It is good to be back home. Judy and I took a few days off for a family vacation. It is funny that when I became mayor, I began to look at things differently when traveling. Our vacation was interrupted by historic rainfall and flooding along the Danube River. One city that was not as affected by the flooding was Vienna. They invested in a flood management program that included digging a channel along the river that could take the additional river volume in flooding events. Cheyenne has done something similar along Dry Creek and seeing Vienna’s channel work brings me back to our need to continue our flood management efforts. With two creeks, we are at risk and need to make progress each and every year.
The morning before we left for our trip, I attended the building dedication of the 90 MXG Intercontinental Ballistic Missile Maintenance Building in memory of Col. Trevor Flint. Trevor commanded the Maintenance Group on F.E. Warren AFB, and he was a maintainer everyone respected and wanted to work with and for. His sense of humor and love of people made everyone feel like they were part of his team and family. He passed away suddenly, and the Air Force paid him an honor by naming their maintenance headquarters for him. He was loved by so many and will be missed.
Later that day, I attended a tree dedication for Ron Watt held at the Youth Alternatives building. I did not know Ron, and it was my loss. The stories told by the speakers were about a man who gave so much to the kids and families of our community. It was nice to see our community honor his service. Thanks, Ron!
I am so proud of the leadership and members of our fire department. They spoke at a city council work session to give an update on their effort to earn accreditation. There are over 22,000 fire departments in the U.S., and just over 300 are accredited. This is a self-evaluation process where you are required to look at 256 individual performance indicators and determine your competency. It is tough to leave the ego at the door and honestly rate your performance. Our fire department, from the chief to the newest recruit, have embraced the challenge and have answered all the questions and are waiting a peer review. When they are done, we will have written documents that describe how Cheyenne Fire Rescue does business so the excellence will survive subsequent administrations.
I love our historic districts, and I think what makes them special is the trees and urban canopy they provide. I think back to the folks who, 100 years ago, planted so many trees we enjoy. Today, though, our urban forest is under stress. Too many historic trees are aging out and the loss of trees really changes the character of neighborhoods. Rooted in Cheyenne is a non-profit organization whose mission is to replace the lost trees in the rights of way. Saturday, I stopped by the Rooted event to thank the volunteers who were going to plant 158 trees. They understand how important our urban forest is and volunteered to do a bit of manual labor. I stayed and joined Patrick and Steve’s team to plant nine trees. They showed me the right way to plant a tree, and I had a blast. I will admit to being a bit sore Sunday morning. Thanks to LCCC for the breakfast burritos and the Women’s Civic League for sloppy joes when the work was finished. Great day!
The Wyoming Association of Municipalities has a new executive director, and Ashley Harpstreith stopped by to talk about her new job and how we can work together to make the 99 cities and towns across the state more successful. I am looking forward to the opportunity.
Carlos Trujillo took a job with the City and planned to stay for a year. I gave him a certificate this week for 35 years of service to our residents working in our sanitation department. I really love meeting our long-tenured employees and getting a chance to say thank you for their years serving all of us. His dad made it 41 years and Carlos has made serving our city a family affair. Thank you, sir!
Jacki Marsh is the mayor of Loveland, Colorado. She was in town this week and stopped by with Harvey Deselms to talk art in public places. Loveland started their program 40 years ago and today they have over 500 bronzes in their collection spread across the city. They require 1% of any municipal capital project to be dedicated to public art, normally installed at the site of the project. I really enjoyed hearing their story and sharing a bit about the amazing downtown bronze project we started a few years ago in Cheyenne. I need to make a road trip to see what they have accomplished (and maybe get a Runza).
In 1964, Dyno Nobel’s predecessor was built in Cheyenne. Today, they have 2,250 acres, 200 employees, and a commitment to our community and environment. A small group of City folks met with Lars, Peter, and Chuck for a tour and PowerPoint to educate us about what it is they do. I was not prepared for the chemistry lesson, but it is fascinating how they take raw materials and manufacture tons of fertilizer and industrial mining and industrial explosives. I appreciate the opportunity to tour the site and learn more about their business.
I have been pondering the unhoused people challenge for a while now. In May, I asked Amy Spieker, Amy Gorby, Renee Smith, and Amber Ash to coffee to discuss their observations. I wanted to know about the needs, agencies serving the population, gaps in services, and what resources are available. This week we hosted a meeting with 35 people representing most of the agencies doing the work today. We broke up into four groups and answered two questions: What barriers do they see in this effort, and what innovations they see in the city to address the homelessness challenge. I loved the collaboration and was pleased to see we saw some consensus in both the barriers and solutions. It is my hope to expand the group and continue to meet with the goal to maximize the resources we are blessed to have.
This month will be the 125th birthday of the VFW. This organization was formed in 1899 with the goal of advocating for our nation’s veterans. I was honored to meet with a group of VFW members and sign a proclamation declaring Sept. 29 as VFW Day. The VFW has played a vital role in virtually every significant piece of veterans’ legislation passed in the past 100 years.
My last meeting of this week saw the City, BOPU, South Cheyenne Water & Sewer District, and a developer all in the same room working on an agreement that would see the BOPU and SCWSD sharing the service to a housing development being built between the two. I was so proud to hear them all working together to make it possible for an additional 221 housing units possible.
It is fun to travel but I really do love getting home to Cheyenne. Thank you all for making our community a great place to live and work.