Phoenix Behrens
TORRINGTON – Mayor Herb Doby called the Tuesday, Dec. 2 meeting of the Torrington City Council to order at 5:30 p.m. In attendance were council members, Dennis Kelly, Shane Viktorin, Wayne Deahl and Rick Warren. A light showing of city employees was present at the meeting. Council member Deahl led the Pledge of Allegiance to start the meeting for the evening with Doby following it up with the mayor’s informational items.
Doby hoped every had a blessed, safe and enjoyable Thanksgiving this year, stating Americans have been blessed richly by God in America, although not perfect, has been blessed by peace, prosperity and opportunity for all. The town is now shifting gears, leaving the Thanksgiving season into the Christmas season coming up. A time of joy, fellowship and family noting the upcoming annual Christmas parade this Friday, Dec. 5 from 5 to 7 p.m. on Main Street. Doby encourages those to join in the festivities and enjoy the decorations as well as to support local businesses in the area this holiday season. Doby also emphasized helping those less fortunate and reminding folks taking part in the festivities to not drink and drive, not be on their phone while driving and to drive slowly and watch for pedestrians.
Following the mayor’s informational items was the approval of the consent agenda which includes the minutes from the Nov. 18 council meeting as published. Deahl motioned to approve the consent agenda, which was seconded by Kelly. The motion was then carried by unanimous vote.
Next was the approval of the agenda itself and a motion for approval from Viktorin followed and was seconded by Warren. The motion then carried by unanimous vote.
The council then moved on to public forum as the next item on the agenda. With no participants looking to take part, mayor Doby still took the time to explain what the public forum is about.
“This is for non-agenda items. There is a time limit of two minutes, and the speaker must sign up before the meeting,” Doby stated. “This is a time for the council to limit. No action will be taken. In the future, if you wish to take advantage of that, we have a process and procedure to do that.”
Moving on, the council’s next item on the agenda was the start of the action items. Under action item one, addendum four to agreement for professional services with M.C. Schaff & Associates dated Nov. 2, 2022. Jeff Harkins, Director of Public Works, was called on to speak on the matter, with him voicing his recommendation for the council’s approval to move forward with the addendum and not to exceed the amount of $28,261.
“This addendum is for the design, bidding, construction, administration and closeout services for the fiscal year ‘26, Torrington airport, seal coat and pavement markings project,” Harkins addressed the council. “This is a state-run project that has typically been contracted in the past every five years. The state is changing its frequency to every seven years going forward after the completion of this project. We believe that moving forward at this time that there will be no future payment needs up at the airport for the next seven years.”
Harkins continued by saying the cost is 90% reimbursable from the state with the city’s portion of 10% covering $2,826.10. “We’ll get the funding out of account 554830 in the fiscal year 26 budget in the amount of $13,536 to cover the design and bidding services. The remainder of the engineering costs will be requested in the fiscal year 27 budget. The estimated construction cost of the entire budget is estimated at $355,987, and it is also 90% reimbursable,” explained Harkins.
The city’s 10% share of the cost would be $35,598.75, with those funds also being requested in the fiscal year ‘27 budget as well. The schedule of which the state anticipates getting the project bidding to happen will be sometime in March 2026, construction to happen in July and the final acceptance in September 2026.
Opening up for questions, mayor Doby wanted to clarify after September 2026 the project should be good for a period of seven years, with Harkins responding that he’s “pretty sure that all the payments up there are relatively brand new.” Harkins pointed out the general aviation area and taxiway were just recently rehabilitated with brand new pavement, with the new taxiway realignment done a few years ago and the crosswind runway at the same time as the taxi lane realignment was also rehabilitated. The only older remaining pavement at the airport is the main runaway, but Harkins emphasized he wouldn’t even call the main runway “old”, stating that it’s in pretty good shape.
Doby had made it known you can’t beat the cost sharing arrangement where 90% of funding is covered by WYDOT and 10% being covered by the city, which Harkins also agreed.
