Council - Regular Meeting

you So, So, Thank you for watching. Thank you. Thank you. Let's pray.

We ask you to please bless all of us as we travel home tonight that we will all be safe. We ask this in the name of thy beloved Son, Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen.

Okay. Mrs. Harris, Madam Administrative Services Director, if you could please conduct the roll call.

Yes, Your Honor. Council Member Eric Carr.

Here.

Council Member Mike Bailey.

Here.

Council Member Carla Borders. Here. Council Member Kyle Larson.

Absent.

Council Member Karen Johnson.

Absent.

Mayor Tim Hancock.

I am here. I would entertain a motion to excuse Councilman Larson and Councilwoman Johnson from tonight's meeting.

So moved. Second.

Motion by Councilwoman Borders, second by Councilman Bailey. Any discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed say nay. I vote aye. Motion passes. I declare we have a quorum by the thinnest of margins. I'd entertain a motion to approve the agenda as presented. So moved.

Second.

Councilman Carr with the motion. Councilwoman Borders with the second. Any discussion? Anything to add or remove from the agenda? All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed say nay. I vote aye, motion passes. Recognition of former Councilwoman Rebecca Brothers. City Administrator, do you have anything to say? Did we decide I was gonna blab on and on about Councilwoman Brothers, or did you have anything to blab on and on about first?

Your Honor, I think we could probably both do a very respectable job of that.

Okay.

I'll defer to you, but I do wanna say it was a pleasure working with Councilwoman Brothers. She was always supportive of staff. very loyal to her ward in the city of riverton and was a fierce advocate for the youth of our community and i personally will miss working with her she was a great member of our council and wish her luck as she exports new adventures perfect i don't think i could have said it any better that's great um well we have i i am going to say more but i just wanted to

for the purpose of our viewing public who can see this very clearly. We have something to present to you that can be used as a weapon in the event of needing to defend yourself. I saw a crime show once where, anyway, it just made me think of it when I saw it just now. not to get off topic, but we have that to present to you. And then we also have your name plate that we will present to you tonight. But Councilwoman Brothers, you have done your ward a great service over the time you have been serving on the city council. You came in, you had goals without having them turn into, it's hard to describe that people that come in that are driven, that want to do things to improve the community, To me, it's always felt different than coming in, someone that just comes in and has a chip on their shoulder and wants to change one thing. You came in with a lot of different goals, a lot of different things you wanted to do. You always did well at expressing yourself and saying, hey, this is important to me. And it was good to have your perspective on the council. One of the things that I've grown to love about being a member of the city council is just the diversity of thought and the diversity of people that we have up here. And you added to that, And you're going to be irreplaceable. That's just all there is to it. We have two people here that are wanting to fill your position, but they're not going to fill your shoes. So really appreciate the work that you've done, and we'll come down and present this to you. I just, I don't want anyone to think I'm crazy, but this... Too late. Thank you. Thank you so much for serving. And we do have the traditional, you've not been here when we've had any recognition, but you have an hour speech that we're expecting. I just wanted to say thank you to the community and to all of you guys.

And, um, And it's been a great.

We could airbrush them in. We could. Yes, I love it. Perfect. All right, good. Good luck.

I'm glad you stuck around in town long enough for us to recognize you. I know Mr Butterfield and I were kind of. Wondering if we're going to make it be able to make it work out so that's perfect and good luck in your future and I will say it's. It's always interesting, and when you have a chance to serve in positions like this, you think about what is the legacy you leave behind, right? And as I've talked about with the youth council, they're gonna be able to look back and say, hey, I was on that first youth council. Well, you can look back and say, hey, I really pushed forward to get that youth council going, and really appreciate your hard work on it, and I'm excited for it. Appreciate your work with that, so. Thank you. All right. Council Committee Reports Council Members Roundtable. Let's start with you Councilwoman Borders.

Okay, Your Honor. I have not had any meetings since our last meeting. I did just want to say, though, that last week was the Fremont County Fair, and it was a great event, very enjoyable. It was so fun to watch all the little kids with their animals and all the things they make and bake, and it was just a really awesome time, and we're lucky that we have that here. So that's all I have.

i i complain every year but why do they have a refreshment table that i can't eat from it just bothers me that they have all those baked goods and they don't let me eat them because then nobody could admire them but i mean i think they should require you to bake a whole like sheet of brownies not just two sampler exactly all right councilman carr yeah see

Thank you, Your Honor. I did not attend any meetings as well. However, I did want to say a few words. Oh, and she left. Well, I'll say them anyway. It was a pleasure working with Councilwoman Brothers. She epitomized the spirit of service in my mind, and she truly turned thoughts into action. And her legacy of the Youth Council is something to be admired. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Bailey. Thank you, Your Honor.

Again, I did not have any official meetings over the last couple of weeks, but I have been attending the Recreation Center meeting, the River Valley Recreation is what they're going to call it. And so they are working steadily on trying to make that a possibility for us. And so we're looking at different properties that it could be on and all kinds of things. Needless to say, there's a million little details that have to be worked out, but I'm excited to help move that forward the best that we can. And then again, I attended the fair, several events in the fair, and again, there was a lot of really fun stuff, and a lot of great exhibitors, and as always, the, you know, different animal shows and that kind of stuff and I attended the fair sale and I think the kids did really good this year with the fair sale and so it's great, it's a great event for our whole county and it really supports especially the agricultural community and all the neat things that they do for us in this community. We do have a force committee meeting Monday at 11 coming up and I think that's all I have. Oh, and I was at the National Night Out tonight. We don't want to forget that. It was awesome, yep. He was down there doing the cake walk and giving away lots of cake. And I was there with the Rotary, and we gave away a lot of cotton candy, and there was a fantastic turnout. It was at the new fire station down on Broadway and something, yeah. The new fire station. Yeah, new 20 years ago, whatever it was. But again, a great turnout. We had police and fire and sheriff, and Kiwanis and Rotary and a whole bunch of others doing fun little things and the High Plains Power guys were there showing how a breaker pops on a circuit. They had it pop and if you're anywhere within a half mile of one of those, you'll know it popped because it was loud. So they're doing some really neat demonstrations. So it was a lot of fun.

So thank you. Great, thank you.

Mr. Butterfield. Thank you, Your Honor. I echo the comments and commend our police department for this tradition that they've started as a community night with the National Night Out and also the many volunteers that made it possible. So we appreciate their effort to support the community and do something fun for those in the area. It's already been mentioned that there will be a Fix Our Roads Citizen Committee and I just will again say we invite the public to that meeting. We want their feedback and the committee works very hard to ensure that the voice of our community, the voices of our community are heard when it comes to infrastructure needs and projects. There will also be, as we talk about committees and boards, a planning commission meeting this Thursday at 5.30. There will be a childcare permit considered and also a subdivision plat considered. As far as project updates, Mr. Tolman has informed me that the final water replacement work is being completed on the Riverview Road project. Temporary shutdown was completed today in order to start that work. The water line work is expected to take approximately three weeks. Tomorrow there will be a temporary detour of traffic through Major Avenue and Riverview Road intersection while the water line is being installed through the intersection. The slurry sale project that was awarded by the council will begin on August 13th. A map of the roadways to be slurried and treated will be posted on the city's Facebook page the Monday prior to the work that's going to be commenced. We hope folks pay attention to that. Obviously our contractor will be working with residents in the neighborhoods that will be slurried, but we encourage folks to go to our Facebook page so they know where that work is occurring and what to avoid just for that brief period when the treatment is put down and then as it cures. The concrete replacement project is in full gear and moving forward, and it's basically replacing curb and gutter, especially in those slurry project areas so we can have the adjoining infrastructure improved before the pavement is improved. I'd like to end just by noting that it's crazy. We're coming to the end of summer and school is about to recommence and we wanna remind folks to please be safe in the school zones. If folks have gotten out of the habit of having children and school folks around the schools, please get ready and get back in the habit. I know our school resource officers do their very best to ensure that the schools are a safe environment and we ask the help of our traveling public to ensure that when they're around the school, whether they're dropping off their own children or traveling through to work, that they remember to be safe. With that, Your Honor, we'd be happy to stand for any questions that you may have.

