Council - Regular Meeting

Okay. I'd like to welcome everyone to the Tuesday, December 9th meeting of the Pine Blast Town Council. Will everyone rise for the pledge of allegiance? I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

First item is the agenda. I move to amend the agenda to add the building permit for 315 Maine as new business item number three and the Helena real estate agreement to new business item four.

Second. It's been moved and seconded to amend the agenda to include a new business item number three, a building permit, and item number four, a real estate contract with Helena. Any discussion? All those in favor? Those opposed? Motion carries. Uh approval of the amended agenda. I move to approve the agenda as amended.

Second. Moved and seconded to approve the agenda as amended. All those in favor? I. Those opposed? Motion carries. Next item is the consent agenda. I move to approve the consent agenda. I'll second it. It's been moved and seconded to approve the consent agenda. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor?

Those opposed? Motion carries. On to new business. Item number one under new business is review and approve proposal from RL Banks and Associate. The proposal is to provide a quiet zone consulting for the new railroad crossing. I move to approve the proposal for RL Banks and Associates. Second.

It's been moved and seconded to approve the uh consulting proposal from RL Banks and Associates. Uh any discussion? So, I just had one question because I don't remember reading it. What what's their timeline in their proposal? I don't remember seeing a timeline.

I don't think they Okay. It says 81 days. Oh, 81 days from proceed. I see. Okay. Very good. Any other discussion? And just to confirm, Kim, I think Dave asked that in the last meeting, but we have money in the budget for it. Um, we do if we stick to the uh not to exceed budget of $5,000. Uh, if there's going to be anything after that, then we would really have to discuss that further.

Okay. Any other discussion hearing? None. We uh all those in favor? I. Those opposed? Motion carries. Item number two under new business is ordinance 2026-01, an ordinance amending the town of Pine Bluffs, Wyoming Code of Ordinances, chapter 20 entitled zoning and providing for an effective date. This is on the first reading. I move to approve ordinance 2026-01 on the first reading. Second it.

It's been moved and seconded to approve ordinance 2026-01 on the first reading. Any discussion hearing? None. All those in favor? Those opposed? Motion carries. I don't have that in front of me. I didn't write it all down. But, uh, item number three is the building permit for say the 315 Maine. 315 Maine. Um, I guess we have people here representing that permit. Yes.

Now would be a good time if you'd like to come up and just say your name and Sure. talk about uh the permit. My name is Wyatt Wilson. I own Wilson Construction, Inc. and this is my partner Tim Forbus. We just want to we want to buy it, knock it down, and build some nice town homes. We talked about it a few years ago. You weren't here on the last meeting, but Sure. We uh it has become more solidified, and we're ready to proceed in earnest. Okay. Any questions for them? Just out of curiosity, did you decide on a basement or not? No, we're still kind of throwing that one around. Okay. Uh just, you know, boils all down to budget.

Yep. Fair. So, what's the elevation? These are two 9 ft floors or two 9 foot floors. Yes. Okay. With a 412 pitch roof. um uh small covered porch in the front and then just a concrete patio in the back. Okay. Um once you have the uh drawings and plans all in place, I will give them to you. Yes. Okay. Yeah. Normally, I think we would like to see an elevated drawing, but in this particular case, I know it's been Yeah, I think it's something we would all like to see happen. And um so, okay,

we have the footprint and I guess that explains the things last time I was here. I don't have any of the copies with me because I gave them all to you. Okay, that's fine. I just saw what we had in the present today. Sure. Yeah. And uh Lauren and I did look at the uh current utility layout there. And uh we do have a water man that comes right in in where the front doors of these would be down fourth street. Great.

Um Yep. And uh we will have to replace the transformer, but we do have those in stock. We'll need to put a heavier duty transformer there. uh it's just that you know we've just expected to work closer with more and to figure out placement of you know the meter pits and right all the different connections and and things like that. So okay and the way I understand it's set up here is you have your meter pit in a like a what culvert or something that's in the ground in the sidewalk. It's not in the basement of the of the building. Correct. They're outside. Okay.

