City Council - Regular Meeting

So I will go ahead and call this meeting to order of the Torrington City Council. This is Tuesday, September 1, 2026. Good evening and welcome to all. We have here with us this evening Mr. Ryan Kaith from KGOS, KERM Radio. This council meeting is being broadcast live on both radio stations, KGOS and KERM. It's also live on YouTube and will be up permanently on YouTube. We also have here this evening with us from the Torrington Telegram, Mr. Ryan Dickey. I saw him come in. He's somewhere in here. Welcome to the press. Our first order of business is the Pledge of Allegiance, and I've asked Councilman Shane Victron to lead us in the pledge.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America,

nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. We have a almost full room tonight here and I appreciate that and our next item on the agenda is the Harley Mark Remembrance and I would ask Chief of Police Matt Johnson to come forward.

Thank you, mayor and council. Um, every year as close to the anniversary of his passing, as we can, we take a few minutes to remember and gratefully remember the service and sacrifice of Torrington police Lieutenant, um, Harley Mark. He gave his life for our community in the line of duty on September 7th of 1993. Lieutenant Mark was fatally wounded in a motor vehicle accident while attempting to apprehend a violent offender who had done great harm in our community. With us tonight are Lieutenant Mark's wife Joanne and two of their daughters Tammy and Wendy. Lieutenant Mark's daughter Dawn was lost to us a few months ago and has been joyfully reunited with her dad in heaven. Our community will be eternally grateful to the Mark family for their kindness and sacrifice for many many years. We're grateful that they were able to spend a few minutes with us this evening. Lieutenant Mark left his indelible imprint on our agency through his service to our community with integrity, honor, and a focus on kindness and caring for others. Last year, we updated the badge for our agency, and we have subsequently updated our challenge coin, which is a symbol that we take great pride in and love to show off and share with others. Lieutenant Mark's badge number, 101, continues to be reserved for him, and we display it with great pride on our challenge coin in remembrance and honor of him. That's all I have. Thank you for spending a few minutes doing this. And we invite our community to join us in keeping Lieutenant Mark's family and their thoughts and in their prayers on this always tough anniversary of his passing. So thank you.

Thank you, Chief Johnson. I don't really have anything more to say than Chief Johnson said, but I do thank you for your service as his family.

Mayor, do you mind if I step out for just a minute? No.

Go ahead. Thank you.

All right. Continuing with our agenda this evening are the mayor's informational items. East D project is complete. That project has been on the books since 2009. Last year we were able to get sufficient funding to put it over the top and bid it out. Drive that street. It's a wonderful experience. The whole street is paved from the highway up to 30th Avenue. There is new water line. There is new storm sewer system. There is curb, gutter, and sidewalk. I wish to thank the contractor, Eric Reichert Construction, from Scotts Bluff, for the job that they did. And I also especially want to thank the residents on that street. I know it could be trying living on that street. If you're going to make omelets, you have to crack a few eggs. That's kind of how I look at it. So I appreciate everybody's patience. enduring that construction project but now we have a fine road it's one of our urban systems roads from the highway up to thirtieth and that serves all of the northwest part of town, the college and all that. Just by observation, I would say East D gets as much traffic as any street in this town, including Main Street and West C. So again, East D project is finished and East D is open, enjoy it. You will often hear me talk about the primary duties of the mayor and of the council. I talk about it often because it is our primary duty and our purpose, in fact. Indeed, the main purpose of city government. Not very exciting, not very sexy, but fundamental to our ability to live together in a community in a civilized way. To maintain and even increase the quality of life we enjoy here in the city of Torrington. Mayor and council have the primary duty of protecting the health, safety, welfare, and morals of city residents and visitors to the city. We manage and budget for several departments that work tirelessly 24-7, 365 days per year, to provide police protection and fire protection. And a brief aside. For instance, did you know that commercial and home insurance companies look at the capacity and quality of the local fire department in determining your rates and maybe even denying coverage if the local fire department falls below a certain level. A lot of people don't know that, but that's the truth. Thankfully, we have a first-rate volunteer fire department here in the city of Torrington to help with that. In addition to police and fire protection, the city provides a 24-hour, 365 days per year, 911 emergency dispatch and non-emergency call center. a 24-7, 365 days per year, first-rate, and I mean that, first-rate ambulance service that provides emergency medical services and medical transport. The city supplies reliable electricity, clean water and sanitary sewer, safe and passable streets and alleys, an efficient billing and payment system for these services at the front office here at City Hall. an efficient and fair and just court system for violations of city ordinances. This is what mayor and council do, manage and budget for all these things that allow us to live a civilized life here in Torrington. This general outline leads me to a specific item I want to address. Some issues have come to my attention regarding solid waste pickup and disposal. In areas of town where there are no alleys for the larger three cubic yard dumpsters to be placed, the city provides 90 gallon individual containers we call rollouts. These individual containers allow for the residents to safely and conveniently dispose of their household trash for regular pickup by the city garbage trucks. In certain areas, the rollouts are left at the curb much longer than necessary. If they are full, they are subject to being blown over by the wind, with the trash then being scattered about. Even if they are empty but left on the curb, they detract from the looks of the neighborhood and impede the traffic flow, at least somewhat. There are some very narrow streets in this town where the rollouts are used, and if they're out there, they do impede the travel of traffic down the street. Given this, I want to remind our rollout customers of the following rules under our city ordinances. The basic solid waste household fee is $39.07 per month. If you live in a neighborhood with rollout containers, the basic fee lets you have the one 90 gallon rollout container. If you have a larger family, you may request an additional rollout container for $8.48 per month. additional fee. Again, your trash is picked up one day per week. By city ordinance, homeowners may place the full rollout container on the curb at 5 p.m. the day before trash pickup. The empty container must then be removed from curbside by 8 p.m. the day of pickup. This system allows for the roll-off containers to be at curbside for a maximum period of 27 hours per seven-day week. I'm asking residents to comply with this schedule to allow the efficient trash pickup and disposal, better traffic flow, less litter, and a more attractive neighborhood and town. Please do your best to comply, to love your neighbor and your community, to take pride in your neighborhood and in your community. I always want people to voluntarily do what they're supposed to do. That is the best system to have, if people will just voluntarily do what they're supposed to do. But because we live in a fallen world and People don't do what they're supposed to do. The city can enforce this schedule process by issuing warnings or citations for failure to comply. I much prefer folks act responsibly to avoid a visit from our code enforcement officers. We all want a cleaner, more orderly, and litter-free town. Thank you. As always, please slow down, please drive carefully, and please do not use your cell phones while driving. Our next item on the agenda is approval of the consent agenda, which includes the minutes from the August 18th, 26th council meeting as published.