Great. Thank you, Mr. Butterfield. I know we were talking about concrete replacement projects. There was one down on Pershing. Did anyone ever look at that in terms of where that was going to go? Because I think the corner of Pershing and I'll talk to you about offline. I just remember there was one there that I'd had a gentleman call and was pretty damaged, was worried about it causing damage to the sidewalk. The gutter had gotten so bad that, anyway, we'll talk. So first off, if you want to know the very best squash in Fremont County, it was grown by my wife. and it got best of show for all the vegetables that were there at the fair. So you missed it, I ate it. It tasted good, it looked good too, but I was quite proud of my wife. She got best in show for a squash. so proud of that, and then my daughters, and I say daughters because my 14-year-old took a photograph of my five-year-old, and my five-year-old says, well, that's our prize. She got best of show for, I think, photography, youth photography or something, but my five-year-old is like, well, it's a picture of me, so... So she won. I won, yeah. She's... She's like, your photograph is only as good as the subject. But very proud of my kids being involved in FAIR, and it was a lot of fun to go and look at all the different exhibits at FAIR. There were so many fun things to look at and be there for. Brought my kids over to the sheep and the goats and the pigs and... They had a lot of fun. I did not have as much fun in terms of the pigs, but they enjoyed the pigs, which is fine. And then we had National Night Out. You had noted a lot of different organizations that were there. One of the things that I thought was great is Probation and Prol was there. Riverton Office for Probation and Parole, and some of the probation officers were there to get dunked. And I thought that was excellent. Whoever is on probation, being able to dunk their PO and not get in trouble for it, I thought was a great idea. So whoever thought of that, they did good. I had an opportunity to attend a REC board meeting and the Fremont County School District 25 REC board we met last night. It was pretty short meeting, discussed basically bills and request that kind of thing. Nothing that was too fancy, but just making sure all the budget stuff was done as it should be. Also had the opportunity to attend F CAG. I'll talk more about that when we get to the later agenda items so. I'll touch on that, but good things moving along there. I would note just yesterday, the Eastern Shoshone Business Council voted and passed a resolution in favor of joining FCAG, so I think that's great news. Excited for that. That's been something that I've been personally trying to push through for the last year and a half since I've been the chair of FCAG, and I think it definitely bodes well for. The future, especially with FCAG, depending on how everything goes, hoping to be able to step in that role of managing ambulance and everything so. Looking forward to that. But that's it for me. Communication from the floor, anyone in the audience that wants to address the council regarding an item that's scheduled for a public hearing, you'll be given an opportunity during that public hearing. If you want to address the council about an item that's not currently on the agenda, this would be the best time. I'd ask you to come up, tell us your name. If you're with an organization, the organization you're with, I'd ask you to keep your comments to five minutes for individuals, 10 minutes if you're part of a group.

Opened on July 1st, and I would like to give you some stats of the month of July. As with any business or organization, when you open, there's some chaos at the beginning as the staff is getting up to speed and the volunteers are getting up to speed. So I can tell you that these numbers could be a little bit lower than actual, but definitely not higher. We did not inflate anything. We admitted a total of 53 individuals, and these are people who registered with an intent to stay overnight. We had the total amount of meals was 553. In saying that, we've had people come in that had different situations where they were without a house. They were able to work a few days, get their finances together, and get out and get a house. Other people came in, had no jobs, no place to go, stayed with us, went and got jobs, moved out. So it's already been, in just a month, somewhat of a success. I feel like we have a long ways to go, but I'm so happy for the staff and the volunteers that have done so much work. Also, board members are volunteering as well, and I think that's very important because it gives us a very good picture of what's happening, very different than what we can imagine. So keep that in mind if anyone wants to volunteer. We've given out several hygiene bags. There's been approximately 100 showers taken and about 30 personal laundry facilities or times that the laundry facilities have been used. That does not include towels or sheets. Those are just personal items. We've given away many clothes. We've had several, several people come in with no shoes that we've been able to help. Of course, there are times when people come in and they're intoxicated. And many have already had something to drink, but some not too bad, but some have been pretty bad. And we have dealt with things like people coming in on some type of drug. But as the staff is going through this and the volunteers are dealing with this, we're finding that there are people that at first came in and they were intoxicated or on drugs, And now they're coming in and they're blowing all zeros. And we can see the difference. Physically, we can see the difference. How they're interacting with people, we're seeing the difference. It is absolutely amazing. And again, taking care of those little ones is... There's no words. No words. So I wanted to share one area of concern. And this is an incident that happened There were some people over in the park and we had people run over to us and we had three witnesses that said that there were children who came from a house across the street and one was throwing rocks, chasing people around throwing rocks at them and another person, another child hit a person with a bat. This was reported to the police department. And I got to tell you, I was a little hot about this at first. When I had gotten all the names of the witnesses, had the address for the house that the children came from, and was able to give a description of what happened because I was volunteering at that time, the answer I got back was, well, the police, the officers knocked on the door and no one answered. That gave me pause. And I apologize, but in my head ran the thought, if my husband and I were in the park and people were chasing me around with throwing rocks at me or hitting my husband with a bat, would that have been where it ended? And I was hot. I did talk with my daughter and my son-in-law, who are both police officers, not in this community. And we talked through everything. I'm off the ledge now. I'm good. They said in their department what would happen is that would go to a detective who would then follow up and see what they could do and find out about these children. My concerns are that if young children are assaulting adults in the park, what is going to happen to those children as they become adults? We know that people who are violent criminals often start as children. So this gave me even more concern. With that said, I have a thought. Maybe we can consider as a community having some cameras in the park. I know that in Wyoming and everywhere in America, but especially in Wyoming, we value our privacy and our freedom, but we do have privacy in our own homes. But when we're in a public space, it's public. And if we have things happening and that's only one incident from this month, I have several more incidents that we could talk about, but that would take too long. But this is happening regularly in our park where people are being assaulted. And it's not safe. So what I feel like is I'm not going to go to the park unless there's an event in the park where there's plenty of people, but I'm never going to the park just to walk around by myself. When my daughter and my grandson were here visiting last summer, She wanted to go to the park, and I did not want to say, don't go to the park. So my husband and I both went with them, and I have to tell you, my head was on a swivel, and it should not be that way. How much money was spent on things like the splash pad, on the skate park, on just the playground area? And shouldn't we protect that investment by allowing it to be a safe place where people can actually go and enjoy the city park? People who have lived here for many years have said that they remember playing in the park. They remember going to the pool that was there. And it was a fun place to be. It's not that way anymore. And that concerns me quite a bit. So we're trying to do our part. to help people in the community that have felt in the past pretty hopeless. Not everyone is going to want our help. Not everyone is going to want to get clean and sober. We totally understand that, and we've said that from day one. But we are doing our part to try to make it better. But when the moms of the little toddler that's under our care right now and the little baby that's now five weeks old is under our care right now, and they want to go over to the park with their children, and I have to say to them, please don't go over there. I'm worried about you. One of the residents that we're, or guests, I guess, that we're dealing with right now was assaulted in the park a while back and was greatly, greatly hurt and is still dealing with the results of that. Had to be life flighted and now is with us. And so this is happening and I'm sure the police department has way more stories than I could even tell you. about things that they've been called about i've when i was driving to mercy house i had police officers screaming by me on the way to the park and i'm sure they were dealing with something but i think that we need to really consider having cameras in the park and i know that there are some grants available for public safety So I would really encourage this council to please consider that because we can only do so much. But if the people that we're trying to help are being assaulted by children, we have a problem, a huge problem. And so I would appreciate your attention to this. And thank you so much for your time and your support.

