[1:57] council meeting in March here we have Ryan Keith from k-e-r-m cadeus live this

[2:05] is being broadcast live on the local radio stations and it's also being

[2:09] preserved and will be up on Youtube channel too we also have Miss Cindy

[2:13] shealy here from the Torrington Telegram um

[2:19] our first item of business is the Pledge of Allegiance and I've asked councilman

[2:23] victron to lead us in the pledge

[2:29] I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the

[2:35] Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and

[2:42] justice for all foreign

[2:48] next item on the agenda is the mayor's informational items and I've asked

[2:54] Rhonda Estes our senior accounting clerk to come tonight and give us a short

[2:58] presentation during this section on the Wyoming community gas program while she

[3:04] comes up if she will I will just mention that the goal of the Wyoming community

[3:10] gas program is to create an insanity Insanity for competition among the

[3:16] natural gas providers to get the lowest cost to the consumer

[3:20] also the monies come in or come back to Torrington under this program this year

[3:25] we were told by Miss Estes and she presented us with a check for thirteen

[3:30] thousand six hundred and thirty dollars and very briefly this money is used for

[3:35] such things as an ewc scholarship the Dare golf tournament golf passes for

[3:40] fundraisers for rotary and the Valley Christian School and so on can you

[3:45] explain to us just the basics about this program Mrs Estes sure many years ago

[3:53] um actually back when Ed jelovich was mayor they were at a Wham meeting and

[3:59] they were discussing the cost of their gas bills and at that time we had a sole

[4:04] supplier of gas and so several communities actually 10 of them they

[4:11] went together and formed a group and went to the gas company at that time and

[4:18] asked if they could um

[4:22] create some competition and and go out and purchase gas from a gas

[4:30] company and so at that time they became the Ten of them became the Torrington

[4:35] Division and that was going pretty well and so the billing is still done through

[4:41] our gas company that we currently have and it's and they do the billing and the

[4:49] meter reading any of the services it's just the commodity commodity portion

[4:54] that they were going out and asking for the competition for

[4:59] and so they've done that and any of that money through the Wyoming

[5:06] community gas they were labeled themselves as Wyoming community gas

[5:10] any of that money that is made in that program

[5:13] it's not to it's not to make money so those that money comes back to the

[5:18] communities and so that's where those funds that we

[5:23] receive each year um is where those funds are coming from

[5:27] and so it is going to be our balloting season here April 6th through the 26th

[5:33] people will be getting their ballots and there's several ways that they can look

[5:38] for the different rate options that they have and

[5:42] the commodity portion of it that um different

[5:46] suppliers are offering and so they can check prices for that the Wyman

[5:53] Community gas is the sole supplier that gets back to your communities and we

[5:57] just like to remind people that keep it in their mind so that

[6:01] our community has benefited well from this

[6:06] the money that we've received back so if you have a ballot and you want

[6:12] help you're welcome to come to City Hall any of us girls who can help you with

[6:16] that as well as you can call or do it online and so a lot of times people will

[6:23] actually group them together if they have you know five or six

[6:28] accounts they usually give us just even a little bit better price for it so

[6:33] you're welcome to give us a call or stop by and we can help you out

[6:40] thank you all right thank you and just one last thing on that issue

[6:45] there are a whole lot of entities and projects that benefit from this money in

[6:51] the City of Torrington oftentimes you'll see a little sign there Wyoming

[6:55] community gas so look for that thank you

[7:00] historically in Wyoming cities have been tasked with providing parks and

[7:05] recreational activities spring is here this city provides an

[7:10] abundance of recreational activities and Parks

[7:14] there were numerous city parks we have a special dog park the Carol Thompson dog

[7:19] park that was a public private Cooperative effort

[7:23] we have the swimming pool we have the golf course we have an RV park we have

[7:28] soccer fields baseball and softball fields a walking path and I invite

[7:33] everybody to enjoy all these parks and activities that we have here in

[7:37] Torrington I'm just a notice to pet owners please clean up after your dogs

[7:43] the dogs are your responsibility and that's a great help to the city if

[7:48] people will take care of their dogs and their dog way so thank you for that

[7:53] um I was advised that uh the bread doctor made a national

[7:58] magazine councilman Kelly brought this to me this is the

[8:02] aaaarp magazine that you get if I think you're 50 or older probably uh it's a

[8:08] national magazine and they're Wrecking recognized in in this magazine and it's

[8:14] got a picture of of him with his father and or him with his daughter and so it's

[8:20] available in the current issue of the art magazine so

[8:24] there's that now as always please slow down watch for

[8:31] pedestrians since spring is here watch for motorcycles bicyclists and there's a

[8:36] lot more joggers and such out there so please keep an eye on them and please

[8:40] refrain from your cell phone use while driving thank you

[8:47] the next item on the agenda is the approval of the consent agenda which

[8:52] includes the minutes from the March 7th 23 council meeting is

[8:58] published

[9:01] I have a motion from councilman Patterson to approve the consent agenda

[9:06] so I have a second from councilman deal any discussion gentlemen

[9:13] hearing none all those in favor of approving the consent agenda

[9:18] if you can find by saying aye aye any opposed signify by saying nay

[9:23] the consent agenda is approved next item on the agenda is the approval

[9:28] of the agenda this has been published and sent all the

[9:33] council members and appears that you've all been provided a copy

[9:37] I hope to prove the agenda I have a motion from councilman Kelly to approve

[9:43] the agenda do I have a second second I have a second from councilman Victory

[9:47] any discussion down hearing none I'd call for vote all those

[9:52] in favor of approval of the agenda signify by saying aye

[9:56] aye in the opposed signify by saying they

[9:59] genders approved next item on the agenda is what we call

[10:03] the public forum I don't believe there are any

[10:07] is anything put in the box tonight I don't see any and haven't been advised

[10:13] of any but just for informational purposes if a citizen wants to speak to

[10:18] the council at this point the agenda usually it's at this point in the agenda

[10:22] you can fill out a form and receive two minutes of time to address the council

[10:28] no action will be taken but that's an opportunity for the public to address

[10:32] the council next item on the agenda are the action

[10:36] items the first item on the agenda is the mayor's

[10:42] appointments

[10:46] and for this meeting gentlemen uh there are three things

[10:52] I have are asking you to advise a proven

[10:57] consent to Anna Barnes as the I guessed additional

[11:02] Municipal associate judge right now John Patrick is the municipal judge Kenneth

[11:07] Brown is Municipal associate judge and I'm asking

[11:11] to include Miss Anna Barnes as a as a municipal associate judge I know Anna

[11:18] she's a practicing attorney in town she is also a circuit court magistrate and

[11:23] as I believe the town attorney for lingle right now and is engaged in

[11:28] private practice so that's Miss Barnes background

[11:31] I'm also asking to for the council to approve

[11:36] the appointment of Gary Olsen to the lodging Tax Board

[11:39] uh Sarah chairs was on that board for years and chairman for many years I've

[11:45] had several conversations with her her explanation of what makes a good

[11:51] member for that board is somebody who is passionate about tourism in this

[11:56] community in Goshen County and in Torrington that's their big item promote

[12:00] tourism and bring in people which benefits the community so I've asked

[12:04] that the council approved the appointment of Gary Olsen here in town

[12:08] Gary Olsen is the owner of TDS and probably other things in this community

[12:12] and has a big building just west of the courthouse here right in town so that's

[12:17] Mr Olsen and finally on the appointments the

[12:22] Torrington Urban systems committee I have asked chief of police Matt

[12:27] Johnson to be on there and he's agreed to accept an appointment to be on that

[12:32] committee and Kelly sitner who is here with us tonight I can see him straight

[12:37] back from me has agreed to be appointed as a member of the Torrington Urban

[12:42] systems committee so if the council has any questions about those appointments I

[12:48] just went over I'm willing to entertain any questions

[12:52] I I don't have a question on that point he's Mr Mayor but I am curious what the

[12:57] Torrington Urban systems committee does well

[13:01] um I may defer to the director of public works for a brief background I have a

[13:07] obviously not as good at understanding as he does he's been on that committee

[13:10] for a long time so Mr Harkins could you give us a brief explanation of that

[13:14] committee yeah thank you Mr Mayor uh the urban systems committee is a state

[13:21] funded

[13:25] coalition of all municipalities that want to

[13:30] participate throughout the state there's a pot of money that is then

[13:34] divvied up between each of the communities

[13:37] currently Torrington receives I think around a hundred thousand dollars a year

[13:41] I think the balance of our account is about 1.1 million right at right at the

[13:46] moment those funds can be used on what are

[13:49] classified as federal aid roads or routes

[13:55] some of the roads within Torrington would be like East D Street

[14:00] East dam east p uh West sea those types of roads that

[14:07] are basically major roads or collector roads within the city also obviously the

[14:14] various County roads are also eligible for participation in this

[14:20] uh in this program

[14:24] the committee decides what the best use of the funds would be

[14:30] and then approaches the state to uh

[14:35] construct a project so to speak and utilize those funds

[14:40] in the uh in the construction of that project

[14:45] thank you

[14:48] any further questions for me

[14:52] these appointments confirmed on mass yes I would ask for a motion to confirm Miss

[14:57] Barnes as Municipal associate judge Mr Gary Olsen as lodging Tax Board member

[15:04] and Mr Matt or Chief Matt Johnson and Victor

[15:09] Kelly sittner as City of Torrington representatives for the urban systems

[15:13] award so if I would I would ask for a motion to include all three in one

[15:18] motion all right do I have a second second

[15:22] I have a motion from councilman Patterson in a second from councilman

[15:27] victron to approve uh Miss Barnes as Municipal associate judge Mr Gary Olsen

[15:33] to be on the lodging Tax Board Chief Matt Johnson to be on the target Urban

[15:38] systems board and Mr Kelly sitting there to be on the urban systems board any

[15:43] discussion

[15:47] hearing none all those in favor of consenting to those appointments signify

[15:52] by saying aye aye aye any opposed signify by saying nay

[15:57] all right those people are appointed thank you Council

[16:01] next item on the agenda is ordinance third reading

[16:06] Mr Eddington could you read that ordinance please

[16:10] so Norton's creating and acting Section 1

[16:14] 3.20.040 of chapter 1 3.20 the Torrington Municipal Code authorizing

[16:19] and directing execution of the green energy program subscription confirmation

[16:23] by the City of Torrington with the municipal energy agency of Nebraska

[16:27] thank you Mr Eddington um

[16:32] this is the third reading I know that there have been some questions from

[16:36] Council on the first two readings are there any questions from Council on this

[16:40] third reading

[16:43] have not been any changes

[16:47] all right if there is no further or no further questions I'd entertain a motion

[16:51] to approve on third reading the uh authorized the

[16:56] ordinance authorizing and directing the execution of the green energy program

[17:01] I want to move to approve the ordinance I have a motion from Council councilman

[17:05] Shelley to approve the Ordinance do I have a second second a second from

[17:08] councilman deal any further discussion gentlemen

[17:12] hearing none all those in favor of ordinance reading authorizing and

[17:17] directing execution of the green energy program signified by saying aye

[17:21] aye aye any opposed signify by saying they

[17:25] that ordinance is passed on third reading

[17:28] the next item on the agenda is ordinance on second reading

[17:36] Mr Eddington could you read that for us please and ordinance repealing Section 1

[17:41] 3.2 4.030 returned to Invisible code 2023 revisions relating to deposits

[17:49] okay and this ordinance is presented on second reading this was a cleanup of the

[17:53] ordinances this was an O2 ordinance which

[17:57] contains a procedure for dealing with utility deposits and so on that is

[18:03] Obsolete and is no longer in effect and the idea is to clear it off the books

[18:10] I would move to approve this ordinance second reading okay I have a motion from

[18:15] councilman Patterson to approve this ordinance on second reading do I have a

[18:20] second second I have a second I think I councilman victim Beach I

[18:25] believe I think I have a second from councilman Victor any further discussion

[18:29] gentlemen hearing none all those in favor of

[18:33] approving on second reading this ordinance repealing section

[18:37] 13.24.030

[18:41] uh all those in favor signify but saying aye aye aye any opposed signify by

[18:46] saying they that ordinance on second reading is

[18:51] passed repealing Section 1 3.24.030

[18:56] Council will now be leaving regular session

[19:00] and will now convene as a board of adjustment

[19:05] first item before the council as a board of adjustment is Mr Mark McMahon is

[19:11] requesting a setback variance at 131 Holly Drive

[19:16] uh Mr Estes can you give us a little background on that please thank you

[19:21] mayor as you said Mr McCann is asking for a setback variance on the North

