Council - Regular Meeting

Now call the February 17th, 2026 Finance Committee meeting to order at 6:46 p.m. Uh, chair would entertain a motion for consideration of claims. Your honor, consideration of claims to be paid in the amount of $821,923.56. Elon credit card in the amount of $5,682.81. Manual check in the amount of $447.51. Payroll and liabilities for 262026 in the amount of $240,667.33 for a total of 1,68,72121. Second. I

have a motion by Councilwoman Johnson, a second by Councilwoman Brothers for consideration of claims to be recommended for approval to be paid in the amount of $821,923.56. Elon credit card in the amount of $5,682.81. Manual check in the amount of $447.51. payroll and liabilities for February 6th, 2026 in the amount of $240,667.33 for a total of 1,68,721,021. Is there any discussion? All those in favor say I. I. I. And I.

All oppose, same sign. Motion carries. Is there any other business to come before the committee? Director Harris. Mr. Chair, no, I have nothing else to add this evening. Thank you. Perfect. Without objection, we will adjourn at 6:48 p.m.

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Now call the February 17th, 2026 regular meeting of the Riverton City Council to order at 7:02 p.m. Uh, Council Member Larson, if you could lead us in the pledge of allegiance, after which Councilwoman Johnson will give us the invocation. All could please rise and remove cover. I aliance to the flag

to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Dear heavenly father, we come before you tonight not to ask for anything but to simply say thank you. Thank you for our beautiful community. Thank you for the brave men and women um that support, protect and respond during times of need. And just thank you for giving us the opportunity to serve the citizens of our community. We come to you to say thank you in all aspects of life and for another beautiful day. In God's name I pray. Amen.

Amen.

Thank you, Councilwoman Johnson and Councilman Larson, even though I asked you at the same moment that I told you. Administrative services director, Miss Harris, would you please conduct the roll call? Yes, your honor. Council member Eric Carr here. Council member Rebecca Brothers here. Council member Mike Bailey absent. Council member Carla Borders here. Council member Kyle Larson here. Council member Karen Johnson here. Mayor Tim Hancock. I'm here. I'd entertain a motion to excuse Councilman Bailey from tonight's meeting. So moved. Second. Motion by Councilman Larson. Second by Councilwoman Borders. All in favor say I.

I. I. Any opposed? Nay. Uh, I vote I. Motion passes. Would note if anyone didn't hear that, uh, Councilwoman uh, Brothers was an I vote. I declare we have a quorum. I'd entertain a motion for the approval of the agenda as presented. So moved. Second. Councilwoman Borders with the motion. Second by uh, Councilwoman Johnson and Councilman Larson. Any discussion, additions, corrections? All in favor say I. I. I. Any oppose say nay.

I vote I. Motion passes. Council committee reports and council members roundt. Uh we'll end with you, Councilwoman Brothers, just in the event that we can get your sound working better. Um how about we start with then uh Councilwoman Johnson, please. Um I attended the goal setting session last week on Tuesday. Um was really pleased with that actually. I thought that went very well and I'm excited the direction that this year's look. So I'm that's really all I have for that. Uh just a reminder that the Fremont County Law Enforcement Foundation is having their annual ball gowns and badges um event on March 28th. Tickets are $50 a couple uh $30 for single and I think it's 10 for kids. I think there's room for a couple more corporate tables, but they're filling up quickly. They are still accepting donations if you want to participate. Great event. Um it supports 100% of the money stays local and supports um law enforcement in any way that they need it pretty much. Um beyond that, that's all I have.

All right. Thank you. Um, Councilman Larson,

uh, normally I would report on the solid waste, but it was not held until tomorrow, but the most interesting thing is I returned home from Casper late on Saturday. I went to Walmart to get my snacks for Sunday and there I saw a very greatlooking police officer fully dressed in his uniform and it was our captain chief. And um um you know, it's an interesting thing. At 10:30 at night, Walmart is just like hopping like it's a there are more young kids in there. And I couldn't believe it. And fortunately, there was an officer of Riverton there to watch over the goods of Walmart because those kids are up to uh pranksters. Anyway, that's all I have, your honor. Well, thank you. I'm glad that there's still people who think Chief Herado is good-looking.

Yeah, he is. I won't tell Amy. All right. Uh, Councilwoman Borders.

Okay, your honor. Uh, I've had a lot of meetings here recently. Um, the first thing was, um, being able to attend the WHAM convention last week, Wyoming Association of Municipalities. It was a great event. Um, I learned a lot, attended some really nice breakout sessions, and then to top it off on Friday, as you know, uh, we got to spend it at the Capitol doing a tour. Um, one funny thing that happened to me is the lady in the in the lobby said, "Just go wherever you want to go." So, I owe it wherever we went. Well, they didn't say not to walk into the governor's office.

Good for you. So, I walked in the doorway and then here came security saying, "Ma'am, you can't go there." [laughter] So, I just thought I'd share that. So, um the next There are some limits. There are limits. My husband's like, "I don't think you should go in there." And I'm like, "Off I went. I'm going anyway." [laughter]

So, I learned not to do that. Um, let's see. Last week, we had a senior endowment meeting and just talking about getting some repairs to their boiler system. It's been quite a while trying to get bids and all that good stuff. So, they're finally getting some of that stuff done. Um the ref board met and discussed the allocations for the applicants and um I can't say enough about all the great things people are doing in our community. It's pretty amazing. [snorts] Uh let's see. Pause. I need to open this back up. So pause has some upcoming events. They have their pub crawl on March 21st. Uh registration is from 12 to 1 at the Heritage Hall. Um it starts and ends there. Um the pub crawl is from 1 to 4 and then they're going to have some bands from 4 to 11. So um if you want information on that, you can go to the pause Facebook page or give them a call. Uh they're having bingo and brownies on April 18th at the Elks. Doors open at 5. Bingo's from 6:00 to 8. And then they're having a bake sale on May 2nd from 12 to 2 at the library. They always have a good assortment of uh dog treats and people treats. So [snorts] mark your calendars. Uh and then the last thing is we had our um semiquincentennial meeting yesterday and we're planning a big bash for the 4th of July for Riverton. We want to put ourselves on the map and give everybody a chance to celebrate together. So, we're going to be having a parade. We also had a meeting about that. Um, we need volunteers. We need people to do

floats and just plan on hanging out on the 4th of July here in Riverton. So, that's all I've got. All right. [snorts] Well, that's a lot. Thank you, Councilwoman Borders. You're welcome.

Uh, Councilman Carr. Uh, thank you, your honor. Uh, I had the opportunity to attend the special planning commission meeting held last Friday, uh, the 13th. Odd day to have a planning commission meeting, but, um, that went well. Uh, there will be a planning commission meeting coming up on February 19th, uh, this Thursday at 5:30 here. I believe there's just one agenda item for that. Is there two? Two. Two agenda. Just one. Perfect. one agenda item on that and then uh obviously the goal setting session and I just wanted to give Tim Nichols a shout out. Uh you did exceptionally well. Thank you. Uh having done countless corporate type goal setting sessions. That was one of actually the best that I've attended. So well done. Thank you. And I thought everybody was very involved and very well uh prepared to offer input and constructive [clears throat] ideas. And thank you. That was I thought it was exceptional. That's all I have, your honor. Thank you.

All right. Thank you. All right, Mr. Butterfield. Thank you, your honor. Oh, hold on just one second, Councilwoman. I think you guys forgot me. Yep, I'm here. Okay. Well, you're a little bit um quiet, but we can hear you. So, I'm going to try to speak up a little. Can you hear me like this? as good as can I. Sure.

As good as can be. Okay. Sure. He says, um, thank you for being kind. Um, well, I got stuck in Chicago because we had flights that got cancelled. my son and I went and tried to visit my um we were visiting my grandma that's not doing well um back east and we would have been back in time but I think they had 4,000 flights that got cancelled today or something and ours was one of them. So sorry that I'm on the phone. Um but I had three meetings this last couple weeks and one of them was the uh council work session and as um you all said they went great. Um uh one of them was the rendevous activity center meeting and uh our biggest hurdle is going to be funding. Um and feedback from the public is appreciated. So please get that to us. Um we I think that that would be really really good. Um and then we had our youth council meeting um and we're working on our own own goal session and we have a Kowanas presentation this week at CWC on Thursday. So we're looking forward to that. Uh and that's all your honor. Thank you very much.

All right. Thank you Councilwoman Brothers and actually could hear you pretty well. So, sounds great and excited for uh the work you're doing on the rendevous activity uh center committee. Um Mr. Butterfield, sorry to this is why I have councilwoman orders right here next to me to hit me upside the head if I forget something.

Go ahead. Thank you, [clears throat] your honor. I want to make reference that the community development department is holding a public meeting on Monday at 5:30. The purpose of this meeting is to invite uh contractors and members of the public to review the limited license plumber uh component of our municipal code and receive feedback. Um so we invite anyone interested in that uh to attend. Again, that would be Monday at 5:30. And express gratitude to the community development department for seeking input from the public as they um look to um move forward with our current code and also the limited license plumber section of that code. There will be an airport board meeting at 8:00 a.m. on Friday, February 27th. That will be here at city hall. Uh public works department also wants to make sure the public is aware that uh construction has resumed and will continue to move forward on Riverview Road. As such, there will be impacts on traffic and there will be closures again scheduled this week so that the contractor can appropriately do crossings and ensure the safety of the traveling public and also their workers. Um, we encourage folks to plan for alternative routes, to obey the detour signs, and to just drive safe through that area, especially as uh we have schools that are close by there as well. The police department was able to um welcome a new member to their team. There's a new admin assistant uh supporting the department, Deanna Garrison started, and we're happy to have her. and that allows the PD lobby to again be open now that we have that position uh refilled. So, we welcome her and appreciate um her joining the team. The legislative session is underway and staff is engaged in tracking bills as

they are being amended and moving forward. There are several that impact municipalities and we're doing our best to stay on top of those. Friday was the deadline for bills to be introduced. So several that were filed died for lack of introduction and um my understanding is there were 121 amendments to the budget bill on the house side and they were on I think amendment three at about 4:00. So um it may be a late night for our legislators as they work through the budget bill. We appreciate their efforts because um this is a budget session and the primary focus for them is ensuring that our state has a budget for the next bienium. So we do appreciate their efforts and staff is uh very much engaged in tracking the session. Uh want to make note that the community service contract uh period is opening in the near future. Miss Harris and her team will be advertising that soon for um interested parties. Again, those funds are totally at the discretion of the city council and typically are used to support organization that provide organizations, excuse me, that provide services that otherwise would be provided by um the municipal government. So, we encourage our community partners to look for that announcement and encourage anyone interested to submit an application for a funding request. Finally, I would like to highlight another employee Um, we're sad to note that Brett Dale, our chief operator at the wastewater treatment plant, is retiring. After 35 years of service to the city of Riverton, he's decided that it's time to enjoy greener pastures, and we definitely um congratulate him on that, but we'll miss him and his years of experience. Um, Mr. Dale uh when I joined the city was serving as our

backup chief operator and was uh promoted to chief operator several years ago. Since his promotion, over $5 million of improvements have occurred at the wastewater treatment plant and $2.6 million um of that $5 million improvement came from grants. So, he definitely was invested uh along with our public works director to improving our infrastructure and leading forward to ensure that we provided great service to our community. We will miss his experience, but also his ability to see things with clarity and to push forward and and make a difference. Um Brett is of the personality that when we invited him to come tonight that he declined, but mostly because he just doesn't like the spotlight on himself. But I think it's opportunity for us to thank him publicly and express gratitude for his many years of service. With that, your honor, I have nothing else and would be happy to stand for any questions. Thank you. Any questions for Mr. Butterfield? Speaking of excellent city employees, I had the opportunity to attend a Rotary meeting today and Mr. Butterfield presented all about the airport and uh air service and just did an excellent job of explaining some of the financial things and and that sort of thing. I will say I so we established today that Mr. Butterfield is not a fortune teller cannot predict the future. And I say this a little bit tongue and cheek. So what happened is he he explained that uh if you had asked him 10 years ago if he thought we would be looking at uh what did we just cross for implainments this last year? 20

25,000

25,000 if we would have had 25,000 implainments when we were struggling to even get 10. Um he said he wouldn't have predicted it. But lo and behold we're at 25,000 employments. Now, that's just people getting on planes. That's not necessarily people flying in, too. So, a lot of use of the airport and it was a good report and appreciate his hard work on that and um it's it's great news. Airport's being used and that's a benefit for everyone because that's economic development. So, uh a couple of things that I will talk about other than uh saying uh just how great Mr. Butterfield is. we could spend the next hour on that. Uh goal setting was a good opportunity. We have in the past kind of broken down our goals into I think it's usually been five to seven items.

Some years we get up to seven, some years we get five. This last year uh fiscal year we had six uh due to some uh hard work by um Mr. Nichols, who also serves as the FKAg executive director. Uh, we got to three, which you would say, wait a minute, is that mean we're not doing anything? No, it means we're wanting to stay focused on the important things that through speaking with the council, it was clear those were our priorities as a council. And definitely appreciate Mr. Nichols stepping up and doing that and and working with us on that. Not to say that Mr. Misho hasn't done an excellent job in the past. I'm just saying Mr. Nichols got us three, Gary.

Impressive. [laughter] Um, I for people that maybe uh saw this in the news, it was great to be able to uh learn that the uh Wyoming Historic Society was gifted uh the um oh, what's the name of the museum there on Heritage Center?

Wind River Heritage Center. Thank you. Took me a minute. You're right there. Um and uh that's great news. They have a great vision that's in place that they want to do things that are going to make that a an attractive area, a place where people want to be and learn more about um well, of course, the rendevous uh that sort of thing. And um I I think I'm excited. That is great news and I'm excited for it and uh look forward to the work that they're going to put into that. So definitely excited for them to be able to and I think the plan is eventually to move down there so that their offices wouldn't be there on Main Street, but they would have both a museum and the Wyoming Historic Society offices there. Had the opportunity to attend WHAM, a great opportunity to attend, as noted by Councilwoman Borders, the opportunity also to be able to uh attend some of the legislative sessions. Um, well, I guess we didn't really attend any of the legislative sessions that we just went there and shook hands and said hi.

SLIB was SLIB. We did go to We did go to the SLIB and got to hear from the big five, which aren't really any different size than other normal people, but they're the highest elected offices in the state. Um, matter of fact, I'd say Christy is pretty small. She's

um, so that was a good opportunity. Normally, WHAM has about a hundred. Last year we had about 180 people who attended. That's the Wyoming Association of Municipalities. And um this year we had more than 360. So we doubled our numbers from last year. It's a great organization that serves uh as a opportunity to learn uh to be able to mingle with each other and learn from other communities what works, what doesn't and appreciated the opportunity to attend. also was invited to attend the Riverton Fire Department banquet, which was interesting. I think everybody at the Riverton Fire Department was a little bit touchandgo because that was the same night as the fire that we had on the riverbottom just uh recently. Well, the first one, not the second one. So, they were out there hard at work trying to put it out. And then many of them came in still smelling like smoke. I'm not trying to be, you know, mean or anything, but they did. They came in kind of smelling like smoke and had a great banquet and then they went right back out and started to get to work. Some of them, not all of them. Uh it's a it's always something fun that uh I enjoy the opportunity to attend and uh appreciate just all the work that our fire department puts in to make sure that uh we have a safe community. Uh, also for people that I don't know, this is something that I'm sure the chamber has already announced, but they have a new board. Excited for the folks that are going to be joining the chamber board in different ways there. I think that's really all I have to report on. I have an meeting coming up. I don't think we've I guess the solemn nods here from staff. So, we haven't had one yet since the last meeting, but we'll look forward to that. All right. Well, that's it for me. Um, anyone in the audience wishing to address the council regarding an item that is scheduled for a public hearing,

we'll give you an opportunity to speak during that public hearing. Uh, if you wanted to address the council on another item, you could either speak now or you could speak when the item is up for discussion. Um, I'm not as picky about saying that you all the, you know, community feedback has to be given. Now, if you want to be speaking during an item that is up for discussion, I'll try to give you that opportunity, just raise your hand, get my attention, and I'll make sure you get that chance. But I would ask whether you speak now or whether you speak later to keep your comments to five minutes. If you're going to be speaking about something that's an agenda item, I'd ask you to keep your comments limited to that agenda item. We don't get off track. Um, I would ask you to direct all your comments to me as the chair. Has nothing to do with the fact that I have a big head or anything like that. It's just parliamentary procedure, so we're not talking over each other. Um, [clears throat] and I'd also ask you to refrain from fighting words, things that might directly reflect on a person's character or something like that. um just so we can make sure that we're uh staying focused and on task. So, if you'd like to come up and speak now, this would be the time. Uh or if you want to come up a little bit later when we have an agenda item you're interested in, feel free to get my attention and speak then. But if you'd want to come up now, just tell us your name and if you're with an organization and make sure you speak clearly into the microphone. Anyone in the audience who wishes to speak Thank you, your honor and esteemed members of the council and staff. uh Ted Mcool uh project manager for Lakeshore Construction for the Rocky Mountain region and mountain states along with owner and a business owner and building owner of 307th Rift at 412 East Main Street

and I'm a director for the Downtowners and I'm addressing under that uh issue right now for and and last week for the two-hour parking. I'd like to somehow toss that out there. So we can either throw it on an agenda or revisit that for the uh main street corridor and and try to alleviate some of these traffic issues and parking issues that all of us as business owners run into on a daily basis. And that's being a business owner down there in the most congested area of as far as businesses and retail space goes in the city of Riverton, it it is a challenge. And so we'd like to have that addressed in the future or sometime tonight or and see what we can do about reinstating the two-hour parking signs. And I yield the mic.

