The Mayor’s Minute from Mayor Patrick Collins – Feb. 28, 2025

Published on February 28, 2025

This week started off with a couple of inspiring events that Judy and I attended. February is Black History Month, and a youth group presented a play and program at Holy Temple Church. I counted 28 kids singing and performing and we were so impressed with their performances. The play was about the stolen history of African American inventors who made an incredible impact on our society and economy. It was an impressive list.

That evening, we attended the Tacos and Tequila fundraiser for the Comea Shelter at the city-owned Beast Facility. Comea’s mission to help the unhoused people in our community makes a huge difference, and it was so gratifying to see hundreds of people there helping support their mission. The chefs from the shelter cooked the meal and the homemade sauces were amazing. I am excited to use a guided fly-fishing trip we bought in the auction. I always thought I would learn to fly fish when I retired, but I guess I am getting a head start on the lessons. Cheyenne is amazing in how we support our non-profits like on Saturday evening. Thank you!

Meetings with the fire union continued Sunday and Monday as we worked to find common ground on a new contract. The good news is after our city council meeting, the City and union met for our first official negotiation meeting and in 38 minutes, reached a deal. It is amazing when both sides spend time together and work to understand each other. Our firefighters’ mission of service to our community is on display every day. It is nice to get the business part of that relationship behind us and focus on that mission.

“Safety Mike” has worked for the city for the past 18 years. Mike Wilkinson served as our safety officer, and we celebrated his retirement this week. Generations of new employees went to orientations taught by Safety Mike. While we will miss Mike, he will be busy as the new chairman of the Contract Acts Committee at Frontier Days. Mike, you are appreciated, sir.

I watch the news differently since being elected mayor. Tragedies, like the fires in California, and terrorist events, like the recent vehicle homicides in New Orleans, weigh heavy on my mind. This week, I met with the leadership of the Police Department, Homeland Security, Emergency Management, and Community Recreation & Events to talk about how we can improve the security of our open-air events like the CFD parade, Christmas Parade, Fridays on the Plaza, and so many more fun events we have in our city. Captain Keslar presented a plan of how we could lock down these kinds of events to prevent a vehicle from entering the areas and causing injuries. We have a demonstration of the barriers scheduled later in March. I appreciate how quickly our team has developed this plan and demonstration.

The legislative session continues, and I testified before the Minerals Committee on HB 202. This bill deals with the timelines for cities and counties to issue building permits. The bill does bring up an issue we need to discuss, and I hope we will spend time leading up to next year’s legislative session finding solutions. Giving our development community a predictable expectation of how long building permits will take is something we need to provide, but this bill treated simple single-family homes the same as complicated data centers for the issuance of a building permit. We need to find a way to differentiate between categories and establish reasonable timelines for each of them. The Minerals Committee tabled the bill for this year.

We meet with many developers because their projects are affected by the city, including some that are in the county. We had one of those this week. This developer’s land is on the border of the city and to get a permit for a septic system, they need city and county approvals. This process for a septic system is called a 201 Exception. Because they are eligible for annexation in the future, the expectation is they will hook up to water and sewer services. The 201 Exception allows for a septic system if there is financial hardship caused by the requirement to connect to municipal services. In the end, city council will make the decision.

I am still a bit surprised by the huge interest and investment data center companies are making in our city. With the increased development comes an increase in the workload for our building department. I met with the chief building official to look at the department’s future workload and determine if we have enough inspectors to keep up. The short answer is no. We have four different professions that we inspect: plumbing, electrical, building, and mechanical/HVAC. We need to build up the number of building and electrical inspectors. I am a bit surprised, but definitely pleased, with the investment in our community.

LEADS hosted a meeting on the topic of “Putting Assets to Work.” Their consultant helps cities, counties, and states evaluate the highest and best uses of public properties. After the meeting, I am so excited by the potential of this concept to have a transformative impact on our city and county. I have no idea where this will end up, but identifying properties that could be developed for housing, recreation, and commercial development, and then getting those properties master planned and ready for investment will jumpstart the process.

Minister Counselor Markus Teglas from the German Embassy and Honorary Consul Chadwick Williams from Denver visited this week. Judy and I visited Germany this fall, and it was fun to compare our visit and impressions to his of America. These diplomatic visits are not something I expected when I was elected, but I really enjoy meeting people from different countries. It makes my desire to travel even stronger.

The highlight of this week was the ribbon cutting for our new gymnastics facility. We have had a waiting list for kids wanting to enter our program for years. Our new gymnastics building is 30,000 square feet and will handle the 522 athletes we currently have in the program, let the 100 on the waiting list participate, and allow the program to double in size. We are adding a cheerleading program to give more kids an opportunity to increase their skills. Coach Shannon and her team have developed an amazing program, and this new building will give thousands of gymnasts and cheerleaders a great experience for decades to come.

The Wyoming Association of Municipalities hosted “Lunch with Locals” at the Capitol on Thursday. It is an opportunity for elected mayors and city council members to meet with legislators. I enjoyed my discussion with Reps. Gary Brown from Cheyenne and JT Larson from Rock Springs. There is a 50-year difference in their ages, and it was fun to listen to them discuss the issues. I appreciated Rep. Brown for giving me a tour of the House Chambers. There is one week left in this year’s legislative session and I appreciate the time and effort required by our legislators and their willingness to share their time with me.