Council - Regular Meeting

I would like to welcome everyone to the June 29th Pine Bluffs Town Council meeting. Please join me in the pledge of allegiance. The first item is approval of the agenda.

I move to approve the agenda.

I'll second it. Hearing a motion and a second to approve the agenda, all those in favor?

Aye.

Opposed? Hearing none, motion carries. Next item on the agenda is the consent agenda.

I move to approve the consent agenda as presented. I'll second.

Hearing a motion and a second to approve the consent agenda. All those in favor?

Aye.

Opposed? Hearing none, motion carries. On to new business and action items. We have resolution 2026-07, a resolution authorizing the mayor and mayor temporary to sign warranty deeds and any other final closing documents for the sale of properties listed in Addendum A, located within the Prairie View subdivision in Pine Bluffs, Laramie County, Wyoming.

This resolution supersedes the resolution that we had in place for just the mayor. to sign and the previous one also specified the mayor's name. So what we did was we took the mayor's name off, we added Mayor Pro Tem so that there's always somebody available to sign closing documents in the event that we continue to sell properties out there.

I was just going to ask, will the councils still be kind of kept apprised of sales?

Yes, so there is still no change to the original discussion that you and I would be the ones to discuss the sale of the property unless it was for the exact amount of the requested asking price. And then if all that goes through then. This particular, the last property rather, was discussed when the purchaser came in and brought their plan before the council.

I'll move to adopt resolution 2026-07. Second.

Hearing a motion and a second to approve resolution 2026-07. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Hearing none, resolution carries. Second item is fireworks discussion. Discussion of the dates and times that fireworks will be allowed in town.

So we've had some long talks about fireworks whether to ban or to allow this year. I think we've come to a middle ground of setting some pretty high restrictions but also allowing them this year and allowing only at the evening times. I think the time frame we've Discuss that kind of fits the best is from 8 p.m. to 11 on the 3rd, and then from 8 to 12 on the 4th, p.m. hours only. That allows the dew points and pressures to drop at night. This is weather permitting. So if any high winds or red flag warnings come up through whatever weather system is coming through, we will push out that there will be a ban. So there is an out because if there's any high winds, we don't want to risk anything floating over and causing problems. But if the weather's mild like it's going to be today and those dew points drop after 8, I don't think and I think we agree that the risk is not that high in town. Out in the county is a different story, but in town. And of course, it's just like any other year. If you're lighting fireworks and you have an empty property next to you and it's really barren, you might not want to shoot that close to that property or move your fireworks over a little bit. Just common sense stuff that's just like every year. It's no different than it's been dry other times too, but In town, I think we're pretty safe. Still, the restrictions will remain for the bluffs. Anyone that kind of lives in the loop there needs to be very cautious about what they're setting off and where and wind direction. Come into town and get with another neighbor that's closer into town is what I'd recommend. Anything on the north side of town, though... I'm not comfortable with light and fireworks out there. It's just way too dry and not a lot of green. So I'd say that that'd be the only restriction that I'd put on. And it's only town residents. Only town residents can light this year. We don't need people coming in from all over the place and lighting fireworks. It's way too dry for that.

What do you think about only ground fireworks over in the Bluffs area? It makes me nervous with them. going up in the air in that area. It's really dry.

I don't disagree with that either. I think it only takes one, it wouldn't even take a 10 mile an hour wind to light an artillery shell off, let's just say anywhere down there to kind of float towards the bluffs. So I would definitely agree with that. Again, I don't want to restrict anyone's

right to you know light off fireworks in town and someone on that side says you can't but i think this year we just need to be you know a little more extra cautious about it so i do have a question then if since we don't want to restrict anyone um could we potentially give couple hours of community center parking lot and a push broom like if you live in Bluffs and you've already bought these because maybe you went to town on Saturday and you bought some things that that maybe there's just a safe place for people to go as like a staging area we leave some push brooms clean up when you're done that kind of thing my my idea when we first started talking about that was to say hey

If you want to light off fireworks, come in, you know, either, you know, towards the park and pool area or the park down here, as long as you're next to the road and you're lighting them off safely. Um, I don't have a problem with that. And I would, if you're going to do that though, and say community center, I would just restrict them in general on the, on the south side as well. And just say, if you live over there, come on into town. Join a friend or a neighbor that you know, or in that four-hour gap, light off some fireworks, have fun, be safe about it, but come into town where it's a little more green and a little less risk. I don't disagree with that.