Mr. Mayor, I move to approve the consent agenda.

All right, I have a motion from Councilman Deal to approve the consent agenda. Do I have a second?

Second.

Second, Councilman Kelly. Any further discussion? Hearing none, I'll call for vote. All those in favor of approval of the consent agenda as presented, signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed, signify by saying nay. Hearing no nays, the consent agenda is approved. Next item on the agenda is approval of the agenda itself.

Mr. Mayor, I would move to approve the agenda as presented.

I have a motion from Councilman Victron to approve the agenda as presented. Do I have a second?

Second.

Second, Councilman Kellick. Any further discussion, gentlemen? Hearing none, I'll call for a vote. All those in favor of approval of the agenda, signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed, signify by saying nay. Hearing no nays, the agenda is approved. Next item on our agenda is what we call the public forum. There are no takers tonight. I would know that there are if there were a forum in that black box in front of Councilman Warren. I always like to explain this for anybody listening in the in-person audience or on the radio audience. This is for non-agenda items. There is a time limit of two minutes and the speaker must sign up before the meeting. This is a time for Council to listen. No action will be taken and there are forums in here somewhere Mrs. Lynette Strecker knows where they are, if you want to take advantage of that in the future. So fill out the form, have it put in the box, and you'll be allowed to speak to counsel for two minutes. All right, we are now down to action items. Our first action item is a public hearing. Um, so it is a related to a retail liquor license transfer of ownership from Maverick Inc. Doing business as Maverick store number 293 to Maverick group LLC doing business as Maverick store number 293. And I will go ahead and open this for a public hearing. And with that brief introduction, I would ask Sylvia Cervantes, our deputy city clerk to explain that a little bit. Sure.

Sure. Thank you, Mayor and Council. Maverick recently went through a organization merger from a corporation to an LLC. So what they are requesting is a transfer of ownership for their retail liquor license from Maverick Inc. to Maverick Group, LLC. Pretty simple standard procedure, more on the administrative end.

it's just a different name on the license? Because they changed names, the business changed names.

That simple. All right.

Okay, we are in an open public hearing for this matter. I will ask, are there any public comments for this transfer? Okay, I will likewise ask, are there any public comments against this transfer? Seeing none, I will go ahead and close the public hearing on this one item. And we will return to regular session. We are in regular session. And I will put it up for a council vote. So having not seen, heard any questions of Ms. Cervantes or any of the public, I would entertain a motion.

Mr. Mayor, I would move to approve the retail liquor license transfer of ownership as presented.

I have a motion from Councilman Victron to approve the retail liquor license transfer of ownership as presented. Do I have a second? Second. Second. Councilman Warren, any further discussion?

A couple of questions.

Yes.

On the bottom here, it says hours of operation. That would indicate like 24 hours a day. Liquor license.

Correct. They still have to abide by your ordinances for when they sell. This is more so to let the liquor division know when they're open for their inspections.

And then the fees that go along with this is the full, they have to pay the full $59 fee, right?

No, since the entity Maverick already holds the license, the only thing that would apply is a $100 transfer fee, which they paid.

And the publishing fee of $329, too?

They had to pay that as well. Yes.

Okay.

And Mayor and Council, the store director, Brendan Kelly, is here. If you guys have any questions for him regarding the merger itself.

I appreciate your tending, Brendan. Did you want to come up and say anything to Council?

If you guys have any questions for me, I'd rather come up.

I think we got the questions answered, but I do appreciate your attendance tonight. You're welcome. You're sure welcome. All right, I have a motion and a second to approve the retail liquor license transfer of ownership as presented. Is there any further discussion? Call the question. All right. Call the question. I will call for a vote. All those in favor of approving the retail liquor license transfer of ownership, signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed, signify by saying nay. Hearing no nays, that retail liquor license transfer of ownership as presented is approved. Thank you, Brendan.

Thank you very much.