[19:26] side of his property from the acquired 20 or 30 foot to 23 foot and on the east

[19:32] side of his property from 30 foot to 20.5 foot he wishes to build a little

[19:38] bigger garage to store store some personal equipment I've had no comments

[19:43] from the neighbors uh staff would recommend approval

[19:47] and Mr McCann is here if you'd like to visit with him

[19:50] so this is the property in question if you're not aware of it it's right above

[19:53] the swimming pool this property right here

[20:00] what's unique about this property it's one of the few that has a full solid uh

[20:05] fence around it

[20:08] are we out here right here

[20:10] so he wants to put this garage right on the back of this one here

[20:14] he wants to come right at you with the garage and take this block wall out of

[20:18] here so really he's only coming out in front

[20:20] of that block wall a few feet on each side so

[20:24] I like again I've had no no comments from the neighbors staff would recommend

[20:28] approval all right well this is a this is this

[20:32] hearing is open to the public does any member of the public wish to speak to

[20:36] this request for variance

[20:45] either for or against seeing no takers

[20:52] I would close this portion of this public hearing on this

[20:55] request for variance

[20:59] council do you have any further questions of Mr Estes

[21:05] I would just a couple of questions he's paid the fee

[21:08] all the appropriate people were served with notice of this request there's been

[21:12] no objections that is correct mayor I would assume is this is going to be

[21:17] the same material is already on the house now I would assume so but the

[21:20] gentleman's here if you'd like to visit with him

[21:26] you may come up here please

[21:31] councilman Kelly I've got to the building end of it yet so I couldn't

[21:34] tell you that

[21:39] my question was just is it going to be the same material on this new edition as

[21:43] it is on the old house right so the house and the uh cinder block fence are

[21:48] both stucco and we would match existing the roof line would match existing

[21:52] there's a Circle Drive in the front and it wouldn't go out to the Circle Drive

[21:57] it would stop about two feet from that Circle Drive

[22:02] um it would look similar to the two-car garage you would have

[22:06] on the left side though one garage door a foot higher for a decent truck so

[22:14] but um you can put the block wall on that

[22:18] side too like it is now are you going to eliminate that so we won't need the

[22:21] block wall any longer on this side but we will tie the back

[22:26] of the garage into the existing block wall so we where you saw the arch in the

[22:31] front there will be

[22:34] yeah if you want to go around to the other side

[22:40] the arch will still be there tree will be gone and as you can see

[22:45] from the arch right there will probably be a eight foot section of that existing

[22:52] cinder block stucco wall

[22:56] otherwise will match the exact exact architecture of the building

[23:04] I was a carpenter for 20 years and ran a cabinet shop for seven and I was project

[23:09] manager estimator on a commercial business for another 17 years so I'm

[23:14] very familiar with

[23:18] you have the same style pitch on it same yeah that is a two and a half 12 pitch

[23:24] on that it's got 30 inch overhangs and they're

[23:28] exposed and I'm working with the lumberyards

[23:32] right now to get a engineered truss to have the same look

[23:38] what's existing there are Cedar two by eights that are 27 feet long

[23:44] can't get those anymore so we're going to go with some kind of a treated wood

[23:48] that will be the same height like the two by eight you know the 30 inch

[23:55] overhang and then on the underside there's like a AC type plywood exterior

[24:00] glue and will match that and we're not going to drop the roof line we're going

[24:05] to keep it the same and we'll we'll sew it together so that

[24:10] it matches I'm going to do the work myself with my

[24:14] brother-in-law

[24:17] any further questions for Mr McMahon thank you sir appreciate it

[24:27] thank you I have a motion from councilman Patterson to approve this at

[24:31] variance for Mr McMahon do I have a second

[24:35] second second from councilman Kelly gentlemen are there any further

[24:39] discussion

[24:43] right all those in favor of granting Mark McMahon's request for setback

[24:47] variance at 131 Holly Drive signified by saying aye

[24:51] aye any opposed signify by saying nay that variance is approved

[24:59] we are still in session as the board of adjustment

[25:03] and the next item on the agenda for that is Tom McIntosh is requesting

[25:10] setback variants

[25:14] at 2317 East E Street Mr Estes could you give us some

[25:21] information on that please yes sir mayor uh Mr McIntosh is asking for a variance

[25:26] to the allowable square footage for an accessory structure

[25:30] he's allowed 700 in that zone of square footage just to catch the council up to

[25:34] speed I don't know if we went through this but on most zones and most Lots in

[25:38] town you're allowed 10 percent of that square footage of that lot for any

[25:41] accessory structures so if you want to get more square

[25:45] footage than allowed in this case it's seven seven hundred they have to come

[25:49] and ask for a variance for additional square footage which we're getting more

[25:52] and more of because everything we get is bigger bigger and we want to store more

[25:55] so uh Mr McIntosh is asking for an increase

[25:59] in that square footage to 1140 for a 440 foot square foot increase and he wants

[26:05] to put it on this lot right here so he is totally uh remodeling this

[26:10] house he has a little garage here he might

[26:13] want to speak to you about he spoke to me since we did the variance application

[26:16] he said he might want to tear this little garage down

[26:19] he basically wants to put a structure similar to his neighbor to

[26:23] the north he basically wants to put that structure

[26:27] right there is what he's asking and again I've had no comments from the

[26:31] neighbors no complaints staff would recommend approval

[26:38] all right is Mr McIntosh president yes would you like to come up and

[26:45] answer any questions Council may have so basically Council that's that's

[26:49] basically what that building would look like on that lot

[26:52] and he might he had talked to me about maybe removing this little smaller

[26:57] garage it sits there that little yellow structure I don't

[27:00] know where my mouse went

[27:04] right there so

[27:09] he wants to remove that building I think don't you Tom I think

[27:13] oh he's going to leave it now so all right does council have any

[27:18] questions for Mr McIntosh I have one and just how far is the

[27:23] setback from the alley it's going to be the standard 20 foot

[27:27] okay and just so you understand we don't really allow anybody to get closer than

[27:32] 20 foot to the alleys because they stick out in the alley so that's really we've

[27:35] had people wanting to do that we've never really allowed it it's a bad press

[27:39] net to get going for sure

[27:44] yeah it'll be 20 foot off the alley right here

[27:47] yeah it seems like when I drove by the actual

[27:51] property it seems like there's more crowded than that picture would look at

[27:55] pardon me they're actually actually drive by the

[27:58] property it looks like it's a little more crowded

[28:01] than that it shows in that picture we took trees out yeah they wanted to take

[28:05] those two trees out it opens it up in the back

[28:08] and then a bunch of bushes along the alley yeah those those aren't out yet

[28:12] but once you take it out it sits in there it's tight there's no there won't

[28:16] be any grass yeah

[28:23] this is a 10 foot 10 foot wall structure it is a little taller than most General

[28:27] garages so what are you going to build it out of

[28:31] two by sixes I mean they can make the same siding and stuff as the house is

[28:35] going to have yeah it'll have the LP latport siding and insulated and heated

[28:41] he's currently replacing all the siding on this house right now he's ripped it

[28:44] all down and sheeted it so we completely gutted the house

[28:48] went through the whole thing so I plan on doing the same thing with what we're

[28:52] doing here to keep it heated keep it nice a good

[28:56] little shop

[29:02] Council any further questions for Mr McIntosh

[29:07] thank you appreciate it um there's an opportunity for public

[29:11] comments for this variants or against this variance is there any member of the

[29:16] public that has public comments for or against

[29:19] the council granting or passing this variant

[29:26] I see none so I'll close this public hearing regarding this setback variance

[29:30] at 2317 east east e okay do I have a motion uh I would Mr

[29:38] Mayor I would move to approve the setback variance for Tom McIntosh I have

[29:42] a motion from councilman victron to remove or to approve the setback

[29:48] variants for Tom McIntosh at 2317 East E Street do I have a second

[29:54] a second from councilman deal any further discussion gentlemen Mr Mayor

[29:59] just to point clarification uh just for clarification it's not a setback

[30:02] variance it's a square footage increase variant okay

[30:07] reading directly off my agenda I was too so the motion can reflect that language

[30:11] yeah if that's amenable to you Mr deals with

[30:15] that okay

[30:17] all right we've fixed that motion in that second

[30:20] um any further discussion gentlemen

[30:27] hearing none all those in favor of granting this variance at 2317 East E

[30:32] Street signify but saying aye all right any opposed signify for saying nay

[30:37] hearing no names that that variance at 2317 East E Street is approved and

[30:43] granted thank you thank you and now Council where we will

[30:47] return to regular session again next item on the agenda

[31:02] is resolution number 2023-8 this is a resolution authorizing

[31:09] submission of four Wyoming Homeland Security Grant applications for the

[31:13] purchase of essential Vehicles equipment and security fencing for the City of

[31:17] Torrington

[31:21] Emergency Management coordinator Chuck Canyon present would you want to come up

[31:26] and speak to this Mr Canyon

[31:33] Mr Mayor and Council Josh attorney at 18 to read the resolution first yes Mr

[31:38] Eddington would you read the resolution thank you a resolution authorizing

[31:43] submission of four Wyoming Homeland Security Grant applications for the

[31:46] purchase of essential Vehicles equipment and security fencing for the City of

[31:50] Torrington whereas the governing body of the City

[31:53] of Torrington desires to participate in state Wyoming state of Wyoming Homeland

[31:56] Security grant program whereas the government by the City of Torrington

[31:59] recognizes need for Central vehicles and Equipment whereas the governing body of

[32:03] the City of Torrington realizes the need for security to wastewater treatment

[32:06] plant whereas the governor embodied the city of attorney generalizes that the

[32:09] grant will provide 100 funding for the requested projects require no local

[32:13] match now therefore be resolved by the government bond in the City of

[32:16] Torrington that Grant applications the amount of 444 058 and seven cents be

[32:22] submitted to the Wyoming Homeland Security for consideration of funding

[32:25] for the purchase of following essential vehicles and Equipment turning to an

[32:28] emergency management vehicle 67 548.61 Torrington police specialized

[32:34] Mission vehicle 85 888.47 Carrington police non-lethal training

[32:40] equipment eleven thousand fifteen dollars and forty nine cents parked in

[32:44] wastewater treatment plant fence project 279

[32:47] 605.50 it further resolved that herb Dolby mayor of Torrington is here by

[32:51] designated as authorized representative the City of Torrington act on behalf of

[32:56] the governing Monet and all managers relating to this Grant application

[32:59] thank you Mr Eddington mayor council I'll stand for questions

[33:04] if you have questions regarding the projects

[33:09] I think the primary question I have and want to make sure that we're clear on

[33:13] these are grants that are 100 percent funded by the Department of Homeland

[33:18] Security yes sir it is federal money passed

[33:21] through the state Wyoming office of Homeland Security

[33:24] so there is no possible expense for the only possible expense that can

[33:29] occur is if a project runs over which we obviously know at bidding time if a

[33:36] project runs over the city can choose to expend the extra money to take care of

[33:42] the project or walk away from the ground

[33:46] first two items the Emergency Management vehicle and the police special missions

[33:51] yes sir it seem like we already applied for

[33:54] those didn't we yes we did we've applied for an emergency manager vehicle this

[33:58] will be the fourth time around it hasn't been granted yet

[34:02] the specialized Mission vehicle for the police department was applied for last

[34:07] year and not granted it is one of those things where the what

[34:12] we call the senior advisory committee which consists of

[34:17] staff at woes and state government offices and other emergency managers in

[34:24] the state carefully analyze the amount of money that is available

[34:28] the national priorities that are dictated by FEMA and Department of

[34:33] Homeland Security and the state priorities and they fund these projects

[34:37] accordingly now when these are submitted is there a

[34:41] one two three four project a priority listing yeah yes when a single agency

[34:47] submits the when a single agency submits the funding they are asking us this year

[34:54] to prioritize it they're priority listed on this was the non-lethal training

[34:58] equipment for the police department that simulations training equipment

[35:03] um that was Priority One EMC vehicle was

[35:06] priority two the specialized Mission vehicle for the police department was

[35:10] number three and the wastewater treatment plant was number four

[35:17] again those priorities we try to align those with the priorities listed the

[35:22] national priorities listed in the notice of funding opportunities

[35:32] I'm sorry what was that the board can change the priorities and fun absolutely

[35:38] if you'd like to

[35:41] these figures for these items are they bed basis or they just

[35:48] they just take a question again there's something ticking in the background and

