City Council - Regular Meeting

So I will go ahead and call this meeting of the Torrington City Council to order. This is Tuesday, July 26, or Tuesday, July 7, 2026. Councilman Rick Warren is excused. That's four of us up here. That equals a quorum. So we have a quorum to go ahead and have the meeting. Good evening and welcome to everybody. We have here, as usual, KGOS-KERM radio. Mr. Ryan Kaith, and this is being broadcast live on the local radio stations, KGOS-KERM, and also is up on YouTube and stays up on YouTube. We also have here from the Torrington Telegram, Ms. Brenna Ralston, and welcome to the press. Our first order of business is the Pledge of Allegiance, and I've asked Councilman Shane Victorin 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.

Next item on the agenda are the mayor's informational items. We are almost through our summer season, almost halfway through our summer season. Let me correct myself. Full-time city employees and summer seasonal employees have been very busy with their summer work. Parks, ball fields, the very busy pickleball court, the golf course, the municipal swimming pool, and the summer construction and maintenance projects like the big water, sewer, storm sewer, street, curb, sidewalk, and gutter project on East D Street. Many have enjoyed the Go Goshen Summer Concert Series held near the courthouse on 21st Avenue and East A Street. Two very successful concerts were held this year. We now have the upcoming annual Main Street Dance sponsored by Tiffany Leslie and the Bronco Bar, and that's upcoming this Saturday downtown on Main Street. Please take special note that the Tuesday, August 4th, 2026, again, the first meeting in August, the Tuesday, August 4th, 2026, City Council meeting will not be held here. It will be held at the Jordan Park Picnic Shelter, as is a tradition, and in conjunction with the Torrington Police Department's annual celebration of National Night Out. So, first meeting in August, August 4th, is over at Jordan Park in the Picnic Shelter. In summer, this is a very busy city and a very busy community. Concerts, charity fun events, reunions, swimming, golf, baseball, softball, and just relaxing in one of the city's several parks. All these different venues, activities, and events make for a better community life together and make Torrington a nice place to live, work, and play. Please continue to enjoy the summer season. As always, please drive safely. Watch out for pedestrians, motorcycles, bicycles, and scooters. Please slow down, and please do not drink and drive. And also, please don't use your cell phones while driving. Next item on our agenda is approval of the consent agenda, which includes the minutes from the June 16, 26 council meeting as published.

Move to approve.

I have a motion from Councilman Kelly to approve the consent agenda. Do I have a second? Second. Second from Councilman Deal. Any further discussion, gentlemen? Hearing none, I'll call for a vote. All those in favor of approval of the consent agenda, signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed, signify by saying nay. Hearing no nays, the consent agenda is approved. Next item on the agenda is the approval of the agenda itself.

Mr. Mayor, I would move to approve the agenda with the addition of personnel under Executive Session Item 9.

All right. I have a motion from Councilman Victorin to approve the agenda as presented with the addition of a personnel matter under Item 9, Executive Session. Do I have a second?

Second.

Second, Councilman Kelly. Any further discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor of approval of this amended agenda to include personnel issue under item nine, signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed, signify by saying nay. Hearing no nays, the amended agenda is approved. Next item on our agenda is the public forum. I would see a forum filled out and put in that black box over there if anybody had signed up for this. I always like to take time to explain it though. This is on our regular council agenda. This is a time for non-agenda items. There is a time limit of two minutes and a speaker must sign up before the meeting. This is a time for the council to listen. No action will be taken. So if you're listening to this on the radio or you're present in the session here, that's available to you if you want to take advantage of it. All right. Our first item is an information item, purchase of pool passes for children. And I'll give a little bit of an introduction, and then I'll invite Shea Bates and his fellow Shriners up here. And DFS, I think, can come up. Just for a little background, and I don't want to steal your thunder, Shay, I got a call from Shay. He said the Shriners had some money that they wanted to use for a good cause here in Torrington. And we discussed it, and we came up with the idea of buying individual pool passes. They're $3 a piece, and the ladies at the front office can print individual pool passes. And it's my understanding that the Shriners purchased $400 worth of those. And if I did my math correctly, that's about 133 passes, which is a good number of passes to give to kids who may not otherwise be able to take advantage of the swimming pool this year. And I understand that... Shay Bates gave the passes over to DFS and we have Rhett Breedlove here as a representative DFS who can sure figure out who the kids are in need and who they are and distribute those passes. This council always tries to keep the pool Admission rate as low as we can because so many kids take advantage of it and we certainly don't want to price anybody out of the market to go swimming. That swimming pool's been here for I think 50, over 50 years since 1971. And it's a very big deal in the summer. It's used from I think five in the morning till nine at night. And it's well used by adults and children and all that. If you gentlemen want to come up, I would sure invite you to come up, Shay. And you can introduce yourself and your fellow Shriners. And Mr. Breedlove can introduce himself as a representative of Department of Family Services.

Thank you, Mayor Doby. My name is Shay Bates. On behalf of the Torrington Shrine Club, we have Dick Yates. We have Travis DeWitt. And we have Evan Brooks, and from DFS, we have Rhett Bridlove. I'm sure everybody has a lot of things to go over, and so I'll keep this very brief. The Shrine would like to thank the City Council, Mayor Doby, and the people of Torrington for allowing us to come up and speak. Shriners have always been devoted to helping the nation's most vulnerable assets, which is our children, through Shriners International, Shriners Hospital, and locally with the Torrington Shrine Club. We'd like, as Shriners, for everyone to remember that if your children or our community's children ever, if misfortune ever befalls them, to keep us in mind, we have the ability to pay for transportation to medical facilities, as well as arranged stays at the Shriners International Hospital. Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor Doby. Again, I'm here on behalf of the Department of Family Services. Again, my name is Ratpreet Love. The only thing I would like to add to what Mr. Bates just said is that the department is incredibly appreciative of this idea and those passes, because Lord knows we have so many young children, adolescents, and families that will highly benefit from this this summer. It definitely gives them more to look forward to, gives them more It's just something very, very positive that we'd certainly appreciate, and our clients definitely appreciate. Thank you.

We appreciate it, gentlemen. And Shay, I told you, and I let counsel know, we're happy to come down. If someone will take a photo, we'll pose ourselves for a photo.