Thanks.

Any questions? Thank you. Have a great night.

You too.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. For anyone that doesn't know me, I'm Cindy Olsen-Rhoden. I'm the director of the Riverton Chamber and Visitor Center. I try to come once a month and give updates on the chamber, what we're doing, what's going on. This week and next week, we're pretty busy. The packet that's going around are four events, four events? Oh yeah, four events that we have just in the next two weeks. No, five, sorry. We've got a ribbon cutting tomorrow for village caregiving. Then we've got a lunch and learn. Did I give you enough packets?

You did? We're good. Thanks, guys.

You gave us enough. Max just took them all.

Sorry about that. Ribbon Cutting Tomorrow Village Caregiving. They are on the, you can tell they're right over there by A.D. Martin where the chamber used to be. They're based in Lander, but they've opened this location. And then Friday, we've got our Lunch and Learn with Mr. Kyle Butterfield going to talk to us about the need for air service and the importance of that. I imagine we may have some good conversation. I've asked McPryor and Tim Nichols to be there in case other questions come up during the Lunch and Learn about the three services for the 3.25% tax. This is an informational Lunch and Learn. So there's no, we're not saying you need to vote this way, it's to get the information out and why this is important. Then Monday we've got another ribbon cutting. What used to be Abba's House, they've made a name change, Elevation Life Clinic. So we're doing one for them. And then next Wednesday, we've got a presentation from an insurance guy, an insurance agent, sorry, with the Bullock Agency. And we actually have a benefit, and the flyer in there talks about that, for it's a type of medical savings account for people on Medicare. And most people say, well, how does that help? But anyone that is on Medicare that is a chamber member, whether they're an employee or a past employee or an owner, manager, and that does exist. I have quite a few people that I can even think of You have to be a member of the chamber, the business that you work for or are affiliated with to be eligible for this Medicare savings account, medical savings account. So we're doing a little presentation at the chamber at 8 next Wednesday. He's going to be there to answer questions. It's kind of an interesting benefit, so anyone that's interested, I'd uh ask you to come and we'll have some coffee and probably donuts and let him visit about that and then next thursday we have our after hours which is an annual that we do with riverton high school combining their activities and bringing businesses together so we showcase the riverton high school activities the kids that are in multiple activities. So we're having to have it at the career center because each year it's gotten bigger and bigger and bigger. So it'll be at the career center. We'll have plenty of food and we're hoping any businesses can come and learn about what our high school youth are doing. Many of them play in sports, but they also are in key club, honor society, all different things. A lot of times they're in four or five different activities, so we want to showcase them. Speech and debate, all kinds of things. um yeah that's what we've got going for the next uh two weeks um a couple of things with the chamber that we are doing we're having a follow-up meeting to our 250 celebration on monday we'll kind of talk about a few things and i'm sure the topic about next year will come up so i've asked mayor tim to if he can make it to be there um like calling me out oh i love it No. So yeah, that's happening. So maybe we can report on that next month. Since being appointed to the Wind River Visitors Council, I've been appointed within the board to the TAD committee. So I'm going to really be learning a lot about, more than I already know about the TAD committee. So um just to let you know i'll be learning and if you have questions or i have questions we can work together collaborate so uh another one last thing i wanted to tell you about uh we just had our second second or third uh zoom meeting uh we are getting together with a state um uh What's it called? It's called Next Generation Sector Partnerships, where we are bringing together CWC, School District 25, Workforce Services and Job Corps and the Chamber. And what Next Generation Sector Partnerships is, they are an industry driven and community supported. They are partnerships of companies from the same industry in a shared labor that work with education, workforce development, economic development, and community organizations to tackle common needs of the targeted industry. They primarily focus on the education and workforce training needs of an industry, but NextGen partnerships also focus on other issues related to an industry's competitiveness. This ensures deeper, broader, and longer-term industry engagement. I know that's really wordy and whatnot, but I'm really excited about it. I think we have a great team between Workforce, CWC, Job Corps, and the district to where we can get some businesses come to the table and say, hey, you know, what can they be doing in the school district for skills, for jobs that you offer that you want to see enhanced, also at CWC, also at Job Corps? This has been successful in other areas of the state, so I'm really excited. I think it's something that we're gonna see happen and hopefully we'll get some good participation from businesses because that's kind of where it's driven from. And if you're interested in more information, I can sure send you some, but just wanted to let you know we are working on that and hope to see good things. Any questions for me tonight?

I don't think so.

Okay, we'll see you Monday with 4 p.m. chamber.

Thanks. Thank you for the reminder. You get me signed up for the strangest things. Does Youth Council want to use this time to report? It'd be a good time if you want to. I see we have some members of the Youth Council here, some of them that are junior officers, or at least one.

Yes. All right. We are once again very excited to be here with you guys. I mean, there are less, well, not you guys, with you council members. I will always remember that, not, got to be more formal with that. There aren't too many of you here, so it's less intimidating, I guess. But anyways, I recognize that it has actually been a bit of time, maybe a couple of months since we've last come up and done an update. I'd attribute that to the fact that I've kind of been busy this summer with National Speech Invade or other family trips. I'm glad to be once again here and able to talk to you guys. I do know that especially during those periods of my absence that people like my secretary, Caitlin, and a lot of other people were very wonderful in setting up agendas and doing things to help keep the RYC afloat while I was gone. It is very strange and sad that Councilwoman Brothers is leaving. And I mean, I was able to personally work with her in kind of helping ensure that the ROIC was made a reality. And it's really sad to see that she won't get to see it breach its one-year anniversary, which is coming up pretty soon. We're definitely going to miss her. I don't think there's a single person who on the RYC isn't going to miss her. If they don't, then they're crazy and we need to quell them from the, no, just kidding. But I'm very excited that we can also have Councilman Carr to be able to join us and I think that we're gonna be able to do great things moving forward and it'll be exciting to see what more we can do as a part of the RYC with you. So that's all that I have to say, but we still have to do the update part, which is kind of the big thing that we're supposed to be doing. But we'll have Braden and Danny help me with that. So thank you once again.

So the mayor's gotten on to me about this before. I'm Braden Thacker. Good job. I was going to ask you. I was already planning on it. Firstly, we participated in the 4th of July parade that was in Riverton. It was very great. We had our own float. We were able to throw candy at kids. We then went into the park afterwards. We had some water guns that was very nicely given to us by the Chamber of Commerce, I believe. We were able to... help them enjoy themselves and not just sit around all day watching their parents buy a t-shirt for $40. We will also, we're also planning on volunteering in more events, hopefully encouraging, especially as the new school year comes, encouraging more of the youth to get involved with the community. Our community is very, very good when it comes to volunteering and holding very local events. And the more people we can get involved in, especially when it comes to youth, since that's our prioritization in the Youth Council, that would be absolutely awesome. Alongside that, as mentioned by some of y'all already, me, Danny here, Hunter Masters, and Caitlin Bauer all went to the National Night Out to help out. I don't know where Hunter was. He's a police cadet, so he was off doing something else. Well, we were at the cake thing, doing the cake walk. I actually asked Mr. Hancock to, what he thought about the cakewalk and he gave me, he told me it's a piece of cake. So.

I thought it was profound. I don't know what it is.

We're also planning on our upcoming field trip to the Wyoming State Capitol. I think we filed something to Mr. Butters and Butterfield, Mr. Butterfield, and I can't wait to... It'll be very fun. I think it's a very valuable use of... community resources and money to help educate the youth and help the next generation of politicians, activists, whatever. So I want to thank you all for that as well. And thank you all for having me up here.

Danny, if you want to speak on anything.