[35:51] I'm having trouble hearing you the the prices of the of the items did

[35:56] you guys get a bids on them or did you just look not bids we got quotes

[36:00] um you you understand what's going on in

[36:03] the automotive industry um the specialized Mission vehicle for

[36:07] the police department is a Ford Explorer Max you know the Long Ford Expedition

[36:12] I'm sorry and there was ten thousand dollar difference from base cost of the

[36:16] vehicle last year to this year um and that also includes uh what we

[36:23] call Furniture in the vehicle storage gun lockers uh that type of thing

[36:28] emergency vehicle lighting radio equipment

[36:31] um the whole package for that vehicle the

[36:35] Emergency Management vehicle is a vehicle a Topper slide bed and emergency

[36:40] vehicle equipment you know what I've already got radio

[36:44] equipment in the existing vehicle and tools and all that stuff so it

[36:51] that's not listed in that vehicle so it comes it was about eight thousand

[36:54] dollars more than the same vehicle last year

[36:58] now the specialized Mission vehicle is not an armored vehicle no sir it's a

[37:02] Ford Expedition a long one no we're not not going to get any mraps

[37:09] out can you or the chief explain its purpose

[37:13] to me I can sure try but Chief Johnson would you like to address that

[37:20] surely we're looking for a vehicle that will allow us to respond to a scene with

[37:24] all of the equipment that we would need to have right there it would include a

[37:29] mix of tactical equipment a mix of administrative equipment other gear our

[37:34] goal would be to be able to write a search warrant right there on scene

[37:36] print it out have it ready to go have all of our evidence collection equipment

[37:41] there and have

[37:43] um bullet resistant Shields entry equipment less lethal equipment all of

[37:49] the things that we would need to respond to anything from a tactical incident to

[37:54] a in-depth search warrant would be our goal in responding with that vehicle

[38:03] Chief Johnson with this vehicle if it were to come to pass be assigned to a

[38:09] particular officer to use assistant chief Pat Conley he supervises

[38:14] our investigations team and he also leads a lot of our tactical effort so we

[38:20] would have him respond with that so that he's always coming out anyways we never

[38:24] give him time off but we would always want him to respond and he would have

[38:29] that equipment with him now as far as the non-lethal training

[38:34] equipment we've already got some non-lethal stuff right this is actually

[38:38] a little bit different from the standpoint of utilization so this is

[38:43] simunitions equipment if you recall last year we did our first Regional training

[38:47] Endeavor to really focus on an act of threat in our schools we would really

[38:52] like to continue being more and more aggressive on preparing for that type of

[38:57] a scenario be it in a school or anywhere else because sadly we see those events

[39:01] happening more frequently across the country

[39:03] best way that we can train police officers for that type of a scenario is

[39:07] to put them in the most realistic situation we possibly can

[39:11] and so the equipment that Chuck has so graciously supported us in doing this

[39:16] Grant on is weapon systems that exactly mimic what we use day in and day out in

[39:23] our police work and they rather than shooting live ammunition they shoot wax

[39:28] pellets it's a it's a simulated round so we can completely simulate force on

[39:33] Force training like we did last August going into the schools the things that

[39:39] we focused on with this grant the only equipment we currently have is handguns

[39:45] and our officers deploy with rifles and so we'd like to also have a long gun

[39:50] system with simunitions so there are offers officers can deploy as

[39:55] realistically as possible with a shoulder shoulder fired weapon the other

[40:00] things that we focused on heavily in this grant are protective equipment

[40:04] our simulated bad guys last year were very gracious and kind in sacrificing

[40:09] their bodies for the effort part of our training but they wound up with some

[40:14] pretty substantial polka dots if you will as a result of being struck with

[40:18] the rounds and so we're outfitting for two simulated bad guys to have much more

[40:24] protective equipment so that it's a more comfortable experience for them as we're

[40:29] engaging in the training

[40:34] and again I want to ask these requests are in line with the

[40:39] priorities yes um

[40:42] for example the granting agency has right the the national priorities coming

[40:47] down one of them is protection of soft Targets in crowded places

[40:52] so when you talk about training for force on Force situations which is you

[40:56] know you're talking about active shooter training where the cops are running in

[41:00] somewhere to face an active shooter this lines up very well with that National

[41:06] priority it also planning is always a priority so in doing this and and

[41:12] establishing this Regional Regional program we'll call it

[41:17] it's regional intent we're lining up with planning priorities

[41:21] we're landing at lining up with operational coordination because if you

[41:26] witnessed the um if you witnessed the training last

[41:30] year what you would have seen was a mixed group of a couple Torrington PD

[41:35] Officers a highway patrolmen and a sheriff's deputy or a Wheatland cop

[41:40] sheriff's deputies we had Fort Laramie police officer there Torrington Goshen

[41:46] County Fort Laramie or Wyoming highway patrol because in a real incident in the

[41:52] instant that it happens the first there's two guys on duty in Torrington

[41:57] and there's going to be deputies coming in and it's important for them to be

[42:00] able to work as a team in these fours on Force incidents so the training the old

[42:06] saying train issue fight fight as you train

[42:09] so

[42:13] the wastewater treatment plant fence project is 6225 feet of

[42:21] chain-length fencing to surround the wastewater treatment plant that also

[42:25] falls underneath the community resilience because what we're doing is

[42:29] we're deterring pedestrian entry into

[42:33] um the facility it's important to note that

[42:37] it would be easy for somebody to go in there and tamper with equipment and

[42:41] damage the facility as well as damage both physically or biologically damage

[42:47] the facility because if you interrupt the biologic train that's happening to

[42:53] process that sewage um

[42:56] we're going to be having problems regrowing the bugs so to speak in the

[43:01] existing lagoons so all of these projects are within the all of them meet

[43:08] multiple planning operational coordination

[43:12] um saw protection of soft targets things like that

[43:18] and I had a conversation with you there have been deer fall in there dogs fall

[43:23] in there tumbleweeds yeah I don't know if any

[43:28] people have fallen in there I hope not because I mean it's would be unpleasant

[43:33] but you could it could be fatal yes it's lined with the slick edges and you may

[43:38] not be able to get out of there if you fall into there the lagoons are lined

[43:42] with a very heavy plastic that um

[43:45] probably is quite greasy

[43:55] well we started the conversation about Greece and the sewers all right

[44:00] gentlemen any further questions for either

[44:04] Mr Canyon or chief Johnson

[44:08] thank you Mr Mayor thank you there's no further discussion Mr Mayor I

[44:14] would move to approve resolution 2023-8 I have a motion from councilman victron

[44:20] to approve resolution number 20 23-8 authorizing submission for Wyoming

[44:26] Homeland Security Grant applications for the purchase of essential Vehicles

[44:30] equipment and security fencing for the City of Torrington do I have a second

[44:34] second from councilman Kelly any further discussion gentlemen

[44:41] hearing none all those in favor of passing resolution number 20 23-8

[44:46] signify by saying aye aye any opposed signify for saying nay

[44:52] that resolution has passed next item on the agenda is the landfill

[44:59] Consulting engineer five-year agreement director of Public Works Harkins could

[45:05] you Enlighten us on that thank you Mr Mayor and Council it's my recommendation

[45:10] that Council approve retaining invert Miller Engineers under a five-year

[45:15] agreement beginning July 1st 2023 to perform Engineering Services for the

[45:20] landfill and authorize the mayor and clerk to sign

[45:23] basically I emberg Miller Engineers has been the landfill consultant since

[45:28] August of 2013. since that date there have been 13

[45:33] different amendments to the that agreement

[45:36] uh as I've listed on the memo there have

[45:42] been numerous items that they have performed for the city but I think the

[45:45] most notable one is the design and permitting of the cell 14 for landfill

[45:51] number two some of the items that may be requested

[45:56] are listed further down on that memo but two of the items that definitely will

[46:05] have amendments or the environmental monitoring sampling and reporting for

[46:10] landfill number two which they have been doing

[46:12] since 2013 they'll continue to do that and preparing a feasibility study and a

[46:19] cost estimate to relocate the Baylor facility out at

[46:23] the landfill Council approved in last year's budget

[46:28] a certain amount of money for that work to be done

[46:31] this basically would proceed with getting a consultant to

[46:37] proceed with that work

[46:40] all these proposed amendments would be

[46:46] included in the agreement and obviously would have to come before Council for

[46:51] your approval or denial as you see fit

[46:58] the agreement and the resulting amendments would be funded out

[47:03] of the sanitation fund if you have any questions

[47:08] so the the original contact was back in 2013 and it's had 13 amendments yes so

[47:14] it's quite cumbersome to review that contract because you've got the basic

[47:18] contract and 13 minutes it's getting very difficult yes

[47:23] and this is sort of Fresh Start same same engineering firm same engineering

[47:28] firm they've been doing a really terrific job

[47:32] for the city they've been really responsive and they work well with the

[47:36] state's DEQ we've had very little

[47:40] negative comments from DEQ regarding the work that's been

[47:45] uh submitted to them and they're in Casper right actually they're Statewide

[47:51] they have an office out of Cheyenne office out of Casper uh Steve molt who

[47:57] was the uh individual that was mainly working with us was out of Riverton

[48:03] but he is now retiring so we'll be working both with the Casper and the

[48:09] Cheyenne offices

[48:13] and then I think you mentioned this but as uh

[48:19] proposed work comes up the price is determined in the council it has to come

[48:23] to before the council to approve that work exactly the consultant will prepare

[48:27] an amendment to the agreement he'll propose a price man

[48:33] lay out a scope of work of what he'll do for that price well I'll bring that to

[48:38] the council and present it to you and you'll make a

[48:42] decision so I guess what I'm saying this this

[48:45] puts this engineering firm on tainer on retainer so to speak that are available

[48:49] to be used for these purposes and they're sort of locked in to help us

[48:53] when the need arises correct they're making a commitment to be our basically

[48:57] our consultant for the next five years

[49:02] any further questions councilman from and this is a whole new agreement it's

[49:07] not a Contin not an amendment right no this is an all-new agreement

[49:12] starting fresh because I didn't like all them other

[49:14] ones anyway can we keep track of

[49:24] I have a motion from councilman Patterson uh to approve this landfill

[49:30] Consulting engineer five-year agreement do I have a second

[49:35] second from councilman deal any further discussion dilemma

[49:41] hearing none all those in in favor of approving the landfill Consulting

[49:46] engineer five-year agreement with ingber Miller engineers

[49:51] signified by saying aye aye and you pose signify by saying nay

[49:57] that landfill Consulting engineer five-year agreement is passed

[50:04] next item on the agenda is number seven the 2023 golf fees

[50:08] Mr Dent is here to answer questions regarding that

[50:18] yeah you'd be mayor and Council evening this is uh

[50:29] this was actually something that should have been on the

[50:32] rake sheet and the fees earlier this year when we approved those it got left

[50:37] off and it's essentially a punch card that allows maybe an individual that

[50:42] doesn't get to play very often or otherwise maybe wouldn't Buy

[50:46] the individual single pass at a lesser fee

[50:50] so they're actually getting 12

[50:54] 18 hole rounds for the price of 10 and there's

[50:58] 24 pheasants on it 310 dollars

[51:03] so there's 12 pheasants on there which represent nine holes each so if they

[51:07] play in 18 holes we punch it twice so if councilman victim wanted to play nine

[51:12] holes on that card he'd just punch it once

[51:15] it's just an opportunity for somebody who maybe can't even afford

[51:20] the pass or does it get the opportunity to play or might not otherwise buy the

[51:24] pass itself so it's just something we left off on the earlier rate sheet

[51:28] and it's my understanding that these 2023 golf fees that are listed except

[51:33] for the 18 hole punch card were approved on November 15th of 2022 by Marion

[51:39] Council that's correct so the only thing you're asking the Marion Council to do

[51:43] this evening is approve the 18-hole punch card that is correct

[51:53] and question I have I mean how you've had these before correct

[51:59] how how many get sold we're still about 15 of them and uh

[52:04] probably out of that 15 only one of them used all

[52:08] their punches so oftentimes they're paying the full

[52:11] price but don't take advantage of all the opportunities exactly and they know

[52:16] that going into it and it's yearly good for one year one

[52:20] year January 1st of December 31st

[52:24] so if a guy buys one in April it's the same thing runs out yep December 31st

[52:31] any further questions for Mr Dan

[52:36] Mr Mayor makes a motion to approve the addition to the the 18 hole punch card

