Counselors Larson and Bond, how do you guys vote?

Oh, okay.

Um I was I made a motion to excuse the absence of Vice Mayor Macintosh.

It was moved by Councillor Um Pollock and Counselor Sweeney.

And I just asked, please cast your vote.

And then I was asking how do you guys vote?

Perfect.

Please record the vote.

With all counselors voting aye, the motion passes.

Thank you.

Perfect.

Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Pledge of allegiance to the fire of the United States of America.

One nation under God.

Indivisible T and Justice.

Please read the consent minute approval titles.

Approving the minutes of September 2nd, 2025 regular meeting.

September 2nd, 2025 executive session.

September 9th, 2025 special special meeting.

September 9th, 2025 executive session.

September 16th, 2025 regular meeting, September 16th, 2025 executive session.

September 23rd, 2025 special meeting, and the September 23rd, 2025 executive session.

Thank you.

The chair would entertain a motion to approve the consent minute action agenda items just read.

Move by Councillor Haskins, seconded by Councillor Sweeney.

Any abstentions?

Please cast your vote.

Councilor Bond, Councillor Larson, how do you vote?

Aye.

Please record the vote.

With all counselors voting aye, the motion passes.

So moved.

Moved by Councillor Pollock, seconded by Councillor Jensen.

Any abstentions?

Please cast your vote.

Councillor Bond, Councillor Larson, how do you vote?

Aye.

Aye.

Please record the vote.

With all counselors voting aye, the motion passes.

Thank you.

Tonight I'd like to welcome Deputy Chief Moore on behalf of the City of Casper Fire Department to discuss fire prevention week.

If you want to come forward, uh Deputy Chief, uh, and introduce yourself and say a few words before I read the proclamation.

Uh an occurrence that's happened over a hundred years of time frame now that the National Fire Protection Agency has issued uh fire prevention week.

The theme for this year's fire prevention week is uh charge into fire safety.

And charge into fire safety is about lithium ion batteries.

Um most of the electronic devices that we use, especially the portable portable ones today, are powered by the lithium ion technology.

I see a bunch of them up there, and I'm reading off of one right here.

So uh pretty much anything and everything we deal with electronics nowadays is lithium-ion powered.

Um, if not used correctly, if not charged correctly, or if they become damaged, lithium-ion batteries um are prone to causing fires.

So we want to bring that knowledge to the forefront, uh, bring it up so everybody can think about it and practice some safe tips.

Uh number one is buy only UL listed products that contain our lithium-ion battery.

Uh charge those devices safely safely by using either the manufacturer's provided charging cables uh or one that's approved by the manufacturer manufacturer, and then uh what really hits close to home here is be sure that we recycle them appropriately.

Uh here in Casper, we have had some problems with lithium-ion batteries out at our landfill and our solid waste facility.

So we want to make sure that uh everybody utilizes the appropriate recycling program for that here locally, uh, as well as everywhere else.

So that's pretty much all I got for you.

Great.

Thank you so much for all the uh update on that and absolutely important, that's for sure.

So want to come up here?

Okay, um, just gonna read for for fire fire prevention week, this proclamation.

Whereas the city of Casper is committed to ensuring the safety and security of all those living and visiting the city of Casper, and whereas the Fire Prevention Protection Association reports an increase in battery-related fires, underscoring the need for public education on the safe use of lithium uh ion batteries.

And whereas residents should follow three key calls to action, buy only listed products, charge batteries safely, and recycle them responsibly to prevent battery-related fires.

And whereas the proper disposal and recycling of lithium-ion batteries help prevent an environmental hazard and reduce fire risks in the home and community.

And whereas the city of Casper's first responders are dedicated to reducing the occurrence of fires through prevention, safety education, and community outreach.

And whereas the 2025 Fire Prevention Week theme, charge in into fire safety, lithium ion batteries in your home serve to remind us that the importance of using charging and recycling lithium ion batteries safely to reduce the risk of fires in homes and communities.

Now, therefore, I Ray Pacheco, the mayor of the city of Casper, do hereby proclaim October 5th through the 11th, 2025 as fire prevention week.

And in our community, I urge all the people of the city of Casper to exercise safe practices with lithium-ion batteries to help reduce fire risks in the community and witness whereof I have hereinto set my hand and cause the official seal of Casper to be affixed the seventh day of October 2025.

Thank you, Chief Moore.

Appreciate it.

Now is the time that we invite anyone in the audience, council to come forward.

This portion of the meeting is dedicated to the public, allowing them time to discuss matters of public interest and to voice any concerns.

Um we do ask that you please state your name, direct all your questions and comments to the mayor.

Uh no personal obscenities or threats will be tolerated.

Council will not respond to personnel matters, and those all be referred to our city manager.

Counselors may ask clarifying questions, but if they choose to respond to these matters, they will do so during the schedule council response time following communications from persons present.

Presentations as always are limited to five minutes and no time um extensions are permitted.

Please note that public hearings and ordinances each have their own separate comment periods.

Mr.

Shriffman, good evening.

And the concern I think he was expressing was to make sure that those contracts are uh the obligations on those contracts are fulfilled and that uh everything benefits the citizens and the taxpayers.

Um another matter, you just had your pre-meeting, and uh counselor bond um mentioned something interesting when you were discussing the length of the packet that you all have to read.

And I kind of agree with counselor uh Gamerall, there's a lot of information there, but maybe there can be a link if somebody wants to get more detail.

It's very important that the public have that information.

Um recently there was a uh hearing of one of the legislative committees, and they asked for volunteers for a working group, which I'm serving on, and and some of the staff was participating.

I've mentioned twice that our staff does a great job in responding in a timely manner.

And if it takes longer, uh, but the more information that the public can just download or look on the website, the better off we are.

Any questions.

Okay.

Thank you.

Hello.

A little shorter.

Amber Christensen.

I'm with the Casper Celtic Irish Festival.

And a year ago this time, I had myself and two board members, and we were scrambling to get donations just to put a down payment for our event uh for our venue.

I'm happy to say our event was a success this year, as far as as far as um numbers.

The we had hoped for a little more, but when we'd set the dates, we the city calendar was it didn't have nearly as many events as what turned out being that weekend.

So considering the amount of competition we had, we are very pleased with our turnout.

We had 300 tickets sold.

Um, and when you add in volunteers, uh complimentary ticker tickets, dancers, performers.

We had around 425 participants.

Um we had 67 hotel rooms booked for the weekend, and we had um 27 advanced tickets sales from outside of Wyoming.

And we had um we don't have the total.

We had about 20, oh, 22 tickets sold in Wyoming outside of a 30 mile radius of Casper.

So we we're very pleased with the amount of people we brought in from outside of the city.

Next year's venue is still in negotiation.

We will not be at the same same location.

As soon as that's in, we are going to start promoting with for food vendors and artisan vendors, and hopefully be able to fill whatever venue we select this year.

Performers, we have handshake agreements with most of the performers that we planning on coming.

Davy Holden will be returning to do his educational talks on Irish culture and relations with the United States.

We have uh On the Lash will also be returning.

Steel City Rovers signed on a year and a half ago to come this year, so they're very excited.

And we're to me a big coup, we have the harp twins with featuring the Wolfgang twins, which if you've never heard of them, check them out on Facebook on uh YouTube, Facebook.

They are they're amazing, they they play harps, but not classic music.

They take rock music and their own um their own creations, but they also have a comedic element to them.

I don't know if you how many of you remember the Smothers Brothers, but they have a very similar vibe when they're on stage to the Smothers Brothers.

And we are looking for one more act.

We are going to we're talking as a board whether we want to bring a one more new act in or if we want to bring uh Cullum Keegan back.

So um, so now we're just looking for sponsorship funding.

So we're really hoping to bring the cost down for the participants in the hopes of being able to bring more people in.

But that will take sponsorship.

So we're advertising we're hitting the ground running this year.

And that is any questions.

All right, any questions, comments, anything?

Yeah, go ahead.

Thanks, Mayor.

No questions actually, Amber, but uh uh you know, I'm pleased to hear that the first year uh went very well.

That's very hard to pull off when you're conceiving of an event kind of uh from the scratch.

And uh I was regrettably unable to make it, but I was glad you live streamed it.

And uh the musical acts and everything I saw uh online were all amazing, so hoping to catch it next year.

