City Council - Regular Meeting

All right, it is 5.30 p.m., and I'll go ahead and open this meeting of the Torrington City Council. This is Tuesday, June 16, 2026. Good evening and welcome to all. We have here this evening Mr. Ryan Kay from KGOS and KERM Radio. This council meeting is being broadcast live on both radio stations. It's also live on YouTube and will be up permanently on YouTube. So welcome to the press. Our first order of business this evening is the Pledge of Allegiance, and I've asked Councilman Rick Warren to lead us. I pledge allegiance 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. Our next item on the agenda are the mayor's informational items. First day of summer is officially June 21st, but school is out and summer fun and activities are well underway. The pool is open to all, young and old, and everyone in between. The Torrington Sharks swim team hosted their regional swim meet last Saturday and the Jordan Park area was full with contestants and their friends and their families. City parks, ball fields and the golf course are open. The city walking path is open and there are upcoming summer concerts and street dances. I like to regularly remind the public and even myself and council and staff that the mayor and council are charged by law to protect and promote the health, safety, welfare and morals of the city of Torrington, the citizens of Torrington and the visitors to our city. That's what we do up here. Mayor and council both oversee and budget for all the things that provides or all the things the city provides that allow us to live a civilized life. The city government provides clean water, a safe and sanitary sewer system, regular and efficient trash collection and disposal, efficient and regular electric power, a storm sewer system, excellent police protection, excellent fire protection, excellent emergency medical services, summer mosquito abatement, safe and passable streets and alleyways, and yes, many and varied recreational venues and opportunities. Yes, that is what the mayor, council, and staff do. We manage this big machine with a lot of moving parts, all with our legal duty in mind to protect and promote the health, safety, welfare, and morals of city residents and visitors. Please be safe. Please enjoy your summer. It is just a little after 5.30 p.m., so there's still time to make it to this wonderful event that is scheduled tonight at 7 p.m. Tonight is this year's Youth Theater Workshop performance of We the People. This is a children's performance sponsored by Goshen Community Theater and EWC Community Education. Again, it is tonight at 7 p.m. at the EWC Auditorium at the top of the hill. The performance is in celebration of the 250th anniversary of the United States. It is free to the community and lasts about 45 minutes. During the workshop, children ages 8 to 14 have learned about the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the three branches of government. The children also learned about music, movement, teamwork, and fun. Many thanks to Goshen County Community Theater, EWC Community Education, and the parents and children participating. What a wonderful way for our community to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the best country on earth, the United States of America. As we've discussed, summer is upon us. Please enjoy the very active time of year. Please be safe. Please slow down. Watch out for pedestrians, motorcycles, electric bicycles, and electric scooters, and even the old-fashioned bicycles. And please don't drink and drive. Thank you. All right. Our next item on the agenda is the approval of the consent agenda, which includes the minutes from the June 2nd, 26th council meeting as published.

Mr. Mayor, I would move to approve the consent agenda as well as the council meeting minutes.

All right. I have a motion from Councilman Deal to approve the consent agenda, including the June 2nd, 26th council meeting minutes. Do I have a second?

Second.

Second. Councilman Kelly. Any further discussion? Hearing none, I'll call for a vote. All those in favor of approval of the consent agenda as presented, including the June 2nd, 26th council meeting minutes, signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed, signify by saying nay. Hearing no nays, the consent agenda is approved, as are the council meeting minutes. Next item on the agenda is the approval of the agenda itself.