Thank you for doing business in Torrington. All right, we are on item two. A proclamation proclaiming September 2026 as Hunger Action Month. And I will go ahead and read the proclamation. Proclamation reads as follows. City of Torrington. Proclamation, Hunger Action Month. Whereas hunger is of a vital concern in Wyoming where food insecurity rates are at more than a 10 year high, including one in every seven individuals and one in every five children experience food insecurity. And whereas every person deserves access to the food and resources they need to live a full, healthy life, yet millions of people in the U.S. experience food insecurity. And when people don't have enough to eat, it impacts their health, education, and future opportunities. Whereas the City of Torrington is committed to taking steps to combat hunger in every part of our community and to provide additional resources that are needed. And whereas the City of Torrington is committed to working with Food Bank of Wyoming to educate people about the role and importance of the Feeding America Network and how it stands alongside neighbors facing hunger to ensure everyone has access to the food and resources they need to thrive. And whereas more than 2,330 individuals living in Goshen County, over 18.5% of the population are estimated to experience food insecurity today. And whereas Food Bank of Wyoming distributed more than 12 million pounds of food to Wyomingites experiencing food insecurity in 2025 through a network of agency partners, food pantries, meal programs, and other community organizations. And whereas the month of September has been designated Hunger Action Month to bring communities together to elevate the voices of people who experience food insecurity and inspire everyone to take action in the movement to end hunger. And whereas food banks across the country, including the members of the Feeding America Network, will host numerous events throughout the month of September to bring awareness and help in hunger in their local community. Now, therefore, I, Herb Dobie, Mayor of the City of Torrington, Wyoming, do hereby recognize September 2026 as Hunger Action Month and encourage all citizens to increase their understanding and awareness of food insecurity and how it impacts our nation, state, county, and communities and witness whereof I have here unto set my hand and signature as Mayor of the City of Torrington, Wyoming, to be affixed this first day of September, 2026, Herb Dobie, Mayor. That's the reading of the proclamation. Is Miss Jenna Noll here? I don't think she is. Okay. All right. I have read the proclamation, gentlemen. I would entertain a motion approving the proclamation and approving my signature on the proclamation.

Mr. Mayor, I make that motion.

All right. I have a motion from Councilman Deal to approve the proclamation and my signing the proclamation. Do I have a second?

Second.

Second, Councilman Kelly. Any further discussion? Hearing none, I'll call for a vote. All those in favor of approving the proclamation in item two and approving my signature, signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed, signify by saying nay. Hearing no nays, the proclamation is approved and my signing of it is approved by council. Thank you, gentlemen. We are down at the bottom of page one for our... Third item on the agenda, read the request for placement on the agenda. I think it's fairly legible. And then I will ask Mr. Julius Rios to come up. Mr. Rios is asking for approval of exterior property painting request Requesting approval to paint address numbers on sidewalk curbs to improve drives and pedestrian visibility also enhance neighbors curb appeal work with uh the city to become to put compliant paint and follow designated curb locating and guidelines uh signed uh requested julius rios 1820 east 20th avenue torrington wyoming 8220 and julian's phone number and the date of august 24th 26. so mr julius rios has requested to be put on the agenda i know that uh We attach to the agenda a copy of ordinance 10.08.020 Which reads as follows unauthorized traffic traffic signs and devices all persons in the city placing any signs or painting any curb street or other Area without the approval of the governing body of the city shall be guilty of a misdemeanor so the proper Way to go about this is how you've done it, Mr. Rios, to seek council's approval. So with that, I'll invite you up and tell us what your plans are.

All right. How are you guys doing today?

Fine, thank you.

First time here, a little nervous as well. That's okay. I'm not a genius at doing PowerPoints, but I just wanted to give you guys a couple visuals. My goal is to just start a small side business going forward. I've noticed when you go through town, every single – Curb you look at, you don't see, it's hard to find the addresses, you know, so if you just click to the next one, if you don't have to. But I guess all I'm seeking approval for is if you can see like the third one's down, it's just a six by 18 inch area you would paint on the curb. directly in front of the house, you know, the door, just to, it gives you a little better idea of every single person's address. And it's easier for first responders, emergency personnel, delivery people, you know, to just spot the house really, really fast. I've also noticed when you're driving down the street, if you're looking at an address, it kind of deters you away from the road. You're looking here at the address instead of looking directly down in your peripheral. So I think that helps it be a little easier to spot. And overall, I think it would just make the whole neighborhoods kind of unified as one, just having every single address right in front of everybody's house. Just to keep things moving for you guys while they figure that out. You can kind of see the ones on the side there. I know there's a lot of people that do, like you see the American flag paint there. If that was approved by you guys, we would offer that. But if you just want to approve just the basic numbers, that too. And then, I mean, moving forward, there's a lot of other people that do, you know, like NFL teams and then their address or even like Blazer, the Blazer symbol, you know, and then their address. So it's kind of just up in the air. I guess we'll see where we're at for this going forward. And I will be licensed, bonded, and insured, you know, and I'll have an EIN number as well. Just wanted to wait for approval before going further with that, so...

So this would be the city would have nothing to do with this. This is you.

This is me selling it to every other resident. To the resident. Yep.

And they pay you for your services.

They pay me, yep.

And I know if I go back to when I was a kid, I think this was first done and they painted, I'm not sure Councilman Deal remembers that. I do.

I think we were in high school, Herb, when that happened.

Okay. Still kids. When they had that. And then it sort of, they all faded away and then they came back again maybe in the 90s. at some point, and it's not been back since.

Right. See, I've only seen maybe a handful just around town, but they're faded. And even there might be an opportunity for me to go around and clean those up as well, you know, and make them kind of not an eyesore for the future. But I kind of look to the longevity of those as well that you ask. You know, after putting a clear coat, you know, it might last one to two years. But like I said, we're local. So once you keep, I think, the word of mouth going, maybe people would want to, you know, continuously refresh and, you know, keep it looking shiny, like,

You don't have to tell me if you don't want. Have you gone out and done some surveys to see how many people want these?

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I was thinking about doing a petition, like not petition, but like getting some signatures. But just from the feedback I've got, everybody's like, man, that's such a good idea. And so it's very helpful for, and it looks nice on the curb too. So yeah, I've got quite a bit of good feedback for that and no negative feedback.

Okay. And I know this came up at staff meeting this morning, and there was a suggestion that perhaps Ed Hawley of streets could come up with some guidelines for you. And if Ed does that, are you willing to follow the guidelines?