That would be wonderful. Thank you. That be all right? Thank you, ma'am.

Somebody needs to lead the posing. You want us to face it that way or this way?

So you want us to stand right here? Take charge, Miss Bruno.

One more council member on this side so it's a little even.

Is he related to Rick Breedlove? Yeah, he's his son. That's right. That's your brother. Thank you, guys. all right we are now into action items on our evening's agenda the first one is a special event permit brent mullock with sunrise church is requesting a special event permit for a sunrise church breakfast and worship service to be held on august 16 26 from 7 a.m to 2 p.m at pioneer park the applicant is requesting that the special event Permit fee be waived. And I see Pastor Mullock back there. First of all, I'll call on Chief Johnson and he can give us some background and then you're welcome to come up and add to anything you want, Pastor. So Chief Johnson.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. This is very similar to the event that Sunrise Church hosted last year successfully. Just a couple of minor changes. The first being that the focus will be for a breakfast rather than a lunch service, and I believe that was to accommodate a little more amicable circumstances related to the heat. That'll move the starting time for setup to 7 a.m., breakfast service will be at 8 a.m., and then the service will begin at 9 a.m. I think there's pretty limited impact regarding that related to the park. It's not a highly populated area. The only folks who potentially could be disturbed would be the campers, and we're not doing that until a time of day when that's acceptable. There will be some sound amplification equipment there, but it's going to be mainly acoustic in nature, and we're not anticipating that that's going to be anything that will be startling for the folks involved. They do plan to have a bounce house or water feature at the park. That will be down by the South Fire Hall. Pastor Brent has completed the indemnification agreement that we do for those types of facilities. That's been signed and notarized by him and ready to be signed by Mayor Doby and Ms. Strecker as soon as or assuming that this is approved. There's really no cost to the city on this aside from a nominal amount of electricity and water. There's some city staff members that'll be in attendance that morning that can accommodate that. Other than that, I'd be happy to answer any questions.

Chief, I think this is the second year for this? Second year, yes, sir. So the council approved it last year. That is correct, sir. And if my memory is correct, we approved it with a waiver of the special event permit fee because under our ordinance for this, if it's a community benefit, then the fee can be waived by council. Is that correct?

Yes, sir. This would be in alignment with nonprofit or community benefit related to the ordinance.

And there's no cost to the city for this at all.

Yeah. The only cost to the city I can think of would be some electricity and water, but that would be difficult to quantify and not something that we wouldn't normally provide to a user of the park.

Okay. All right, gentlemen, do you have any questions for chief Johnson? Pastor Mullick, you're welcome to come up and, and address us if you so choose.

I don't have a lot to say other than just I appreciate the opportunity to be here and appreciate your making the park available. We try to do this once a year, just have an outside service that facilitates people joining in that maybe aren't comfortable coming inside a church building and gives our folks a chance to be out and enjoy. So we do plan on setting up a couple of porta-potties just because the volume of people is kind of a little overwhelming to the facilities down there. And so other than that, we just look forward to doing that. And we decided to do it a little earlier just because it gets a little warm. Some of the sound equipment and some of the older people my age got a little overheated last year. So we're going to do it a little earlier. So appreciate the opportunity and consideration of the waiver.

And, yes, it's a worship service because you are a church. Yes, that's right. And I would expect that. And it's a Sunday.

It's a Sunday.

But there's also other things. There's a breakfast. There's events for the kids, all sorts of things. You're going to be down there for, what, five hours or so? Yeah, we'll be down there for a good part of the day, certainly until noon and after.

And last year we had kickball games and set up slip and slide. And so just make it a fun family day, and people can come and go and visit. And it's just a good community type event. All right.

Gentlemen, do you have any questions for Pastor Moloch? No, thank you. Thank you. Any further questions for Chief Johnson? I would entertain a motion on item number one, special event permit.

Mr. Mayor, I would move to approve the special event permit for Sunrise Church with the waiving of our standard fee as it is a community event.

All right, I have a motion from Councilman Deal to approve the special event permit for Sunrise Church and waive the special event permit fee because it is a community benefit. 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 special event permit for Sunrise Church and waiving the special event permit fee, signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed, signify by saying nay. Hearing no nays, that special event permit is approved and the special event permit fee is waived. Thank you. All right. Item number two is another special event permit. Christine Guzman. With Made It Clean is requesting a special event permit for the Hometown Hustle 5K to be held on August 8, 26, from 7.30 AM to 2 PM. That's a Saturday. Applicant is requesting that the special event permit fee be waived, again, because of the community benefit part of our ordinance on special events. So with that, I would call on Chief Johnson.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. This is a second time around for this event as well. There's a few minor modifications, but nothing too substantial. They are planning a 5K run that will start at the compound, utilize East M down to the frontage road, up over the overpass, all the way out to Highway 2685. There's a series of volunteer positions there to ensure the safety of runners and make sure we don't have any accidents that we can possibly avoid. There are two volunteer positions at highway 2685 or I guess just 85 in the overpass that are mandated to be first responders. Those two positions will require some traffic stoppage and so we've asked that those be staffed with members of the fire department, EMS or law enforcement volunteers. The organizers are aware that if they're unable to provide first responder volunteers, they would need to contract with us to provide for traffic control. They're confident that they can make that happen. At the conclusion of the run, they are going to have a road closure on East M Street. If you recall last year, we were a little late getting this portion of the event approved, but it was accomplished. Essentially, they're going to shut down right there from 13th to about mid-block in front of the gas company. We're going to need about 16 barricades to accomplish that. The cost of that runs about $132 for staffing time for streets folks to load, deliver, pick up, and return the barricades. I talked to Mr. Richardson regarding that cost, and they were in agreement. The other addition for this year is that they're going to run a catering permit in a liquor service area. That service area will be in the parking lot of the Compound and we've laid out some requirements that are standard for that type of an event that it be fully enclosed one entrance And all of the standard requirements related to check-in IDs wristband deleted service I don't anticipate any problems. This event was successful last year well attended and well supported and The liquor addition is something that can be easily managed. I believe they're looking at the open barrel with Sarah Young. Sarah's quite competent to manage that type of an event. I'll anticipate approving the catering permit when it's submitted. And I think that's all the details that are worth sharing with you. Happy to answer any questions. All right.