So north of the interstate but south of the railroad track, is that what we're looking at?

What's that?

North of the interstate and south of the railroad track.

Yes.

To totally avoid the bluff area.

Absolutely. Totally avoid the bluffs and the farmland.

Again, Skye, because it seems like my little boy has snakes. It seems silly to come to the community center to do snakes.

Yeah, I would say anything...

But the air stuff, I mean...

I would say anything on the ground, we're probably fine, as long as we're not throwing black cats and... In the weeds, but anything on the ground, on a hard surface, I would say is perfectly fine. But anything aerial needs to be in town where there's not. Again, there's risk to every year, but it's just a little different with the area.

I'm not on the names of all the different fireworks, but what about those ones that generally spin, but they tend to shoot out colors? Ground swimmers? Yeah. They don't go in the air, though, but they do shoot off.

Again, I would say same thing. As long as you're doing it on a hard surface, say on the road, I don't think there's any risk there. Anything that goes in the air that can float an ember somewhere where we don't want it to go in those really dry, susceptible areas all around us, I would say no. So even the fountains and stuff like that, I think perfectly fine as long as they're not going too high. Again, a little common sense. If we're driving by and we see something, we'll say it.

Will all the officers be on duty those two nights then to try to watch for things?

Officer Furtick and then I'll be on during the daytime, but I'll be out and about at night as well.

Just one out at night?

What's that?

Just one out at night?

They'll be both of us. So I'll be working during the day, and then I'll come out at night as well, especially for the fireworks show.

I'm a little concerned that we had talked about people from out of town coming in to shoot off. It happens every year.

I think that's Every year I've been here, we've always had that rule where you've got to be a Town Bluff resident. Every year we have someone coming in and trying to light fireworks off out at the rest area. That concerns me too, is the people that come in and want to light something off. Whether we have a restriction or not, let's just say we totally ban it, we're going to have someone like that happens every year that's just going to light them off anyway. But this gives town of Pine Bluffs residents only a set time to light them off. That way we're not having an issue like we had yesterday where we're lighting them off in the middle of the heat.

So in the area, countywide, we're under red flag warnings about every other day. So what's the liability of us allowing people to set off fireworks during red flag warnings?

So I talked to the National Weather Service today.

The third and the fourth, currently, the third look would be, they said, would be borderline. They said it'll be warm and dry, but they said the winds right now appear to be mild on the third. The fourth, they said, actually, the humidity will come up, and the winds look to be light, and the temperature not as hot on the fourth. it looks like we should be able to avoid red flag warnings on the 3rd and the 4th, according to the National Weather Service, what I talked to them today.

If they were to call a red flag warning during either of those two days?

I would sit with Chief's recommendation that the town would put out, you know, hey, this is based on red flag warning. If we're red flag warninging either one of those days, at no time will it be allowed whatsoever.

We've worked on a, sorry, we've worked on a, on a statement, kind of a joint statement, if you will. And in that, there's a whole paragraph saying that we, you know, reserve the right at any time if a red flag warning were to be in effect any of the two days that we had planned on lighting them off, that we call it off. And this requires people to kind of pay attention to Facebook, but it's also on us to drive around and say, hey, there's a red flag. We're going to shut off fireworks. Thanks for your cooperation. And if they don't, then we'll go the other route. But Most of the time, just ask compliance works.