All right. Thank you, Mr. Mcool. We'll have to um we'll have to figure out how to get that on an agenda, but we'll let we'll we'll get that as something we can discuss and figure out. I know we did have some discussion about parking with a report previously from the planning commission, but we'll figure out how we'll get that going again. Thank you. Anyone else? If you want you if you could come up to the microphone if that works.

I'm addressing number 18 on the agenda for tonight. Okay.

My name is Vicky Dodie. Um, I volunteer several days a week at um, 412 East Main 307 Thrift and I do have a permanent handicap placard for limited walking and I'm addressing the parking lot um, at 422 East Main Street that I think it's very convenient to to park there to be able to go to the store because of my limited walking and usually my husband is by my arm. Sometimes not, but I do um appreciate the parking lot very much.

Okay. Thank you. I appreciate it, Miss Dodie. And how do you spell your last name? D O U D Y D O in O T is in. Ah, Dodie. Got it. and then All right, thank you. Anyone else? All right, we'll move on to our next item. Administrative services director, Miss Harris, could you please read the consent agenda items by title only?

Yes, your honor. Minutes of the February 3rd, 2026 regular council meeting. Minutes of the February 10th, 2026 council work session. Minutes of the February 17th, 2026 finance committee meeting, finance committee recommendations from February 17, 2026 urban systems appointment, Eastern Shown business park subdivision filing three and fiscal year 2027 budget calendar.

All right. And just for the edification of the council, there had been a slight modification to the Eastern Shone Business Park subdivision. there had been um a supplement that was sent out by Mr. Butterfield considering it wasn't anything that was um really material or or or much different than what had been proposed previously. I had asked him to leave that on the consent agenda, but as with any consent agenda item, if anyone wants to pull anything off the consent agenda for individual discussion, we can do that. Your honor, I I don't want to pull it off the consent agenda, but I did want to bring up there is a line work issue. Uh there's two property lines where lot 1B was. We just need a dashed line on the on the easement so that the property goes all the way to the edge so it doesn't look like two lots. That's all.

Okay. Just in terms of how it's planned, just line work. Gotcha. All right. But uh items requiring further discussion, please. Mr. Uh, Councilman Carr. Uh, thank you, your honor. Uh, the finance committee met at 6:46 p.m. tonight and recommend consideration claims to be paid in the amount of $821,923.56. Elon credit card in the amount of $5,682.81. Manual check in the amount of $447.51. payroll and liabilities for February 6, 2026 in the amount of $240,667.33 for a total of 1,68,72121.

All right, I'd entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented. So moved. Second. Councilwoman Borders with the motion. Councilwoman Johnson with the second. Discussion or amendments? [snorts] All in favor say I. I I I.

Any oppose say nay. I vote I. Motion passes. Youth council appointment Braden Thcker. Uh Mr. Butterfield. Thank you, your honor. [clears throat] Mr. Braden Thacker has expressed interest in serving along his peers on the youth council. He has attended several meetings of the Riverton City Council as well as meetings of the Riverton Youth Council and uh I believe he'll be a valuable voice among his peers and um since he's already expressed interest and has been attending the meetings, it will be nice to with your consent give him a formal vote um and voice on that council. So, it is staff's recommendation that the um mayor and council appoint leader Thacker to the youth council.

Thank you. And um I would entertain a motion to do that to confirm the appointment of Mr. Thaker to the Riverton Youth Council. Um based on his interest uh that has been expressed for the last couple of months, I think that you've been coming to the meetings. Um I think he'd be a great addition and has the energy and the interest and so I think it would be appropriate to appoint him. Do we have a motion to confirm his appointment to the youth council?

Second. Motion by Councilwoman Borders. Second by Councilwoman Brothers. Any discussion? You want discussion, Mr. Thacker? Come on up. I told Mr. Thacker that it's tradition for anyone added to the youth council to give a 30-minut speech. [laughter] Um, but I do think it would be good if you wanted to introduce yourself to the council a little bit.

Of course. Um, yeah, I'm Braden Thcker. Um, [snorts] I'm from I actually moved here in May, I think. And I'm from Louisiana, northern Louisiana, near Monroe, near that area. Um, we moved here in May and it's it's been interesting being up here. I've never seen the mountains before and I haven't seen snow since I was 10. We don't get a lot of snow in the south. Um,

you still haven't? [laughter] I know. [snorts] Um but yeah, um I'd love to be on the youth council. I know a lot of people on the youth council. Um Royce Hancock, for example, the chair and the mayor's son. Um good friend of mine, very good friend of mine, and a lot of others. Um, yeah. Uh, I've I've always I've been very interested in politics, bureaucratic processes, and local governments. And I've really been wanting the opportunity to be able to engage in that and being able to learn it and learn from people around me since there's a lot of people in this room right now that knows a lot of stuff. And it'd be nice to learn and nice to learn stuff and also do stuff, do a lot of stuff. Um, like for example, I've seen like we went to a Rusty truck restaurant in town once and while we were sitting in the parking lot, my dad was going to get an order from there and we saw a person walking on the sidewalk tripping over themselves. It's quite obvious that they were high on some kind of drug. And there's problems in this town that definitely need to be addressed and solved. And it'd be nice if I would was would be given an opportunity to be able to try and address those problems with the very with help from all of you and maybe from some of my peers on the youth council as well. And it'd be very nice to work with all of you and work with the youth council and to being able to do projects like that and to being able to help the community since this community has already given a lot to me and I'm very grateful for all of it. So yeah. Thank you, Mr. Thacker. And what year are you in school?

Ninth grade. I'm a freshman. Where are you? At Riverton High School then? Yeah. Good. Okay. Your honor. Yes, sir. Councilwoman Johnson, I just want to say this young man actually came into my store when they first moved to town with his family and his interest didn't start just a couple of months ago. He spoke about this immediately upon coming here and um he has stuck with it and he has shown up to every meeting to be a part of and learn and grow and I am super proud of you for that. So I am excited to have you part of the youth councils.

Thank you. And yeah I it's uh the thrift shop that I um went to to actually get my um outfit and clothes for speech and debate. So that's where I went and I talked him into it. Good. Talked him into speech and debate. No, I talked him into joining youth council when it was developed and being a part of the community and he has stuck with it. So, I'm super proud of him. Way to go, Mr. Thacker. And also, one more thing. Oh, yes.

Sorry. Um, I do also know I think she's on the phone right now a lot. Um, Councilwoman Brothers, speech and debate coach. Um, she she's helped me a lot. She's the one who actually um got me to want to go on the youth council. So yeah, I'm very grateful for her as well because I probably wouldn't be up here if it wasn't for her. So very grateful. Thank you, Braden. We're so glad to have you. You're going to be a valuable member. Great. Thank you, sir. Thank you, sir. We will uh dispense with the traditional uh 30 minutes of questions. You can sit down and we'll have our vote. Okay. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you, Braden. Well done. All in favor of uh confirming the appointment of Braden Theron Youth Council, say I. I. I. Any oppose? Say nay. Motion passes. You're on. [snorts] We've usually had a we we administered an oath to the other members and we'll have to maybe get that at another time. We can get that taken care of, can't we, Mr. Butterfield? Okay. I have no you're a free agent right now, but we'll get you oaththed in. I don't know if that's the right word, but Okay,

it's at large, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah. All right. Uh, next up we have the Community Transport Association of America presentation. Are we going to be able to do that? Okay, Mr. Nichols, do it. Would it help if we put this at later in the agenda or is that not going to make a difference? Thank you, mayor, members of the council. Answer your question. No, I just spoke with them uh half 40 minutes ago and they were in Rox or Rollins.

Oh, no. though. Uh [clears throat] like Councilwoman Brothers, um their flight connecting them to Casper uh was cancelled and so they pivoted quickly and are driving from Denver. Um I did just look before I came up here and I'll have to eat Crow tomorrow because I did recommend well they should have chose uh central Wyoming regional but that afternoon flight was also cancelled. [laughter]

So, um, that said, uh, I do have some initial data that they presented. I told them I was willing to present on their behalf to a degree, uh, because I did promise that I would not turn this into a 45minute transit TED talk. So, um, I can present some real quick information that they did collect remotely, uh, and they were prepared to present this evening. Um, if that is all right with you, Mr. Mayor, I don't have a problem with that. And I kind of jumped the gun here, uh, Mr. Butterfield, but um, did you have anything to add before we get to that?

Okay. Well, Mr. Nichols, I will set a timer. 40 minutes is the maximum. Oh, go ahead. Please let us know what you have to present. Uh, and hopefully we'll catch up with CTA as soon as possible. Yes. I appreciate that they were trying to drive. I I do have a question though. If they were coming from Denver, how were they in Rollins? I 8080. Just go up Casper. Anyway, I'm being gr gripey. They should have gone up 25. I'm might have been here faster. I'm not sure. [laughter] Ne

nevertheless, they are on their way. Um we will regroup. Closed both ways. Is I25 closed, too? I'm just trying to comment on their travel plans. Yes. Yeah. Should have gone up I 25. Anyway, go ahead, Mr. Nichols. I'm sorry.

We will regroup tomorrow morning before we head off to the intertribal council meeting. And uh I do highly encourage those interested to see uh this initial intake phase um to join FKAG's work session um remotely um or in person uh on Thursday at 8 a.m. Um that said uh they have done some initial data collection and compiled it uh and provided me some very brief talking points as well. Um so just a review of the overall project. This uh project encompasses WRTA and Fremont C County um under a USDA funded grant. Uh the project will assist Wind River Transportation Authority in planning and building a sustainable foundation for mobility services in Fremont County. Uh simply put, CTAA via USD via USDA is here to assist in these goals moving forward. I would also highlight that this is one of three projects that were granted in the United States funded by this medium. So, um it was it will um well it's it's it's quite an honor to be considered um just as WRTA but also Fremont County. That said, um they have they have already conducted a transit propensity map which I will provide these materials. Uh I'll hand them off to to Mr. Butterfield to so you can review them as well. But um they've already done uh a transit propens propensity map um incredibly basic at at this time, but it takes housing units and population by consensus block group um highlighting darker shades um and uh essentially more or less it creates a visual aid for population density uh to evaluate where some of the central um structure of uh Fremont County's public transit network should operate. Um it does highlight that the the existing fixed route structure does

service a good portion of these areas. Um that said that we will evaluate its effectiveness of of um moving forward. Uh we'll go into uh the wrership summary. Actually I'll hide I'll I'll save that for just the end because there's there's some interesting data in there. But um one thing it did do is uh analyze where do people who work in Fremont County actually live. Uh a majority, no surprise there, works within the city of or lives within the city of Riverton or works within the city of Riverton, city of Lander. And then there's a giant there's there's a significant portion that's classified as other. um their initial analysis shows that that is likely um unincorporated rural county and tribal um areas. Uh there are two areas in here I thought were interesting and there are 343 individuals who reported by way of census um working in Fremont County living in Casper and then 158 working in Fremont County but living in Cheyenne. So interesting. I don't think we'll be able to provide direct transportation to those though.

No. So boat work is that

likely it's likely. Uh additionally they did do an in and outflow assessment uh with a visual aid essentially showing that uh per the census every day 3,134 people come into Fremont County for work uh while 3,700 people leave Fremont County for work. Meanwhile, 12,318 people reportedly lived and worked within the county. So, slightly more people leave than enter, but by far, most workers live within the county and work within the county. Then, they did identify already major employers within the area. Um, we'll focus on those and attempt to reach out over the next couple days while they're on site. um and we will work with those individuals uh to intake proper workforce transportation into this study. And then finally, their writership assessment um highlights did show that fixed route has had a steady decline year-over-year, not of significant proportion, but of 4% and 1%. It simply highlights that as industry standards do change over time, our current fixed route application has not fundamentally changed since the '9s when uh came into existence. The overall loop has been there uh forever. And so travel patterns change, interpretation of bus schedules um change as well. they'll analyze the best way to adjust that moving forward. However, one thing that was highlighted is that our demand response numbers year-over-year have increased considerably. Um, again, this is pretty nationally recogni recognized trends uh

demand response convenience. Um but one number when we inputed uh this current fiscal year so federal fiscal year 26 it did reflect that already with four months reporting WRTA has an 11% increase from the entirety of federal fiscal year 25. So we still have quite a ways to go and that is going to result in significant wrership increase. So they'll be analyzing uh the best way to deliver demand response service uh throughout the county to help offset fixed route. However that might change. Um overall their assessment uh did uh determine that the existing fixed route system does relatively well on coverage but service gaps um due to headways and distance uh are abundant. Uh demand response will help fill those. Uh there are quite a significant portion of the population that live and work in Fremont County. Uh they allow uh and we will focus on how to allow those people working in uh and living in Fremont County um multimodal access across the county. If there are any questions I can move Oh, one more thing. They did do a comparative strategic plan analysis uh by public available information uh from the varying governing bodies to identify three strategic plans that have either been implemented um or are stated. Uh and some of this might be familiar to you more so than me. Um I did not recognize any names on them, but one was the squal uh squall Baldwin Creek Loop Strategic Plan. The other was the Lander area transportation study and the other was Hillrest Drive strategic plan. Not sure if that sounds familiar to everybody, but they did analyze those uh to the overall conclusion that collectively these three plans do demonstrate a consistent regional emphasis on improving safety and multi mo multimodal access while responding to community context and funding realities.

Uh the Squall Baldwin plan reflects an active communitydriven corridor study. The Lander area uh area study provides long range policy guidance and the Hillrest Drive Plan represents the mature implementation ready corridor strategy. Uh together they form a complimentary planning framework supporting Fremont County's transportation and safety objectives. Um so yeah, we are about to embark on a on a very busy two days. Um, we've uh I I did step in on our uh Riverton Chamber of Commerce event uh and represented them and I'll be here tonight until I walk out the door and then tomorrow is backtoback meetings as well. They uh are coming in from Washington DC. Uh this will be the first time in Wyoming at least for these two individuals. uh one is a direct employee of Community Transportation Association America headquartered in Washington DC and the other is an RLS and associate um uh my ap planning engineer um who is joining the study as well. We do have a contracted uh consultant which I have not met yet but there is an additional um third party influence on the study moving forward. Your honor.

Yes. Councilwoman Borders, would the FKG meeting be available via Zoom? And can you send us that email link? Absolutely. Okay. Thank you. Your honor, Johnson,

and I don't know if you have the answer to this or not, just out of curiosity. Are a majority or do you have like rough percentages of who act who's using WRTA? Is it our elderly community? Is it um just people without modes of transportation? Is it what is it? Is it people going to doctor's appointments? Are they just trying to get around town? Is it what kind of numbers are is are using it to see the increase?