Gentlemen, any questions for Chief Johnson? This is second year for this event, too, right? Yes, sir. Well, I'm happy that they came back again. All right.

Mr. Richardson is in the back of the room there.

Oh, he is.

I'm hiding out here in the back.

OK. Well, I'm glad Councilman Deal pointed you out.

I'm sorry.

So Jeff Richardson coming to the podium, right?

His look alike, Matthew.

Matthew, sorry.

No, that's fine. Mayor Doby, councilman, yeah, we had a great success last year. Probably the coolest thing about this event was just the collaboration that it took from so many people. Probably my biggest thing I wanted to bring up to you guys was the first responders and whatnot, because safety is a big thing for us. We have law enforcement and first responders that are members of my gym. We'll make sure to take care of that. And our car show that we did, we did that with Tyler Kerns, who has a detailing shop in town. And basically what we've done with that is we donate it to someone specifically in the community. that has a health problem or something going on crisis-wise in their life. So all the proceeds with that go towards somebody that we select specifically in the Torrington area. It was very good for businesses that had their vendor booths set up to network We had a kids 100 meter dash and we're hoping maybe to get a bounce house. And then the cool part was with the 5K, we had guys coming in running five minute, 30 second miles and we had people that were walking it. So it just kind of brought everyone together for some activity. And our goal with the open barrel is just to, one of my gym members and good friends, Kyle, he's a pit master. And so we're going to barbecue. We just kind of intend for them to build a kind of network, some of their custom beers and things like that, and not have it be anything too over the top, if you know what I mean. But it was good. We had over 100 people, and we haven't done a ton of advertising yet, and we've been getting asked for the last month. So we're looking forward to another successful outing, and it kind of caps off everyone going back to school, and it kind of gets that right after fair, but before school starts and everything. So it's a good send-off into the new year for the community.

All right. And I appreciate everything you said. If you do have a bounce house, you've got to come to city hall and get one of those indemnity agreements. Okay.

Yeah.

Is that going to be on private property or on the street? Private. Okay.

Yeah. If we do, I haven't talked to Christine on that, but I just wanted to throw everything out there because obviously we're juggling different ideas.

So I wanted to give you a heads up on that.

Absolutely. But yeah, that's kind of the general gist of it.

Okay. All right. Gentlemen, do you have any questions?

And it is open barrel brewing that will be catering the event?

Yep. We are going to have an ice cream truck there. Local Wiley and Marcos Martinez are going to do that. Rex Lemonade. So there will be a few other things. But as far as the food goes, yeah, it will be open barrel.

All right. Any further questions? I don't see any. Thank you, sir. Appreciate it. One last time, any questions for Chief Johnson? Don't see any. We are on item number two, special event permit for the Made It Clean Hometown Hustle 5K. Do I have a motion?

Mr. Mayor, I would move to approve the special event permit and waive the application fee. Or excuse me, the special event permit fee.

All right. I have a motion from Councilman Victron to approve the special event permit in item two and waive the special event permit fee. Do I have a second to that?

Second.

Second from Councilman.

I would ask if Mr. Victron would also agree to a friendly amendment that the event will pay the city costs

My thinking was that I didn't waive that in my motion, but that is my intent, so I would take that as friendly, yes.

Thank you.

All right. Okay. So with that, I have a motion and a second to, let me state this and correct me, gentlemen, if I'm wrong, to approve the special event permit, to waive the special event permit fee, but not to waive the city costs of 132. OK, I stated that correctly. Is there any further discussion? Seeing none, I'll call for a vote. Item number two, all those in favor of approving the special event permit itself, waive the special event permit fee and not waive the $132 city costs. All those in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed, signify by saying nay. Hearing no nays, that event permit is approved, the special event permit fee is waived, and the city costs of $132 are not waived. Thank you. All right, we are now on item number three, special event permit. Danny Watt with the Torrington Volunteer Fire Department is requesting a special event permit for the 2026 Goshen County Fair Parade to be held on July 30, 2026 from 8 AM to 12 PM on Main Street. The applicant is requesting that the special event permit Fee be waived. And as is my custom, I will first call on Matt Johnson, Chief of Police.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. This is the annual fair parade organized this year by Danny Watt, who's done a really nice job putting it together. The layout and planning for the event is the same as prior years. We'll be utilizing barricade closure pretty much all the way from 30th down to 2685 on Main Street. utilizing fire trucks and police vehicles at the main intersection to prevent a drive-through, and having front and rear blocking vehicles as well to protect the parade itself. I guess the only notable item that I wanted to make sure you understand, I didn't attempt to break out costs on this. This is such an intertwined community event with so many different folks pitching in and helping. It'd be really difficult to attempt to assign costs or billing related to this event. And as a result, I did not. So if you have any questions or any concerns, please let me know, and I'd be happy to try to answer them. Is Mr. Watt here?

You want to come up? I'm hearing good things, Mr. Watt, that you organized this well and worked well with the chief. Thanks. Thanks, brother.

Thank you mayor, thank you council.

I fortunately got to be the chair this year for this event. It's kind of been led by somebody else over the last few years and I'm sure tons of people over a long time. But really not much to expect as far as a change. The traffic flow and blockage of the roads will all be the same. Parade floats will line up essentially from West C Street on Vista all the way down to Main Street. Sometimes that bleeds out a little bit onto West C Street, but usually we can keep it primarily on Rio Vista. Outside of that, it should be, I'm guessing, well attended this year. I haven't talked to Leanne or any of the crew over at Gogoshin to see what they have for entries yet. With it being a year in elections and all that, there will probably be a pretty good chunk of different things in there this year. So I anticipate it to be really good and a lot of fun. It's a great thing for the community. Lots of people come out and have a great time. So we are greatly appreciative of all your help and you guys waiving the special events fee for us if possible.

And one thing you forgot to mention is the city has a day off, the county has a day off, and I'm sure a lot of the private businesses give their folks the day off.

