Council - Regular Meeting

A chair would entertain a motion for the approval of claims consideration of claims uh to be paid in the amount of $193,85928 payroll and liabilities for 22026 in the amount of $526,2346 for a total of $720,93.34. Second.

Have a motion by Councilwoman Johnson, a second by Councilwoman Brothers uh to approve consideration claims to be paid in the amount of $193,85928 payroll and liabilities for February 20th, 2026 in the amount of $526,2346 for a total of $720,000.93 $720,93.34. There any comments, questions, or concerns? Director Harris.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, I did want to point out today that the staff identified a correction on page nine of 12 of the claims approval list today. Um, there's a claim out there for Trevy Pay, which by the way is Walmart. Um, that's their Walmart finance organization. Um, that Trevy Pay claim is listed on the claim approval list as 38733. And then after the list was distributed, the staff determined that $175 of that for phones uh was for purchases that had been made to s made by Cindy Harris personally. So we owed her a reimbursement of that 175. So the Trevy Pay claim has been reduced to $212.33 and uh we issued claim number 44058 today uh to issue to Miss Harris for her $175 reimbursement. This does not change the overall total on the claim approval list, but we did want to let you know that that has been changed since it was distributed to you.

Thank you. Thank you. Basically, just who payment was remitted to versus any change in correct. She purchased the phone at Walmart and I I think our clerk just grabbed the Walmart re saw it as a Walmart receipt and posted it to Walmart and that should have gone to Miss Miss Harris. Perfect. as long as it's on our expense report. Any other questions, comments, concerns from the committee? All in favor of the motion say I. I. I. All oppose. Same sign. Motion carries. Is there anything additional to come before the committee to tonight? Director Harris. No, Mr. Chair. Thank you.

Thank you. Without objection, we'll adjourn at 6:49 p.m.

Thanks. Now called the uh March 3rd, 2026 regular meeting of the Riverton City Council to order at 7 p.m. Council Member Bailey has agreed to lead us in the pledge of allegiance after which Councilwoman Borders uh will give us the invocation. If all could please rise and remove cover. I pledge 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.

Dear heavenly father, we thank you for the opportunity to meet tonight. We ask your guidance as we work together in our efforts to do what's best for our community. strengthen us as we make decisions that are right for our citizens. We ask that you watch over our police and first responders who protect and serve every day. Thank you for the many blessings that you have bestowed upon us. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen.

All right. Miss Harris, could you please conduct the roll call? Yes. Council member Karen Johnson here. Council member Kyle Larson here. Council member Carla Borders here. Council member Mike Bailey here. Council member Rebecca Brothers here. Council member Eric Carr here. Mayor Tim Hancock, I am here and declare we have a quorum and have everybody. So that's great. I'd entertain a motion for approval of the agenda removing item number 17 MOA optional three 3/4 cent sales and use tax. It's just not quite ready. We're going to consider the resolution tonight but want to wait a little bit longer on the MOA if we could get a motion in that regard. So moved.

Second. Council member Carr with the motion. Councilwoman Borders seconded. Any other discussion? Any other items we need to All right. All in favor say I. I. Any oppose say nay. I vote I. Motion passes. Introduction and oath of office. Youth council. Mr. Butterfield. I was going to say Mr. Bailey. I don't know why. Maybe just because he's right here. But Mr. Butterfield.

Your honor, at your last meeting, you had opportunity to appoint a new member of the youth council. And um consistent what we did with other members of the youth council, you now have opportunity to uh provide a um a certificate and also to swear them in. And I would definitely defer to you to provide that service. All right, sounds good. I just realized I do not have the oath in here. Do you have the same one that we used last time, Miss Harris? Oh, I have a certificate. Fine. Should be I apologize, your honor. I do not one in your drawer. Well, I've used that one, but we used a specific one youth council. Okay,

give me a minute. I bet you I can find it. Or the other members of the youth council. You have it memorized, right? Honor, let me We were trading on this earlier today. Let me pull it up digitally and and I'll have it available for you. Okay.

I have it. All right, come on up here, Mr. Thacker. Not up here. Meet me at the podium if you wouldn't mind. This is different than the one I've done a million times. So, hey, raise your right hand. There you go. That's your left hand. You're not the first person that comes all the time and people do it.

I'm sorry. I just saw your hand on my put it on that. Don't worry about it. Okay. So, gonna say I repeat after me. After I say I, I want you to say your name. Okay? Then we're going to go from there. Got it. Any questions now? Because once we get into it, it's too late. Okay. I I Rain Thcker as a member of the Riverton Youth Council as a member of the Riverton Youth Council commit to serving our community commit to serving our community with respect with respect, integrity, integrity, and enthusiasm. And enthusiasm. I pledge to listen to my peers. I pledge to listen to my peers. Share ideas thoughtfully. Share ideas thoughtfully.

And work together. And work together to make Riverton a better place. To make Riverton a better place for all, for all. Good job.

You get to do it. And you can start on this side. Most people don't. They start here. But you know what? Go there. I mean, shake it up. Don't forget the chief. Thank you. Thanks. Thank you. Congratulations. Congratulations.

So proud of you. Congratulations, Braden.

It's good to be a trends setter. I mean, everybody else raises their right hand. That's boring. Everybody else starts on the left side and shakes hands. You I mean, you got to shake it up. That's what we expect you to keep doing. Okay. Think of different ways to do things and different ways we can serve the community. So, keep up the good work. We're glad you're on board. All right. I'll hang this upside down on my wall.

That's good. I like it. That's thinking. Well done. All right. Well, welcome aboard, uh, Mr. Thacker. And we have some other members of the youth council, and we'll have you do your report. Um, well, you want Why don't you we just start off with you tonight? Does that sound all right? Let's start with uh we're at the reports and comments. We'll start with the Riverton Youth Council. If you could come up and just for those who are here that might not recognize you at site, uh just introduce everyone with you and um give us your report of what the youth council has been up to.

Yeah. Yeah. Don't make him be up here alone. He gets lonely. Lonely. Lonely. These guys bully me ruthlessly. Hey now.

Anyways, okay. So, for clarification, um I'm Royce Hancock and with me I have TK Brown and here and we're just going to kind of be going over some of the things that we've been doing. There's Yeah, sorry. I'm really enthusiastic tonight. you know, going at this with enthusiasm. Anyways, it's been a while. Um, it's always unique to be up here. It always feels so supernatural, but um definitely is enjoyable to be here and receive the council's like insight and have a little bit of like clarification with what we need to do and really just to be able to kind of brag about what we have been working on. Um so first before we really start in and kind of do things as we do what I would like to go is talk about is um kind of one of the biggest things right now and really is going to be like getting clarifying is we have decided to we will not be working with go riverton directly but we will be like making decisions and getting information for like the community resource guide and maybe in the future we can work with the homeowner packet, you know, some more information at least helping collect that. But all the boring stuff aside, we'll have what we start with.

Hey, Rick.

I start with that. It's been a minute since I've last been up here, so got to get used to it. Uh we decided to create an annual goal setting meeting on the 11th uh to add a Hunter onto the RIC. Braden officially joined the RIC and we will be having a meeting with the library on the 10th to further find out how we can better help the youth with engagement with the library and its services offered overall. Uh with that, I will turn the time over to Danny with more information about what we're doing.

Um good evening. We will be meeting with Representative Larson on the 25th as he will be helping us with our goal setting. Uh this was planned on February of February 18th. Then on the 19th we went to the Kuanis Quanis meeting and it was a lot of fun. Very interesting. um very scary as crowds are still scary to this day, but that's mostly what I have to bring to the table. Thank you.

So, is Representative Larson going to be um moderating the goal setting session? Yeah, my my brain is very bad autopilot and I was I'm caught up on a whole bunch of things with the Riverton Youth Council in hopes of being prepared for the goal setting. Okay. So, goal setting is going to be March 11th. Yes. And you're going to meet with Representative Larson on the 25th. Yes. Okay. I'm sure Councilman Brothers can help you a lot more with than my words. Well, that's you're actually doing you're actually doing great, Dan. And here's the thing. There's only one way to get better at public speaking. Do you know what it is?

Speaking public is Yeah. So, so far you're doing great. I could sit here and we could just draw this out a really long time and get a lot of it out in one night if you want. I'd be fine with that. No, thank you. Very And it's known that people fear public speaking more than they fear death. It's true. So, it's a lot better to practice public speaking than the other. I would not suggest practicing dying. I am I'm good. I'm good. I have done speech and debate. So, that should be my practice with public speaking. Well, you're doing great. So, don't point.

Don't uh don't discount how you're doing. And and TK, you're doing great as well. And Royce, you're doing great as well. I just keep up the good work. Okay. So, Representative Larson, what are you planning on talking to him about? Representative Yes, please. Do you have it or do you want me to Would you like to elaborate on what we're going to You could You could take a shot if I remember clearly he wanted us to bring two ideas from No. Yes. Councilman Brothers, you please help me out. I have had a very

You've got it on the goal setting, Danny. I think that I think Gary's going to love your help because you you do have it. You you keep talking about that and that that you do have it for the goal setting because that was Gary as well. So, good job. But, um, Representative Larson, uh, that's kind of my thing. So, that's why they're they're not sure on that. I spoke to him and um you know this is uh youth council is all about civic engagement and learning about that and so um I actually have him coming to talk to the kids about how um state funding influences you know community level um and I thought uh it would be kind of fun for them to see you know what's happening in their community and how what's happening on the state level and what bills and laws they're passing and what they just passed are going to affect them on their level. Um so that's what he's coming to talk to them about.

That sounds good. I mean he's probably one of the longest me longest sitting members of the um appropriations committee previously. He's not there right now, but he's a good one to talk money about. Yeah. Talk money about with Yeah. Yeah. talk with about money. There we go. See, he's doing it, too. Okay. Anything else to add? No, really. Just it's definitely going to be a lot of uh attending meetings, setting goals, kind of really getting more in depth of how exactly we can do this and what we need to improve on.

I think we should shoot for just as a thought, you talked about Representative Larson, and I think this would be a good opportunity. I think for next year we should shoot for having the Riverton Youth Council go to um the legislature at some point. We have that written down, your honor. Perfect. Good. I met with Gary this week actually. And um I have written down field trip to the Capitol. They don't know that yet. So surprise. Um, we're going to show you off and then we discover how exactly state funds affect our lives. That's right. Good. Yes, you're on a good idea. I think you had a

We're thinking along the same way. If you want to definitely feel like you're a big deal, go to uh anytime you go to see the legislature. Your local legislators will usually try to catch you outside there and personal privilege try to say, "Hey, just so you know, I have some people here from show you off my town and they're here to talk and everybody will clap for you." So, they will. It's not too bad. It'll be good. Okay. Well, thank you. Appreciate your report. Thank you guys.