Good luck with the sponsorships and thanks for putting all the time and effort into putting together the event.

Thank you.

Councilor Sweet.

Thank you, Mayor.

So I wasn't able to attend all the events.

I I wanted to, but um, I mean, the entertainment on the live acts was uh first class in uh um uh talks.

I think I got to two.

Um but maybe you've got enough with what you've already got booked, because I couldn't get to everything I really wanted to.

Um hopefully it can be on a weekend.

Um where I think I can't remember if there was seven events going on that were competing, it it was rough.

We have tentatively settled on dates for next year, provided you the only reason I didn't announce the the dates is we're still in negotiation with venue, but we are looking at the last weekend in August.

So Friday the 28th and Saturday the 29th of August.

So hope hopefully hopefully yeah, hopefully there won't be another festival and Comic Con and a gun show, and I don't I lost track what else there was that day.

Yeah, so it was a lot, but uh congratulations and prices maybe were too reasonable, but um you know for the weekend and but uh and then my my only other comment was um with the amount of knowledge that uh Davey had the way he projected that uh it just seemed to me, and I'm I mentioned um about having our hometown ambassador to Ireland, Governor Mike Sullivan, um, you know, to kind of collaborate and do a give and take, and I think that would be a draw.

A lot of people uh really like Governor Sullivan here mid town and um across the state, and um it might be something to consider if he's available.

So I have notated that.

I will look into it.

But uh but I really appreciated it in um uh it was great time and appreciate all your efforts.

I know it was a ton of work.

So thank you.

And sponsorships, I don't know if we still have a matching funds program through the city or if that's been turned over to visit Casper, but over to visit Casper or Partnership.

Oh, okay.

Yeah, yeah.

We had we had some impact grant.

We did have we did receive some.

Yeah, so it's the same program.

So fingers crossed, we get the higher we'll put a good word in.

Thank you.

Thanks, Amber.

We're continue to appreciate your communication and bring this to us, and it was a pleasure being able to re uh address you guys and be able to talk to you all.

So I'll try and be back in the spring.

Awesome.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

Any others wish to address the council.

I know.

Well, you good evening.

Good evening, Mr.

Mayor and members of the council.

I'm John Masterson addresses 159 North Walcott.

Don't you dare start the time yet.

I actually did ask them, John, to give you less less time.

I can talk really fast.

If I may, Mr.

Mayor, please.

I'm I'm not here tonight to ask you for anything or complain about something.

Um I'm here become I'm really surprised that um there's a significant project happening uh in our neighboring county of Carbon County um that has potential impact seems to go have gone totally under the radar.

And uh the people I know who are involved in these businesses uh have not heard of it.

So in four minutes and twenty seconds, I'm gonna try to summarize it for you.

Um and it will admittedly be a very high altitude summary.

Um I need to note first I I've been on a whole bunch of boards and commissions in my life.

Um I am here as John.

I am not representing anybody, anything.

I'm not lobbying, it's just me.

Um so what this is called is the semino pump storage project.

If you Google it, you'll come up with what the first page of that handout is.

So that's just so you can orient it and remember the name of it if you want to look it up.

The developer is R Plus Hydro out of Utah.

So the first thing you need to know is what the heck is pump storage.

Pump storage is essentially a battery.

And on the second page of that handout, looks like this.

What you do is when power's cheap, you pump water up into an upper reservoir, then when there's a big demand during the day, you run it back down and you generate electricity.

This one plans on uh being uh the construction of a 10,800 acre feet water reservoir up from Semino near the dam.

Um it'll then travel through a 30-foot diameter tunnel uh more than a thousand feet down uh and emptying down right by the semino dam.

The uh maximum discharge rate of the water is 10,000 cubic feet per second.

Um the project, if it goes forward will also include relocating a power line and building a new one.

Uh by the way, all the things that are in the handout that I gave you, those are all from the developer.

Um the third page is the developer's uh explanation of the benefits of it, including um uh around 500 direct construction jobs, over four to six years of construction, uh 30 to 35 permanent jobs.

You can read it as well as I can.

Um the fourth page of it is this diagram, gives you kind of an overview of what it is.

Um, but to me, um the best explanation, best idea of what it looks like is the very last page.

It's a project project aerial view created on the computer of what it would look like.

So, all this is in Carbon County, and why am I in front of the Casper City Council?

Um, because I feel that there are potential impacts to our community that could come from this that people may not be aware of.

And specifically in one minute and 15 seconds, um, water from Semino goes to Cortez and then it goes into the North Platte.

You may know that the Miracle Mile is right there.

Um if you start messing around with the water that goes into the miracle mile, um, as far as dissolved oxygen, turbidity, sediments, um, and temperature, especially temperature, trout or divas, and they like specific things.

Um it happen, I don't know, but there's a risk.

And we live in a community where, according to visit cast for last year, 835,000 overnight visitors who spent 377 million dollars in our community.

Um obviously all of them are not anglers, um, but there is a significant portion of people who come here, travel from all over the place to fish the miracle mile and to hunt up there.

The area where this project is anticipated to be in crucial winter ranges for bighorn sheep, mule deer, and pronghorn.

The only disease-free wild sheep herd in the state is in the Ferris Semino Mountains.

You're talking about a five-year construction period with construction traffic, blasting, roads being closed.

You're gonna it could potentially interfere with wildlife viewing, hunting, and fishing.

Um I and I'm I know I'm over time, Mr.

Merrick.

Uh with your indulgence, I'd ask one thing.

I'd ask if I could add one thing.

Go ahead.

Oh well.

Thank you.

Um lots of people like walleye fishing.

Umino is a big walleye fishery.

Um according to the R Plus hydro study, when they when you go to pump water up to the upper reservoir, they there's this beautiful term called entrainment.

They estimate that up to 24,000 walleye will be entrained during every year this project operates.

Entrained means turned into little tiny pieces of walleye because they will be chopped up in the course of being pumped up.

The last set Creole count of fishermen from Semino for walleye, it was done a long time ago.

It was 2015, but was 4100 uh caught by anglers.

So to try to give you an idea of the impact, that's why I point that out.

So Mr.

Mayor, um what you I'm not asking you to do anything, you may do with this as you see fit, of course, but I think you should be aware of it because I think it may have a significant impact, and the draft environmental impact statement is out.

Thanks, John.

Questions?

Yeah, go ahead, Councilor Sweeney.

Uh thank you, Mayor.

Thank thank you, Mr.

Masterson, for um this information.

Um the seminar directly feeds in into Pathfinder.

Well, uh long stretch of river in there, but yes.

Okay.

Okay.

And um so in your um on the game and fish commission, has game and fish taken a stance yet on this or won't they?

Um Mr.

Mayor, um, Councilmember Sweeney, uh, the department is involved and is engaged um in the process, and they will be going forward.

Okay.

Mayor, if I could, yep.

So is your biggest concern um, you know, as far as tanglement or entailment?

Entail it, yeah.

Um is that a huge number?

Um uh unbelievable number.

Uh well, not um believable, but um is that um one of the major concerns, or is the possibility of the heating of the water?

I've not heard that before on the heat up.

Um I've heard of you know, possibly possibly losing uh uh due due to uh the movement, uh, but I I've not heard of the heating uh element.

Mr.

Mayor, uh Councilmember Sweeney, um again, this is John.

Um it depends on if you like trout or you like walleye, I guess.

Um the the concern I have is that if you mess around, if you take water from a shallow upper reservoir that's exposed to the sun and you dump it at 10,000 CFS into semino, you're gonna create a tidal effect, and you're gonna be doing this every day.

So you're going to impact temperature, sediment, turbidity, oxygen, all of those things, and all of those are going to flow downstream.

So what concern is bigger than the other?

Um, I think it's in the eye of the beholder, sir.

I think um if you're a uh a mule deer hunter, um you might be concerned about it as well.

If you're a wildlife viewer and you can't go up there and just enjoy the wildlife or go camping or uh something like that, it will affect it.

Um if if something like this goes forward, um, and maybe maybe it'll be everything will be fine, um, but I hope um that uh it's done carefully and deliberately because if something goes wrong, you can't get it back.

One more.

So my understanding on the um where they're going to generate uh electricity to pump up is off of Rocky Mountains uh nearby uh wind turbine fill.

Um then hopefully there'll be more energy uh produced um on the downside.