And with that caveat, our fireworks show, I guess, with your guys' approval, we can still do it. Obviously, that will also be dependent on the weather as well. Come the night of the 4th of July for the town show, right now, like I said, crossing our fingers, the forecast right now shows it's favorable. However, if we are seeing... 30-mile-an-hour winds in the evening on the 4th, 40-mile-an-hour winds, we'll probably, most likely, delay the count's firework show.

My one question was answered. My other one was, if the conditions do change, can we send out an alert via the... We can to the people that are signed up, but yes, absolutely. Just one extra way to get in.

We do that on Facebook.

I guess I'd like to make it clear that no fireworks in the bluffs. That needs to be really emphasized.

Since I've been here, that's always been the rule, but we're going to this year probably more than others. The firework season, I tell all the guys we need to be extra vigilant about fireworks, even ground fireworks in the rest area. Yeah. Every year we have someone passing through that just bought fireworks at the stand that can't wait until they get to Nebraska or vice versa, and they're lighting them off in the bluffs. Or not in the bluffs, but in the parking lot. And they're going to be met with either pack up and leave or here's your fine, come to court. Because we're not going to play this year with that. And same thing with anybody in town. If they're not going to follow our directions, they can come talk to Judge Moran. And then we will seize fireworks. So it's going to be, again, the statement's very long this year for good reason, and we are going to have a lot of teeth this year with fireworks. If you're not going to follow the order of, if approved, lighting them off in the middle of the day, you're not going to have any to light off during the actual time where you're supposed to light them off.

But ground fireworks in your driveway, maybe in the street where it's safe, got a good area where there's nothing combustible and encourage people to have a garden hose handy just in case while they are letting them off and playing in the street and their driveway. Just be careful and cautious about the way you do it. And like Amy said, I don't see any issue with kids playing with their ground fireworks on a safe surface in a surrounded area that's mostly concrete or something and then having let's encourage people to make sure they have like their garden hose handy and it's ready in case something does light up they can tamp it down a little.

So would it be aerial fireworks south of the interstate is banned and ground fireworks would still be allowed?

I would say so.

Are you okay with that?

I like Amy's point. When you're thinking of snakes and sparklers and stuff like that, no. I honestly, even though it's a ground firework, there's some fountains.

I said no to fountains to my kids. They got smoke bombs and snakes.

Yeah, those don't usually spark. I would say sparklers and snakes and anything that does not explode probably would be a good term that That would not be allowed south of the interstate.

And the Bluffs recreation area says no tolerance, zero.

Yeah, and that is every year. I don't think we've ever allowed it up there. And we've never really had an issue up there. It's always been the rest area. If anything near the Bluffs, it's always been the rest area.

And we did have a fire last year started by an artillery shell shot from a residence on the south side of the interstate that started a fire between the interstate and the bluffs.

I forgot to tell you about that. Yes.

We didn't get there quickly. It can happen at any time. I think restricting anything south of the interstate is a must. I also don't want to be fair or bad news to restrict anybody's fun so i think this is a good compromise to restrict it to eight o'clock at night when those humidity levels are up the winds usually die down and we restrict those areas that would be prone to a large spread and north side is saying this out there none at all is what we're going with i am i would say no just because there's not a lot of

There's a lot of farmland. There's not a lot of safe places out there, let alone pavement. So I think the risk is too great out there.

Was there a clear answer to Ali's idea with a staging area where people who are south of the interstate have a place they could go shoot off?

I'm absolutely in support of it.

I thought it was a good idea.

I don't think it would be any different. Neighbors around there don't like that. I don't know the answers to that question other than it's the 4th of July. Yeah, there aren't a lot of neighbors.

And it's not already in your notice to maybe include something like that? Because that's a lot of concrete and brick around there. And I know people complain we'll stop, but...

And we, I mean, there's times where we've approved like weddings and stuff to light off fire. So I don't think it's, you know, too many issues. I think it would be a good area for them to do that. I don't, I think it's got to be limited to ground and fountains. I don't, artillery shells in that area, just with the gas station there, I just think it just needs to be limited to just a, fountains and ground stuff there. Unfortunately, that's just my opinion.