Keep up the good work. anything in particular you guys have that you would like us to work on? It's definitely main thing right now is we're trying to get a lot of our goals and things situated and if before a meeting we could get like further insight on like what you guys were planning that would be if we go ahead. I I just wanted to mention so um I serve as the liaison to pause and they were telling me that they could really use some help maybe from the youth council if you maybe want to talk about that. Maybe walking dogs and and just helping in general down there.

Heading cats. Walking dogs. Maybe don't don't walk the cats. They don't like to be walked. They like to go for walks, too. Yeah. They just don't want to be on a leash. Okay. Something to talk about at your goal setting, and I think we've talked a little bit about different uh opportunities to serve in um with some of the different local nonprofits or that kind of thing. It would probably be good to get a a good calendar of some of the nonprofit events going on and and maybe uh try to work towards that. So, I like that. Those are some good ideas. But, I mean, also kind of the welcome packet. That's probably one of the biggest things, but I know that takes some time. Okay. Keep up the good work.

Great. Appreciate it. All right. Thank you. Thank you. City count. All right. Well, Councilwoman B uh Brothers, why Borders? Why do we have three B names? Just to make it fun for you. Yeah, Councilwoman Brothers, since you already kind of chimed in, how about you uh start us off?

Excellent, your honor. Thank you very much. Um well, last night I had a rec board um meeting and it went well and uh we had after prom there and hoping to support them some and um yep. So that was good. And then uh we had a youth council meeting on the 18th and then like I said I met with Mr. Mro and we uh he will be doing the goal setting meeting and we're very excited for him. Um the kids have put in their request to have uh waters and a whiteboard um to they really really want to you know mirror us as much as possible which I really love that I know that sounds very simple but like it's mirroring what it like looks like to be an adult in a way you know and civic engagement and everything. uh it means that they want to, you know, try to grow up, I guess. And um not that we want to push that on them, but um but yeah, so we had some fun ideas um that we're going to be talking with. And you know, I'll just throw some of those out there beforehand so that you guys can kind of hear those, but like a trip to the capital just to to show off what we're doing here really. Um I say show off, but you know, show them what's going on at the capital, but also like show them that Riverton is doing this. Um and then uh things like um mirroring our idea with the um you know our YouTube shorts idea. Um maybe doing something like a um Instagram and YouTube idea that mirrors kind of that mirroring some of those ideas that we're doing on the youth council idea. Maybe um putting a um reporter a concern or something on their website or Instagram. um you know and and the bigger thing is what your honor

like you're you're saying um is making sure that they have a seat at the table everywhere in the community. So like um Councilwoman Borders like making sure that if PAS would like them there that they are there and so that's kind of the bigger thing is making sure that anywhere that they're they need to be that they are there. Um, and that's kind of the bigger overarching um, goal and theme that we're hoping for. Um, uh, they are now online and we have snow angels up and going. Thank you so much to Councilwoman Johnson for that.

Did they just out of curiosity with a small amount of snow that fell, did they have any kind of We did have um that

one request and we've had some volunteers. So, yes, we did. And then again, like one of the things, um, Councilwoman Johnson, your honor, um, like my, uh, elderly neighbor, you know, reached out to me that day and was like, I need somebody I'm going to have my son who's on the council walked over and like said, "Here's how to sign up." You know what I mean? And that's what we need to be doing. So, it's going to be even though we're going to be online, it's going to be a lot of us going to places and people that we know. Yeah.

And that way, um, you know, she has her daughter living with her. She can put in that request anytime that it's needed, helping them get set up. So, my son's like, "We can have it." Well, I was getting paid, Mom, and now I'm just going to walk across the street and not get paid. I was like, "That's right. That's how it works." Welcome to public service.

That's right. But now she'll have that and it it's going to end up being a wonderful program for the city and it's really actually very good that we've got it up and going on a non- snow year and we can go around and get this to members of the community. I'm very excited for it. And actually, now that you're throwing this idea out for paws, I'm my mind's going, we could do that for everything. We could do that for, you know, walking dogs and, you know, like, how cool is that? Connecting people anywhere that they need to go. So, great ideas everybody. Good job. All right.

Thank you. Yes, Councilman Bailey.

Thank you. I apologize. I was gone for our last meeting. February was full to the brim with meetings. I spent three or four days out of every week gone and couple of times to Cheyenne for legislative stuff and got to go down and hopefully give them a little bit of our opinion of what goes on and what needs to be done. So, um, got that done and then this last Friday I attended the Riverton Airport board meeting. Um, again, the airport's still doing well. January was down just a little bit over January of last year, but just a smidge. Um, again, doing well. Uh, the only issue that is again with our low snow year, we haven't had any much snow removal, but thank goodness cuz the snowblower had some more issues. So, they ran it for about 15 minutes and it jammed up and didn't blow snow. And

so, that was challenging. So, they're getting a hold of the manufacturer and trying to get that taken care of. So, frustrating long-term. The snowblower thing has been a challenge over time. So, but uh still under warranty, so I think we're okay. So, um and then uh this weekend I attended the Special Olympics dinner that they had at St. Margaret's. It was very well attended and the community got out and really supported them. Fantastic. And we have about I can't remember the exact number but over 60 Special Olympics athletes that participate. Um some have gone even to the international events. Um and the Special Olympics committee here basically funds that with help from all of us and does not cost the athletes anything. the transportation, the lodging, all of the stuff for them to participate gets taken care of, assuming they have enough money, of course, but they've been doing very nice. Um the the athletes served us dinner with the help of some folks from the Key Club and and so again, that's one of the events that, you know, the youth council could probably help with. And there's many of those kind of activities that go on and they almost always are looking for additional, you know, help doing that kind of stuff. serving, clean up, whatever, setting up tables, tearing down tables, that kind of stuff. So, um, again, it's always nice to go to those events and see lots of good participation from the community. And our community is very generous and always supports these events very well. So, makes me happy to say I live here.

Amen. So, uh, Councilman Carr, uh, I only attended one meeting, uh, two Thursday ago. We had a planning commission meeting, and that will go over, uh, here on the consent agenda. And I don't believe there's a planning commission meeting this week. Um, I did not see a packet. Your honor, there is a planning. Oh, there is. Yes. Well, there is. I will need it. So, if you could attend that. I will be attending that. Uh, that's all your honor. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilman Carr. Um, I just knew that because I I I'm on the email list. So, I get all of the when Chelsea's like, "Who's going to attend? Let us know so we can make sure we have a quorum." So, I get all of those. I'll be there. I won't be there. I'll be there. I won't be there. And so, it's just a way that it gets kind of drilled in my brain whether we have planning commission or not. All right. Well, sounds good. Um, Councilwoman Borders,

your honor, um, a couple things. I've attended, um, the 250 celebration. Uh, we have a parade committee and we're planning on that. Um, there'll be more details to come, but hopefully everybody's thinking about floats and what they could enter into the parade to just make it a big uh celebration. Um, let's see. I attended Jerry Kinsler's retirement party.

And that was pretty awesome. They've been in business like 51 years, I think, in the building they're in now. And uh it was just a really nice sendoff that their kids did for them. And um and then I also attended the Empty Bowl that was on February 19th and I think that event just gets bigger and bigger. Um endless tables of soup and fresh rolls and it was really really nice. So

and then I wanted to mention for Pause they've got an upcoming event on March 21st. It's called the St. Patrick's Day Patrick's Day pub crawl and uh it starts the registration's from noon to 1 at the Heritage Hall and then the event actually starts at 1:00. They're going to have lots of um cash prizes for best St. Patrick's Day costume. St. Patrick's Day.

Patrick's Day. You have to put the emphasis on pause. Um, so if anyone has questions, they can get a hold of pause and they can let them know what they want to find out. And other than that, that's about it. All right, sounds good. Uh, Councilwoman Johnson, just to completely take things out of order.

Well, you did. Um, I attended last Tuesday the ad hoc tag committee meeting um with fellow council members and helped make recommendations for tonight for the the tag grants. There's a lot of really cool things going on in Riverton this year and it's really really hard to um can choose for lack of better words um what to support but I think we did pretty good on that. So I'm excited about getting to that tonight. Um just a couple of reminders. The Mercy House is having a uh vision dinner. Um that's Saturday, April 25th at 5:30. They are looking for um some folks to attend that and help make that successful. So if you are open that date, I'm sure they would appreciate that. Um and aside from that, just been helping with the um Fremont County Law Enforcement Foundation event coming up, getting stuff together for that. Um, it's grown significantly, I think. And so, it's going to be a good turnout. And I'm excited for the food this year. They're they're stuffing the hog with stuff. So, it's actually it's actually um exciting. So,

what day is that going to be again? This day this month, this year, it is this year. It is the sun. It's the 28th. Um, so obviously everybody's welcome to come. We'd love as much support as possible. So, $50 a couple now. $50 a couple and live silent auction dinner. I don't know what all they have planned to be real honest, but I know they've got some really cool stuff um up for auction. There's going to be a safe that always has a little something in it. Um and I got to see that. It was pretty amazing. So, and that's going to be at the Fremont Center this year as opposed to Chandel Event Center where it was last year. Yes. Okay. And that's all I have.

All right. Councilman Larson, am I the last? Yeah. I don't know if I've ever had you last before, so we just got to

uh Your honor, I attended the solid waste meeting uh last last uh Monday in February, and uh the the board is sound. Um we didn't raise any rates. Um, but we uh would take arrangements for on cleanup days for taking certain amounts of trash for free if we made prior arrangements. And so instead of discounting, we would give grants out.

Wonder how that would work with the Rotary Cleanup Day. I'm writing a note for my wife. And um and I mentioned that and and the important thing is that that uh we do not want to discriminate and give freebies to somebody and not give it to others. So we chose to give it to no one. Mhm. The interesting thing now that you mentioned that is there is a calamity going on in Dubo where they are unable to receive any more horsemen at the dumps.

I there's just so many jokes we could be making. And uh consequently of Duboce was reaching out to farmers to utilize that in an appropriate manner instead of putting it in a deeper pile. Oh boy. And uh she was working on that. But the Duboce landfill is not rated for repository of horse waste. And so they need some place to get rid of it. And uh New Jersey maybe.

Yeah, of course the freight rate would be terrible. But nevertheless, uh the reason for that there's a lot of big barns that that's all they do is feed horses and ride them, etc. up in Duboce. And they're having a problem with the waste. Also, they're having a problem with limbs. and trees and they don't have the facility that we do and they asked about that and I said um have to talk to somebody in the city of Riverton for if we could use if they wanted to haul green waste down here. I mean that would be crazy. But anyway, so it was a it was a um there was a lot of horsing around I believe you,

your honor. Yes, sir. Are you offering to take their horsemen or No. Um, I had one other item that I should mention so that I, you know, get it in front of the public and don't get myself in trouble. Um, Rotary has been in the past couple of years sponsoring the Riverton Community Cleanup. That date has been chosen, April 18th, which is a Saturday. And so I'll have my boss get a hold of your boss and figure out what they got to do with that. But any organization that would like to put together a crew, they're nice.