Yep, yep, absolutely. That is a good thing. My wife is one that works for a company out of town and works from home, so she does not get the day off. But anyhow, she'll be there to take in all of it with us for a little bit in the morning. Yeah, like I said, for the community, it's a great time. Everybody enjoys it. Everybody gets a little free time to get out and spend time with their family and friends. We're proud as a fire department to be able to help put it on and make sure that everything goes on without any issues.

All right. Well, thank you. You bet. Gentlemen, any questions for Danny Watt?

All right. Perfect. Thank you, guys.

Any questions for Chief Johnson?

I just want to add, Mr. Mayor, I think a lot of people get confused. I hear a lot of people call it parade day around the county and so forth. It's actually Goshen County Day during Fair Week, and the parade is that day, so The reason for the holiday is to get the whole county to take part in the fair and all of the festivities. So it's much more than the parade that day. So hopefully people can take part in the fair that's also going on.

Goshen County Day, yes. And a legal holiday for the city and for the county. So it is a big deal. So thank you. I appreciate that. All right. Regarding item number three, special event permit request for the Goshen County Parade to be held on July 30th, I would entertain a motion.

Mr. Mayor, I move to approve the special event permit and waive the permit fee.

All right. I have a motion from Councilman Victron in item number three to approve the special event permit regarding the parade and to waive the special event permit fee. Do I have a second? Second. Second from Councilman Deal. Any further discussion, gentlemen? Hearing none, item number three, I'll call for a vote. All those in favor of approving the special event permit for the parade and to waive the special event permit fee, signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed, signify by saying nay. Hearing no nays, the special event permit for the parade is approved, and the special event permit fee is waived. We are now on item number four on our next page of the agenda. which is FY27 WTP generator system project. There's two parts to this. Part A, a request by council to award the proposal. Staff recommends awarding the project to Allen and Company Electric of Torrington, Wyoming in the amount of excuse me, $1,386,028 in a reserve of $45,047, which is 3.15% for contingency for a project total of $1,431,000. $75, and then B is the agreement for the professional services between the City of Torrington and Allen and Company Electric. Staff recommends approving the agreement for professional services with Allen and Company Electric regarding the FY27 WTP water treatment plant diesel generator system project. There's a lot there, but with that introduction, I would call on Public Works Director Jeff Harkins.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. As you're aware, the city previously received proposals from three consultants back on April 8th. Unfortunately, all of those proposals far exceeded the available CDBG funding for the project and council voted to reject all the proposals on April 21st. We approached CDBG staff with a recommendation to reduce the scope of the project to only include the water treatment plant location, modify the RFP and advertise for new proposals. CDBG staff gave their concurrence with this request on April 29th and the project was re-advertised on May 6th. with proposals due on June 10th. From that, four proposals were submitted with the results shown below. We received a proposal from Lowenbro, Willow Creek Companies, Allen & Company, and Goshen County Construction. Of the proposals submitted, only Allen and Company Electric and Goshen County Construction presented a proposal utilizing two separate generators to meet the current and future needs of the water treatment plant. Allen and Company Electric proposed to install a 450 kilowatt generator to carry the full load of the 600 amp master control cabinet two, and an 800 kilowatt generator to carry the full load of the 1200 amp master control cabinet one. Allen and Company Electric's proposal provides redundancy in the system. Should one of the generators fail, the other could provide at least part of the load for the water treatment plant. In addition, Allen and Company Electric's proposal already includes the five year warranty for the generators. Regarding the other proposals that were submitted, Goshen County Construction proposed to install two 600 kilowatt generators for the two variant amp master control cabinets. Lowenbro proposed installing a single 500 kilowatt generator and Willow Creek Companies proposed installing a single 750 kilowatt generator. Even though Allen & Company Electric's proposal was not the least expensive, we believe the city will get the best overall product through Allen & Company Electric's proposal as it will supply sufficient current to fully operate the entire water treatment plant, thereby eliminating the need to pick and choose which pumps and equipment can be operated and which would have to be left off. The project is to be substantially complete by June 30th, 2027. The city was approved for a CDBG grant in the amount of $1,431,075. On January 5th, 2026, we have checked with CDBG staff and they are in agreement with the recommendation of the award.

So I'm going to open this up to questions for you, Mr. Harkins, but not only did this go through the city process, but it also went through the CDBG process because they provided the grant and they have to approve what we're doing. Is that right?

Exactly.

So there were essentially two sets of eyes looking at this.

Yes.

Okay. And so there's two parts to this, obviously. There's the part, do we award it in the first place? And then if it is, the agreement for professional services between the city of Torrington and Allen and Company Electric. And I mean, I reviewed that agreement. It looks fine to me. Mr. Eddington, you've looked at that?

I have, Your Honor.

I have. OK. OK. All right. So just with that introduction, sort of, and those questions, I will open you up, Mr. Harkins or Mr. Eddington, to any questions by council.

Where are these generators going? The one by the golf course?

No, it's going at the water treatment plant, the public works facility next to the overpass.

OK. And there's two generators, right?

The proposal that Allen & Company Electric was for two separate generators.

And do you have any idea what brand they are or anything?

I think the specifications called out for Cummins.

So are they compatible with what the city already has then?

Yes.

So they could follow the maintenance routine just like the rest of them? Yes. Or be included in the maintenance routine? Yes.

Mr. Mayor.

Councilman Victor.

Director, the plant currently has a backup generator, but I'm curious how much it can run of the plant.

I think the existing generator that they have there is, and I'm sorry, I don't know the exact, but I think it's under 500 kilowatts. And as you can see from Alan and company's proposal, he's proposing a 450 plus an 800. So it'd be like a total of 1250 kilowatts.

So if I'm reading his proposal, right, his, his, His proposal would be to equip the plant with enough capacity to run the entire plant in an emergency backup scenario.

That is correct.

Whereas the others, except for Goshen County probably, the other two submitted a proposal that wouldn't achieve that.

No, they would only be able to run a portion of the facility.

The treatment plan will be working properly during the installation of the generators, right?

Correct. There may be a brief, I think it's maybe a one week period, maybe two weeks, where they would be I don't know if they'd be offline totally, but there would be some periods where they would have to be taken down to make some connections.

Are there any concerns then about the water supply during that time period?

No. Tom's already identified what periods that they could do that. And so they'll make those connections and whatever during that period, which is probably the least use of water during more likely the winter-type months.

