheels on the bus tonight, giving it that vision. And then also making that formal appropriation of financial resources that's necessary to stand up the program. So tonight's budget amendment is a great opportunity to learn more about inter-fund transfers. So you know how I always tell you that with fund accounting, each fund truly does stand alone. And when resources come into the fund or especially when they go out of the fund, appropriations are necessary. And that's exactly what you see in the budget resolution tonight, right? Because you see the general fund giving resources, the water fund giving resources, wastewater fund giving resources. Those are budget amendments out, so they can move that money out of the fund, that separate accounting entity, and move those resources into the economic development fund, which is gonna receive inflows of resources from these transfers, but also need those appropriations because those appropriations in the economic development fund are gonna be how that program money is actually spent and administered. And so if you're wondering why the budget amendment is double, actually the program, that's why. And it's a great example of some of these concepts that we talk about, but can be difficult to grasp until you see it in action. That's one of the reasons you see the numbers you see on tonight's amendment. With that introduction, I'm happy to answer any questions in my wheelhouse.

I would like to know if you could briefly explain the recapture, what that means, how that's done, that type of thing.

Honorable Mayor, so the city manager and myself and legal counsel will work together to really build a recapture that works for each individual agreement. And so there's no standard recapture that we're proposing. What we're proposing as a general concept is that there will be recapture. But the terms of that will be figured out with each agreement, which you will also see as a city council. City manager, would you add anything to that?

But no assistant city manager way you phrase that correctly is each agreement will have its own benefit depending on what the support mechanism is for these developments. Are they low income housing? Are they efficiency units? Are they single family residential within a certain price range will all be what staff evaluates when we're calculating and negotiating some sort of recapture so they will all be individually negotiated.

I'm just wondering, if I can ask, I'm wondering if you might give a hypothetical example of how a recapture is obtained. Where does it come from?

Honorable Mayor, it would actually come from the developer working within the terms of the policy goal of the city and the city council, what we're hoping to achieve together. And so like city manager Fieser said, if it's low-income housing, maybe there's a different recapture or less recapture than if it isn't. And so really it's about what's being paid back to the city long-term based on the value that that developer is receiving for this program being in place. And I'm sorry I don't have something more specific for you at this time because, you know, we're not quite in the weeds yet.

Okay, thank you.

Further questions?

Honorable Mayor, if I could, as just a simple example of what you might be thinking about is, let's say that a development is coming through that needs a road and a water line and a sewer line trunk infrastructure. to service that development. And it might have say 25 lots and say they need $100,000 to make that happen. Depending on what those lot sizes are and what type of homes they're building, what value we estimate those homes that come in and what part of the community it supports, then we may shoot for let's say 50% recovery, which might lead towards 20 lots that need to pay us $5,500, somewhere in there. Over the sale of those 20 lots and when those lot sales should be the revenue recapture to the city That was helpful.

Thank you.

Good. You're welcome.

Thank you further questions Okay, thank you very much oh Oh, it got answered. Okay. Is there any public comment on this agenda item? Mr. Schmeichel

Good evening again, honorable council and mayor. Yes, very much in favor of this program here. Again, this is coming up from the Housing Coalition, a community-driven effort. But to give some historical context to this, in a previous century, long before anybody on this council was on council, it used to be that the legislature would fund our municipalities to the point that they could build out a lot of this infrastructure themselves. That was empowered by the fact that this infrastructure didn't cost nearly as much as it does today. When we have shifted that business model over the past 20 or so years and to being put on the developer, we're passing those developer costs on to the people who are buying the houses. And we're creating an unequal situation between the people that are buying houses from before that period not having to pay for the infrastructure and the ground and the people afterwards having to include that cost of that municipally operated infrastructure into the value of their homes. So if you have 10 homes that are worth $400,000 a piece and it costs half a million dollars to put that infrastructure in the ground, you now have 10 homes that have to sell for $450,000. That increases the property tax they have to pay. They're paying property tax on municipally owned infrastructure. Doing programs like this helps release that burden, ensures that your citizens are not being overtaxed. I think it's very important to move forward with this in a responsible way. If I can put my URA hat on for just a quick second, tax increment financing could be one of the methods for recapture on some of this as well. So, thank you.