Thank you, Mr. Thacker. And I was going to give you a hard time about making sure you told us who you were.

good evening good good evening council members my name is danny herb uh just kind of to add on what else we've been like participating in volunteering in uh myself council members miller and bauer all went as well as council member carr all went to the sleep in heavenly peace we helped um I had so much fun. I just do recommend you stay not only hydrated, but also take time in shade. It was very hot that day, and I did not fare well in a very pleasant manner, as I would say. But that's more of participation volunteering. Continuing on with what Councilmember Hancock has been saying about our leadership program, it will most definitely be weird that Councilwoman Brothers will not be here with us. She was a very big encouragement to so many of us. But we do have Councilman Carr as our new liaison. um i apologize if you get any late text messages as we're planning either the next day the next event we apologize for all of that we are in a sense a bit of a handful but we are so thankful that you are stepping in as our liaison and just from what i've seen with working with you with making the beds you are going to be a wonderful liaison and i can't wait to work with you more

thank you that is all that i have as of now thanks ms herb all right um so yes we are just very grateful to have you guys here uh you guys are most definitely our biggest supporters and we're very glad that we have the ryc and that it's been able to function positively for nearly a year now um If there's anything in particular that you guys would have that you want us to be working on, I was mentioning the fact that this summer has kind of been a little slow with what we've been able to accomplish. You would think it'd actually be a little bit faster, because we're not really occupied with school or anything, but kind of an ironic thing. So if there is anything in particular you want us to continue working on, ensure that it gets done faster, and just something that the RYC could have to work with, that would be wonderful. Speak now or forever hold your peace.

Your Honor. Anything? Yes, Mr. Carr. Just a couple comments. Thank you for the well wishes. I am sad to see Councilwoman Brothers go as well, but I am truly honored to help with your group. Couple comments. We threw candy to children, not at... Maybe y'all.

Councilman Carr, you may have thrown candy at children. I think they might have accurately described what they were doing.

I would have no doubts, yes.

Building a stronger youth.

And then try not to throw your donations under the bus, your donators for the water cannons. Yeah. But other than that, You're young adults. It's summertime. Don't feel bad about having things to do. You're supposed to have fun things to do during the summer. But I do very much look forward to our next meeting tomorrow to catch up and see where your plans are for the rest of the year. So thank you.

Great. And let me know if you encounter any issues with Councilman Carr. Like if he's not willing to let you throw a pie in his face for a fundraiser or something, just let us know.

Your Honor.

Yes.

I just, you say you've been busy, but I tell you one thing that you did that helped so much was helping do the parade for our nation's 250th. And the volunteer work that you did in the planning and the execution was amazing. So thank you.

I appreciate that. Keep up the good work.

And your name is? I know it, but everyone else needs to know it.

Well, I do believe that I forgot to formally introduce myself. I'm Royce Hancock. There's no correlation between my name and the mayor's name.

Except that I'm his father. That's the only question. It's coincidental. Not much. Okay, well, thank you for your report. Keep up the good work. And yeah, thanks for being here. And thanks for doing some... Hard work over at the National Night Out tonight, Mr. Thacker. Great job. And Ms. Erb, both of you. Good job. And I will say, Hunter was doing well, too. He was giving away stickers, which is why I thought it was funny that you were saying that you didn't know what Hunter was doing when you have a sticker. All right. Thank you for your report. We need anything from you, we'll keep you posted, and we'll work through our liaison. Awesome. Okay.

Well, we appreciate all that you guys do, and we're glad to be able to talk to you.

Okay. Great.

Thank you.

Anybody else in the audience who wanted to make any public comment? Okay. Moving on then, consent agenda. Ms. Harris, Director Harris, could you please read us the consent agenda items by title only?

Yes, Your Honor. Minutes of the July 21st, 2026 regular council meeting, minutes of the August 4th, 2026 finance committee meeting, and finance committee recommendations from August 4th, 2026.

Thank you. Mr. Councilman Carr, could you give us the report from the Finance Committee?

Thank you, Your Honor. The Finance Committee met at 6.47 p.m. tonight and recommend consideration of claims to be paid in the amount of $135,343.07. Manual checks in the amount of $11,026.44. Payroll and liabilities for July 24th, 2026 in the amount of $517,948.31 for a total of $664,317.82. All right. I'd entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented. So moved. Second. Motion by Councilman Bailey, second by Councilwoman Borders. Any discussion?

All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed, say nay. I vote aye. Motion passes. Appointments to pause for the cause committee. Mr. Butterfield, tell us about this.

Your Honor, I'd be happy to, but I believe our new lieutenant, Lieutenant Smits, is prepared to report on that, if that's okay.

Great. So the chief decided he's going to go to National Night Out and leave you with this, huh, Lieutenant?

Yes, sir.

All right. Well, let us know about this item, please.

Thank you, Your Honor. So recently the Riverton City Council has appointed several members at large to participate in the pause for the cause committee. During the time of appointment, the City Council had approved for a person from the Police Department and a person from pause to be represented on the committee. Recent discussions about those appointments resulted in the need to clarify a specific member from each of these organizations. With recent discussions with the PAWS Chairman Lonnie Slack, he has requested that Devin Kellerhall be appointed to represent PAWS, and Chief Eric Hurtado has requested Animal Control Officer Shannon Sanderson to be appointed to represent the Riverton Police Department. And so with that, I would be happy to stand for any questions.

OK, thank you. I would entertain a motion to appoint Devin Keller Hall as the pause representative and RPD animal control officer Shannon Sanderson as the Riverton Police Department representative to the pause for the cause committee. Second. Councilman Bailey with the motion Councilman car with the second. Any other discussions? All in favor say aye aye. Any opposed say nay. I vote I motion passes. Consultant Selection, Bicentennial Subdivision Design. Mr. Tolman. Thank you, Your Honor. You were pulling that over. I was going to say Mr. Butterfield. I'm just so used to turning to him. And I saw the mic, and I was like, I can read some body language there. I was going to wave you down, but I thought this would work.

That's fine. Thank you. Go ahead. Thank you. Appreciate it. Your Honor, tonight, the recommendation in front of you tonight is to ask the council to give authorization to begin contract negotiations with Enberg Miller Engineers. They were the highest ranked firm that provided design services for the bicentennial subdivision project. So this, and it's a bicentennial reconstruction project, excuse me. This project was identified as one of the top priority projects by the Fixer Road Citizen Committee to procure an engineering firm. Following a request for qualifications that was issued in May, two engineering firms submitted proposals, a selection committee of community members, force committee members of the Fixer Road Citizen Committee, representatives and city staff evaluated the firms based on qualifications and presentations in brick miller received the highest overall score they received a score of 737 out of 800 points ahead of engineering associates who received 682 out of 800 points so of those based on the statement of qualification Enberg Miller received 457 versus 416 points, and that was the first round. So those were evaluated based on five parameters. The first being the detail and completeness of the submittal and the overall quality of response. The second being the understanding of the proposed project, familiarity with the area, awareness of the construction conditions. And then the third being qualification and performance record of the consulting firm and individuals involved. The fourth parameter being successful completion of similar improvement projects. And the fifth, capability to meet the proposed project schedule. So each one of those items had a score of 20 for a total of 100 points per rater, per individual rater, would give 100 points for just the SOQ process. On the second round, both firms were then submitted a, then gave a presentation. And they had a week's time to prepare a 25 to 40 minute presentation, and then with 20 minutes of questions. So again, EA Engineering Associates scored 266 points, while Engberg Miller scored 280 points. If approved tonight, city staff will negotiate a contract with Enberg Miller Engineers. The design costs will be funded through the Fixer Road Fund. There's an $80,000 budget for this that was put into fiscal year 2027. The 1% fund does have a balance of about $4 million, just over $4 million, and there's about $2.6 million worth of projects committed this year.

Thank you, Your Honor. thank you i'd entertain a motion to give consent to begin contract negotiations with the top rated firm enberg miller engineers for design contract services for the bicentennial subdivision reconstruction project so moved second councilwoman borders with the motion councilman bailey with the second discussion on this your honor i wonder if we could just explain for the public where the

subdivision is.