Absolutely. Um mayor, members of the council. Uh so we did conduct and we did provide those numbers to CTA as well a brief survey of our writer base. Uh [snorts] the sample size was relatively small. it it collected le fewer than 40 um responses in total but um it did show that there's a significant portion of our writership um that consider themselves unemployed um the second is employed part-time and then the third part uh employed full-time. Um it highlighted some some identified gaps of the area as well but then the purposes behind the transportation primarily being shopping and errands and recreation and leisure. Uh that statistic is nothing new. I've been to two conferences in the last 12 months that have also indicated those same trends in transportation currently when it was previously heavily workforce related transportation has since changed postcoid uh to primarily leisure um which is relatively surprising. Um also in those numbers we did collect that our primary writer base of this sample size was between the ages of 45 and 64. Um and then second to that, mind you, um would be 25 to 44. And then the majority of which over 80% uh represent a demographic whose annual salary is less than $15,000 a year. Um that said, I do want to indicate that the sample size is small enough that it is not considered a stat statistically significant uh study, but those at this time are the numbers we do have. Uh I can tell you just by some of the integration efforts within this last fiscal year uh it has shifted those demographics slightly um and definitely raised the average age of our

riders. Um that's purely representation of the Riverton Senior Center or prior Riverton Senior Center program which is now integrated into that into the WRTA on demand infrastructure. Right. Thank you. Of course. Any other questions for Mr. Nichols who is also Mr. CTAA today. Yeah.

Well, we look forward to continuing uh conversations on these. Um appreciate your hard work. exciting to see uh more usage. Uh [snorts] I guess just for the interest or information of individuals in the public uh that WRTA currently is also handling the senior um transportation in terms of the merging with the Riverton Senior Center in providing uh transportation uh their I don't know if you'd call it their contract but their uh their grant grant funding or whatever has kind of melded in terms of what's going on with WRTA. So would expect that there's a lot more seniors than they have in the past since they're doing the senior uh since they're doing the senior center transportation now. But nevertheless, regardless public transportation, most of the work that you end up doing comes from people who are asking for demand response. So, it's I need a ride from here to here. Call them up and they can figure that out. Easy enough. Quick summary, Mr. Nichols, for

easy enough. Okay. All right. Well, keep us posted as to what's going on. Excited to hear what uh CTA comes up with and what we can do going forward. Absolutely. Thank you for your report. Thanks.

All right. Well, [cough] I would [clears throat] note I25 is open. [laughter] I just looked it up because I was curious and I was joking about just because I used to drive to from Laramie very often to Riverton and Elk Mountain closes at the drop of a hat. And so I was like, I don't know who told them to go through Rollins. Maybe it was Google Maps, but in the wintertime, you do not take that road. [laughter] Anyway, I I hope you understand that was just inest. It's a bummer they got stuck in Rollins. I have friends there if they need somewhere to stay. Um I don't know if they're that good of friends, but we'll see. Thank you for your report. Thank you both for your hard work with FCAG and WRTA. All right. Next up, consideration of Ayers's Associates uh contract brownfields and land revitalization program community development community development director's report, please. Mr. Misho.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh and just a side note to start, uh representative from Heirs and Associates, uh Miss Christina Hegel is joining us via phone this evening. And thank you, Christina, for joining us.

Thank you. Riverton applied for and received an EPA Brownfield grant for $500,000 for a communitywide assessment. The purpose of the grant is to inventory, characterize, assess, conduct a range of planning activities, develop sight specific cleanup plans, and conduct community engagement related to brownfield sites. This project in particular was designed to access the south corridor along federal along to Main Street. As this is an EB EPA federal grant, there are many federal compliance requirements and staff has worked closely with the EPA on this project so far. As a review, the city advertised requests for proposals and qualifications and we went through that process and two weeks ago the council selected and associates as our consultant. Now associates is familiar with our community. They did complete our 2019 master plan and they have already worked with some local businesses on some site assessments. This grant is ideal for property owners who would like to redevelop their property, but they may have concerns about pre previous usage. Um, during this communitywide assessment, all participation from property owners is 100% voluntary and the property owners can opt out at any time. And the project is estimated to take five years. That's pretty standard for one of these communitywide assessments. According to the EPA, this contract is based on a work plan and budget that was approved by the EPA. And the total contract proposed for this within Associates is $491,725. Again, there's no local match for this. There's four main components for this grant. There's the grant management which is managing a complex grant structure of records, grant reporting and uh grant closeout files. That's for $17,800.

The second main component is for inventory and outreach for $63,800. It involves developing a website, outreach events, kickoff meetings, brownfield education and communication newsletters and mailings. The third main component is areawide planning where they develop several scenarios for redevelopment and strategies and that is for 153,520. And the last main component which is really the meat of this grant is the environmental area for $256,65. It includes up to 18 phase one reports, up to seven phase 2 reports, uh completion of four draft ACBAs, those are analysis of brownfield cleanup alternatives. And again, this is for a total of $491,725. The total grant is for $500,000. So the remaining amount in that grant will be used for city staff for training. And I do recommend approval of this professional services agreement. All right. I'd entertain a motion to approve the agreement for professional services with Associates, Inc. as the consultant for the EPA communitywide assessment.

So moved. Second. Motion [clears throat] by Councilman Larson. Second by Councilman Carr. Any discussion? All in favor say I. I. I. Any oppose say nay. All right. I vote I. Motion passes. Christina, do you have anything to add? Even though we already voted.

I I don't, but thank you so much. We're really excited to get started on this with you, and we're really excited to get going. I think this will be a huge uh benefit for the community and for the um community members that are looking to revitalize their properties. It's great. Excited to have you on board and look forward to seeing the work you come up with. Thank you. All right. Uh, next item of the on the agenda, we have the Riverton Police Department year-end report. Police chief, thank you, honor. We'll just need a couple minutes to set up.

Do you want to take a brief recess while you get that set up? We're an hour in. Anybody have an issue with taking a I was expecting Mr. Nichols to take a little bit longer, but [laughter]

let's do a Sure. We'll do a recess until uh Let's see. It's exactly 8:00 and uh we'll recess until 8:10 and recess back into session at 8:10 p.m. Next on the agenda, we have uh Chief Herertado's report, year-end report for the police department. Please go ahead, Chief. Thank you, your honor, council. Uh this is our third year of doing a annual report on the progress of the police department. And I use the word progress because we're moving forward and we're making your police department, your officers are making a difference. Um tonight, we're going to kind of maybe a little bit out of order on some things because there is lieutenant that's missing and uh fortunately tomorrow he gets to change baby diapers. So baby Reese was was born and uh he'll be out of

service for about a week. So he says,

"All right. So tonight I have uh my lead lieutenant and lead supervisor. I'll be helping uh explain what happened last year and to go over uh current projects and what our plans are for the future. Uh first I'll just kind of go over the animal control uh program for 2025. Uh our animal control patrol officer uh Sanderson responded to calls uh for injured and lost uh animals within the city. Uh on the weekends uh when she is off duty, we now have our community service officers that help pick up the slack and respond to animal call related calls on the weekends. uh team last year uh impounded or brought in 156 dogs, 134 cats, uh total of 290 animals that were brought in. This is going to be pretty quick on the beginning and uh I'll summarize us at the end, but right now uh Sarah will come forward to go over our dispatch center operations. Sir,

for those of you who don't know me, my name is Sarah Nelson. I'm the lead dispatcher for the dispatch center. uh our staff when we are fully staffed. We have one lead dispatcher, seven dispatchers. I currently have one part-time dispatcher who's finishing up her last year of nursing school, so we'll be losing her soonish when she graduates. Um training to be a dispatcher consists of four and a half months inhouse training and then two weeks basic academy at the basic academy at the law enforcement academy in Douglas. We four and a half months is a loose term. If people need more time, we give them more time. They need more calls, more radio traffic, we give them the time because sometimes we're in there alone taking all the calls by ourselves. And the dispatch center gets busy. We have several dispatchers who are dual certified in other areas. Uh negotiators and we also have CIT certified dispatchers. Um several have been to fire dispatch school. Trying to think of some of the more recent trainings that we've been to. We're looking forward to some upcoming trainings uh with domestic related issues and things like that. [snorts] Uh dispatch responsibilities. I'm not going to read all these off, but we handle all 911 calls for the city of Riverton. Currently, cell phone calls are routed to the Fremont County Sheriff's Office and once they figure out that they are in the city limits, they get transferred to the Riverton Police Department and then the girls create the calls. Um, and then

again, any landlines, they come directly into the PD. We also handle all radio traffic from officers. We also dispatch for the Riverton Fire Department and then the dispatchers do a really good job of monitoring other radio channels. Um FCSO, Wind River PD. Um I don't know that highway patrol does a ton in the city, but they do their best to monitor so that if they need assistance, then we can get officers there to assist them as well. We also process all the court paperwork. So any citation issued, it goes through the dispatch center and we direct it to the proper court. We also process paperwork for the Fremont County Youth Services. So anytime a juvenile is contacted with um most citations, they get copy of that paperwork. We maintain all arrest records. We process state DUI paperwork and then myself and another dispatcher enter NY neighbor's data. I lean on her heavily since I've been also filling in as the administrative secretary as of late. So, she's been doing all the neighbors data and I've been doing other things. Um, as a lead dispatcher, my responsibilities, I evaluate all the dispatchers on a yearly basis. I make sure that we're CEUS compliant. So, anything and everything that comes out of our office with the information that we have access to. We have to make sure that we're compliant with their regulations because I don't want to lose that and I don't think the department or the city, county attorneys, anybody would want to lose that information. Uh, I maintain the

schedules. I maintain grant files, apply for grants, I take care of destruction schedules, I set up trainings for dispatch, quality assurance, and then a lot of report releases as of late. Here is a slide just with a few more of the cameras that we've been provided. The bottom right hand corner is the downtown parking lot. So, those have been a nice addition to the cameras that we utilize in dispatch. Um, I should have gotten a picture, but you guys just had a presentation on the Axon map. That has been huge for the dispatchers. If we can't get somebody on the radio or even if we're not able to understand them and they're not able to respond back to dispatch, we're able to see exactly where they're at. So, I know that the girls really appreciate the ability to utilize that map. Um,

you where are we at with uh any further cameras in City Park? Is that still in the works? Yeah. Um, your honor, I can answer to that. We are working to there's two there's the two cameras there now and then we're working to um we have the conduit installed need to run wire and then we can install the next two uh cameras as well. So we're working with it to to get that uh accomplished. When do we think that'll be? Um we can work on it right away. We thought with the winner we'd have a lull here, but um we just need to get back on it and get it done. All right. Thank you. Just curious because that's clearly not enough cameras. You need to add about four or five.

We do. We need a few more screens in dispatch for sure. [laughter] Um, the other question that I had though, well, I'll think of it later. Okay. Sorry Sarah. No, you're fine. Thank you.

Um, as I mentioned before, all line calls within the city of Riverton come directly to the dispatch center. Cellular 911s go are routed through the Fremont County Sheriff's Department and then transferred to us. So there is a delay but as you can see the 91 calls into the center are low compared to our administrative calls know our phone number. So typically a lot of our emergent calls are coming in just on a regular admin line. Um a slight increase in the dispatch center. So that 30,723 administration calls, that's anything from somebody calling to make a report, calling to report a crash to they need to speak to the chief or they need to follow up with an officer, anything of that nature. Um, and then I just also wanted to highlight just calls for service for officers. So, law enforcement last year we took 9,779 calls and fire department we dispatched out 341 calls. And that's all I have for my section. So, if you guys have any questions.

Um, so, okay. So, you've been doubling as the administrative services uh the the the secretary secretary there. Have you also been doubling then as the evidence tech lately? I I've been building a few cases in Axon. Yes. So, we're putting a lot of hats on you lately. Well, so I shouldn't I'm adding to the files. I'm not I'm not doing what the evidence tech was doing fully. I'm just helping out where needed. I appreciate you doing that and stepping in. Yeah, of course. Any questions for Okay. Okay. Thank you.

You're welcome. Lieutenant War.

Thank you, sir. Uh, mayor, councel, um, before I get started here, a woman does a lot more than she says she puts up there. Um, we would be in dire straits without her. So, thank you for everything that you do. Um, as talking about evidence, I'll cover that now without our evidence technician since you brought that up, mayor. Um, right now, uh, Lieutenant Martinson and the detective division has been taking over what she does. And then we're also using it as a training opportunity. So, some of the new officers are going to become evidence technicians temporarily for a week at a time to uh, get some training on that and then also help with some of the backlog. Now we'll talk about patrol training. Uh POB stands for the police basic. Uh coursework includes uh basic law and constitution, laws of arrest, search and sea, active shooter, practical exercises, high-risisk traffic stops. Um this is a certification that's required through the state. We talk about WIA. I'd also like to bring up you saw the article that was released. It's something we've been working on with CWC. We will be starting in um the fall of next year. We have our own police academy here up at CWC. We're going through the certifications both with the regional um college accreditation and then with post accreditation for that. um Lander uh PD, Riverton PD, um Teton County Sheriff's Office, uh Jackson PD are all on the advisory board for that and we've been working really hard at that to get something local here. Um so more to come on that later on down the road. Uh this year we conducted inservice training. All officers spent a week of time uh in August where we really haven't had the opportunity in the past, but with staffing where it was at, we finally had the ability to do inservice training. This is something

that most agencies do if they have the personnel for it. So, it allows us to cover the same training at the same time. This year we went through a day of firearms training, um a day of defensive tactics or custody and control training and then a day of legal training um which was done by uh mayor. I believe you came and taught some of that class as well as uh um our detectives and uh some criminal investigation division and we had some live application of um crime scenes for patrol officers and things like that, court testimony. Uh it was a very good training for our officers. Uh again, we covered Wyoming peace officer stand and training. That's post. They [clears throat] grant, suspend, revoke certifications for peace officers and dispatchers. They establish all the training criteria that we have to have throughout the year. Um we're required to have 40 hours of training every two years. Um we well exceed that here. Um that was a a deficiency that uh Chief Rat recognized when he got here. So that was one of the things put on uh my plate when I got here. And we've we've uh for instance, one of the things we've done, you have several categories of training, but you have your high liability training, which is your custody and control, use of force, firearms, and of those three things, we only had one or two instructors. And now we've expanded it except for use of force, which I'm working on, we now have at least five instructors in every one of those uh categories. So, and

I know a couple of years ago it was hard to get an ECIR trained person and that's changed.

That has changed. We have two SFST instructors and ECIR instructors and we've got two more on the way as well. They're going through that training right now. So, and all of our in our patrol unit, those guys are required to be trainers in those particular disciplines. So, it's it's it's something we've worked really hard on and it's we're starting to get to the point now where we're not going out and looking for training for guys. We're starting to host that training here and being a resource for all the other agencies in the adjoining counties to do that, too. Just for anyone watching that doesn't know. So, a couple of years ago, we had situations where sometimes you'd be you'd have officers on duty and in order to actually do the breath testing for DUIs, you have to be certified through the state. And I I don't know what it was, if it was just bad timing, but I think we had in the department one person who was actually certified for the ECIR at the time. And if they weren't on duty,

you had to get somebody from the state or the county over here or call them in to do it. Now all of our officers are ECR certified. Great job. Two trainers. Thank you.

Uh as I talked about, we've increased the amount of training. Uh in 2024, we had a total of 6,35 hours of training for dispatchers and officers. And we've increased that this last year to 8 8295 hours of total training. Um, and this next year plan on having more than that. Our FTO program, this includes in our training. Uh, we have expanded our FTO program. Sergeant Marshall has taken that over. As you all know, he has a lot of years of experience and a lot of years of training. So, he has revamped our FTO program. Um, and we currently have two officers in FTO right now and we're not at a rush to get them out of that. So, we're giving them all the time that they need in the world. Uh, another aspect of that with the academy coming online through CWC is we no longer are beholden to the schedule at WIA for the academy too. We have twomies a year and we have automatic spots granted to us because we are involved in helping teach in that program as well. school resource officers. Uh, Officer Tyler Larson is handling um the junior high. Officer Amos. Um, what's really important with these two guys is number one, the schools really like them. But number two, this is probably more important, they have taken on a bigger role of the administration of programs that are specific to the school district. Both of them are active shooter instructor trained. They run the active shooter response programs up at that school and they're really involved with those things. We all hope that that never happens, but we have the right guys in place with the right knowledge. And if that were to happen, those guys would be there and be able to cuz I'm going to be honest with you, I've been through the high schools, but I don't know of the high school by by room numbers. And it's important to have those guys on scene and have guys

with that knowledge base if something like that ever does happen. All right, these are talking about trainings. Uh, as you all know, we we went to the Taser Tins. Um, the first year I was here, we didn't have a successful taser deployment and we had a lot of hands-on with guys. Since [snorts] we've been to the Tasers in the last four months, we've had three successful deployments and nobody got injured. So, they're a phenomenal tool. Um, part of being taser certified, you have to go through eight hours of training a year, plus some written tests. This is the one thing that's really important. [snorts] Officers, in the past, taser cartridges were really expensive. And so, in my career, in 21 years, I maybe had prior to the Taser 10, [snorts] four training deployments of tasers, actually pulling trigger and seeing the barbs go out. Um, in order to certify with our tasers here, you have to have 300 virtual um, deployments, which is it it seems like a lot, but it goes by fast. And it gives us the ability to do that. Um, also, before anybody can be certified on the taser, they have to ride the lightning. So, they get tazed. That has to happen. It's also the same with our chemical agents, our OC spray. Um, that's eight hours of training per year should you choose to carry that. It's an option for all of our officers. We don't require it. Um, but they also be have to be exposed to that and fight after they've been exposed because you need to know because I guarantee if t if if OC gets used everybody's going to be affected by it because it's airrated. It just happens that way and usually I pull rank at that point and say go ahead guys I'm going to stand back here. uh custom control 16 hours a year. Again, uh we do that or 16 hours for original certification, then 8 hours um every 2 years. Uh we do more than that. We do eight hours a year. So um one of

the things that's going to be really good is CWC program is now transferring from the kind of antiquated post academy, what they what they acquire and what they teach. And we are getting certification through the state to go over to the Gracie survival tactics which is more applicable to hands-on stuff. It's less focused on striking and those hard techniques and based upon multi officer and control of the person rather than using pain compliance. You're actually using immobility to stop them. So it's a better way to do things.