And Tom was fully involved in all of this? Oh, yeah.

Yes.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

That's Tom Troxell, our water supervisor, by the way.

OK.

It says the project will be completed by June 30, 2027.

That's a substantial completion date, correct?

Would something like that normally take a year to do?

Well, as you're aware, COVID has severely uh caused procurement of certain items and generators as one of them to take longer than what would normally be uh expected so we're giving them plenty of time so that they can procure the the generators and have all the everything installed

I'm looking here at the lead times on some of these generators and switches. They take half a year or a little more.

I appreciate that it's a local company, too. Some immediate recourse.

Yeah. Two of the companies that provided proposals were local companies, and two were out of state.

I like that the plant can be fully operational in this situation. A lot of probably emergency scenarios are a limited capacity or reduce your consumption by x. And this is a good deal, I think.

The treatment plant already has a generator, right?

Correct.

What are we going to do with that one?

That one's going to go out to the golf course.

To the well field.

To the well field. I'm sorry. Yeah, to the well field. Yeah.

You say it's going to run in sprinklers or something?

To charge golf carts.

Yeah, there you go.

Charging golf carts. No. That's important for the folks to know, though. We have a well field out there.

Yeah, a well field at the golf course.

But this is off the subject, but well 16 there, it did get a generator, didn't it?

We have just received funding to do a change order to the well 16 contract to install a generator there.

I wonder if Jim or even Jeff, you could explain the difference here where we have a request for a proposal versus the typical put out bid request, select a low bidder type scenario.

I think it's CDBG based, but I'll let Jeff.

Well, when we do a request for proposals, we don't necessarily, the city, know what the best scenario would be. I mean, in this case, there are multiple scenarios that would provide the same end product. Some would be better than others, as we can see with this. So we want the contractor to come in and say well we think this is the best scenario for the city and then we evaluate those proposals and select the one that we think is the best fit for the city on the other hand a straight design contract says this is what we the city want and you bid on that and provide us this product that you know we've already stated this is what we want that's basically the difference

And I did appreciate that the letter from Allen and company did provide rationale for why they're recommending the two generators and. That method of work.

And also mentions a five year warranty. Is that is that from the generator manufacturer from Allen?

It's from the generator manufacturer.

Is there any warranty on the switches?

There is a one-year warranty on the overall project. The switches, I'd have to check. I'm not 100% sure on that.

And again, I just want to point out that we are able to do this through the CDBG grant.

Correct.

And I just want the folks to know a lot that we do is based on grants or low-interest loans or grants from the SLIB board because some of these projects are very expensive. This infrastructure is expensive. And just this is $1.386 million to do this. So...

And this funding authority assists low-income communities such as ours.

Correct.

A lot of time working on that survey.

And this goes back to the CDBG requires the survey to be done so they can determine You know, what category Torrington is in regarding low income or not low income. And Torrington did those surveys, the city of Torrington did them, and satisfied CDBG that we were indeed a low income community and thus eligible for this grant.

The community development grant program, block grant, money is federal money that comes through the governor's office, and the governor then gives that to the WCDA, and the WCDA is the granting agency then. Yeah. In case people are wondering where that comes from.

Well, and that's good to point out, Councilman Deal, because as I was saying, a lot of our infrastructure gets paid through grants. Low interest loans through the state, that's how we pay for stuff. If it came out of somebody's back pocket that lives here, literally, we wouldn't have anything. But that's how we pay for infrastructure and are able to pay for it.

The good thing about this grant is there's no match, so it's 100% grant.

I never want to miss this. The EPA exists, Environmental Protection Agency, the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality. And this water system is constantly monitored. It has to be up to those standards of those agencies. Some of them, you can correct me if I'm wrong, but I think our well water is pretty good well water. And I think we add reverse osmosis water at the rate of about 16% of RO water goes into well water. And then we have potable drinking water for Torrington. I think that's how that works. You know, in the olden days, you just pulled up the well water and distributed it. But now you've got to have the water treatment plant and all the bells and whistles that go with that. And we will be shut down if we don't meet that criteria. So, and water is essential to life. It's the most essential thing to life. So. Go ahead.

Just would add, I did read further in his proposal that there is a one-year work warranty, and then the generators and the switches all have a five-year warranty. All right.

Thank you for that.

And I think, is it fair to say time is of the essence here? He submitted this on June 10. And he offered a 30-day bid guarantee.

Offers open till correct.

That's all due to the timing of the June 10th and the fact that I think your last council meeting was on June 12th. We didn't have time to completely evaluate all the proposals, and then we had the three weeks between that council meeting and this council meeting.

So Mr. Mayor, can we combine motion here? Aye.

I'm happy to entertain a combined motion.

Mr. Mayor, I make the motion to approve awarding the request for proposal according to staff recommendation and the agreement for professional services as the staff recommended.

All right. I have a motion from Councilman Deal in item number four to approve the proposal as staff recommends and to also approve the agreement for professional services as staff recommends. Do I have a second?

Second.

