TORRINGTON – Randy Adams has been preparing to become mayor of Torrington for 20 years.
As an 18-year member of the Torrington City Council, Adams took on tasks, helping the current mayor.
“During that time, all the things I have done as a councilman ha been leading toward this,” Adams said. “Plus, my ancestors, my father and grandfather, the direction I have been thinking about for my professional life.”
Adams grew up in the town of Potter in Western Nebraska. Growing up on a farm, he did farm type jobs while working for an uncle who had a hay cutting company. Working on the farm and for his uncle made it possible for him to play town team baseball and football.
Living in Potter until he was 18, he went to the University of Wyoming. After graduating college his first job as a teacher was in Colorado, teaching Civics at Mead Junior High School in Longmont for three years.
In 1973, Adams heard about an opening teaching Civics and Torrington Junior High School, eventually moving to the middle school.
“It was a fun job, plus during that 38 years, not only did I teach Civics, American History and Wyoming History,” Adams proudly said. “But I also got to coach basketball, football, baseball throughout most of my entire teaching career.”
Teaching at the middle school, Adams would encourage his civics students to participate. When they would come to him with complaints about school programs, he told them to get involved.
Adams told his students, “Go see the principal, find out what you can do about it and do something about it. Just don’t sit back.”
When the opportunity came for Adams to become a councilman, he felt it was time to follow up on his own advice.
“That was five elections ago and I am still there,” he said
As a councilman, Adams has been one of Mayor Mike Varney’s right-hand people, filling in for the mayor when he could not attend the council meeting. Serving as mayor pro-trim Adams said was good experience.
“I was able to do some personnel things and I made it my duty to visit all the departments so I knew what they were doing,” he said. “It was a good learning experience.”
There will be a learning curve, Adams said, but he already does many of the things every day the mayor and other councilmen do.
“I field calls and complaints. We deal with our department heads on projects they sometimes want to advance,” Adams said. “Sometime we let them go ahead with it and sometimes we don’t.”
Adams believes one of the big problems the city faces is financial dependency on the state.
“The city is really dependent on funding from the state of Wyoming,” Adams said. “The city gets its revenue from the sales of municipal utilities – sewer, water and trash pick-up – also from sales tax, property tax, mineral use tax and cigarette tax. Plus, an apportion from the state.”
With the decline of the economy, the cuts to the states apportion for each of the cities has impacted each deeply. Combined with decreases in sales tax revenue, the city has had to cut needed projects and pay raises to the city staff.
This relates to waste water, storm drainage and aging infrastructure problems in the city.
“We are trying to replace things underground,” Adams said. “Some are 80 to 90 years old but you have to work with what you got.”
The plan is to find money for the city through grants, low interest loans. The U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development agency offers loans, as does the Wyoming State Loan and Investment Board.
It’s important “how we do it,” he said. “We have to be careful and choose wisely. We have to do our research, do what you can do.”
With his background, Adams believes he will be able to fill the seat of mayor. He may have to learn like anyone else that fills the seat, but he has the knowledge of the city behind him. “Somebody that knows something about it should be doing it,” he said. “It’s in my heritage, in my teaching, in my background.
“I am stepping forward,” Adams said. “I have been doing community-type work all of my life.”
