TORRINGTON – The Torrington City Council convened for its second September meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 19 at the Torrington Council Chambers. Mayor Herb Doby was present with council members Richard Patterson, Dennis Kelly, Wayne Deahl and Shane Viktorin.

During the meeting, Director of Public Works and City Engineer Jeff Harkins presented the winning bid for the fiscal year 2024 public works facility garage addition. The winning bid was Paul Reed Construction of Gering, Nebraska in the amount of $483,845 and a reserve of $96,800.

“Thank you, mayor and council,” Harkins said. “This is for the public works garage facility which is going to be attached to the existing water department facility. The project is a design-build project for the construction of a 35-foot by 112-foot steel addition with six garage bays.”

The addition will be used by the public works department to store equipment. 

Harkins said this project was previously put to bid in June, but Goshen County Construction was the only bidder. The bid was for $754,031, exceeding the $489,000 budget. At that time, Harkins advised the council to reject the bid. 

“For some reason, the bids seemed to have come back in line with what we originally estimated,” Harkins said. “I would recommend obviously that we take advantage of the very favorable bid from Paul Reed Construction.”

The council approved this bid with a three-to-one vote.

City Clerk and Treasurer Lynette Strecker presented the winning bid for the new landfill compactor. The winning bid was to Wyoming Machinery of Cheyenne in the amount of $645,930. 

“We opened bids for the compactor on September 13 at 2 p.m.,” Strecker told the council. “We only received one bid from Wyoming Machinery, which is a Wyoming company. There will be 365 days until delivery for this machine, so we really need to get it ordered.”

“The one we have now is 40 years old and it’s on its last leg,” she continued.

Strecker said the bid is over budget by $5,930, but she is confident the amount can be worked into next year’s budget while waiting for delivery. 

The council unanimously approved the bid.

Resident Carl Carlson was present to request a zoning change for his property from R-3 & C-1 to R6-A for Lot 7 & 8, E. 101.8’ Williams Subdivision. 

“I am asking for the zoning change because we have had chickens for seven years,” Carlson told the council. “I guess it wasn’t zoned for it. The sale barn is right behind me, it’s towards the end of city limits.”

Carlson explained that it wasn’t until recently that he found out that he was not outside of city limits. He is the second property south of the city limit boundary, across from the bus garage. 

“The history of his father’s place (the property to the north) is that it was city limits right there between him and his father,” Dennis Estes, the buildings and grounds superintendent, explained. “The property, some owners ago, lost their well and had to tap into our water, so at that point, it was annexed in.”

At the time, they had a horse or something, so the property was zoned R6-A.

Estes explained this zoning change will permit the resident limited ag use, including having up to 50 chickens. It will also remove the unnecessary commercial zone from half of the property.

Carlson’s neighbors were notified of this change, and the city has received no objections about the change. 

The council unanimously approved the zoning change.

As a result of the approval of the zoning change, City Attorney James Eddington read the first of three ordinance readings to establish the change. This is the first of three required readings for this ordinance. The final reading will be on Oct. 16. 

The council approved adding another month to the Vactor truck rental agreement. This extension to the agreement will hopefully get the city to a place where they will know more about the upcoming grant and/or insurance estimate. 

During the mayoral informational part of the meeting, Doby announced that thanks to the funds received from the Wyoming Community Gas program, the city was able to provide scholarships to Eastern Wyoming College (EWC) students. 

He also reminded residents the annual fall cleanup is currently going on. City residents can take trash out to the dump from Sept. 16 through Sept. 23. To get the free pass, residents just have to present a copy of their utility bill and an ID card. 

The next meeting of the Torrington City Council will take place Tuesday, Oct. 3 at 7 p.m. in the Torrington City Council Chambers at 436 East 22nd Avenue.