You know, going to start in the morning and usually we're done by 11 or 12:00 and everybody just takes a little section and we clean up. And last year, what was it? 15,000 lbs of trash or something in that range that we got rid of and it really helps. Is there a meeting place, Mike? Yeah, usually we meet down at uh the Bailey Tire parking lot on Saturday morning. Familiar with it over there on Federal. Oh, and then the one with the big tire, right? Yeah, the one with big tire. I probably have to put a dollar in the pot somewhere, but maybe you could fill it with horsemen. Yeah. Jeez. So

everybody put that on their calendar and if you can get a group together or come down and we'll put you with a group to run around and pick up trash and we've got gloves and pickers and all kinds of stuff that orange vest have been donated and vests and all that kind of stuff so that we all stay safe and we don't make any more of a mess on the road. No horsing around. That's right. No horsing around. I will take that message to Solid Waste. see if we can't get some uh see if we need to fill out a form uh get a form filled out for the the um grant. That's right. Do we have a grant writer that can write for solid waste?

You could probably do it, Kyle. Thank you. All right. I'll be there. Thank you. Um Mr. Butterfield.

Thank you, your honor. Uh just want to mention that the community service contract application period is open and has been advertised. The uh applications need to be submitted before the end of this month and we encourage um community members to look at that announcement and to submit if they have interest. They can always reach out to administrative services director Mia Harris if they have questions and want to thank her for her work on that. also want to thank her for supporting the ad hoc CAD committee last week and value her contribution there. There will be no fix our road citizen committee this month. Um it would typically be held on the second Monday, but um it has been cancelled. As has already been mentioned, there will be a planning commission meeting this Thursday at 5:30 here in the council chambers. Um, and there will be opportunity for the board of adjustment to uh hear child care permit renewals as well as the annual home occupation permit renewals. The Riverview Road project continues and we express gratitude to the public for their patience as the contractors working to make improvements to the water line and then the uh surface infrastructure here in the next little bit. We encourage folks to please pay attention to the traffic control. drive slow and safe as there is a school in the area and also we want to ensure that the contractor's employees um aren't at risk while they're working to improve our infrastructure. Along the lines of that project, uh we are expecting that on March 9th, there will be milling operations uh commencing and further closures of that road as the asphalt will be milled up and prepared for surface um improvements as we get into the construction season. I commend our human resource generalist and members of the police department and

public works department for participating in the CWC job fair last week. It was a great opportunity to meet with several members of the community, let them know about um openings we have with the city, uh what it's like to work for a municipal government, and then also um express our need for seasonal opportunities as well, specific to our public works department in the summer. We're sad to note that one of our police officers just provided their twoe notice yesterday. We appreciate their service um but understand that they have made a decision to move on and go into a different field. We thank them for their service and I know the chief will continue his work to ensure that we do our best to maintain staffing levels and ensure that our community is safe. To that end, I express gratitude to our police department for their work today and yesterday as they've responded to issues and have uh definitely been serving our community in a very strong and productive manner. As it relates to police department hiring, uh we do have scheduled the physical test component of the application process this Saturday and we look forward to our applicants coming and hopefully performing well in that physical test as that is a component that is required not just for our hiring standards but also for the state's standards through postcertification. The legislative session has been very busy, fast, and furious, and I appreciate the efforts of our council as they've tracked legislation and participated. Staff has been engaged through this process. Uh there's been many critical deadlines as it comes to uh the near close of the session. Today is one of those where um if bills are not acted on that are on the general file, then they they um will not move forward and will expire. Um it's exciting to see that uh budget was able

to be um reached out of conference committee and is going to the governor's desk for review and uh potential signature. And we also are encouraged by some of the movement as it relates to direct distribution and a change in how sales tax allocations will impact the city of Riverton. There are still several items of legislation that will impact us and we we remain vigilant in watching that and appreciate the efforts of WHAM as they are at the capital on a daily basis. The DUI task force um was uh out working this past weekend in Riverton and in Lander and I commend the chief and our other chiefs in Fremont County for coordinating and participating together and improving our communities. Also want to thank WRTA because we're seeing that there is success through the Safe Rides program and we appreciate their efforts there.

Good. Your honor, I ran through a number of things and I'm double-checking my list and I think that um completes what I need to bring forward, but I'd be happy to stand for any questions.

Okay. Um, I also had the opportunity to attend uh the retirement for Jerry and Lorie Kinsler and had a proclamation that I had read. I actually made some changes to it, so I'm going to have to get you a a new version of it, Mia. Uh, so we can have that recorded, but um, I'll get that to you. It was a great opportunity. Um, I want to share a little bit of what I I guess I had shared about that. So, first off, um I I've lived in Riverton most of my life. And at least the last 15 years, every single Mother's Day, my mom just says all she wants is or corsage. And every single year, we get one or have gotten one from Jerry. And it's just been calling them up and saying, "I'd like to get a corsage for my mother. This is her name." They're like, "Oh, yeah. We'll get something." And every year she loves it. And um makes a big deal about it. And that kind of individual service is such a benefit to a community.

Yeah.

And it happens with everything. Uh Jerry's has been there throughout uh so many different people's important times in their lives, whether it's graduation, whether it's deaths, whatever it might be. And it's definitely going to be that's there's a hole. It's just the way it's going to be. And I appreciate that there's, you know, Sweetwater is is stepping up to provide uh some of that service and everything. And but it it's been good. And I I want to share just kind of a funny story that I shared during that. Kind of funny. We started talking about um shoplifting a couple years back and what can we do about some of the shoplifting we've had around the community and there were a lot of different ideas. And one of the things that I I just remember very well, this was about 8 10 years ago, was Jerry's strategy for dealing with shoplifterss was just to greet them the minute they come in the door, which is simultaneously a great strategy for shoplifting and simultaneously also just good customer service. And I just thought that was an incredible idea to say, I'm going to basically try to befriend or greet people as they come in the door so that they're less likely to steal from me. Now, I don't know how well that strategy worked. You'd have to ask Jerry. I I don't know. But I can tell you in my years as a prosecutor, I don't think I have ever prosecuted a case where somebody stole something from Jerry's store. So, good, bad, or indifferent, maybe it was a strategy that worked. But just that kind of example of um customer service, caring about people. I I know that Jerry's store was often a place where people would go and just chat about what was going on. I mean, whether you wanted to or not, Jerry would pull you aside and talk to you. Um I love him. He likes to talk. Anybody here

could probably attest to that. But uh it's it's definitely the end of an era and I appreciate how long they've been here. And it was a really fun opportunity to recognize him. And you left before the proclamation and you got there after it. Yeah. So you I could sit here and say just how wonderful it was and how people loved it and you have nothing to say that it was or wasn't. So excuse me. Oh yes. It was okay.

You will not be recognized right now. Anyway, and I I I'm of course joking, but yeah, you were there. That's right. So, it was a good opportunity and I appreciate that. And it it's just a rare set of circumstances where you have someone who's been in business for 50 years. And one of the fun stories that I was able to share that they shared is he had someone that he provided wedding uh flowers for their wedding and just last year provided flowers for their 50th anniversary. So what a great kind of full circle sort of thing for them. Um other than that had an FCAG meeting. We actually have had two FCAG meetings since our last meeting. Um first one was visiting with people from uh CTAA. That's an organization that uh works with different transit authorities trying to you know find different ways they can improve services just how to have better uh ways that they do services and uh good opportunity to visit with them. They were supposed to be here in our last meeting as you may recall with Mr. Nicholls here uh were not able to attend and then they were supposed to attend our FCAG meeting and then they got out of here while the snowstorm was going because they didn't want to lose the opportunity.

I did give them a hard time. I will just say so you all remember I did give them a hard time about taking I80 and uh they remembered that for next time. Um also had an opportunity to attend the uh Riverton Economic Development uh group uh heard from uh the Bootstrap Collaborative. They've been uh planning and will be putting on an entrepreneurship uh conference this year. Would encourage those who are interested to attend that. We'll be at Central Wyoming College. I'll try to remember to get the exact date when that will be. Probably at our next meeting. I I don't remember when it is. Um but I'll try to make sure people know about that and maybe tell Mike Hoy he needs to come in here and tell us about it too.

Okay.

So, that is something that's coming up. Uh the other thing I guess for FCAG was that we adopted as part of FCAG a mission statement mission statement of mission. I don't know how we had specifically defined it and I had that up and I closed it down and I'm not going to go dig through and look for it but it was a good opportunity to be speaking about that and um so going in good directions with that group. Last thing I want to say is I appreciate our senator representatives. Um they did a lot of hard work uh working towards the budget. Definitely appreciate um Senator Salazar. Uh you may have been keeping track of this or may not have, but we've had what we've called supplemental funding or direct distribution from the state that goes towards the communities uh counties and to cities, municipalities. and to make that a more permanent thing so that we're not going and speaking to them every budget session. There had been discussion and was adopted um modifying how the sales tax is the percentage that goes to the communities versus the uh percentage that's going to the state and increasing the amount of that that would be going to communities so that it can uh change the way that it works so that we're not having to go to them every two years and ask for direct distribution. So, that's become more of a permanent thing and should once the governor signs the budget. Please do so, governor, if you're listening to this, which I doubt. Um, but I appreciate that. Uh, one of the votes specifically to increase that from what had been at 7% to 8% was Senator Salazar. So, I appreciate him listening to his constituents. We

specifically grabbed him and said, "Hey, seven's great. could we do eight? And he hemmed and hoded and said probably not. And then he did. So appreciate him stepping up for Riverton uh in that regard. All right. Next on the agenda, we have communication from the floor. Citizens comments. Anyone in the audience wishing to address the council regarding an item that's scheduled for a public hearing will be given an opportunity during that public hearing. Uh if you would like to speak about something that's not on the agenda, this would be a good time to speak. I would note uh that in either event, we're going to have a timer up here if it's working. Is it working, Max? Okay. We're going to have a timer up here that'll let you know. If you're part of a group, we'll give you 10 minutes to kind of split up between you and the other members of your group. If you're an individual, I'd ask you to keep your comments to five minutes. In either event, we'd ask you if it's going to be something where you're going to be speaking during an agenda item, which is fine. When we call the agenda item, if you'd like to come up and speak about it, then just try to get my attention and I'll recognize you and give you a chance to speak. If it's during an agenda item, I'd ask you to keep your comments directed to that item. Um, not to have it stray out of topic. I'd also ask you to avoid comments of a personal nature reflecting on the character or conduct of another person, personal criticism, ridicule, name calling, fighting words, other disruptive kind of language. I'd ask you to refrain from that. Um, but I'd also ask you to uh come up, tell us your name, and if you're with an in group, which group you're with, and we'll give you some time right now. Good evening. Uh, for every one that doesn't know, I'm Cindy with the Riverton Chamber and Visitors Center. I come monthly and give a little report about the chamber and what's going on. I've got some pamphlets here.

