The Mayor’s Minute from Mayor Patrick Collins – Oct. 10, 2025
Published on October 10, 2025
City Council held a work session last Friday to discuss the 6th Penny sales tax and how it might be used to continue efforts to improve our fire department. In the last 6th Penny sales tax ballot, voters approved building three new fire stations and upgrading three fire engines and one ladder truck. The impact on our department has been amazing. Fire Chief Dykshorn shared what the department hopes to accomplish with the next ballot.
The lead time to replace fire engines is now four years and getting longer, and a front-line fire engine has a life expectancy of around 10 years. We are hoping to purchase two fire engines and one quint. A quint has a ladder, making it easier for our department to protect taller buildings. With the new apartment buildings going up, it will help the department protect our community. We need to get the engines ordered before our current engines become too old to serve.
We are also in the planning stages for replacing two fire stations that would complete our effort to maximize our response. Station 2 is currently on Fox Farm Road. We purchased land to relocate this station a mile south on College Drive. With the growth of both housing and commercial property in South Cheyenne, we need to move the station closer to that growth. We also are planning to move Station 6, which is currently across the street from McCormick Jr. High School, to land we purchased on Powderhouse Road. It is my goal to finish our department modernization before my time as mayor is finished.
The next 6th Penny ballot will be in 2026, and we will continue our work sessions to educate our council members and the public. I hope the voters will continue their support for public safety in Cheyenne.
F.E. Warren Air Force Base has an honorary commander program where members of the business community are matched with leaders on the base. I am blessed to be the honorary commander for the Mission Support Group and its commander, Col. Brown. We had an informal gathering hosted by the base commander, Col. Holmes. I really enjoy getting to meet and interact with the folks on the base.
The big news this week has been Related Digital and the amazing investment they are making in Cheyenne. I joined Gov. Gordon, Related Companies CEO Jeff Blau, and a hundred guests for the groundbreaking for their new data center. Preparing for the event took me back to 1997 and the Progress and Prosperity campaign we held to privately raise $1.2 million to install the infrastructure that would make the Cheyenne Business Park marketable. The dream at that time was to attract companies that would diversify our economy and tax base. That same Cheyenne Business Park was expanded to accommodate Related Digital’s new development with a first phase valued at $1.2 billion. I never dreamed that almost 30 years later, the work done by so many to establish that business park would be home to developments like this.
Mr. Blau talked about how the industry has innovated to allow this new data center to operate without using water for cooling. The project will need 900 people from the trades to construct, and 40 permanent jobs will give our kids and grandkids the option make their careers in Cheyenne.
At the end of his comments, Mr. Blau went off script for an announcement. We had supper the night before and he asked me what Cheyenne’s challenges are. I shared my concerns about water and affordable housing and how we have a developer who is willing to build a $50 million, 184-unit affordable housing project, but we are struggling to find the $3.5 million in local funds to make the project happen. Related Companies are one of the largest builders of affordable housing in the country, so he understood the need and our challenge. At the end of his comments, Mr. Blau announced that Related Companies were donating $3.5 million to make sure this housing project happens. For the first time since I was elected mayor, I was speechless. What an amazing day, a transformative development, and a gift that will improve the quality of life for 184 families. Thank you!
I was elected to the Wyoming Association of Municipalities board of directors earlier this summer. My first board meeting was held in Pinedale this week and I carpooled with Councilman Rinne and Pine Bluffs Councilwoman Allie Leitza. WAM is made up of all 99 cities and towns across our state and is broken down into 7 regions. Each region elects members to the board. I enjoyed the orientation and learned that WAM has served our communities since 1928 and that 68% of Wyoming’s residents live in our municipalities. Most of Wyoming’s communities are very small. In fact, I think adding up the smallest 80 towns’ population would barely add up to Cheyenne’s population. Speaking with the mayors of small towns on the board about their struggle to provide the financial and bookkeeping service we take for granted, I was happy to learn that WAM will provide a service where small towns can hire a fractional treasurer to provide expertise not available in their town. It will help with grant management, state financial reports, and provide financial data to their city councils. I expected a bit of tension between the larger cities and smaller towns but what I learned is we all share the same challenges: finding the resources to fund our operations, finding quality employees and being able to pay them appropriately, and none of us have enough attainable housing. I think I am going to love this opportunity. Expanding the network of people I can reach out to and discuss how they handle challenges we face will be fun and informative.
My favorite time of year is the warm days of summer and early fall. I love getting outside. I dread the cold and windy days of winter. You would think after all these years I would get used to living in the cold. Not yet! One challenge in Cheyenne is building enough indoor recreation so we can stay active in the cold times. I met with a team that is trying to build a large indoor recreation facility that would help meet that need. The need is important for our quality of life and from an economic development point of view. The cost of building these facilities makes it a real challenge for the City and private sector. We bought the Beast Recreation Facility a couple of years ago and we thought it would handle all our needs for the foreseeable future. Today, the Beast is so busy every day that we need more gym space. The good news is that it means we are serving more kids in our programs than ever before. We have been so blessed with a great fall again this year. Hope it lasts!