The Mayor’s Minute from Mayor Patrick Collins – Dec. 12, 2025
Published on December 12, 2025
A Cheyenne holiday tradition is the Women’s Civic League’s Christmas House. Judy was asked to cut the ribbon opening this year’s house and I got to tag along. It is amazing that a family moves out of their home and the WCL takes it over and creates a holiday shopping extravaganza filled with homemade gifts and treats. The proceeds are given to worthy community groups by the Women’s Civic League. In fact, they have given over $1.5 million to make our community better over the years. We shopped after the ribbon cutting and came home with many treasures. Judy collects Santas (and we found a few!) and we tried some of the best banana bread we have ever had. Cheyenne is blessed with so many groups and individuals dedicated to helping our community. Thank you, Women’s Civic League, for helping me get into the Christmas spirit and for the tradition of Christmas House.
Tallgrass and Crusoe have announced a partnership that will result in a multi-billion-dollar investment in our community. During an update meeting this week I asked about their program for hiring local small businesses. It was exciting to hear they have a robust initiative to hire locally. The project will start in the new year, and this is an opportunity for local contractors to help with construction, food service to feed the team each day, and cleaning services, to name a few. All kinds of services will be needed. Working with LEADS, we will work to get our local small businesses on their approved list. Hiring local businesses means those dollars spent stay in our community, so I am excited by the opportunity provided by Tallgrass and Crusoe’s investment.
Dr. Joe Schaffer from LCCC gave an update on the school at a City Council work session last Friday. Since Covid, colleges have struggled getting students on campus. That is not true of LCCC as they have seen an increase every year since the pandemic. They set a record with 715 students graduating and receiving 976 certificates. One thing I hear from local businesses looking to expand and new businesses wanting to make Cheyenne home is how important LCCC is to their success due to the college’s workforce training efforts. Training our health care workforce, supporting the trades, helping our high school students jump start their education, and supporting our economic development efforts are all hallmarks of LCCC. I am thankful we have Dr. Schaffer and his team at LCCC contributing to Cheyenne and Laramie County.
We had a meeting this week with our fire department and the architects designing our next fire stations. I wanted an update on any changes they recommended from the new stations we just completed. I learned a couple of small changes were made in the new design to help the firefighters sleep better at night and to help increase protection of firefighters from the environmental contaminants they are exposed to fighting fires. We only build fire stations every 40 or 50 years so we want to make sure we have the design right.
I have talked about an upcoming affordable housing project for a while now. Using Low Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC) to build affordable housing comes with restrictions from the federal government. We learned that the required cash deposits for utilities negatively affect how much housing can be built. The developer and Black Hills Energy (BHE) met this week to find a way to protect ratepayers from the risk if the developer does not build the housing after the utility makes the necessary upgrades to their system to support the project. I really appreciate the partner we have in BHE and their willingness to work with us to find a creative solution. 184 affordable housing units will make a huge dent in our housing shortage, and it will take a real team effort to make it happen.
The City’s Municipal Building was built in the late 1970s and it’s showing its age. Voters already approved 6th Penny funding to plan the remodel of the building in preparation for the next 6th Penny sales tax. We met with the design team to get an update on their progress and to discuss how we will handle the construction if the remodel is approved in the next election. Closing the building for 18 months for construction will take some serious coordination. I have been frustrated with the building as we have had to close it a few times due to old infrastructure and the potential health challenges for our employees. I am excited to see the plan when they have it completed.
I have asked Sen. Lummis for help in finding a way to make building affordable housing easier in Cheyenne and Wyoming. There is just not enough money available to build enough affordable housing to close the need gap. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) sends $3.5 million to Wyoming annually, which allows around 100 to 120 affordable units a year to be built statewide. Getting a “Difficult to Develop” designation would add 30% to the available funding we could dedicate to affordable housing, and getting a qualified Census tract reinstated would do the same thing. I appreciate Sen. Lummis and her staff for taking housing seriously and looking at helping Cheyenne and Wyoming get such a designation. It would have a huge impact.
Cheyenne has applied for a Business Ready Grant from the Wyoming Business Council (WBC) that would help purchase the land a 184-unit affordable housing project would be built on. Part of the grant process is a site visit with the WBC staff. I enjoyed the back and forth with the staff and the opportunity to share our goal to meet the housing challenge. The next steps are to present before the WBC Board of Directors in February and the State Land and Investment Board in April. Fingers crossed they will agree and help fund our goal.
The Cheyenne National Cemetery is running out of room, and they have asked for additional land from the City. We met this week to begin that process for an additional five acres we own just south of their current site. It is such a beautiful place, and they have an important mission for our veterans. Hoping we can help!
The Governing Body held a public hearing on Wednesday evening to share the projects we have proposed for the next 6th Penny sales tax and to give the public an opportunity to comment on our projects and propose new ones. Chief of Staff Amber Ash did a great job giving an overview of each project and I appreciated the public coming to share their thoughts. Our list of projects is long and is valued at almost $125 million. The county commission has allocated $74.25 million for City projects so we will have the tough job of whittling down the list to fit the available budget. The 6th Penny is the only way our communities can fund major infrastructure projects and the support of Laramie County voters has been amazing. We look forward to more public meetings to share our proposed projects in the future and get your input. You can also take a survey about the proposed projects at http://connect.cheyennecity.org/6thPennySurvey.
The Cheyenne Symphony Orchestra came by the Municipal Building and played Christmas carols. I am always so impressed with the talent of the musicians. This year the music affected me differently and I found my Christmas spirit lifted even more. Thank you!