Uh talk about our detective division. Uh, as you know, Sergeant Smiths runs our detective division. We have a one DCIT TFO. Um, we don't put that picture up here because that person works undercover. Um, detectives, uh, McCall and Bug and Ethamara. Um, they handle a lot of cases here. And then also that falls into the investigative technician, which is an empty spot right now. on our two victim advocates. Detectives assist patrol with investigations and they also provide backup. Um, our detectives are really good. Sometimes I have to put the kibos on them or uh Lieutenant Martinson does because they are very very helpful and they never say no. Um, they are workaholics all three of them and uh they do a very very good job for us. Um, our investigative technician uh normally handles uh call outs uh evidence processing uh redactions for our videos, all those type of things. Um and they work closely with other outside agencies to when uh for instance when the prosecuting attorney's office needs video or they need some items from us, usually they they go through our evidence technician for that because there are on-site experts for that

and then instead they're just going to be calling you directly, right, Lieutenant?

Uh yes. and or that they call Sergeant Smiths directly. Our victim advocates are incredible people who do a lot for our agency that normally um you don't see in some smaller agencies. Uh last year we investigated over 60 incidents and that were assigned specifically to our detective division. That means they took responsibility for the case once the officers went through or they originally assumed that responsibility. um that doesn't include all the things that they've helped on, whether that was help writing search warrants or help writing uh arrest warrants, things like that. Sometimes those things get really complicated, especially when you're talking about digital devices because now you're not just talking about something physical you can describe. You got to start putting a bunch of other information in there. It's very specific how you have to write those. Uh we approximately have 12 active cases. We completed 29 calls for service. What I want you to look at here is the death investigations. Now, that includes we didn't most people look at that and they say, "Hey, you had that many deaths." Well, death investigations will always require a detective call out on anything that is what we refer to as um as un uh unattended. Sorry, Chief. Thank you. Unattended death. That means that nursing home someone wasn't under direct uh medical supervision. So, anytime we have a death, that gets a call out there. So understand that yes, we have we have crashes that have deaths and yes, we have murders, but the vast majority of these are unattended deaths that usually are by natural causes or suicide. I cannot express how happy and glad I am to have these two ladies working on our victim advocate. I mean, Cindy keeps me

on my toes because she is very meticulous in the things that they do. And I want you guys to understand that we don't not a dime comes out of our budget for our victim advocates. It's all funded by federal grants and state grants. And it's an important they play a very important role, especially as police officers, usually once it gets to we take them to jail and then we supposedly wash our hands of it. This is where these ladies pick up and do that. They help victims with maybe it's a civil issue and it's not a law enforcement issue. They help with that. They help with getting restitution um for victims of crime. They even help with getting rest restitution for the police department when something happens and something's damaged out in the community while we're doing our job. So, when you see these ladies, please thank them. They do a very, very good job and I don't think they get enough um recognition for the job that they do. Again, these are some of the things that they do. Um, well, they do a lot more besides what's on here as well, but these are the things that are listed in their in their uh job description of what they do. Like I said, restitution, the claim assistance, crime victim compensation, because there are funds that will compensate crime victims of crime um for certain things. Um, if I can give you an example of the things that they do, 431 Elizabeth, they worked very, very, very hard to find alternate accommodations for the people that were in that property and they did it over and over and over again till it was finally taken care of. So, um, that in and of itself made them completely work to have it here last year and that doesn't include all the other things that they did. Chief, thank you.

Thank you, Lieutenant. So, a couple things I'll kind of wrap up this evening. Uh, animal control has all the units in the police department have different challenges. uh animal control has to find housing, temporary housing for all the animals that they cannot be immediately released back to the owners. Uh we have a contact through PAUSE. So pause will accept our animals. Uh one of the challenges that we've had recently is the the overcrowding. Keep in mind that our contract with them, they also have to do uh and take in other animals from county or or drop offs that uh they'll contact the police department, say, "Hey, there's somebody at the door that needs to drop off an animal." Um so the they have to deal with trying to find the immediate home for the animals. uh try to check their chips uh and try to get them returned back home. Uh Sarah talked about dispatch center. Uh she mentioned that there was increase in the volume of calls and uh slide as it may be uh this is a good thing. Um to me this says that more people are getting involved in the community. more people are seeing things wrong and calling to report it. If we did not have an increase in callers then show to me that people didn't care. People care here and that care and an increase in volume shows that they are building a trust uh in the police department and the officers that are

responding to the calls. Uh, as Lieutenant mentioned, one of Sarah's uh, duties, also Kristen, who's who's not here tonight, although I think she may be in the dispatch center. No, not tonight. Okay. [snorts]

Not yet. Still early. Uh, they take care of our neighbors. And neighbors is the old uh, uniform code reporting um, that is no longer used. Uh so neighbors reporting uh is important for us because we go after federal grants and one of the requirements to go after federal grants is that we're required to provide accurate and thorough data on criminal activity here. And why I bring this up is is important because I think everyone here has seen an article here or there in the state about maybe what's called uh the safest cities in Wyoming or not so safe cities in Wyoming. I would invite you to go look up neighbors and the so-called safest cities. look to see if they actually do their neighbors reporting because if they don't they can put anything and send it out and uh whether uh they skip things. Um but those agencies also cannot go after federal funding. So I want to thank Kristen and Sarah to make sure that we are providing accurate information. And what I say mean by accurate is somebody calls in. Super Bowl Sunday for instance, uh, TVs are loud, people are cheering, and they might get a call of, hey, there's a big fight next door, and it gets coded as a fight. They get there, and it's just people watching the game. Well, if that was not fixed

later on, that would show as a battery or an assault and it's their job and they do it accurately provide, hey, that wasn't a fight. It was a noncriminal activity. People watching the game that happens all day. Uh people think they hear something, see something, they report it, and thankfully they do call us to investigate it. that just because they they think maybe something may have happened, uh maybe that's not the result. Um our records challenges um preparing police reports to make sure the appropriate court receives that timely report on time. Um and also preparing copies of the reports for insurance companies. If you've been uh involved in a traffic accident, uh that's kind of an urgent matter. Make sure that you get reimbursed if the traffic accident was investigated, not your fault, and you need to get insurance information. Uh we have to make sure that that recordkeeping is flowing and given out to uh the rightful people that may may have it. Uh, everyone has an idea that's seen their favorite crime show on TV. So, I just want to spend just a minute or two on something. I want to go over the real quick the timeline of a police call. Believe it or not, most calls, police response, investigation, courtroom preparation, and a jury trial does not happen in an hour here.

Thank goodness. The reality uh dispatch receives a call and they might get up to three 91 calls and uh could be five or 10 business line calls all coming in at the same time. Uh maybe it's at all after the are calling regarding the same crash or the same event. Uh so the dispatch receives that call uh categorizes that call determines who's best to respond if everybody is responding. Uh by time the dispatcher receives that call to time an officer gets there maybe let's say 10 minutes at the most. uh officers respond that stabilize the scene, locate all witnesses, interview witnesses, locate victims and suspects on a good day, that's an hour, a very good day. Uh by the time they make an arrest, interview the suspect, uh all the jail paperwork and transport to Fremont County Detention Center on a good day, uh it's two to three hours. Then they get to do the reports uh in preparation for um prosecution. Download body camera. Supervisor has to check for typos. Make sure the names are uh properly entered into report. Uh Sarah's team does the records review, make sure everything is in there for NYU's reporting and make copies for court. That's two to three hours. The reason those times are important is to note uh last year we made 1,961 arrests and

if the average arrest report takes 4 to8 hours uh you can do the math um for our law enforcement calls in 2024. uh one out of six police calls uh resulted in an arrest in 2025. That was one out of five. And you can take this in several ways. One might think, "Oh my gosh, there's more crime." Um, and we've been talking about this amongst ourselves, but what we've realized is we have more officers to get there and make the arrests that otherwise would not have been solved because we would not two or three years ago have had the officers available to respond to these calls. So, our stance is more officers, more arrests, and um we're getting the job done. Ideally, if the officers are are professionals, uh think of them as your doctor. Um the problem is we can't just schedule the emergencies. So, at 1:00, let's schedule a family fight. That should take about four or five hours. Don't get in a traffic accident till about 6:00 in the morning. We should have everything done by then. And by 8:00, we'll schedule in a public intoxication. Believe it or not, unless you're watching one of the TV shows, we're not on a schedule. Uh it could be we don't use the qword just like we don't say the sword. Something's supposed to be coming tomorrow night. I don't say the Q word here, but

things can happen at any time. We don't It's not diluted throughout the 24-hour day. It could be first thing in the morning, first thing in the in the afternoon. Uh Friday the 13th was a Friday the 13th for the police department. Same with Valentine's. Um, it was it was busy. [clears throat] Uh, ideally we could schedule the crimes to tell people, please don't do this until whatever time. Uh, maybe in the future we can, you know, watch our favorite show and we can make uh pre-arrests because we think you're going to commit a crime sometime in the next couple years and and prevent crime. But for right now, uh, with technology we have, we're doing the oldfashioned way, being out there on the streets, making arrests, finding the bad guys, saving lives. Real quick, I want to touch on our budget, uh, 4.2 million. And, uh, oftentimes people ask, well, where can we cut? Where can we cut? And 91% of our budget is personnel. very slim margin for uh maintenance, utilities, keeping the power on, keeping the phone on, our contract services, and our training. Majority of the budget is personnel. Um our personnel is our most important asset. Last year we gave uh some goals that would we were trying to uh set out for next or this current year. uh quality training for officers, which Lieutenant Morton explained the lack of training was unacceptable and uh we needed to get back in the

swing of things where officers were comfortable with the skills that they have to go out and be professionals, save lives, and apprehend criminals. our equipment and modernization of our IT. Thanks to you, we're able to uh upgrade our technology. Uh we were I would say we got rid of the flip phone and Commodore 64 technology and we advanced to 2000 2010. And there's still room for improvement, but thanks to you, we we didn't make a giant leap in and this technology is making our responses and time more efficient. The community engagement, um, National Night Out, uh, we have probably a third of our officers that are involved with community, whether they volunteer, uh, coach or volunteer to one of the fire departments. Think we have three with fire. Two or three. So your officers are not just a 9 to5 or a shift. They give back to the community. Um which I said makes it an important asset for for the city. uh with the technology making our jobs more efficient. We're we're able to be uh out in the public more. Uh our goals for this year is to keep uh learning to the technology we have and increase our community presence out there. Uh keep our numbers high and retain our professionals that uh work here. And with that, your honor and council,

um, here to answer any questions. That concludes, uh, tonight's presentation for the police department. Thank you, chief. Any questions for the chief? I just want to say thank you for everything you have done. all of your officers. Those are great numbers and it's nice to see them in writing. It's them. It's not me. It's nice to see that uh there's not a lot of empty photographs there too right now. It's good to know. Mr. Zerbal, did you if you want feel free to come up on to the mic.

Yeah, my name is Mike Zerbal. I I live at 420 East Park, which is one of the favorite routes for our homeless andor inebriated groups, and I want to commend our good-looking chief and his better-looking staff. Uh the environment there has gotten substantially better. Not great, but substantially better over the last couple of years. So, I commend them for that effort. Thank you, Mr. Zerbal. Councilwoman Johnson.

Yeah. I just um you know I wanted to say a couple years ago I stood at that podium and had quite the interaction. I I was not pleased with the police department and the direction it was going and um today I sit here very pleased and the staff is what makes that possible and um who we put in those positions and it matters and we're seeing progress and leaps and bounds in the police department. And I just want to say thank you. That means a lot. It means a lot to the community. It means a lot for them to know that we're putting safer measures in place. Sometimes people scratch their heads and say, "Why why do you do that? Why why um I think there's only one area of improvement that we can still look at and that's police officer wages. That's going to be an ongoing battle, I think. And I think that's a nationwide problem. Um, but we've made efforts and I I don't want to dismiss that going forward. I think we still need to look at that. But I'm I'm pleased and I just want to say thank you for all of your guys's hard work. I know Sarah does. I've been in your seat and so I know what you go through. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilwoman Johnson. Anyone else? Councilwoman Brothers, I know you're there by phone. just didn't I just wanted to give you a chance if you wanted to ask a question or anything so we don't forget you. Yes, your honor. I just wanted to say thank you for the report tonight, Chief and Lieutenant. Uh that was excellent information. I appreciated it and all that you guys do. Thank you.

Thank you. Okay. Well, keep up the good work, Chief, and we appreciate you and keep looking forward to supporting you and I agree you have some great staff. They do great work and appreciate their hard work as well. And thank you, Sarah, and of course, Lieutenant. It's all them. All right. Well, thanks for your report.

All right. Next up, consideration of ordinance 260001, third and final reading, underage persons in bars, title five. Uh, Miss Harris, if you could please give us your report and then just read the ordinance after that if you don't mind by title only.

Sure. Uh, mayor and council, before you this evening for third and final reading is ordinance number 260001. At the most recent meeting, the council voted to make several amendments based on discussion and public input. those amendments including striking sections F1, F2, G, and H, and removing the proposed definition of commercial kitchen. The ordinance has been updated to reflect those changes and now focuses on reorganizing and clarifying existing provisions without altering current policy. If approved tonight, the ordinance would take effect on February 21st, 2026. And with that, I would read proposed ordinance 26-001 by title only. An ordinance amending title 5, business licenses and regulations, chapter 5.04, alcoholic beverages, section 5.04.020, sales establishments generally of the Riverton Municipal Code and repealing all ordinances or parts of ordinances in conflict therewith and providing for an effective date.

Thank you. I'd entertain a motion to adopt ordinance 260001 on third and third. So moved. We have a motion by councilwoman Borders, second by Councilman Carr. Discussion kind of been over this a bit. All right. If there's no discussion, then uh administrative services director, Miss Harris, could you please conduct a roll call vote? Yes, your honor. Council member Eric Carr. I. Council member Rebecca Brothers. I. Council member Carla Borders. I.

Council member Kyle Larson. I. Council member Karen Johnson. I. Mayor Tim Hancock. I vote I and declare that the motion passes. Thank you. Consideration of ordinance 260002, third and final reading, underage persons in bars, title nine, administrative services director's report. And if you could afterwards, please read the ordinance by title only.

Yes, your honor. This ordinance 260002 is before you on third and final reading. The ordinance updates section 916.010 of the Riverton Municipal Code, which addresses underage persons in licensed liquor establishments. The primary purpose of this amendment is to modernize the outdated technology and clarify the enforcement language in title 9. For example, the phrase saloon or house of ill fame is replaced with like liquor license establishment for onremise consumption, which better reflects current practice. The ordinance does not change when individuals under 21 may lawfully be present. It simply aligns the language with existing permissions already outlined in Riverton Municipal Code 5.04.020 020. Overall, the amendment improves clarity, removes outdated language, and supports consistent enforcement. Staff recommends adoption on third and final reading. And with that, I will read Ordinance 26002 on third and final reading by title only, and ordinance amending Title 9, public peace, morals, and welfare. Chapter 9.16, offenses by or against minors, section 9.16.010, 010 persons under the age of 21 frequenting saloons or houses of ill fame of the Riverton Municipal Code and repealing all ordinances or parts of ordinances in conflict therewith and providing for an effective date.

