One of the things I really enjoy about being the mayor of Cheyenne is the opportunity to meet with companies looking to make investments in our community. I joined Rachelle from LEADS for breakfast with a team of site selectors looking to bring a hyperscale technology company to Cheyenne. The biggest takeaway from breakfast for me was their view of Cheyenne being very advanced in our preparation for welcoming hyperscalers. I shared with them my appreciation for the partners who have made that possible, LEADS and Black Hills Energy. The site selectors shared that they have a number of clients that they believe would thrive in Cheyenne. Fingers crossed they are right.
Judy and I spent last weekend visiting our son and his wife in Reno, Nevada. They recently moved there for my son’s new job as a professor of English at University of Nevada Reno. We had never visited Lake Tahoe, and it was so beautiful. It is great to see your kids grow up and find happiness and success. The flight from Cheyenne is a blessing as it made the trip easy and comfortable.
One of the biggest complaints our city council members and I hear about is speeding in our neighborhoods. Chief Francisco, Captain Kessler, and Lt. Hickerson presented new technology that would give us real-time data on vehicle speeds and congestion on our city roadways. It could help with our planning and engineering efforts, but I am most excited by the data as a tool to help our police department focus on areas we know have dangerous speeding. City Council made making our roads safer a goal for this year and I am hoping technology will make that goal more achievable.
House Bill 172 was passed by the Legislature in the recent session. It eliminates most gun-free areas in public buildings, including our city council meetings. We met this week to discuss our responsibilities as outlined in the bill and to determine if exceptions are warranted. An example of an exception is our water treatment plant and the tanks of chlorine gas that could create a disaster if compromised by an accidental gun discharge. The bill becomes effective July 1, and we will make sure we are ready to comply.
This week has been dominated by our budget process. I have been meeting individually with each of our departments to review their budget requests. With the recent revenue reductions from the legislative session, prioritizing how we invest the tax dollars we are blessed to receive is more challenging. It is nice having our treasurer and chief of staff at the meetings. Robin and Amber provide a valuable perspective. We had 12 department budget meetings this week and now it is time to put together a balanced budget to present to City Council in the coming weeks. I really appreciate the work our departments put into preparing their budget requests and for the great conversations about their departments.
The Police Protective Association is a group of officers who help represent the needs of the men and women serving in our police department. This week we met to discuss the challenges we have in recruiting people to serve as police officers. We have a couple of open positions, and the hiring of those officers would help our department advance City Council’s goal of slowing down neighborhood speeds. I appreciated their thoughts on recruitment and other ways we can make the job of a Cheyenne police officer appealing.
Cheyenne and our military base were born on the same day in 1867. I love the partnership and the influence the military has on our community. I was introduced to J Sweat from the Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation and their mission to strengthen the critical relationship between defense communities and Department of Defense assets. I learned that they have resources to help improve city infrastructure that will result in improved readiness and resilience for the military mission. The military is our top employer and contributes 30% to our economy annually. I am excited to participate in this program and hopefully improve the ability of our base to successfully do the mission.
I have been talking with Micky Powers for years about his desire to bring a data center to the land he and his partners have just east of Lowe’s Distribution Center. He introduced me to Phil Horstman, the founder of Ascent. They have spent decades helping to bring data centers to the market, and Jared Kaminetsky from Related Companies who recently announced a new venture called Related Digital that plans to build a data center campus on 117 acres. I was immediately interested when Jared shared that their company is one of the largest housing developers in the country. This project became possible when Black Hills Energy agreed to supply the necessary power to energize the data center development. Thank you, Phil and Jared, for your investment in Cheyenne.
Amber and I met with Stan Hartzheim about his interest in serving on our Downtown Development Authority board of directors. He is a newer resident who has recently purchased a building on 20th Street to house his home mortgage business. I have shared my sincere appreciation with the amazing volunteerism of Cheyenne’s residents. The city has many volunteer boards and the people who serve on those boards are amazing. They spend hours serving the residents of our city. The DDA board is a perfect example of busy professionals serving our community well.
The big news in the Collins family is my wife, Judy, announced her retirement after 42 years in banking. It was an emotional decision, but she is excited to begin the next phase in her life starting this July. Our dog, Sampson, will love the attention and the daily walks.