But is that your understanding of where they would get the power to generate to pump it up?

Mr.

Mayor, Councilmember Sweeney, um I believe, and um I won't swear to it, but I believe um the idea is to uh supplement and store energy because it's it's basically a battery.

So you could supplement erratic wind on the grid using it during the day.

But they'll pull, I would imagine they would pull energy off the grid at night when it's cheaper, and then dump it back in during the day.

Thank you.

Any other questions for John?

Hi, John.

Hi.

As far as an advocacy role for further down the road, because I do see this as something that is could be detrimental tourism along with the with the potential impacts of what this could do along the sector of tourism and how that would affect we have visitors that come in for exclusively for fishing and for hunting.

And if that's a winner range that can be impacted for those animals, as far as this is the during this construction period, I think that is something that we should take seriously.

So I would like to visit with you offline about this more on how me personally as Jenna can help further this initiative of trying to see what we can do as far as that because he goes.

Mr.

Mayor, uh Councilmember Jensen, I I'd be happy to do that.

I I do want you to know that I I am not here lobbying either way.

Um I realize it may sound like it, but I'm not.

But I think you do need to be aware of it.

And um there's the time for public comment is during the draft environmental impact statement period, and that's where we are.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Go ahead, Pat.

So, John.

Um, who actually um controls the reservoir?

Do we as citizens necessarily have uh a say other than the the environmental impact study um that's going on, or does the Bureau of REC control um I mean it is that who were um fighting or agreeing with on this?

Mr.

Mayor, Councilmember Sweeney, um the Bureau of Rec um operates the reservoirs.

A lot of the land, um, if my on X hunt is correct, around us is uh is is owned by them, and then there's a large chunk of BLM property as well, um, as well as some Sage Grouse core areas, but we won't go there.

Um but uh anybody who wishes to express a concern or opinion, citizen entity, government, whoever um can participate in the draft environmental impact statement on whichever side saying expressing whatever concerns you wish are there any state sections.

I'm I'm sorry, I didn't hear are there any state sections or is it all BLM?

Uh I believe there's I believe it's private and BLM.

I'm sorry, Mr.

Mayor, Council Member Sweeney, I believe it's it's it's primarily BLM and uh Bureau of Record.

Yeah, I think if I could, it just says right here, Pat on page three.

Um that the located on BLM, USB and private land near the so much for on X Hunt, Mr.

Mayor.

Oh, we appreciate your time.

Thanks, John.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Thank you all.

Any other comment?

Good evening, Mr.

Ellis.

How are you?

Okay, so um I'm going to read something that's been prepared.

Absolutely.

Okay.

Thank you, Mayor.

Okay, good evening.

My name is David Ellis.

Thank you for this opportunity to speak about shine the light.

This is a this is a community bigil for safe safer schools.

This will take place Saturday, October 11th at 5 30 at David Street Station.

This gathering is to heal and stand together and to shine a light of children, our schools and our community.

This event is for many things to honor the lives lost and offer solidarity to survivors and families to stand with students, educators, and loved ones who carry the weight of a tr of the tragic situation that our school system is enduring.

To raise funds to provide direct support for victims and their families.

100% of the proceeds will go to the victims first, which is a nonprofit.

This event will include reflections, community voices, live music, and a fundraising auction of items donated by carrying local businesses.

We welcome everyone, students, parents, teachers, neighbors, to help shine a light and show we stand united for Saber Schools.

Here's some horrific facts.

Since the column tragedy in 1999, more than a hundred or 420 incidents have been recorded across US schools.

Over the same time frame, hundreds of thousands of students have had the experience of attending a school that was exposed to violence during the school year.

Behind each statistic, statistic is a wounded family, a traumatized student, a teacher or staff member carrying grief.

When we come together in moments of grief and reflection, we reclaim our shared humanity.

We will send a message that our community will not be defined by tragedy, but by compassion, compassion.

So I invite you to join us this Saturday.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So David, can you just tell what time is it and where's it at?

Maybe you already said that.

David Street Station at 5 30.

And I know I'm in talking with the lease about um be going there to um speak to the uh the group.

So DC Martinez will speak and also Frank Dow.

Great.

Perfect.

And artists will be lined up.

Great.

Yeah.

Yep.

I plan on being there.

Thank you.

Any questions?

Thanks for working on that, David.

In uh I I hope to be there.

I'm glad to hear the mayor's coming.

So be kind of low on politics and religion because it's gonna take actually all parties for this situation to be addressed.

So yeah.

Thank you.

Thank you for this opportunity.

I really appreciate this.

Absolutely.

Thanks, David.

May I leave?

Yes, you may.

Thank you for being so polite.

Anyone else?

Oh.

Well, Seth.

Good afternoon, Mayor, uh, members of council.

My name is Seth Hollier.

I am the active uh executive director for the Void Outreach Inc.

Um, we're a nonprofit that is in the process of building a third space for youth here in Casper.

Um I think that uh it's something that youth are really needing in our community.

Um we hope to not be the only space, but um be part of a larger mission within our community.

Um of the things that we're working on now is the foundational aspects of our business.

Um and creating a uh uh a plan and a path forward.

Uh oh, I don't know.

Is that it's yeah, it's kind of a newer system since I think the last time you're here, so you don't have to speak too hard.

Speak harder.

No, no, no.

Okay.

You can speak okay.

You don't have to fix it up.

Yeah, you're okay.

Um, sorry about that.

No, you're good.

Um in doing so, we're we're working with uh grant writing agency that is uh working with us to secure funding.

Um, and one of the things that we are being asked by funders is for letters from our community.

Um, so we're here today asking for a letter of support from council in our city uh for the work that we're doing.

Um I'd love to give you the opportunity to ask any questions about what we're doing.

We did post uh um a thing on Oyo City uh and that kind of succinctly covered a lot of it, but for anybody that could not you know read that or missed it, uh I'd be more than happy to kind of explain in detail.

Anyone have any questions for Seth around this?

Yeah, go ahead.

Thanks, Mayor.

Good to see you, Seth.

There was a period you were here every single week with us.

So uh yeah, I don't get the opportunity to see you very often, but uh I'm a little confused.

I thought we had this tentatively planned as a work session agenda item.

Is that changed uh, you know, would welcome the opportunity here more now, but I was really looking forward to the opportunity to have in Seth in front of us during a work session to figure out all the details.

Thank you.

Mayor, uh counselor.

So we're trying to be respectful of the timeline that the Void was requesting in terms of a letter of support and giving them the opportunity to come get before the council um as well as um giving them the opportunity to at least um introduce the topic, see if there was interest among council before you gave up any of your valuable work session time uh to discuss further.

Thank you.

Um appreciate the context.

On that note, I would um you know, I guess I don't know what timeline, sorry, uh Seth um the grant um when you're trying to apply.

I'm not really sure uh to be honest.

Uh um we were told that this was our first step is securing uh those letters of support.

Um so that's kind of where we are at this moment.

Okay.

Okay.

Uh go ahead, Zoom.

Mayor, sorry, Seth, I would just like to clarify um the request that came to our office via email uh indicated you would requesting letters of support by October 1st.

Oh.

And so that's that's part of the timing component.

That may have been true.

I apologize.

I'm I'm I might be over my time, but um it's valuable either way, if if we if we can't get it by October 1st, that has already happened.

I can understand.

Yeah, go ahead.

Um well um, I mean, I would love to learn more in work session.

I'd I I'd happily add it to our agenda, but uh knowing you and having spoken with you lots in the past and following what you did with the void when it was downtown.

Uh uh, I like your track record, I like the things you're doing in our community.

I I think you um are very creative and um and thankful that you're looking to kind of spin up a different version of uh what you were offering at the Void.

And so I you know, I personally just already being familiar with you would be fine with us crafting a letter support.

But if other folks who are less familiar think it warrants a work session, I would absolutely support that as well.

So whatever that looks like, happy to support the endeavor.

Thank you.

Uh thanks, Seth.

Good to see you.

I um I didn't see the article uh in Oil City, so I'm wondering if you just have kind of like uh, you know, I'm familiar with the void.

I I have been in that space, um, but can can you give me just a high-level overview of when you say third space, what does that look like?

What are you hoping to achieve?

What does the programming look like there?

Just some real kind of basic uh items that we're gonna do.

Sure.

