The Mayor’s Minute from Mayor Patrick Collins – May 16, 2025

Published on May 16, 2025

These past few weeks have been some of the busiest times of my time as mayor. I’m not sure why the schedule is this full, but being this busy has been fun. One constant item has been the ongoing budget process. Every day over the lunch hour we have City Council work sessions where each department discusses their operations and budget request. I am proud of the quality presentations and information they have shared. The next step will be the Committee of the Whole meeting on May 21 where City Council will discuss the full budget for the first time.

I had coffee with an old friend, Pat Crank, to discuss development in our downtown area. Taking old buildings, restoring them and bringing them back to a new life is hard. Our state’s rules make it even harder than some of our neighboring states as they limit how public resources can be used to help with these projects. I enjoy Pat’s experience and perspective. Cheyenne’s downtown has some amazing buildings, helping to see them restored is the goal.

Wyoming’s economy is lagging behind our neighboring states; the numbers clearly show it. What we have learned is the lack of a workforce is one big component and that is in part due to the lack of housing. I have been meeting with the Wyoming Business Council to lobby for changing their rules to include helping build more housing in the state. Many of the builders we are working with to build affordable housing need some local help to make the projects work financially. If we are going to build enough housing to have a positive impact on our workforce, we need to revisit our economic development programs and incentivize to workforce housing.

I spent last Thursday and Friday in Lander for the interim meeting of the Legislature’s Corporations Committee. The Corporations Committee deals with many of the issues important to cities, towns and counties. One topic the committee is concerned with is Freedom of Information Act requests. Public agencies like the city of Cheyenne have a responsibility to hold public documents and produce them when asked. The testimony was that too many of these requests for information are not getting handled in a timely manner across the state. I testified that we understand our responsibility, but we face a challenge with huge record requests from out-of-state data miners who request our data with the intent of selling it. It takes so many staff hours to gather the information. I asked the committee to consider limits to these kinds of data mining requests.

The Corporations Committee also discussed whether cities and towns, including Cheyenne, should be able to use public funds to join the Wyoming Association of Municipalities. The Wyoming County Commissioners Association, Wyoming Association of County Officers, and Wyoming Association of Sheriffs and Chiefs of Police are just a few of the other associations targeted. These organizations help local governments share training and education, provide data analysis, host statewide conferences, and share resources. The cost of membership is much less than what it would cost to replicate those services on our own. For three hours, members of these associations testified on the value that comes with membership. I was disappointed that the majority of the committee voted to continue to discuss prohibiting our ability to use public dollars for our memberships. It's ironic that the Legislature often exempts itself from such restrictions - funding its own membership in the National Conference on State Legislatures - while moving to prohibit us from using public dollars for our own memberships.

I was pleased the Corporations Committee discussed our state’s 911 system and how we can migrate to the Next Generation 911 system. The 75 cents we pay per phone line has not been increased for years and is not enough to fund the current system. Funding the upgrade will take a collaborative effort from all involved.

The Corporations Committee also began a discussion on the Open Meetings Act. As public officials, we know that all our meetings must be properly notified and held in public. The review of the law was good for me to hear and reinforced our responsibility. I look forward to further discussions.

I have talked about the data centers and how they are making incredible investments in our community. They have a positive impact on our finances and create high-paying jobs. However, one downside is the pressure data center construction puts on our local workforce – those licensed in the trades are in high demand. This week I met with city staff and local contractors to talk about ways we can grow our workforce.

I talked earlier about housing, and I had a great meeting with a national home builder who was in town looking at our housing opportunities. We know from the WCDA report that our area will need up to an additional 7,000 housing units in the next five years. To meet this goal, we will need investments by companies like this one in addition to our amazing group of existing home builders in Cheyenne.

The voters of Laramie County supported the 6th Penny project to improve our downtown. We held a ribbon cutting for much needed updates and renovations of the UP Depot. It has been 20 years since the city restored the Depot and the bathrooms, doors and more needed restoration. We also added a coffee shop and a beautiful patio on the south side of the building next to the railroad tracks. With Fridays on the Plaza starting June 6, be sure to stop by and see all the amazing improvements.

One of the new industries in Cheyenne is crypto mining. It is another business that has a positive impact on government finances, but unfortunately the cooling fans for the mining containers create noise that is impacting neighbors. I have heard from the neighbors and shared their concerns with the company. Thursday, company representatives came to Cheyenne to discuss their plan to mitigate the noise. I hate that these neighbors have been impacted but I also appreciate the company’s understanding there is a problem and proposing a solution.

Battalion Chief John Fitzgerald retired from our fire department after 25 years of service. Judging by the huge group who showed up for amazing carrot cake cupcakes and to say goodbye, he was respected by his peers. It is hard to see his years of experience leave, but I appreciate his service to our residents. Good luck in your retirement!

I am getting prepared to have sore muscles. The plan is to help plant trees on Saturday morning with Rooted in Cheyenne. It’s hard work but so worthwhile. Replacing our aging tree canopy and adding trees in new neighborhoods makes a huge difference in our quality of life. I will let you know how it goes and if you have room for a street tree in front of your house, contact Rooted in Cheyenne to learn more about future planting opportunities.