Perfect. That's a great question. Mr. Tolman, are you ready to tell us that?

Absolutely. Thank you, Your Honor.

Because it's not the bi-semi-centennial subdivision or anything like that.

Very similar. Your Honor, it consists of Independence, Liberty, and Flag Drives. Those are on the intersection of Sunset Drive, so it would be North Sunset Drive, and then, excuse me, North 8th west and then sunset drive west sunset drive in that area is the ups delivery center also the teton therapy and smart start services among other businesses and residents there and it's been pretty deteriorated it's been one we've needed to get some time and effort into been on the list for a long time it has so i'm really glad that we're jumping on it

Amen.

anything else were they also going to look at some drainage issues up there as well your honor councilman carr one of the overriding concerns here is underground drainage in that area some of the sidewalk and curb gutter is sinking in the area there's also undersized water lines and some concerns with the with the sewer line in that area that needs to be updated i think it's a 1958 subdivision if memory serves it's got some years on it so

1958 seems like it would have been 1976 would have been the subdivision if it's bicentennial but okay any other questions or comments thank you for bringing that up councilwoman porters yeah that was good and also uh councilman carr i know when some of the discussion about that area up there that the the the issue in terms of what we're going to do with that area it's commonly been talked about discussed is It's fine to just go and resurface it, but then what are you going to do to make sure we're not going to just resurface it with a surface that's going to be destroyed by water within a couple of years? So I think that's part of the whole point of getting an engineering firm on it to figure out making sure we can make it last.

Your Honor, if I can bring up one thing. I do stand corrected. I'm sorry. That is a 1978 subdivision, obviously. Very bad mistake on my part.

It's not, but I just assumed by the name that it had to have been around 1976 or 1978. Great assumption. Okay. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed say nay. I vote aye. Motion passes. Let's get started. Appreciate your hard work on that, Mr. Toman. Thank you very much. I know that that's a hard thing and especially where you're talking about multiple going back and forth and trying to make sure we're doing it right. So thank you. Internet Service Agreement, Lumen Technologies Group. Am I right that this is you now, Mr. Butterfield?

Yes, Your Honor, that's me.

All right, give us your report, please.

Lumen is the primary service provider for the city's internet service. They have a fixed service that comes into City Hall. It's time to enter into a new three-year agreement with them. There is a little bit of a change with this proposed agreement, whereas in the past it has been a fixed cost based on the maximum capacity of the circuit available. We now have an opportunity to enter into what would be more of a dynamic agreement where we could choose the bandwidth necessary for the services being provided. And we have a strong IT team who know when our peak demand is and when we don't have a peak demand, particularly in the early AM hours. By going with this dynamic model, there's a potential we could save roughly 5,000, maybe 6,000 annually on our internet services. Also proposed in addition to that main line that provides support to City Hall, this agreement also adds in a backup to the airport terminal building. That is important because we could reroute internet and other connectivity to that circuit and that location in the event there's any disruption at City Hall. So staff recommends that we enter into this three-year agreement and take advantage of this more dynamic model and utilize the expertise of our IT team to really determine when we need the bandwidth at its maximum capacity and when we can pull it back and not be charged for the maximum capacity. Thank you, Your Honor.

All right, thank you. I appreciate it. I'd entertain a motion to approve the new 36 month lumen contract for a dynamic circuit with a backup circuit at the airport terminal building. So moved second. Motion by Councilman Carr, second by Councilman Bailey. Discussion regarding this?

Your Honor?

Yes, sir.

This is more of a rhetorical question, but the IT department can actually see when heavy traffic is. They're not guessing.

Your Honor, that's correct. They can see the usage, and then this offers opportunity if we have a severe peak incident, we can ramp up as well. But yes, they have... historical data that helps us make that decision. Smoke.

Mr. Butterfield, my question that I had was this is just going to be how much bandwidth is available. It's not going to be we're not going to have Internet available in those off times. It's just going to be that's when it's going to be throttled, basically. Your Honor, that is correct. Kind of like I have unlimited data, but if I use more than so many gigs of data, then they throttle it and they make it run slower. I still use the data, but it's harder for me to watch my shows. I don't watch any shows.

Those crime dramas you were talking about. Those crime dramas, yes.

Okay, I'm gonna have to tell you guys that story sometime because it's funny and it just made me think of it and it's weird how things come to your mind. It's crazy. Okay, any other discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed say nay. Aye vote aye, motion passes. Next one is a lease agreement, Airport Cafe. This is Mr. Towman again.

Thank you, Your Honor. In front of you tonight is a proposed lease and concession agreement with Mom's Place LLC. It's operated by Libby Lenza. She proposes to reopen the airport cafe at the Central Wyoming Regional Airport. Mom's Place would serve homestyle dinners Tuesday through Saturday from 4 to 9 p.m. Libby, who's a former TSA inspector and very familiar with the airport, is coordinated with Nomad Coffee, who was the previous... leaseholder or lease and concession agreement holder at the airport and the two of them have worked out most of the have worked out everything actually to operate Libby's business which would be a dinner operation and share facilities so they would they've worked through any conflicts on a sharing equipment operating during different and they'll be operating during different hours also just based on the previous lease agreement and this lease agreement The previous lease agreement granted use to multiple items, but not exclusive use. And then it allowed for a business like this to come in that Libby's going to operate. So this lease is also based on a previous agreement with Rise and Shine Cafe. It includes access to the kitchen equipment and the shared facilities when not used by Nomad Coffee. The agreement will generate $1,000 per month in the lease revenue for the city. And the cafe is expected to open the first full week of September.

Exciting.

Anything else? That's it.

All right, I'd entertain a motion to approve a lease and concession agreement with Moms Place LLC, Libby Lenza-Lessie. Say that 10 times fast. So moved. Second. Motion by Councilman Bailey, second by Councilwoman Borders. Discussion on this? How did you get that place filled again? I'm just impressed.

It wasn't me, Your Honor. I can say that much. I think, you know, Bruce, our airport manager, Bruce Ransom, worked really hard with Libby. Libby had been considering this for a while. She finally was able to partner with her mom. And I think actually both of them were considering it for a while. And then when she kind of saw that it was in good order and ready to be moved in, she wanted to pull the trigger. That's all I can say.

That's exciting. Good news. All right. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed say nay. Aye vote aye. Motion passes. I'm glad that's going to work with the current lessee because I know we're not leasing the full space to Nomad and my immediate thought was, wait a minute, what about Nomad? So glad that worked out.

Thank you. Yeah.

All right. Next up, lease agreement airport fuel tanks. Mr. Tolman again.

Thank you, Your Honor. City staff recommends the council approve a new fuel farm and fuel flow lease agreement at Central Wyoming Regional Airport with the new fixed base operator, which is Five Rivers Jet Center, RIW, which is formerly Five Rivers Aviation. and then their new name for the Riverton actual airport. The agreement replaces the existing lease with Intermountain Medical Transport, following the selection of Five Rivers Aviation as a new FBO operator. This lease is similar to the lease with Intermountain Medical Transport, which was renewed earlier this year. It does have a 10-year lease term with one-year renewal options aligning with the other airport leases. It has updated language reflecting the new FBO, and then it does have the fuel flow fee that was increased earlier this year, and it maintains that 12 and a half cent fuel flow fee to the city. So it should if. Budget, considering the budget, it should generate about $50,000, $54,000 annually, and this is based on the current fuel sales. The new FBO operator hopes to increase those sales exponentially, and then revenue obviously could increase with the increase in sales. That's all I have, Your Honor.