Uh just a couple things that's been going on at the chamber and visitors center. Uh last week I was in Cheyenne at the governor's hospitality and tourism conference uh for the visitor center portion of um the chamber and uh that was a really great event to go to. We learn a lot about um you know tourism in Wyoming and and different things that we can do to help that. Uh that aligns with our visitors center as well. I also was able to attend um a morning function with the state uh chamber Wyoming state chamber of commerce. Uh actually had Governor Gordon uh speak to our small group. So that was that was a nice uh thing. So well worth my time down there. Um, that's that stuff does cost money. So, just that uh the registration and the hotel itself was $1,200. Um, so yeah. Um, we've got as a packet I turned into you guys, there's three uh we've got a lunch and learn this Friday. We've got Patrick Edwards uh coming to present on economic development. What is economic development? He gives a really great presentation on that. That's why I'd encourage anyone and everyone that wants to come uh and we'll feed you a good lunch. And then we've got a second ribbon cutting on Saturday. Uh this is for the other half of the bookstore. Um this one's for Forest and Fawn. Last Saturday we did one for Lioness Lane. Uh for anyone that doesn't know, there are two bookstores in the in one location, two different names. Um uh so it's kind of fun to see what they've got going on. We're really happy to have them on Main Street. So uh come at 9:30. We're going to do a quick ribbon cutting before they start their grand opening. So um at the end of the month we have our after

hours. It's going to be at the Boys and Girls Club. So that should be a good good event. Um hoping everybody can come. And I just want to say thank you uh to the ad hoc TAD committee for your recommendations. Uh do appreciate it and I know how hard it is and uh how hard it is to do the applications to get them just right and you always think you should do something different after you've done it and it's it's just hard. So, I appreciate the work you guys do and your recommendation and I'm open for any questions if anyone has anything for me. Okay.

Okay. Thanks. Thank you. And I I uh I was not able to attend the ribbon cutting for Lionus Lane, but that's Wyoming's first romanceonly bookstore. Yes. Oh, that's cool. Thank you. all romance sub genres over there at uh former Metallark Books, right? And then so they're going to be sharing that space. Is that correct? Not not former uh Metallark Books. They are where Western Supply the salary shop is. I'm sorry. Metallark Books. That's where the um plumbing shop is. Plumbing shop is. Yep. They're going to have their show showroom there. So yeah.

All right. Thank you. All right. Anyone else? Good evening. I am Andrea Watson with That Scared Me. It is loud. It is loud. It wakes you up.

So, I am Andrea Watson with Wind River JobCore and I just came to give you guys a quick update on how things are going up at Wind River JobCore. Um, along with this, um, some of you may have checked your email today and gotten an email from me. We will be having our graduation on March 20th. Um, we do humbly invite our council members to attend our graduation. U, please RSVP and let me know if you're going to be in attendance. That way I can let security know who's coming and and everything. So, I also brought you guys invitations. Um, I'm going to bring you guys pass out one of these impact statements as well as um the newest edition of our newsletter. Um, I just wanted to let you guys know that from January 1st of this year, we have enrolled 53 new students. Um, we have graduated since June 1st of 2025 to February 28th of 2026. 76 students. Out of those 76 students, and I'm going to apologize right here because it says 50, it should say 51. Um 51 students have full-time trade related jobs. 12 of them went into apprenticeships, four of them are in college enrollments, two of them are military enlistments, and four of them are in advanced training transfers. with the advanced training transfers, excuse me. We currently have three of our welding students that are applying for the Engles shipyard um advanced training program with the Gulfport job corps. Um so they will go down there. They actually get to work on the naval ships at the Engles um shipyard there in Mississippi. And for the first 3 months, they are in the transition hub where they learn how to save their money, their personal finance as they're

earning a wage while they're working on these ships. And they take our our welders, our pipe fitters, our carpentry students, our BCT students, and our electrical students. So, it's an amazing opportunity for these young men and women that are coming out of our centers and all the centers across the nation. So, I'm going to pass these out for you guys. Does it have the time of the graduation? 3 o'clock. Three. Perfect.

Um I'd also like to let you guys know that last week our senator director uh went to the National JobCore um spring conference in Washington DC and met with legislators for Hill Day. And during that they also have a conference for the National JobCore Association. And our center won a gold star from the National JobCore for community engagement. So, just wanted to share that great information with you and I'm here if you guys have any questions. Any questions?

Appreciate it. So, it sounds like you said since June of last year, you've had 76 students graduate. You've had 50 new students since January. That sounds like that's a lot more than you would normally just have in a three-month period. So we didn't we were bringing in about nine students every week when um we were given the go-ahhead to start bringing new students in and then in so we go to school year round. Our students only get break in the wintertime. They get two two weeks off in the wintertime. So we didn't bring in a bunch of students in December because there was no sense in bringing them in and then turning around and shipping them back out for winter break. So, our very first class that we brought back um started bringing students in that first week of January after winter break, we had 17. We were scheduled to have 19, but we ended up having 17 students that arrived on center. And so, our numbers have kind of gone sporadic. We've had, you know, 19 and then nine and then six and then five and, you know, different numbers throughout the weeks. But

good though. Keep up the good work. Thank you. Look forward to being there for graduation. All right, sounds good. Do I take that as your confirmation? I sent you an email. Okay. Yes, I will be there. I actually saw you when I walked in and I realized I hadn't emailed you back yet, so I did. Anyone else? Going once. Thank we'll go to the consent agenda. Administrative services director, Miss Harris, would you please read the consent agenda items by title only?

Yes, your honor. Amendment to the minutes of the January 20th, 2026 regular council meeting. Minutes of the February 17th, 2026 regular council meeting. Minutes of the March 3rd, 2026 finance committee meeting. Finance committee recommendations from March 3rd, 2026. Consideration of resolution number 1543422 East Maine, which reads, "A resolution of the governing body of the city of Riverton granting a second extension to complete the construction of a commercial building on lots 21- 24, block 11, original town of Riverton, 422 East Main Street, and 1500 block subdivision, lot three, reubdivision.

Okay. Items requiring further discussion. Councilman Carr. Thank you, your honor. Uh, the finance committee met at 6:47 PM tonight and recommend consideration of claims to be paid in the amount of $193,85928. Payroll and liabilities for February 20th, 2026 in the amount of $526,2346 for a total of $720,93.34. Okay. I'd entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented. So move second.

Councilman Bailey with the motion. Councilwoman orders with the second. Any discussion or is I should do better at this. Even before we vote, I could ask if anyone wants to pull anything off of the consent agenda for any purpose. It's not too late now if we wanted. Okay. Any other discussion? All in favor say I. I. Any oppose? Say nay. Vote. I. Motion passes. Tourism asset development grant awards. Miss Harris, could you please give us your report?

Thank you, mayor and council. The TAD committee met on February 24th to review 22 applications for the 2026 tourism asset development program. Each request was evaluated for project readiness, expected benefit to Riverton's visitor economy, the long-term value to the community, and the strength of partnership or matching funds. The committee has prepared recommended awards for your consideration. Applications not recommended did either not meet the pro program criteria, were not ready for implementation, or exceeded available resources. The TAD fund currently holds $14,519.40 and projected lodging tax dispersements for 2026 total $85,66098 for an overall program budget of $100,180.38. All recommended awards help with this amount and staff is asking council to review the committee's recommendation and provide direction on the 2026 awards. Okay, thank you. It took me a minute to write down. I would entertain a motion to um consider the recommendation of awards from the tourism asset development promotion committee.

So moved. Second. I guess we'll still need to have a motion in regards to what we would want the amounts to be. Is that what you would want to have going forward, your honor? or you could just put them as uh recommend them as approved based on the information provided in the staff report. Okay. Well, let's talk about it. Any discussion on this where we're at? By the way, appreciate everyone who served on the committee. This is not an easy thing. Same thing every year, your honor.

Yes, And again, I was one of the members of the committee, you know, and and again, like most of the time when we're doing these kind of things, we get $151,320 worth of requests. And we were tasked with giving out the amount of $90,000 that we had to spend.

And so, obviously, those are not easy decisions. Um, again, a lot of good projects. we had to allocate that money to the best of our ability to stay within our budget. Um so again, we presented that list. Um and we did the best that we could. We did leave $4,000 that we considered our um new opportunity fund, which is some money set aside in case we get something that wasn't presented that would be a good project to bring to the city of Routton to bring people here. And so we left that as a contingency fund. savings, whatever you want to call it. Um, also one of the things that we did is ask Miss Harris to give us the balance of what we had left from last year, which we now have. Um, so again, we have about $10,000 that's not expended because the estimate of what we're going to bring in for this year, which the TAD the visitor council basically bases their budget off what they got for last year. So the the amount we get is pretty much set it and then whatever they bring in this year will be the budget for next year and so forth. Um, but we do have that 10,000 left over and I would like to just for the purpose of discussion recommend that we take 8,000 of that 10,000 and apply it to the uh depot foundation travel stories uh project and give another $2,000 to put in our new develop or uh new opportunity fund. So that would be an amendment to that motion

your honor. Okay. So your recommendation just to be clear is right now what we have in the packet is 2026 recommendation amounts to 90,000 right but with what you had received as information from Miss Harris with the additional about 10,000 would recommend that eight of that would go towards the travel stories two of that would go towards the new opportunity fund in other It's as the year goes on, we'd keep our ears out for anything that would be coming along. Okay, Councilwoman Johnson,

I just wanted to weigh in on that. I actually had an opportunity to visit with Miss Klein prior to tonight's meeting. Um, and she was actually okay with that not being funded right away, uh, because of the other projects that she's working on. Um, so if she'd like to come up and visit about that a little bit.

Thank you. I'm Kathy Klein. Uh, and um submitted those um the travel stories piece. I need to ask um cultural tourism if I want to ask cultural tourism for funds. I can't ask them for funds unless I have matching funds. I could originally if this had been okay I would have planned to ask them for those funds in April because it wasn't okay. I figured well I'll ask for them in October in hopes that I could come back to you guys in January next year and ask for those funds again. If you do have those funds out there,

um, I really appreciate you thinking of us and I I probably would still ask cultural trust fund in October instead of April because that'll just fit with my work schedule. Um, so I don't know how that changes things for you guys if postponing the um uh um expenditure helps in any way. But um that's when I would look at u starting that work would be later in the fall. Okay. So, and that would be in hopes of getting the match. If I don't get the match, then I wouldn't use the money at all.