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

I have a motion from Councilman Victron to approve the agenda as presented. Do I have a second? Second. Second, Councilman Warren. Do we have any further discussion? Hearing none, I'll call for a vote. All those in favor of approval of the agenda as presented, signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed, signify by saying nay. Hearing no nays, the agenda is approved. Next item on our agenda, we don't have any takers this evening, and I know that because there's not a forum in that black box in front of Councilman Warren. But I'd like to explain this. This section of our agenda is for non-agenda items. There is a time limit of two minutes, and the speaker must sign up before the meeting. This is a time for council to listen. No action will be taken. So in the future, if one wants to do that, that's free for them to do. Our first item on the agenda is an information item. uh... the letter submitted to be read for the record and i am the reference for that so i will undertake to do that I have two items I'm going to read and then I will respond and then I will allow council to respond if they want to. The first is our form entitled Request for Placement on Agenda. This was submitted by Jim Allen of 1001 East 18th Avenue, Torrington, Wyoming. E-mail Jim's Plumbing. He says under agenda matter slash item requested for discussion, it says city employees living outside of Torrington, TPD officers use of city vehicles for long commutes from their homes. Detailed explanation of matters. Item for discussion, why can't council members live outside of the city but city employees can? Where is the evidence proving that the officers living many miles outside of the city is justified? How is the city clerk employed when she lives in Nebraska? And then this note, read the letter. And I do have the letter, and I will read it. It reads as follows. Jim Allen, 1001 East 18th Avenue, Torrington, Wyoming, June 1, 2026, addressed to the Honorable Mayor Doby, PO Box 250, Torrington, Wyoming, 82240. Dear sir, I respectfully request this letter and the city council members' answers be recorded verbatim in the permanent public record. The city of Torrington allows Torrington police officers to commute to their homes with city vehicles. At present, two of these officers commute every workday conservatively 13 miles each way for a total of 26 miles each day. What is the recorded numbers times in the last seven years have these officers been called to duty on a true emergency basis? In other words, light and siren that would justify this expense to the citizens of Torrington. Does the city have records that justify this expense? And who would a person contact for these records? Why does city of Torrington have a double standard where city employees are permitted to live outside of the city limits and out of state? If I lived in Nebraska, could I serve on the city council? Again, why the double standard? How can city employees live out of state and out of city limits? The Mike and Becky situation was many years ago, and this city policy was promised to be eliminated in 2022. City of Torrington employees need to be told that the doors open and they close. Sincerely, Jim Allen. All right, that's what Mr. Allen requested happen at this meeting this evening, so I plan to respond. The way I read Mr. Allen's submissions, there are three categories that I'm going to deal with tonight. One category is take-home patrol cars assigned to each police officer, residence requirements for mayor and city council, and I'll cite the statute that does require that. Residents require resident requirements for city staff and employees and I will discuss that. I'm not going to dress Mike and Becky. I don't know for sure what Mr Allen is talking about with that, so I'm not going to address that and I don't know anything about anything that was to be eliminated in 2022. Because I don't know anything about that and I'm not going to address items I don't know about. So first, I'm going to address the take-home vehicle policy of the Torrington Police Department. To the best of my information, this started in 2019. And Chief Johnson, our current chief of police, started in 2020. The Torrington Police Department utilizes a one-to-one vehicle operations plan where each employee who requires a vehicle for their position is assigned a vehicle and is permitted to take that vehicle home in accordance with agency guidelines. The agency currently maintains a fleet of 18 vehicles that are assigned as follows. Two CSO vehicles for animal control and code enforcement, one detective vehicle, two admin vehicles, one for the chief, one for the assistant chief, two SRO vehicles, SRO is school resource officer, and 11 patrol vehicles for sergeants and officers assigned to patrol. In 2025, our agency averaged approximately 6,500 miles per vehicle. The benefits of this program are as follows. Emergency response. Members of our agency are able to respond to assist with emergencies in our community in a timely manner and with all their equipment ready to go. This is a significant advantage, especially in a small community. We do not formally track emergency response requests by off-duty members of our agency, but we recall four incidents since June of 2020 where this has been a significant benefit. Schedule and flexibility and adaptability. As a small agency, we frequently have to adjust our staffing for illness, vacation, court appearances, or a variety of other reasons. Because each of our officers has his own vehicle, they are able to respond and assist on short notice and for short periods of time without making additional preparations for vehicles or equipment. Minimizes the impact to officers and costs for shift preparation. Our current one-to-one operations plan allows officers to get dressed at home and be prepared for duty as soon as they get in their vehicle. If we required them to come to the station, gather their gear, prepare a vehicle, and then go in service, they would need to be paid for the time it takes to accomplish those tasks. This would require us to either modify our current 12-hour schedule, which is very efficient, or pay overtime for officers who are preparing for shift. Increased law enforcement presence and visibility. Our current one-to-one operations plan increases the visibility of police vehicles throughout our community. This serves as a deterrent to criminal behavior. Recruitment and retention. Police officers commonly identify having a quote take-home unquote vehicle as one of the benefits that attracts them to work for an agency and encourages them to stay. It is recognized as a significant convenience that helps to mitigate some of the inconveniences of being a police officer. And this is the equivalent of having your own office to work in every day. While it would be impossible to quantify the exact impact of this policy for our agency, our overall recruitment and retention efforts have been extremely successful. We are fully staffed with no turnover for just under 3.5 years. So fully staffed with no turnover for 3.5 years. This is very uncommon for agencies across the state and the nation. And I want to say a little bit about that. If we hire a police officer and train him for a year or two, and then he leaves for another agency, the state patrol or the sheriff's office or some other police agency, the city loses hundreds of thousands of dollars. It takes that much to train officers, and when you lose them, that is money down the drain. So retention is very important. It saves the city of Torrington hundreds of thousands of dollars by having that good of a retention rate for police officers. Vehicle condition and costs of maintenance. Vehicles that are assigned to one person for use and maintenance are better treated and better maintained. Our officers are invested in and accountable for keeping their vehicles in good condition and working with the city shop to keep them maintained. This extends the lifespan of our vehicles and lowers our maintenance cost per vehicle. That's the reason for the one vehicle, one officer policy that's been in place in Torrington since 2019. Now I want to address the other issues raised by Mr. Allen. I have to be a resident of the city of Torrington to file to run for mayor and to serve as mayor. So do these gentlemen to my left and my right. That is a requirement of state statute. I'll read the statute or part of the statute. It is in Title 22-23-301 entitled Municipal Officers. All candidates for a municipal office shall be nominated at the municipal primary election. In order to be eligible, a candidate must be a registered voter and a resident of the municipality. So by law, each of us up here has to be a resident of the municipality. That's why that is the way it is, because of state statute. And I look at this and the annotations, it looks like that's been a statute since at least 1973, which is over 50 years. That's why we have to be residents of the city because by law we have to be. I want to talk about employees. I am an attorney, I have researched it myself. Mr. Eddington, our city attorney, is obviously an attorney. He has researched it. There is no law, there is no constitutional provision, there is no city ordinance that requires city staff or city employees to be residents of the city of Torrington. That does not exist. A couple of things about that. We do not have any remote employees. Every member of the staff and every employee of the city comes to work daily, works a full day and many work more than a full day without being paid. They get paid for 40 hours, but they don't get paid for the extra. We have good staff, good employees. I constantly brag about my staff when I'm out in the community. This job would be terribly hard if I didn't have good staff. As I stated earlier, this is a big machine with a lot of moving parts. I grew up in this town. I worked for the city in 1977 and 78. And I will tell you, it really was in those days kept together with bailing wire and duct tape. We didn't have the EPA. We didn't have the DEQ. We didn't have OSHA. We have all that now. We had a garbage dump down by the river in those days. Things have changed. We have almost chemists that work in the water department and keep the water safe. They're constantly monitored by DEQ and EPA. We have a landfill that's constantly monitored by DEQ and EPA. There are a lot of technical jobs in this city and certainly in the summertime with our summer help we have well over a hundred employees. And what we do is what I said in my mayor's informational items. We provide water, sewer, electric, police, fire, venues for recreation, all these sorts of things. And it's darn busy here in the summer. I'll tell you that. OK, so regarding living out of state, we live eight miles from the Nebraska border. We have an employee that lives in Nebraska. She's one of the best employees we have. She's here early, stays late, does a heck of a job for the city of Torrington. I think that if we had a policy where we restricted employees to having to be residents of the city of Torrington, I think it would take about two minutes before we got sued. I will take everybody back into history. Remember the Articles of Confederation when the country was first formed? The founding fathers thought it was not working. And the reason it wasn't working is the federal government had almost zero power, and all the states would put tariffs up against each other. And they wouldn't allow commerce to occur between the states. And they said we can't do that. And when they established the Constitution in 1788, one of the major clauses in the Constitution, and you've all heard of it, is the Interstate Commerce Clause. You can't restrict commerce at the border. It's unconstitutional to do it. And having employees would certainly fit into a category of commerce. So that's why we allow people to live outside the city and work for the city, because there's no law against it. and I would so slim down our pool of applicants, I don't even want to think about that. A lot of our employees live here, work here too. There is no law that requires you to be a citizen, resident of Torrington to work for the city of Torrington. We wouldn't have a city attorney if, that were the law because no attorneys live in town. I'm the only attorney that lives in town. The rest of them live out in the county. Alyssa Coulson lives over here on a temporary basis because she's working on her house out by Table Mountain. We wouldn't have a city judge, not an attorney judge, if we had that requirement. There is not, as I said, there's no attorneys that live in Torrington. They all live out in the county. So that would so hinder the operation of the city government, it would be impossible to really run it if we were restricted to only hiring people that lived within the city. Again, I said I don't know what Mr. Allen is talking about when he mentions Mike and Becky. I don't know, and I'm not going to speculate and guess on it. I don't know what he's talking about when he says this would be, whatever this is, would be addressed in the year 2022. I did not become mayor until January of 2023, and Councilman Victor and Councilman Deal came on with me in January of 23. Councilman Warren came on in 25, and I'm not sure when Mr. Kelly came on. A long time before that. So I don't know what happened in 2022. I don't know what he's talking about. So Mr. Allen wanted this put on the public record. He got what he requested. I said what I'm going to say about this on the police vehicles and, you know, a requirement that mayor and council have to be city residents and that we don't, there's no law. not allowing us to hire employees and staff that live outside the city. But with that, I'd give any councilman an opportunity to respond if they so wish.