Second from Councilman Kelly. Any further discussion? Hearing none, I'll call for a vote. Item number four, all those in favor of approval of the proposal as staff recommends in item four and approval for the agreement of professional services as staff recommends in item four. All those in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed, signify by saying nay. Hearing no nays, the proposal is approved and the agreement is approved. All right. Thank you. Next item on our agenda this evening is item number five, amendment number one to the agreement for professional services with MC Schaff and Associates. Staff recommends approval of amendment number one. to the Agreement for Professional Services with M.C. Schaff and Associates for Construction Administration, an inspection on the Eastie Improvements Project in the amount of $42,780. And with that introduction, I would again call on Director of Public Works, Jeff Harkins.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. As you're well aware, MC Shaft and the city of Torrington entered into an agreement for professional services way back in May 26, 2009, to provide the design and preparation of plans and specifications for the East D Street improvement project. The plans were originally completed on February 25th, 2011, and most recently updated on May 12th, 2022. The project included all the work that I think you're well aware of, so I won't take the time to go through all the various stuff, but On February 18, 2025, council approved an agreement for professional services with M.C. Schaaf for construction administration and inspection for the fiscal year 25 East E Street improvement project in the amount of $523,418. Since the beginning of this project, there have been three change orders which have added an additional 48 days to the contract duration. And this amendment will cover the additional inspection and engineering costs for the extended duration. If you look on the next page, it's kind of a breakdown of where we stand with the project cost. We have the construction administration and inspection with the pending $42,780 amendment that would bring MC Schaaf's budget up to $566,198. You can see that right now we have paid to date $416,771.40 and retained $21,935.35 for total expenditures of $438,706.75. Going down to the construction, the original contract of April 15th, 2025 With Eric Reichert was for $6,075,831.58. The three change orders that are shown there on the various dates brought that total up to $6,178,464.24. And you can see off to the right the number of calendar days started at 300. Change order one added 10 days. Change order two added 14 days. And change order three added 24 days. So we're up to 348. calendar days from the beginning of the project Now I will give you a little information Back in December 23rd 2025 the project was suspended due to winter conditions on March 2nd 2026 it was restarted and at that time there was 103 days remaining on the on the calendar days. Adding the additional days and taking into account that period where the contract was suspended, the substantial completion date is July 31st, 2026. And Don Dye from MC Shaft is here and he can verify that. I might be off a day or two on my calculations. I don't know for sure. But with all that being said, we do have $7 million in funding, available funding for this project. And even with the amendment and the change orders, we are still within budget. So if you have any questions for Don Dye, I'm sure he would be able to answer them, or if you have any additional questions for me.

At this point, I'll let counsel ask you, Mr. Argans, any questions, and then we'll get Mr. Dye up here. That's fine. OK. Gentlemen, do you have any questions for?

I do. I'm just curious what those three change orders, what did we have? What did we add there other than the one with a few more days?

The first change order was once they dug up the storm sewer, and I think it was in the vicinity of 26th Avenue. It could have been 25th Avenue. I don't know for sure. Don will probably tell you right off the top of his head. But the storm sewer came in at a T with another storm sewer, which is not typical. And Tom recommended and I would recommend too that that T be taken out and a manhole be put there and those pipes be inserted into a manhole which is the typical situation. So that was the cost of the first one. The second change order was no cost. It was just basically The city staff water department had trouble isolating a valve to shut the water off. And they had to get a special plug from out of town. And during that time, that was flooding the trench. And it took about two weeks for Eric Riker to clean up from that flooding in the trench and let things dry out to where they could resume work. The third change order hasn't happened yet. It's being proposed. It's for the 30th Avenue intersection with East D Street. MC Shaft is taking the time to redesign that intersection so that we eliminate the flooding that happens there during storms and the runoff that's coming off of the cemetery.

So what does the $59,000 consist of then?

That's for the design and construction.

Design, no construction?

Both. Construction administration and the construction. Design, construction, administration, and the actual construction.

Currently, there's no storm. Storm collection there, stormwater collection there at that intersection.

Yeah, it's all surface drainage.

Which doesn't drain very well when we have a heavy storm. And then 30th and East D is a very important intersection in this town. It's Sheep Creek Road that goes out to the prison, and people live up there in that neighborhood. And East D has, I think, as much traffic as any street in this town, and that's a critical, I wouldn't say critical, but it's a very important intersection, and we need to take care of that stormwater problem that's been a problem since they probably put East D in. 80 years ago.

I'm going to make a correction on change order number three. I think that's just purely for the construction. And MC Schaft is requesting the amendment to do the construction, inspection, and the design costs. So yeah, sorry. My mistake. But yeah, that change order three is purely for the construction.

All right. Any more questions for Mr. Hart? Mr. Dye, you're back there? Yes. Come on up. Appreciate you coming over for this. No problem. And this is Don Day from MC Schaff.

Correct. Yep. Just introduced Don Dye with MC Schaff and Associates in Scotts Bluff. I'm the construction manager out on the project. We do also have a full-time inspector out there. So we kind of did the engineering agreement based upon the 300 calendar days. And we got to the point where we're kind of out of those inspection hours. So the request is just to add additional of my time and my inspector's time to finish out the project. And I guess the one thing I will point out is that we only bill you actual hours. So you could be under that amount at the end. It won't be over that amount without me coming back to you and asking you for additional money. So I'm not anticipating that unless the contractor takes a lot more time than what they're telling me they're going to take. And with that, I guess I'd open up to any questions you might have.

And you're going to confirm what Mr. Argon said, the substantial completion date is July 31?

Yeah, he's correct. It is July 31. It went from June 13. And then with the first two change orders, it was July 7. And then with the final change order, it made it July 31. So that is correct. And then any days after that, they would be subject to liquidate damages. The contractor would.

After July 31.

After July 31, yeah.

gives them incentive to hustle up.

Right. And with the latest schedule they gave me with change order number three, it would be like August 15. So hopefully they can make better progress on that, and it won't be August 15. But I did kind of take that into consideration too with my proposed amendment to this contract.

And I would guess that it's much cheaper as long as we're opening up the ground to do the work to make the change at East 30th intersection?

Yeah, I think so. And I guess coming back to the other question about the 59,000, that's just the extra quantities in order to tear out and replace that intersection. So we did come up with a design that's more or less just going to make it drain across the road. Right now it kind of sits on the north side of the road. And so that will, our design will correct that and let it all drain down to East D and then continue on down East D.

A completely digressive question. No, you're fine. People have asked me, what's the cure time for the concrete and how do they judge the quality of the concrete?

Okay, so our inspector that's out there every day, every day that they pour concrete, he takes the air of the concrete, he measures the slump of the concrete, and then he also takes concrete cylinders. Those concrete cylinders go back to our lab in Scotts Bluff And then after a certain amount of days, we break those. So typically what we do is a seven-day break, a 28-day break, and then we have what we call a hold cylinder. And that's just in case a cylinder doesn't look right when it breaks or something like that, we have that extra cylinder that we can break. Because they do sometimes get tipped over in the field or something like that and get damaged. All the concrete out there, we've been meeting strength within seven days. So that's why you typically see if they pour on Thursday by roughly seven days later, we've been able to open that section back up.