No, I think that's great.

Yeah, I agree. I think it's a good guideline.

Thank you for collaborating on that.

Yeah, I think it's a fair compromise with the country's 250th birthday. It's a bummer we're in a drought.

Yeah, you know, I don't blame at all— Different towns and cities saying no. I think some cities, it's a little bit of a knee-jerk reaction, in my opinion, just because, yes, it's dry, but where it's dry the most and where there's the most fire danger is in the counties. Again, there's parts of inner Pine Bluffs that's also dry, but a lot of that is either places that just aren't. well-maintained or watered. The ability for it to spread is very minimal.

It's pretty minimal, too.

I mean, it's possible every year. Yeah, it is. That's kind of the discussion we had. Yes, it's dry, but it's a threat every year in town, just for fireworks. Like I said, we had a fire last year between the interstate and the bluffs just straight of us. Yeah, we got on it quick, but And, you know, that's because the resident was prepared and stuff like that. So that's, again, part of our statement. Stay prepared. Have water handy, bucket, hose, whatever you need to do.

It's a bummer they didn't declare independence in April.

Yeah. Bad timing.

Even that sucked this year. Right, that's true. This year it would not have helped. Well, I do appreciate your guys' collaboration and working for a compromise so people can still enjoy this. the 4th this year, so thank you.

I will make a motion to approve fireworks for July 3rd from 8 to 11 and July 4th from 8 to midnight and to from there follow the guidelines set between the Police Department and the Fire Department. I'll second it.

I'm hearing a motion and a second to approve fireworks between 8 and 11 on the 3rd and 8 to midnight on the 4th. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Hearing none, motion carries. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

On to visitor comments. Visitor comments? No? On to department reports. Got anything, Janet? Nope. And you, Dave?

The airport order committee meeting that was scheduled for last Thursday got postponed to this Thursday, so I do not have anything to report either.

I don't have anything to report either. There wasn't much happening at the landfill.

Nothing for me right now. Same, I've got nothing.

I'll make it unanimous.

I almost forgot, July 9th is our national night out event. Excuse me. We invited the sheriff's office, the county, we're gonna have a canine demonstration. I think the Laramie County, including Matt, whole canine team is going to be out this year, from what I understand. So they'll have good demonstrations and bite dogs and all sorts of fun stuff. And then the pool, obviously, will be open. And so it'll be a fun event.

What time does that start?

It starts at 5. And then it'll go till when the movie's done. We haven't decided the movie. So if anybody has any ideas about what movie we want to show,

A good time.

Yep. Thank you. Thanks. Thank you.

I guess I'll go. The only thing I have, I added it to your council pack, is I had a resident contact us about putting stop signs on 5th Street at Maple. There's already two stop signs there. going north and south on Maple. And this resident asked if we could put a stop sign east and west. So I said I would pass it along to the council.

You know what? My biggest question on that one is, why isn't there a school zone there? It seems odd to me. I'm all for putting stop signs there because it's right there where the school buses unload and And the school is right there. But it seems odd to me that we don't have school zone signs in that area.

Speaking of school signs, I did notice somebody was talking.

Yeah, they are up by the pool now, which is great.

It seems to be working.

It does.

Although the one when you're heading west, there's some bushes right by it, which we'll have to keep an eye on it that doesn't get overgrown. Yep, yep.

That's on the road.

To make it a four-way. Uh-huh.

My only thought on that was that if you ever have been at a four-way stop, sometimes those really confuse people. So, Austin, you may need to have, like, a public education class on how to use the four-way stop.

Well, just south of there, we have that kind of three-way at 5th and Elm.

Yeah, by the elementary.

And so I...

We don't have a four-way stop.

Yeah, I don't think that – it's just my opinion. I don't think it's needed. I don't – I think you're already, when you come off of Beach, you already know you're going to stop a block later. We don't have a lot of speeding through there. It is a school zone already.

Leigh Ann, what did the individual – what was their – Was it just a request or did they have a...