Yes, absolutely. Yeah, that's what 100% want to be compliant with Ed. I can get with Ed and make sure that'd be awesome. Just like you said, I was talking to Dennis and just wanted to make the right steps going forward. So that way, I didn't know it was a misdemeanor if you just start painting stuff. So glad I don't got any of those.

Well, you went about it the right way. You probably wouldn't have been prosecuted, but just explained that you got to get council approval. Gentlemen, do you have any questions?

You guys have any more questions for me?

I mean, are you prepared to talk to rental owners about maybe multiple properties? Yeah.

So with the rental owners, I mean, I know they don't rent it, but also I have them reach out to the landlords, you know, and property owners. I mean, It's relatively simple, and it's also relatively inexpensive, you know, so sometimes I'm just like, yeah, just go ahead and do it, and then if they're like, let me talk to my landlord, then you can kind of go from there. I was also curious if you guys had any more, like, information about, like, maybe Goshen County Economics, wanting to, like, you know, do some funding type that way. I haven't looked into any of that. I was just trying to go on with myself, but...

I don't know that. I mean, you could ask them. I don't know anything about that.

What color...

paint are we using there and is it reflective paint no not reflective paint unless you guys would approve reflective paint because I've seen people that have that so it's you can see it during the night I was just going straight black and white unless you guys would approve like American flag symbols like on the the bottom and or maybe I got a I'm getting a stencil made for like the blazer the gunner so just kind of keep it local like that but nothing to you know like too exotic to where it's an eyesore, you know.

Well, you've been confirmed on it's useful to first responders. I know at staff meeting this morning, the fire chief was there and said it's useful to have that, and the EMS director was there and said it's useful to have that. Now, we also talked about how

anymore so many people park on the street true rather than in driveways that there's some of that as you know you live in here yeah absolutely i've i've thought about that as well too you know and then some of them are going to get smudged so i mean that'll give us a chance to come back and fix them you know relatively quick but i mean it's it's it's a third it's another option you know to have rather than the mailbox or a faded um address on the house itself well

Here's what I'm wondering, Mr. Hawley back there, can you come up for a minute, Ed, please?

Hello.

So appreciate it. So Mr. Rios already said that he would be willing to follow some specifications and instructions that you as head of streets could come up with. Right. So it's uniform in some sense and not here and there and everywhere. Right. Right. So this is a question for me. Is it and this is it's hypothetical at this point. Is it better for council to just approve numbers only and not any other decoration on there, or approve numbers and tasteful, I guess, decoration? You know, what I'd be concerned about is, you know, people pushing you, Mr. Rios. Right. Put a Playboy bunny on there.

Yeah. See, none of that. I would only do strictly American flags or maybe like NFL teams or local teams like that. Nothing even close.

You never know.

You never know.

So, gentlemen, do you have any comments on just numbers or numbers and a tasteful?

If you just have numbers, then you don't have any controversy between this neighbor doesn't like it because he likes this team instead of this team. Right. Strictly numbers. I think it would be safer that way.

And that's kind of what I'm thinking, you know, because this is day and age. If you like the Broncos, you can buy a Bronco flag. Absolutely. If you like the Trailblazers, you can get those signs. So I'm kind of thinking I would be more comfortable if it was just numbers.

Just numbers? Yeah. Yeah. Okay, not even like the American flag, just the one off.

I think just because you can fly an American flag. That's true, yeah, you're right. You know, and it's just, it's not really, it's uniformity, good point, okay, and practicality, okay. It's, you want it to look good, obviously, right?

Yeah, absolutely.

But it serves a good purpose to allow first responders to catch an address better than, or even.

Delivery drivers.

Constant. Yeah. Delivery drivers we have nowadays. And I notice going around town, a lot of people don't put their address on their house. You're just guessing, let's be this because this one's this and this one's this. Right.

And just thinking about this now, too, I could also create a log with Mr. Hawley, just every house that has been going to be done. You know what I mean? Just to put it in a log book so you know. which one has been worked on. And I mean, also with that going forward too, let's say somebody tries to replicate my deal, is that approved just for me and my business, or is it approved for everybody's business?

I think that there'll be a motion. And if it's approved, it'll be for you. If somebody else wants to come in here and compete with you, so to speak, then they're going to have to come in here just like you.

Perfect. That's good to know as well.

And as far as the insignia, I have seen walking around town a lot of parents have the trailblazer insignia on their own personal sidewalk. So that might be something else that you could do too with the painting.

Yeah, up further like on the walkways and that type of stuff, yeah. That would be...

But I'm kind of thinking where the council is going here. Just numbers because it serves that very useful purpose of letting first responders and for convenience of others know what that address is.

You can definitely abide by that. Okay.

Getting some nods.

Chief. I'd love Chief Schick's perspective on this as well, but from my brain, I'd say if you're allowing it, it wouldn't hurt anything to allow the reflective numbers. Those are sure an awful lot easier to pick up at night with just a little bit of light. I don't see a downside to it. It wouldn't be something that would luminesce and ruin... or inconvenience other neighbors, it would only be present when there was light shown on it.

I don't know, Chief, you in agreement with that?

I think the two of us would definitely agree with that, and I suspect Darren would as well. So if it's not an imposition to council, and he's willing to offer reflective, I don't see a downside.

So from your business end, like if you said, here's non-reflective, it costs X amount of dollars, right? Yeah, is reflected more. I don't know.

Reflective would be more for sure, but I think since that would be what these guys would want, that would be the only thing I'd offer. So it just would be either reflective or not, and I don't think it'd be much of a. A night and day tell from reflective non reflective so you go to the night time so you have still have that uniformity.

So if you have reflective then like those signs here, the white would be the reflective part and then it would put the numbers on in black.