[52:41] to the golf news I have a motion to approve for the 2023 golf fees

[52:48] of the punch card 18 hole punch card fee at the price of 310 dollars each do I

[52:54] have a second that's from councilman deal the website

[52:59] second from councilman Peterson or councilman Patterson

[53:03] yeah any further discussion gentlemen

[53:09] all right hearing no further discussion all those in favor of approving that

[53:13] 18-hole punch card at 310 dollars per card signified by saying aye

[53:20] aye any post signify by saying nay that

[53:25] 18 hole punch card at 310 dollars per card is approved thank you mayor council

[53:31] thank you Mr Dan

[53:37] next item on the agenda agenda is item eight a special event permit

[53:43] uh Leanne Madison Braden

[53:48] and I'm not sure is it Connor or conour okay uh with Goshen Economic Development

[53:56] are requesting a special event permit for the summer concept series to be held

[54:00] in the city parking lot behind Vandal drug on May 31 June 7 June 14 June 21

[54:07] June 28 2023 set up to begin at 3 pm event to run 6 30 pm to 9 00 PM Chief

[54:18] Johnson can you speak to this certainly the folks from Economic

[54:22] Development we had a number of conversations about this event and

[54:26] looked at different options ultimately they submitted the permit for the city

[54:30] lot 5 location from the city perspective we look at

[54:34] that from the standpoint of if we can manage the safety of pedestrians inside

[54:38] of that event which we can at that location

[54:42] if the pending liquor permits or catering permits would be issued and we

[54:48] appropriately manage the liquor consumption and make sure that the

[54:53] liquor is contained at that location and we can manage that at that location and

[54:58] then making sure that the noise can be managed at a reasonable level

[55:02] so those are the three check boxes that we looked at at that location

[55:07] I met with the team at Economic Development and put together the

[55:11] agreement that I included with the permit and I can let them speak to

[55:16] anything else or answer any other questions that you folks might have

[55:19] related

[55:28] council do you have any questions for chief Johnson

[55:36] yeah we've I mean the event morphed a little bit last year from the standpoint

[55:41] of where we initially looked at stage positioning and then moving that Trying

[55:46] to minimize noise impacts and make sure that we're staying reasonable with that

[55:49] impact on other businesses particularly the theater that's there we're going to

[55:54] do a little bit of a change this year based on their recommendation for stage

[55:58] positioning where we're going to try to twist that stage just a little bit so

[56:03] worse still Facing East to minimize noise

[56:07] projection towards the theater the other changes from last year last year we

[56:12] looked at closing the parking lot down fairly early

[56:16] I can't I think it's two or three o'clock in the afternoon which was

[56:19] difficult I mean when you're running a special event you want it to be safe but

[56:23] you also want to minimize impact and so closing that parking lot at that early

[56:27] stage of the day was uncomfortable and made it more challenging so this year

[56:33] we're really kind of sticking to just looking at six parking spaces they've

[56:37] figured out after setting up and taking down the stage a number of times but

[56:41] they really can get everything they need done in those six parking spaces which

[56:44] seems more reasonable to me so that's kind of what the amendment was for this

[56:49] and the start time is a half hour later this year than last year yeah that was

[56:54] The Proposal we for those of you who attended last year the attendance was

[57:00] pretty sparse from six to seven because the sun is baking right down onto that

[57:05] parking lot and if people were there they tended to be hiding behind the

[57:09] restrooms where they got a little bit of shade and so from the standpoint of

[57:13] minimizing road closure minimizing impact in the parking lot and utilizing

[57:18] a better shade platform if you will pushing it to 6 30 and then closing it

[57:23] up at nine seems to be the most reasonable

[57:26] alternative

[57:29] and is a little bit different this year I understand East a will remain open

[57:33] traffic on East day thank you I should have mentioned that

[57:37] um so again the conversations and proposals from Economic Development

[57:43] um the business landscape has changed a

[57:46] little bit from last year last year moose Mercantile was open throughout

[57:51] each concert and they had merchandise for sale right there on East 21st and so

[57:57] it really couldn't utilize that space to park

[58:00] other vendors or have any other traffic coming in and out and so that was why

[58:05] east east a was closed from 21st to the theater entrance for parking and since

[58:12] moose Mercantile is no longer present we can move that traffic need up to East

[58:16] 21st and there's really not not a reason to keep

[58:21] we stay closed it can I mean there's a crosswalk right

[58:24] there on the 20th and you stay we can protect

[58:29] pedestrian safety nicely to the north with the closure of East 21st and that

[58:34] closure will not impact the vandals alley

[58:37] nor will it impact the alley behind the theater in the Elks for emergency

[58:41] response purposes so the East 21st will only be closed

[58:47] between East day and the alley we'll have a barricade anytime we have a

[58:53] kind of a dead end closure effect we'll put a barricade out at Maine and

[58:58] East 21st the people can still get around but we want to let them know

[59:02] before they pull in there that there's a closure so we don't have any U-turn

[59:06] mishaps if you will so somebody could come from Maine if they want to use the

[59:11] post office to drop off mail they could still do that yep they could still get

[59:15] through there and still get to the vandals alley or any of the other places

[59:18] that they needed to go but we would leave that barricade just to give folks

[59:22] a heads up that they're coming into a dead end

[59:24] and and I want to reiterate Chief because I agree with you the city's

[59:29] primary interest is three things can this be done safely

[59:34] and you've indicated that in your opinion it can and it was last year can

[59:38] the alcohol be contained it was last year and you've indicated that it can

[59:43] begin again this year and the noise is not violative of our noise ordinance so

[59:50] those are the three primary things the city government is concerned about yes

[59:54] sir and all those are squared away in your mind

[59:57] I mean certainly the reasonableness of noise is always open to discussion the

[1:00:03] way that we've tried to look at that is what would we consider to be

[1:00:07] unreasonable from from any other perspective and so the the agreement

[1:00:13] that we've looked at is the 80 I mean you can never have just a hard

[1:00:18] cut off of a certain number of decibels because it fluctuates in that range

[1:00:23] but that would be the equivalent of a semi truck parked in an alley I mean

[1:00:28] that's 80 to 85 decibels is a semi truck that would be parked in an alley and I

[1:00:33] wouldn't come to uh I mean if if a business owner made a complaint to me or

[1:00:38] a regular residents made a complaint to me

[1:00:42] saying that there's a semi truck that's idling and it's unreasonable in that

[1:00:45] time frame we wouldn't look at that as a violation of ordinance or statute at

[1:00:51] that level so I I mean that again that's a that's

[1:00:55] not an easy thing to look at with a hard answer but from a reasonable

[1:01:00] reasonableness standpoint I felt like that was a pretty reasonable

[1:01:03] way to look at it and I noticed last year the event

[1:01:08] I'll use the word catered to all ages and interests so to speak you had when I

[1:01:16] was there you had events for the kids you had the music alcohol could be

[1:01:22] purchased by those legally able to do it so you're the broad spectrum from

[1:01:28] children to people who want to sit and have a drink and listen to music that

[1:01:32] might be a better question for Leanne or Braden but my understanding of their

[1:01:38] proposal is that that would continue to be I mean the goal that was presented to

[1:01:44] me as part of this permit was to have very much of a family outing on a

[1:01:49] Wednesday night in Torrington sure

[1:01:53] before I ask for comment from the public speaking in favor and against

[1:01:59] any further questions from the council for chief Johnson I have a question Mr

[1:02:05] Mayor on the decibels sir last year okay what was I noticed you where I was a

[1:02:12] spectator in the event I noticed you were taking some sort of reading

[1:02:16] so I wondered kind of recalling what last year's event was like what was so

[1:02:22] we were we stayed right in that 80 decibel range

[1:02:26] there were a couple of we had met with the folks who managed the theater ahead

[1:02:30] of time and evaluated that and looked at what essentially the reduction of noise

[1:02:35] was going to the theater and again looking for that reasonableness standard

[1:02:40] so we a couple of times it was over and we had to turn it down 40 to 45 range

[1:02:45] inside which at that level it was

[1:02:49] I mean it would have to be very very quiet in the movie to have that be an

[1:02:52] impact so that was the reason that we went with that and I tried to stay on

[1:02:56] top of that as much as I possibly could and you'll notice in the

[1:03:03] rating or in the agreement there essentially we're laying out how that's

[1:03:08] going to be monitored is that needs to happen at the beginning of the concert

[1:03:11] at the beginning of every band Midway and then if there's ever a complaint and

[1:03:16] we need to address that

[1:03:20] then the other question would be the um

[1:03:25] the closure of certain parking spaces yes sir

[1:03:31] was it just the spaces that would be closed for the stage

[1:03:36] uh prior to the event or is it those I don't know if you have this

[1:03:41] shaded in yellow

[1:03:51] so is this the one you're looking at yes so this actually doesn't really depict

[1:03:55] this the parking spaces that would be closed

[1:03:59] um this shaded yellow area is how the event would be laid out at the time and

[1:04:03] again this is from Leanna Braden so these little bit of fun misspeaking in

[1:04:09] any way shape with them the six parking spaces that would be impacted are those

[1:04:13] there where the blue boxes that says band because that's the space that they

[1:04:17] would need in order to get in and get the stage set up this the stage again

[1:04:23] for my communication with them is kind of a limiting factor related to this

[1:04:27] event because it takes and extremely long time to set up and so we

[1:04:33] really are trying to limit that impact and give them the freedom they need to

[1:04:39] set up without completely messing up those parking the parking lot for every

[1:04:44] other business downtown so

[1:04:48] my question more or less is those other than for the stage no parking spaces

[1:04:53] have been reserved asked to be closed that would be all they would be

[1:04:57] permitted to close would be those six spaces right there where that blue box

[1:05:00] is for band the rest of the parking lot

[1:05:03] will close at 5 30 um when the event was being set up

[1:05:07] so is there a

[1:05:10] you know if somebody has parked there after the closure is there a contingency

[1:05:16] well last year we had a couple of those that we had to do a little bit of

[1:05:21] scrambling to go figure out who owned the car and ask them to help out we

[1:05:25] didn't have any problems with it I mean everybody

[1:05:28] the folks from Economic Development have in their plan to come in ahead of time

[1:05:33] with flyers and make sure that everybody's aware and they'll be doing

[1:05:37] poster boards I believe in the entrance if that does happen we'll go contact and

[1:05:42] work with those folks I don't see that being a towing situation because I think

[1:05:47] would be thin for that being a toe but worse case scenario we might have to

[1:05:51] take the car off and then utilize some officers to help get it out

[1:05:55] of there later when they uh when the person returned to the car

[1:06:00] and how many officers would be required to

[1:06:04] be present from you know beginning to end I'm I'm willing to pitch in and help

[1:06:09] out um

[1:06:10] each night the nice thing about this location is that because the boundaries

[1:06:14] are really easy to monitor um we're going to set up essentially a

[1:06:18] diagonal entrance with Staffing at those entrances the Staffing will consist and

[1:06:23] this was part of the agreement with economic development and so we'll have

[1:06:27] an entrance on the northwest and the southeast that are staffed and signed

[1:06:33] for no outside alcohol dogs but you know whatever else they decide to do for

[1:06:38] inside of their event but a person standing at that location can actually

[1:06:42] see diagonally down two sides of the event to monitor for alcohol potentially

[1:06:47] leaving the event and make sure that people aren't sneaking in and out and

[1:06:50] then the person at the other Corner can see down the other two sides

[1:06:55] so if we have at least one officer inside monitoring it it's it's really

[1:06:59] not an issue I mean we had very little problems last year and then we rotate

[1:07:04] our Patrol guys we did our best to have two in there at all the all times

[1:07:08] um but we're just rotating Patrol guys in and out

[1:07:12] making sure that that's covered and it really didn't impact our staffing and I

[1:07:16] was I'm happy to kind of help out with it so myself for Pat will be glad to

[1:07:20] assist

[1:07:23] I got a few questions but I don't know who they're too

[1:07:26] Mr Mayor I wonder if it would be pertinent to have

[1:07:29] the event well folks come up yes at this point thank you

[1:07:35] I think we're done with Chief Johnson at least momentarily

[1:07:38] um is is it's Mattis

[1:07:45] mayor and Council thank you so

[1:07:49] much yeah I can answer any questions you may have but um

[1:07:53] a couple things that weren't covered yet we do plan on paying that event permit

[1:08:00] fee um to the city council as well

[1:08:05] um and we're starting the process now it's

[1:08:08] kind of early on but uh we really need to get the fundraising aspect kicked off