Um, Mr.

Mayor, uh Councilmember Pollock.

Um at a high level, we're looking at creating a space that is focused on uh generating skills for youth um and creating an entrepreneurial pathway for them.

I'm sorry, it's freaking me out.

No, you're gonna take you're good.

An entrepreneurial pathway for them to be able to take the skills that they're learning within our space and translate them into actual uh work uh and and a funding mechanism for them to uh to utilize.

Um one of the main things that we're we're focused on is creating uh programming around mental health.

Um so every program that we create uh will be mental health driven, um either either forward-facing or behind the scenes.

Um and um the the space is is really catered to a member of youth that are kind of in the creative space.

So what that looks like, I can't really tell you yet.

Um one of the founding principles is that the space is created uh by youth for youth.

Um and so while I have ideas of what that may look like, um I I think it would be irresponsible of me uh to kind of to use those as what the youth may need may be fundamentally different than what I'm envisioning.

Um I will say that the space is going to be available for youth ages kind of 14 to 20.

Um it's going to be focused around developing soft skills.

Sowing, uh wood shop, makers um maker activities like 3D printing, laser um engraving, um things like that, the arts um is kind of kind of the brainchild of it.

And then again, what that looks like and how that looks like and what type of activities you decide to bring is kind of up to them uh to create.

We follow it.

Thank you.

And then um, in terms of the letters of support uh that you're seeking from the community, is there any is it sort of just a generalized like blanket letter of support?

There's some specific uh areas that you're trying to demonstrate uh support in.

What does that look like?

So I think the the overall goal is um to demonstrate need within our community um for what we're doing.

Um and to, and I and I hope that with the track record that I have and the things that I am doing um and and the people that we have involved within our within our organization, that the community can kind of get behind that and recognize that it's something that's of value to our community.

Go ahead.

Thank you.

So I'm I'm um we've listed, we've called out specifically third spaces in our um council priorities.

So do you think a letter kind of uh attesting to that and indicating that that's been an ongoing conversation um at the council level um would kind of indicate that need.

I that would be sufficient.

Okay, great.

So yeah, as I'm without knowing like a ton of detail, I I hesitate to get super super specific in terms of what am I supporting supporting or not supporting, but um you know, in the in this scenario where we've got a stated council, um we could speak to you know what you've done in the community before.

I think I would feel comfortable with that.

Yeah, thanks.

Thank you.

I think we could even probably speak to the point of mental health health also.

That's part of one of our uh things that we want to target as well.

Thank you, Mayor.

So um I I wasn't familiar with you, but definitely um appreciated what you um pulled off at the void.

So had you applied for the is this kind of in the realm of the third third space and did you apply with the health trust?

We did apply with the collective health trust, and we did receive uh grant funding through the trust for this initiative.

Um so uh what we're trying to do now.

Um that that funding provided us a mechanism to do the research with the youth over the next nine months.

Um and part of the conversation with the grant writing team that we have now is to forecast funding um subsequently once that once that research has been created and we have a direction from youth of exactly how they want us to proceed.

Awesome.

So why don't we do this?

I know we'll have console council response.

So let's go ahead and move towards that for thumbs up to see if we want to do that letter of support with all that in mind.

Is that okay?

Okay, okay.

Thank you, Seth.

Appreciate it.

Anyone else wish to speak to council?

Good evening.

Good evening, Mayor, Council.

My name's Mark Rizzy.

2301 Belmont Road, Casper.

I'm also the president of six mile draw improvement district.

Let me uh say not by choice.

But anyway, the the the city of Casper's been using our outfall line for years, our outfall sewer line for years.

We have been sending invoices to the city for years.

City doesn't pay them.

Um right now the bill is over half a million dollars that six mile draw has billed you people and you haven't.

It's fallen on deaf ears.

Uh we took you guys to court for trespassing.

The judge deemed you guys did not trespass, you had implied consent.

But you don't own the line.

Therefore, you're using our line without compensating us for it.

You charge us every month to use the 201 and we don't own it.

You guys use our line every month and don't compensate us for it.

We want to know as a board, we got together and decided it's time now to either pay us to use our line and pay our monthly fee, or pay us for when for the time you've used it and disconnect because having it fall on deaf ears is not accomplishing anything.

We have when we first started this process, we gave the city a no cost remedy to get this done to move on, and they refused it.

So we're so I'm representing the board, and we're saying we we've come to an impasse here.

It's it's time to get this resolved, and ghosting us, ignoring us, is not going to get it done.

We need to get this resolved.

Any questions?

Any questions for Rizzy.

So thanks for coming.

I'm due on the council, don't have a clue what you're talking about.

But that's okay.

We don't need to eat eat a bunch of time up.

How many years has this been going on?

Ten years.

Ten.

Okay.

I'm I'm sure.

Um I don't.

Is Eric online?

Mr.

Mr.

Mayor, if I might.

Please.

Yeah, uh, Mayor Council.

So um absolutely familiar with this uh issue.

Um, Mr.

Pat Holcher is the attorney for six mile.

So um, Mr.

Rizzy is correct.

Uh they did sue uh the city um not just for trespass, but uh I would I would advise counsel that their claims for damages and rent uh were thrown out at the summary judgment level.

Um and we prevailed on all all aspects of the litigation.

Um an appeal with the Supreme Court was filed, uh, was subsequently voluntarily withdrawn.

Um I did receive a letter from Mr.

Holcher.

I have been consulting uh with Mr.

Hampton O'Neill, who is our outside counsel on the uh underlying litigation.

Uh I have prepared a response which will be sent to Mr.

Holsher um uh regarding uh the claims that you've heard uh before you tonight.

Uh my advice is that uh due to the fact that we have the previous litigation and I believe threats of uh additional litigation.

Um I would uh counsel uh the city council um to re really refrain from commenting um uh on this matter, um, and we will handle it uh between the attorneys.

So I think we've got our our uh guidance um since it's a possible litigation matter.

We we can't really uh discuss it, Mr.

Rizzy.

But it does sound like that um the attorneys are involved and be won't be working through that.

So unfortunately, we can't comment.

And that's fine.

I just want to make sure it was brought to your attention that you guys knew what was going on.

Eric is uh I've I've known Eric for a while.

I've met him a few times, stand-up guy.

Um, but uh I just wanted to I just wanted to get this in front of you so you know what's going on.

That's all we appreciate that.

Thank you, Mr.

Rizzy.

Appreciate you.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

Okay.

All right.

Uh so now is the time that we if any counselors have any clarifications or comments, um, please do so.

Yep.

Top clarifications about comments.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh, just one comment.

Uh Mr.

Masterson, I really appreciate you uh presenting us with this stuff tonight.

I'm ashamed to admit I um was not aware of this either, uh, but was doing some research up here kind of while you were chatting.

Looks like there's a wildfile article from March of this year that has quite a bit of the context.

And then um uh Cowboy State Daily just uh published an article a couple weeks ago, uh kind of in line with council temperature and trout.

Uh everything I've read about trout would I'd concur with you.

It sounds like they're quite the diva, and uh any minute changes to uh water temperature and other factors, they're really uh fragile and uh responsive to that.

So again, it's not really within our jurisdiction, but I really appreciate you uh taking opportunity and taking advantage of the public comment period to make us all aware of it.

I would definitely encourage folks to look into it.

I personally uh love the idea of pump storage because you said like it's a battery, it's got a it's got a longer lifespan.

Uh you can uh wind, solar, and other energy sources, it can act as a battery, and you can draw from it when the power demands high and add to it when it's low.

And so I love it in concept, but totally agree with the concerns you've raised about it not being a closed loop system and its impact on our fisheries and stuff.

So yeah, would just encourage people.

I know I personally will be doing a lot more research on it.

Um, but would encourage others to do the same.

So yep, thank you for making this aware that I appreciate it.

Anyone else?

Okay, so I would like to take the opportunity to see if we can get support for our um Councilor Pollock had to leave to use the restroom, but she gave me um uh her consent to say she's supportive of the letter uh based around our the support uh for Seth and Casper Youth Hub.

Um especially around the support of third spaces, mental health, on the line with our uh priorities as a city.

Um so is everybody okay with that?

Being able to, okay.

So it looks like you have direction for that.

Um however you'd want to proceed in putting that together.

Uh and how was that?

Oh, yeah, sorry, keep forgetting.