So what does substantial completion truly mean? Is it a large percentage of the project is done? Or we have reached the point where the contractor is almost

I think substantial completion is more or less defined as it's open and ready for use. So if East D is open, the intersection is open, that would be substantial completion. Now, if they had some... landscaping or, you know, some punch list item stuff to do, but the road was still open. That would still be, that would be constitute substantial completion.

Okay. And then going back to the change order there on D and 30th. So is the plan not to put a drain there or is the plan to route that water south?

Just to route it south. Yes.

So next drain would be at 29th.

I know there's inlets all the way along East D. I don't know where the next one's at. So this project only replaced the storm sewer up to 26th Street, and then all the storm sewer north of there was deemed to be sized appropriately, and it was just left in place as is. So I can't think of off the top of my head. I can look at my phone and probably figure out from the plans where the first inlet's at, but I think there is one at 29th, and maybe Mr. Harkins knows that. sense but I think he's correct I think it's the 29th I think there's inlets kind of spaced out kind of evenly along through there so so barring anything unforeseen do you do you expect substantial completion to maintain at July 31st I wouldn't expect more of the August 15th date that they updated me on the schedule so they probably would get into some liquidated damages You know, there's always a possibility that, you know, they bring in more crews or they get stuff done faster than what they're expecting. But just based upon what the schedule that they've provided me, the latest schedule they provided me with change order number three, they were kind of looking at August 15th.

Does your amendment cover your hours up to August 15th?

Yeah, I went ahead and included. So pretty much the inspection hours that I had in the agreement ran out pretty much at the end of June. So there's kind of six weeks of inspection time in there. Typically, my inspector's on site. Roughly 50 hours a week. I'm on site or working on the project 10 hours a week, roughly. So that's what I based upon six weeks. So it's more or less 60 hours of my time and 300 hours of my inspector's time. And everything else as far as like construction staking and then as-builts after the project, that's all separate items in the contract. And so we would intend to meet those. And that's why you kind of see we haven't got up to our contract amount yet. We're getting very close, but those other hours that aren't in there are for the construction staking for as-builts that we have to submit to the city and the funding agencies.

That's all I have, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you, Mr. Dye. You're welcome. Appreciate it. Thank you for coming over. No problem. All right. We are on item number five, amendment number one to the agreement for professional services with MC Schaaf and associates related to the East D improvements project. I would entertain a motion.

Mr. Mayor, I would move to approve the amendment number one to the agreement for professional services with MC Schaaf and Associates as outlined in our agenda item number five.

All right. I have a motion from Councilman Victorin to approve amendment number one to our agreement with MC Schaaf and Associates as outlined in item five. Do I have a second? Second. Second from Councilman Deal. Any further discussion? Hearing none, I'll call for a vote. Item number five, all those in favor of approving amendment number one to the agreement for professional services with MC Schaff as outlined in item five, signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed, signify by saying nay. Hearing no nays, amendment number one is approved. Thank you, Mr. Dye.

Thank you.

All right, we are on item number six, annual write-off of accounts. And our staff reference is Mrs. Lynette Strecker, clerk treasurer. So I would call on her.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. A list was provided in your agenda for 2026 annual write-offs of accounts that have been deemed uncollectible. The first two pages are for utilities, and then there is one behind there for accounts receivable. So the total utilities to be written off is $7,969.38. And then there's $200 in uncollectible materials. accounts receivable and so we deem it uncollectible when it reads the statute's term of 10 years after that it's no longer collectible and then also if they're deceased or if there's no assets and it's returned to us by our collection agency as uncollectible um We also put that on our list. So I'd be glad to answer any questions.

So this is when people don't pay their utility bill.

Correct.

And when they don't pay, it's turned over to the city attorney who works with a collection agency in an attempt to collect it.

We actually deal directly with the collection agency.

The office staff.

Yes. And then some of them that are local, we turn over to Jim Eddington, our city attorney, and he tries to collect them.

And as I look through this, and correct me if I'm wrong, Mr. Eddington, some of these go back to June of 2015. There's a 10-year statute of limitations on a contract. Correct. And so after 10 years runs, you can't sue because the statute's run. I look at these and... Returned uncollectible, that's a collection agency who makes a living running down bad debt. And when they determine something's uncollectible, it's been tried to be collected. I don't know if anybody in here ever had a bill collector on their tail, but it's a very unpleasant experience because those people don't quit on you. A lot of these, I know the city keeps an eye on the legals in the Tarleton Telegram for any probates that may be there. A lot of people, believe it or not, folks, a lot of people die with no assets. They just don't have any. There's not a probate. There's not a creditor's claim that can be made. I know the city is very cognizant of paying attention to those probate notices in the paper, especially EMS, and they will file creditors' claims against the probate. So it looks to me like the city's doing everything that it can to try to collect this bad debt. And I call it bad debt because that's what it is. And it amazes me that how much we have in utilities, you know, people paying and so on, that we have a bad debt of $7,900, okay? Companies for 10 years would kill for that sort of bad debt ratio. That's an amazingly low number. And as I look at this list, there's a reason it's not collectible. They're deceased and there's no assets to get. And they had a contract with the city, their relatives didn't have a contract with the city, so you can't sue the relatives, right? So if someone's deceased and there's no assets, there's just no assets.

Or they've skipped town.

Or they've skipped town, and you can't find them, and you've sicked the collection agency onto them, and they get paid by running people down and getting money out of them, and they've given up, and there we are, right? So that's my annual speech on uncollectible debt. It's amazing what a low number. that this entity has of bad debt. As I said, most businesses would kill to have a bad debt percentage like this.

I know no business that wouldn't be shocked by that low amount of receivables. I know my business is shocked.

Annually, we bill $14.8 million in utilities annually.

So when you take that number and you have $7,900 over 10 years, that's a heck of a good bad debt ratio. And I mean, you know, in this country, there are certain debts that are just bad. That's why in the constitution, it calls for a bankruptcy court. Okay. Because some debts are just never going to be paid and they need to be written off the books and the city, uh, and you're audited, right. And the auditors are looking at, and if this is bad debt, it's bad debt and it needs to be written off.

So 95% of these people have moved out of town or out of state. we spend more money pursuing them out of state than ever collecting on $68 or $130 or $78 or $139. Don't you see those first entries? And you can't even follow a circuit court case for that. Piling fees and service fees are more than $130.