[1:08:14] and and get that effort going as well so that's kind of why we're in the process

[1:08:19] now um last year this event was huge it was

[1:08:24] super successful um we saw growth at each event

[1:08:29] throughout and yeah just wanted to make a few tweaks to it we are holding it in

[1:08:36] consecutive weeks this year rather than every other week

[1:08:42] um we feel that

[1:08:47] um it's just really beneficial for the

[1:08:49] community to gather um

[1:08:54] part of the Main Street program is making sure we have a place for our

[1:08:59] community to gather and that's where this event stemmed from

[1:09:05] we also conducted a survey recently and we had over 90 respondents and found

[1:09:11] that one of the main points was that approximately 75 percent of the

[1:09:19] respondents liked the location of the event

[1:09:25] um and yeah with that

[1:09:28] stand for any questions are the food vendors going to be allowed

[1:09:33] to open before the 6 30 time

[1:09:37] um I that hasn't been discussed just yet but last year we kind of had them open

[1:09:43] as the event got started so I don't foresee them

[1:09:46] opening prior to the event I'm just thinking Some people might want to eat

[1:09:50] down there a little earlier than that maybe something to think about yeah

[1:09:56] and then the food vendors that you do have

[1:09:59] I imagine they're going to have to fill out a catering permit for the city

[1:10:02] correct correct yes

[1:10:11] you mentioned a Main Street program yeah tell me a little bit about that

[1:10:15] absolutely so uh I am the community development director with economic

[1:10:21] development and part of my job is we are a certified Main Street Community

[1:10:28] and it's a National Organization um and I am

[1:10:34] new to the program um I'm I've been

[1:10:38] at economic development for about eight months now

[1:10:41] um actually headed to Boston to learn a lot more about the Main Street program

[1:10:46] but it really is centered around having a space for our communities

[1:10:53] together to um

[1:10:56] help with economic development and and um

[1:11:04] you know one of our

[1:11:07] main um ideas is to provide events that are

[1:11:12] centered around Community involvement

[1:11:16] Community involvement in a downtown area in a downtown area yes

[1:11:21] that that was my sort of what I was going to ask as well that your

[1:11:25] participation in this Main Street program

[1:11:28] requires you to have events in in the downtown area is that

[1:11:36] I wouldn't say a requirement the question would be have you looked at

[1:11:39] other areas to happen absolutely have absolutely yeah um

[1:11:44] we have actually looked at holding this event on Main Street

[1:11:49] um rather than the parking lot the main issue

[1:11:54] with that was the timing it takes Crossroads music three hours to set up

[1:12:03] this stage and get the sound set and we cannot close Main Street down

[1:12:10] until five o'clock that puts our event time start at eight o'clock

[1:12:16] so um

[1:12:17] you know we've considered

[1:12:21] I shouldn't say that we we've heard that people would like to

[1:12:27] have this in a park but that's not that's not the whole

[1:12:34] idea behind the program

[1:12:37] it's to bring people downtown

[1:12:41] to have a vibrant downtown community

[1:12:45] have you heard any comments about increased foot traffic as a result of

[1:12:49] this or business there's one Main Street um

[1:12:56] you know I with these events bringing

[1:13:01] two to three hundred people downtown you know they're gonna see

[1:13:06] storefronts you know whether they're open or not

[1:13:10] um that could bring residual business maybe not that particular day

[1:13:16] but somebody walking downtown may see something that they want to head back

[1:13:21] for later um Jackie Van Mark did mention that it

[1:13:26] brought business to her store downtown

[1:13:30] so addicting

[1:13:34] well I was going to say since the parking lot is closed during the event

[1:13:37] the place to park is going to be on Main Street right exactly yeah yeah exactly

[1:13:45] so yep people are going to see their storefronts and we have an amazing Main

[1:13:50] Street and getting eyes

[1:13:53] on those businesses is a priority

[1:13:58] but if it was on Main Street because businesses wouldn't necessarily have to

[1:14:01] close correct correct

[1:14:05] um the main issue with having it on Main Street is the timing

[1:14:10] I mean I don't really familiar with it what they do in Deadwood every year but

[1:14:15] they just close off the whole Main Street a block of Main Street but all

[1:14:18] the vendors or they're all stores still stay open right yeah but that's a two

[1:14:22] and three day event so they close it off for two or three

[1:14:25] days okay yeah

[1:14:30] my my question my next question would be what is there a plan if the if the

[1:14:36] concept is to encourage a Vibrant Community in the downtown business

[1:14:40] district yeah what is the plan to encourage business

[1:14:44] and commerce yes to go along with the event fantastic question

[1:14:50] um you know we're we're in the process right now of all the planning and of

[1:14:52] course we have to find out whether or not we can hold the event

[1:14:56] um but the plan is to go down and visit with all of our Main Street businesses

[1:15:03] to to see what we can do to

[1:15:07] make that happen you know I've I've had a few ideas here

[1:15:12] and there um

[1:15:15] for example maybe we hold a scavenger hunt where people have to in the

[1:15:20] incentive is to go into businesses prior to the concert you know you spend

[1:15:27] a certain amount of money at three different businesses downtown bring us

[1:15:32] your receipts we'll put you in a drawing and we'll do some sort of giveaway

[1:15:36] just an idea off the top of my head but um

[1:15:40] I really want to get downtown and visit with our our Main Street businesses to

[1:15:44] see what that looks like for them and you know if they have

[1:15:48] ideas for that as well and absolutely we'll Implement those

[1:15:56] I know last year about this the Third

[1:16:00] or fourth time they edited in the parking lot

[1:16:04] there somebody brought in some tables and picnic tables yes we're gonna do it

[1:16:08] is there any thought to that again yeah absolutely

[1:16:11] um that was Western Province um out of Yoder they actually brought

[1:16:15] those from Yoder to set up donated them to the event which was

[1:16:20] fantastic and I do believe they are planning on doing that again

[1:16:31] talk to me a little bit more about the vendors

[1:16:35] the food and beverage vendors do you have those lined up

[1:16:41] we do not as we just aren't certain whether

[1:16:47] go forward which I'm hoping we do we

[1:16:53] our beverage vendors are local businesses

[1:16:58] um last year we had the Bronco bar cater one

[1:17:03] um open Barrel Brewery

[1:17:07] we had the mint and 307 Bar and Grill and am I forgetting

[1:17:16] um so local businesses held those

[1:17:21] permits got they each got a chance at one of the

[1:17:26] one of the evenings yeah and then

[1:17:32] food um

[1:17:34] 307 and the Bronco also came to other events to sell food and we also

[1:17:43] had a couple food trucks available as well

[1:17:46] which were a huge draw

[1:17:52] food trucks are there food trucks local food trucks

[1:17:57] we don't unfortunately we don't have any local food trucks

[1:18:01] um if anybody wants to open a food truck let's do it

[1:18:12] so I guess Mr Mayor from my standpoint a few things in your in your application

[1:18:19] have have I'm I'm relieved to see the

[1:18:24] closure of the parking lot earlier last year of course I wasn't on this Council

[1:18:28] then but the closure earlier in the day in my opinion impeded business during

[1:18:34] that time especially those folks that needed access to that parking lot so I'm

[1:18:38] I'm grateful to see that the closure of the parking lot this time or proposal

[1:18:43] later

[1:18:46] um my concern this time around

[1:18:51] or or not necessarily concerned but a wish of mine

[1:18:55] is going back to what you said earlier about

[1:18:58] creating this vibrant downtown community

[1:19:03] and I I want to see and or my wish I should say that there is more

[1:19:09] involvement with our Merchants downtown to the benefit from this concert if we

[1:19:16] can't have it on Main Street and I don't I don't know the temperature

[1:19:19] of the merchants downtown whether they would be in favor of that or not

[1:19:23] but if if the Showcase can't be directly on Main Street

[1:19:28] somehow I would like to see those Merchants be able to come off half a

[1:19:32] block to Showcase themselves if that is the if

[1:19:37] that's the goal yeah absolutely and that is

[1:19:40] open to anybody that is open to any business

[1:19:45] in our downtown area and and finally my my final concern

[1:19:54] I've talked with a business that is directly affected by the event

[1:20:00] um they're closed the first two days of the

[1:20:03] week has there been given any thought to

[1:20:06] having this event on one of those days yeah we we have we've considered every

[1:20:11] option so are contracted with Crossroads music out

[1:20:15] of Scott's Bluff they are the ones that also do this

[1:20:19] concert series with Scott's Bluff bands on Broadway I believe is what it's

[1:20:25] called there's also one in Alliance so the one in Scott's Bluff is held

[1:20:30] every Thursday

[1:20:33] Alliance is Friday our options were either Wednesday or Saturday

[1:20:39] um we felt you know in visiting with some

[1:20:43] of our businesses downtown that Wednesday night is kind of a slower

[1:20:48] night for them and they were wanting us to do something

[1:20:52] to pick business up on that night

[1:20:58] so that's that is the main reason we chose Wednesday nights

[1:21:02] I know it's hard to have it on Main Street Bronco bar has a band every year

[1:21:07] that they close the street off for right and that I believe is goes into

[1:21:12] later in the evening and chief might be able to speak to that I don't have all

[1:21:17] the details on that but that is a later closure and and frankly I'm probably the

[1:21:22] stick in the mud when it comes to closing Main Street because of the

[1:21:25] impact I mean when we used to do third Thursday trying to close down at 3 30 4

[1:21:30] o'clock in the afternoon I mean from a safety perspective it's really not ideal

[1:21:35] and from an impact to businesses it's also really not ideal so when we had a

[1:21:43] discussion about the potential for having this event on Main Street that

[1:21:46] was the limiting factor was because of the length of time it takes to set up

[1:21:50] the band I'm just not I mean particularly we were talking the

[1:21:56] north of 21st and Main encompassing the post office block which would be a

[1:22:00] pretty low impact but if we had to close at four o'clock the post office doesn't

[1:22:05] close until 4 30 and we really would have a pretty disparate impact on folks

[1:22:11] that are trying to live their daily lives and it really is not a good safety

[1:22:16] setup to have a full parking diagonal structure or excuse me full

[1:22:21] full parking diagonal spots up the block and then try to empty that at 3 30 4

[1:22:27] o'clock in the afternoon while you're in the middle of setting up an event it's

[1:22:31] just it's not a not a good safety move

[1:22:36] and was there a particular reason why we chose this parking lot instead of the

[1:22:39] one like say over buying behind Arby's as as I understand this slot was

[1:22:47] made to be a City events based when those restrooms were

[1:22:53] constructed

[1:23:05] and also to speak to the closure of Main Street another point there you know this

[1:23:11] is a family friendly event um it's not a

[1:23:15] Friday night stay out all night event so you know we want to bring in activities

[1:23:22] for kids we got a lot of really good feedback in

[1:23:26] our survey that people want to see more of that something more for the kids so

[1:23:31] we're gonna Implement that as well that's a good point you're going to try

[1:23:36] to serve the whole Spectrum absolutely absolutely

[1:23:45] and I think that was I wasn't obviously on mayor I was not mayor back in the day

[1:23:49] when you did the four o'clock closing but I think that was a hard lesson

[1:23:53] learned yeah that is not appropriate to try to shut your downtown area at four

[1:23:57] there's a lot of business that goes on between four and five

[1:24:01] this doesn't work to shut things down at four in the afternoon

[1:24:05] I think that's a lesson that we've Never Say Never but we've learned that

[1:24:09] that's not so good and I mean if we push the concert start until if we closed at

[1:24:15] five and took three hours to set up and then we tried to run a three-hour

[1:24:19] concert on a weeknight we're going to have all these complaints coming out our

[1:24:22] ears for going to 11 11 p.m on a Wednesday night I just

[1:24:27] can tell that story from a reasonable standpoint

[1:24:36] Miss Mattis is up here representing the organization that's asking for the

[1:24:39] special event permit thank you do council do you have any further

[1:24:43] questions for Miss Mattis thank you Miss Mattis thank you

[1:24:48] appreciate it um

[1:24:51] I see there's a lot of people here this evening so I would ask first of all

[1:24:56] anybody in addition to miss Mattis that wants to speak in favor of council

[1:25:01] granting this specially about permit is welcome to approach the podium

[1:25:09] yeah no I have one

[1:25:17] thank you my name is Todd Werner last year I was the emcee for the music on

[1:25:24] Main I'm just a volunteer helper

[1:25:28] that thought this was a great thing to do for the community

[1:25:33] um did we learn a few things that we could

[1:25:36] improve on I believe we did and we are you know we're working to

[1:25:40] make it better for the the community the some of the local businesses

[1:25:45] um you know we we are still this is only our this will be our second year