Yep. But uh we we're just going to have to look at a good good location for them. Uh they all have like a transponder under the lid that reads uh to the closest electric meter that provides us the readings and things like that. So just something convenient, something that isn't a tripping hazard. You know, maybe we can look at putting them off to the side again once we kind of know the exact layout and I did contact Styles and they're busy with other projects and could get to mine as soon as it can. So, okay. Uh we actually have um our one of our other engineers that's working on our pedestrian plan is also working with Styles. Okay. To survey this general vicinity as part of that plan. Okay.

So I don't know if she has a date scheduled with them or not, but but let's visit with that tomorrow. I'll get in touch with her and find out if she's got a date for them and then that sounds good. Yeah. Just tap right on email me. Yeah. Yep. Okay. Okay. And I well I just usually submit a sketch to them and they give me a plot plan and you know they look up all of the you know benchmarks and everything like that. So yeah. Okay. So I have a question on your uh yes submitted um site plan. There was a discrepancy between the measurements and the square footage.

Which is it you intend to do? I think they were listed as 20 by 30, but then they were listed as 1,600 square feet on two levels. So, probably just my typo. I apologize. Okay. But it's it's 1,200 per unit. It is,200. Yeah. Per unit. And we were working with the setbacks trying to make sure that we were at making sure we fell in line with the setbacks as close as possible. Sorry about that. No, it's okay. I just I was trying to do the it would make a difference in terms of the length for the setback. Absolutely. Yeah. Right.

And we believe we have enough parking along the city, but we're also working on another parking um proposal as well that we'll probably bring forth to this to the city council here um in a little while. The possible parking off of the alley. Yeah. Well, I also think we already have diagonal parking. Yes. On both sides of that property. So to put diagonal parking there would be yeah piece of cake

would be consistent with the area I would say. So um we I I think that would be beneficial to to doing that but some offre parking would sure be useful as well. Okay. Any other questions for them? I'm just thank you for bringing this, I guess, opportunity to the town. I think it'll be fun. Yeah. Great. Well, I will hear a motion on the permit. Moved. Second. It's been moved and seconded to approve the building permit for 3 315.

For 315 Maine. Um, all in favor? I. Those opposed? Motion carries. Thank you guys. Thank you. Um item number four under new business is uh the land swap contract with Helena.

I Alex, would you would you would you like to add anything right now? Uh I I think we got a full lap without falling down this time around. I think you've sufficiently beat it to death. I don't know if let's just go for it at this point. Fair enough. I was just curious about um it the agreement does detail the acreage on the Foxtail property, but I didn't see the acreage on the the parcel that Helena currently owns. What is the what's the acreage there? Do you okay?

It is maybe a tenth of an acre less than the fox t I'm doing that off of memory. So close. Very very close to the same. Okay. Very good. I move to approve the agreement for mutual conveyance of real estate. I'll second it. It's been moved and seconded to approve the agreement for mutual conveyance of real estate. Any other discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor?

Those opposed? Motion carries. Um Alex, do we need to have this version signed tonight? That would be great. Yep. Okay. Just want to be sure. I forgot to put that up. Um, any other uh on to visitor com? Well, where are we at here? Okay. Any other uh visitor comments? Visitor comments, department reports. I have nothing. I don't really have any to report either.

I have nothing. Um the update I have is that our the word from WHAM currently is that through joint appropriations we're looking at 105 million for direct distribution which is a decrease from the 144 uh the previous year. So this is putting us at like 2021 numbers for direct distribution. They say this is a jumping off point. So, it looks like we'll be in the trenches fighting for that again this time. Yay. Great,

Alex.

Uh, only this that uh congratulations to the mayor, but we're going to also say goodbye. Um, I did send an email to Kim and the and Leanne clerk today outlining the relevant statutes and the process a little bit. Um, I don't know if that got distributed or not, but um, we we can make sure everybody gets a copy of those. Uh but essentially where we are um it's um there's a few steps there. You declare first of all there has to be a vacancy. Once there's a vacancy we declare that there is a vacancy. Typical government stuff. Uh the uh the vacancy um in the case of of a mayor, the vacancy has to be filled from the governing body. Um unlike some vacancies. So it's it's going to have to be one of the four of you. And um uh I don't think it's a I don't think um I mean it's going to have to be discussed and there's going to have to be a vote and I think um it's probably not an executive session matter. I think it's public's entitled to be part of that action. Um and uh so it's pretty straightforward. Obviously the fun part begins if we happen to have I mean there's a lot of possibilities. could only be one person that wants to take this burden, which

which case it'd be easy. If you have two, that raises the uh spectre of the possibility of a tie vote. Um and um you know I would probably recommend that a third person jump into the act and that would solve that problem because then u those three would vote for themselves and the leftover guy would decide who the mayor's going to be. So and there's always cutting the cards to see you forgot about the fourth option where all four put their name in.