Uh Counselor Bond, Councilor Larson.

How do you guys feel about that?

Are you guys supportive?

I'm I'm good with it, Mayor.

Okay.

Counselor Larson.

I'm good with it.

Great.

Thank you.

So how do you want?

Do you want to take time for the staff to propose and put that together?

How do you guys want to go about that?

Zalima.

Mayor, we're happy to take the points that were mentioned here and draft a letter for council's review and approval.

Great.

So council will get a chance to review that and then we'll get something sent along, Seth.

Great.

Thank you.

All right.

Thank you for everybody who came and spoke.

We appreciate it.

Why are you looking at me like that, John?

John, I can't give you more on time.

To talk about the same issue.

Just to be clear.

That's what gets my attention is when something like this pops up to me out of nowhere a few months ago.

So thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Thank you, Mr.

Thank you.

Appreciate it, John.

Thank you.

This is Eric, if I might just add one thing.

Please, absolutely.

Um, just uh for council's edification.

So uh we have been aware of this project for for uh over a year, um, monitoring it on a number number of fronts.

Um uh John kind of stole my thunder that the draft EIS was issued on September 26th.

Um deadline to comment is January 2nd, 2026.

Looks like uh the majority of federal permits that are required have not been pulled.

Um, and based on what I've read in the media, um, does not look like they have contacted the industrial siting uh council at this point, which they will have to go through that process.

So um, should council so desire, um, there'll be uh there's gonna be several opportunities um for the city uh to to weigh in and express its concern, should uh that be the desire uh of the council.

Right.

So I mean maybe the further conversation will be down the road if the council wants to learn more about it um before the conversation um of testifying or going to to these meetings.

And so I would guess I would recommend having maybe a work session on this before that um to kind of learn more about it.

Thank you, mayor.

I'd also be interested in uh whoever lays on to our to travel and tourism.

Uh like I don't know if they have appetite for a working committee to again put together some research and maybe come speak to us or something.

But yeah, I would love to see some folks kind of crowdsourced information on this and learn as much as we can.

So council okay with that putting that on a work session.

Yeah, counselor.

So uh I've been aware of this for at least a year and a half, two years um having a business relationship uh in uh Rollins.

And so uh this is um going on conversations and possibilities, but um obviously it's closer.

So thank you.

Thank you all.

Appreciate that.

Okay.

Thank you again, Tavern spoke.

We always appreciate public comment.

Uh please read the consent agenda title.

7A1 cancel October 7th, 2025 public hearing for oil city company David Street and establish October 21st, 2025 is the public hearing date for new microbrewery liquor license number 13 for oil city beer company LLC DBA oil city beer David Street located at 225 South David Street, suite five.

Chair Data and a motion two by minute action council the public hearing established public hearing and establish the public hearing date just read.

Move by councillor gamroth, seconded by counselor Jensen.

Any abstentions?

I'd like to abstain, please.

Any upstairs are any other abstentions?

Okay, please cast your vote.

Councilor Bond, Councilor Larson, how do you vote?

Aye.

Aye.

Please record the vote.

With Councillor Pollock abstaining and all other counselors voting aye, the motion passes.

Thank you, Mayor.

I do.

Uh exhibit number one correspondence from Jill Johnson, does Alima Lopez dated September 25th, 2025?

Exhibit number two, affidavit of publication from the Casper Star Tribune dated September 18th, 2025.

Thank you.

Um Adam City Manager, do you have a report that you would like to talk about?

Thank you, Mayor.

I do.

As reviewed during the work session on September 23rd, it's dominated by the rolling of projects and contracts from last fiscal year.

Projects that were completed or began uh in a previous fiscal year but were not completed.

And so now we need the budget authority to continue and or complete those projects.

Um this is consistent with budget amendment number one every year.

Um, however, you know, while that is nothing new, the figures are always quite high this year.

That total is about 125 million.

Um, and so it's certainly worthy of attention and thoughtful consideration given by this council.

So we appreciate that.

Uh in addition to those rollovers, there are a few features of the amendment that I want to mention.

Uh first this year we did introduce a new category uh in the interest of transparency, indicating to council where we have project rollovers with repurposed funds.

So these were dollars that were uh budgeted in a previous fiscal year.

Uh the project was completed under budget, and so the excess funds can now be used for other projects.

And so uh that totals about $953,000 uh in funding that we would like to roll into projects that are currently underfunded, but this would allow us to complete those projects in the current fiscal year.

Um, and you know, get those projects over the finish line uh with this additional funding.

And the second uh feature that I would like to review is that this proposal for budget amendment one does include a category or request of completely new spending authority, um totaling just under 21 million dollars.

That's for projects including the wastewater treatment plant, screw pump replacement, the solid waste uh building purchase, Washington Park Banshell, wastewater treatment plant facility study, and new police cars.

Uh of these items, uh just under 17 million will be covered by new revenue sources that are also included in the amendment.

And uh the net budget impact, we would like to note um given that uh you know there's 21 million dollars in new requests, but almost 17 million of that will be covered by new revenue sources.

Um the net budget impact of these requests is about 4.1 million, um, effectively a 2.3% increase over the approved FY26 budget.

So with that brief report, we are asking for formal adoption um of the budget amendment after the public hearing this evening.

Great, thank you.

Council now listen to public comment.

Uh public five minutes and no duplication of speakers will be allowed.

At this time, I would ask those individuals who wish to speak in favor of the resolution to please approach the lectern.

Anyone who wishes to speak in favor.

At this time, I would ask those individuals who wish to speak in opposition to the resolution to please approach the lectern.

Good evening.

Um I do want to zero zero in on one item, and that's the uh pumps for the wastewater plant.

I have some questions, and I also have a suggested uh change for your consideration.

Uh Mike, I try I went through the material, and there's a lot of it.

Uh Mike, I tr I went through the material, and there's a lot of it, and I appreciate council going through all of that.

Um I couldn't find some of my answers, so maybe I can get some answers on it.

First of all, uh it says pumps, but it doesn't say how many pumps need to be replaced.

Um the other concern is why wasn't this considered before?

Is this a catastrophic occurrence of more than one pump or atrophy over time?

Since uh a loan will fund this, what are the terms of the loan?

How many years and what interest rate?

Um is our city carrying the entire cost for this.

Um I'm correct, aren't the other municipalities also benefiting from the wastewater plant?

I could be wrong about that.

Uh at your work session recently, um there was a discussion of the uh statute uh that the legislators allow municipalities to invest in equities, and it was mentioned if I got the number right, that there's 76 million dollars in unobligated funds, and uh couldn't some of those funds be used for this capital need because it is unobligated rather than taking out a loan.

Uh finally, um not sure why it's a four million dollar net increase in the budget when it's you know um about 17 million dollars in new spending.

Wouldn't that increase both the revenue side and the expense side, unless I'm missing something in the way uh the budget is accounted for.

And then finally, um I didn't see what the total revenue and total expenses for the budget will be uh if this amendment does pass.

It didn't seem to be indicated in the documents I read.

So I have more questions, but I would suggest if it's possible to use some of those unobligated funds for this capital project.

Any questions?

Okay, so when we get to the discussion component, we'll try to address those.

Anyone else wish to speak in opposition?

Okay.

Uh there being no others to speak for or against the resolution, I now declare the public hearing closed.

Please read the resolution by title only.

I'm ending the current budget for the fiscal year ending June 30th, 2026.

First amendment to the original adopted budget.

Thank you.

The chair did entertain a motion to adopt the resolution just read.

Second.

Move by Councillor Sweeney, seconded by Councillor Pollock.

Discussion.

So I oh, did you have your hand up?

I'll wait.

No, no, no, no.

Go ahead and go.

No, absolutely.

Uh thank you, Mayor.

Uh, you know, Mr.

Shrifman brought up a lot of questions.

I'm not sure uh we'd be able to satisfy all of them this evening.

I'm I'm convinced uh we've covered quite a few of them when we've discussed this in our uh capital planning budget and stuff like that.

I was not able to pull up the notes in quick enough order to be able to provide some of those answers, but I would be curious.

Um I don't know if our finance director or potentially uh um chief operating officer would be able to speak to either some of the questions about the infrastructure or like the unobligated funds.

Um particularly the unobligated funds and the reserves.

