The Mayor’s Minute from Mayor Patrick Collins – Aug. 29, 2025
Published on August 29, 2025
“Whiskey is for drinking; water is for fighting over,” is an often heard saying throughout the West. By now, most of you know that Cheyenne has great water resources with enough water to support the next 40 years of growth. Our challenge is the decades-long drought that has plagued the Colorado River drainage that supplies two-thirds of Cheyenne’s water supply. It is widely expected the river will reach the critical level where junior water right holders like Cheyenne may be prevented from taking water from the river. Since I became mayor, the Board of Public Utilities and I have been working to find new water resources that will help the city get through a curtailment and give us a runway to continue growing into the future. We met again this week to review our options and the movement toward our goal of protecting Cheyenne’s families and small businesses. The good news is though nothing has been signed yet, progress is being made. I appreciate the team at BOPU and the work being done to find a solution.
Our Governing Body meeting on Monday evening was a short one. One topic that did receive comments and discussion was an ordinance that came from City Council’s goal of slowing down traffic and quieting noisy vehicles. We have an ordinance on second reading that will codify state law and has an increasing penalty for repeated noise offenders in a year. Council members shared that one of the most common complaints they receive comes from residents who find the disruption from vehicle noise ruining their quality of life. Other folks enjoy their vehicles, with some stock cars and trucks designed with loud exhaust systems and others have modified their vehicles causing them to be much louder. They say it is their art form, and they are opposed to the proposed ordinance. We postponed the ordinance to give time for more conversation. The understanding I came away from the meeting with was a willingness by Council to further discuss the issue while also being dedicated to doing something to prevent the negative effects on quality of life caused by loud vehicles. I wish ordinances like this were not necessary, but too many people are not respectful of others.
My time this week has been dominated with conversations about data centers and our need to answer the question raised by the Legislature’s Joint Revenue Committee as to the return on investment received by state and local governments from data center operations. Currently, data centers that make significant capital investments to create their operation get an exemption from sales taxes when they spend at least $2 million annually on servers and related expenses. The committee is asking the right question: “Is the state and local government getting a good bang for the bucks of sales tax exemptions given?” I have spent hours this week to prove what I know to be true – the bang for our buck is huge and is making a transformative impact in Cheyenne and our state. I have been so appreciative that everyone I have talked with understands the question being asked by the Revenue Committee and is willing to help provide the information necessary to provide the answer.
A treat this week: lunch with Councilman Ken Esquibel. I graduated high school the same year as Ken, so we have known each other for many years. It was nice to have time to talk about challenges and opportunities in our city. I appreciate his taking time to share a great lunch at the Albany and his thoughts on how we can work together to improve Cheyenne.
Another first for me this week: the administrator of the EPA was in Cheyenne and wanted to discuss President Trump’s initiative to build AI capability in the U.S. Administrator Lee Zeldin leads the EPA and was joined by his Region 8 Administrator, Wyoming’s own Cyrus Western. They wanted to learn more about the AI data center business and the regulatory barriers data centers face. Senator Lummis was there and did an amazing job of outlining the challenges and opportunities for Wyoming. Representatives from the recently announced Tallgrass/Crusoe project that is a collaboration between a power company, Tallgrass, and an AI infrastructure developer, Crusoe, were there to share the size and scale of their project. I appreciated Administrator Zeldin’s interest in the regulatory challenges and his ideas on how EPA can help the industry answer the national challenge to bring more AI computing capacity online at the speed of business.
After the meeting was my first tour of the Microsoft data center we call “Bison” located just off South Greeley Highway in south Cheyenne. The building we visited is a quarter of mile long and 250,000 square feet in size. The EPA team, Senator Lummis, and I were treated to a tour of this huge facility. We talked about the amount of electricity a data center campus uses, and our tour guide gave us an illustration that blew me away. New York City uses 11 gigawatt hours of electricity a day. The six buildings that will comprise the Bison campus will use 6 gigawatt hours of electricity a day. Wow! I can’t believe this compact data center campus uses more than half of the electricity of our nation’s largest city. It will take 1.4 million man hours of labor to complete the one building we were touring. The Microsoft team were great hosts, and I appreciate them making the tour happen for the EPA team and our Senator.
Our three-year contract with the Animal Shelter ends on June 30, 2026. This relationship goes back decades, and I appreciate what they do to help take care of the animals in Cheyenne and Laramie County. We contract with them to take care of the animals picked up by Animal Control and help reunite them with their families or find new adoptive families. Our last contract conversations struggled due to a disagreement about what services should be paid for in the contract. The City and County love the services but have limited tax dollars. We can’t pay for everything requested. Britney from the Animal Shelter proposed a new accounting method that addressed many of the concerns and I am excited that we are on the right track to a new agreement. Commissioner Malm and I will continue to meet with the shelter until we find common ground and agree on a new contract. The animals deserve it.
Folks, I am so excited about the new college football season. Thursday was my 43rd anniversary and it was also the first game for the University of Wyoming and the University of Nebraska – my two favorite teams. That posed a serious problem: take the love of my life to a celebratory dinner or watch football. I have the greatest wife; she turned on the TV and we will have dinner this weekend. I am blessed but may pay for this one for a while. Go Pokes and Huskers!