Yeah. Right. everybody for but uh you know we'll have to we'll have to tread that ground when uh when the time is right. There are some possible uh recources that we could suggest but we'll save those for a later time. So, be thinking about it and uh one of you lucky folks will uh will be the next uh mayor. Um Dennis isn't here. Maybe we ought to vote tonight. But speaking personally, if I may for just a moment, um, Mayor Fornstrom, I have served for many, many mayors, far too many mayors, some people would say. Um, and I don't say this lightly, but I think you're the best I've ever had the privilege of working with.

Oh, thank you. Including the ones in Cheyenne. Thank you. Appreciate that. So, you'll do well in the lousy slature. You'll get real frustrated and uh that's okay. Yeah. Well, I appreciate that. Thank you, sir. It's all I have. Um Austin, nothing for us. Kim,

uh, we we don't have a whole lot other than just continuing to work through the audits and, um, we just want to remind you all that we have our town employee lunchon on Friday the 19th at noon. If you would like to join us, we would love for you to to be there. Great. Uh, next on the agenda is the announcements and meetings. Um, the next uh the next regular town council meeting is scheduled for Monday, December 22nd at 6:00 p.m. unless you don't see the need for a meeting um a second meeting during this month. I have uh prepared all of the payables for the month except for a couple of them uh that haven't come in yet. So, if they haven't come in yet, then presumably they would be fine to pay at the first meeting in January. Or if it's acceptable, if I can send the consideration of claims out for an email vote, we could do that as well. Uh we would be looking at a couple of regularly scheduled such as our Black Hills natural gas bill.

Yeah, we we can visit about how you want to manage that. Um, and I I don't know what the timeline is for Mayor Forstrom's departure, but um, in the interim, uh, the Mayor Pro Tim is authorized to sign, okay, checks and stuff, okay?

And and there's no deadline either. So this is a tough time of the year to get everybody together in one room and work on those things. And so there's I don't think there's a crisis, you know, a time crisis at all. I think we just forge ahead and do business. Um

so what we need to decide is if there's any other business besides these. So I guess I would ask right I would ask that the uh then that the uh permission to add the mayor prom not just in this instance but moving into the future that we have the mayor prom as another signatory on our checking accounts and that is something you would have to vote on. She's not on there now currently is not on there. Um, it is something we need to vote on because it has to be in the minutes for me to provide to both banks to add to the signitories. So, can we amend this uh to to take a vote or

Yeah, I think I think we need to take that vote. The banks make you do that? Yes, they do. Since when are they writing the laws for municipal corporations? It's like every like Yeah. Every time we have an election for a new mayor, uh, or if we have a new person appointed to one of the check signing positions, we we need to have that in the the meeting minutes that we might have to visit with them someday, but now is not the time, right? Yeah. I think Trail Day's board had that. So I will hear a motion to approve the mayor pro 10 being added as a signator and on our bank accounts.

So moved. Second. It's been moved and second to approve the mayor prom on our uh as a signatory on our bank accounts. Any other discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor? I. Those opposed? Motion carries. So, we got that out of the way. Now, we're down to uh any other need for new business for another meeting.

Sure. Um I know that we've passed reading one and I think that we of the uh ordinance change, but you know, I think that it it still bears time needs time for for further review. Um and just because of kind of the uh potential changes in administration um you know that's the only thing that's out there. Do you think we would be ready for reading two by uh December 22nd? Um if not then we could do reading two at the first meeting in in January. I I know that um as far as legal review goes, I know that um Alex has a court case that he's going to be busy working on. And um

I if I can make an suggestion, I think I think it's more critical that we get it right than we get it done expediently. Yes. And so I would suggest that given all the parameters that having it on the 22nd, I mean whether we need the meeting or not, having the second reading on the 22nd is not critical. But I agree. Obviously.