Okay. I'd entertain a motion to approve a lease agreement for the fuel farm and Oh, man, you're just all about alliteration today, aren't you? The fuel farm and the fuel flow fee. Did I get it right? Correct. Central Wyoming Regional Airport. Is there a motion? We thought you were still going. I know. So did I. I was waiting. Okay, we have a motion by Councilman Bailey. I'll second. Second. I had heard of Council. Second by Councilman Carr. Okay, I think it's about time for a break here in just a few minutes.

Your Honor. Yes, sir. Ms. Harris brought up a good point. Could we include the name of the lessee in that motion?

Yes, yes. What's the name we're looking for? The 5 Rivers Jet Center RIW. Thank you.

That one.

That was your motion? Yes, sir. And that was your second?

It was my second. Oh, yeah.

Okay, fine.

We'll do your second. I didn't want to say it. I was going to say 5 Waters. Okay. Are we ready to vote on this?

I think so.

All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed say nay. I vote aye. Motion passes. Okay. We have two, well, we have a couple more items, but we're getting close to the end. I think this would be a good time to take a quick break. If for no other reason than just to give my brain an opportunity to reset and start functioning properly. So let's go ahead and take a recess until 8.20. Give us enough time to use the facilities. A regular session at 822 PM. Next item on the agenda discussion of joint powers agreement, Fremont County Association of Governments. Mr Butterfield, I have city administrators report here, but I think it was mainly I was going to do a report on this. Did you have anything to add in particular?

No, Your Honor, I believe you can handle this.

Okay, thank you. Thanks. Your vote of confidence. So we've had a couple of discussions with the Fremont County Association of Governments and a couple of different things coming down the pipeline. First off, we have invited tribal entities, the business councils for both tribes, to join the Fremont County Association of Governments. have had interest from both tribal business councils and actually, as I said earlier, just had a resolution in support of that today that actually was signed yesterday. So that's the first thing that I wanted to discuss. The second thing is, If we're going to do that, it is going to require a modification to the joint powers agreement. We would have to have it specifically include the other entities as members. Basically, the proposal right now from FCAD would be kind of like every other government does. The Eastern Shoshone Business Council, the Northern Arapaho Business Council would both send one representative from their council. That representative would become a voting member, and then we would go forward from there. So wanted to bring that up just to make sure that as we're discussing this, we had had a situation, for example, where Riverton, we had discussed at a past meeting, you know, what does Riverton think about a joint powers board to handle ambulance? And, uh, I think everybody on the council at the time was in favor of that. It made sense, made sense to have that BF CAG. Um, unless and until we find the different joint powers board we'd want to have do that. So when we went into that discussion with FCAG, it was pretty easy for me to say, Riverton's in support of this because we had already had the discussion. Lander and Shoshone hadn't had that discussion. So they said, well, we need to go back to our councils and kind of talk about it and make sure that we're totally on board with that. So before we continue talking about what tribal membership and modifying the joint powers agreement could look like, I wanted to bring it to the council, see if there's any particular thoughts from the council. We have actually a work session that's set for Friday, and this is gonna be one of the agenda items that we're gonna be discussing. Any thoughts about that? From the Council's perspective, your honor.

Yes. The. Tribal business councils as opposed to the tribal. Council. Are they both elected or is the Business Council appointed in the Tribal Council elected? I can't remember.

Yeah, so it's an interesting situation. The tribal council is really what you would consider more of what a true democracy would be, where it's any tribal member can show up to the meeting, and then depending on what the quorum requirements are, they could vote as the tribal council. And then the business council was appointed in, I think it was 1990. specifically by the tribal council and given specific powers in terms of entering into agreements and that kind of thing. So the business council is elected as part of their election process.

So the tribal elections elect business council people and tribal council people?

Tribal council people, it's who shows up. It's more of, like I said, it's rather than a representative democracy, it's more of you go there and you can vote and be heard and that kind of thing, depending on what the quorum requirements are. Okay.

Because I think the optics for especially this three-quarter cent tax issue I think it's a positive optic to have it be elected officials that are on the boards that control these issues because people feel more comfortable than just somebody who gets appointed.

I agree, yeah. And I think that's. That's been the that's been the general. I think people have been concerned about people just being appointed to different boards. And I think that's sometimes where we get sideways, for example, with Wind River Visitors Council and everything, because we're talking about a board that we have two representatives that we appoint from the city council and that kind of thing. So it would be really very similar to what we already have, which is I serve as the member of FCAG. Theoretically, and the county commissioners do this, They send a county commissioner rather than the chair himself or herself. Theoretically, any member of it could serve. I think there's a benefit to it being the chair because then you're kind of, at least in Riverton and in the other communities, you're voted in by a majority of everybody in the community. It's a little bit different from the business council. They actually appoint their chair. no the chair is the highest vote getter is what it is okay so it's kind of like if you think of it almost like the school board where the school board you could have eight people theoretically and then they whoever are the five highest vote getters are the ones that get into the school board kind of like that that's how they do the business council election and the highest vote getter is the one that is the chair so that would probably be a benefit In terms of saying we represent a community, the person that had the most votes or in the case of the communities, the person that was elected at large being the person that represents, there's a benefit to it. Any other thoughts that I should bring back or?

Just real quick, I think it's important that we remember we have a benefit and dollars that are being spent for the entire county. And if we have a segment of that population that's not represented, I think that's a problem on a joint powers board. So yeah, I would be fully in support of all being represented.

Right. And I think realistically, all of the tribal members pay sales tax because they do the majority of their purchasing in you know outside of the reservation there's a little bit that happens on the reservation that's technically sales tax exempt but not not very much so again i think that gives them a better voice in that scenario yeah i think it's good and i think it's it's a way to make sure that as we're going forward

especially with ambulance being something that would fall under FCAG going forward is the hope. We have more opportunities for grants and that kind of thing, especially if we can be saying FCAG has tribal partnership, municipal partnership, county partnership, and especially with what we've had just recently had a... Thank you for being here, by the way. You came in just in time. And where we have just recently had a grant application put in through for FCAG for ambulance service through the rural transformation funds that the state has received through the federal government. And one of the biggest things they're talking about is regionalization. And so discussing what that could look like, I think is important and involving the tribes, the county, everybody in that discussion is essential. And I think this is the perfect time. We want to strike while the iron's hot. This has been I mean, heck, when I when we had talked about you being the tribal liaison, one of the biggest things that I've been wanting to do is have a better relationship with. Both tribes because. That's. Like you said that they're a part of our community. Many of them are citizens of. The city of Riverton, many of them are not citizens of the city of Riverton, but they live right outside Riverton and they come and work. And play and spend money and eat and all of that in town, just the same as anybody else who lives outside of town. And so I think trying to improve that. The 1 thing that I will say that I had realized as I was looking at this, we do need to be aware of is. I do not know how it works for both business councils if there's a requirement that you actually reside in Fremont County, because part of the reservation actually falls outside of Fremont County. But the statute for joint powers boards requires every member of the joint powers board has to be a citizen and a qualified elector in the county. so we would have to make sure that regardless of how their rules work we have to make sure that anyone who is a tribal member who is part of the business council has to be a resident of fremont county as a part of being a member of the joint tribal or the joint powers board any other thoughts okay i haven't been going off on a crazy tangent here wanting to encourage tribal involvement in fcag that's We've got the blessing of the city council. Did I miss something, Mr. Butterfield? We were wanting to talk about something else. What was it?

No, Mr. Chairman, I think you've covered it. The primary was the potential amendment to allow for expanded membership And then, obviously, FCAG will be wrestling with the change with the governance structure for ambulance, and that will also be coming in the future. It may or may not require anything with the joint powers agreement. It could be handled already within the structure, but those were the two primary topics, I believe.