Thank you. I'd entertain a motion to adopt ordinance 260002 on third and final read. So moved second. Councilwoman Johnson with the motion. Councilwoman Borders with the second. Any discussion or amendments? [clears throat] All right, Miss Harris, if you could uh again conduct a roll call vote. Yes. Council member Eric Carr. I. Council member Rebecca Brothers. I. Council member Carla Borders. I. Council member Kyle Larson. Yes. I. Council member Karen Johnson. I. Mayor Tim Hancock.

Vote I. And declare that the motion passes. Those or two ordinances have been passed. Next up, retail liquor license change of operational status. 307 Horse Racing LLC. Miss Harris, we're just trying to make you do all the work tonight. It's going to be the alcohol evening tonight. Yes, ma'am. At least where I'm concerned. If you could uh please give us your report on this matter.

Sure. Certainly. On February 3rd of this year, staff received a request from the licences general council of 307 horse racing LLC to place the license in a non-operational status. Due to a lack of market demand for a gaming partner, the business at 1409 West Main is closed. The lency intends to renew for the upcoming 2627 term and then work with the property owners on a potential transfer. Under statute 124-103, a lency must show that their business will be operational within one year of issuance or transfer and the licensing authority may grant one extension of up to one additional year upon showing of good cause. Staff finds the request reasonable given the circumstances and notes that no further extensions may be granted during this license term l excuse me license term unless extraordinary circumstances are demonstrated. And with that, staff does recommend approval of uh the non-operational status report of 307 Horse Racing.

Thank you. And I we do have a representative from 307 Horse Racing here if we had any questions, but I would entertain a motion to approve the request from 307 Horse Racing to approve the retail liquor license as non-operational until January 30th, 2027. So moved. Second.

Motion by Councilman Carr. Second by councilwoman Borders. Discussion. Okay. I know this wasn't an easy decision for 307 horse racing, but uh we'll see how things go forward with the liquor license at least. So, thank you for being here for any questions. All in favor of passage of the motion say I. I. Any thank you council woman borders brothers brothers.

Any oppose say nay. I vote I. Motion passes. All right. Public hearing and consideration of 2026 2027 liquor license renewals. Again, Miss Harris, if you could give us your report on these.

Thank you. Pursuant to statutory requirements, liquor establishments must apply annually for a license to sell alcohol in approved location. The city clerk's office mailed out 31 renewal uh applications. Of those, 30 of those applications were received for renewal. One retail license holder, Adult Rec Center Bar and Grill LLC, has not submitted a renewal application for the 2627 licensing term. staff staff has notified the lency that the current license will expire on March 31st, 2026. Once the license lapses, it will revert back to the state of Wyoming, eliminating the possibility of reissuance. Staff has had limited contact with the applicant. Should the lency wish to submit a transfer application, they may do so with the understanding that sufficient time must be allowed for the required twoe publication period and a public hearing before consideration by the governing body. The city clerk's office received 30 renewal applications consisting of 21 retail liquor license applications, two limited retail club liquor license applications, and seven restaurant liquor license applications. Notice of the applications has been advertised for two consecutive weeks and posted on the city's website as required before consideration by the governing body. The proper fees have been paid and public notice has been properly advertised. And with that, staff recommends approval of all 30 liquor license renewals pending certification of completion by the Wyoming liquor division.

All right. So, first we have a public hearing. Uh, so I'd entertain a motion to open the public hearing regarding the liquor license renewals. So moved. Second. Councilman Carr with the motion. Councilwoman Borders with the second. All in favor say I. I. Any oppose say nay. I vote I. Motion passes. I declare the public hearing open. Hearing will be conducted in accordance with state statute and other applicable laws. I'd ask those individuals wishing to address the council to approach the podium. Identify yourself for the record. Anyone in the audience who wishes to speak? Seeing none, your honor move to close the public hearing.

Sorry, step up. Uh, okay. Nobody who wishes to speak. We have a motion to close the public hearing by Councilman Carr. I'll second. Second by Councilwoman Borders. Those in favor say I. I. I. Any oppose? Say nay. I vote I. Motion passes. Declare the public hearing closed. I'd entertain a motion to approve the renewal of uh 30 liquor license applications submitted to the city clerk's office for the April 1st, 2026 through March 31st, 2027 liquor licensing term. So moved. Second.

Motion by Councilman Larson. Second by Councilwoman Borders. Discussion, your honor. Yes, sir. Is there any police records uh present on any of those 30 wishing to be renewed that we're unaware of?

Any incidents that have been reported with any of our liquor license holders that would I guess affect their standing because there might be something where one of the liquor license holders has had a an incident at their location, but specifically we're something involving the liquor license. while an underage uh uh improper uh display of license uh etc etc etc. Anything to report Miss Harris or Chief Herertado?

Your honor. Um since we've had our liquor license discussion about tracking violations, I have had two instances where my office was contacted um regarding liquor license violations. The first one was a report of a violation on January 12th of 2026. Um, and it was due to it was to the Hilltop Liquor. It was due to a notification of a sales tax hold. I provided an administrative letter to them and it was actually resolved the following day. I was contacted by the Wyoming Department of Revenue that the matter had been resolved. The only other one that I did receive was from the Adult Rec Center Bar and Grill. I received a notice of violation on January 14th, 2026 for a sales tax hold and I did send them an administrative letter um providing them uh 14 days I believe to take action on that and to this date has not been resolved but given the fact that they are not being considered for approval at this time it's a moot point on that one.

Thank you. Thank you. Excellent question, Councilman Larson, and thank you, Miss Harris, for letting us know quickly about those uh reports [clears throat] and disposition. Dear honor, just woman Johnson, just real quick, um, in today's packet, it was over 500 pages of information, and I just want to say thank you to the license holders for providing all of the information that you did because it was a lot

and it gives us a clear look at at what we're voting for. So, I want to say thank you. Everything was up to date. Everybody's tips trained. It gives us the ability to speak to the public when they say, "Have you done this and this and this?" Um, we can look them in the face and say, "Yeah, they do do it and they are doing it correctly." So, thank you for that. We've had a couple of different modifications, changes that the uh liquor license holders have been taking in stride and I appreciate the hard work you've been doing and um it it They've you've been doing what you need to.

Thank you [clears throat] for being responsible and encouraging responsible drinking. [laughter] All right. Any other discussion? All in favor say I. I. I. Any oppose say nay. I vote I. Motion passes. Thank you everyone who is attending here for that. Not that I'm assuming that a lot of you were attending just for that, but I recognize some of you and I know that's what you were attending for. So, thank you for Thank you for And they're sitting in the most comfortable chairs on the planet. Very extended period of time.

Yeah. More comfortable than these ones in some ways. I have to sit on my foot. I'm short.

All right. Uh, moving on. 4202 422 East Maine. uh expiration of conditions of sale. Um I'm trying to decide how to do this procedurally if we want to get the community development director's report or we would actually have to have a motion to take this from the table. I think probably we'd need the motion to take it from the table first before we get your report. Uh Mr. Misho. So, I'd entertain a motion to take from the table the motion to wave the performance requirements and timelines associated with the warranty deed for 422 East Maine.

I'm sorry, just for clarification, you need a motion to untot it from the table. Yes. So, this wouldn't be a motion for passage. This would just be a motion to take it from the table for discussion. I'll move to remove it from the table. All right. Okay, we have a motion from Councilwoman Johnson, second from Councilwoman Borders. Any discussion on the motion to take that from the table? Mr. Butterfield.

And your honor, just uh to make sure everybody's up to speed and and those in the audience, what you're taking from the table is the previous motion that was made and seconded. And so that's why you read the motion that was um on the floor, so to speak, before which was tabled. So you're bringing from the table the previous motion. And just to be clear, the motion was from Councilman Bailey. Who had the second on that? We just approved the minutes that has that. I think it might have been. So, Councilman Bailey moves seconded by council member Borders to wave the performance requirements and timelines associated with the warranty deed.

Okay. So, just so we're clear on where the motion was previously. Thank you. Um, I will say so for discussion, um, I know that Mr. Bailey wanted to attend and be able to chime in on this. He was actually the maker of the motion. Um, for what it's worth, um, but I do know that he had kind of sent out an email with some of his thoughts on that, but his vote would actually not be able to be taken into account because he's not here, all right, any other discussion on removing this from the table? All in favor say I. I.

Any opposed? Say n. I'm hearing myself being echoed occasionally, Councilwoman Brothers. So, were you an I vote on that? I know. I'm so sorry. No worries. Um I vote I motion passes. So, now we're back on the main motion, which is to wave the performance requirements and timelines associated with the warranty deed for 422 East Maine. Any other discussion on that motion? Your honor, Councilwoman Johnson,

I thought about this one a lot. Um, and I've I've had a lot of interaction. I've talked to a lot of people and and it goes both ways. Um, I think it would be unfair to take away the investment that she's put forth into this property thus far. Um, and I would be willing to support another extension. Realistically speaking, do you have a Can I ask you a question? I'm sorry, Miss Henry, if you don't mind coming up to the microphone. Not trying to put you on the spot, but

No, I'm not. I just trying to get some clear information. Realistically speaking, what kind of timeline would you need to start some kind of development on the property? So, I [clears throat] am a little hesitant on ask or answering that just because the situation that I'm in right now, I've already asked for two extensions. We're kind of in this situation right now where we're watching the economy. Um, so it kind of depends on what the economy does. my the reason that I didn't ask for the extension that I'm asking for you guys to clear the title is because the cash is tied up. So, I can't use this property like a normal asset in the meantime. So, if I just ask for another extension, I'm kind of in the same situation that I am. So, you know, I have an investment of $52,000 that I paid for the property. I have another like 25,000 plus that's into the property. So that's a lot of cash, right? I don't have a loan on it. It's cash into the property that I can't do anything with at this moment. So if I just ask for another extension, that is technically still kind of a lean on the property. So even though it might still be 2 years out from me doing anything with it, I can't use that property as collateral on anything to build a business. So that's my situation. So, in the meantime, just so everybody's clear, I did have conversations um with some of the downtown businesses. I have, you know, used it for parking. Um we've kind of come to some agreements that I'm fine with that happening. We've even talked about maybe some improvements until I've decided what I can do with it and when I can do with it. So, we've kind of come to some terms with that. Um, you know, I just I guess,

you know, going back to 2019 before CO, you know, Eric, sorry, Mr. Carr was, you know, in the position, um, a city position, you know, and talking about economic development in Riverton. You know, I've always had a dream that the first new build downtown was going to be something, you know, big. You know, I could go build a coffee hut on that lot, but I don't want a coffee hut on a lot. It doesn't I'm not trying to sound egotistical. It's just that's not what I want for the community. So, until I can figure out what to pencil that's feasible down there that's going to make money that I can be proud of, that the community can be proud of, I don't want to commit to being like, "Okay, I can make it in two years." Because I might come back in two years and say, "Okay, I need another year." So, I guess what I'm asking is um you know, I feel like, okay, I couldn't build on this lot. I needed a roaster. I bought a building. I bought a building at 116 South Third Street. I've remodeled that building for my roaster. I'm putting money into downtown. I'm trying to build a business there. I'm asking, can we just release the terms of this? I'm making a commitment that I want to do something great on that lot. I'm trying to make commitments to some downtown businesses that I will keep it, you know, maybe we can beautify it a little bit at least if we're going to use it for parking for short term. You know, make maybe make it a little bit safer with some lighting and some planters for the time being, but I don't want to make a commitment. I guess that's a very long response to your question.

No, I I appreciate that answer. Um I I have a couple of thoughts as it relates to it. I I don't doubt that you have intention on doing something great there. And [clears throat] like I said, I don't want to take away from what you've put into it. Um but I would like to see some kind of progress with it at some whether it's planters or cleaning up or you make a however you do that. But there I feel personally that there needs to be some kind of progress with it. I don't feel like taking the restrictions away is good for the city and their their asset that they have into it too.

Oh, I agree. But I think if we can when you're talking progress, you know, I have paper progress, right? And development progress and site work progress maybe not with the progress. If we could align the contract with the progress that you're making, I could see that if if maybe revisit it in a year or

are we kicking this just something where we can where we can say we are working on it. This is this is where I'm at. This is what I'm waiting on. Maybe this is the direction I'll go next year or this is the the contractors that I have. I I just I want something that says we're not just sitting on it for seven years, 10 years, 15 years from now and there's still no development there when it could be opened up to somebody who could or has the cash to put down on it. And I'm I don't want to take that away from you because I feel like you've put a lot into that. Yeah. Um but just something that says there's something being done.

I agree. I just, you know, just so everybody's clear, like when I went into this in 2019, I don't think anybody thought we were going to be here. And no offense to city, I don't really want to be in bed with the city financially, [laughter] you know. So, anybody was Yeah. So, I mean, I would maybe not want to do something like that just because I think it keeps us here and it keeps this going and it just kicks the can down the road for me. Um, and it also keeps this asset non-lquid for me. So, I I don't know. I don't think anybody thought we were going to be in this situation.

Again, I think u Mr. Butterfield is not the best predictor of the future. I'm not going to blame him. I'm um Well, thank you, Miss Henry. Any other discussion, your honor?

Yes. I I would like to see um Miss Henry be able to move on with her life and if she needs to be able to secure capital on a property that she can't do anything with it at this point. So I would like to see a release and maybe a plan a formal plan of what's going to happen with that property right now because we do need parking there. There's no question. And if they're willing to do the work to make that accessible for people, I think that's a great idea just to give her time to, you know, because a lot of this isn't her fault. I believe she had good intentions.

Well, I don't think anybody predicted for the property.

Well, I don't think anybody predicted a um worldwide virus. And if I might add too, I had some really great conversation um with Cindy at the chamber too, you know, and there is discussion um about having to, you know, when they redo Y dot, you know, and rethinking some of the parking downtown and you know, Mr. Carr is an expert on the parking downtown. So, I think, you know, having some more discussion on that would be good. I mean, it's not like I'm going to be able to erect anything in the next probably year. So, you know, there's parking there. Like I said, I think we could do some things to at least alleviate some of the headache and do some lighting and some beautifification on it for right now. I'm not saying that that's maybe the long-term goal for that, but you know, in the interim, I think it's a good short-term parking strategy until we can figure out some viable solutions for downtown parking. So,

and I'm willing to work with the downtowners on that. We appreciate it. [clears throat] Anything else? Councilwoman Borders. I think that's all I had, your honor. Okay. I just had awoman Johnson. I just had a quick question. If we do agree to release and do you find that you are unable to develop on that property and I believe you said it now appraises at how much? How much? It was more than what it was sold at. Uh it's 2026. Market value is 96,600. Well, which is a sign. Oh, no, no, no, no. I'm sorry. 84,000. Tax assessor's value is 84 assessed,

right? So, I I guess my only concern, if I'm speaking honestly, is in the event that you're unable to develop on that property and you choose to sell it, we we release all rights to it. Okay. But can I interject? I'll just finish. Um, I I I I feel like the city needs to hold some interest in in the value of the property because it is an asset to the city as well. And so I don't want to release complete ownership without a responsibility to what should be done on there, whether it's a timeline, whether we give her five years to develop on it or whatever. But I don't I don't think it's in the city's best interest to just release it all.

Okay. Okay. Any other discussion? Oh, feel free to come on up. Can Can I Can I counteract that for two seconds? Sure. Okay. Sorry. So, yes, the tax value is or the um assessor's value is 84,000, right? So, you know, thinking about it, just even I have about 79,000 into the lot. So, since 2009 from here, so say I even put it into a CD, right? or like a conservative investment, I would have over $100,000 in that investment. [snorts] And you're saying assuming you had

Yeah. So assuming Yeah. Assuming that I would have taken that money and put it into something else, I would have way more money than I have in this lot right now. So it's not making me any money. I'm not making a big amount of money. So, and I'd also argue that the city doesn't have an investment in it because I paid the city $52,000. So, the city already received the money for the lot. You guys received your investment on it that you've already got to make money on and spend money on where my investment sitting and haven't been able to use it. My final thoughts if I can just real quick.