Yeah, well, I'd have to look to see what kind of reflective paint they have. So it would either be black or the all black background or in white numbers or black. numbers and all white background. I would just have to check and do you guys would you prefer a background of all white and black numbers or a black background with white numbers? Or does it matter as long as it's reflective?

I just want it uniform uniform.

Yeah, all the same. Yeah, exactly.

I can come to black and white numbers would look pop out quickest.

OK. So black background white numbers, OK? We can definitely do that.

And you're willing to come up with some very short guidelines, Ed? Sure. Okay. All right. Any questions for Mr. Hawley or Mr. Rios? Or Chief Johnson or Chief Schick? Nope. Okay. Anything else, guys?

I think that's it. Okay. Appreciate you guys' time.

All right. We are on item number three, exterior property painting request by Mr. Julius Rios. It's been discussed. I'd entertain a motion.

Mr. Mayor, I'll try to make that motion. Make a motion to allow Julius Rios to participate in his business using reflective paint, just numbers, black and white, and with Mr. Hawley creating some sort of format for that.

Alright, I have a motion from Councilman Victor. Excuse me deal to allow Mr. Julius Rios to do his business with reflective paint as an option. Just numbers and black and white. And Mr. N willing to work with Mr. Holly on this. Alright, do I have a second? I would second. Second from Councilman Victor in any further discussion. Seeing none, I'll call for a vote. Item number three, all those in favor of allowing the exterior property painting request of Mr. Julius Rios, which will be a reflective paint or the option of reflecting paint, just numbers, black and white. And he'll work with Mr. Hawley. That's the motion. Do I have a second? That was mine. That was your second. Okay. Calling for a vote now, right? Any further discussion? All right. All those in favor of allowing the exterior property painting request in item three, signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed, signify by saying nay. Hearing no nays, that's allowed. Thank you, Mr. Rios. Thank you, guys. Thank you, Mr. Hawley. All right. We are on second page of our agenda this evening. Item number four, agreement for professional services with Old Glory Engineering. Staff recommends retaining Old Glory Engineering of Saratoga, Wyoming to perform engineering and grant writing services for the preparation of submittal of a CDBG grant application for FY27 sewer lining and manhole replacements project in the not to exceed amount of $25,000. With that explanation of item four, I would call on Mr. Jeff Harkins, our Director of Public Works.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. Apologize, the memo that you have in front of you is gonna be modified slightly, not any big changes, but the CDBG grant program has been used by the city in the past for both water and sewer projects. If we're successful in receiving the grant, the grant will cover not 100%, but 95% of the costs. We met with Austin of Old Glory Engineering yesterday. And based on his understanding of the evaluation process for the CDBG grants, he recommended that we do some sort of a match. There's different categories of matches. If you do 0%, you get 0 points. If you go between 0 and 15%, you can get up to 5 points. And then over 15%, I think you get 10 points. so we decided that we would shoot for a five percent match on this project uh if it well let's just put it this way the maximum match that we would be contributing to this project would be a hundred thousand dollars and i don't think it's going to be that much because i think our actual estimate is going to come in less And then the $2 million that we had originally thought we were going to get. If you notice in the memo, we had $1.5 million as an estimate. That was an estimate that Mark and I came up with based on our local costs that we've been receiving recently. Estimates that Austin had were significantly higher. He was about in the $2.3 million range. So we had a pretty lengthy discussion of what individual unit costs should be for some of the items. And I think we've reached at... Target of about 1.8 million at this point For the work that the work hasn't changed. We still plan on lining in about 16,000 lineal feet of sewer lines and Replace 62 brick manholes. It's just the costs Had a difference of opinion of what what the actual cost of that project would be so that means said I There is money in the fiscal year 2027 budget for the professional services part of $100,000 under account 524300. I'd be happy to answer any questions.

Just for the listening public, this sewer lining and manhole lining. We have talked about this in prior councils. We have some old clay sewer pipe, which 50, 60 years ago was the state of the art with clay sewer pipe. Now over time, tree roots get in there and they just age and crack and so on, right?

Correct.

that this is a slick technological improvement where they take a sock basically run it through an existing clay sewer line and it completely fills in and it's watertight and all of that. I think you've brought a sample of that to us one one evening.

Yeah, it's about quarter inch thick and it's got some structural integrity to it. But the best thing about it is it's uniform from manhole to manhole, and that's usually the way they work it. They pull it from manhole to manhole, then they blow it up and steam cure it, and then it becomes structurally sound.

And I think the estimated lifespan of those on those clay pipes gives us another, what, 50, 60 years?

At least, yeah. Rather than digging up the street. No digging up the street.

No movement of soil whatsoever It's just like I say manhole to manhole It's a very quick fast and economic solution and I know we've already done that in certain areas of town and everybody's been pleased with it and how it worked and how the Contractor did the work and so on.

Okay, it's been a Well received and I don't think we've really had any complaints. I think we've had maybe one or two complaints regarding sometimes the smell. People are objectionable to it, Heather. But that's only been during the application. Very bad during the application is very minor. As far as you know, complaints go.

But in order for this to work, the sewers sewer pipes gotta be intact, right?

Yeah, I mean, if the sewer pipe's broken, then it would be more advantageous for the city to actually have to dig that up and replace it. But luckily, we don't have too many situations like that.

Do we have brick manholes up there?

Yeah, the city has a lot of brick manholes. And we've got 62 of them identified for this project.

Now that's for this project.

for this project. We've got more than 62.

Really?

Hundreds. Hundreds.

Probably, yeah, hundreds.

But that was, I mean, in the old days they used brick to line the manhole rather than those pre-built concrete manholes, right?

Right. And that's what we're proposing to do is use the precast concrete manholes.

So if I could help my mind here, we're going after $1.8 million. Is that correct?

I think that's what the application is going to have on it.