Again, I don't want to put you on the spot necessarily, Jill, but if you do have kind of an elevator speech, I do think that is a topic that is of interest to the public and one that is um a lot of misunderstanding around.

So again, I don't know if you're prepared to give a little uh 60-second kind of rundown or not, but um I'd welcome it.

Madam City Manager, is that okay to bring up staff?

Thank you, Mayor.

Yes.

Okay, thank you.

Come on up, Mayor, Counselor, thank you for those questions.

So when we looked at the unobligated funds to um invest in equities, we looked at those three.

So the first one is reserves.

So when we talk about reserves, those are funds that we keep aside for emergency purposes.

So we don't budget them.

They are just set aside so that in case something bad happens, we have the ability to continue to function.

The um second bucket of money is the 30 million dollars that was set aside by council for perpetual care.

What we use those monies for is we use those for investing.

So we invest those with intention to be able to fund our rec subsidies.

And um there's a little bit of money that was donated that is used for the urban forest.

So if we didn't um invest that money and we instead spent it, we would then have another challenge of how do we fund those subsidies.

And then the third bucket of money is um actually something that we set aside as a sinking fund for the debt service for the fire fund a pension obligation.

Um when I consider those unobligated, it's because it's a 20-year loan.

So the whole purpose of a sinking fund is to earn interest so that we can invest a lower amount of money but still meet our um obligation at the end of the 20 years.

So that is those three buckets of money and what their purpose is, and that's why we looked at those for investing in equities.

Thank you, Jill.

And if you could confirm for me, our perpetual care fund of which we have that 30 million dollar corpus that generates for us 1.2 million in interest revenue.

Um it is not that high.

I'm sorry, mayor, counselor, it is not actually that much money.

Um the total that is um investment income is around six million dollars, but that 30 million dollars doesn't does not generate exactly that amount of money.

It's a little under a million.

Oh, okay.

Thank you.

Good enough.

Tom, do you have a couple things to add?

Um mayor, counselor, um always excited to stand in front of the council and talk about pumps.

Um these are the coolest pumps ever, they're called Archimedes screw pumps.

So it's probably the oldest pump in existence, the type of pump that's in existence.

So this is all the sewer comes in roughly 10 feet underground, and we have to raise it up roughly 30 feet above ground, cascade through the treatment process.

And there's three of these pumps.

These pumps, uh, one of them is already experiencing significant failure.

They're roughly, I believe, 17 years old.

Uh they have not lasted as long as we believe they should have and hoped they would have lasted.

It wasn't that long ago that we replaced these, but they are essential to the treatment process.

And so we're planning on putting in stainless steel pumps, the new ones.

I hope that they're lasting 30 or 40 years at least, and so we can get more life out of them.

Um from a standpoint of the funding, this is a state revolving loan fund.

These are second generation EPA funds, and it's a 20-year term, and I believe this loan is at 0.25% interest.

So a very, very favorable loan when we do have that corpus of investment money raking four to five percent interest in money.

The idea that this loan is at 0.25% is uh is very, very favorable in regards to who pays for it, it's the 201 oversight committee.

And so with that and the whole regional sewer system that we have, the city pays in round number 85 percent of that, and the other everybody else, Mills, Evans Hill, Barnon Unincorporated, pays based upon the metered sewer flows.

So when they get their quarterly bills for sewer, you know, those bills were going to go up accordingly to to service the debt on that on that loan for these Archimedes screw pumps.

It's also important when we're doing this headworks facility because that building is roughly 40 years old, we have a lot of H2S, a lot of corrosive materials out there, and so we're replacing aging electrical equipment, aging slide gates, aging valves, uh, aging HVAC equipment, aging motor control centers.

And so this is it's a very significant project as is uh by the price, but again, I think it's a very responsible use of this money because of the very favorable interest rate, and those costs are being spread out uh to everybody that is uh a beneficiary, if you will, of the of the wastewater treatment plan.

Counselor Sweeney.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Tom.

Um were these projects just approved um at SLIB last last Thursday.

Mayor Counselor, yes.

So in um I really appreciate uh you taking the time uh to go down in front of um slib uh to talk about this uh along with two key players uh to answer any questions they might have.

I think that's invaluable.

Unfortunately, I mean the staff got to see the process, but unfortunately uh it got placed up it's not an unfortunate thing, it got placed on consent and so you weren't able to do your whole spiel, but uh um as anticipated, but but I uh definitely appreciate and I'm sure council does do that that you made the drive.

So and uh also I'll do that later.

Thank you.

Counselor Pollock.

Thanks.

And Tom, can you just we've covered the bulk of the um questions that were raised, but uh uh if I remember right from the work session, this this is the cost for all three pumps.

Is that correct?

Uh mayor, counselor, that's correct.

Uh mayor counselor, as well as it's the whole headworks building.

So we have the cost of those three pumps, and then we have HVAC work, slide gates.

So it is a very significant project, and it's we currently have an engineer engaged on that project.

Uh, we're currently putting together uh request for proposal for construction managers at risk.

So this is a priority project because with the one pump failing, a second pump already showing some signs of failure.

When I say one pump is failed, it hasn't completely failed.

It can't keep up with the baseline daily flows of seven and a half million gallons per day.

And so we have to run a secondary pump or keep that one kind of out of operation.

So uh we are there is an urgency to this project for sure.

Awesome.

Yep, go ahead, Council Cambo.

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you, General and Tom, for um being here.

Uh and uh uh, you know, uh speaking uh kind of off the cuff like that.

Uh uh so really appreciate the context you both gave.

And then Tom, I also just wanted to emphasize the point you made, the loan that we're uh getting to pay for this point two five percent.

I mean, you can you can't get an interest rate like that uh at anything.

So I think it speaks to the opportunity we have to leverage debt at times if we can have funds set aside and earn more in interest revenue, the three to four percent that we were talking about.

We'll end up paying less for the project, even if we're paying over time, we're gonna pay for less because we're getting such a favorable interest rate on the loan, and we can get such uh favorable returns on interest debt.

So it's just um again, one of those things I I think the public at large does not um uh you know uh get the opportunity to kind of reflect upon and stuff.

So I just really appreciate you emphasizing that and uh bringing that forth in the discussion.

So again, thank you both.

Appreciate it.

Thank you, Tom.

Thank you, Jill.

Appreciate your perspective and your ex expertise.

Any amendments?

Please cast your vote.

Councillor Bond, Councillor Larson, how do you vote?

Aye.

Please record the vote.

With all counselors voting aye, the motion passes.

Thank you.

Please read the ordinance on second reading only.

Approving a zone change for lot one of the Irma Edition subdivision in the city of Casper, Wyoming.

Chair D entertained a motion to approve on second reading the ordinance just read.

Moved by Council Gamroth, seconded by Councillor Haskins.

Council will now listen to public comments.

Anybody wish to speak to this?

Good evening.

Yeah.

All right.

Okay.

I don't think so.

All right.

Thank you.

Thank you.

No, thank you for being here.

Yeah, thank you.

Appreciate it.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's fine.

Does council have any discussion?

Okay.

Any amendments?

Yes.

Counselor Gamroth, Counselor Haskins did.

Yeah.

Yep.

Uh any amendments.

Please cast your vote.

Counselor Bond, Councillor Larson, how do you vote?

Aye.

Please record the vote.

With all question passes.

Thank you, guys.

Are you ready for this one?

Counselor Shweeney, take your time.

All right, here we go.

Council will now consider consent resolutions.

Please read the consent resolutions by title only.

10 A1, authorizing an agreement between the city and Waddle and Daub contractors incorporated for the Fort Casper Building Rehab Project.

8A2, authorizing a contract for outside city water service contract with insign United States Drilling Inc.

10A3, authorizing a sole source contract for professional service with Mars Company for the installation of a Mars Series 511 test bench.

10A4, authorizing eLock Box Account with Wells Fargo Bank of for Electronic Bill Payment Processing.

10A5, replacing the City of Investment Policy.

10A6, authorizing a contract for professional services with ultimate specialties, LLC to replace liner wear plates for the city's North Baylor Project.

10A7, authorizing an agreement with Civil Engineering Professionals Incorporated for design engineering permitting and construction administration services for the Casper Tank Replacement 2025 Project.

10A8, authorizing the sole source purchase of 22 Model 7 taser and one docking station for ProForce Marketing Incorporated.