Well, let's let's do this. I don't want to have this turn into back and forth here. No, I'm good. Um, Mr. Warpness, if you don't mind, and then uh, Mr. Zerbal, feel free to come up and then we'll get back to you. Councilwoman Johnson. Yeah,

this is what they call a sticky wicket. Um, Ron Warnes. Um, Mr. Mayor uh council, this is uh one of the more difficult issues I think that you'll probably have to deal with for a while. Um I and in talking with Mr. Mcool, I I I don't want it to turn into anger and emotion and intimidation and whatnot to solve the problem. That's not going to be helpful for anybody. And I know Miss Henry well. I know that her intentions were good and um you know it goes on and on, but um I I want to take a minute to go back and put a little history of how we got to where we are and my involvement and um it was going back a long time. The property was a service station until about 1983. It was known as Norm's Conico. Okay. It was just um a blight if you will. [clears throat] 198395 it was a dry cleaners run by Phil Lavoy. Building was in rough shape at that time but it was still being used up until about 1995. Till 2007 the old service station at 422 was an empty rundown ISIL and nobody in the public would touch it. It was a brown field. It was contaminated. you you couldn't do it with you couldn't nothing. I mean we it was just an eyesore. I was on the chamber of council at the time and uh I was the liaison for the city when I was with the city councilman and um then I left the the um council and but I continued on with the chamber and became the chamber president. Well, the chamber was having

a terrible time with uh executive directors. we couldn't I mean they were coming and going and it was uh it's a difficult time for the chamber and I think uh Cindy is having similar things not too long ago. Um but when I was with the city I was contacted by a fellow that wanted to give that piece of property to someone in the city and so he was contacting the chamber and I said we just can't do it. uh we're so disorganized now that we just didn't want to take that on. So at any rate, I referred him to the Modelers Park. Uh Eddie Amen was the president of the Modelers Park at that time and Eddie uh and his group accepted it through the uh Riverton Foundation program. I think Alan Moore helped consummate that deal and they had to keep it for I think two years so that they could so that this gentleman could claim it as a tax write off and a donation. They couldn't sell it. They couldn't do anything with it. And then after that time then Eddie came forward and uh I got on the the um city. I was elected mayor in 2011 and um Eddie came forward and he says, "Mayor, we'd like to sell that property to you and he knew that I was interested in it." And lo and behold, we did the city did purchase it from the modelers park and it was a windfall to them. I was so mad at Eddie that I could have spit nails there. We had worked hard to help him get um uh the stuff that the modelers park out there. They couldn't have the modelers park, okay? Because um the honor farm wouldn't lease the property to the modelers park, but they would lease the property to the city, a

municipality, who could then subleasase it back to the modelers park, which we did, and it was a lot of hassle to get that accomplished. So at any rate, I felt that the modelers park owed the city a little bit and I didn't appreciate the fact that now he's coming back as a windfall and he wants to take advantage of the city. Well, we negotiated down quite a bit from what their initial asking price was. It was a heck of a lot more than what what we ended up paying for it. So at any rate, it's got this kind of a history and emotional involvement of myself personally and after um I became mayor and we um looked at the peace property, what are we going to do with it? You can't sell it. You can't do anything with it. Here a guy gives it away. We've got to clean it up. So we hired Jerry Bournehof and he come in and uh took Norm's Conico down and lo and behold, there's asbestous in it. Oh. So then we had to contact uh Asbestous Mitigation Outfit to come out and take care of that and we got rid of the building and then we got with the DEEQ over in Lander and they came and drilled holes all over the parking lot and found out they'd been tracking a contamination plume in Riverton for quite a while. And u apparently that's where a lot of it was coming from. uh the uh dry cleaning outfit that Phil Lavoy had and Norms Kico and just on and on. So, it's got a sorted history to get to where it is now. But we got this thing all cleaned up where we could sell it and do something with it. Well, all of a sudden the the private sector says, "Look, this this is a great piece of property. Let's sell it and make some money." And so

it's it's it's just been a been a problem. But during all that time, I'm thinking, what does the community need? What does the city need? And it's readily apparent when you go down Main Street um on almost every business down there. No public restrooms. No public restrooms. No public restrooms. And so it I wouldn't say it was an epiphy, but it it was an obvious need that our community needs. We've got a beautiful community, 10,000 population, and we can't provide public restrooms on Main Street, and everybody is so concerned about, well, they're just going to vandalize them. I go round and round with Bill Urbite on that. Well, if you put restrooms in, they're just going to be vandalized. So what? You have to move forward in a positive way. Okay? And the city of Riverton is not a business. And there's people that try to run it like a business. Okay? And you provide things. You do things for our community that the private sector isn't going to do. The private sector is not going to provide public restrooms. They're not going to provide anything like that. It's incumbent upon the city, I think, to do it. And so, at any rate, this is a great opportunity, and I would encourage the council to uh in spite of the um the money and everything that Miss Henry has put into this property. Sometimes you make a bad deal. Um I was going to build a garage one time. I paid $700 for a set of trusses. Okay. Then I found a garage that I bought and I didn't need the trusses. I wanted to take them back to

to AD Martin. They laughed. You just eat them. I sold them for 150 bucks, which was not a great deal. And so sometimes you make good deals, sometimes you don't. But the city of Riverton in good faith has given Miss Hen Henry the sale of this property at a at a a fire sale price. Okay. And for six years we've had nothing. Two extensions and now she's not asking for another extension, but she's suggesting that she doesn't know what she's going to do with it. And if she does do anything with it, the parking lot very likely may go away. Um I have an interesting thing. Uh there was an article in the Ranger uh 112818 and it said in a letter to the city city Henry talked about the blight the vacant lot has brought to the downtown area. Okay. So even she at that time was making the case that it was a blight in the area as a parking lot. But now our all of our businesses up and down Main Street, they want to have the parking lot. And I agree, it would be nice. It's convenient to have a parking lot. Okay. When my parents owned the fashion bar, and that was before the park, the city parking lot that's there now was built, they paid a lot of money for that parking lot so that they would have a place to put it. And this is an issue that I agree with Mr. from a cool that that a two-hour parking makes sense. People shouldn't park their car and leave it there all day. And yet I've seen it when I owned the Tonkan building. Um they it was there people

that would have uh apartments up there and they would park their car on Main Street and leave them all day. That's wrong. And so we there's things that we can do to help our businesses downtown, but to help with problems within a business, that's not the city's responsibility. It's the city's responsibility to say, "What does our community need?" Okay. In my estimation, after four years on the council and four years as mayor and looking at this for a long time, we need public restrooms on Main Street. And I've have drawn up some plans and have some ideas and whatnot to make it happen. And I'm prepared to to make an offer for that lot for what Miss Henry paid for it so the city can tell it sell it twice. Okay. You take it back from her. You've already got her 52,000. Take it back from her and I'll buy it for another 52.

Are you included in that? Hold on just a second. All right. So anyway, I I'm just sticking my neck out here a little bit. Um, my wife will probably shoot me, but and um but darn it, we have a beautiful community, you know, and I don't have a great desire in my heart to have a public restroom for Christ's sakes. Maintains it. Well, hold on. I I appreciate that there's a lot of thoughts about this, but we do want to make sure that we have some level of no bandering.

Yes. Just one person at a time if we can. We'll get everybody the time that they want if they come up to the mic. Yep. So anyway, that in a nutshell and uh I realize that it's not the popular position to take and that's what you guys are being forced into to decide which way you want to go. Appreciate it, Mr. Warpness. Yeah, it's it's a challenge. Thank you, Mr. Zerbal. were up next. I I I had a timer that went off for five minutes. We went a little bit over that, but we'll try to keep to it as best we can.

Well, I want to I want to refer to this as a parking lot, but our previous mayor firmly corrected me. He said that is not a parking lot. So, I refer to it as the empty lot on upon which cars park every day of the week, every week of the year. um losing that as as a as a parking lot would create a hardship in the neighborhood. So any of you who might have been on the commission and voted to sell that, you were not voting the wishes of the people in the neighborhood. Okay? You were not um losing that as a parking lot would be a problem. So if there's something you can do that would allow us to work with the current owner and and develop that as a parking lot, that would be what the people in the neighborhood would like to see happen. So would be just to clarify because I I'm just trying to keep track of would you would be suggesting that you think the city should exercise its right to revert it and to take it back or would you what would you encourage Mr. Zerbal?

I don't have the answer to that question but that's that's where I would like to wind up. I don't know how I don't know how we get there fairly, but I would like to see it re returned and developed as as an as reasonably attractive as attractive as a parking lot can be, but losing that would be a hardship. AA meets right on across the alley. They fill that parking lot up two or three times a day. Um, and they and and they use it every day of the week. Um, our employees I I I own the business right next to that lot. um in and the local employees and our customers use those lots a lot. We need it because there's not a lot of parking on Main Street. And what parking there is, as as my neighbor pointed out, is is abused by some. Um and we're we're saying, well, you've got the parking lot uh in the one block over. Well, the ladies that have that that work and and and um frequent the the beauty shop that's right on the corner of Broadway in Maine, they park in that parking lot. They do not walk across the street. Well, I can't tell you why, but they don't. So, um, we we would really like to see that uh remain a parking lot. Um, and and in deference [clears throat] to my good friend Ron Warpness, we do not want to see that become uh a a a park with with uh with restrooms, uh we think that would makes it makes it would be make it become a homeless shelter of of sorts and creating another problem for our good-looking chief of police and his better-looking staff.

So, Mr. Zerbal, I wasn't meaning to cut you off. I it just that's really all I had to say is is that okay uh we we would we want parking. We do not want to park. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Zerbal. Anyone else who wanted to speak? Not trying to have it just be a free-for-all, but I did want to make sure you had an opportunity to chime in if you wanted to.

Thank you, your honor. [snorts] Ted Mcool addressing this issue again. Um, I've spoken with several of you privately and publicly and we've done multiple surveys uh under the director of downtowners under that hat. I've visited many businesses throughout that area of multiple blocks, both directions, north,southeast, and west. And there isn't one business that would endorse a park at that location just because as it was addressed by my neighbor that it it's almost impossible to govern and who would take care of this and what would be the the financial responsibility back on the city and the liability issues. I've met with the current owner of the lot and we've come to an agreement to beautify that lot, provide lighting and possibly planters, concrete planters, and and dress it up as much [clears throat] as we possibly can in accordance to um Councilman Councilwoman Johnson's request two weeks ago that it was an eyesore and it needs it needs attention and and we want to do that. If we can lift the restrictions that were governing under that initial contract and and be able to work outside those guard rails and and follow up with what the public has already voted on and what it's currently being used for until we can find a viable solution for that lot. as as we've discussed uh behind closed doors and in the public as well that it it isn't necessary there there's no way around it that that we need additional parking. Um and regardless of what Ron has stated during the break that bad business decisions, you should thought

of that before you bought the building or [sighs and gasps] the public has spoken. I've spoke with the ranger. they're on board with the parking. Um it it's a necessity at at this moment in time until another solution presents itself that allows us to move off of Main Street onto another lot um possibly behind it or somewhere close because there is no parking between uh what we consider Cusel's parking lot, the city-owned parking lot, and all the way to the other side of the uh city park. There's nothing. and we're in the the most condensed retail commercial space in all of Riverton and yet there's no parking. So, I implore you to side with the current owner of that and relieve these restrictions. The investment that the city already has put into it, she's already paid on that. So, there is no fiduciary responsibility for her to to to see that the city gets their money because that's already happened under the contract. So with the to remove those restrictions and allow us to work outside those guard rails to make an economic development into that to beautify that and I've met with 307 financial and they're allowing us to uh out of my own pocketbook to put up lighting in that lot to help with trip and fall hazards to light it up for the everyone that works there late that come to that that utilizes that lot to be able to get there safely. we're we're working in that direction. So, anything other than that does it it just doesn't seem a viable solution and a park is it is not the answer. Let alone restrooms that we have that up that over where the natural uh ice rink would be and they're they're they're

locked closed. You can't there that doesn't make any sense. Let me I I want to clarify because I'm trying to get everybody's positions [clears throat] here. Mr. Mcool, you had previously said you wanted to have this remain as a lot and I think what you had been advocating for was for the city to exercise its right. That is correct. And to take the property so that it could remain as a parking lot. That is correct. You're now advocating for the opposite which would be to pass it to Miss Henry without any restrictions. Is that correct?

As we Yeah. because all we've met with the chamber um and discussed I didn't have all the facts when when I met with you privately and now that all of that has been brought into the daylight um and she's invested on all this and it it seems like it's the best avenue to go so that we can without the city's restrictions move forward in beautifification process until another another um uh avenue presents itself. Yeah, I I would think that yeah, it would be great if the city could take that back, but that that violates or not violates, but kind of pushes under the rug her investment that she's had initially in the first place.

Okay. Yeah. Appreciate it. Yeah. and and I needed to hear her side of the story as well and be able to put all the facts together and it and it sounds like it that's the best solution at this time for this bad rub. Let it never be said that we can't sit here and start with a an idea and then pivot towards a different one. Yeah. And and I was and I've told her that I'm like look you where does city have any kind of responsibility to allow you to continue with this? And then all the facts are presented themselves and we've reached an agreement and it seems like that at this moment in time we it makes the most logical sense.

Okay. Thank you for um Mr. Mcool, you've missed uh some important facts and Mayor Wartmiss um has forgotten them. that uh lot was a hazmat lot. Understandable. I No, no, no. You don't understand the amount of money that was spent by the parties to clean that up. Then after it was cleaned up, um Mrs. Henry came to us and got a steal of a deal.

Absolutely. And good. We admit to that and because of that we were able to sell it to her with those restrictions on the deed and we did not put it up for public bid. There was no public bid. Now you can't put anything up. How does that impact the decision now?

Hold on just a second. You can't put property that is owned by the city of Riverton up for a private sale unless you advertise it. But you can if you if you put restrictions on it, and we did that as restrictions. Now, nobody knows what's going to happen tomorrow. We might have a snowstorm. We might have not. But Mrs. Henry was forceful in wanting the property. Nobody held a gun to her head. Nobody from downtowners said that they wanted to buy that and put it as a parking lot. It was clear then as it is now. And

and secondly, so the city of Riverton took her money and put that restriction on it and she agreed to it. Okay. Wouldn't that follow? Nobody said you must do this or you must not do it. No one. And so she took that she took that and walked with it. Everybody was satisfied. She has been to us three times and extended all times. Correct. First it was an architect, then it was the the flu, and then finally, you know, we she's having problems deciding what she wants to do with it.

Um, the parking lot is a great idea and I understand what you're saying, but the price that she paid for that was a very good price. Okay. How what the same could be ruled on any of us who invest in property as yourself. So property uh home that we purchase and and now we want to resell it with but none of the property is cleaned up property. All right. And and I I know we've got different views here and I appreciate it. I think we've kind of laid them out. We beat it to death, Ellen. We don't want to beat it to be death too much. Um thank you Mr. Mcool. Welcome. Appreciate it. Thank you for the time. Can I have one more,

your honor? All right, I'll give you 45 seconds, Mr. Warpness, and then we'll get to Councilman Carr. And Councilwoman Johnson has been wanting to say something, too. And and we'll get right after Councilman Carr.

In the Riverton Ranger, August 19, 2015. Okay. Uh uh my city administrator, Steven Weaver, uh made the comment. He says, uh, uh, let's see. Simply converting the space to gravel parking lot was estimated to cost 30,000 while a paved parking lot cost 55. I personally don't think Riverton has a parking problem. Weaver said the city already owns a much larger paved parking lot north of the 300 block of East Maine that rarely is full. Past city councils have had similar discussions. So, this isn't anything new. Okay? And if you go to any go down to Fort Collins and try to find the sitting parking lot, I mean, you walk two blocks if you're lucky, you know, and but here the people that are speaking, they have their businesses right next door. Of course, it's convenient to have a parking lot there. Okay. On Main Street, of course, it's convenient. I I acknowledge that. But good luck.