It was just a request. They mentioned that they see cars going pretty quickly on 5th Street and they're worried about children crossing.

Is it during school hours or... All the time.

All the time?

I don't think it's necessarily school hours. I live on 5th. I think it's pretty common.

Yeah.

I will...

I mean, you live over... Close to there. Yeah. It doesn't feel like there's a lot of speeding.

I think because I get to the point right before that stop sign that it's not as bad, but I could see how it would. Yeah. There's just a lot of traffic. There's way more traffic on that street than you would think.

Well, with the church being there, you have, especially during the school time, a lot of traffic dropping kids off. Mm-hmm.

The apartments seem pretty full, so there's a lot of in and out of there.

I'm not patrolling it or on that street often, although my husband and kids are on that. What about yield signs instead of a four-way stop?

What if we did yield?

Well, you'd be kind of defeating the... I don't think you can conflict two signs. So you'd have to come to... Two sides have to come to a stop, and so you'd be conflicting the east-west traffic by conflicting the stop sign traffic. So you'd either have to make it a four-way or leave it as is. I'M JUST TRYING TO WRAP MY HEAD AROUND IT, I THINK.

THIS IS A COMMENT FROM THE PEANUT SECTION. WHAT ABOUT AN OFFICER SITTING NEAR THAT INTERSECTION FOR TWO WEEKS UNTIL THE NEXT BOARD MEETING AND OBSERVE THAT INTERSECTION AND OBSERVE TRAFFIC COMING DOWN THAT STREET AND HAVE A REPORT OF WHAT IT MAY LOOK LIKE?

I was going to say a similar thing. We can definitely do a study of that area to see how much traffic speeds and come back with a little report saying, you know, this is what we saw. But, of course, when you have a market truck sitting there, everyone's going to slow down. Usually we do this with a speed gun and an unmarked car. In previous agencies, we don't have a speed gun and we don't have an unmarked car, so it's kind of hard to do that. But... We can definitely watch the area and see if there's a need. I would say just in my opinion, if there was a need for a four-way near the school, it would be up near the pool and in that area. But I can't disagree with it either. I'm not saying that if it was put there that it would be a problem because it's right at a school head. I mean, you're right where there's a lot of traffic, especially on school drop off. At lunchtime, that's kind of an in and out area for kids leaving for school or parents coming in and out. So again, just because I haven't seen an issue there doesn't mean that there's not an issue there. But we can definitely take a good hard look at it I think that the best time to take a look at it would be when school would start as well so do do one do a little week long or two week long study in the middle of the summer here and then do another one at the beginning of the school year come back that next council meeting and say this is what we saw during the summer this is what we see you know during the least of the start of school and come to some sort of opinion whether we leave it as is or it's indefinitely needed of a four-way stop.

I think that's a good plan.

Thank you. Definitely not peanut gathering.

Let's just not forget to look at it and come September. Oh, yeah, I'll start late this year.

The fact that this got submitted, though, means that someone thinks that there's people now or have been

Yeah, she reached out to me.

Blasting through there pretty quickly.

And so maybe we need to... She's pretty concerned about the amount of cars that are speeding.

Take a look at it. Do a little bit of extra patrolling there. And if you do find that there are people that are making a habit of blowing through there, if you issue a few tickets, it'll probably resolve a lot of issues.

It'll probably reduce, yes. Was there a certain... And that's why I'm trying to wrap my head around, because usually we'd go... and if I can if this was anonymous I'd like to sit down and talk this out but is there certain hours that she's seeing or anything in that nature I didn't ask I can give you her information I'm sure she'd be happy to visit with you I'll reach out and we'll kind of get to the hours she's seeing this happen her kind of mode of thinking and then get to the kind of hopefully the root of the problem. Maybe it's one or two vehicles that she's seeing. Maybe it's just all the vehicles she's seeing. Usually, and in my experience, it's a few bad apples that are causing it, and if we can cut the head off the snake there, hopefully that curbs it. I'm not saying that will relieve the need for a four-way at all, but I think there would be more looking into than... that would be needed. Just, again, I go back just because there hasn't been a problem there doesn't mean there isn't.

