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

Published on September 06, 2024

My week started off with a tour of the YMCA. Chris Coker is the CEO of the Y, and we wanted to see the great improvements they have made to the facility and hear the plans for their planned upgrade to the building. The Y has needed a facelift for a long time now and I am excited to hear they have made plans to make it happen. A vibrant Y is an important part of life for so many members of our community. My boys grew up playing sports at the Y and my visit brought back so many good memories.

We attended a roundtable chat to discuss passenger rail again this week. Getting the Front Range Passenger Rail from Colorado to Cheyenne would be so amazing. The group also discussed plans for long distance passenger rail that could make stops in Cheyenne. Colorado has made great progress in their efforts to create a passenger rail system from Pueblo to Fort Collins. Getting it extended to Cheyenne is our main goal.

The Lions Club held the Whipper Snapper Fun Run for kids ages 3-12 on Labor Day. Kids ran for the fun of it and to raise money for the Jason’s Friends Foundation. The Foundation raises money to support families whose children have cancer. Commissioner Malm and I were honored to cheer for the runners and present them with their finisher medals. I loved the kids’ enthusiasm and energy. I only wish to be blessed with some of it again.

We have talked about the Children’s Museum for a decade now. My dad and I toured the museum currently under construction. While it is not ready for prime time, I was so excited by what we saw. The dedicated board members have worked so hard to raise the money to bring this dream to fruition, I can only imagine the pride of accomplishment they must feel seeing the progress made so far. I can’t wait to take my grandkids to visit and play. Look for the grand opening at the end of the year.

The United Way is getting ready to start their campaign again this year. The campaign chairs for this year are Trent and Tanya Keller. They stopped by to talk about the challenges all nonprofits are facing today. Since Covid, many nonprofits have seen a 50 percent decrease in donations. As I think about our community, I can’t imagine it without the Boys and Girls Club, Comea, Safe House, CASA, Bethel Outreach Ministries, Healthworks, Meals on Wheels, Recover Wyoming, Safe Harbor, ASK, Foster Grandparent, Needs, Youth Alternatives, Climb Wyoming, Habitat for Humanity, My Front Door, Family Promise, and the Unaccompanied Student Initiative – all supported by United Way. I know things are expensive and it is getting harder financially, but if you can, please think about how your donations can make such a huge difference in the ability of these agencies to survive. Thank you!

I learned just how busy our Municipal Court is. Last year 6,398 cases were sent to our court for prosecution. Some defendants just pay the ticket, but many still want to avail themselves of their constitutional rights. We discussed the need to hire more staff and the challenges of finding attorneys with prosecutor experience. We have a great team and we will continue to build our capacity.

Mike Martin is the chairman of the WCDA and an advocate for affordable housing in our state. It was kind of him to spend some time with me to discuss what the WCDA is doing to support our housing efforts. We also talked about what the free market is doing to build more housing, too. It is a tough nut to crack but good people are focused on finding the solutions.

I want to share a secret with you. I have been studying Spanish for over a year now. My goal was to be able to give a speech in Spanish celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month. I did my best to give the opening to a city proclamation proclaiming Sept. 15 to Oct. 15 as Hispanic Heritage Month in Spanish. It was a bit bumpy, but I got through it. I was a bit intimidated by the CHISPA group of Spanish speakers who were with me to celebrate the proclamation. They were so supportive and made it fun. If you have time, come out to the Depot on Saturday and help celebrate our community’s Hispanic heritage.

I was fortunate to have lunch with Councilmen Laybourn and Segrave this week. I always enjoy the opportunity to share a meal and discuss our great city. It is interesting how different people see things so differently, and it is definitely true here. I took good notes, and we will follow up with them once I have had a chance to look into their observations. Life would be boring if we all thought the same.

One of the best partnerships the city has is with WYDOT. Some the roads in the city are actually state roads: Central Avenue, Warren Avenue, Lincolnway, and College Drive are a few good examples. WYDOT is responsible for most of the maintenance and controls the access to the right of ways. We met this week to discuss our critical neighborhood speed ordinance and how it might be used on some of these state roads. What I admire is WYDOT has a process they live by – they have to when considering the incredible miles of roads they are responsible for. For me as a local mayor, that process is sometimes hard when a neighborhood looks to you for help with issues like neighborhood speeding on state roads. As I said last week, you expect us to work together to solve problems and we are doing that.

Thursday evening, I traveled with Dr. Rinne and Amber to Laramie for the Wyoming Association of Municipalities regional meeting. The highlight of the meeting was the opportunity to meet our new WAM executive director, Ashley Harpstreith. WAM represents 98 cities and towns from across the state representing almost 70 percent of our state’s population. Rep. Trey Sherwood from Laramie gave us an update on pending legislation and communities from the region updated the group on what is new. I am excited to welcome Ashley to our team and look forward to working with her.

I am writing this week’s edition as the Kansas City Chiefs/Baltimore Ravens game is playing. I do love this time of year when even my Broncos are still relevant.