[1:25:50] hopefully um you know and I think Chief Johnson

[1:25:55] has done a wonderful job making sure that everything has been set up properly

[1:26:00] um I was in charge of uh going out and and getting some of the um

[1:26:07] all right well actually I went I went to the bars I worked for Budweiser out of

[1:26:11] Cheyenne and um you know and I think that if you

[1:26:15] could visit with each one of the bars that did the event

[1:26:19] I think that you will find that that they did um well I mean it's none of my

[1:26:23] business to know exactly how they did um but I think they did well and and I

[1:26:28] think that if any of you attended the concerts

[1:26:32] um you know I think that it was it was a very successful thing

[1:26:36] and you know as far as moving forward and being able to get more of these

[1:26:41] businesses that could possibly be involved we are all for that you know

[1:26:46] it's um something that obviously it's a community event I mean

[1:26:51] I we had people you know I think that part of the the good thing that the

[1:26:57] location that we had it in is that people could walk you know we

[1:27:02] had a lot of people that that walked in I mean I I was there I wasn't there as

[1:27:07] early as some of the folks were that set up but I can tell you that

[1:27:10] we were kind of nervous because at six o'clock you know we didn't have a lot of

[1:27:14] people there and there there weren't a lot of vehicles around but then you know

[1:27:18] you could see people walking down the streets side streets with their their

[1:27:21] lawn chairs and you know and then yes the Western

[1:27:25] Province bringing in the benches I thought was an awesome thing you know

[1:27:29] and and um

[1:27:32] I think that if we could just continue to

[1:27:36] um have as many people as we did show up

[1:27:39] last year I I think that and I think Chief I think you mentioned something

[1:27:43] 300 plus people you know and I think Chiefs probably

[1:27:49] pretty accurate you know coming from a bigger city he probably knows numbers

[1:27:52] just by kind of looking out over a crowd I've been in this community for 52 years

[1:28:00] and I will tell you that this was a very successful thing I said you know Goshen

[1:28:05] County Fair is a very great thing for this community

[1:28:08] what we did in that parking lot it really was a great thing and I would

[1:28:13] love to see it continue you know and to talk to the with the

[1:28:17] bands that we got the gentleman from Scottsbluff does an amazing job for us

[1:28:21] and he can do that for us at a little cheaper price because then

[1:28:27] he coordinates with you know like Leanne said with

[1:28:30] Scott's Bluff and with Alliance and then we get a better deal and we

[1:28:36] still get great music and and you know I we'd love to have

[1:28:41] local vendors come in we are open to any of that I can guarantee it

[1:28:46] and I'm talking food vendors I'm talking whoever

[1:28:50] um so I mean that that's something that you know and if we do get to move

[1:28:54] forward with this I I we can expand this and make it a

[1:28:58] better a bigger and a better event then maybe someday we have to move it to a

[1:29:02] better a bigger venue and that would be you know great

[1:29:06] I mean we do have some things in mind and I won't get into those because I'm

[1:29:09] not technically on the committee um or I am but not with the economic

[1:29:14] development you know I'm part of this small community or committee but I just

[1:29:19] want to say that you know I just think that it's been a wonderful thing for the

[1:29:22] community and I thank you for letting me speak

[1:29:27] thank you sir

[1:29:40] would you just let us know your name for the clerk absolutely

[1:29:45] for the record great uh thanks parent Council I'm Scott prusia just a local

[1:29:50] business owner and past president of Economic Development I know one of the

[1:29:56] things that's been brought up is what we're trying to do with the Main Street

[1:30:00] program through Goshen Economic Development and what's

[1:30:04] that what what is that doing for our downtown businesses

[1:30:09] um since coveted pandemic we track as I'm

[1:30:13] sure the city does as well what sales tax receipts are doing and throughout

[1:30:19] the covid period Goshen County was one of the highest performing if not the

[1:30:23] highest performing state in Wyoming as far as growth and sales tax

[1:30:30] revenue I will say this year we are on the edge of a recession but at

[1:30:37] the same time I look at our sales tax receipts which the bulk of that comes

[1:30:42] from retail sales up and down main streets in each of our communities sales

[1:30:47] tax is up over 15 percent this year over last year

[1:30:51] and not to say that you can put a finger on exactly what's driving that I think

[1:30:57] there are several factors I think we have great Merchants I think we have a

[1:31:01] good support system from Economic Development and our Main Street program

[1:31:05] as well as our residents and the 15 percent that we are up is leading the

[1:31:12] state as far as sales tax receipts those sales tax receipts go to each community

[1:31:16] and they go to the county those are pretty sizable increases on a

[1:31:21] year-over-year basis and I think that's something that again you can't put your

[1:31:26] finger on exactly what's driving that but we're doing something right here and

[1:31:31] I think what has happened in trying to drive Main Street and this is one of the

[1:31:36] events that helps to do it I think has been very successful and a testament to

[1:31:41] what's being done

[1:31:44] thank you thank you Mr pressure

[1:31:50] anybody else out there that wants to speak for

[1:32:04] hello mayor and Council would you please state your name for the record

[1:32:08] sure sorry my name is Tiffany Leslie I own the

[1:32:11] Bronco Bar and Grill house and I would like to speak in favor for our community

[1:32:16] night for many years I have been asked why I

[1:32:20] don't do a family night on Main Street and one of the reasons is is

[1:32:26] I'm one person live versus trying to get all the bands from different towns the

[1:32:33] whole Community involved with Goshen economic they actually took on that

[1:32:37] responsibility to give the community something that me as business owner on

[1:32:42] Main Street can do and I think that's really awesome that

[1:32:46] they do that and I have had so much positive feedback just hearing it in our

[1:32:50] community since the first one that we have had of how many families actually

[1:32:55] enjoyed going out listening to a band getting home early enough so that way

[1:33:00] kids could go to bed everything else like that I know a lot of the businesses

[1:33:05] in my area on the Block have definitely benefited from it obviously myself meant

[1:33:10] open Barrel because we did some of those catering for them and that's just extra

[1:33:15] revenue for us during the summer time when we are slow the foot traffic had

[1:33:19] picked up I know during the actual event itself

[1:33:23] so our my restaurant actually had a lot of foot traffic come in it as well

[1:33:27] during that time even with me catering and the food truck so that helped us out

[1:33:31] tremendously on Wednesday nights when we're pretty slow during that weekday

[1:33:37] so I just like to speak in favor of it I think it's awesome that Goshen economic

[1:33:41] has put this all together for our community

[1:33:44] when these events took place last year out in front of your business

[1:33:49] was that just full yes parking was just full on parking was full and you could

[1:33:55] actually see the foot traffic I had employees calling me hey is it really

[1:34:00] busy down there because we can see them walking back and forth

[1:34:06] I don't know if you took a look in the back parking lot behind your business

[1:34:09] was that full yes a lot of people do park in that Arby's parking lot and then

[1:34:13] walk over to the other parking lot as well as on Main Street

[1:34:21] you said you had you said you had an increase in foot traffic yes was that

[1:34:25] from the from the Main Street bands or the that was the

[1:34:30] same nights that the main street was doing their bands yes because of all the

[1:34:34] parking that is behind Arby's then they continuously walk down towards Main

[1:34:38] Street towards that back parking lot by Vandals

[1:34:47] thank you thank you Miss Leslie

[1:34:54] all right anybody else out there who wants to speak for granting of a special

[1:34:59] friend

[1:35:05] seeing then I would open it up to anybody who wants to speak against the

[1:35:10] granting of this special event

[1:35:26] Miss Flanagan I know we know you I know just please stay here Marie Flanagan

[1:35:31] owner of the theater um I wanted to just speak

[1:35:35] not in opposition of the event I think the event is absolutely fabulous

[1:35:41] it's the location um Chief Johnson

[1:35:45] um was on a constant phone call with my husband an electrician

[1:35:50] who knows exactly about decibels that is part of his field

[1:35:56] um we were unfortunately

[1:36:00] impacted by the sound he said he referenced a semi truck

[1:36:08] that is not correct we had Jurassic Park playing in as you

[1:36:11] can all think dinosaurs are not quiet

[1:36:15] and we have people leaving during the movie because the sound from the concert

[1:36:20] was so loud

[1:36:23] um and I am very thankful that the Bronco bar had foot traffic I think

[1:36:28] that's fabulous when we try to do an event we try to benefit all of our

[1:36:32] businesses because communication between the businesses is absolutely vital

[1:36:38] um we have not been um

[1:36:42] spoken to about the events for this event anything that has

[1:36:48] to do with the event has not been spoken to me about

[1:36:51] so learning that it's five consecutive days

[1:36:54] we will lose about five five hundred dollars a day so that's twenty five

[1:36:58] hundred dollars plus we will lose um

[1:37:01] my staff will lose the time so that's about five hundred dollars

[1:37:06] on my staff losing um their pay

[1:37:11] um yogalicious will also be impacted by the

[1:37:15] loss of revenue from no one coming into the theater last year graciously First

[1:37:20] State Bank did sponsor tickets for students or children to come into the

[1:37:26] theater and watch the movies we had 10. from four events that

[1:37:31] happened we had 10 students 10 children come in for the movie Jurassic Park

[1:37:38] um if that tells you anything the foot

[1:37:41] traffic was not coming to the theater at all

[1:37:44] we didn't have anything to go off of because we've we had just purchased the

[1:37:48] theater and we were just trying to get going we we had nothing to go off up we

[1:37:52] were not spoken to about planning doing anything promoting nothing it was we are

[1:37:58] doing this and we're doing this um we don't know anything about a Main

[1:38:03] Street group we've never been approached we're a business this is what we do

[1:38:08] we are here for the community as I've stated many many times and I

[1:38:13] like I said I love the event and I'm it's I've really was very saddened to

[1:38:17] hear that there are people stating that the theater wants this

[1:38:22] event to be shut down that is absolutely 100 percent not true

[1:38:27] I love events I love doing things for the community that's why we did a ladies

[1:38:31] night we have a kids night planned we have a couple's night this Friday which

[1:38:35] we'll talk about in a little bit um

[1:38:38] but we try really hard to do things for the community itself

[1:38:43] we try really hard to plan things with other businesses

[1:38:47] because I want to make sure I'm doing what's best for not only the theater

[1:38:51] because that's the first and foremost but that I'm impacting the other

[1:38:55] businesses if I can do something with an event then I'm going to try with

[1:39:01] Jurassic Park we included Torrington office supply we included um

[1:39:06] Heartland embroidery we included um Wagner's floral they provided all of

[1:39:12] the floral arrangements inside to turn it into a Jurassic Park Style

[1:39:18] um we had a scavenger hunt for eggs that the kids got to keep and prizes were

[1:39:23] given out from our Main Street businesses I also wanted to include

[1:39:29] businesses that are not on Main Street because that's important as well

[1:39:34] um we were impacted obviously by the foot traffic by the noise and

[1:39:38] unfortunately we had some very unhappy patrons about the

[1:39:44] closing of the parking lots and they used um some very

[1:39:48] heavily choiced words against me um that they blamed me for doing it and

[1:39:56] that's pretty tough when someone comes in screaming at you so I would highly

[1:40:02] encourage that yes do we need this event yes

[1:40:05] but this location is not a proper location if it's going to shut down a

[1:40:10] business that's already closed the day before

[1:40:12] two days before we have those availabilities

[1:40:16] but if I have to shut down another day which is going to have to happen because

[1:40:21] there's no

[1:40:24] there's no way we can avoid it um

[1:40:29] then that just puts in to the community that we're closed yet another day and

[1:40:33] when you start closing your business day after day after day

[1:40:37] they stop coming and from my perspective

[1:40:41] I don't want to see the theater close that's why we bought it we wanted to

[1:40:44] open it for the community we have taken a huge hit we've not had

[1:40:48] any support from

[1:40:51] Economic Development besides the five thousand dollar Grant

[1:40:55] that was it I had to fight to get advertising

[1:41:01] from the membership that I was given so if there's anything I want this event

[1:41:06] to go through just not behind the theater because it does hurt us

[1:41:10] detrimentally

[1:41:15] thank you Mrs Flanagan are there any others who want to speak

[1:41:20] against the granting of the special event for men

[1:41:31] my name is Taya Carrell my wife and I or my wife Kelly and I own Heartland

[1:41:35] embroidery on Main Street a lot of my questions and I'm believe me I'm not

