April 13, 2026 Study Session: Landfill Building Bid, School Zone, Emergency Plan
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April 13, 2026 Study Session: Landfill Building Bid, School Zone, Emergency Plan
The City Council held a study session on April 13, 2026, beginning at 5:30 PM. Three main agenda items were discussed: a bid award for a new landfill administration and maintenance building, a resolution to designate a school zone on Midland Road, and adoption of the Sheridan County Emergency Operations Plan. The meeting also included general discussion and updates from the city administrator.
Discussion Items
- Item 1: Bid Award for Landfill Building (Axe Build) – Utility Director Dan Roberts presented a bid from Axe Build for $3,016,909 to construct a new administration and maintenance building at the landfill. The architect's estimate was $2.7 million. The project is funded through DEQ landfill remediation funds and SRF loans. The new building will replace a facility demolished due to proximity to a waste trench. It will include expanded locker rooms, shop space with tracks for tracked equipment, and improved site access. Completion is expected within one year. Council members asked about the turnkey nature of the bid, the potential for hiring an in-house mechanic (current mechanic costs average $130,000–$135,000 per year), and the durability of the track rails.
- Item 2: School Zone Designation on Midland Road – Public Works Director Hans Mercer discussed Resolution 07-26 designating Midland Road between West Fifth Street and Hill Pond Drive as a school zone. The city engineer identified a need for this zone. The resolution also includes upgrading existing school zones with solar-powered flashers, funded by $50,000 from GPT funds (FY26 budget revision). The total project cost is approximately $50,000. Council members inquired about crosswalks; Hans noted that a future development (West Haven) will improve curb, gutter, and sidewalk, and the city is pursuing Safe Streets for All grants to further address pedestrian safety.
- Item 3: Sheridan County Emergency Operations Plan (EOP) – Emergency Management Coordinator Jesse Lucas presented the updated EOP, required by Wyoming statute. Changes since the 2022 version include clarified roles based on recent events (e.g., Elk Fire, large power outage), updated coordination capabilities, and improved public alerting. The plan does not grant new authorities but references existing statutes. Council member questions focused on the record of changes (currently blank), public access to changes, the inclusion of forced evacuation and vaccination site references (which Lucas stated reflect Wyoming statutes), and the absence of constitutional rights language (Lucas explained the plan does not grant authorities). Lucas agreed to provide a memo of changes for easier review. The county has already adopted the plan; the city is asked to adopt.
- General Discussion and Updates – City Administrator provided several updates:
- COMPASS Center for Families clarified they did not authorize use of their name/logo for a political rally and requested donation be redirected.
- Warning about a scam involving fake invoices with wire transfer requests, impersonating city officials.
- City-county meeting scheduled for 9:00 AM at the library with mayors from Ranchester and Claremont.
- Parks partnership with VA: seasonal workers hired through VA programs, offsetting a third of costs.
- Mayor announced a public meeting on May 27th, 5:00 PM at Ramada Plaza (Sibley Room) regarding the Coffee project.
- Council member noted scheduled meetings on tax increment financing and accessory dwelling units in May.
Key Outcomes
- No formal votes were taken during the study session; items will likely proceed to a future regular meeting for approval.
- Council expressed general support for the landfill building bid and the school zone resolution.
- The Emergency Operations Plan was discussed; the city administrator agreed to provide a memo of changes, and adoption is pending.
- The public was cautioned about the wire transfer scam.
- Partnerships with COMPASS and VA were clarified and recognized as positive outcomes.
Meeting Transcript
Yes, no, it's our purpose and board. So good evening, everybody. Welcome to the April 13th, 2026 study session. We will begin at 5.30, but let's stand for the pledge right now. And enter the republic is one nation under God individual liberty and just for all. So thank you once again for being here tonight. We have uh really three items on our agenda to discuss, and then we have general discussion at the end. So we'll just get going. Um my first item is discussion of bid award to axe build for the shared landfill building project in the amount of three million sixteen thousand nine hundred and nine dollars. And with this is our utility director Dan Roberts. Welcome, Dan. Good evening, Mayor and Council. Um I am going to give you a little backstory. There we go. Um on this project as a whole. This is a picture of the uh kind of the entrance area of the landfill. Um that's the location of the previous administration building. Um during our landfill remediation project um and actually years prior doing all the investigation work at the landfill to find out where our old waste trenches are, and they discovered that there's a significantly large um we'll call it a landfill cell waste trench in this location, and that's the approximate boundaries of what had to be removed to the depth of about 25 feet of waste that was flipped into cell 10 that we developed. During the the design of this project, um you can see the close proximity to that admin building. Um there was a significant expenditure we'd have to make to even try to save that that facility with the waste trench going up right up to it and potentially even underneath. Um I think in uh in the long run we did find um some trend, some waste still under part of the um cutting the corner of the old shop area that um pre-existed. So instead of trying to save that that facility, um seemed like the best course of action was to, and the expense to try to save it, it would be to uh demo it and relocate the the building in a different um and actually more suitable location than what it currently was. Um we had um previously um taken off two of the um maintenance bays on that building in prior years due to to settlement. Um they're on the northeast corner of that of that square box. Um so we had those demoed uh several years ago. So we already didn't have we're down to one bay in the in the maintenance building to begin with. Um so that that was the decision to move forward. We discussed that with council and and really cited this location, the purple as a new site and more appropriate site for the um the project that we're um here to talk about tonight. And that that's the one location where really there hasn't been um any known waste disposal is good material, other than there was some grading that was going to be required to build this build this project. Um so we proceeded to demo that um that uh old building, spent 25,000 to demo it and save the money on trying to put in sheep piling was the the design to um to try to save it. Um additionally, what came with it is we can't quantify it, but giving a contractor a clean site to demo and remove all that waste probably saved us considerable money than having to try and uh put sheet piling in to save that building and then um maintain it in its uh current state as well. So we don't know what that amount is, but we feel like it was it was the best choice uh moving forward. This is the um the layout of that site with the uh new building location. This is a new building location, it's just a square or rectangular steel building. Um with uh one of the big benefits here is access is just a right-hand turn into the into the site and then a parking lot, and then we would have operational access to it from the backside and not really ever having to interfere with the the public traffic coming in and out of out of the landfill. So situationally it works, it works significantly better. This is just a general layout, fairly basic building, but bigger additions than what we had before is expanded locker rooms. We really didn't have any in the old building at all for men and women and shower facilities in there for them. And then I think one extra office which would be for the operations supervisor and the technology supervisor up there. Then we will get extra um shop space. So this is one open shop, but it has two doors as you can see over to the right, and uh and then this these tracks, these are tracks really in the floor system here to allow for tracked equipment to come in because not all of it that's going to be service would be rubber tired, and so they can pull those in and have them service. That shop area is designed intended where we could actually have a mechanic come in and do work, whereas right now it's all done outside 100%. So a big benefit there. We do spend a lot of money for mechanic work at the landfill on our equipment, and just looking forward, there might be an opportunity for us at some point to be able to might be cheaper for us to put one on staff to do the same work. This would provide uh uh an avenue for them to be able to do that type of work. Um we advertised in February for this project and opened bids on March 31st. We received two bids. Um the low bid at the three million dollars 3 million sixteen 909 that you mentioned, Mr. Mayor. Our architect's estimate was 2.7.
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