10A9, authorizing authorizing a contract for professional services with Western Water Consultants Incorporated for Professional Service for the 14th Street Improvements LED Project.

10A10, authorizing a contract for professional services with Ivari Consulting Incorporated for Engineering Services for the Street Lighting Master Plan Project.

10A11, authorizing a guaranteed minimum price amendment to the contract with Samson Construction Company Incorporated for Construction Management Services for the Casper Business Center Police Remodel Phase 2 Project.

10A12, authorizing amendment number one to the contract for professional service services with engineering with engineering professionals incorporated for additional services for the North Casper Athletics and Recreation Complex Improvements Project.

10A13, authorizing a contract for professional service with Envirotech Services, LLC for the 2025-2026.

10A14, authorizing an outside water contract with Golan Properties, LLC.

10A15, authorizing a use license agreement between the City of Casper and WSRM LLC for the City of Casper to host a youth basketball tournament at the Wyoming Sports Ranch.

10A16, authorizing a use license agreement between the City of Casper, WSRM LLC for the City of Casper to host an adult volleyball tournament at the Wyoming Sports Ranch.

10A17, authorizing a site lease and memorandum of lease for a wireless communication facility.

Tower US dash Wyoming-5008 slash KRVKRNK FM between the City of Casper, Wyoming and V B S1 Assets LLC.

10A18, authorizing the release of various local assessment district liens concerning the Westridge Improvement Phase 1 project.

Local assessment district 159.

10A19, authorizing the purchase of two 24 passenger transit buses through the Arizona State Purchasing Cooperative Agreement between the Arizona Department of Transportation and the City of Casper.

10A20, authorizing a real estate agreement purchase agreement between the City of Casper and the Associated General Contractors of Wyoming Incorporated for the purpose of purchasing land and buildings for the Solid Waste Division Project.

10A21, authorizing a cooperative agreement with the Wyoming Department of Transportation for I-25 litter and vegetation control.

10A22, authorizing a site lease and memorandum of lease for a wireless communication facility.

Tower dash Casper 1 FM slash US dash YOWI-5028 between the City of Casper, Wyoming and VB-S1 Assets LLC.

Thank you.

So moved mayor.

As indicated in the pre-meeting, this is quite a robust uh list of projects in this week's agenda.

And so I just it's a testament to a lot of hard work by a city of Casper staff to advance some really important projects in our community.

So I'd just like to make that note.

My microphone's not on, sorry.

Councilor Bond, Council Washington, how do you vote?

Aye.

Aye.

Please record the vote.

With all counselors voting aye, the motion passes.

Please read the consent minute action titles.

11A1 authorizing a sole source purchase of two sets of Baylor knife kits from industrial screen and maintenance for use in the Casper Solid Waste Division.

11A2 rejecting all bids for the sale of the vacated parkland located within block one of the Stone Ridge edition.

11A3 authorizing the purchase of one articulating hall truck from Wyoming machinery for use by the Solid Waste Division of the Public Services Department.

Thank you.

The chair entertained a motion to approve the consent minute action agenda items just read.

Move by Councillor Sweeney, seconded by Counselor Haskins.

Any abstentions or nay votes?

Please cast your vote.

Councilor Bond, Councillor Larson, how do you vote?

I please record the vote.

With all counselors voting aye, the motion passes.

Thank you so much, everyone.

This time we ask counselors to bring forward any relevant concerns or any items of interest.

Actually, I'll start with Councillor Larson.

Thank you.

I got nothing.

Thank you.

Councilor Bond, do you have anything?

Uh just to say congratulations to Carla for getting through that marathon.

And uh also and then uh I was also wanted to just mention to council.

Um I think most of us or all of us should have received uh uh an email this past week from a representative of uh Prometheus Technologies, I believe it was.

They are looking at um some uh business endeavors.

Uh look sounds like it's shared between Netrona and Congress Counties.

Uh but anyway, just sounded kind of interesting.

And uh just want to see if there was interest among council of perhaps uh inviting uh those individuals to do a uh brief update for us at a work session or pre-meeting.

I don't think it would take very long, but it might be kind of interesting to hear about.

But the council be amenable.

I think everybody saw that email to have them come to a pre-meeting just to kind of give a brief update on it.

Oh, okay.

Sunday 501.

Yes, yeah.

So take a look at that.

And and so it seems like an interesting um concept that they're gonna be bringing in um to have that conversation.

I think it would be well worth us to be able to listen to it.

You want further kind of in-depth on that, let me know and we can get you forward to that email too.

I guess now I'm not if you know Mary Throne.

Yeah, yeah.

So yeah, that's what it was.

Okay, perfect.

Thank you.

Uh Counselor Haskins.

Um, I had a couple of different meetings with the opioid settlement committee starting to review RFPs.

We're gonna start going through those.

No concrete or anything to bring forward, but good bit a chunk of hours over the last couple of weeks.

And then we had a priority-based budgeting meeting.

Started going through that again.

It's on the it's not on the back burner.

We don't have anything to bring forward until you we've made decisions or anything, but we're still learning through, they're still working through that.

Aside from that, I don't have anything else.

Okay, thank you.

Counselor Sweeney.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um just wanted to mention a couple uh uh I think it was last Wednesday or Thursday, um, the advanced Casper breakfast.

Um I'm sure others will talk about it, but um, our interim city manager gave uh excellent, excellent presentation.

Um that I I thought um spurred a few questions and uh so I I thought it was really good and uh great venue and um glad to see uh the Rhones are opening that up for uh different purposes and I think it'll go over well, at least I hope so.

Um so Friday night, um uh 1224 club did the recovery rally in um I'm I'm guessing there was at least 400, maybe 500 there.

Um and uh very well attended.

And uh if at some time we could counsel could recognize him also.

Um, but I I take it he's not much of a public speaker, but his um acceptance speech was uh I think uh remarkable.

So um then Saturday, Meals on Wheels had a very different fundraiser for a couple of hours um with dollhouses.

Um and uh so that unfortunately wasn't well attended, but uh they've got other ideas to there was unbelievable stuff.

Um and uh Sunday um uh that I attended Self Help Center puts together uh domestic violence, uh candlelight vigil over by the river.

Um I tried to help hold the umbrella for the chief, uh, but he's all about getting soaked, I think.

So um, but um he gave a um excellent uh uh speech.

And uh if you've not not been to that uh event, it's um usually the weather's a little nicer than that, but uh but uh it it was a nice event also.

Appreciated the chief's uh uh comments.

Um this morning had uh the Hall of Justice meeting, and uh I think we tried to represent uh the city very well, did bring up uh about the uh $95 um uh that they're paying uh for the federal government's paying through ice up at the prison and asked why we're 147 in I didn't get a real good answer floors down there, but uh but uh but um thankfully Chief Cheney sat next to me and all went well, but it did not negotiate unfortunately down to 95.

I um that's the federal rate.

So it's what I was told.

Um a couple of other thoughts.

Um uh in light of uh some of the comments uh made about uh transparency on the size of the packet.

Um I don't think as far as I'm concerned, don't waste time.

Um I never met my comments to be about uh transparency because I think that's very valuable.

Um just uh uh there is a lot of repetitive uh parts to the packet that I don't think necessarily we all need to look at, but um I guess that's one way on page 588 that I caught the the sticky note blocking some of the text.

So um uh but I went um uh in full transparency.

I was yeah, so um and but uh lastly I would like um this will be the last council meeting that our chief operating officer um will be at and um I totally really respect his opinion and glad that he will take on a consulting role uh with the city because we've got some major, major um uh uh projects coming up uh in particular the wastewater treatment.

Uh his wisdom in uh really reliance on his depth of expertise um was a lot of the reason I voted yes on a lot of stuff.

So appreciate his expertise and knowledge and look forward to continuing to work with him.

If I'm allowed, you know.

So but sometimes I overstep the bio.

So upsetting the curves Alpha Gamrol.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh bit of a holdover since I kept I cut it short last week.

Uh so as not to drag our meeting.

But uh went to Fall Fest at David Street Station a couple weeks ago.

It was a really great event, weather was beautiful, turnout was great.

Um, it's always one of my favorite events of the year.

But uh I wanted to make note of the fact that uh when I showed up, it was after the event had started.

Parking streetside was filled for blocks.

