I was saddened to learn of the passing of Mayor Bill Nation. He passed away last week at 96. He served our community as mayor for a total of eight years during tough financial times.
We are so blessed today to have the voters support of Fifth and Sixth Penny Sales Taxes; support Mr. Nation would have loved to have when in office. He was honored to have Nationway named for him. Bill was a navy veteran who served in WWII and also served Laramie County in the State Legislature. Mayor Don Erickson shared with me what a gracious and charming man he was. They shared similar experiences and became great friends. I want to give my thanks for his great service to our city and celebrate a life well lived. Rest in peace, Mr. Mayor.
One of our city goals is to create a railroad experience along 15th Street. We have applied for an EDA grant to help with the first phase. We were notified that the city had made the cut and there were a few more questions we needed to answer. Our team met to review the answers and prepare our response. Renee Smith, our grant writer, is a rock star and has our grant process on lock.
Lowe’s Distribution Center invited me to tour their distribution facility. A million square foot facility is amazing to see in action. Allen, Alicia, Barb, Dave, Josh, and Sally were amazing hosts. I watched the process of how 80 to 120 trucks a day drop off freight and also how items are broken down and put on an eight-lane conveyor system that delivers directly to the correct garage door to be shipped to each of the 65 stores the center serves. I think the highlight was “her majesty” Barb, who runs the second-floor conveyor system. She is most definitely in charge. I was impressed how their almost 500 employees act as a team. Their support of Trucks to Trades is helping build our workforce, and their philanthropic efforts are impressive. It was a great visit.
The mayor’s budget is finally finished and ready to send to the city council. This would not be possible without the professionalism and talent of our Treasurer, Robin Lockman, and our departments. This year was harder than I would have hoped. The challenge is projecting revenues in these turbulent times. I will be reporting our budget to you in the very near future. Fingers crossed we got the revenues right.
Speaking of past mayors, I met with Mayor Don Erickson. Mayor Don is on the Cheyenne Regional Air Service Focus Team (CRAFT), the group that advocates for the airport to get airlines to fly in and out of our airport. They have been successful in getting Sky West to serve Cheyenne, and he wanted to talk about the support they get from the city and county. I really like talking about city issues with those that served before me. I appreciate their stories.
Chief Kopper stopped by to discuss the status of our new fire stations. Good news, things are on track and seem to be going in the right direction. I know the chief and his team have been working hard to make sure we get the stations built and ready for protecting our community. You should see groundbreaking this August.
I attended my first school board meeting. First, the bad news: it lasted over four hours. The good news: it was fun to see how they honored students and their performances at the beginning of the meeting. The beginning took at least an hour due to the vast numbers of students being honored. I knew a couple of the students. Liam Fox is a freshman who won the 132-pound state wrestling championship. Zoey Lundin is the chair of the Mayor’s Youth Council (MYC), and she was honored with her partner for winning a state championship in DECA. I like celebrating successes, and they did it up right. The main reason for attending the meeting was to ask the board to publicly speak up to condemn the racist behaviors that are happening in some of our schools. The board spent a couple of hours listening to testimony from the base, and then debating a resolution outlining their position. I appreciate the board listening and publicly showing leadership. I probably won’t sit through another whole meeting, but I look forward to the beginning where they celebrate student success.
Members of the Affordable Housing Task Force stopped by to talk about their work and to discuss the next steps. It was interesting to learn that higher interest rates on mortgages have cut the buying power of loan amounts by 20 percent. We all agree that we have a housing crisis, and it will take everyone working together to find solutions. I am concerned that the momentum we have been building as a community could be stalled by the lack of housing. I am encouraged by the state legislature taking housing on as an interim topic. It is my hope that we find solutions and can find the resources to implement them. We have a great team on the task force and their time is appreciated.
Sam Galeotos hosts a fun series of luncheons called “food for thought” at the Met. This week the topic was pricing transparency in healthcare. Cynthia Fisher has taken on this crusade across the country. I learned that health care facilities are required to publish their pricing so consumers can compare and choose where they get their services. I also learned this is a very complicated subject, but I do like the idea of knowing what things cost before purchasing them. Sam is holding a series of discussions and I am looking forward to attending.
The LEADS board meeting was on Wednesday, and they had a guest speaker from the Tax Foundation. LEADS wanted a study of how our tax rates compare to our neighbors, and if there is any impact in business recruiting and retention. We learned that in Wyoming, businesses pay a much larger percentage of taxes, 69.6 percent versus the national average of 44 percent. The Tax Foundation took eight hypothetical companies and looked to see what the tax burden is in all 50 states. We learned that Wyoming is number one in mature companies and ranked seventh for new ones. I appreciate all the work and research LEADS is doing to make sure we are competitive.
Safe House is the non-profit that takes care of victims of domestic abuse. I was invited to spend a few minutes at their board retreat. I appreciate the way they are looking at the future and what the needs will be. Unfortunately, I think they will continue to be very busy. Finding the resources to support today’s needs and tomorrow’s is going to be the biggest challenge. I am confident that our community will step up and make the difference.
I appreciate the relationship we have with the county commissioners. I had lunch with Commissioners Thompson and Malm to discuss the ways we work together and how we split the costs. The big topic was the new animal control program we started on September 1st, 2021. This relationship is so different than my time on the city council 20 years ago. Troy bought lunch and we are on track moving into the future.
I have shared my disappointment with the state of our school buildings and learned this week that many in our city agree. We have 11 of the oldest 20 buildings in the state. A parent from Arp Elementary stopped by to share her disappointment and shared her passion to find a solution. This is a big deal to make sure our students have the same opportunities as students in other cities in our state.
On Thursday, I read a proclamation declaring April as Child Abuse Awareness and Prevention month. It was fun to have a bunch of kids in attendance as they remind us of the importance of this mission. A person from DFS told us that over 900 cases of child abuse were investigated in Laramie County last year and 301 cases so far this year. Wouldn’t it be nice if we didn’t have to do this kind of proclamation? Perhaps one day.
I hope you’re all enjoying this change of season. I feel so energized by the sunshine and warmer weather.
If you have a question for me, send it to media@cheyennecity.org. I’ll continue to answer them in my following Mayor’s Minute column.
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