“It’s a great deal for the city. Otherwise, I don’t think we’d be able to have an airport,” Harkins responded.
With no other questions from council members, Doby entertained a motion to approve with councilman Viktorin giving a motion to approve and seconded by councilman Deahl. The motion was then carried out by unanimous vote.
Next, the council moved on to action item number two, the third reading of the ordinance relating to human powered scooters/skateboards, electric bikes and powered scooters. Doby called on Torrington Police Chief Matt Johnson to start the discussion.
Johnson stated that there were no changes regarding this after the second reading and he has not received any comments or concerns in the last several weeks and he still feels that this is an important effort to keep children safe in the community.
Opening up to questions and comments, Doby brought it up relating to their recent staff meeting this city is sort of the first to do this in city of their size in Wyoming.
“That’s the impression I have,” Johnson stated. “Most of the ordinances we were able to really come up with were from larger cities that have addressed this from a slightly different lens, related to some of the commercial scooters. I think we’re probably one of a number of smaller communities that are getting after it and I think we’ve got a decent product to work with.”
Doby showed his appreciation for Johnson’s insight and voiced his observation of how technology continues to keep advancing and these modes of transportation continue to get faster and more powerful, with Johnson sure something has changed in the time they’ve had this meeting with no shortage.
Councilman Deahl also commented on statistics he read from the New York Times Sunday and how their front-page article was about e-bikes and e-scooters and how communities respond to it. He also pointed out a statistic from the article stating one in 100 bicycle accidents result in fatalities and 11 in 100 are from e-bike and scooters accidents, emphasizing the danger that does pose from alternative electric transportation.
“That makes me glad we added a helmet component for e-bikes and scooters for kids,” Johnson responded.
Doby also pointed out how fast and quiet this new technology and they got to obey the traffic laws. He appreciated Deahl for bringing up that statistic. Following the questions and comments, a motion to approve was made by Deahl and seconded by Viktorin. The motion then carried unanimously by vote.
Next, the council moved on to action item number three; approval of bills from Nov. 19 to Dec. 2 are presented by treasurer Lynette Strecker. Viktorin wanted to bring attention to Azuria Water Solutions on page one, set one, and asked if it was for the most recent sewer manhole lighting project.
“Yes,” Strecker confirmed. “The sewer and manhole lighting project, that is funded through (the) CDBG grant. Yes, that did begin and that’s the first payment application.”
Viktorin asked if that project was still commencing, and Strecker did confirm that it was. He also asked if the vendor changed names and Harkins confirmed that they have not. It’s the same company, but a different part of that company.
After no additional discussion, Kelly made a motion to pay the bills as presented which Warren seconded. The motion then carried by unanimous vote and was approved and Doby moved on to the public comment portion of the agenda where Torrington Volunteer Fire Chief, Luis Correa, provided a report to the mayor and council.
Correa reported it has slowed down quite a bit for the department, only a total of four calls. Three of which were fire alarms. One had a furnace pilot go out and since it was a commercial building, it set off the alarm. One was a pull station pulled at the high school and the last one was at an apartment complex with a frozen pipe that set off their alarm. The last call was treated a little more seriously with an electrical wire melting on a dishwater at a local residence. The fire department also has their community engagements coming up with the parade coming up and they’ll be assisting with and they were also invited to help assist with Shop with a Cop next Friday Dec 12. Finally, they’ll be taking Santa Claus around Dec. 15 and 16 to local schools and daycares, including Evergreen.
After no additional questions or comments from the council and no other public comments, the council moved to item number five to executive session to discuss personnel issues with Doby entertaining a motion to leave regular session and enter into executive session. A motion was made at 5:56 p.m. to recess from regular session into executive session for personnel issues from Viktorin and seconded by Deahl the vote carried unanimously. The next meeting will be held on Tuesday, Dec. 23 at 5:30 p.m.