Well, and I would note, we just had something that was, after we had had our meeting in response to the City of Riverton saying, yes, we're very much willing to be a part of a joint powers board to consider and take charge, so to speak, and make sure the ambulance is running. Ambulance services, ground ambulance services are happening like they should be. In response to that, the county commissioners had their own resolution saying, we want to have ambulance fall under a joint powers board. So it's just been ticking into place and that's where things are hopefully gonna be going. Lisa, have I missed anything? Okay. Lisa Mallon is one of our representatives on the RACIC Committee, which has been discussing ambulance concerns and considerations and made a recommendation that they believe the best way to go forward would be to have ambulance fall back under the county, but ultimately a joint powers board would be the best way to do that. Next part of that, because the county has expressed their willingness to do that, Next we have to go forward and say what's that going to look like? So we're going to be bringing some more considerations for the Council. Hopefully the vote for the 3 quarter percent tax goes well. No bones about it. I think that's important. I think it's essential. I would encourage folks to go and vote. OK. Great well, that was my report on that item. We don't have to have a motion or anything on that. It was just. kind of for discussion and trying to get some consensus from the council as to where to go. Next up, interviews for vacant council seat. We have some people who have been sitting here probably past their bedtime. Ryan in particular passed his bedtime. What I guess I would say, so the way we had discussed doing this, number one, We have two applicants for the board to council seat for those who are familiar with state statute and city ordinance. The way that works is if there's a vacancy that's declared within a council. at least the way it works in Riverton, is that we would advertise for folks that are willing to fill that vacancy, and then after an interview process, we would go through and select an individual tonight, and then swear you in tonight, get you to work right away. So we intend to go through the interview process. What I would ask that we could do is interview Chancey, And I'm going to learn it. I will. Just give me a little bit more time. I'll learn it. Wilczewski. That gummit. Wilczewski. So I just ignore the C. That's what? Wilczewski. but that's correct now. Okay, Wilczewski. I just always butcher it, and I feel terrible because it's not a crazy name. I mean... So, Mr. Wilczewski, I think what I would say we would want to do is have you step out if you're willing to while we interview Ms. Preston, and then we'll swap and have Ms. Preston step out while we interview you. After that, we would do a... Executive session discussed just a little bit amongst ourselves and then come out and we'll have a voice vote after a motion and that kind of thing. So appreciate you both being here and willing to step up and certainly excited for whoever it is that we appoint tonight. If you're happy with the way the council is going, great. If you want it to change, great, it's bound to happen. So yeah, Mr. Wilczewski, if you could step out and we'll interview Ms. Preston first. Yes. Sure. Put him in the soundproof room. We're not going to put you in the soundproof room.

Play Jeopardy music while he's waiting.

I like that.

It's really just on your own kind of trust thing. I mean, we're not going to sit there and send the lieutenant out to guard you or anything. So we have four questions. And the idea was we're going to each ask one. And what I guess I would say, we have these written down here. I'll probably just start with the first one. And then if we could, let's go to you for the second one, if that sounds OK. Third and fourth, ask you to keep everything to about 20 minutes. I know that's a little hard to visualize. But we do have the big clock here. you know, expect you to know exactly how long you're going to spend on every question, but try to keep it to about 20 minutes and then we'll come in with the next one and discuss from there. So Mr. Butterfield, did I miss anything?

No, Your Honor. One thing I would notice, if it's okay, if Mr. Batista can just put up a sign on the door so this is still a public meeting and people are welcome, even though the doors are closed, that we want to make sure people feel free to welcome and free to walk in.

So if that's okay, Max. Perfect. Actually, interestingly enough, county commission meetings are required to keep a door open. Somebody mentioned that once. The chief did when he first came in. And... So it was something that I actually had to look up and they actually specifically are supposed to have the doors open. But I don't see anything that we can't have the doors closed, but I certainly do think having a sign out there, making sure people know they can come in. I appreciate that. Good thought. All right. Well, Jerica Preston, right?

Yes.

I'll start with the first question. Then tell us about yourself, including your background, connection to Riverton, and what motivated you to apply for this vacancy?

So I moved here when I was six, so I've lived here most of my life. I have three kids that I'm also raising in this community. For my professional background, I work at the Hampton Inn and Suites. I've been there for six years. I am the assistant general manager and the director of sales there. So my background is a lot of working with the community, working with businesses, doing problem solving with guests, things like that. what drove me to apply was that i have a deep love and care for our community and i wanted to be able to serve it on a more direct level so being able to join this council is one of those things that i felt would be appropriate great thank you all right

In your opinion, what are the two or three most important issues currently facing the city of Riverton and how would you approach addressing them as a council member?

So my biggest thing is probably public safety as we've even heard tonight, but listening to constituents on their ideas and. being able to come together and find ways to better our community in that way. Even just ideas like the cameras in the park and things like that would be a good thing to open up to everybody else. My other thing is responsible economic growth. We have so much potential in our community. That is a lot untapped. I know that we have a lot of things coming into our area and it's exciting and the growth is great. But we do need to make sure that our infrastructure can sustain that and be able to grow in a way that will benefit families and our whole community.

Thank you.

Okay, and I apologize for my coughing. It's smoke related. I did go to the doctor and made sure yesterday, so I'm not spreading COVID or anything. Please describe your involvement in the Riverton community, including volunteer work, civic organizations, professional experience or other ways that you've contributed to making our community a better place.

Absolutely. So with my role at the Hampton, I do work directly with business members around our community, just working either negotiated rates or being able to do sponsorships. We work really closely with a lot of the schools and I love to be able to do all the sports. So that's one of my big things. Balloon Rally is another one. I love being able to support them and being able to do the pilot dinners and things when they come to town and being the host hotel. And then as far as everything else goes, I do sit on the board for Leadership Fremont County. I've sat on that board for two years after finishing that class. So I do a lot of stuff in that aspect. And then I do sit on the Riverton Chamber Board as well. I was appointed that at the beginning of the year.

Thank you.

Of course.

I guess I'm up.

Looks like it.

Well, you're up, but I'll ask the last question. Serving on the city council requires balancing differing viewpoints, making difficult decisions, and acting in the best interests of the community as a whole. Can you share an example of a time when you worked with others who held different opinions to reach a positive outcome? What did you learn from that experience?

So one of the things that sticks out to me the most is sitting on the leadership board. When I joined that board, it was a lot of people that had been there for many, many years and were kind of stuck in their ways. And it was a system that we did the same things every single year. And my biggest approach to all of that was I wanted to switch it up. I wanted to show different parts of the community and take out things that didn't work. I got a lot of pushback from those senior members because they wanted things to stay the same. So a lot of that was presenting my ideas in a way that wasn't necessarily taking away from what the organization had already done, but just trying to make it better. So I had to approach it in a way where I came with solutions, not just saying, here's a problem, we need to fix it.

All right. Anything else you want to tell us about yourself that you think would be helpful as we're making this decision?

I think I've kind of covered everything. Like I said, I absolutely love this community and I love the boards that I sit on. And I think this would be a great next step for me to be able to work directly with everybody. So thank you for your time.

Thank you very much. I was going to say Ms. Little.

Ms. Preston.

I was actually a little confused as to who you were when we got the letter because, and then I was like, oh, that makes sense now. All right, do you mind sending it? Oh, Max, you can grab them.

Thank you.

All right, Mr. Wilczewski. Did I get it right? Yeah. It might be the first time. You can always correct me. So we have a couple of questions for you. I'd ask you to keep the answers to about 20 minutes. We have four questions. So if you can try to just consider limiting to about five minutes for each question to the answer to the question. I'd be surprised if you would take five minutes speaking about each of these. just as a guideline. I'm gonna start with the first one and then Councilwoman Borders will do the second and third and fourth, asking the same questions of both of you, just to try to be fair and just would encourage you to answer honestly. So first, tell us about yourself, including your background, your connection to Riverton, and what motivated you to apply for the city council vacancy.