Mr. Mayor, I think you've stated things very well. I'm not an attorney myself. I just have a master's degree in English literature, and I believe I know how to read language. I, too, researched state statutes, city ordinances, and everything I could find and found nothing that would suggest that what he is talking about holds any validity.

Thank you, Councilman Deal. Councilman Victor.

Mr. Mayor, I just want to keep my comments about the allegation that there's a double standard for city employees permitted to live out of the city limits and the council and mayor have to live in town. We are the people's elected representative, and we are representative of the electors of the city of Torrington. Those are the folks that elect the governing body here. As such, the employees and the officers and the appointees report to the mayor. The mayor reports obviously to the people as well as the council reports to the people. That's how our system of government works. We represent the electorate that elects us to the council or to the office of the mayor. So I don't believe there is a double standard in any way. Like I said, the council is the people's representative. The mayor is as well. And the city employees work for us, in essence, and we work for the people. That's how our system of government is designed. So just my comment there that I don't believe there is a double standard in this situation.

I appreciate that. Councilman Kelly?

All right. Can't say it any better than you guys did.

Okay. All right. Well, I appreciate it, and I think we've read the letter, we've read the request for placement on the agenda, and we've answered as Mr. Allen requested. So we will move on in the agenda to... Action items. First action item is public hearing. City of Torrington and Torrington Rotary Club are submitting a TAP grant. That stands for Transportation Alternatives Program. Grant request to the state of Wyoming for proposed improvements to the grassroots trail from Jordan Park to Torrington High School. The project includes trail widening and ADA-compliant curb, ramp, and crossing upgrades, along with approximately 3,500 feet of pathway public input is encouraged. So we are leaving regular session and going into public hearing. So this is now open for public hearing on the proposed TAP grant request. And since we're open for public hearing, I would call on Dennis Estes, our Buildings and Grounds Superintendent.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. What you have in front of you is the TAP grant picture of our walking path. Part of the grant request, we have to have an open public hearing for public comment and send those comments in as part of the grant. So that's what we're doing here, and we're asking people to voice their opinions for or against. We're looking for any opinions, and we'll note them. So I'll just stand for any questions.

All right, just note that last council meeting on the 2nd, I'm trying to think who we had. We had Bob Taylor and Dr. Pieper.

And Mr. Taylor is here representing Rotary, if you'd like to speak with him.

And I might point out, Mr. Estes, that it's the gray section going across there.

Correct. It's starting right here at West C Street and, of course, goes all the way through town. But we're stopping at East C Street, C as in cat. So that's the oldest part. They're going to widen the path to eight foot, which needs it. So a lot of ADA upgrades.

And we talked a lot about this last week. I think that was first put in in the early 70s. Early 70s, correct. So over 50 years ago. Correct. And there's some sections of that sidewalk that look 50-some years old.

They are 50 years old, yeah. and the city maintain them and we'll continue to maintain them.

So including mowing the grass, right? Correct.

Mowing sprinklers, all that.

Uh, Dennis, I think it's worthy to inform the public that this phase, and maybe Bob wants to, um, come, come talk about this, but this phase of this grant is the planning phase, correct?

Correct. This is the planning phase. They're asking for a $110,000 planning grant that's part of the system. So we've been accepted into it to do this. So once we put this grant in, if we're approved, we'll do the planning. Once the plan's done and they hire a consultant to get everything ready, they'll then go to the third phase, which is the actual construction grant. They'll have to apply for that as well.

And I'm getting a nod of affirmation from Mr. Taylor back there.

And these are federal dollars distributed to the State Department of Transportation?

Through YDOT, correct. Yep. And this is their system we're following. So we have to do the pre-application, what we've already done. We got approved for this portion. So now we have to have this in by the end of June. Hopefully we receive it. And then if we receive it, we'll go through all that process and then hopefully hire a contractor on the third portion if we're accepted.

And I think it was mentioned at the last meeting that the walking path in Guernsey and the walking path in LaGrange have both utilized this grant process to improve their walking paths.

Correct. As part of this, they have a Rotary member that did both of those projects for another firm, and he's successful in those, and he understands how this all works.

That's the other gentleman who was here last week, Colby Romig. Colby Romig, yes, sir. All right. I will. We are down with that brief introduction. And again, we talked about this a lot last council meeting. Anybody that was here or listening heard a lot last council meeting about this topic. As I say, we are open for public hearing. Are there any public comments for requesting the TAP grant? And if you'll just come up and state your name for the record, then just speak your piece.

My name is David Marquis. And I think this grant is a great thing. I use that trail a lot. The one question I get to have for them and for you guys, when I was here last week, I like to walk in the evenings towards dark a lot. And I've noticed there's no light on that path in a lot of the sections you're walking through. It gets light. It's going to go down. It's pitch black. They'll provision the upgrade for lighting it all on the path.

Mr. Estes will come up and answer your question, Mr. Marcus.

Mayor, that is one aspect that we are looking at. We'd like to light that as well. Some low-level lighting that wouldn't interfere with the neighborhood, but if that can be part of the grant, we're going to try to make it part of the grant because it does need lit in certain areas for sure.

All right. Appreciate your comment and question, and appreciate your answer, Mr. Estes. All right, any other public comments for our applying for this TAP grant? Okay, any public comments against our applying for this TAP grant? Don't see any. All right. I will go ahead and close the public hearing related to the proposed TAP grant. And we will have it for the record for the submission of the grant. Thank you, Mr. Estes and Mr. Marquez. All right. And Mr. Taylor. Thank you. All right. So we are in public hearing. We are on item number two. So I'm opening the public hearing for item number two. This is a public hearing related to the 2027 fiscal year budget. And with that, I would first call on Clerk Treasurer Lynette Strecker.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. Well, it's finally here, the time for the budget to be approved. I did hand out tonight a set of budget highlights for fiscal year 27. Just to kind of quickly go over those, I don't know if my voice will hold out or not, but So the budget had its share of challenges this year. Inflation, property tax cuts, construction and equipment costs continue to increase. And we are seeing some supply chain issues, especially in the electrical field. Worried about the state of the local economy this year due to drought and the effect on the farmers and ranchers.

Can you elaborate on that? Sales tax revenues may go down.