The Goodstein parking lot was near or at capacity.

So I mean, there was there was thousands of people downtown, totally packed.

I easily found a parking garage spot, not even on the second floor.

And so um I love it because it's very convenient for me.

But again, I want to remind people I walked one block from the parking garage through the alley to David Street.

There were other people that were walking four or five blocks, easy.

So um, and it was free because it was on the weekend.

So I just reminder, not that I want to lose my prime premium parking, but uh I would ask you to consider it.

Uh it's a great option, especially when they have those events that have thousands of people downtown, and it is just really hard.

And Fallfest had two or three streets blocked off.

So, you know, your your streets uh parking and stuff is very limited uh at times.

And so just encourage people, consider the parking garage.

It was great.

My car was nice and cool uh when I got in and uh wasn't baking in the sun or nothing.

So I had some leftovers that I kept in there.

Again, they would have got spoiled if it was sitting in the sun, got them in the fridge.

It's just a great situation.

Sounds awesome.

Consider it.

More serious business.

Had a Metro Animal Shelter Task Force meeting last Wednesday.

Uh we're trying to leverage the fact that there's RS deployed on site for landfill remediation.

And uh so look and do kind of part lay that into construction on the system over in that area.

We uh have our construction manager at risk bid out and folks that have until the 24th to submit uh response to that.

October 9th will be the mandatory pre-proposal meeting.

Uh Jody, our shelter manager gave an update on the TNR program.

They just sterilized their 50th cat, uh hoping to hit 100 by the end of the year.

Sheridan has a mobile vet, and uh we're in discussions to potentially utilize that resource because we're currently doing about two to three transports a week.

It just sucks up a lot of staff time.

And so if we can get someone to come to us, that would obviously um provide us a great deal of benefit.

They are building an inventory of cat deterrent tools over there to help folks, you know.

Um, because we have got emails and uh calls, you know, people have reached out saying uh, you know, appreciate your efforts to get rid of feral cat colonies, but in the meantime, until they die, that sterilized cat is wandering around my neighborhood.

So hoping to give people some tools uh to keep those feral cats from getting into their gardens and stuff like that.

Um we're gonna be reaching out to local vets to see if we can fill uh Dr.

Richard Schwan.

He used to be on that board with us, uh providing that kind of professional expertise, but he has since sold his clinic and is not in that industry anymore.

So uh hoping to backfill his expertise there.

Um next month's outreach, they're gonna be doing some low-cost vaccine and rabies clinics, and then next year we're looking to do uh a lot more span neuter events, and our next meeting will be January 7th.

Again, the frequencies kind of dial down until construction of the new shelter and stuff starts ramping up.

Uh and then Jody just kind of filled us in on their tiered volunteer program up there that they got three tiers.

So the first tier, you come in, you have monitored engagement with animals, it's very basic training.

There's a second tier where you get fear-free training, you get more involved with the dog testing and more freedom with the animals, and then tier three, that's kind of like the uh top level of volunteer.

They do the doggy day out program, they help with TNR events.

Uh, they have to have volunteered at least 30 hours, unmonitored time with the animals.

Um, so just you know, if you're interested in volunteering for Metro, I would encourage you.

They're they're doing a great job building up that volunteer program.

I thought we were up to like 30 volunteers, up from like five or six in the past.

So um just really flourishing.

And if you're interested, reach out to Jody up at the shelter to get involved.

Paddie opioid task force meeting.

Um as Counselor Haskins said, we spent the weekend.

So on top of our 800 page packet, uh, we got to look through all the uh proposals for that uh RFP.

Um I think we got about six proposals, and so we looked through them all, scored them and chatted about them yesterday.

We have narrowed down the field of candidates to four that we would like to interview.

Those interviews are going to take place on October 20th, and we should have some recommendations to bring forth back to council at that time uh and the county as well, since they're a partner in this uh to consider recipients for that funding.

We got some really great proposals from some really well established organizations in the community, and I'm excited to get to the point where we're dispersing those funds and uh measuring success of those consequent programs.

I'd be curious if anyone would like to be my proxy for the downtown development authority board meeting.

We have Thursday at 11 30 at CityWorks.

I will be in Pindale the next two days for our Wyoming Association and Municipalities board meeting.

Uh Liz sounds like she's confirmed to be attending DDA, so she'll be able to speak for the city, but I am a voting member of that board, and so in the case they need a quorum or need to vote on important stuff.

If anybody's free Thursday at 11 30, grab my arm on our way to exec and uh I would love for someone to fill in for me.

What time is it?

11 30, Thursday, City Works Downtown.

I think I saw a nod from You got me, Jenna.

Okay, cool.

Uh we'll let them know you're coming.

Um and that's all I have.

Thank you, Mayor.

Great.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

Counselor Jensen.

Okay, well, domestic violence awareness month is a national campaign in October dedicated to raising awareness and promote domestic violence and supporting survivors, organizations, and individuals to highlight the experiences of survivors, other resources, and to promote efforts to prevent and end gender-based violence through events like Purple Thursday and people where people wear purple to show their support.

So I am asking you to participate by wearing purple on Thursday.

Um join in the conversation.

And also we are constantly in need of volunteers for domestic violence advocates here for our police station.

So I urge you that if you have a deeper um calling to help that you maybe go talk to Isara Leslie over at the police department, and we can help you become a volunteer.

That's all I got.

Great.

Thank you.

Counselor Pollock.

Well, most of my items have been touched on.

Um I don't have anything to add to the Metro update that Kyle gave.

Um I was also at the priority-based budgeting task force meeting.

Um, yeah, work continues there, kind of starting to think about how do we how do we make the work digestible?

Like what are the what's the sequence now that we've sort of done the the internal work.

So um yeah, stay tuned for for updates as we go, but um that task force continues to meet and continues to think about how to how to best move that project forward.

Um I also attended the advanced Casper breakfast.

Um, in addition to the excellent presentation that um Counselor Sweeney mentioned from our interim city manager, we heard from the CEO of Visit Casper and also the uh director of um the DDA, and so it was a really just kind of complimentary set of um perspectives that kind of painted a picture of the state of the community and what everybody's working on.

So um really enjoyed being there.

And um I've got a couple things coming up this week, including parks and rec on Thursday.

So I'll have a report for you next week.

Um, and then uh additionally, the um the Torney County Improvement Um coalition committee uh will be Tuesday.

So I've got a few things.

Um I'm also looking for a proxy if we're shopping proxies right now for uh MPO policy next Thursday at 11.

Um counselor vice mayor is typically the alternate there, but I'm not sure if he'll be back or not by then.

So um the 16th.

He'll be back on the 12th.

Okay.

Well, but I'll I'll I'll approach it next week within that.

That sounds good.

Cool, thanks.

Okay, I just have a couple things.

I'll be addressing the Wyoming Math and Substance Abuse Conference, welcoming them uh tomorrow morning at 8:30.

So I'm looking forward to that.

Um I gave a proclamation yesterday at the YMCA for the youth sports month, which was uh fun.

Um I had an opportunity to uh play with some of the kids and meet some of the basketball players on the other side of the um over there that was fun.

It was a good time.

So appreciated the work that the Y does in the sense of a community efforts around youth and giving um access uh to students that don't normally have access.

Um I too attended the priority-based budgeting, so I appreciate Councillor Haskins and Councillor Pollock as well.

It was it's continued um work that we're doing, and I appreciate the work that Jill's put in and um our city managers as well.

Uh I think that's all I've got.

A notice of an executive session to take place on this date and during this meeting have been given.

Uh, we have matters to discuss related to attorney client privilege, litigation, and personnel.

The chair entertain a motion to adjourn into an executive session, and at the conclusion of this executive session to reconvene the regular meeting solely for the purposes of an adjournment of this regular meeting.

So moved.

Moved by counselor Pollock, seconded by counselor Haskins.

There are a majority of counselors present, and a motion to adjourn into an executive session has been moved and seconded.

The motion requires a two-thirds majority of the council present.

Please cast your vote.

Councillor Bond, how do you vote?

Aye.

Just for clarification, counselor Larson had to leave, so that's why I'm not asking for his vote.

Uh, please record the vote.

With all councillors voting aye, the motion passes.

Agreed.

And then two-thirds majority of the council present voted in favor of the motion.

We are hereby adjourned to an executive session.

Thank you, everyone.