Absolutely. Um but but with that said, I do believe that at some point before the end of the month, there will be a call for either that meeting or a special meeting. So we can play it by ear and let the the public know uh as we know on when that meeting will be. Just to be clear for the mayor thing, the special meeting. Yes, absolutely. Sure. Yep. Um, and that that special meeting would be in place to uh formally declare the the vacancy and um

I'm here so I'm available whenever the need arises if we don't. Okay. Well, I guess you it's it's your guys's pleasure whenever if you want to keep the regularly scheduled meeting date and you and town on the 22nd. I sure hope so. Okay. Do you know when your schedule is for when you officially um Monday probably? Oh, okay. Okay. Likely. So, um

why don't we just leave the regularly scheduled meeting? But I'm just saying I'm just saying I think it still holds true that if you're not prepared to have a second reading then and if you are great you have a comment for notes for the pass. Oh okay good. Thanks. Um Ally will be gone that day. So on Wednesday which on the 22nd she will not be here. is you're going to have to find a meeting that everyone can be present. So,

when are you back? The Monday after. So, the 29th I'm back. Okay. When do you leave? Saturday. Okay. Tuesday. Yeah. Not this Saturday, but I the Saturday before that. So the 20th I think. When does Dennis get back? 14th, right? Is it 13th or 14th? So this coming weekend? So maybe next week sometime then. Yep. Yep.

Yeah. I'm out of commission for a week. Yep. They tell me it's wonderful this time of year. Where? Lincoln, Nebraska, federal court.

Well, I don't want to make this decision for you, but and I'm not going to. I just think you I think we put a mechanism in place to stretch it if you want to stretch it to a time that's more that works for everyone. But that's certainly can be a roundroin to uh but if what you were going to accomplish on the 22nd was this that doesn't sound possible was and what we were going to a vote we won't be ready procedurally for a vote until after the holidays. Okay. So I don't know what we're so that this

is that correct we will not think that makes sense procedural vote. Uh so really the only thing that we will be doing is holding a special meeting or the regularly scheduled meeting to specify to declare officially that there is a vacancy. Okay. Then let's keep the December 22nd meeting as scheduled. If it's a 10-minute meeting, I guess it's a 10-minute meeting, but it's already on the schedule. Got it. How does that sound?

That sounds great. If you if and if you if you decide to change that, that's entirely up to you. If you want a special meeting to announce that that's at a time that that accomplishes that, that's easier in your schedule. Actually, I I do think that's better. What? To schedule it at a time that's more convenient because we're talking about a five minute meeting, right? Sure. That would be my suggestion. But once again, that that you could have that meeting at 4:30 in the afternoon. You're not there's no decision point. There's no debate.

No, we just need to, like I said, get that uh official declaration done and then um Alex and I are going to continue to work through the the proper procedure that you will all follow. It's not a common procedure. So, the answers are not uh just all laid out there in bold letters for us. Uh so, with everything else we have going on uh between the two of us, we would appreciate some time to work through that proper procedure um so that we're representing the the community properly. Go ahead. Anybody else? Uh,

so let's get some clarification about the meeting. Now we've talked around it and I've suggested things that I don't think are necessarily matter. So, so if you need to call a special meeting that's at a more convenient time or whatever, um, that's great, too. So I would leave that to you guys to Does the 29th work for the vacancy? Yes. To just declare the vacancy. No. No. I I thought we were keeping No. Just what are we going to do for a special meeting to declare the vacancy? We can do that in a special meeting any day uh at any particular time. Yeah.

What's that? Let's just keep it the 22nd. Okay. We'll do we'll leave it the 22nd. Very good. at at 6:00 p.m. And um and again, Alex and I will work through and and get back with you on an exact date for us to uh work through the act the voting process. So I guess if you have any other regular business, we're we're having a regular meeting. So Okay, perfect. Then no need to alert the public yet. We are Are we doing this next? I'm unaware of what the next item is in Is this Are we having a session?

Executive session is on the It is. Yeah. Is that I I was not aware of that. It is not. That's a That's a typo. I am sorry. It should not be there. this early. We could have one and wish each other a merry Christmas, I guess, in private, but I don't think that's by statute. Well, then I'll move to second. Been moved and seconded to adjourn. All in favor? I thank you everyone. Thank you.