Okay. If so, then I would rescend what I just said as the amendment. Okay. So, we're back to where we were, which is the the funding the 2026 recommendation for the 90,000 is where we're at right now as presented. Okay. Any other discussion? Um, so Fremont County Fair, tell me about that item if you could. anybody that's on

I will yeah I I I believe their ask was 10,000 um and I think that we just had discussed that they had faced some challenging times here recently and we tried to um help with that because we felt that the fair is a big event that goes on in our community um and we really wanted to support it this year. We really focused on things that bring in tourism to our area, things that are big events that people attend and we tried to give as much as we possibly could within reason. Um, and so we gave a little bit more to to the fair this year to to help keep that going. Um, it's it it supports youth in so many ways. Um, and there's a lot of things that goes on there and I I I think we really wanted to to see that continue for the community.

Well, they always have just good events. They can bring in some fun things that that are unique and enjoyable and that's good. I just know that that, you know, I don't know that we've had as much for that in the past and I appreciate the committee looking at that. And I mean, I think it brings people in. And I think Oh, definitely. I think the only other one um that got more than they typically do was the or that we recommended was the Riverton Raiders. Um

I see that there was an ask for 15,000 and the recommendation was seven. Yeah, we recommended seven. Uh last year they got four but they are um hosting additional tournaments this year and four four I believe and they have three double headers I think going on too. So and that's bringing people in staying overnight. Pretty pretty significant. Yeah. Um so we did recommend a little bit more to them this year and then tried to give as much as we could to everyone else. And then I think the weapons collectors association, we had had something last year for that again as well, didn't we? I think they were new. They were new.

If I might, um, your honor, members of the council, um, city of Riverton staff, and I shared with Miss Harris our newsletter, and you're all going to be getting it before our members are even getting it because 162 of them went out in the mail today. So, you're getting it before the post office can deliver it. I'm Marilyn Midau. I'm the secretary with the Wyoming Weapons Collectors Association. I did talk with you last year and you were kind enough to give us a proclamation recognizing our members for the ongoing support that they pump into our local Riverton economy. This is our 37th annual gun show. We didn't have one in 2020 because of the COVID pandemic, but since the mid 80s, we've been in Riverton every single year over Memorial Weekend. And last year we had 118 vendors who came in from out of town and they are guaranteed they're going to be staying in hotel rooms. They're going to be spending money here. And so our proposal was actually a little bit different. It's not just a shotgun of advertising, a shotgun of marketing. We want to focus on that I25 corridor starting at Casper and extending down into Lamur, Weld, and Boulder counties in Colorado because in Colorado they're not as Second Amendment friendly as we are here in Wyoming. And we've already been approached by the Colorado Collectors Association. They had to leave Denver. They were actually run out of Denver. So now they're doing their show in Gley. So, we've been approached by them saying, "Hey, why don't you move your show to Cheyenne and we can come up to Cheyenne and meet you and we'll have a collective show together." And as I think most of you know, I live right here in Fremont County. I was very thrilled when we could move the main office for the Wyoming Weapons Collectors to Fremont County last year. I want to see that money continuing to come into our area. I don't want to see that money go to Natrona County or Laramie County or Albany County. I don't want to see it go

anywhere but right here in Fremont County, right here in Riverton where it belongs. So, what our proposal is for is to target those people primarily in northern Colorado, but starting out with that I25 corridor going from Casper to the Colorado border and then into Colorado. The reason for that, when you're targeting people that are traveling from that distance, they're going to stay overnight. And if they don't stay at least one night, chances are we're going to be able to wrangle them in to stay in more than one night, especially on a holiday weekend. We're offering a lot of a lot of perks this year. When you take a look at your newsletter, we have a youth shooting range set up. We're doing a Sunday morning cowboy church that's open to the entire community. We're really doubling down on family. Our focus has always been on youth education, safety, and marksmanship. And we'll continue along those lines, but we're really doubling down on attracting families and bringing younger people into the fold. So, what our marketing plan is for is for a 35 plus demographic, cutting off at about age 70. And we're targeting people who are homeowners with an annual income in excess of $125,000, home values in excess of $300,000 with an inclination to travel who are already gun owners. So, we are very targeted in that marketing. And I will stand for any questions.

I appreciate it, Miss Ms. Midau. and um appreciate you letting us know about that. And I I just had in the back of my mind, I knew that we had done something last year, but we we did a proclamation. Thank you very much for that. And this is our first time asking for TAD funding. Perfect. And in all of these years, I don't think people were were probably thinking quite as big as we're thinking right now. We have a a great group of people from all across the state. We also have board members from Colorado and Montana. We have members as far east as the Indianapolis area and as far west as Las Vegas. All right. Thank you.

I just wanted to express in your application how detailed it was. I'm detail oriented and so I appreciate and I I I like your your your method of of targeting a specific thing. Um, I think our recommendation was because this is the first time and so we went with the bare minimum to see how that works out and I'm hopeful that um if it works out and we see bigger numbers and and things like that that we'll be able to fund additional to target even more. But but I I just wanted to say I appreciate the time and effort that you put into the application with all the detail.

Thank you on that. I I appreciate hearing that because sometimes I'm I have a background in marketing and so for me it's it's a puzzle. It's putting everything together and figuring out where can we best spend that money. You know, right now we already have national ads going. We have statewide ads going. We have ads going in bordering states and then we hold off on our local advertising until a lot closer to the event itself. And we're going to be sold out again this year. We were sold out last year. We have two buildings at the Fremont County Fairgrounds this year. We have Heritage Hall along with the Fremont Center and we will be once again sold out. Good deal.

It it it's great. I I just think that um it's a good use of what the money is supposed to be used for and so I just appreciated the the time and detail you put into that. So, thank you. Thank you, your honor, and and members of the council. I appreciate you very much. Thank you, Miss Midau. All right. Anything else on this? Do we need I guess we've already just had a motion to discuss it. Do we need a motion in terms of or do or could you just get consensus in terms of approval from the council? What do you think, Mr. Butterfield? Miss Harris.

Your honor, I believe uh Councilman Bailey's recommendation was not a motion. It's just been discussion and the motion came forward to approve the recommendation from Councilman Carr. Miss Harris can tell us the second. Yes, I have a second from Council Member Brothers. Okay. And so that would be approve the recommendations of award from the Okay, sounds good. Any other discussion? So I I guess would we say then that the remaining if if that's the case, we'd be looking at how much that would because this would mean that there's still money there that's not being appropriated.

Your honor, if I could address that. Yes, sir.

Um, it is dependent upon how the Wind River Visitor Council allocates funds at the beginning of fiscal year 27. Currently, we receive approximately $14,000 every other month from the visitor council for our allocation of the fisc year uh 26 budget. As you uh remember, our allocation for TAD is based on the percentage of our contribution to the lodging sales tax. So, basically from from our hotels. Uh Miss Wilson and I have been going back and forth for about two weeks now on what our allocation will be in fiscal year 27 based on that percentage. and it is in their ears as Councilman Bailey had um discussed, but she's been working with the Department of Revenue in the sense that we think that one of the hotels was misallocated or miscatategorized is maybe the better way to put it as a a county hotel rather than a Riverton hotel. All of that being said, um I think the projection to have $90,000 at the end of the calendar year of 26 is appropriate. Um, it's potential that that $10,000 will come in, but it is still contingent on Miss Wilson working with the Department of Revenue on what that percentage allocation will be for next fiscal year. So, I think you're very safe in not overawwarding right now at your 90,000 um mark that the committee's worked on. And there's a potential that you'll have another 10,000, but we need to get verification on that because it could be that rather than receiving roughly $14,000 every other month, beginning in July, we would potentially be re receiving 10,500 every other month. So, a little bit of a reduction. So, I think it's safe to award what we

know conservatively that we'll have and then you can readress this once Miss Wilson follows up and gives us a firm answer on our percentage contribution which then um dictates how much we'll receive in TAD. Okay. Well, I think that makes sense then. I think Tad's trying to be careful and for the So, it makes sense. Any other discussion?

And if I remember correctly, this is they would have to re uh bring receipts in to be reimbursed. It is not a grant. It's a reimbursement of expenses and we can't reimburse expenses until we have the funds received. And so we don't risk spending money we don't have. So, right. Gotcha. Okay. All right. All in favor say I. I.

Any oppose say nay. I vote I. Motion passes. Consideration ordinance 260003, third and final reading, Berlin's addition reszone. I am seeing an empty chair there next to the chief. I was going to be asking the community development director about this. Should I ask the chief about it? Do you know about the Berlin's edition reszone chief? It's in the city. It's in the city. Good. Good. Mr. Butterfield, forgive me. I need to just toggle back on my screens. I was in in Excel. Let me get back to our PDF really quick.

I was talking to the chief to try to give you that time, but we can give you a little I the chief's a very standup person, and I'm sure he would have done great with the report.

Before you tonight on third reading is the reszone as applied by Mr. Tyler Goff. I do want to make reference that we have several members of the planning commission here, including our planning commission chairperson, Sean Christensen. We're very grateful for his attendance and I'm sure he'd be willing to answer any questions as it relates to um this application and also the subsequent matter that follows. Essentially, the proposal as has come forward on first and second reading is to reszone uh the property from a C1 to an R2. And this really um works well for the replat that will be followed on the next item. I believe this has been sufficiently and adequately explained to you in the previous meetings, but we would be happy to stand for any questions as you consider this on third reading.

Okay. Um well, let's start off with since we have to do this by ordinance, Miss Harris, could you please read um 26003 by title only? Proposed ordinance number 26-00003, an ordinance amending the zoning district map of the city of Riverton, Wyoming, designating the reson Berlin's first edition lot 2, block 2, city of Riverton, Fremont County, Wyoming from commercial district C1 to residential dis district D district R2. All right. I'd entertain a motion to adopt ordinance 26003 on third and final reading.

So moved. Second. Motion by councilman Larson, second by councilman Bailey, I think. I don't know. What's that? Har seconded. No, you didn't. Nope. I'll second it, Mr. Bailey. Sorry, my bad. I think we we we had That's right. We're good. I'm not thinking that this is going to fail tonight just based on the number of seconds.

Uh discussion on that motion. Okay. Appreciate your hard work in the planning commission. Anything you need to add on that, mayor, members of council? No, I think uh um Administrator Butterfield covered it very well and and we had some discussion about it at a number of different commission meetings and I think uh yeah, I think it was unanimous at the commission meetings as well. So, I think it went real well. Okay. Good. Thank you.