Right. This may impact sales tax revenues. So I did project those down just slightly, but I will keep a really good eye on them throughout the budget year. And if we need to make adjustments to the budget, we will. So our goals this year and for most years is to maintain reserve levels at 90 days of annual operating expense and to maintain a qualified and strong workforce. So those are the two main goals of the budget. So if you look at the total budget, our total budget decreased by 20.4%. That's $10.8 million in fiscal year 27 compared to 26. A decrease in capital construction projects is the primary reason for the reduction. The city is finishing up two multimillion dollar projects here in July, East D Street improvements and the wastewater pretreatment plant. The operating budget did increase 1.6 million or 6.32% compared to fiscal year 26. This increase is up from last year, attributable to inflation and wholesale power costs. Mean Municipal Energy Agency of Nebraska energy costs increased 7% and the mean fixed costs decreased 1.8% in April of 2026. This resulted in an increase of total wholesale power costs of $151,000 for fiscal year 27. The vehicle and equipment budget increased by $736,000 in fiscal year 27. Some major equipment purchases this year include a street sweeper, forklift, a digger truck, a digger derrick truck, a fairway mower, police SUV, and an ambulance. Capital projects decreased by 12.95 million from 26.8 million last year to 13.8 million in fiscal year 27. A few of the major capital projects in fiscal year 27 include going to be replacing a generator at the water treatment plant, which is about 1.4 million. A $4.4 million water line replacement project will begin, expecting to cost $2.2 million in fiscal year 27 and another $2.2 million in fiscal year 28. Sewer lining projects of $1 million. Remaining portion of East E Street we still have about a month or so left, which is about $1.6 million. The remaining portion of the project for the airport FBO building for $1.3 million. And the general fund total budget decreased by 321,000, or 3%, compared to fiscal year 26. Operating costs increased by 572,000, and capital improvements decreased by 1.2 million. A few of the capital improvements in the general fund include a new cooling tower here at the Lincoln complex, golf course parking lot improvements, which is partially funded by a grant, upgrade to the Pioneer Park irrigation system, and 11th Avenue street improvements. Water, sewer, and sanitation rates were reviewed during the budget session. Sanitation and sewer rates are sustaining cash reserve levels at the annual 3% inflationary factor, while water rates seem to be lagging slightly. All rates will be reviewed again in the fall of 2026. At that time, revenue projections will be analyzed and adjustments will be made to the rates as required by ordinance. A full cost of service study for the electric fund is expected to be completed in fiscal year 27, which will evaluate current and future operations of the electric fund. This study will analyze and separate in-town and out-of-town costs of service, as well as combine winter and summer rates. Personnel costs increased by $505,000, or 4.69%, due to 2.5% COLA. Merit increases expected in January for full and part-time employees. Also, there was an increase in the base seasonal wage of $2 an hour. And Wyoming retirement did increase their contribution as well, which does affect the labor rates. Health insurance is expected to increase about 6.01% in fiscal year 27. There's projected high claims year up 10% this year. And then this will be re-evaluated in December when the plan renews. And any other changes will possibly come from employee contributions and health plan change. design changes. The total cash balances for all funds, so our ending cash balance at the end of the fiscal year, so June 30, 2027, is projected to be $10.8 million. Funds falling short of their target cash reserve balances will be the airport, the golf fund, the swimming pool fund, the ambulance fund, and the cemetery fund. An estimated $4.4 million was taken from cash carryover to balance the budget. In fiscal year 27, we had really a lot of capital spending in the budget. And this year, it is down $13.8 million. But it's still a significant amount. We're making improvements. This year, 68.5% of the $13.8 million will be funded with grants or low interest loans. This means that the city will spend $4.3 million and receive $13.8 million worth of improvements. City staff are always looking for ways to either save money or to find funding to help with increasing costs. This year, Chief Matt Johnson worked with Senator Steinmetz to pass legislation to help the 911 funding shortfall. for the state. Because of his efforts, grant funding is now available to help close the gap in this shortfall. The direct distribution from the state of Wyoming is up slightly this year, mainly due to new calculation method, which increases the local government share of sales tax by 8%. Sales tax revenue is budgeted to decline slightly, as I said. because of the projected effect of the local economy. But I will monitor this and report back to the mayor and council throughout the year to make sure we stay on top of those revenues. Another issue that we are facing is succession planning. It's going to be imperative this year. And in the next five years, we are expected to have numerous retirements. So I did plan for some of those impacts in some of those departments. While budget preparation presents new hurdles every year, and forecasting every impact is impossible, the city remains in excellent financial health, in my opinion. We have highly skilled workforce and a healthy reserve balance, and we are prepared to handle future challenges. I'd be glad to answer any questions you may have before we start the public hearing.

Questions for Mrs. Stricker?

Thank you. I just want everybody to know, I don't remember when we first started this budget process this year. It seemed like it was February. So we've had numerous council work sessions, public meetings regarding the budget, worked our way through it, and we are finally here. At the end, the fiscal year starts on July 1. That's what we do. Our fiscal year runs from July 1 to June 30 of each year. And so in a couple of weeks, we will be starting FY fiscal year 27.

Right. And the full 61-page document of the budget is available online. Or you can come into the office and get a copy.

All right. Thank you, Mrs. Strecker. I don't think council has any questions for you. and understandable and I appreciate that. We are still in open public hearing. Are there any public comments for the budget? Seeing none, are there any public comments against the budget? Seeing none, I appreciate it, Mrs. Strecker. And I appreciate all the work you put in and all the work staff put in to put this thing together. And I appreciate all the work council did in the budget work sessions. So with that, I will go ahead and close the public hearing in item number two. And we will return to regular session. And then we are on page two, which is item number three. All right, item number three, ordinance on third reading, 2027 fiscal year budget. And Mr. Eddington, would you please read that ordinance by title?

It's an ordinance providing for the appropriation of money by the city of Torrington, Wyoming, to meet its general fund requirements and obligations, to meet its enterprise fund requirements and obligations, for the 2027 fiscal year commencing July 1, 2026, and fixing the sum to be raised by taxation.

All right. Thank you, Mr. Eddington. You've already said a lot, Mrs. Strecker. Do you have anything more on this ordinance? Just to let the listening public know, our ordinances have to undergo three. Item number three, ordinance on third reading, 2027 fiscal year budget. I'd entertain a motion.

Mr. Mayor, I would make a motion to accept the 2027 fiscal year budget as presented.

All right, I have a motion from Councilman Deal, item number three, to accept and approve the ordinance on third reading relating to the 2027 fiscal year budget. Do I have a second? Second. Second from Councilman Victorin. Any further discussion? Seeing none, I'll call for a vote. Item number three, all those in favor of approving this ordinance on third reading relating to the 2027 fiscal year budget, signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed, signify by saying nay. Hearing no nays, the ordinance is approved on third reading. And thank you, Mrs. Strecker. Thank you, staff. Thank you, council. All right, we are now on item number four, special event permit. Tiffany Leslie with the Bronco Bar is requesting a special event permit for a street dance to be held on July 11, 2026 from 5 PM to 2 AM. Applicant is requesting approval to close the public street on Main Street between 19th Avenue and 20th Avenue as specified on the map submitted with the permit application. And just as a little before I call on Pat Conley, the Assistant Chief of Police, at staff meeting this morning i appreciated it and was told uh miss leslie that you paid the 40 application p you paid the 200 special events fee and you agreed to pay 676 dollars that would cover a police cost of 456 dollars uh barricade cost of 140 dollars and trash uh disposal and pickup uh delivery disposal and pickup for a $80. So I appreciate that. Thank you.

And Mr or assistant chief Connelly.

Thank you, mayor. This event happens every year and we're supporters of it. It's, we've had very few problems. It gets the people, a lot of people into our downtown area. Um, we will have two officers dedicated to being there the entire time.