And a 5% match.

And a 5% match.

Okay. And that's about, you anticipate that completing about three miles of sewer line?

Yeah, 16,000 feet. Yeah, that's a little over, well, right around three miles, yeah.

And our survey for the CDBG is still current. We wouldn't have to go through that.

We're still good. We checked with CDBG staff, Lori. In fact, she was up here today doing a pre-construction meeting with a contractor on the water treatment plant generator project and had some discussion with her.

And did we not use Old Glory the last time we did a project like this? Yes, we did.

That's a good question, Councilman Deal. And we were happy with using Old Glory in this role.

Yeah, he's good at doing the application process. He has connections with environmental consulting firms that do the actual environmental impact reports that are part of the requirement for submitting the application.

And CDBG is through the Wyoming Housing Network. Is that Wyoming Housing Authority?

Wyoming Community Development Authority.

which is ran through the governor's office, I believe, right?

I was on the WCDA board, so a quick explanation. WCDA is an instrumentality, not an agency of the state. As such, it operates independently with a board of directors appointed by the governor. The governor and the state treasurer are ex officio members of it, but the appointed board actually runs it. Scott Hoversland is the current director, and it's in Casper.

And the money they get is mainly from the federal government?

The money that they get is federal money that comes to the governor's office. The governor then gives it to WCDA, and they approve who receives it.

And their mission kind of is to help more lower-income communities.

Yes, primarily, yeah. Yeah, they're a mortgage agency principally, but they also have the federal arm. That's what Laurie deals with, the federal government. But yeah, including people with a FICO score as low as 620 can apply for monies.

Which is why we had to do that survey to qualify for applying for these, yeah. All right, did that answer your question? All right. O'Hare, we're not awarding the contract for the job. We're just looking for approval of the agreement with Old Glory Engineering to do his part.

Right. We still got to do the plans and specifications and then go out to bid as long as we get the funding for it. Pardon?

We will have a public hearing for this application at the next council meeting.

all right any further questions for mr harkins or mrs strecker all right seeing known item number four i would entertain a motion to approve the agreement for professional services with old glory engineering as presented i would make that motion mr mayor I have a motion from Councilman Victron in item four to approve the agreement for professional services with Old Glory Engineering as presented. Do I have a second? Second. Second from Councilman Warren. Any further discussion? Hearing none, I'll call for a vote. All those in favor of approval of the agreement for professional services with Old Glory Engineering as presented, signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed, signify by saying nay. Hearing no nays, that agreement is approved. Thank you, folks. Now we are on item number 5. Ward bid new mechanical street sweeper with vertical conveyor system and vacuum support. Staff recommends awarding the bid to hardline equipment of Commerce City, Colorado in the amount of 360,328 dollars and 44 cents and I would first call on Mrs Strecker.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. Attached to your agenda is the recommendation. Bid opening for the new sweeper was held at 2 PM on August 26 last week. So the bid results are on the recommendation. Hardline Equipment from Commerce City, Colorado bid a 2026 Delivo D6. There's a picture of it there. On the screen, delivery is 120 calendar days. And the bid amount was $360,328.44. Joe Johnson also submitted two bids for two different types of sweepers. The first one is an Elgin Broom Badger. I do not have a picture of that one. That was the actual low bid, and delivery was 90 calendar days. And then an Elgin Broom Bear, delivery 60 days, there for $368,363.18. So hard line equipment, we they came up and the street departments demoed the Delivo D six, and they are very impressed with how it maneuvered around tight corners and the overall operation and performance of the sweeping system. Um, and the specifications in the bid did specify a vacuum system and neither of the Elgin broom badgers are the Elgin broom bear, um, had a vacuum system on in them. They're strictly mechanical. For that reason, the streets department and the staff would like to recommend this DeLivo D6. The funding for this project is in GL 1060-880 in the amount of 360,000. The overage of $328 can be absorbed in the budget in other areas. So the recommendation to the council is to award to Hardline Equipment for $360,328.44. And Ed is here. He can explain the demo a little better than I can. I was not there. Ed, can you come up again, please?

Thank you. Tell us briefly about the demo.

It went very well. The guys were really pleased. The broom on the front can go from side to side. It's used to clean inlets where you've got grates and stuff, crab steers. It makes our tight radiuses in one pass instead of four. After a storm, you've got grass and leaves and pine cones. It'll clean all that off the grates. It should help stormwater. And that's what we really liked about it, the maneuverability.

And the specifications called for a vacuum system, which will help cleaning debris from storm drains.

Yep.

And the others did not have that vacuum system.

No.

This does. This does, yes.

Does the current sweeper, the Pelican I think is what you call it, right? Yeah. Does it have a vacuum system? No. It's mechanical.

It's all mechanical.

So do you expect this to have better performance? Because I notice sometimes when that Pelican is out, it does leave some debris behind. It leaves a trail.

Yeah. It should do a lot better. Yes.

What about reliability as opposed to that? Does the vacuum system go down a lot, or is it pretty reliable?

They're claiming it doesn't. And it has a filtering system, so you don't have a bunch of dust. And then when you're done at the end of the day, they reverse the fan and push that all back into the hopper, so.

As the filters, does that mean there's going to be more maintenance than the other type?

The filter is in there for a lifetime, or five years. And they say change it every five years, as long as you don't get water to it.

Is there a warranty on this type of machinery?

I can't tell you what it is right off. It should, but I think Mrs. Strecker is looking. It should be on there. I'm sure it's a year for most of it. And we specified the Cummins instead of the Italian Fiat.

Have you talked to any other?

It's 1,300 working hours.

Pardon me?

1,300 hours.

The warranty. Warranty. Hey, did you talk to any other cities or whatever that might have this?