Sure. So I was born and raised in Riverton. My grandparents moved here. And my... Father attended high school here. My maternal grandparents have been members of the county community for a long time. My mother and her siblings attended school in Shoshone, so I grew up in the city and the county respectively. Aside from a brief stint traveling for work, I lived here my whole life. Moved back around 2019 and Got a job here, got married, raising kids, got another one on the way end of September. And I've done a good amount of blue collar work and now I am the project engineer and quality manager at Legacy Molding. So I spend my days helping to manage and grow a large economic force here in Riverton. do a lot of group decision making and direction creating uh there so i my time looking at data making data-driven decisions and attempting to create a enjoyable environment for albeit a smaller community than a whole city after buying a home and starting to attend a few council meetings that was the utility rate increase discussion in 2024, I believe. Started attending the council meetings, 2025, sorry. And that really started to foster this idea that municipal government is just a scaled up version of what I spend my days enjoying and doing so well, in my opinion. So I feel that I'm quite qualified to take a picture at the scope of things where a city is concerned and try to make those data driven decisions on a larger scale as a member of a city council. As hopefully some of you are aware, I am running unopposed for Councilman Borders' seat this upcoming election cycle. So I've been planning and committing to that since that council meeting last year and hoping to move forward one way or the other. Okay, thank you.

All right. In your opinion, two or three most important issues currently facing the city of Riverton. and how would you approach addressing them as a council member?

So I think one of the biggest things that Riverton needs to weigh and consider is the economic stability here. I perceive Riverton as being on the tail end of the volatility of being an oil boom. and I think that we have the ability should we identify and harness it to become an economic power in the state if we as a city facilitate and encourage that. So as a council member, I would focus on operating the city as a successful business and enabling other businesses privately owned and publicly owned to operate here on a grander scale to create stability and a future for the citizens.

Thank you.

Secondly, I think there's a vocal minority that touts public safety as a concern. I think as opposed to the country at large, Wyoming and Riverton is a safe place to live. But I think having a city who pays attention to and assists in all of its citizens being comfortable and safe is very important. I don't inherently have any specific ideas regarding facilitating public safety, but working hand-in-hand with our police department and facilitating the ability to create safety is one of the most important things we can do, I think.

Thank you. OK, chancy. I apologize for the coughing. I'm not ill, I'm just dealing with the smoke from the fires. I went got checked yesterday to make sure so. Please describe your involvement in the Riverton community, including volunteer work, civic organizations, professional experience and other ways that you've contributed into making our community a better place.

I'll admit that I haven't had much in the way of civic involvement since high school. I was a member of Key Club International and participated in those events quite regularly during schooling. Since moving back to town, it's been kind of slow going, but I do sit on the pause for the cause committee. I chair the pause for the cause committee. I am a member of the Wind River Muzzleloaders Association. uh and i volunteer for primarily our large memorial day event every year again it usually all comes back to numbers and data recently i've been volunteering for scoring and records keeping at the club i have attempted to start a couple car related organizations an owner of classic vehicles any of you at the National Night Out might have seen my new project sitting on a trailer next to the fire hall. It's a 1965 Cadillac hearse, so I'm trying to get that up and going. Been very busy, especially with the kid on the way, but I would like to be more involved with a wider breadth of the community members and facilitating in those community events.

Okay, thank you.

Number four and final question. Sure. Serving on the City Council requires balancing different viewpoints, making difficult decisions, and acting in the best interest of the community as a whole. Can you share an example of a time when you were held differing opinions to reach a positive outcome? What did you learn from that experience?

Absolutely. I'll harken back to my day job. So we make decisions by committee there and typically the managers of the different departments, they all hold differing viewpoints from their departmental views. And making sure that every discussion is proactive and moving forward despite those differing views is something I take great joy in. so balancing the needs of different people representing different groups is something i find great joy in and i typically find myself more capable of perceiving viewpoints other than my own than some of my co-workers i think it's something that i'm a very empathetic person by nature and i think that considering those viewpoints is easy and enjoyable for me and typically I think that a decision that I'm involved in leaves everyone feeling a bit better when the decision is made.

Thank you. All right. I guess the final question, and I'll ask this because I also asked it of Ms. Preston, and I didn't specifically include it, but I should have. Is there anything to add that we haven't asked that you would like to let us know about yourself?

No. I think some of you have gotten to know me over the last couple of years of council meetings, so maybe not personally. But I think that I would bring a new and differing viewpoint to the city council that I believe, especially the constituents of my ward, would like represented. Hi. I'll try to share and believe that I am a member of the working class. I've got a family. I just want what's best for mine and my own, and I would like the opportunity to expand mine and mine own to the whole city.

All right. Thank you, Chancey, Mr. Wilczewski, and appreciate you coming in. I would entertain a motion to enter into Executive session for the purposes of personnel in accordance with Wyoming State Statute 16-4405-A2 and 16-405-A10. So moved.

Second.

Motion by Councilman Carr, second by Councilwoman Borders. Any discussion? All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed say nay. I vote aye. We are in executive session at 8.55 PM. Motion by Councilman Carr, second by Councilwoman Borders. Any other discussion? All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed say nay. Motion passes. We are now reconvened at 9.15 p.m. I would entertain a motion for appointment of one of these two fine individuals for the vacancy in Ward 2.

Your Honor, I move that we appoint Jerrica Preston as the Ward 2 representative.

Second. Motion by Councilwoman Borders. Second by Councilman Bailey. Any discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. I vote, any opposed say nay. I vote aye. Motion passes. You're in. So now you need to come up here and we need to swear you in. So that's our very next item. Do you have anything to add before we go through this, Mr. Butterfield?

No, Your Honor. For the swearing in, that can be you or the clerk that does that.

Well, who do you want to have do it? Because it's really up to you, Jerica.

Listen, I've heard your banter all day. I feel like you should just...

If you've been to any meetings, you know that that's just the regular order of business. Okay. Right hand. And after I say aye, you're going to say your name. I'm not going to say your name. Do I overcomplicate this when I say that? OK. Because somehow it always gets messed up. So say aye, and then say your name, and then just repeat after me. So aye.

Aye, Chair Preston.

Do solemnly swear or affirm.

Do solemnly swear or affirm.

That I will support, obey, and defend.

That I will support, obey, and defend.

The Constitution of the United States.

The Constitution of the United States.

And the Constitution of the state of Wyoming.

and the Constitution of the State of Wyoming.

That I have not knowingly violated.

That I have not knowingly violated. Any law. Any law.

Related to my appointment.

Related to my appointment.

Nor caused it to be done by others.

Nor caused it to be done by others.

That I will discharge the duties.

That I will discharge the duties. Of my office. Of my office. With fidelity. With fidelity. Welcome aboard. Thank you.

All right. I'm going to sign here. Can you go first? Yeah, well, I don't think it doesn't really matter.

I mean, you're faster than me.

I just sign things a million times a day.

That's fair.

All right. OK. Looks good. When you're in, that means you're up. Yeah. Give your kids a hug.

We'll have her home by midnight.

No guarantees. Got to do the work. Okay.

Well, our very next order of business is I'd entertain a motion to convene into executive session. For the purpose of litigation, considering litigation to which our governing body is, it may be a body in accordance with Wyoming Statute 16-4405-A3. So moved. Motion by Councilman Carr, second by Councilwoman Borders. Any discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed, say nay. Did you vote aye?

Say aye.

Okay, good.

It was quiet.

I was listening. I vote aye. We stand convened in an executive session at 9.19 p.m. Chair would invite Mr. Butterfield to attend this with us. Do we have any other staff members who need to attend? Thank you. For those interested, I don't think we're... And to reconvene into regular session.

So moved.

Second. I have a motion by Councilwoman Borders, second by Councilman Bailey. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed say nay. I vote aye. We are reconvened in regular session at 9.34 PM. I'd entertain a motion to adjourn. So moved.

Second.

Moved by Councilman Carr, second by Councilwoman Borders. Any discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed say nay. I vote aye. We are adjourned at 9.34 p.m.