In addition patrol officers will be in and out as they are available as other calls allow And I'll answer any questions you might have And I understand I don't know how many years Bronco bars had this but it's been several certainly and I don't recall any major problems whatsoever I know The band sits on 20th, and I think it aims the speakers south. So the sound goes toward the south and out into nowhere rather than back in on the town. And I don't think we've had any noise complaints or anything like that. I don't recall any open container complaints or minors under the age complaints or anything like that. I think it's a well-run event.

Yes. In the 14 years that I've been here, this has happened every year. Under previous ownership, we did have a few problems here and there. But since Ms. Leslie has taken it over, there's been no problems at all.

OK. And Ms. Leslie, you don't know how much we appreciate a good bar operator. Well, thank you. Did you have anything that you wanted to add?

No, sir. Like I said, it's the same thing every year. Same setup, same people there. They banned us last year.

Well, we'll give you some free advertisement. What's the name of the band?

Dead Man's Trigger. They're a local band right out of Goshen County.

All right. So if you want to hear that, July 11th, Street Dance, right? Yes, sir. Okay. Gentlemen, do you have any questions for Assistant Chief Connolly or for Ms. Leslie? And again, Ms. Leslie, I do appreciate all the payment you've made to cover our costs on this. That's greatly appreciated by myself and I'm sure council too. So thank you. All right. If there aren't any further questions for Assistant Chief Connolly or Ms. Leslie, I would entertain a motion regarding the special event permit in item number four.

Mr. Mayor, I would move to approve the special event permit as presented.

I have a motion for item number four by Councilman Victron to approve the special event permit as presented. Do I have a second? Second. Second from Councilman Warren. Any further discussion? Hearing none, I'll call for a vote. All those in favor in item number four of approving the special event permit as presented, signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed, signify by saying nay. Hearing no nays, that special event permit is approved. Thank you, Ms. Leslie. Next item on the agenda is item five letter of support for the 9 1 1 grant application. And, uh, chief chief, uh, Johnson is out on a long scheduled vacation. So we do have assistant chief of police, Pat Connolly here. Did you have anything on that? Mr. Connolly?

No, just to let you know that, uh, our dispatch operates at a shortfall every year. Um, I don't have the numbers in front of me to say what that is. But Chief Johnson has worked very long and hard with Senator Steinmetz in order to get this grant to be a possibility. And we're just asking for a letter of support so that we can regain some of the money that we've lost on our dispatch center.

I appreciate that, Assistant Chief. And I want to say something. Matt Johnson is very articulate, and he can teach. And he prepared documentation to go to Senator Steinmetz and to explain how local dispatch services work and who's responsible for paying for them and how much they cost. And I don't remember the exact number, but it's well over $500,000, approaching $600,000, for this city to run that 911 dispatch center 24-7, staffing it with qualified folks so that Whatever the emergency may be, somebody's going to respond. And we can't live life in this modern world without that. People are so used to calling 911 in an emergency and getting prompt response. It dispatches police. It dispatches the ambulance. It dispatches the fire department. It controls things during a fire. All of those sorts of things. And in this discussion, the legislature did pass this bill, which allows for some funding for municipalities to apply for grants. And part of the discussion that went on, Senator Steinmetz is on the Corporations Committee in the Senate. So Chief Johnson took this, educated her about it. She liked it, went to the Corporations Committee, worked the way through that legislative system down there, and got it passed. I know some other members of the Corporations Committee and other members of the legislature looked at it like this. Why are we putting all the burden for dispatch on the local entity, the municipality in this case? Torrington is responsible for it.

all of it without this grant.

And the argument was you have interstate truck traffic through here. You have tourists passing through here. We are on a major artery with 85 for Deadwood and all the people that travel from Denver and back to the Black Hills in the summer. I know there's several motorcycle wrecks that EMS responds to and law enforcement responds to each summer out there. And why in the world do we stick all that with the local entities? So I think that was sort of a philosophical premise or a basis for the legislature to pass this. And I think it's a wonderful thing. I've provided the letter that was drafted by Chief Johnson to send to the 911 funding gap grant work group. I think it states what it needs to state. We are going to ask for 200,000. Don't know if we'll get it, but we might as well ask. So what I'm looking for here is a motion to approve the letter of support for the 911 grant application and approve my signing of it. And Councilman, if you have any questions or comments.

I would have some comments, but I would first move to approve the letter of support for the 9-1-1 grant application and further approve of your signing.

All right. Item number five, I have a motion from Councilman Victorin to approve the letter of support for the 9-1-1 grant application and approve my signing of the letter. Do I have a second?

Second.

I think it was Councilman Deal. Pretty close. I got a second from Councilman Deal. OK, we're in discussion time. Did you want to comment?

Yes, Mr. Mayor, thank you. I just wanted to state for the public's knowledge that, uh, like you mentioned, Mr. Mayor, we dispatch this, this Torrington's dispatch center dispatches for numerous agencies in the County, um, fire department, uh, fire protection districts. Um, uh, the sheriff's department, obviously those are the big, big, big ones. Um, we do some assisting with, uh, I believe the highway patrol. Um, we, uh, uh, take care of some assistance to the fort, um, the different, uh, entities, uh, other ambulances that operate in the County. Um, and the, the main revenue source, Mr. Mayor and the council knows are 911 fees that are attached to, um, users of mobile phone services. And, uh, We project that to be about 120,000 in the FIS in this fiscal year revenue revenue. Yes. Revenue for the, for the dispatch center, about 120,000. It costs us, like you said, Mr. Mayor, about five or $600,000. So the citizens of Torrington and the, and the, uh... property owners of torrington through the general funder picking up the rest of them of the tab and i don't believe there was a huge appetite in the legislature to raise nine one one fees on phone users uh... so this this is a workaround if you will to for the state government to assist the local governments in what i would consider one of the basic uh... services that a local government can provide its people and it's transients is dispatching of emergency personnel. And so fully support the letter in submission of the grant. It's not going to cure our shortfall, but it will make a significant difference than our current position, our current shortfall is painting for us. Just that for the public's knowledge, $120,000 of revenue to run a $500,000 or $600,000 department or a dispatch center.

Thank you, Councilman Victor. I agree that $200,000 will go a long way to help us out. So I appreciate the legislature and Chief Johnson and Senator Steinmetz working on that and getting it passed.

Mr. Mayor, I might point out, too, that if you look at your phone bill, I believe it's $75 or 75 cents a month that you pay for 911 services, which is less than $12 a year. And so we're getting a lot for it. And in chatting with Chief Johnson... Could have applied for the entire $400,000, but as the funds, I believe, are $2.85 million for the entire state, he decided that it would be more appropriate that we would just ask for a portion of that. That's why it's $200,000 instead of the total shortfall.

a lot to spread around over the whole state of Wyoming. Because again, everywhere in this state, it's the locals paying for the 911 dispatch services. And now with this grant program, we're going to have some help from the state government on that. All right. I have a motion and a second. We are in discussion. Any further discussion?

Well, this grant is just a one time.