Denver has 38 of them. They have pros and cons, kind of like anything. Casper has two. They love them.

They sure look different than what we got.

Yes.

It has a container, I assume. Does it have a hoist that then will dump that? I know on the Pelican you dump it into a roll-off box, right?

Yeah, it will pick up the box, dump it in an end dump with no problems. I think it's a 12-foot height.

Looks like it's a bigger window for better visibility, too, than the current one.

Does Hardline provide support for this machine? Okay, yep.

How old are those two Pelicans that we have? One's a 14 and the other's an 08. And believe it or not, the 08 that's in the shop is probably the better machine. And they're both Pelicans. And they're both Pelicans.

And I know from talking to the mechanic, it's like one is on the street and one is in the shop. Yep. They take that much maintenance.

And the one that's on the street is... goes like a duck. So if you've ever followed it, you would wonder how he stays in the seat. It's got some sort of a driving issue that I've tried to get fixed and resolved through Elgin and pretty much just got blowed off in the end.

So if council approves this to get the new one, it says delivery date of 120 days,

Then the other two we just use? We'll use the one and the other one's still in the shop, so hopefully I can use the one in the shop as a backup and put the other one out to auction.

So you'll have two on the street, an old one and the new one, and one that's always being repaired, one of the older ones that's always in the shop.

Yeah. The one's going to leave. We're going to put it up to auction. Okay, so you'll end up with two. Yeah, we'll have this one as the main sweeper, and then we'll have a... The Pelican is a backup. But the older one, like I say, is a better machine of the two and has less hours.

I just wanted to confirm with you that it's 1,300 working hours or one year, whichever comes first for the warranty.

say that again a full one year 1300 hours or one year whichever comes first we're going to put it through the ringer next summer hard drive was michael with hard drive is saying that he's still thinking sometime towards the middle of october less than 120 days yes but he put that in there just to cover shipping since we seem to be having trouble getting things across the ocean and you're totally convinced that this machine's worth the extra eighty thousand dollars i am it's a it's a european built machine right

Italy. Italy. Do we have a tariff with Italy?

It does have a Cummins engine, though, with its warranty.

Mr. Eddington, we don't have a problem with I-Bid, Low-Bid, anything like that?

Nope. Didn't conform to spec.

All right, gentlemen, any more questions for Mr. Holly or Mrs. Checker?

Looking for a motion.

Looking for a motion. If there aren't any questions.

Sensing none, I would move to award the bid for the new mechanical street sweeper with vertical conveyor system and vacuum support to Hardline Equipment of Commerce City, Colorado in the amount of $360,328.44.

All right, I have a motion from Councilman Victorin to award and approve the bid in item number five. Do I have a second?

Second.

I think Councilman Deal got it. No, that's fine. Second by Councilman Deal. Any further discussion, gentlemen? Hearing none, I'll call for a vote. All those in favor of awarding the bid for the new mechanical street sweeper with vertical conveyor system and vacuum support to Hardline Equipment of Commerce City, Colorado in the amount of $360,328.44, signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed, signify by saying nay. Hearing no nays, that is awarded to Hardline Equipment of Commerce City. Thank you, Mr. Hawley.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

All right. We are on item six policy handbook amendment regarding compensatory time slash overtime. And with that brief introduction, I would call on Clerk Treasurer Lynette Strecker.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. Attached to your agenda was the latest revision to the compensatory time overtime policy. The changes that the wage committee is recommending is highlighted in red and underlined. So the major change here is in item D on the first page, where we added a comment, an employee may be allowed under extenuating circumstances to temporarily exceed the 80 hours limit with the mayor's approval. If you recall, in December, we approved the increase from 40 to 80 hours for compensatory time. It does happen in some extenuating circumstances where they might have to temporarily exceed the 80 hours. We'd still like that option with the mayor's approval, of course. And then also another change in E regarding compensated time off will not be paid unless an employee is separating from employment with the city of Torrington. And then we added or when a non-exempt employee is promoted to an exempt position. And that has recently happened with a promotion in the electric department. So any accrued time then would be paid out to an hourly rate that the employee was making in the non-exempt position. So we added that. And then we eliminated F, which the committee felt like it really didn't make sense to have all of the comp time used within the fiscal year, being that's the busiest time of the year for us. It's really hard for a lot of our staff to take time off during that time. So the limit of 80 can stay on on there until they take it or they leave employment. So.

Okay. I know Councilman Deal is chairman of the wage committee. Did you have anything to add to that, Councilman?

No, I think Mrs. Strecker did a fine job explaining it. We had a fairly thorough discussion and decided that maybe the first time we presented it that there might have been a couple changes that were necessary, which is why we're bringing it back to you.

I have one question on D for the extenuating circumstances. Who will be determining that? Is that the mayor?

Well, the way it will work as a practical matter, staff will come to me and the employee will come to me and we'll discuss it. And then I will decide if there are extenuating circumstances.

Can you give an example of what an extenuating circumstance might be?

There could be several different circumstances. For instance, maybe the employee has been diagnosed and needs an emergency surgery, or not an emergency, but a very critical surgery. That could be where he could, before taking the surgery, he could maybe accrue extra time so that he could be paid to have the time off to recuperate. Or let's say there's

I recall another explanation was if a department is down for any particular reason, a person or persons, that people simply have to work more hours and so they accrue more time to make up for that.

Or if we were to have a major disaster, we might accrue quite a, you know, especially like with the electric department or Some other departments that accrue comp time, they may have to be out for extended times, and it may have to go over 80. Those are some examples.

And to give you some insurance, you know, I understand, as mayor, what extenuating circumstances are. It's not going to be the ordinary course of things. It's going to have to be extenuating to get my approval. So... And I don't think it'll happen often.