Thank you, Mr. Warpness. I think everybody recognizes this is not an easy decision, by the way. I think everybody recognizes that, Mr. Carr. Thank you, your honor. Uh, got some notes. Um, first, I want to make it clear, we don't want it back. I I I don't think any of us want that. That's not

but the and we've migrated so far away from the issue. We're all speculating on what to do with the property. The property is not for sale. We have an owner sitting right there. It's not for sale. It's not up for debate. What we're talking about is a right of reverter clause on the deed. That's it. But I do want to point out a few things. The majority by and large of the investment that's been made on the property is essentially portable. That design could be taken to another lot with minor modifications. Uh but by and large I think that the investment that's been made now save the taxes. The property taxes have been paid. Uh but the design of the the future establishment has is portable so she can take that wherever she wants to go. The sale was never intended to be a liquid asset for an existing business. It was supposed to be that's why we used the statutoal or the statutory uh verbiage of we're doing this for economic development. That was the whole point. So that made it easy, but we wanted to have that right of reverber clause in there so that we could spur along the development if needed. Now obviously clearly we've had very unforeseen issues, but that doesn't take away the fact of why the tether was there. It's not a restriction. And and I've heard that word used a lot. It's it's not restricting. It's just saying if you don't develop, we have the basically the first right of refusal.

That's basically it. But we don't want it back. And not to get too semantical or pnicity, but we're statutoily bound to take it back if we don't see development. because at that point we need to look for recouping our costs of the cleanup of the EPA's um well units that you know and the the plume that was there that we we cleaned that up. So at some point we need that investment back or we would hopefully try and get that back. So we would need to put it up for auction again. I don't want to do that. I don't think anybody wants to do that. We're not in the real estate business. But we're statutoily bound. And so I would support another three-year extension. That would be fine. Five year, whatever it is, we can justify that. But if we're not going to do that, I would like to see at least proof of injury that it's harming her your ability to acquire additional funding. Uh right now we're having to take your word for it. If we can see the lenders that you've approached that say because of the right of reverter clause we will not lend on this property. That's that's injury, right? But until that point we just have it on on good faith. And so if that is truly injuring your ability to do business or expand your business, which is economic development, then maybe we put in anou to say we're going to remove the re or the right of reverter clause, but we still have an agreement. We're contractually bound to have that first right of refusal.

nothing happens in another five years, we'll look at it again. But that's the whole point, you know, the reason that we wanted and believe me, when you said you wanted something magical, I remember looking at the drawings and the conceptual renderings and going, "Yes, oh my god, this is going to elevate the entire area. It's going to, you know, that's I get goosebumps still thinking about it. We need to see that happen." And I know you want to see it happen. Hold on. I I we've had a lot of discussion and I at risk of being here all night. I appreciate it. Okay. Councilwoman Johnson, before you I just want to kind of

That's fine. Chime in. Mine.

So, first off, and it's interesting because a lot of the people up here were present when we were uh talking about this I've been thinking about this a lot and I think where I have had an issue is I have equated the reason why we put the reverter clause in there with a necessity for that with economic development. There's nothing in the statute that requires a reverter clause uh for economic development. It just doesn't. It just says property can be transferred and this is the statute directly which I appreciate that Mr. Butterfield put it in our um packet. any city or town upon terms the governing body thereof determines without advertising the sale or calling for bids and after a public hearing which we had notice of which shall include the appraised value of all real properties involved in notice of proposed terms blah blah blah may sell any property to any person acquiring the property for use which the governing body determines will benefit the economic development of the municipality. So when we were discussing this, we were thinking, okay, what can we do to ensure that this is actually going to result in economic development and the easy solution seemed to be well, it' be a reverter clause saying you're going to get something built here or we're going to take it back.

The idea hopefully being that it would spur development and would get it going so that you know what you said would happen would actually happen. But nothing in the statute requires that. We did that as a way to ensure that it was clear that this was meant to be economic development. The statute does not require a reverter clause. Um, at the time, I think if it had been something, and I understand Councilman Carr's comment about this, I don't think I would have understood at the time that this could get in the way of being able to mortgage the property. Right. Much like why we see that there's so many struggles with developing on the reservation. When you can't really own the property outright, it makes it very difficult to develop. People don't want to borrow or where that property would be collateral. Um so kind of in line with what Councilman Carr is saying, I don't want the property back. And and I say that because property ownership is such a sacred is probably not the right word for it, but we value that more than just about anything in our country. Um, property is considered to be one of the most important aspects of our government and protecting property is supposed to be one of the most important aspects of our government. I see that there could be a lot of good reasons for the government to say we're going to revert and we're going to take this property back. But me personally, if it's getting in the way of you being able to develop it, I'm in favor of the motion. I'm in favor of saying we'll get rid of the restrictions and we trust you to do with it what you think is right because that's what property ownership is all about. This was already talked about years ago when we talked about selling it. I don't want to go through

and revisit all of that and and reconsider it all. If you own property, you own property. I don't think we ought to be in the business of taking it back, especially where the city would get a windfall. In theory, I love the idea of the city getting a windfall, but in practice, I don't like the idea of what it means for private property ownership and the optics of it. So, that's just my two cents and my view on it. Councilwoman Johnson and then anyone else who wanted anything to add.

First of all, I just want to say thank you. Thank you to everybody who's had a little bit of input in it. Um, I think that I I came here with knowledge that I was going to go one direction on this and I'm leaning another direction. I I think that that we all share our our own personal opinions. Like I'm not in favor of having toilets on Main Street, Ron. I I I appreciate um your view on it. I I appreciate your take that council's direction should be for the citizens um and and betterment of the community, but I also see that a parking lot for our Riverton businesses is useful. I think that that brings commerce downtown. Um it keeps people from having to walk blocks just to go and I think there's more people that want to shop than go to the bathroom. Um, but I that's a personal opinion. I I still feel like I and I don't know if it's possible or not, but amending not necessarily the amending the restrictions that are in place for her to be able to develop on it to more of anou that just says you promised to move forward and do something beautifification. This goes in line with our our council goals that we talked about. And I think that if it kills, you know, two birds with one stone in the parking issue, the two-hour parking, the the the common parking area there gives them two downtown. I I I would give her a 5-year extension to say you got 5 years to do something. That would be a total of 12 years to develop on the property since buying it. And I think that that's more than fair and no further extensions after that. But I don't want to see you lose what you've put into it. I don't want to see the city out. I'm I'm

It's a difficult decision. Oh, I know. It's truly difficult, but I think everybody down here knows. But I think in good faith, Miss Henry has is is wanting to develop. You're just not sure what you're going to develop there or how you can develop there. I think that um she's an asset to the community and I I think that it it can be supported. I just want to see movement. I want to see beautifification of it. I hate driving downtown and looking at an ugly dirt lot. That's that's what I hate. And if we have the ability to to beautify it and use it for commerce, then I would support that.

All right, Councilwoman Brothers, because I can't see you, if you're waving at wanting to [clears throat] speak, I just want to give you an opportunity to chime in if you wanted to. Yes, your honor. Thank you very much. My um feelings and thoughts are as they were last time we voted on this and it's the same as Councilman Bailey's and that is to leave the property in the ownership of Brown Sugar's um hands and uh thank you very much.

Thank you Councilwoman Brothers. All right, since we're kind of at the end here, if there was anybody who wanted to just have couple of seconds for a last word, you can have it. I don't have to have the last word. [laughter]

Thank you for the opportunity. And my name is Kate Hayes. Thank you for letting me address the audience. And I'm sorry, but I've been up since 4, so I'm starting to lose my voice. However, um, Amanda Henry is not a speculative developer. She trains and builds leadership within your community through her workforce. And all of you in this room are benefiting from that, including our very good-looking police chief. [laughter] So, I would really I would implore you in the many hats that I wear, community organizer, self-employed business owner, business partner, and longtime friend of Miss Amanda Henry to release this property to her. Thank you. My 45 seconds are up. You

did great. Anyone else? Thank you everyone for being here and I hope you understand these things aren't easy. We we kind of even me I started this with a certain idea and I kind of swapped around into a different idea just because it's hard. It's not easy to be thinking about this because it's it and here's the reality of it. I would include amongst people that I respect and admire everybody who has gotten up and spoken. None of you are people that I didn't know your names before tonight. And so I sit there and I think whatever decision I make, I certainly don't want to be getting on uh Mayor Warp's bad side. Not that I'm but or Mr. Zerbal's bad side or Miss Henry's bad side or Mr. Mcool's bad side. And so you all have very good points, but I kind of have to go with my personal beliefs as to what I think might be right or wrong. Councilwoman Borders.

I I was just going to say, your honor, that I I agree with Councilwoman Johnson and Councilwoman Carr. I think that we could get rid of the restriction. So that will free up that property for Miss Henry and do anou to cover because she she needs time. There have been a lot of problems, a lot of things that have come up that she couldn't have planned for. and um I hate to see her lose her investment, so I concur with with theou. Okay. Well, the motion right now from Councilman Bailey was to wave the performance requirements and timelines associated with the warranty deed. In other words, to have this become something where we would transfer it, be simple, no restrictions was the motion as I understand it. no reverter. So that's the motion as it stands now. We could vote on that and then if we wanted to discuss the possibility if that succeeds, there's noou. That's just we're done. It's transferred. We've washed our hands of it. If it did not succeed, then we would go back and we could say, okay, do we want to consider something else? So considering that's where the motion is,

one, two, three, I would say we vote on that and then we see where we're at. And if we have another motion after that, what if I resend my second on that motion and we could move on to anou with the reverter? Is that complicated? An amendment for the motion. I would say you've already had a second on it. I mean, we've already been there. Now, if you wanted to make a a separate motion after this motion and then we could consider it at that point, there's no reason we can't. Okay. Mr. Butterfield, is there anything I'm missing here? [clears throat and cough]

No, your honor, I think you're correct in the sense that the person who made the first isn't here to resend their first and so I I think you have to keep the motion as it stands. You as a council can always amend the motion with a majority vote. And uh that that's all I was going to say. So, I was in line with what you were thinking. Okay. All right. So, let's vote on this motion, see where we're at, and if we have another motion after that, we can go there. So, all in favor of waving the performance requirements, timelines associated with the warranty deed, say I. Those opposed say nay. Nay. Nay.

Okay. Well, I'm alone in voting I. I'll vote I for Councilman Bailey. That's okay. It's not the first time I've lost. Your honor, do you have a motion?

I do. Uh, and maybe more discussion than sorry to, but I wanted to get a right a particular order. Um, I would, what I would prefer is a five-year extension and just leave everything it is because I think that's the easiest. If Miss Henry can demonstrate that it is injurious from a lender or some function then at that point I think then we can look at other options but to do anou and I apologize to staff for bringing that word the memorandum of understanding to the audience that really should get vetted through legal. I I think and and I wouldn't want to make a motion. If we can just keep it simple tonight, do a five-year extension and then if it's injurious, she can prove that then we can talk about that at a later point.

So, I would It sounds like your motion is for a five-year extension, but considering alternatives to that before we reach five years, correct? You can see it's going to be an issue. Yes. Okay. So, we have a motion on the floor for a five-year extension for things to remain as they are with the reverter. We have a second for that motion. I second that. Okay. So, we have a motion by Councilman Carr, second by Councilwoman Brothers. Further discussion on that, your honor. Yes, ma'am.

I'll make a motion to amend his. And I I agree with the five-year extension, but I would amend it to uh release everything upon verification that she's unable to produce on the property because of that. If she can provide that, we can release whatever it is we hold against her. Does that make sense? No. I think that's a whole different discussion. Well, if we're if we're putting into place a five-year extension for her, if she's able to provide that she can't develop because of that, then we should release it all together so she can develop. And don't get me wrong, I agree. Am I

But that's a different a different discussion. I don't think we need to add that to Can you help me understand request at this point because once we get that? So the motion is for the reverter to remain uh with the possibility of reversion within the next 5 years. So we're doing an extension as we've done in years past. Correct. The motion for to amend that motion would be to have the be an automatic release once there is proof that the the reverter is injurious. Okay. To her ability to be able to develop

construct and develop on that property. Okay. So, let's take care of this one at a time. Motion is to amend it. Do we have a second for that motion to amend? I'll second. Okay. We have a second for the motion to amend by Councilwoman John Borders to Councilwoman Johnson's motion. Now, we're on that motion. Do we have any further discussion on that? And this is when you could kind of chime in as to what you were saying, Councilman Carr. Yeah, understand.

I All we're trying to do is accomplish an extension, get her get her going again, that's fine, without untethering the property. Basically, if it is deemed injurious, I think that's that's a to a topic for another meeting. That's a totally different discussion to see what what is the injury and then decide a course of action from that point because I agree I if it is injurious I think it should be you know a that's harming economic development that's not the intent but to not but to just automatically uh I think what you're saying is it would be too subjective to just say that correct and you would need to have some oversight and somebody to be able to look at it and say this is the injury and this is

Thank you. Yes. Yeah. I'm there for you, Councilman Carr. So, two separate subjects, two separate meetings. Well, and I think the idea is already that if we were going to do an extension, we could come back and we could look at that anyway. We don't have to have it be something that's automatic. And automatic is not as automatic as it could be because what are we going to require? We're going to require what? Three letters from lenders saying we're not going to lend on this if you have a a reverter clause on it. I mean, what does automatic mean? I think is the concern.

I just don't want to have this conversation again in two years is is what I'm getting at. I want to I want her to be able to do whatever it is she needs to do, whether that's beautify it with a parking lot or whatever. I think if she shows good faith in this 5-year extension, that she's she's making it look better and she's done something for development on it. I I don't see any reason that we need to have this conversation two years from now or or again. And if that has to go through legal, then great. Send it through legal. I understand what you're saying. Um, but I I don't think we should have to go through this every two years. I would rather not. She needs to have a clear-cut answer and we've already discussed it. So

So your honor, the way I see it, it's two separate issues. So if if she provides that proof that it's injurious to her, um, we're going to have to do a discussion on theou anyway. So we're going to have to address it again. I think an easy way we could do this is we could say we're going to have a set time. We're going to come back and revisit it at that time and see where we're at. You've kind of heard from the council, Miss Henry, and and could kind of adjust or let us know where you're at and feel free to come up.

Well, I I mean, I can quickly state that I think a fiveyear extension for what I was being kind of hurdled in, I don't think that would be an issue for me. So if that helps clear things up then willing to do the fiveear I think that's and then we'll see where things go there. But we can all say that Councilwoman Johnson does not want to be back here in 5 years. So let's back [laughter] all be thankful for it. Let's come back before then and have an update. Yeah. if we could get that calendared whether it's in six months or something like that and figure out some different ways we can go.

I'll make this easy. I'll resend my amendment if I may resend the second. Okay, so we're back on the main motion which is for a five-year extension. Any other discussion? Or have we beaten this dead horse? Call for the question, please. Call for the vote. All in favor of the extension as uh moved by Councilman Carr, seconded by Councilwoman Brothers, say I. I. Those opposed say nay.

Nay. Um [clears throat] I vote I. So good luck. Thank you everybody for being here and being a part of the process. Um, I cannot express how appreciative I am to have friends, colleagues, acquaintances who are willing to be here and make things difficult for us because the reality is I would rather have friends here that I can hear from than somebody who I'm not going to ever see again. It's good to be able to hear your views and I appreciate it. So, thank you. Okay, we're going to move on to the next one, which is all sorts of fun as well. Verizon Tower ground lease expirations and renewal proposal, city administrators report, please. Your honor, would you like a report or do you want to be consistent with how you pulled the other one from the table first?

Let's be consistent. I'd entertain a motion to take from the table the motion uh considering the offer sheet from Verizon Wireless to extend the terms of the expiring ground lease. That motion was made by the the underlying motion, not the motion to table. Who did the underlying motion? Councilman uh or I'm sorry, Mr. Butterfield. Councilman Butterfield.

Um thank you to Miss Harris. It was council member Bailey had who had moved and it was seconded by council member Larson to uh consider the offer sheet to extend the terms. Okay. Correct. So motion was by Councilman Bailey, second by Councilman Larson. Uh do we have a motion to remove that from the table? So moved. Second. Motion by Councilman Larson, second by Councilwoman Johnson. Any other discussion on removing that from the table. All in favor say I. I.

Any oppose say nay. I vote I. Motion passes. That's now removed from the table. We're on to the main motion. Mr. Mr. Butterfield, I think we had some updates that we wanted and just want to hear your report on this before we continue to deliberate.

Thank you, your honor. In the interest of time, I won't go through the entire report because we've already gone through it once. I won't also review the um history of the negotiation. Um the council requested more information on comparables in town and uh I reached out to two individuals who own property where a cell tower is located. But unfortunately, um, we weren't able to connect. I I left messages. So, I do not have information for two properties that are in town as it relates to, um, private ground and private agreements for cell towers. I was however able to speak with someone uh who owns property in Lander that has a cellular tower in Lander and they communicated that um with this tower which is a union tower they receive $1,000 a month in rent so $12,000 a year and that was for private property. Um and outside of that I believe you have the information as it relates to our um current leases as it relates to Verizon. You also have that informalformational table in your packet um relating how some of the other peer municipalities that communicated information receive rents for their tower ground leases.