Well, we don't know off in the future whether they'll continue to fund that, but for now it's a one-time thing, and we'll hope for the best and that the legislature continues it. Or ups it. We'll see. All right. Any further discussion? Hearing none, we are on item number five. I have a motion and a second. All those in favor of the letter of support for 9-1-1 grant application and approve my signing of it, signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed, signify by saying nay. Hearing no nays, the letter of support for 9-1-1 grant application is approved and I will indeed sign it. Thank you. We are now on item number six, resolution number 2026-8, amend the 2026 fiscal year budget. And Mr. Eddington, would you please read that resolution by title?

City of Torrington City Council meeting June 16, 2026, resolution number 2026-8. Whereas the general fund received unanticipated revenue and whereas certain budgets had expenditures in excess of the budget amount, whereas Wyoming state statute prohibits any officer or employee of a municipality to make any expenditure or encumbrance in excess of the total appropriation for any department. Therefore be it resolved that fiscal year 2026 budget of the city of Torrington be amended as follows. Grand total budget adjustment of $371,359.06.

All right. Thank you, Mr. Eddington. And with that, I would call on Clerk Treasurer Lynette Strecker.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. Since this is the last official meeting of the fiscal year, we are required to make the final adjustments to the budget for fiscal year 26. I just wanted to explain a few things and then open it up for questions. So I did adjust the budget in the middle of the year so that we could purchase a new boiler for the swimming pool. After this was approved, We did apply for some funding through BH Black Hills energy and received grant money for this So part of this adjustment is reversing The adjustment from earlier this year So that we could put it back where it needs to be and then adjust for the grant so I wanted to explain that and you'll see that anything that says reversal means that was is reversing from earlier this year. Another thing I'd like to mention is at the very bottom, The ambulance, it says Community Health Care Foundation Grant. That is a mistake. We purchased one of these cots for the ambulance out of revenue in excess in his budget this year. So we didn't have to carry it over to next year. He did apply to the Health Care Foundation, but that'll actually take place next year in fiscal year 27. So I just need to change that description on there to say caught, taken from revenue on that resolution. Other than that, I'd like to open it up for any questions you may have on these adjustments.

I think this is a good spot to thank Black Hills Energy again. Yes. For their very generous grant to replace the 20-some-year-old swimming pool heater that didn't work so well last summer. And so far, so good. It's working well. So appreciative of Black Hills Energy for that grant.

The wholesale power is simply just a timing issue, right, because of their pass-on cost to us?

Well, yeah, it's a few things. You try to project what the usage is going to be throughout the year. This has been an unusually warmer climate this year than in the past. So I think air conditioners have turned on early. So I think we're using more power early. And it looks like we're going to be a little bit short in the budget. But yeah, it's a combination of things like that.

I'm not hearing any questions, Mr. Mayor. I make a motion to approve resolution number 2026-8.

All right. I have item number six, a motion from Councilman Deal to approve resolution number 2026-8 related to amending the 2026 fiscal year budget. Do I have a second? Second. Second from Councilman Victorin. Any further discussion, gentlemen? Hearing none, I'll call for a vote. Item number six, all those in favor of approving resolution number 2026-8 relating to the amendment of the 2026 fiscal year budget, signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed, signify by saying nay. Hearing no nays, resolution number 2026-8 is approved. We are now on item number seven, policy handbook amendments, and that is amendments of existing policies, and they're listed there, A through E, compensatory time slash overtime, military leave, jury duty leave, personal postage and telephone calls, and compensation and performance evaluation. And with that little bit of explanation, I would, and I expect to hear from Councilman Deal, he is the chairman of the wage committee where this comes from, but I would at first call on Mrs. Strecker, our clerk treasurer.

Thank you, Mayor and Council.

And I hope your voice holds up.

Yes. Bad time for a cold. So we discussed comp time and overtime policy. There were a few changes with the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that kind of sparked some discussion in the way it treats overtime and how there is for the halftime and overtime is time and a half. It is tax deductible on your income taxes now. And so there's a different reporting for that. And also in discussing comp time, It seems like more and more departments are asking to raise the limit of comp time. So the committee discussed it at great length and decided to recommend increasing the limit from 40 hours to 80 hours to accommodate different schedules throughout the city that need to accumulate more than 40. And this policy was also discussed about Cashing out of comp time and the problems it causes payroll and cash flow and we discussed Eliminating the ability to cash out comp time other than if you are separated from employment So those are the changes to that one The military leave policy, we just changed some old language in there, which would make it very difficult for the staff to administer the policy. You can see there the lined out items. Jury leave policy, there's also some language in there that was very difficult to administer. So basically, THE LANGUAGE REFERRING TO THE HOURS SCHEDULED IN A WORKING DAY OR DEFINED. PERSONAL POSTAGE AND TELEPHONE CALLS POLICY. A LOT HAS CHANGED WITH TECHNOLOGY AND CELL PHONES AND WE NEEDED TO UPDATE THIS POLICY. SO WE SPLIT IT OUT INTO TWO DIFFERENT POLICIES. So we amended for personal postage and telephone calls. And then we added a new policy, which we'll talk about in the next agenda item for cellular phone use policy. So that's basically what we did there. And then compensation and performance evaluation policy. The wage committee discussed changes to the policy regarding new employee placement on the wage scale. The new employee policy outlines special circumstances which allow for more flexibility when recruiting for competitive positions. So there's also a change on page six regarding returning seasonal employees, raising their increase when they return each year from $0.25 a year to $0.50. An hour? Yeah, an hour every year. To $0.50, right? Yes. So that's just a brief synopsis of those changes. We did go over those in our budget work session. But I'd be glad to answer any further questions you may have.

And then Councilman Deal, if you have any comments on it.

Just the one other thing on the change in the compensatory time and cashing it out. The reason that was changed to no longer allow the cash out in regular circumstances was due to the bookkeeping nightmare because you would have to go back over all of their employment once one big beautiful bill act happened. and look at any hours that were overtime hours and deduct those out because those would be non-taxable and it would just be a bookkeeping nightmare.

Yes, it would be.

I am so pleased with this wage committee. As I said, councilman deal chairs it. Um, we have good employees on there, smart employees, articulate employees, employees who are loyal to the city, um, who really discuss these things, uh, in depth, uh, help draft them. to present to council. And I just appreciate the great work of the wage committee and the chairmanship of Councilman Deal on that committee.

If there's nothing further, Mr. Mayor, I would move to approve the policy handbook amendments as referenced in items 7A through E of our agenda.

