The Mayor’s Minute from Mayor Patrick Collins – July 3, 2026
Published on July 03, 2026
Judy and I took a few days off for vacation and I would like to thank Councilman Tom Segrave and City Engineer Tom Cobb for writing articles in my absence. I was impressed by how busy City Council has been over the past few weeks and appreciated Engineer Cobb updating us on our pavement management program. I know we hate seeing traffic cones and the delays that come with summertime construction. I also know we hate potholes and the damage they can cause even more. It is good to be home.
City Council held a work session to discuss our juvenile justice ordinances. As Judge Ronn Jeffery was retiring from the Municipal Court, I asked him to provide one more service to our community – to chair a group to review all our juvenile ordinances and propose new ones based on best practices. He was joined by Dr. Bailey, Principal Karen Brooks-Lyons, and former City Attorney Dan White to present their work. The big takeaway for me was the desire to treat kids differently than adults, diversion over incarceration, confidentiality, and trying to keep a mistake made as a juvenile from haunting them as an adult. Their recommendations are now in our City Attorney’s Office for review and formatting. The Governing Body is looking forward to the upcoming discussion.
Fridays on the Plaza is in its 21st season of providing free music at the Depot Plaza. Uncle Kracker’s performance brought 8,000 music lovers downtown. The crowd sang every word of “Follow Me,” “Drift Away,” and “All Summer Long,” a song he cowrote with Kid Rock. I loved it! I want to remind everyone of the City staff that works so hard to bring these kind of events to our community. They are there early in the morning setting up the stage and getting everything ready, then helping the band get loaded in and set up for sound check and hosting 8,000 music loving fans for a few hours with a focus on keeping everyone safe and having a great time. After the show, they reverse the process and tear it all down. They also clean up the Depot Plaza, getting it ready for the next day and our downtown visitors. This week was especially challenging as they also had to move the stage to Lions Park for Superday. It is impressive that we just show up and everything is in place and ready for us to have a great time. I know and appreciate the great work of our team and want to share that appreciation.
Speaking of Superday, it was held last Saturday. Again, the City had 300 employees there setting up, supporting, and tearing down the event. I swear that half our residents were there enjoying the displays, food trucks, music, and a great summer day. Superday is a celebration of our city parks and Saturday was epic. Thanks to staff and everyone who staffed a booth, served food, and entertained the crowds.
We know Black Hills Energy provides our community with natural gas and electricity. How that electricity is created is something I got to see on a tour of the Cheyenne Prairie Generating Station. It is a 132-megawatt, natural gas fired power plant located east of Cheyenne. I learned it has three generating units, manufactured by GE, and based on the engines you find on a 737 jet. One is a simple turbine, and the other two are combined cycle turbines. The combined cycle turbines take the heat produced and use it to heat water into steam - a secondary generation process that produces more electricity. A few observations about this 12-year-old power plant: it was a lot quieter than I expected; there is a real focus on safety - it has containment basins surrounding everything that could leak to protect the environment; the control room was impressive with rows of TVs that allow them to not only monitor this plant, but also plants in Gillette and South Dakota; and the combined cycle turbines use a closed loop system to recirculate the water used to make steam – reducing water usage. I appreciate the invitation to tour the power plant and the opportunity to understand the way a natural gas power plant works. It was an interesting day.
The City received a gift from Dallas Tyrrell this week in honor of our nation’s 250th birthday. He wanted to ensure each of our more than 20 city facilities has a brand-new flag to fly on July 4. What a thoughtful and timely gift. Our facility team will make sure they are all properly flown on Independence Day.
Our new Chief Building Official, a large housing developer, and I met to discuss the City’s Building Division. I learned a lot from the meeting and potential ways we can run different processes concurrently to save the development community time in the permitting process. We are blessed to have a number of quality home builders working in Cheyenne to help us meet our increasing housing demand.
Cheyenne bought the Belvoir Ranch in 2003 for water resources and to secure a future landfill site. The plan was always to add recreational components in the future. We cut the ribbon on the new trail system Wednesday evening. At least 100 people showed up with their mountain bikes, running shoes, or to hike the trails. These trails are part of City Council’s commitment to adding quality of life projects for our community, and it will also strengthen our economy by welcoming visitors who will stay in our hotels, eat in our restaurants, and support our small businesses. This project was a passion project for our late colleague, councilman Scott Roybal. His family was there to celebrate the trails and to see the plaque placed there in his honor.
The Belvoir trail system can be accessed by taking the Harriman Road exit on I-80 (exit 342) and heading south three miles to Old Quary Road, and then it is a four mile drive to the trailhead. You will find 14 different loops that range from .13 of a mile to the longest at 3.17 miles. There is even a Universal Access Trail for folks with disabilities.
Our Capitol City Bronze project is now up to 94 bronzes either installed or being sculpted. Thursday morning, we dedicated “Echoes: Wyoming at America 250” – four amazing bronze panels that depict different eras of the land that became the state of Wyoming. These panels are located on Capitol Avenue between 22nd and 21st streets. This is the capstone for our 250th committee – Diane Prunty, Randy Rhodes, Tom Bass, Ruthanne Hubbard, Sean Ambrose, and chaired by Nathaniel Trelease – that has planned for more than two years for our America 250th celebration. Nathaniel and I talked early about leaving something substantial behind to commemorate the 250th. These panels will not only do that but be there when our nation celebrates our 300th! The panels were donated by Greg Dyekman, Tad Herz from the Buckeye Ranch, Bob & Karen Womack, and April Brimmer Kunz. Amazing generosity!
So many people have worked hard and volunteered to make this weekend’s semiquincentennial happen. I can’t thank them enough and hope to see you at one or more of the scheduled events. The July 4 festivities start with a parade downtown at 9 a.m. followed by events and music throughout the day and ending with a fireworks show at the State Capitol around 9:40 p.m. Happy Birthday, America!