And another thing, Mr. Edding, since you're an attorney and I'm an attorney, you don't know how many clients I've told over 40 years, yeah, I can get a judgment, but good luck collecting it. Got a drawer full of those also.

We do have a little leverage. We do require a deposit for new, um, new accounts. So that does help offset most of those. But after a year of good payment, that deposit is returned.

As it should be.

Right. So if they're good customers, we return their deposit with interest. And we also have a little leverage if they don't pay because we can turn off their utilities and

Not the exposure.

At certain times of the year. Yeah.

If it's above 32 degrees, we can.

All right. Well, I think the city is doing everything it can to prevent bad debt. It's obviously being successful preventing bad debt with this low of a bad debt for over 10 years. That's my speech on bad debt. Any questions for Mr. Eddington or Mrs. Strecker? All right. On item number six, to approve the annual write-off of accounts, I would entertain a motion.

Mr. Mayor, I move to approve the annual write-off of accounts as presented.

All right. I have a motion from Councilman Deal on item number six to approve the annual write-off of accounts as presented in item six. Do I have a second? Second from Councilman Kelly. Any further questions, gentlemen? Hearing none, I'll call for a vote. Item six, all those in favor of approving the annual write-off accounts as presented, signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed, signify by saying nay. Hearing no nays, those write-offs are approved. All right, we're on item seven, approval of the bills from June 17th, 26 to July 7th, 26. And again, I would call on Mrs. Trecker.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. Attached to your agenda were a list of bills. And I also handed out a fairly large set of bills we received since we mailed out the agenda. So I'd be glad to answer any questions on any of those bills.

Thank you.

And also don't bring any attachments into my room, make sure.

Just a comment, Mr. Mayor, and maybe Ground Superintendent Estes could comment, but we paid Morehouse Inc. to plant some trees at the cemetery, and we had a lot of damage there this past winter from the wind and just different ages of trees, but I wanted to say that You know, we're obviously buying some trees and having them planted, but if folks wanted to donate a tree to be planted, I'm sure we would entertain that if somebody wanted to help out with that up at the cemetery.

That is correct. We've had people do that in the past. We're more than welcome to talk to anybody about donations of benches, of trees. That goes for the parks and the mini parks as well.

Tough winter on trees everywhere and grass. And wallets. And wallets.

Mr. Mayor, if there are no more questions around the bills, I take a motion to pay them as presented.

All right. We're on item number seven, approval of bills. I have a motion from Councilman Kelly to approve the bills as presented. Do I have a second? Second. Second from Councilman Victorin. Any further discussion? Hearing none, hearing none, item seven, I'll call for a vote. 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 now in item number eight, which is public comment. And I see the chief back there for a fire report. Chief Jeff Schick, happy to hear your fire report.

Mayor, council, good evening. Had an uptick in calls towards the end of June, the big one being we went up and assisted JM with a vegetation fire that ended up being around 222 acres. I believe that was due to some power lines, but I'm not 100% on that. Fairly quiet for us around the 4th. We did go out to one dumpster fire caused by fireworks there at City Park.

There is really a thing of it called a dumpster fire. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Not much damage there other than the lids, but those were replaced, I do believe, Monday morning. We'll be hosting an auto extrication class the first part of August. We've got an instructor coming up from Denver. He's got 25-plus years with Denver Fire out of there. We've had him here in the past, so we'll be looking to entertain that. Other than that, everything's 100% operational, and we're ready for the heat and weather and further days in the summer here.

And I forget, you guys did well at the state convention, and I don't think we've had a council meeting since then. No, I did forget that.

Tell us about that. Correct, yep. We did. The Torrington guys brought back first place from Wheatland.

Congratulations to them. Everyone I see, I've been congratulating.

Yeah, they did a good job.

That's a repeat, right?

Yes, sir. So they're looking to do a three-peat next year in New Castle. And I guess Dennis would be able to add to that. Has that happened in the past?

I can explain that.

OK. If you've got any other questions for me, I'll step away.

All right.

Thank you, Chief.

Thank you. Appreciate you. All right. We are in public comment section. Any other persons that have a public comment? Mr. Estes. Just to elaborate on the convention, Chief is right.

We did Torrington one again this two time. Out of the five all-tournament buckles, Torrington team come home with three of those. So they did pretty well. That three-peat thing is a big deal to the convention members, and that trophy's been passed around for a long time. I think we were the last ones to win it. But once it gets three times, you get to keep the trophy.

And I think after all the years, Torrington's got a couple, and Newcastle's probably got some.

But yeah, every time we get to three, we always kind of step on our toes. I've been in that situation twice.

But we do have two of them over our history.

We do have two of them, yeah.

All right, any other public comment? All right. I've got a question for Jeff.

I noticed in the bills, we did a lot of money in digital construction for the airport terminal building. Can you kind of fill us in on what's going on up there?

You want the good or the bad? Both. The metal construction, if you've been up to the airport, you'll see that the It's been framed and sheeted. They're doing internal work putting, I think, the metal studs inside for the internal walls have already been put up. I think Pittman Electric was up there today doing some rough in electrical work. That being said, there's been a lot of stuff completed. There's been a lot of stuff that's been completed that was not per plan that needs to be fixed. So we're currently dealing with that aspect with the contractor. He's kind of reluctant to do the things that need to be done. And that's kind of something, the process we're working through now with our engineer, which is again, MC Schaaf and the city and Dietzler Construction. So that's kind of where we're at.

Sounds like a real deal.

Yeah. But the engineer's dealing with it, and Mr. Harkins is dealing with it.

Correct.

One more thing. All right. Any other comments? All right. Appreciate it. Alright, we're now on item number 9. I would entertain a motion to leave regular session and enter into executive session to discuss potential litigation and a personnel matter.

Mr Mayor and move to. For the Council to move to executive session or purposes of potential litigation and personnel matters.

All right, I have a motion from Councilman Deal to enter into executive session to discuss potential litigation and a personnel matter. Do I have a second? Second. Second from Councilman Victor. Any further discussion? Hearing none, I'll call for a vote. All those in favor of leaving regular session and entering into executive session, signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed, signify by saying nay. Hearing no nays, we will leave regular session and enter into executive session.