All right. I have a motion from Councilman Victorin in item number seven to approve the policy handbook amendments as set forth in items A through E. Do I have a second? Second from Councilman Victorin. Policy handbook new policies. And that is item A, B, C, and D under item 8, electronic and digital signatures, concealed carry of firearms in Lincoln Complex, cellular phone use, and safety evaluation and coordination for City of Torrington staff and facilities. With that brief introduction, I would call again on Clerk Treasurer Strecker.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. The committee was very busy this year. We discussed four new policies. The first one is electronic signature policy. Again, with the day and age, this is becoming more and more common, and we felt like we needed a clear definition of when it's acceptable to use electronic signature. And so we present this new policy to you in regards to that. Another one is concealed carry and firearms in the Lincoln Center. This was discussed To correspond to the two statutes of the Wyoming law So it's a new policy created to set the guidelines related to lawful carry of firearms in the Lincoln Center. I Don't know if you want to add anything to that mayor or or Wayne or I

I would just say this. As most people know that are in tune with the Second Amendment and the law relating to it, the legislature passed effective July 1 of 2025, they amended the statutes to allow municipalities to Well, two things. To require municipalities to allow concealed carry everywhere in this building, including a council meeting, with the exclusion of two places that concealed carry isn't allowed. It is not allowed when this city court is in session, and it's not allowed behind the glass of the police department unless that is... approved and allowed by whoever was in charge at the time back there. So, one gets to carry concealed in this. I like the language that we used in paragraph number one, statement of our policy. City of Torrington staff members and members of the public are welcomed to carry a concealed firearm in accordance with Wyoming state statute while working in or visiting any part of the Lincoln complex with the following exceptions. And those exceptions are not in the police department without permission, not in municipal court when it's in session, and not in any portion of the Lincoln complex that is rented by a private entity. I'll just make up a dumb hypothetical. If you had somebody that was very anti-gun in Torrington and they had a meeting in the Conestoga room and they didn't want and they paid for the use of the room and they didn't want anybody carrying in there, then they could say no to you. That isn't going to happen, but that's just a hypothetical about that, if we ever had that happen. Now, I'm not afraid of this issue. The legislature gave local authorities the right to prohibit open carry. It does, and so this is according to the state statute. There's concern that if you had open carry, that's not very well defined. By Wyoming law, carrying a shotgun over your shoulder or a slung AR-15 could be viewed as open carry or the person doing it could argue it's open carry. So that is not allowed. You are perfectly welcome to, if you're within the state law, to come in here with a concealed carry weapon. Okay? You can do that.

But we don't allow open carry.

So that's what the policy does. We had a work session on this very issue on September 9th of 2025. And I remember that work session. And we discussed, should we or should we not have an ordinance outlawing, so to speak, open carry. And council concluded that we should not. We should have a policy. So, for instance, if somebody were to be carrying openly in either a meeting here or, you know, paying their bill or strutting up and down the hall or whatever, and they would be made aware that that's a violation of policy, they would be asked to go out to their car and leave their weapon out there or cover it up, okay? conceal it. You're allowed to conceal, but not open. And then if they wouldn't do that or refuse to do that, then potentially they could be cited with trespass. So it's not, we didn't want to make an ordinance making it illegal. We wanted to have a policy that says what it says. It's very plain and clear and it's within the Wyoming state statute regarding this. The legislature was careful about things, I think. I don't think you can carry concealed or open in a bar where you can't. Leslie agrees. So the legislature thought, that's probably not a good idea to mix alcohol and firearms. My dad taught me that when I was two. Not to mix alcohol and firearms. So I'll say one more thing about this. When I went to WAM, Wyoming Association of Municipalities, there was a panel of seven or eight legislators, and one question was asked of all the legislators, what is your philosophy on what should be handled at the state level through the legislature and the governor and so on, and what should be left to local control? And the consistent answer that I heard that I agree with is if it has to do with a fundamental constitutional right that's applicable statewide, like the Second Amendment right is, or free speech, then that's a subject for the legislature. They make the law on that. Other things are left to local control. That's kind of how they looked at it. And it's nothing in this world is black and white or darn few things in this world are black and white. So there's gray about should that be state control or should that be local control? And here the legislature decided to give the local municipalities the right to not allow open carry in their buildings. All right. Yeah. Councilman Deal or anybody else got any comments? Okay. And again, we talked about this on September 9th of 25 in a work session. And this is, we came up with this. The wage committee worked on it and it's, I think it's a well-written policy and we'll come to a point where council will be asked to approve it. So thanks you for letting me interrupt you. Yes.

Thank you. You explain it much better than I do. OK. So the next policy is the cellular phone use policy, which I mentioned earlier. Cellular phones are now pretty much part of our daily lives. And in fact, we use them for work and even to sign in for security into our programs. So we decided that we worked with Tom Bozeman, the IT director. develop this policy to take care of all of the cell phone issues for both city-owned phones and personal phones and what is allowed and not allowed so the next one is safety evaluation and coordination and coordination for the city of Torrington staff and facilities. There seemed to be some confusion with the safety plan and the safety coordinator and who does what. And so we decided to make a policy just generally to talk about baseline process for the coordination and evaluation of safety functions for the city. And hopefully this allows the coordinator to have audit control over some safety issues. But those are our new policies. And Mr. Chairman Deal, you're bad to add on.

You explained it well. You know, safety evaluation was kind of vague, and so this clears it up and makes it clear that department heads are responsible for safety, and the safety coordinator then working with department heads can take care of safety situations and cleans up a lot of the language there.

clear delegation of responsibility and process.

Right. So there's a clear line of order in which that will be taken care of. Yeah.

I wonder if we could go back to the electronic and digital signatures policy.

Sure.

Just have a question or two. Does the policy stipulate that only authorized signers are allowed to use this method of signing? I think it does. Item two there under the statement of the policy talks about authorization. It talks about authority granted to that those individuals by the council. So I was curious of who those individuals might be. I can obviously think of the treasurer.

And it also says up to the level of the signature authority. And of course, in many cases for audit purposes and keeping track of things, two signatures are frequently required.

I think it kind of leaves it open so that we don't know.

Right.

Who has to sign. Yeah.

But it does stipulate that authorization must be given. Right.

By the city council.

Well, even the mayor directly. Right. Item 4. Item 4.

The mayor is technically the official signer for all contracts of the city of Torrington. He signs the majority of the official contracts.

And there's some, not many, that I use electronic signature. Usually it's the Y-dot contracts. The rest of them I sign with a good old-fashioned blue pen. Now, I don't know what the future holds, but...

That's all I had.

And there are some internal things that department had signed to approve, like payments, or invoices, or purchase orders, or We can now use electronic signature. And also our customers, when they sign a contract with the city for utility service, we'd like them to be able to sign digitally. A lot of them live out of town, and it's really hard for them to sign and scan or fax. It'd be nice if they could just go online and do a digital signature. and move forward with turning on their utilities. So that is also allows for that as well.

And of course, Councilman Victor and anything that is signed for by the department heads or any of those purchases, we then as the council see those on the bills and can question them at that time.

Correct.

And some of these things you try to foresee and then you get thrown a curve or a knuckleball, right, in the future and then we can always amend it if we need to.

Policies are living documents. They change.

Unlike the U.S. Constitution, policies are living documents. Well, I appreciate that explanation, Treasurer Strecker and Councilman Deal, and I appreciate the questions, gentlemen.

Hearing no further questions, Mr. Mayor, I would make a motion to approve policy handbook new policies as referenced in agenda item number eight, items A through D. All right.

