The Mayor’s Minute from Mayor Patrick Collins – March 20, 2026

Published on March 20, 2026

Cheyenne has a great partner in Black Hills Energy. Since becoming mayor, I have witnessed how critical a good utility partner is to our economic success. Last week, BHE did a ribbon cutting for their Ready Wyoming project. It is a 260-mile transmission line that connects their South Dakota operations with Cheyenne and Wyoming. It was built to help Wyoming take advantage of our energy riches and to help power the growing need for electricity in the Cheyenne area. Black Hills Energy has invested over $350 million on this project, helping to assure Cheyenne’s economic development future.

Judge Ronn Jeffery retired from the Municipal Court at the end of this past year. I asked him to do one more service for our community before he left. He has put together a team to meet the goal of reviewing our juvenile justice laws in Cheyenne. I got an update on their progress this week, and I can report they have been very busy. Our goal is to deliver the team’s report in the next two months. I am thankful Ronn has agreed to lead this effort, and I am looking forward to seeing their results.

Tallgrass has been in the news a lot recently. They have announced a project to build electric generation just south of Cheyenne. Their representative shared some information about the company like their presence in 14 states, with more than 10,000 miles of pipelines carrying natural gas, crude oil, water, and carbon capture. 3,000 miles of the pipelines are in Wyoming. It was interesting to learn about the different technologies they plan to deploy to create the electricity that will one day power data centers, and how they can capture the carbon dioxide and sequester it – technology to protect our air quality. It will take four years to get the power plant constructed. They have a new office downtown, so tell them hi and give them a welcome when you see them.

I asked Erin from the Senior Center what the biggest surprise has been since the new facility opened. She shared that the center has filled up so quickly. They received 900 new applications in the first month and have averaged 200 a month since. Business has been good since the July grand opening, with exercise classes, meal service, and so much more for seniors. The City funded the Senior Center with $100,000 last year, and they hope we will add to that in our current budget consideration. If you are a senior, stop by. The membership is free and the services they provide are very affordable.

Doing a software conversion is not for the faint of heart. When I took office in 2021, you could not buy a business license or get a building permit without coming into the Municipal Building. We have been working to correct that ever since. OpenGov is our software partner on this journey, and we are making progress. Their team was in town this week doing training and meeting with our departments. It is our goal to make it easier to do business with the City, and getting our online game updated is one of the ways we hope will help.

We created the Urban Renewal Authority (URA) early in my first term. The URA has tools like tax increment financing (TIF) to help revitalize areas of our community. One challenge is when a URA property is split, it creates a nightmare for our County Assessor and Treasurer to track the TIF finances. We met with Bret Fanning, who runs the Department of Revenue, and Todd Ernst, our County Assessor, to talk about the challenges and possible solutions. What I learned is we are going to need our legislators’ help to give the Department of Revenue the rule-making authority to navigate the issue. A couple of URA successes are the cleanup of the old Hitching Post Inn area and the construction of a new hotel, the new MHP headquarters on 15th Street, the apartment building under construction downtown on 19th Street, and the new project coming to the Hynds Building and the Hole downtown. I appreciate all the partnerships.

With all the new construction going on in Cheyenne, finding enough people to do the construction is a real challenge. Marcie Kindred from the AFL-CIO and members of IBEW 415 stopped by to talk about what they are doing to help and to see what they can do to support our city. They talked about the success of their apprenticeship program where applicants go to work and get paid from the first day on their way to becoming a journeyman. Data centers are big buildings filled with electrical services, and it takes hundreds of electricians on the team to get each building built. Finding the workforce takes a team effort and I am so appreciative of everyone doing the work.

In our economic development efforts, we often don’t know the name of companies at the beginning of the process. We give them code names so we can identify them until the recruitment process gets to the point where the company lets us know their identity. Project “Stampede” is a project looking at a possible development on the eastern part of the Belvoir Ranch. It has been a City Council goal to develop parts of the ranch not planned for recreation, water development, or potential future landfill uses. More to come in the future.

One of our challenges of having a growing community is to recruit and keep our workforce. With growth comes more competition for employees. Keeping informed on the current market pay bands and compensation for employees is a full-time job and is critical to keeping a stable workforce. While we are working on the budget, we are also discussing these challenges and how to address them. As with any business or government, finding the resources to keep up is the challenge. We have a great team and are working hard to make sure employees are properly compensated.

We are in the final week of our negotiations with the fire union on their new contract. I have learned a lot over the years going through this process and this year is the same. Trying to compare firefighter compensation packages of our peer communities, where each funds their fire departments differently, and comparing the different cost of living indexes, has made this year especially difficult. While it has been frustrating for everyone involved, we have continued to talk, and I think we are finally understanding the math. Hoping to get a contract finalized next week.

It is nice to see the wind calm down. I know many of us will be cleaning up this weekend. Please be careful. Cleaning up downed trees and repairing roofs can be dangerous. At least we should have nice weather to support our efforts!