Appreciate it. Um, one of the things that I was concerned about, and I'll just bring this up because it was something that I had expressed to Mr. Misho offline. I was looking at our code and in terms of how we treat things when we have a residential next to a commercial lot and how usually you would have an obligation as a commercial lot owner to be having something so that you're blocking off the you know from the residential area. Um Mr. Misho's interpretation was with property A located next to property B, property B changes zoning, property A is automatically considered an allowed pre-existing non-conforming use. So property A would not be required to comply with the new zoning regulation of property B. My concern with that was, okay, now we have here we had commercial, here we had residential, and if we made it so that now residential moves over, now do you have this commercial property that didn't used to have fencing or whatever, are they going to have to get fencing to comply with the uh way that our code reads that you've got to have that break

and barrier between the two. Yes. And uh Mr. Misho says no. That was my only concern because I didn't want to have this be something where now, you know, because of a zoning change now this commercial lot owner has to change the way that their lot is and I didn't want to get into that and he said we're okay. So, appreciate Mr. Misho looking into that and taking my questions seriously. Even though he's not here for me to say thank you, Gary, I'll say thank you to his empty chair. Any other discussion on this? Okay. If you could please conduct a roll call vote. Miss Harris. Council member Eric Carr. I. Council member Rebecca Brothers. I. Council member Mike Bailey. Hi. Council member Carlo Borders.

I. Council member Kyle Larson. I. Council member Karen Johnson. I. Mayor Tim Hancock. I vote I. And would note that the motion passes. Uh Berlin's first edition lots two and three and block two replat. Um Mr. Butterfield again.

Thank you. This is basically the second step of the action you just took. Um, Mr. Goff submitted an application as a minor subdivision to replplat lots 2, three, and four of block two of the Berlin first edition to create lots 4A and lots 2A. um in your packet um is a description of what that replat looks like and what the new lots created by this potential action um would um be from a parameter standpoint. I do think that it's important to note that with your previous action, it it creates a situation where lot 2A would not be governed by two separate zones. So I think that was appropriate and smart on the part of the applicant, the planning commission, city staff and you as a council. The planning commission has had opportunity to review this replat application. Again, you have your planning commission chairperson here to provide any supplemental information, but it is our recommendation that you approve this replat to create lots 4A and 2A.

All right. I'd entertain a m a motion motion nothing to do with cows here in this is there Mr. Guff. No cows. No motions. All right. I'd entertain a motion to approve the minor subdivision application for Berlin's first edition lots 2, three, and four, block two reset. So moved. Second. Motion by Councilman Bailey, second by Councilwoman Borders. Any discussion on this one? All in favor say I. I.

Any oppose say nay. I vote I. Motion passes. We're at 8:26. Time for a break. Uh I think it's probably a good time for a break. Um I'd just uh if nobody has any objection, I'd say we're in um we'll adjourn until 8:35. Sound good? Be adjourned at 8:26. Not adjourned. Recess. Recess.

We are not adjourning. Recess horses Right. I got a

All right. So, friendly wager doesn't mean there's actually any money. I was hoping to make some money, but oh well. Okay. Uh, engineering services agreement, West Main Waterline Project, public works directors. Oh, you're right here, Brendan. Would you give us your report, please, Mr.

Thank you, your honor, members of the council. Uh, tonight in front of you is a consulting services agreement for the approval um between HDR Engineering and the city of Riverton. This is for design services for the West Main Street water transmission line project. Um, as a background, the water this waterline project will replace over a mile of water line in West Main Street. It will eliminate approximately a thousand feet of transite water line. Uh this is line that the EPA has recommended that the city replace um within within the um boundary of the city limits. Um it'll provide a much needed supply to the south to the streets on the off the roadway um that are currently under supplied or have poor material that that connect those streets. Um and then as a reminder, this was one of this was the first project that was recommended for completion with the 2023 level one master plan study. So with the funding secured, uh the final step is to secure an engineer consultant agreement. Uh the consultant will need to work with WOT as well as our funding partners which are Wyoming Water Development Commission which will supply up to 50% provide up to 50% funding for this project and then the state revolving funding. Um once designed, the project will be placed into the bid plans for WOT for the West Main Street project and that'll go into effect for the 2027 construction season. Um, as a reminder, HDR Incorp Incorporated was the top ranked firm um after a 3-week advertisement period and then uh they were uh um they were selected after the interview portion of the of the selection portion of the of of the project, excuse me. And uh and they after their um statement of qualifications were submitted as well. So, a draft um uh staff has reviewed the contract that you have in front of you. Um it um funding partners have also reviewed the

contract as well. Um there's a couple drafts um in the contract itself as um SRF funding requires uh certain intervals um for review um on the project. Um I believe it's a 10% and 50% design interval. Um, if this is approved tonight that this fee will be paid uh in the amount of 500 thous,38. It will be paid for from the state revolving fund grant/loan that was approved um by the state land investment board at the February 5th meeting. These funds do come with the 25% principal forgiveness amount. Um and then additionally, the Wyoming water development funds can take effect once the omnibus bill is approved by the state legislature. So, and with that, I can answer any questions.

All right. I'd entertain a motion to approve the agreement between HDR, City of Riverton for design services for the West Main Street Transmission Line Project. So moved. Second. Councilwoman Johnson with the motion. Councilman Bailey with the second. Any discussion? When does this start again? When will they start that again? Is that construction? Excuse me. Uh this will be uh next spring. Next spring. Uh bidding will be this fall, beginning around November. Thank you. You bet. But they'll start design immediately. If approved immediately. Yes. If approved. Good, good, good point. Yeah.

We have a meeting planned for Thursday. Oh, your honor. show all your So I assume that we do have some preliminary plans that we use to get this grant going for this waterline. So did they do the preliminary plans also? Your honor, HDR did not do the preliminary plans, but the preliminary plans have been made available to all the contractors that um have have bid on this. Um the preliminary plans are more of a um uh would be a uh conceptual plans let's say. Um and then and then they were kind of fleshed out with a level two uh mass uh plan that was submitted to Wyoming water development for funding. So

okay so part of this money is to give a final set of construction documents your honor for bidding and all that. So that that is correct. Yeah. All right. Thank you. I just would note this agreement's effective date is insert date. Did somebody insert a date? Your honor, if you turn back four pages, it does say that the agreement is effective on the date that it is signed. There I did mark. Yeah, I know. I just was laughing at the fact that this is a form and nobody inserted the date. Okay, sounds good. Uh, all in favor say I.

I. Any oppose say nay. I vote I. Motion passes. Consideration of resolution 1544 fiscal year 27 council goals. Mr. Butterfield.

Thank you, your honor. I just want to thank you as a council for your efforts on February 10th to meet and discuss the goals that you have for fiscal year 27 and also extend our appreciation again to Mr. Tim Nichols who did a wonderful job I think in facilitating your discussion. The resolution and exhibit attached there too represent um the goals that um you finalized. Obviously, these are your your goals. So, you have every opportunity to modify that before the resolution is adopted. As you remember, um the council along with Mr. Nichols took a little bit of a different path um than what we have done in recent years and uh I think moved towards a um an area of simplification with three goals that will provide direction to staff and also the community and and you the council in next fiscal year. I'd be happy to work on this further if you have any questions or have any recommendations.

Okay. Well, Miss Harris, could you please read resolution 1544 by title only? Yes, your honor. Resolution number 1544, a resolution of the governing body of the city of Riverton establishing goals and objectives for fiscal year 2026 2027 to promote the long-term welfare and success of the city of Riverton. I entertain a motion to adopt resolution 1544. Submit. Second. moved by two people.

Motion by Councilwoman Borders, second by Councilman Carr. Discussion on that. I I guess the only thing that um I would suggest is that to add a verb to each of these. That was going to be my suggestion. I like verbs. Verbs are good. Increase public. So, I was coming up with some ideas. Improve public perception. We could do strengthen public perception. Build public perception. strengthen or I'm sorry, improve public perception. I think that's a good one. Public safety, enhance public safety would be a good one so that we're not just using improve again. Yeah. And then aging infrastructure would be upgrade. Yeah.

Yeah. Approve. I'm trying to How about prioritize aging infrastructure? Not a bad one. Yeah, that's a good one. Um, address address. Thank you. Well, that that's nicely broad. I like it. Yeah, I do too. So, would that be all right if we add So, are we okay? Address aging infrastructure. We good with that one? And then, uh, what was the word we did we say enhance enhance public safety and improve public perception? Yeah. Yes. Does that work? Yep. I liked the idea of them being broad, but I was just realizing we need verbs. Yeah, we need

because we could just say we have public perception show we've met our goal. Yeah. Out there's public right, wrong or indifferent. They have a perception. It's not the one we'd like. That is not the one we want.

That's why it's on there. You know, I maybe this is a a getting off track and maybe it's because I have someone who's offering me money to make the meeting go longer. Um I had a conversation with someone just the other day and I don't know what they were saying but they were living in Lander and razing on Riverton and number one I was like come on guys. Number two I was like I love living in Riverton. You said it earlier Mike it's a great town. I know there's people that have different public perception and ideas about what the city is or isn't or what they need, but we have a lot of really good people here.

Lot of really good people here and they're all trying to do their best. And anyway, that's completely not important to say, but I just wanted to note it's a good place. I think it is important to say. Yeah, we should say it more often. Yes, I love Riverton. I'm not ashamed to say it. All right. Any other discussion? So, feedback clear on the verbiage verbs? Okay. So, I guess is the motion then to adopt the resolution with that change in verbiage? Uh, Councilwoman Borders, that was your motion. Yes, your honor. Well,

yeah. So, I think the motion unless you want us to go through the whole rigomemer roll of a of an amendment, but are we okay with the motion being with that change in verbiage and Okay. Yeah, your honor, I think so. Because you're really not changing the resolution, you're changing the attachment to the resolution, the exhibit. Exactly. I like that. And that's what we're going to have right there. So, it'll be actually readable with people who might be wearing bifocals, whoever those people might be. I don't know who you're talking about. Can't see you. I can see it. Call for the question. All in favor say I. I. Any oppose say nay.

I vote I. Motion passes. Consideration of resolution 1545 optional 3/4% sales and use tax. City administrators report please. Thank you honor. I'll be brief since we had a significant discussion on this um in a previous meeting. I will note that the Fremont County Commission passed a resolution today um similar to the one that you're considering that would allow this to go to the people um for a ballot initiative. Essentially the question would be to add a 3/4% sales and use tax for economic development to support um ground transportation, ambulance service and I should say public ground transportation, ambulance service and air service. Um the resolution language is very clear in that the only services or improvements to be supported by this potential optional economic development tax would be those three um items. Be happy to stand for any questions. I would like to note that there are members of the Fremont County Committee on Funding Key Services and I want to say thank you. They've been a great team to work alongside and have been putting uh a lot of effort every week since October to address the um funding concerns as it relates to key services that our community relies upon. So before you is an opportunity to adopt a resolution that just simply shows your support to allow this to go to the people uh to vote on this initiative. By state statute, the county commission has to approve uh by resolution this ballot initiative and then 50% of the municipalities have to do the same

before it can be put on the ballot. Thank you, your honor. Thank you. Um, so first we need to have you, if you could, Miss Harris, read resolution 1544 by title only. Yes, your honor. Resolution number 1545, a resolution of the governing body of Riverton to place the question of the 3/4% sales and use tax for economic development on the 2026 primary election ballot to exclusively support ground ambulance, commercial air service, and public ground transportation. I'd entertain a motion to adopt resolution 1545. So moved. Second. Councilman Bailey with the motion. Councilman Carr with the second.