In item eight, I have a motion from Councilman Deal to approve the policy handbook new policies as outlined in items A through D. Do I have a second?

Second.

Second from Councilman Kelly. Any further discussion? Hearing none, I'll call for a vote. All those in favor of approving the policy handbook new policies outlined in items A through D in item 8, signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed, signify by saying nay. Hearing no nays, those new handbook policies are approved. We are now on item number 9, approval of the bills from... June 3rd, 26, through June 16, 26. And I would call on Clerk Treasurer Stroker.

Thank you. Attach to your agenda. We're a list of bills. I also handed out an additional set tonight. I'd be glad to answer any questions on those bills.

Mr. Mayor, not hearing any questions about the bills, I would make a motion to approve them as presented.

All right. We are in item number nine. I have a motion from Councilman Kelly to approve the bills as presented. Do I have a second? Second. Second from Councilman Deal. Any further discussion, gentlemen? Hearing none, item number nine, all those in favor of approval of the bills as presented, signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed, signify by saying nay. Hearing no nays, those bills are approved. All right, we are in public comment, and I know Chief's back there hiding behind Mr. Eddington. Chief Jeff Schick, could you give us a report? It's easy to hide behind him.

Good evening, Mayor, Council. Pretty mellow over at the firehouse. Seven calls so far for the month, four city calls, three rural, and two mutual aid calls over to Lingle. I see that probably being a common occurrence within the county as far as mutual aid calls and needing resources and manpower. We have four active grants out, one of them being a federal grant. The SAFER and AFG grant, which is a regional with the rest of the departments in the county, which is roughly around a million dollars, that would relieve some of the financial burden for the city and rural as far as bunker gear and air packs and such equipment like that. Lastly, state fireman convention this week. We have five members going over to Wheatland starting tomorrow and ending Saturday. Those members are Albert Lira, Cody Scott, Mike Lira, Brandon Gasling, and Justin Byers. And I would stand for any questions from you gentlemen.

When you say a regional grant, is that like countywide?

Yeah, so all the other departments, fire departments within the county, Yoder, LaGrange, Hawk Springs, Lingle, Fort Laramie.

When would you know about the success of that grant?

It'll probably be later this year. The deadline is the 22nd of June. It'll probably take a little while. But as we all know, air packs and bunker gear are expensive. An air pack runs a little over $10,000, and bunker gears are just shy of $4,000.

Have we applied for this before, Mr. Grant?

I think it's been a little while, yes. It's been a few years for us. It has been successful in the past for other departments.

Well, you don't have to go too far to the fire tournament, right?

No, Wheatland. They always represent Torrington well, so I don't see any other change in that. I'm sure they'll bring back some trophies, and they always represent Torrington well.

Well, I appreciate the report, Chief. I appreciate you and the Assistant Chief and all the members of the Torrington Voluntary Fire Department and the Rural Department. I don't know what we'd do without your voluntary service, so thank you.

Thank you, sir.

All right, we are in item number 10, public comment. Does anybody have a public comment? Yes. Assistant Chief Conley.

Mayor and gentlemen of the council, I would just like to take the opportunity, typically Chief Johnson handles this, but he's not here, to give a special thank you and a special recognition to Clerk Treasurer Lynette Strecker for the monumental amount of work that she does on the budget every year. It's a huge task. She puts in an insane amount of hours and work that most people don't see, but we do, and we'd like to give her a special thank you for that. Typically, we have flowers, but I believe they were delivered earlier, so she got her flowers earlier today, but thank you very much, Lynette. We appreciate it.

Yes.

We're not making you cry on purpose, but thank you so much. You are so... No, but it takes a leader on that budget. And you lead well and guide us through it. And we greatly appreciate it. So thank you. Darn, we didn't get to see the flowers. You got them delivered early this year. Beautiful. Good. All right. Any further public comment? Gentlemen, do you have any comments? No. All right. No takers for that. Mr. Mayor, just one thing.

Reminder, the next summer concert is tomorrow night.

Okay. That's right. Tomorrow is Wednesday. So it is, I think, on East Day and 21st. Yeah. Okay.

Mr. Mayor, I would make this one announcement. We won't meet, our next meeting won't be until after the nation's semi-quincentennial. So a happy Independence Day to everyone of the city and Goshen County.

Appreciate that. Thank you for that. 250 years, best country on earth by far. So celebrate it with God. Did you have a public comment? Could you come up so we can actually hear you? And Jellybean, if you'd just give your name for the record so we know. I know you, but others may not.

Chaplain Jill Brian, Jilly Bean. I've been here just a couple of weeks, but I thought the city ought to know what's happening on May 28. The gentleman from Cheyenne invited me to move back home. International Conference of Police Chaplains and for the Wyoming Law Enforcement Chaplains Association We held a meeting in Casper. But there's a lot of rumors going on, Mayor Adobe. No, I'm not going to start a restaurant. And no, I'm not going to be the pastor of the Nazarene Church. He will be holding services. But as you know, little rumor mills go on and they think we're going to be doing something. We're waiting for the water to work, so I really won't be moving into that parsonage until it's livable. So as you see, a lot of things happening. The fence has been destroyed. We're going to try to beautify that little building behind the church. And then also the basement is going to be remodeled for our public safety officers. So most people don't know that when many of them come from different places around the state, they take naps in their cars and they need to catch up on their paperwork and whatnot. So the basement will be available to our public safety officers, deputies and police. And then I'm back as a chaplain and as a youth specialist for the Federal Association of Christian Counselors and Therapists. If anybody has anybody they need help with, a youth type, we do life coaching and we're glad to be back home. So, and if you wanted to hear Jilly Bean's voice, I guess that's what it is. But it's good to be back in Goshen County.

I just want to make sure that you're okay being called Jilly. That's how I am.

Yes, I am. I've done this for 45 years. And people can go on the chaplainjillbryan.org website and started in 1982. And when I came out here to serve under Billy Janes and As I told Matt Johnson, I've survived three chiefs, and I was headed east, so I've been gone about eight to ten years helping the East Coast and Florida and Rockford, Illinois, and they're a mess, but that's okay. They're fine. They're fine, if you know what fine means. But yeah, it's good to be back home in Torrington. And we still have our mobile chaplain trailer that we go and help around places in emergencies as we deploy to help our public safety officers. Good to be home. Welcome back.

Appreciate you. And just so everybody's clear, you're talking about the Nazarene Church, that white church on Main and 28th. Yes. And then the parsonage, as you called it, is right east of that.

East of that. There will be church services, but not by me. Pastor Ed Davis is the pastor of the Nazarene Church in Cheyenne. And since that has been sitting empty for five years, he said, we'd like you to come home. And so he will be doing services. And then he has other plans to help out our community and to just make it welcoming and inviting for our community. But yeah, so it's good to be home.

Well, welcome back. Thank you. All right. Any other public comment? Seeing none, we have completed this evening's agenda, so this meeting is adjourned.

Thank you, folks.