The Mayor’s Minute from Mayor Patrick Collins – Dec. 6, 2024

Published on December 06, 2024

I really love spending time in the kitchen, and Thanksgiving is awesome because I get to spend lots of time cooking and enjoying it with family. We play a lot of cards, and for once I was the winner (bragging rights until next year!). I hope everyone spent the holiday doing what makes you happy, especially if you got to be in the kitchen.

The Saturday after Thanksgiving is historically the date of the Cheyenne Christmas Parade. For a number of years now, our Greater Cheyenne Chamber of Commerce has organized this holiday tradition. I get to ride in the parade each year and this year, the crowd was amazing. I think the nice weather had something to do with the big numbers. Judy and I got to ride in a brand-new electric F-150 pickup from Ken Garff Ford. I want to thank the Chamber, sponsors, and all the community groups who put together a float. The parade lasted well over an hour and was amazing. I especially loved the kids’ excitement. It was a great evening!

There are 312 fire departments in the world that have received accreditation by the Commission on Fire Accreditation International. Cheyenne Fire Rescue has spent the past four years preparing to become accredited. As you can surmise from the very small number of departments that have achieved accreditation, it is a tough process. Sunday evening, I had dinner with members of our CFR accreditation team and three members of the outside team sent to review our accreditation application. I think the best part of this exercise is it required our department to look internally at our strengths and weaknesses and to develop plans to improve our response to community risks identified throughout the process. We learned we were doing many things well; they just were not written down. Thursday afternoon, the accreditation team notified CFR that they will be recommending Cheyenne Fire Rescue be accredited by the Commission at their meeting in April. Our CFR team will head to Orlando for that meeting and their final interview. I could not be prouder of our department and the men and women who spent approximately 18,000 hours getting ready for this day. Our team is exhausted and euphoric.

Many communities have struggled with racism, and Cheyenne is no exception. I met with Autumn to discuss her concerns for Cheyenne and especially the children of color in our schools. It saddens me that kids in our community face struggles because of things they can’t change, like the color of their skin. I love Cheyenne and I know the vast majority of our residents find racist behavior abhorrent. My conversation with Autumn reinforced my desire that every Cheyenne resident feels welcome in our community. If we are going to build a workforce to grow our economy, we will need to be welcoming to all kinds of folks.

A highlight for me this week was joining Councilman Laybourn for lunch at his office. We don’t get to do this often enough, so we had a long list of things to discuss. Parking, landscaping downtown, bronze sculptures, sidewalks, and the DDA were on the list. I am excited we have four more years to serve together.

The city has a Human Services Advisory Committee that contracts with United Way of Laramie County to help us invest the money we dedicate from 5th Penny sales tax collections. This week we met to make an additional investment in the organizations we have contracted with to help with homelessness, education, food insecurity, and more. I am proud of the work United Way is doing for the city and county to help the less fortunate in our community.

We are getting close to starting our budget process for our next fiscal year that begins in July. It takes six months to get our budget completed. I met with the Police Protective Association this week to discuss their thoughts and concerns going into the next year. The Legislature increased the required contribution both the officers and City must make into the retirement fund. We discussed how the increased contribution will decrease officers’ take-home pay and potential solutions. We also talked about our growing community and the need for our department staffing levels to keep up. Hiring officers has been a challenge and we talked about ideas to attract more applicants.

Speaking of police officers, Michie Sekerka retired this week after over 23 years of service to our city. A huge crowd showed up to congratulate Michie and wish him well. Thank you, sir, for your service to Cheyenne.

This week’s new city council member orientation was with the Planning Department. Our Planning Director, Charles Bloom, MPO Director Chris Yaney, and Senior Planner Seth Lloyd spent 90 minutes talking about their departments and answering questions. It was impressive to hear them describe their core functions, describe the planning functions, explain the UDC, introduce the 10 boards and commissions they are responsible for, and introduce the timelines for planning activities. They handled 1,470 development actions during the year – that is six per day. It is a very busy and important department in our city. I think our new city council members left with a better understanding of our planning functions.

The Red Cross is an organization you probably don’t think about until tragedy strikes. Janet Lewis came by to talk about the unbelievable demands all the natural disasters have placed on the Red Cross and their ability to meet the demands. They are working to help communities become more prepared to handle these kinds of disasters. I appreciated her visit and the Red Cross choosing Cheyenne for their attention and mentoring.

I love time away from the office to visit city projects. Thursday, our CRE director took us to inspect the progress being made at the historic depot. The back patio is getting attention to make it a desirable addition to the rest of the building with a new decorative fence, concrete, and brick pavers being installed. Inside the building, a café is being built. In the new year, the first-floor bathrooms will be reconstructed. By spring, the building will be ready with a new facelift. We also discussed the next phase that might see the second and third floors get new carpet and paint, and some concrete replaced. It is hard to believe it has been 25 years since we took over the depot.

We also toured the construction progress being made at our new gymnastics building. Walking through the building, it looked almost finished. The building is painted and next is the installation of gymnastics flooring and equipment. The ribbon cutting is going to be epic.

Wishing everyone a great weekend.