Thank you. Any other discussion? Um, not for nothing but just for the information of the council, uh, Verizon stock closed today at 48.93 US. Uh, which is the highest that I think it has been since, uh, May 13th of 2022. Has nothing to do with our discussion today, I'm sure, but just for the history lesson, I suppose. Your honor. Yes, sir.

Do we know what the square or the footprint of the Union Tower was just for a cause per square foot? Your honor, I don't have that information for the comparison in Lander. I do know that what had been said was it was well used. I think was that the phrase that the owner had used, Mr. Butterfield? Any other discussion? So, uh, if I were to guess, and I, mind you, I'm not somebody who likes to sit here and play hard ball a lot in negotiations. I might sound like it. I might talk a tough game, but I'm really not. Scooch,

although I guess there are defense attorneys who would disagree with that. They would probably say I tend to sit on a position and not move and wait for them to come to me. But that's maybe his prosecutor. Um, I think that the expense for Verizon to close up shop would probably be greater than would be worth it uh for them to pay more for the tower. I really appreciate Mr. Butterfield's willingness to go to bat for the city on this. I think it recognizes that um funding is difficult. Um we want to make sure that the city is

compensated. Compensated. I was going to say not being stiffed, but Councilman Larson is there for me with uh better language. um as far as I'm concerned, I'm willing to kind of support Mr. Butterfield's uh negotiations that he's had and say no, the council's not going to step back from what Mr. Butterfield has said. Uh I believe he's done a lot of work on this. Um I think deserves the council's trust and support on this where he has been. And so I think um I'd support you where you've been at with it, Mr. Butterfield. That's just my opinion.

Your honor. Yes, sir. I feel that um Mr. Butterfield has done his best and knows what the water is versus all of us. and we we trust him and we support him and we continue to back him because he has the city's interests at heart. Uh somebody said this is not a business, but this is not a free shop either.

Well, and I will say it's nice to sometimes be the heavy. I mean, if you've ever negotiated car prices, almost always you're going to have them go back and talk to the finance guy and and you know what happens there is the finance guy, they're just sitting there chatting away and the finance guy is agreeing to be the bad guy. So, if we need to be the bad guy, fine. Yeah.

And say, "Look, no, we're going to stand by what Mr. Butterfield said." Uh just to tag on to what Councilman Larson said, uh you know, corporations love inconsistency and councils are inconsistent. Change out every two years. What remains constant is our city administrator who can hold those negotiations and moreover keep an equitable consistent charge per square foot for the ground that we lease to anybody. Mhm. What's good for the goose is good for the gander. We can charge the exact same. And so I I would wholeheartedly endorse

sticking firm with the negotiations that that he's tried to do. So call for the call for the question. Yeah. Well, so right now the motion is to accept their offer to extend the terms. So if we were to have this voted now. Okay. Call for the question. All in favor of um accepting the uh terms of the expiring ground lease as has been presented by Verizon Wireless say I. I. Those opposed say nay. Nay. Nay. Okay. I vote nay. We have another motion.

Move to move. Uh, I would move to have city administrator move forward with the negotiation that he'd had previously. Is that

clear enough, Mr. Bfield? Your honor, we I can definitely respond back to them um that the council did not accept their terms and um I can reiterate the terms that we've presented to them if that's what you'd like, which was similar terms to what the other Verizon site, which is now given power attorney to American Tower. Um I can go back to them and say this is where the city council is. Um, if they reject that, then essentially the ground lease expires on its own terms and they would have to remove their assets by the end of the month. Isn't that correct? I mean, this is last chance here. By the end of March, March, we got some time.

So, we could sit here and just have a back and forth and different meetings and just have all the fun we could have. So, and I know there's a motion on the table, but just to answer your question, um, which I hope I did, that's where it's at. Okay. So the motion is for you to continue with the terms as you had presented in the and I think that was they had made the offer you had said no we think it would need to be in line with this and then you wanted to go back to those terms and they said no that's expired would it help to clarify uh I would move to use present to them the terms that are at is it the water tank tower correct

yeah the same terms that are at the water tank tower which We're moving forward hopefully with everybody else, but yes, move forward with the terms for the water tank tower. Those are the terms that we want. Little bit different than with the most recent one where you were kind of trying to meet in the middle somewhere, Mr. Butterfield, but same terms as the water tank tower. Clear enough in the motion? Yes. We have a second. Second by Councilwoman Borders. Okay. Motion to move forward with uh consistency. consistency from Councilman Carr, second by Councilwoman Borders. Discussion.

I I was just going to say to remain consistent. I would agree with Councilman Carr. Okay. Any other discussion? Call for the motion. All in favor say I. I. I. I. Any oppose say nay. I vote I. Motion passes. Mr. Butterfield. Clear enough on the motion? Yes, your honor. Thank you. All right. Now, we have more excitement, which Mr. Goff is here. He's [laughter] still awake. He's still awake. I'm impressed.

Yeah, I believe you. All right. Consideration of ordinance uh 26003, second reading, Berlin edition, reszone. Mr. Misho is still awake, too. Give us your report, please.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Yes. Uh for us we have the uh proposal for the ordinance 26-003 reszone petition of Berlin's first edition lot 2 block 3. And yes we do have Mr. Tyler Goff from TNT renovations joining us tonight and want to thank him for sticking with us through the meeting. Uh Berlin's first edition was one of the first subdivisions in Riverton is located just southeast of where Maine meets the old railroad tracks and uh petition is to change the zone from this lot from C1 to R2. So it can be used for residential purposes. The lot is located, it's u lot to block two. Uh it's actually located its address is 105 West Adams. And uh there's also a lot right next to this lot on the to the east of it on the corner that is also zoned C1, but the owners are not interested in reszoning at this time. Um the owner would like to request this zoning change because he would like to uh enable a subdivision repplat so that he could consolidate three lots into two lots. Two of those lots are commercial or residential. One lot is commercial. like to res re reszone this lot to uh residential and have them all be the same zone and then uh consolidate them into two lots. The city completed the following actions per resone requirements in Riverton Municipal Ordinance 17-04-050. The filing of an application from the property owner. Notification of the property owners within 140 feet of the proposed zone change at least 15 days prior to the planning commission meeting. Posting of a reszone on the property with at least 15 days notice prior to the planning commission meeting. And public meeting notice posted in the Riverton Ranger on January 7th, 2026. Again, as I noted at the last meeting, the city did receive one response

objecting to the reszone. It did not h contain an explanation for the objection. We attempted to follow up with uh uh with the uh response, but we were not able to get any more of an explanation. Uh, additionally, per Riverton Municipal Ordinance 17-04-050D, the planning commission approved the reszone request on January 22nd, 2026, and is recommending approval of the zoning change to the Riverton City Council for Riverton Municipal Ordinance, which requires three readings. I am recommending approving approval of this reszone on the second reading. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. [snorts] Thank you, Mr. Misho. I'd entertain a motion to adopt ordinance 260003, reszone request petition for Berlin's first edition lot 2, block 2, 105 West Adams from C1 to R2 on second reading.

So moved. Second. Councilwoman Johnson with the motion. Councilman Carr with the second. Discussion on both of those. Okay. Whole lot of discussion going on here. Mr. Gra. [laughter] All in favor say I. I. I. Any I Nay. Thank you. Councilwoman Brothers I noted your I vote. Uh I vote I too. And that motion is passed. One more reading. Maybe next time it'll be earlier in the meeting. [laughter]

All right. Consideration board.

Yeah. Consideration of resolution 1541, urban and community forestry grant. Um, Mr. Tolman, we haven't heard from you tonight. How about we just give this one to you? Thank you, your honor. Sounds perfect. I appreciate that. In front of you is resolution number 1541. It's a resolution support of a grant application for the to the Wyoming uh state forestry division. This would be for the urban and community forestry program. And these are uh grant monies that are administered by the inflation reduction actually known as IRA for a tree inventory and a pl and a and planting and planting grant. Excuse me. Get get the T in there. Um the these funds from this um grant would be used for a tree management program for RI Riverton. This would be phase two of a program that was started in 2024. uh that was a a combination of a traditional and advanced um drone tree inventory using LAR data um spectral imagery um to to get the health of of trees throughout the city. So um in that 2024 grant about half of the cities were a half of the trees, excuse me, within the city were able to be inventoried and then um and [clears throat] then uh determined uh the health of the trees were were determined at that time. So the need for this um actual uh inventory and then um is comes from the it's estimated that our canopy cover within the city of Riverton is about 6.4% statewide average is 11.9%. Um so with this grant not only will the a study be able to be done and then to that'll show tree health but then also uh then 50 additional trees will be able to be planted as well. So those tree trees will be planted in parks uh including JC Park, Sunset Park, Teter Park and then the Narrows uh park which is a park by Short Street between um

Park and um Park Street and West Main West Main Street. So, um, so if approved and if the council supports this resolution and then and then it goes to the, um, state forestry division, um, trees that would be planted were trees that are hardy for the area. Then also our pollinating trees, uh, cherry including cherry trees, cottonwood, elm trees, um, honeyloust trees, uh, lilacs, um, couple three three different types of maple trees, a service berry, um, oak trees, and then of course a crab apple tree. Oh, the uh amount of funding for this grant is 102,000. 22,000 of that would be matched by the city, but that would be an incind match, which would be just for um materials, including mulch. Um also uh volunteer hours, which are required for this grant. Um volunteer hours are then estimated by the um um oh, excuse me, the um board I'm looking for. Uh uh um Oh my gosh. Um they're estimated by the um [clears throat]

take your time.

Oh, thank you. [laughter] Um oh, the hourly rate, excuse me, as estimated by the annual um um federal uh standards. So, $3180 an hour. So, excuse me. Um I didn't get sleep last night either. So in in that in kind match would also be labor hours from volunteer groups and then also city equipment um that would help to to um uh prune trees and then um and then take care of any kind of uh trees that might need uh removed um if that if it requires that. So they estimated through the grant maybe about five trees that would need removal there. So that puts the the city match at $22,000. The 80,000 which would be reimburseable by the state would come from a traditional a tree inventory which would be in the in the zone of 300 or $30,000 excuse me and then a drone tree inventory for $20,000 um or for a combined $30,000 and then the planted trees which would be about $20,000 um price tag on those. So, um I recommend to approve this uh resolution to support the grant and we'll get it submitted just as soon as possible. Um the first come this is awarded on a first come first- serve basis.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Um Miss Harris, could you please read resolution 1541 by title only? Yes, your honor. Proposed resolution number 1541, a resolution of the governing body of the city of Riverton authorizing the submission of a Wyoming urban and community forestry program inflation reduction act IRA grant for a tree inventory tree planting and tree management plan. All right. I'd entertain a motion to approve resolution 1541 in support of the grant application to the Wyoming State Forestry Division for a tree inventory and planting grant. So moved.

Second. Motion by Councilwoman Borders, second by Councilman Larson. Discussion. Just a quick question. Where where are they purchasing the trees from? Are they going to use a local nursery to purchase those? Your honor. Yes, we will. Yes. Thank you. As long as non-cotton producing cotton. I know the crab apple either. Oh, yeah. But fun to watch the deer eat them

and the squirrels when they're fermented. It's great fun. One of the things I appreciate about our tree board is they are dedicated to the idea of let's get a variety of trees and and part of the reason for that is because we have a professional arborist who serves on the tree board and he's very aware of diseases and what's been going on and trying to get a variety of trees non-cotton producing cottonwoods. It's actually in our ordinance. Those are the ones though that dump all the stuff on my car, Mr. Carr. At least they don't spit the cotton and clog up your sinuses.

I mean, it is better than the cotton. I will agree it is better than the cotton, but it I get yellow tracked into my house every year. Anyway, your honor, I would be remissed if I didn't recognize the tree board for putting together the grant as well, including Mr. Troyer and then uh uh Spencer Smith as well for putting this grant together and then also uh the owner of Sweetwater Gardens um who was instrumental in putting this together. So whose wife also serves on the tree board. [laughter]

We have a lot of people who are willing to put in a lot of work to try to improve our canopy and I appreciate it. We've got good people on the tree board. All right. Well, good question. Good comment. I don't favor them, but I also understand the city ordinance. All in favor of passage of resolution 1541, please say I. I. I. I. Those opposed, please say nay. Uh, motion passes. Oh, I vote I also. All right. Consideration of resolution 1542, mineral royalty grant for the wastewater treatment plant process upgrade project. Thank you,

Mr. Tolman. We are trying to keep you awake the whole meeting.

I'm pinching myself over here. Thank you. Um, resolution number 1542 is a resolution in in support of mineral royalty grant funding. Um, this would be for the wastewater treatment plant process upgrade project. As the council's aware, we had we brought about this project from the grant funding from Wyoming Community Development Authority. Um took that uh those funds and then were able to hire an engineering firm to get put together a project. Um the total project then came to um just an amount that the that we're able to approve um plus uh the council then approved um with with that uh um uh um project to allocate just over $200,000 in next year's budget um towards the the entire project. This didn't allow when um when the process upgrade project was put to bid. this didn't allow for bid schedule one or two which had been previously designed to be awarded. Um so when working with HDR um we're able to take uh bid schedule one which is a a RAZ metering and control valve project which will allow um RAZ excuse me is return activated sludge and it would allow that to be integrated in with the new clarifier that's going in and then bid alternate 2 would be integration of the RAZ controls return activated sludge controls into the new clarifier project. So then at that point, uh there's $100,000 um that HDR recommended from bid schedule 2 to include in this ask. Um this ask would also then um which is a total ask of of $59,875 for mineral royalty grant funding. That would also then take into account uh HTR's funds um during for construction services. It' be the engineering funds to help uh during the construction

actual process. Um so um that alleviates uh what before we thought might um the city might have to fund um some of the construction services by the engineer. So what this would do is as well is it actually um dare I say it does fulfill a little bit of a dream of uh our now um retiring chief operator Brett Dale at the wastewater plant that he quoted to me before he retired. He wanted to ensure that there was one train in the wastewater treatment plant that was actually completely operational and fully updated um at the plant. And he's been there um for nearly 35 years. The plant's just over 40 years. And this would take and integrate um the entire process to where that those uh that full train is fully updated. Then at the plant um HDR helped us to find this funding um and then helped us to put it together as well. and this count this resolution would then um provide the funds to kind of bring this to the finish line if if I dare say so. So, um I would recommend to approve that.

And now I guess my question though is why is Brett not here still? Why would he leave before this? My question as well, your honor, that's what I thought. Yeah. All right. Um Miss Harris, could you please read resolution 1542 by title only? You don't need to read the whole thing. Yes. Proposed resolution number 1542, a resolution authorizing submission of a federal mineral royalty capital construction account grant application to the state loan and investment board on behalf of the governing body for the city of Riverton for the purpose of assisting with construction and engineering costs for the WWTP condition assessment and clarifier and UV replacement project.

I'd entertain a motion to approve resolution 1542. So moved. Second. Councilman Larson with the motion. Councilwoman Johnson with the second was a tie. Doesn't matter. Um discussion on the resolution. Is this a total grant for this project? I'm sorry. What's the city's buy in? What's What is that? what it what it's going to cost us.

You bet, your honor. The city buyin would be the amount that the we already that that the council already allocated in the last um um when we approved the original base bid, the 200 and let me let me read that off here. So, we've already it's already budgeted it if we've the council has elected to allocate it. Yes. Now, your honor, I think to be clear, it has not yet been budgeted, but it would need to be budgeted next fiscal year. This coming 27, we would need to include it in next fiscal year's budget. Okay. And would that go under capital improvements?

Mr. Any other discussion? All in favor say I. I. I. Any oppose say nay. I vote I. I. Motion passes. Passes. I would say that 22 items, especially items of that magnitude being covered by 1040 is actually impressive. It's rare. So I would entertain a motion to adjurnn. So moved. Second. Motion by Councilman Larson. Second by Councilman Carr.

I let him take the glory on that one. [laughter] He wants home. He does. Just the way he said second. All in favor say I. I. I. Say nay. I vote I. Motion passes. We are adjourned. 1039.