[1:41:40] against it at all I am all for it I kind of echo what Marie said if it is in the

[1:41:46] best benefit for all businesses not excluding some businesses it started out

[1:41:52] on the Main Street we had some discussions about that we got everything

[1:41:56] worked out to proceeded along fine then they moved it behind

[1:42:00] a bunch of my questions were answered Shane asked a couple of them

[1:42:05] why why not look at Monday and Tuesday when the theater is closed why not look

[1:42:10] at a city park Chief Johnson even brought it up a lot of people not being

[1:42:13] there on the hot concrete when it's six o'clock might not put it in the park or

[1:42:18] you got shade go to Jordan Park you're right next to the pool you got shade you

[1:42:22] got a playground you got the ball fields you got basketball hoops you want to

[1:42:26] talk about doing it for the community there's all sorts of stuff there for the

[1:42:28] kids to do if it's on the grassy area um

[1:42:32] but like I said these are a lot of things that a lot of questions were

[1:42:36] answered tonight and Leanne did a very good job answering a lot of them why we

[1:42:40] couldn't do this but at the same time these were also questions that could

[1:42:44] have easily been solved by coming and seeing us like Marie said we have not

[1:42:49] heard nothing from Economic Development about their proposed plan of what

[1:42:53] they're doing on these five nights tonight is the first night we were

[1:42:56] hanging or hearing about it we've got three wonderful ladies that work for us

[1:43:00] at Heartland Kelly and I are barry seldom there because they run the

[1:43:04] day-to-day operations we contacted them just to make sure that

[1:43:08] we are all on the same page and they said the exact same thing nobody has

[1:43:11] stopped by and talked to us about it if economic development is actually

[1:43:15] about local businesses and building this community they need to be better in

[1:43:21] contact we are literally right next door to that

[1:43:25] we're right next to 21st of May stop by and tell us give us a plan but

[1:43:30] to show up here and ask you guys to vote on it to vote for the permit

[1:43:36] if it passes tonight without any other further discussion to us as a business

[1:43:41] owner it looks like you know what we've already passed it this is what we're

[1:43:45] doing without any information or any comment from other local businesses

[1:43:51] it just doesn't seem right that they would put the horse in front of the cart

[1:43:54] and I understand that Leanne said that they were going to come around and try

[1:43:57] to drum up some support why wouldn't you drum up some support before you show up

[1:44:01] and ask for a permit to be voted on

[1:44:05] and I know this this has nothing to do with you guys this is something that we

[1:44:09] should be discussing with economic development but since they don't come by

[1:44:13] it's kind of hard for us to discuss that anyway thank you for your time thank you

[1:44:17] Mr Crow

[1:44:21] any others wishing to speak against this special event permit

[1:44:35] I don't see any takers I just want to say this um

[1:44:41] as the government the City of Torrington are three primary

[1:44:47] items of concern are safety alcohol containment because alcohol is

[1:44:53] going to be served in the noise hey that's primarily my concern as mayor

[1:45:03] how Economic Development communicates with the local businesses and how the

[1:45:08] local businesses communicate with economic development that's not my

[1:45:13] purview my job one advantage I see to extending the

[1:45:18] time for this and allowing anybody who wanted to speak is this

[1:45:22] Mr Krell I think you said it well maybe there needs to be more

[1:45:26] communication I don't know I heard your side of it I didn't hear anybody else's

[1:45:31] side of it and I know there's always six sides to any story

[1:45:34] but maybe this is a it was an opportunity for the pros and the cons to

[1:45:40] get together in this forum and sort of let everybody know where

[1:45:45] they where they stand and why they stand and maybe I'm or I'm hopeful that that

[1:45:50] maybe that communication with the pro with economic development the private

[1:45:54] businesses can increase and be more productive

[1:45:58] but again I just want to reiterate as mayor I see the primary City's primary

[1:46:03] interests as is it safe can we contain the alcohol

[1:46:08] and is the noise going to be shoot

[1:46:12] and then I will allow any other member of the council to speak to the issue

[1:46:19] Mr Mayor economic development is

[1:46:25] very important to any Community the lifeblood of any community

[1:46:30] and that that they're attempting to do something

[1:46:37] at least in one case has increased some foot traffic but that results in

[1:46:42] increased sales I'm not sure but my son lives in Lander they have the

[1:46:48] lender live series there which is indeed in the city park but they do have a very

[1:46:53] interested person who spent a lot of money himself in building a stage

[1:46:59] for the park and so there are lots of things going on

[1:47:03] there there are lots of other communities that do that but

[1:47:06] regardless of all the other queries whether it's the right place or the

[1:47:12] wrong place just like to speak in favor of this as

[1:47:17] an event I think

[1:47:20] thank you councilman deal Mr Mayor I would I would Echo some of my

[1:47:26] colleagues statements as well that I think the event is a good event

[1:47:30] we don't have a lot of entertainment in this town in this County

[1:47:35] which is unfortunate but I think this is a good step in that direction

[1:47:39] to achieve that and bring about some more

[1:47:42] quality of life for residents of the community at Large

[1:47:49] it's difficult for me I wish that I wish the

[1:47:53] subject wasn't contentious I I still have my concerns about the

[1:47:59] location uh I I find benefit

[1:48:03] in a park myself but nevertheless uh

[1:48:09] I I do think what we've heard here tonight

[1:48:13] uh I think there could be some more

[1:48:16] lines of dialogue happen between Commerce and uh

[1:48:23] other parties for the event just to alleviate some concerns and and

[1:48:28] hopefully find a path forward that is beneficial to everyone

[1:48:35] um I don't know uh perhaps I understand

[1:48:39] that Economic Development has to have some uh far in advance planning for this

[1:48:44] type of event maybe there's still some things that

[1:48:48] could be discussed amongst them and and affected businesses I don't know

[1:48:53] um but I I would like to see

[1:48:58] a cohesive sort of

[1:49:01] understanding amongst everybody involved that that arrives at the betterment

[1:49:07] and uh some somewhat of a positive

[1:49:14] finality to the to the issue I don't know how that all works but that

[1:49:19] goes along with some of my comments I or questions I asked earlier about

[1:49:23] involving downtown business uh during those hours that are

[1:49:29] most most Merchants are closed and uh also trying to impact or lessen the

[1:49:37] impact excuse me less than the impact on those affected businesses

[1:49:43] that we've heard from tonight so supportive of the event my mind is still

[1:49:49] turning on approval or denial of the permit but

[1:49:53] um communication is always good as my

[1:49:58] communication instructor once instructed me so

[1:50:02] thank you Mr Mayor I would just like to make a comment that

[1:50:06] I attended every one of the concerts last year and thoroughly enjoyed each

[1:50:10] one of them except for the last one on the rain in the wind blew

[1:50:15] as far as the noise of the theater this the first time I've heard about it

[1:50:20] and I would ask did anybody else I mean mister

[1:50:26] Chief did you go inside the buildings there the noise or anything

[1:50:30] many times yes was it as bad as well I

[1:50:36] mean I guess I can't relate exactly to what Mrs

[1:50:41] Flanagan said the the instances that I was in I tried to be proactive and

[1:50:46] reactive to that typically if the movie was absolutely silent I could just hear

[1:50:54] the music but again maybe there was a loud burst of sound or something that

[1:50:58] had caused some of the problem I did not hear of the concerns that she stated

[1:51:02] related to folks walking out of the movies but I did get a couple of phone

[1:51:06] calls where they had told me that someone had come up to the window and

[1:51:10] said that they could hear the music and we tried to be irresponsive to that and

[1:51:14] there were a couple of times when the volume had crept up or the band had

[1:51:18] changed and that was too loud and we had to make accommodation so I I'm sorry I

[1:51:23] can't provide a complete answer in terms of

[1:51:26] whether or not that happened I can't tell you the experiences that I had in

[1:51:30] the theater the movie had to have been incredibly quiet in order for

[1:51:35] be heard

[1:51:40] you changed the location of the band stance I'm assuming that's trying to

[1:51:43] alleviate that problem yeah sorry

[1:51:47] um this will be the third time we've made an adjustment our first attempt was

[1:51:51] a disaster he had a theory that we would set the

[1:51:56] band to the east of the theater and project South

[1:52:00] with the thought that that noise would kind of go past the theater without

[1:52:05] having an impact and essentially it drove the noise right into the back of

[1:52:09] the theater and it was totally unsuccessful we had a very hard time

[1:52:13] making those decibels ratings to be reasonable and it was not

[1:52:18] a not a good way to have it set up we transitioned to the band being on the

[1:52:22] west side of the parking lot and Facing East and then we utilized the food

[1:52:26] trucks to block sound and with that we had pretty good luck I mean we were able

[1:52:32] to consistently keep that down in the 80 to 84 range

[1:52:39] like I said I I really enjoyed the concerts I hope we can continue them but

[1:52:44] it sounds like it needed to work out a few little problems but hopefully we can

[1:52:48] get that done too Mr Mayor I wonder if Leanne if you could

[1:52:55] answer a question for me or anybody from Economic Development

[1:52:58] is the event contingent upon the approval of the permit tonight

[1:53:12] Mr shedner and you may come up here if you

[1:53:16] Facebook

[1:53:26] and if you will state your name for the record my name is Kelly setner

[1:53:31] my history would lead me to believe that sound travels out from a speaker is that

[1:53:37] correct I'm no sound in his engineer so

[1:53:43] I would think it goes out from the speaker so my my question is if you

[1:53:47] really want to the sound lore why wouldn't you put the

[1:53:50] band on the North side or on the yeah on the north side of the movie theater with

[1:53:55] all the speakers projecting out so the sound's traveling out in a way

[1:53:59] when it was pointed South obviously it was going right towards the theater

[1:54:04] any other location you're going to get sound going towards the theater my

[1:54:08] experience has been a few and I ran many dances back in my days in Hershey but

[1:54:13] you're you're this the quietest part of a band is behind the speaker system

[1:54:20] so

[1:54:23] for my two cents I think somebody should investigate that and maybe we could

[1:54:28] reduce the sound even further what I had that same question myself as

[1:54:33] I look at the diagram of the potential setup here

[1:54:37] the band is on the south

[1:54:41] West corner of the parking lot pointing Northeast

[1:54:47] so it'll be hitting the courthouse and off into that area for the most part and

[1:54:52] then the food trucks are east of it and north of it to keep it from going

[1:54:58] directly east that just makes sense to me that Sound projects out

[1:55:03] if you don't want sound put the band on the north side of it and

[1:55:07] you won't have near as much in my opinion and I'm certainly somebody

[1:55:10] that's smarter than I could figure that one out but

[1:55:14] food for thought thank you Mr I guess one of the

[1:55:17] suggestions to move the speakers like that would be

[1:55:20] try it this way the first one if done work then you know the speakers the

[1:55:24] other place for the next one

[1:55:28] hey there's a there's a little bit of a space issue there in terms of

[1:55:33] needing to keep that alley open that's immediately north of the theater

[1:55:39] I'm not against trying that but it does create I mean one of the things that you

[1:55:44] sometimes feel off of the back of the stage haven't walked around a lot

[1:55:47] there's a fair bit of bass that moves off of those speakers I mean

[1:55:52] they're ported in the back so you may not have quite the decibels but you do

[1:55:55] tend to have a fair bit of bass and you also because of the size of the space of

[1:56:00] the stage and the need to keep that alley clear and the amount of equipment

[1:56:05] that goes behind the stage we end up compressing pretty close to the

[1:56:10] bathrooms and so we're pretty much right on top of the bathrooms and then sound

[1:56:15] is reflecting off of the bathrooms and we've got a smaller space there I'm not

[1:56:20] against trying it if that's I mean it's it's not my event it's economic

[1:56:25] developments event and if they feel like that's something worth trying I'd be

[1:56:28] happy to support that and look at it it would alter what we'd have to do to

[1:56:32] impact parking and different things but part of what they have submitted is

[1:56:39] an understanding that we can try some different things to mitigate that noise

[1:56:43] and make it as least impactful as possible as I look at the diagram it's

[1:56:49] in there band is located on the southwest corner

[1:56:55] and it looks like it's pointed Northeast so

[1:57:00] if you're correct about the base then the base is not going to go into the

[1:57:05] theater building it's going to go across the alley and down the alley if

[1:57:12] it's set up the way it's configured here but that was the intent of discussion

[1:57:17] that we had

[1:57:21] correct and Mr councilman Kelly just pointed out

[1:57:25] last year it was on the West Side the alley and almost pointed due east right