Any discussion on this? Your honor.

Um I'm looking for clarification on a couple things to be able to support this. And um I just wanted to kind of give some back history. I read an article from Cowboy State Daily and this was from September 25th of 2023 where the county commission had agreed to a near 30% increase for the ambulance service at that time. Um which equated to about anywhere between 1.8 to 2 million um and it was used to subsidize the ambulance service. Um, my cons I've talked to a lot of different people about this. Um, and there's a couple of concerns that lumping all three of these together isn't widely supported. um those that I have talked to support one or the other in some form or fashion. They either support the airport because it can be articulated where the money is going to be going to there and how it will support the airport and how that affects economic growth. Um there's been feedback on WRTA receiving some of those funding even though it's a public service private entity is what I'm hearing there. As it relates to the ambulance service where they receive payments from insurance companies, they're already being subsidized $2 million. The concern

that I have heard routinely is when this if it were to pass, taxes don't last forever. So thinking forward, if this continues to increase, especially after they just got a 30% increase, how is that going to be supported after this tax initiative goes away or stops? Um, and I can understand that the ambulance is actually through priority ambulance, which which ranks in the top 5,000 list of America's growing, fastest growing companies. And I think that there's some concern there that taxpayers subsidizing that is is not appropriate. Um, there was also questions about the $25 million approval for rural health funds for Wyoming and have those been sought out? So, I guess the question is, is that $25 million that was approved through the state for rural health funds, is that something that could be more stable for the ambulance service in years to come versus through taxpayers? A lot of people don't use these services, but requiring them to do so through a vote, if it passes, it's forcing a community of people to pay for services that they don't routinely use where only a handful of people do use it.

And I don't know how that becomes the burden of the community if we can't afford it. I I I I guess I don't understand why we're asking the community to pay for services that they don't routinely use. Like I said, I can articulate with the airport. Um but I think that I would stand in agreeance with a lot of these folks that these three should not be lumped together. They each hold a different type of support from the community and I think that that needs to be looked at.

Well, and I guess the first thing I would say is you cannot So, we're in a little bit of an interesting bind. So you could theoretically do a transportation district and you would have the option of a mill levy that would go towards air service and WRTA. If you were to do that, it would not raise enough for either of them individually to be able to continue that service. You have the option of a mill levy for emergency services. I don't know that that would raise enough for the ambulance and you could address that, Mr. Prior. The other option of a sales tax in terms of saying that you're lumping something together, you can't have three different economic development sales taxes. You can only have one and the and the amount has to be in 25% increments.

So you couldn't have say a 010. So if you look at the the MOA and some of the discussion that was there, you couldn't have 50. You couldn't say for example, so 31% the idea was that would be going to air service. You wouldn't be able to do an economic development tax that would just be that amount nor for ground transportation or for emergency medical service. So we're kind of in this situation where mil levy wouldn't be providing enough for these and you can't have three different economic development taxes.

Theoretically, I can understand why people would say that. Why would why should we lump them together? Part of the purpose in putting them together is we've got what at least FCAG was saying these are essential services whether you're using them or not. One thing that Mr. Chairman Allen I'm sure said today and maybe he did or didn't. I don't know Mr. prior, but he said this to me before. He said, "You know, if I fall off my horse and I'm laying there in the ditch, it's not going to do me any good to see a plane fly overhead." And he's used that to say why they prioritize ambulance over air service. It's neither here nor there. But the point is, these are all services that as a community we need to have, my opinion. I mean, there's other people that might have different opinions on that. um you need to be able to have an ambulance. And I agree, if we don't like what we're using as an ambulance service, that's something the county commissioners can look at and decide and figure out. I know there's a lot of people that would actually favor the county commissioners taking that back as the as a county operation. Mr. Prior as the chairman of the JCKFS, JCFKS, JCFKS, joint committee funding key services, which FKAg had put together. Um, I know you've been looking at a lot of these things, been talking with a lot of people, have heard a lot of probably similar feedback as Councilwoman Johnson has. I I hope I answered some of this correctly in terms of just in terms of why we're here with all of these in one tax. Generally, Mr. Mayor, first and foremost, thank you for the opportunity. My name is Mick Prior. Uh and as the mayor said, I am the chairman in this in

this uh situation for of the joint committee on funding key services. Um, I might frame it a little bit differently and I would maybe frame it based on the goals of the committee of ba based on the goals of the council uh stated just a couple of minutes ago around public safety. So, if you'll indulge me for a second, um, ambulance is a fairly straightforward public safety type of uh, constraint there. But let me uh or rather issue I but I think there's some other components here related to WRTA as well as air service that need to be folded into this. And before I get too deep into it, let me just say when we say economic development sales tax, we say it because that is enshrined in state statute as what it is labeled. I would tell you it is not the most accurate of labels relative to what it does. I mean like we can argue and we have in the past the thousand different ways that you can cut hash and define economic development. But what I would tell you is at the base of economic development is the ability for all of us to conduct commerce and at the basic level of conducting commerce it's basically creating a community and that's what this is trying to do. So thinking about it, going back to the the idea of public safety, air service, ambulance service and ground tr public public ground transportation do a lot of things within that. Um and you are absolutely correct, councilwoman, that they do not necess they are at certain points with different groups, sometimes never touched, sometimes only one is touched, but in certain situ situations all three are touched. And it comes ultimately back to well and I I'll give you just personally an example. I have been working on the hospital here in Riverton since its inception and I can

tell you with absolute certainty that without the presence of a uh commercial air service at our airport, our call it the chances of us getting to as far as we are right now with respect to our uh hospital being built and open for business in just a couple of months would be closer to zero. and I like almost zero. Quite frankly, we've been told more than a couple of times that this was something that was on. So, we received a $35 million loan from the United States Department of Agriculture for this project. And within that application, it was pulled out as one of the key components to ensuring like is this we're not going to throw money at something that's not going to work. We think that they have a much better opportunity to recruit doctors, staff and you know facilitate uh a uh a hospital with this in place. Uh but you know you can make the argument that this also allows for people to travel further a foot for uh more in-depth medical care. But um on the WRTA side, what I will tell you is it's not I I think it's important to make the distinction that this is not financing WRTA exclusively. This is for all public ground transportation which includes senior centers. The senior center uh transportation system is kind of under a little bit of not necessarily scrutiny, but it is being collapsed down into more basic elements that are out at approaching the point where senior centers are not really able to operate these things and receive the funds from the the federal from their federal grant uh uh uh providers as they were in the past. And what I will tell you is if you look at who uses those that type of

transportation, it is our elderly who arguably some should not be behind the wheel but more appropriately some most are using it for some level of care and you know advancement and I would tell you a not insignificant portion of it is to and from medical appointments. And so it you are absolutely correct that from an economic development if we're thinking about it purely as the difference between installing a a factory that employs thousands and you know ambulance service I like it it's a poorly named tax. But I guess the the other thing that I I think is really important here um you're the county ambulance system right now is subsidized with $1.8 8 million uh that goes to priority ambulance and we don't know how how that money is really used. We know that they are collecting money for from insuranceances, Medicare, Medicaid and uh tribal health but realistically it's a blackbox on how much of that is profit relative to how much of that goes to the operation. I would argue I think you are absolutely correct that this should not be a if we are going to operate a municipal ambulance system not necessarily a cityrun or county run but a for the county system it should be entirely I I personally it should be entirely public but unfortunately we're in a situation right now where we can't we can't afford it. We started the year with $1.3 million in in the county budget for this and they had to find an additional 500,000 and quite frankly those monies are going away as property taxes continue to decline. So we're in a ultimately we're trying to solve a a situation that is

quickly evolving and trying to be ahead of it. So I go ahead. I'm sorry. No, you're fine, your honor. I'm Go ahead. Sorry. Sorry, I just I have questions. I So, I just want to clarify. We're asking to put this on the ballot, but we can't be transparent about what the money will be used for, in particular with the ambulance service. We don't know if it's for wages. We don't know if it's for additional ambulances or rigs. We don't know if it is to subsidize the payments that they're not getting. We don't know what the money is being used for, but it's the lion share of what's being asked for, 54%.

I I guess the first thing I would note is there's there's two things that go on here. First off, there's the the the payment that's made by the county commissioners for the service provided by the ambulance. the ambul currently frontier priority it's it uses facilities and all of the capital that's being used is from the county it's all countyowned assets so if I'm not mistaken and correct me if I'm wrong Mr. prior. And so for the most part, when we're talking about how much is being paid, they're using county assets to do most of the work.

That is accurate.

So when you're talking about how the money is being paid, you're not talking about like an increase in this amount is going to be going to ambulances. So when you're talking about the the amount that they pay towards it, that does not take into account the need for new ambulances, new uh anything uh in terms of a fleet management plan, which you could ask Mr. Butterfield, um how often are we, you know, replacing our police cars? Every year we are going to in general per our capital plan purchase two police vehicles and it's the same sort of thing with any of our other vehicles in terms of solid waste vehicles that sort of thing. We replace those on a rolling basis.

Your honor, this is not taking that into account with the 1.8.

I I just want to clarify for the council. I I think the question that you are asking is within this resolution why are we not calling out those specific percentages uh for X Y and Z of expense and the reason is ultimately because those expenses will change over time. Uh so I don't want to I don't want to impair the ability of the movers of these monies to be like if they were to commit to buying to use the example commit to buying an ambulance every year but at a certain point we don't need an ambulance every year but it's it's been put to the bo v voters to that effect. um we I don't want to put that type of call it constraint on this like that will come ultimately within a memorandum of agreement but more pro more probably within the group that is uh tasked with oversight of the ambulance service and that is we're still working through that is this is not the only body that has to agree on that it has to the county as well as all the municipalities have to still agree on the disposition of and ultimately the activity and responsibility of a a body to do that.

I I I I just want to be very clear on this. I'm I'm It's not that I don't support the ambulance service. I do I'm a huge supporter of it. No, ma'am. Um

I I just don't feel that it's after the feedback. I don't feel it's right to to to put the ambulance service with with the airport and and WRTA. Um, how does the rural health funds for Wyoming, the $25 million that was approved for the state, how does that come into play here for I I'm looking at longevity because I don't I don't want to see the ambulance come back three years from now here 3 years later after they just got a 30% increase, they're back again and rightfully so, looking at the wages. That's why I asked full transparency is going to be necessary to get this passed and support for it. today where people are already upset about taxes and on a national level how they've been handled and most recently the half percent that was that was voted down there's not a liking to it and so I want to garner the most support that we can for the things that we truly need which are all three but I don't know that a resolution to include all three is where we should be and so that's why I ask Has the rural health funds been looked at for this?