Yeah, I'm sure she'd be happy to be with you.

Yeah, absolutely. That's the way I would approach it anyway.

Thank you. Okay, that's all I have.

Let's not forget, though, to come back to this, please. Yes. Because I remember when I was living on... Sixth and Beach, it was very busy on Beach, and it took a while to get school zone signs in and crosswalks, like it was a fight, because people didn't necessarily agree that it was busy, but I saw it all the time living there, how fast people went on that road.

I will say... The 20 mile per hour signs are up, and we've seen A, very good comments on it, but B, the amount of speeds through there are less than 20. So it's been great. We've only pulled over, I think the count's up to five now, and it's been just, oh, I didn't know yet, and just lack of paying attention.

Yeah, old habits die hard.

Yeah, old habits die hard, and we're not doing any citations, at least for a couple weeks, and it's just education and awareness, and then go from there. But I wanted to say that I commend the town folk for recognizing that they're up and slowing down. So thank you.

Thanks. Good job on the sixth penny. announcements and stuff too. I saw those today. I like it.

Do you have anything?

Yes. I attached a copy of our annual drinking water quality report that is made available to the public today and have provided the EPA with all the required notifications that we have done what we are required to do each year. It will be published in the newspaper this week. At any rate, there's a report. We didn't have any violations in calendar year 2025, so our water quality has met or exceeded all EPA standards.

Excellent.

I just broke my thing, so I'm not helpful.

Starting tomorrow, we will have a section of fifth street blocked off at the intersection of elm so that we can get those two valley pans replaced so if you uh see some concrete work going on over there. That's our contractor going in and replacing those too. We did a survey and a study of all of our valley pans, and those are a couple of the ones that really need replaced. We have several others as well, but we wanted to get those done because that's a lot of bus traffic and school traffic in that area. It won't really affect any folks trying to get in and out of their homes, they just might have to drive around the block as opposed to pulling in there, and it'll only be for a couple of days. After the fireworks discussion, I actually got a text from Trent to remind folks to make sure that they're not throwing their debris from the fireworks into a dumpster right away, making sure that they are fully extinguished and cooled off before they add to the trash bins.

Great reminder. I want to add on that. Do they need to be in a bag as well?

Generally all trash that goes into a dumpster is supposed to be in a bag.

I would definitely reiterate that though.

And then I also tossed a quick photo on there for you guys. Today we started a an in-house project over at our horseshoe pits. The goal is to have it complete by the neighborhood night out. What we did was we scraped off all of the weeds and we will be putting a concrete frame around each horseshoe pit to keep all the sand in. They'll be getting new backboards and gravel will be placed in that entire area. So it'll be a little bit cleaner, neater, nicer. And all of that is being done with the generous donations from a local business. And once the project is complete, we will make a grand announcement and we'll place a sign up there thanking that business for their donation. So the business is providing the materials. We are providing the manpower.

Very good.

That's nice. Great.

Thanks.

And then eventually we would like to try to get some grant funds together to put in a covered pavilion like at City Park, just to the west of that area. So there's some shade for folks to sit down and enjoy playing horseshoes and maybe eventually get some concrete cornhole pits in there and things like that as well.

Great.

And again, just working on closeout of the fiscal year. As of today, everything's looking great. It doesn't look like we have busted the budget in any areas, so I'll have final numbers for you all at the next council meeting. Good news.

Thank you.

Which leads us to our announcements. Our next council meeting will be Monday, July 13th at 6 p.m. No workshop, I don't believe. I think just the meeting.

Great. It does seem like a long ways away, but it's not. Gosh. I'll move to enter executive session for personnel.

Second.

Hearing a motion and a second to enter executive session. All those in favor?

Aye.

Opposed? And motion carries. That's really cool that somebody wanted to get it.