[1:57:29] first one we're over here

[1:57:41] well certainly that would be my hope that whatever can be done to mitigate

[1:57:46] the noise that's affecting the theater should be

[1:57:51] looking to go yeah Mr Mayor I agree there are a couple

[1:57:57] of us up here that had some involvement in radio too and have been into dealing

[1:58:02] with maybe we should be asking you and I can I'm not an acoustic engineer but I

[1:58:07] can tell you that the vast majority of sound is projected intentionally through

[1:58:10] the speed toward the front however there is this

[1:58:14] thing called feedback so you do get some coming back the other direction

[1:58:20] but that is the best of of all worlds I would think

[1:58:25] corner the way it's set forth in this diagram

[1:58:35] all right we've been at this a while

[1:58:39] I would entertain a

[1:58:42] motion uh to prove of the special event permit item number eight on the agenda

[1:58:50] the request by Leon Madison Braden Connor with Goshen

[1:58:57] County Economic Development their special event permit for the

[1:59:01] summer concert series do I have a motion

[1:59:06] make a motion to approve I have a motion from councilman deal to

[1:59:10] approve this special event permit do I have a second

[1:59:16] I have a counter a second from councilman Patterson

[1:59:20] is there any further discussion Dylan

[1:59:29] hearing none I would call for a vote all those in favor of approving the special

[1:59:35] event permit allowing Economic Development to put on this special event

[1:59:40] for the summer concert series signified by saying aye I

[1:59:46] any opposed signify by saying nay nay there is four eyes and one may the eyes

[1:59:54] have it so the special

[1:59:59] councilman victory nay yes Four Eyes one nay the special event

[2:00:05] permit is passed thank you

[2:00:10] next item on the agenda is a catering permit or Julie harshberger with 307

[2:00:18] Sports Bar and Grill requesting a catering permit for the

[2:00:22] Torrington Cinemas couples night out or Friday March 24th 2023 from 5 to 11 pm

[2:00:37] Johnson can you speak to that certainly

[2:00:40] um this is very similar to the ladies night that they did at the theater

[2:00:46] a month ago um we had no concerns with that this is

[2:00:51] a very safe Pleasant event the way that Mrs Flanagan and Julia run it is pretty

[2:00:58] risk-free there's nobody under 21 in the theater or at least nobody under 21

[2:01:03] that's a patron of the theater they check IDs at the door the services for

[2:01:09] upstairs and downstairs so we don't have to worry about keeping anybody separate

[2:01:12] I'm the only people who are underage in the theater are employees who manage the

[2:01:18] ticket sales and yogurt sales and they're monitored by an adult so

[2:01:24] really don't have any concerns it's uh recommend approval and seems like a good

[2:01:29] event thank you Chief councilman do you have

[2:01:32] any questions for chief Johnson about this request for a catering instrument

[2:01:37] s I'm sorry sorry

[2:01:40] I just wondered if Council had any questions for chief Johnson

[2:01:44] I don't see any Mrs Flanagan I just wanted to let you know that with

[2:01:49] our ladies night event it was a huge success not only for my business but for

[2:01:54] the entire downtown our entire downtown we wanted to make sure that we invited

[2:01:58] everybody that was in any crevice and everything that we could possibly find

[2:02:05] the women of our community showed up big time and um not only did they show up

[2:02:11] for a ladies event but they showed up for the rest of the businesses downtown

[2:02:15] and even though it was after the retail businesses

[2:02:19] um the bars were overflowing it was wonderful not only downtown but also at

[2:02:25] 307 and it was a wonderful wonderful unexpected

[2:02:29] showing of what we could do and help our community so I just wanted to make sure

[2:02:34] that you guys know that after we found out that that was an awesome

[2:02:39] turn of events we are going to start planning more events that will benefit

[2:02:43] the businesses downtown because we do believe that that is one amazing

[2:02:51] factor that just happened to happen with those businesses

[2:02:55] um I did get a lot of thank yous from the businesses and um it was it was a

[2:03:01] great great thing to know that taking the time to make sure that the

[2:03:07] details were in order

[2:03:10] that it was a blessing in more ways than one so I just wanted

[2:03:15] to let you know that we do try really really hard to impact the businesses

[2:03:18] around us in a positive point I have a question yes sir the last catering event

[2:03:24] the catering permit we approved was the ladies night out yes sir did

[2:03:30] I'm not gonna it's okay put you on the spot but did you have a good turnout for

[2:03:33] that we had an amazing turnout we had about 125

[2:03:37] um women show up we offered two movies um 180 for Brady which was a huge

[2:03:43] success Across the Nation but we also put bridesmaids upstairs uh I'm sorry

[2:03:48] not right bad moms bad moms upstairs

[2:03:52] we also let the community choose between bridesmaids and bad moms that was we

[2:03:57] tried to let the community involvement in our business speak because we are not

[2:04:02] here for ourselves we're here for the community

[2:04:06] um and they chose to have bad moms and also for this event for couples night

[2:04:12] slash guys night we realize the guys don't like to just call up their guy

[2:04:16] friends and be like hey you want to go to the movies doesn't happen so we had

[2:04:20] to plan a little differently um a lot of the guys when because we try

[2:04:25] really hard to publicize what we have coming if I can find out it's not always

[2:04:30] possible and sometimes they change their minds really close to the time that it's

[2:04:34] supposed to come out um since John Wick was

[2:04:38] totally happening and has not been pulled

[2:04:41] as of today the guys really wanted this and a

[2:04:46] western well we found out

[2:04:49] that there is a rodeo College Rodeo happening this Friday

[2:04:53] so we're gonna hold on the western which we already have

[2:04:58] um scheduled for the another guy's night slash couples night

[2:05:03] um but it is one that that a lot of the Cowboys really want to see and I believe

[2:05:09] it has Clint Eastwood in it I'm so sorry Every

[2:05:13] Which Way from this that's the one

[2:05:18] sorry it's so not my forte I think it has Jackson in it too yeah so that's the

[2:05:23] one that was requested we will have that one but not this Friday but obviously we

[2:05:29] are going to do these events a lot more often we are also going to do a kids

[2:05:33] event twice a year as well as ladies events twice a year men's night couples

[2:05:37] night twice a year so that we can accommodate all of the residents in our

[2:05:42] community as well as plan some other events the kids night we want to involve

[2:05:47] a lot more and I may ask to shut down the street in front of us but I also

[2:05:53] went and I talked to all of the businesses just to make sure that that

[2:05:56] was something that maybe we can start planning on later but that they were

[2:05:59] okay with that and they have been hands down so supportive and I'm so thankful

[2:06:04] for them so just for future reference we will

[2:06:08] probably be coming to you a lot more one one more question for me uh this the

[2:06:13] lady that's catering catering this event on Friday the 24th Julie she's the same

[2:06:18] one that catered yeah okay yep um we have a great relationship with them um

[2:06:23] cost effective for us um

[2:06:26] I think her because it is it's something unfortunately when we are

[2:06:30] new and literally every expense is coming out of our pocket right now

[2:06:35] um literally everything we have to pay for out of pocket because we are not

[2:06:39] making enough through the theater um to supplement not your problem it is

[2:06:44] totally something that we're working through and we are building Jesus

[2:06:47] Revolution was great for us but yes Julie is

[2:06:51] um doing the event right now because cost effectively it just works for us

[2:06:57] any other questions I can answer councilman do you have any questions

[2:07:04] I know Sandy thank you thank you guys I would move to approve this care I have a

[2:07:11] motion from councilman Patterson to approve the catering permit to allow

[2:07:14] Julie Miller harshberger with 307 Sports Bar and Grill to have a catering

[2:07:20] catering permit for the Torrington Cinemas couples night out on March 24 20

[2:07:24] 23 from 5 PM to 11 P.M do I have a second second

[2:07:33] I have a second from councilman victron I do have any further discussion

[2:07:39] hearing none all those in favor of approving this catering permit signify

[2:07:44] for saying aye aye any opposed signify by saying they

[2:07:48] catering credit permit is approved next item on the agenda is the approval

[2:07:54] of the bills

[2:08:00] thank you mayor and Council handed out tonight was a set of bills

[2:08:05] for you to review I'd be glad to answer any questions you may have

[2:08:13] I think everybody's aware but you also had some additional ones that you gave

[2:08:17] us prior to them yes that we're not on the agenda okay

[2:08:24] they're attached to the attempt

[2:08:27] [Applause]

[2:08:41] in the second set of bills page

[2:08:46] three at the bottom it says Sam's West Incorporated

[2:08:50] interest charges

[2:09:04] um so Sam's is

[2:09:08] um a little strange in their billing

[2:09:12] and so what they what happened I believe here is

[2:09:17] um it what we have started doing is paying

[2:09:22] each ticket as we get it and not waiting for the statement

[2:09:26] because apparently if you wait for the statement some of

[2:09:32] the charges may be late so that is what happened in this

[2:09:36] instance

[2:10:12] foreign

[2:10:27] I have a motion from councilman Kelly to approve the bills as presented from

[2:10:33] March 3rd or March 8th of 23 to March 21st of 23. do I have a second

[2:10:43] I have a second from councilman deal

[2:10:47] gentlemen is there any further discussion on the approval of the bills

[2:10:55] hearing that I'd call for a vote all those in favor of approval of the bills

[2:11:00] from March 8 23 to March 21 23 signified by saying aye aye any opposed signify by

[2:11:08] saying nay ice habit for bills from March 3rd

[2:11:15] March 8th 23 to March 21st 23 are approved thank you

[2:11:21] next item on the agenda is the public comment section

[2:11:27] I see the public has dwindled a bit any members of the public or council

[2:11:32] members have a comment that they want to bring forward now is playing

[2:11:40] I just wanted to introduce you guys to my staff

[2:11:44] and most of you know Stacy Stacy Lira who is

[2:11:48] a fantastic owner of yogalicious if you guys have not tried that I highly

[2:11:53] recommend it but I would like to introduce you to my staff Caitlin

[2:11:57] Flanagan and bowler

[2:12:00] Lexi Flanagan Shaylee Jackson these girls are

[2:12:05] some girls that you need to make sure and watch

[2:12:09] um they are going places and I am so proud to have them run our theater to be

[2:12:16] a part of the public to treat the customers and the rest of

[2:12:20] the community with respect and trudge through the unfortunate circumstances

[2:12:25] sometimes you come across in retail but I wanted to make sure that you guys know

[2:12:30] who they are because these girls are

[2:12:37] um well let's see THS lingle THS THS

[2:12:42] and um I just want you to know that these

[2:12:45] girls have truly given their all to the theater to our community not only

[2:12:52] to that but they are also working pretty much full-time

[2:12:58] and going to school full-time to um

[2:13:02] further their career maybe later hopefully they stay at the theater

[2:13:04] forever but I just wanted to let you guys know who

[2:13:08] they are so that if you ever come in you will meet them

[2:13:11] and and that they stayed they are wonderful I'm very thankful that they so

[2:13:16] graciously stayed to listen and be respectful to you guys for the job that

[2:13:20] you do thank you I appreciate the introduction

[2:13:23] and I appreciate your perseverance it's what self-governance is about okay

[2:13:30] I wish more people would be involved so thank you for doing that

[2:13:34] appreciate it any oh

[2:13:38] fireman fire chief patch you're back there do

[2:13:42] you have any comments for the council

[2:13:51] seeing if you're awake you dutifully send me a report on these

[2:13:57] sort of days and I got that there's been a little

[2:14:00] uptick in activity but it's mostly smoke alarmed kind of things and you had a

[2:14:04] grass fire that you assisted with yeah we've had uh the last couple weeks a

[2:14:08] little uptick with some smoke detectors going off a few carbon monoxide calls

[2:14:14] faulty detectors you know they kind of wear out we did have last week on Monday

[2:14:19] uh Yoder and about a 75 acre grass fire so with the wind and everything it's

[2:14:26] kind of about that time stuff's drying out the unfortunate thing on that call

[2:14:29] was soil still pretty soft but it burns so some trucks were getting stuck here

[2:14:35] and there and it's kind of the time of year it is and

[2:14:38] the way it goes so

[2:14:41] I think they're going well and

[2:14:46] anybody has any questions any questions from the council

[2:14:51] thank you appreciate your service thank you have a good evening

[2:14:58] we're on item 12 of the agenda everything that's on the agenda has been

[2:15:02] completed so I will

[2:15:07] determine that this meeting is adjourned thank you

Torrington City Council Meeting 03/21/2023

Transcript