Your honor, I'd be happy to help with that. House Bill 122 addresses um how the state is going to receive those funds as allocated by the one big beautiful bill. Um that um bill is moving forward and it does allocate certain funds towards um rural health. It also creates a committee who can advise on the use of these funds while they're available, which um does have a sunset date. When you look at the fiscal note as it relates to these funds, uh there will be 205 million um received in fiscal year 26, 27, and 28. Those funds will be used towards critical asset access hospital um emergency medical regionalization workforce education physical post-graduate physician post-graduate medical education and then there are several other categories that these funds can be used towards. Ultimately, this committee and the department of health will have to make those decisions, but ambulance service um is likely an area where they will award funds, but we don't know that yet because it is being passed through the legislature right now and will be determined by the Department of Health moving forward. Um there will also be um funds put aside where um interest earned from those funds can be used to support rural health moving forward even after the one big beautiful bill expires. I hope that helps answer your question. Unfortunately until the bill passes the committee is formed and department of health starts weighing in on how the funds can be applied for and awarded we don't know fully. However, we do know that ambulance may be part of those funds and the committee has discussed that.

Where does I'm sorry I'm taking up a lot of time. Um, but where does the funds currently come from to pay for ambulance service? It's provided from the county's general fund through property tax.

Through property tax. Yes, ma'am. And um so and and then I guess I appreciate some of these questions and and and Mr. Prior I appreciate you answering them, Mr. Butterfield. Ultimately the question for the city of Riverton is whether we would offer our concurrence with the county who has already passed this resolution um and say we agree with the county that this is something that should go to the voters. It's not necessarily saying we have all the information, we have all the answers. I agree. I I I have questions. I even said that myself. But um in terms of deadlines, this has to be able to get out by the end of the month. Um the hope is that we'll get theou MOA uh as our next meeting and have a little bit more tweaking and everything and have the county have an opportunity to look at that too. and that will answer some of that. But for now, the resolution is basically getting this to the voters to say there's going to be a possibility of a 3/4 cent tax. It's going to be going to these three areas and that's it. That's that's that's really the resolution. And then from there, we have to get into the details. And some of those details are going to be things that we've already been arguing about and at the county level they've already been arguing about. How will the funds be distributed in what amounts is it going to be? They all go to one person and then that one person distributes them out here. And I don't mean person, I mean entity and and there's just a lot of things that need to be ironed out. But for right now, the question is the resolution. your honor. Um, you know, when we when

we not too many people like to see sausage made, you know, but it sure tastes good. and big cities or small cities. And we happen to be in a small city called Wyoming. And things cost more in Wyoming because the drive distances from Bailey's to Bailey's in Lander is 50 miles round trip. And if somebody gets hurt on Bailey's and he needs an ambulance, do you think that really matters? If they make $47 going to capitalization or $50, the service has to be available. That's what big cities or cities that are trying to be big or cities that are civilized have. And they have airports. And airports cost money because they continually wear out. And how else are we going to get it done unless we do it ourselves?

Well, and I think that's a good point, too, Councilman Larson, because I love the idea of federal funds, and we use a lot of federal grants. When it comes down to it, every single person up here has had their lives impacted by having all the red tape that you have to do with federal funds. Even if it's a federal funds that are being sent to the state, you still got all the red tape and being able to say, let the citizens decide, are we willing to tax ourselves to have these services available

to make it better for ourselves. Nobody wants to use a ve an ambulance. I I hope I never see the inside of an ambulance, but by darn, if you call it and you need it, all of that goes away. Whether they've got brand new this or the president is wearing that, doesn't matter, a hill of beans, it's can you get me to the hospital on time to save my life. Your honor, the beautiful thing about this is we have a chance to um offer a resolution to the people um and have uh their say and their vote um and true democracy on this. And let me just be very clear. This is as u Mr. Butterfield said a critical service. We teach our two-year-olds 911. Correct? So, um, this is a critical service and this is all we're doing is voting on the resolution. We're going to allow the people true democracy on this and and let's just do that. Let's do a thing here. Let's allow them to decide. Yeah,

Councilman Dailyaly. And and again, in our society, we all share the cost of these different services that we all provide and we want in our city because we want our kids to grow up and stay here and have jobs here and live here and and all of those things. You know, my kids are all grown and I don't have anybody in school anymore. Should I not have to pay for school taxes anymore? be nice.

Okay. And I'm like Kyle. I hope I never have to see the inside of the ambulance, but I still see it as a vital thing because the people that do need the ambulance, which are the citizens of our community, we all have to pitch in and make that work. and and I don't like the idea of maybe somebody getting public funds and being able to make a profit. But the realistic part of that is if we didn't support them in some way, we would not have that service. They would not be able to stay in Fremont County and provide service if we weren't helping that process. And the county is spending a lot less money in that environment than they were when they were running the ambulance service themselves. And they were doing it with volunteer EMTs and that kind of stuff. So again, I I think this is important. Okay. I hope I don't ever have to call the fire department. I don't mind paying taxes to make sure we have one. Okay. and and the chances of my house burning down is slim, but I don't I don't want to have it when I call 911 that they say, "Yes, Mr. Bailey, we'll send somebody out. Could we have your credit card, please?"

Okay. I don't think that's how we want it to work. Well, if we don't, as a group of taxpayers and property owners, if we don't step up to help these services be available, we're we're not going to have a community because those are things that reasonable people want to have in their community is to have those services available. And so I strongly support this. I think there's definitely some work to be done on getting the wording correct in the MOA, which is what we're working on next. And so, you know, I support this motion 100%. Councilman Carr.

Thanks, your honor. Um I I wanted to reiterate something uh Mr. Prior had indicated. This is really about community and coming together as a community. And yes, some of us may never use some of these services, but as a community as a whole, we all do in some way or another. And and the questions being asked are excellent questions. But what it really boils down to is for me at least is under the current structure that's handed to us by the state, the math doesn't work. This is the only way we can fund this under the current statutes that we have to live by. So that's why we've lumped it together. I wish we could call it a community enhancement tax, a community whatever because I think people get hung up on the nomenclature versus the actual services for the community.

Well, and I think part of what the um part of what we have to deal with is of course the history, you know, with the half cent and everything and that's that's always difficult. And I I guess what I would say is in support of this, if you and I've had a lot of people, you know, the county commissioners when they're told they have to tighten their belts, one of the first things they start looking at is, oh, well, we don't really need a library. We don't really need a fair. We don't really need this. You know what I mean? And this isn't just about ambulance, but this is about if you don't have enough money, they're going to prioritize the ambulance over some of these other things because they recognize how important it is. When there was the need to make additional payments to be able to keep the services as we had them, they made the payments. Um and so they've shown this is going to be something we're going to prioritize if we want to be able to have some of those other services at a level that we think is appropriate and that might include the sheriff's office, the coroner, all of those things through the county. You need to make sure that ambulance is being taken care of. And that hasn't been something when they were running it on their own. they were spending much more than 1.8 million. And you can expect that that would be a pretty typical amount even now if we were keeping in that kind of way that we were doing things regularly replacing ambulances and that sort of thing. So

it's it's expensive and I agree and but I guess to me my support for this mainly comes from this is just saying we want the voters to be able to decide and with the understanding we're going to be getting an MOA and some of the details ironed out that have been mentioned. just to follow up and and it's not that I don't want this to go to the voters or that um but I don't see the ambulance service as being critical in the airport as being critical or WRTA as being something useful. But I think that when we're asking for such a huge thing of our community that it needs to be clear, transparent, and articulated where and how this money is going to be spent. And I don't see that on a couple of these. So I I think it's coming unprepared to the public asking them to support something without clear direction. Um so for those reasons I won't be supporting this tonight.

Any other discussion?

Your honor, we need to remember too this is just the first step in this process. the MOA will make it more defined. And again, we need to make sure that gets written in a way that we have that that we're telling the public that this is going to be dedicated to X, Y, and Z. But we can't make it so granular that we say public transportation will be able to only be able to spend this much money on buses and this much money on service work and this much money on fuel because we've got to give it them the flexibility to be able to run those things on their own. As long as we know that money's dedicated to that specific service, I think yeah, you know, again, you it'd be like telling Kyle how many pencils he can buy every year from this level of the city council.

12, you know, 12 months. That's it. So, Mr. Mayor, if I may, um, Mr. prior.

So, uh, Councilman or Councilwoman Johnson, I I absolutely appreciate and I uh I commend you for for your uh for for your priorities, I will make the commitment despite your vote uh or where wherever you land on this, I will make the commitment that as long as I am in in uh in participation of this, I will do everything I can to make it open, transparent, and available to the public in it so that this worry does not come forward into the future. I I can't guarantee that that will happen, but I will do everything within my personal power to ensure that that happens. I appreciate that. Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am. Councilwoman Borders, just because you're for some reason at the left of me and I don't always see you. You've got a flag now. I brought a flag. I just didn't have anything to say. So cute. Oh my gosh. I love it. Um, your honor, I I guess the only thing that keeps recurring to me is I've ridden in an ambulance one time. It was an accident. I didn't want to do it, but it was sure was nice to be able to be taken to have that emergency treatment.

So, and I'm I'm not the only one. And I think that, you know, going off of what Rebecca said, um, this needs to go in front of the public. And I think we need to do a really super good job in describing what it is, what the money goes to, because we did have the other issue. So, I think that's really important. But I I don't think you can prioritize one service over the other. They're all vital. Yep. Part of the reason we're getting this hospital is because of the services that we have here. So it it's critical. Agree.

And I will say we have had a an incredible group um including um Mr. Butterfield who I really arm wrestled to do this. Um Mr. Prior uh Lisa who's Malone, right? That what's your last name? Men. Malanchi close. My husband's fault. I know.

Um and many other members. I mean, we've got three of you in here, but um it they have been doing an incredible job at trying to get all of this sorted out. And I just want to commend you for that. And I've commended you before, Mr. Prior. And I've commended you before, Mr. Butterfield. I've commended you before, Miss Melon. But you have done a lot of work to try to get this sorted out and I appreciate and and always appreciate feedback and I think knowing the directions to go and try to get some of that sorted out I think is good feedback and definitely what Mr. Prior said specifically he hears and um but overall it is 9:30 and I think it there was money on whether it was going to get done before or after 9:30.

Well, you're you're all lost just so you know. All in favor of uh passage of resolution 1545 say I. I. I. Any oppose say nay. Nay. I vote I. Motion passes. Is there a motion to adjurnn? Motion to adjurnn. Second. Motion by Councilman Larson, second by Councilman Carr. All in favor say I. I. Any oppose say nay. We are adjourned at 9:27. I vote I by the way. motion. I just have one question. Who won?

You guys all said nine o'clock and I think I was the latest. Hey, I'm done.