The Mayor’s Minute from Mayor Patrick Collins – Aug. 22, 2025
Published on August 22, 2025
CHEYENNE – The goal of building more affordable housing in our city is shared by most other communities in the country. We have a developer that has shown interest in building up to 184 affordable housing units in Cheyenne. Deals like this require a public-private partnership of some level. I met with the staff at State Lands and Investments to learn what resources they have and what the timeline would be for any potential help. The great news is there may be some programs this housing project may qualify for. The need for housing in the state will make the application process very competitive, but I can’t imagine a better return on investment for the state dollars.
Judy and I loved the movie, “A Complete Unknown.” It is a story about Bob Dylan’s life in the early 1960s. I love his music, especially the acoustic songs. Friday, his son Jakob brought his band, The Wallflowers, to Fridays on the Plaza. We finally had perfect weather, a huge crowd of up to 9,000 people, and the band absolutely killed it. I knew some of their songs, but today I am a fan of the band. This was the last concert of our 20th season, and I want to say thanks to the City team that makes it happen every Friday during the summer. They are at the park setting up early Friday mornings and work to clean the Depot Plaza until early the next morning. I could not be more proud. The big announcement was a free concert series at the Civic Center that starts in September and goes on for nine months. Look for the winter lineup at Cheyenne Presents.
Saturday was the annual City employee golf tournament, and it was epic. I love to play golf; I just don’t get on the course much these days. Councilman Segrave, former Councilman Beeman, and our recently retired Fire Chief Kopper made the day so much fun. We ended up 8 under par and that was more than our group’s potential. It was nice to play on the Airport Golf Course. The maintenance team has the course in great condition, and I know how hard they work due to the high number of rounds played each week. It felt so good to get on the course and playing with friends made it even better.
Most new jobs created in a community come from existing businesses. LEADS has made business retention and expansion a priority in their strategic plan. It is expensive to recruit new companies. Local companies know the wind blows, it is cold in the winter, and they love it here. Their desire to grow is where most of Cheyenne’s new jobs are created. Doug Wilson called to invite me to the airport to visit a company that currently has more than 20 employees and has plans to expand to 100 in the next couple of years. I was so impressed with the folks working at SMT Aero Structures and the airplanes in different stages of repair filling their hanger. They outlined their future goals, which include building a new hangar to service private jets – an investment that will benefit both the airport and the City of Cheyenne.
Cheyenne hosted the annual Wyoming Solid Waste and Recycling Association conference this week. I welcomed the attendees and thanked them for all they do in our communities. The WSWRA has been instrumental in modernizing landfill operations to make sure groundwater is protected and outdated landfills are closed. I was on City Council when we started the curbside recycling program and I love the idea of finding new uses for recyclable waste instead of putting it in a hole in the ground. It is the right thing to do. I asked the attendees to spend time shopping and leaving a few sales tax dollars behind. I appreciate them holding their conference in Cheyenne.
F.E. Warren Air Force Base welcomed a new commander this summer. Col. Terry Holmes and his wife, Dawn, are happy to be stationed in Cheyenne for the first time. I met with Col. Holmes at the base to check in and talk about progress being made on the Enhanced Use Lease and a proposed parking lot we hope to build on the old golf course. I always enjoy interactions with our military partners. They have unbelievably important and challenging missions yet always find time to welcome the civilian community.
Marcie Kindred is the executive director of the Wyoming AFL-CIO. She brought John Dautriel and Rich Martin to talk about workforce and the needs of contractors building Cheyenne’s new data centers. I learned that plumbers are pipefitters, but pipefitters are not plumbers. John works for one of the contractors who provides pipefitters, and he shared the need for 700 to 900 pipefitters on two projects they have coming soon. Finding enough employees and getting them trained and licensed dominated the conversation. I had no idea it would take 8,500 hours of training experience to become a journeyman pipefitter. A job paying $91,582 before overtime makes the five years of paid apprenticeship worth the effort.
Crusoe and Tallgrass recently announced a large data center project south of Cheyenne. The team stopped by to share more information and answer questions. They are currently in the permit process with the county and DEQ. Crusoe is an integrated AI company, and Tallgrass will take Rocky Mountain natural gas and produce power to run the data center. I appreciate their time educating the community on their plans and being available to answer questions.
Wednesday evening, Cheyenne hosted the Laramie County elected officials’ dinner at the Botanic Gardens. I always love these opportunities to hang out with the other elected officials in the county and share what is going on in our organizations. The gardens are so beautiful again this year. Take a walk through the property, you won’t regret it.
I traveled to Casper again this week with Betsey Hale from LEADS to attend the Legislature’s Revenue Committee interim meeting. They discussed sales tax exemptions, including one that is very critical for Cheyenne. Thirty-six states, including Wyoming, have a sales tax exemption for the purchase of servers and related equipment that goes into the data centers. These servers get refreshed or replaced on average every three years. The legislators are discussing all the exemptions and determining if they make financial sense. I testified how critical this exemption is for Cheyenne and our effort to diversify our local economy. The industry has shared that without this exemption, no new data centers will look at Wyoming, and our existing data centers will look for new locations. The discussion makes sense, and we need to show the legislators the return on the exemption is positive and makes the exemption worth it. We also need to send the data center industry the clear message that Wyoming is open for business by supporting the data center exemption.
School is getting ready to start. I want to remind all drivers it is time to slow down and watch for kids headed to and from school.
###