TORRINGTON – On Tuesday, July 21, the Torrington City Council met for its second meeting of the month.
During the meeting, the council approved two separate special event permits for upcoming events on Torrington’s Main Street.
The meeting began with Mayor Randy Adams presenting his mayoral informational items to the council.
His first information item was about the high temperatures and dry conditions making the tall grasses more susceptible to igniting. Adams wants the community to be aware of it and to take caution.
The next information item was regarding the Little League District Tournament currently being held in Torrington. Adams wanted to thank all the community members who helped get the fields ready for play and to let the community know there will be families from all over Wyoming in town.
“We’re proud of our community and want it to be looking as good as possible, not just for this week, but always,” Adams said. “We want them to leave us with a very positive view of the community. Please do all you can to make our visitors feel welcome.”
Adams then gave an update about the current COVID situation in Goshen County. From July 9 to July 19, there were 10 new reported cases. There had been only 13 cases in the previous three weeks combined.
“This increase in the number of cases in the last month is alarming and I want to remind everyone to remain cautious,” Adams said. “Goshen County has only a bit more than 27% of our population vaccinated, meaning at least 60-70% of those people you meet every day are not vaccinated.”
The first and second action items of the night were in regard to the upcoming Rockabilly Retro Fest event which will be held on Main Street Saturday, Sept. 11, from 2 p.m. to 11 p.m.
Gypsy LaMore with Rockabilly 4 Life, LLC, requested a special event permit for the event and also a catering permit. Both were unanimously approved by the counsel.
“This is our third year and it’s going to be the same as last year,” LaMore said. “We’ll have a car show, pinup contest, three live bands, a beer garden on Main Street and just make it bigger than the year before.”
The next action item was the unanimous approval of a special event permit for Doug Mercer of Scottsbluff Valley Street Rods for a Classic Cars on Main Street event to be held on Saturday, September 25, in Torrington.
Following the approval of the special event permit was an acknowledgment, waiver, release, indemnification and hold agreement for the Harvest Host Program at the Cottonwood at Torrington Golf Course.
The Harvest Host Program is a national program RVs to camp at golf courses, breweries, wineries, farms and other locations all across the country. It is a membership program that allows “RVers” to have unique overnight stay opportunities.
Golf pro Dave Dent represented the golf course at the meeting. He said City Attorney James Eddington needed to come up with a waiver agreement for them to sign to be able to allow RV visitors to stay one night at the golf course with the gate locked for entrance and exit.
The reason for the waiver is because of having to lock the gate. Guests who stay at the golf course through the Harvest Host Program will need to sign the waiver in order to stay which removes liability from the city.
“Because the gate is locked, that caused some apprehension,” Eddington said. “There could be a heart attack, emergency, a fire, whatever the case may be, so we added that language that they consent, agree and acknowledge that they’ll be locked in and need to sign it or they don’t get to stay.”
The council voted to approve the waiver in a 4 to 1 vote. The lone no came from councilman Dennis Kelly, who was concerned about having guests locked inside of the facility with no concrete plan currently in place.
Following the approval of the waiver was the unanimous approval of four different ordinances on third reading. The first ordinance was relating to private fire systems and hydrants. The second was relating to definitions. The third was relating to backflow prevention, assemblies and definitions. The final ordinance was relating to qualifications and supplementations to districts.
After approving the four ordinances on third reading was the unanimous approval of awarding the construction bid for the Ridge Road repair to Bivens Construction from Torrington in the amount of $439,856.50 and a reserve of $88,143.50 for contingency for a project total of $528,000.
The next city council meeting will be held on Tuesday, August 3, at 7 p.m. The meeting will be held at Jirdon Park and everyone in the community is invited to attend. Adams said there will be games for kids, hot dogs, a movie, splash pad, hopefully some various vendors and the swimming pool will be open for free from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