No.

Because it is extenuating.

Hearing no further questions, Mr Mayor, I make a motion to approve. The amended compensatory time overtime policy.

Alright, item 6. I have a motion from Councilman deal to approve the amended compensatory time overtime policy. Do have a second. Second Second Councilman Victor. Any further discussion gentlemen? Hearing none, all those in favor of approving the amendment to the compensatory time slash overtime policy, signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed, signify by saying nay. Hearing no nays, that policy amendment is approved. Next item on the agenda is approval of the bills from August 19, 26 through September 1, 26. And gentlemen, as you know, there's your bills attached to the original agenda and then an extra handout that we all received this evening. And I would call on Mrs. Strecker. I know they'll have questions for you, but anything you want to tell us before someone asks a question?

No. I'd be glad to answer any questions you may have.

OK.

I have a question on the first set for avalanche aerobatics for the fly-in event.

What page?

Page 2. Was that eligible for reimbursement from the state?

Yes. We did apply for reimbursement for that fly-in event.

And maybe if I could explain, Mr. Mayor. Go ahead, council. The aeronautics division at YDOT offers they're not like tourism grants, but they're, they're, um, assistance, if you will, to promote aviation in communities. And, um, recently when we have started this flying event at the airport, they've helped with, um, we we've had to ask some of our pilots that house their aircraft at the airport to temporarily move their aircraft to another airport. Um, so that frees up some hanger space for those attending. And, um, some of those grant dollars will assist with paying to temporarily house Torrington aircraft based Torrington based aircraft at another airport. Um, so that there's no cost to the, to the aircraft owner, but they're still able to house it somewhere else, which frees up hanger space for, for that weekend.

Okay. So ultimately, it's not costing the city anything. We'll get reimbursed.

That's correct.

One of those. First set of bills on page six for stealth underground services. Didn't we already pay him for doing that? For the contract he did?

I'm sorry, what was the question?

Well, with stealth underground, when they located all the potholing on the... Didn't we already pay that bill once?

So this is the final payment after the 41-day advertisement? Yes. But yes, we have made other payouts.

And that project's done, right?

It is, correct.

Now we have a complete inventory of all of our service lines. And so does EPA.

And that was one of those EPA mandates. I don't think Torrington had any lead pipe. But even though we didn't, and we couldn't tell them that we didn't, we had to prove that we didn't.

And we didn't.

And we didn't.

If there are no more questions about the bills, I would make a motion to pay the bills as presented.

All right. We are on item number seven, approval of the bills. I have a motion from Councilman Kelly to approve the bills as presented. Do I have a second?

Second.

Second, Councilman Deal. Any further discussion, gentlemen? Hearing none, I'll call for a vote. Item seven, all those in favor of approval of the bills as presented, signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed, signify by saying nay. Hearing no nays, the bills as presented are approved. We are now on item number eight, public comment. And I know Fire Chief Schick is here. And he will give us a fire report. Welcome, Chief Schick.

Mayor, council, good evening. We just completed Safe Kids Day this last Saturday. I'm not sure how many kids we interacted with, but we went through several goodie bags for fire prevention and making contacts with several kids. We have an egg drop at the elementary school tomorrow afternoon, so we'll take tower one over there and interact with them as they I think it's a little science project they do. I'm not exactly sure, but I've got a small group of volunteers going over to complete that. Douglas Fire School, the 10th through the 13th of this month. I do believe we have two individuals going there. Blood Drive, the 11th, which is a little competition between the police department and ourselves. That'll be held at the fire station from noon to 1700. Guns and Hoses Blood Drive. Lastly, 10 calls for the month of August. Most of them were city calls. We did experience an unusual call yesterday evening. Lieutenant Herb Irons called me and asked if we'd come over and help him. With a little hose down of the holding cell, we had an individual there that decided to take human waste and smear all over the holding cell, so they called the fire department. wondering if we'd help them with wash down. So we took a rural type 6 engine over and helped the sheriff's department there. So I would like to give a thank you to Lance Petsch, Michael Schuller, and Danny Watt for stepping up and helping with that. And it was a pretty unsavory, disgusting event. And volunteers to step up, they didn't argue or anything. They volunteered and jumped in the rigs and headed over to help out with that.

And I want to emphasize, volunteers volunteered. Yep. Because we have a volunteer fire service.

Yeah, I didn't ask anybody to go. I didn't want to go myself. So I wasn't going to ask them to go. But they threw their gear on and jumped in the rig and went over.

All right. Did you hose the inmate down at the same time?

Unfortunately, that's not allowed these days.

I'm sure. Lieutenant Irons of the Sheriff's Office appreciated the service.

Made quick cleaning of it, so I'm sure his deputies appreciated it as well. It was a task they didn't want to have to tackle themselves, so that's all I got, gentlemen.

All right. How far does that egg drop?

We'll probably extend all the way up, so it'll be 100 foot or better.

The kids have got to love that. I'm sure they do. All right. Thank you, Chief. Thank you, gentlemen. All right, we are in public comment. Is there any other public comment? Councilman, any public comment?

I know that people were here for lots of reasons, but it was very nice to see the council chambers filled up. I know people listen to the radio and watch it on YouTube, but it's actually nice to see some people here participating in the civics.

City government, yes, sir. We'll only have self-government if we keep self-governing, so appreciate that. All right, I don't see any other takers for public comment. I would entertain a motion to leave regular session and enter executive session to discuss personnel.

Mr. Mayor, I would move to resolve the council and do executive session for personnel matters.

All right, I have a motion from Councilman Victorin to leave regular session and go into executive session to discuss personnel matters. Do I have a second? Second, Councilman Kelly. Any further discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor of leaving regular session and entering executive session to discuss personnel,