Thank you. Further public comment on this agenda item?

seeing none back to council for comment counselor bowling thank you mayor um yeah i just want to affirm um how happy i am to support this i do think that housing ready infrastructure is one of the largest single barriers to making sure that affordable housing happens in communities like ours And I think what this shows is a real commitment to working on that issue from our city leaders, from our city staff. And so thank you guys for really just taking, I think, the single most important crisis that faces us, but also communities nationwide, and really investing in that. That says a lot.

Thank you. Councilor Freed.

Thank you, Mayor. I just want to say I really think this is a great idea and support the city's approach to like a proactive approach to solving some of our issues. And my only other comment would be just as we continue to do this for different developers and understanding what the individual needs are, that we can develop some sort of baseline equity or quality that we can put forth and making sure that even though the needs of these developments might be different, making sure that we're not disparaging someone down the line for how we decide to support one development over another. I'm not too concerned about that, knowing how our city interacts with these developers, but something that I want to keep looking at.

Thank you. City Manager, you have a comment?

Yeah, Mayor Comby, thank you. I just wanted to add something to what Councillor Bowling was saying is this shows a commitment from our council towards supporting this. He had mentioned staff and leadership and developers, but this is really councils showing their commitment to helping solve our housing issues.

Thank you. Councillor Lockhart.

Thank you, Merritt. Yeah, I'd like to reiterate, thanks to the staff, your hard work, and the ideas on this to help. But also, it shows teamwork instead of the button. You know, us against them. Because you hear that all the time. Well, the city won't let me do this, and they want me to do this. Well, this shows that we're committed to helping grow Laramie and team up with the developers to help grow the community. So I really like the idea, and I'm sure it's going to be successful.

Thank you, Mayor. I just want to echo the excitement around this and the feed-up for all that we passed earlier. I think these are two big pieces of ordinance pieces and legislative pieces that we are moving forward with that I think can make a big impact on housing. I appreciate that the staff continues to look at other things. I know there are more things in the works And so thank you for that, and thank you for bringing these forward for us to be able to continue to make some progress on.

Thank you. And I just want to commend the council in January of 2005 is for newly elected came on to council we had a retreat and one of our important goals that we had was to. work on innovation toward increasing housing. We were engaged in the housing coalition out of which the housing and land trust was developed. And what I'm seeing tonight is bringing this process forward, something that started January 2025. We decided to save the funds and commit those because we could see what it would do. And then here we are beginning that process. And we are the ones who have worked with staff to make this vision possible. And I just commend you all. Thank you. City Clerk, if you can call the roll.

Bolling. Aye. Lockhart.

Yes.

O'Doherty absent. Shumway.

Yes.

Vigil. Aye. Newman. Yes. Freed. Aye. Richardson? Yes. Cumbie? Aye. That's eight yeses, zero noes, and one absent, Your Honor.

Thank you, City Clerk. That motion passes. Next, we will go to public comments on non-agenda items. Are there any public comments on non-agenda items? Seeing none, Councilors, any consideration of future Council work topics for tonight? Seeing none. Oh, we almost got there.

Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to let you all know that the county did confirm today both the joint meetings that we've requested. So August 11th and September 8th, we will have joint meetings with them. And the September 8th topic? September 8th will be the People's Initiative Impact. Okay. And August 11th will be the Data Centers Discussion.

Thank you. And a reminder to those listening, the August 11th meeting will be held at the Municipal Operations Center, the North Campus, so that we have plenty of room should people wanna be there for the topic of data centers. Councilor Newman.

I move that we adjourn.

Second. All in favor?

Aye.

Opposed?

We are adjourned.