TORRINGTON – The Torrington City Council met on Tuesday, July 16 at 5:30 p.m. where the council and mayor discussed normal operating business for the city. 

Mayor Doby called the meeting to order, and councilmembers Wayne Deahl, Dennis Kelly and Dr. Richard Paterson were in attendance for the proceedings. Council member Shane Viktorin was excused. Kelly led the community and council in the Pledge of Allegiance.

During the mayor’s informational items Doby invited the community to the Lions Club Festival of Sight on July 20 at Pioneer Park and the Goshen County Fair which will be held Thursday, July 25 to Sunday, August 4.

“Thursday, August 1 is Goshen County Day with the annual fair parade on Main Street in Torrington,” Doby said. “Come out for the Goshen County Fair and the Goshen County Fair Parade. There is fun and activities for all.”

Doby also thanked the community and seasonal and regular employees for keeping Torrington clean, beautiful, and functional.

“As we see locally more and more food trucks, I want those businesspeople to know that the city appreciates all they offer to our residents. Those businesses are not specially regulated by the city itself and I want them to know they are most welcome to do business in the city of Torrington,” Doby explained. “It’s summer, please continue to enjoy the season. Be smart. Be safe. Be careful.”

Doby also announced the next council meeting will be held during the National Night Out celebrations to be held at Pioneer Park, at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, August 6.

Moving on, Patterson made a motion to approve the consent agenda which was seconded by Deahl. The motion carried and the consent agenda was approved.

Kelly made a motion to approve the agenda as presented which was seconded by Paterson. The motion carried and the agenda was approved.

Moving on to the public forum portion of the meeting, there were no participants.

“This is for non-agenda items. There is a time limit of two minutes, and the speaker must sign up before the meeting. This is a time for the council to listen, no action will be taken,” Doby explained. “If they want to address the council, they can fill that form out and put that in that box and they will be given two minutes to address the council.”

Moving on to the action items, the council heard from Amy Bomgardner and Tina Garrelts from the Torrington Lions Club who requested a special event permit for the Lions Club Festival of Sight to beheld on July 20, item one. Doby called on Torrington Chief of Police, Matt Johnson for background information as to how the city will be impacted by the event.

“This is an annual event the Lions Club hosts as a fundraiser for the Festival of Sight,” Johnson said. “Very low impact event for us. This year they are not including alcohol as part of the event so that significantly simplifies the application and permit process. Really, in terms of what they need from the city is a handful of barricades, access to some power and rollout trash containers.”

“We are doing the Lions Club Festive of Sight. This is our tenth year. We are going to have bounce houses, a car show, concession stands. The whole public is invited,” Bomgardner said.

Bomgardner explained to the council there was such a limited request for alcohol during year’s prior, so the event will not be having alcohol this year. 

After a brief discussion, the council voted to approve the special event permit and wave the permit fee for the Lions Club event.

The council quickly moved on to item two under action items on the agenda where Tiffany Leslie with the Broncho Bar requested a special event permit for a street dance to be held on August 1. The mayor again called on Johnson to provide additional information on the impacts to the city involved.

“This is an annual event that we have hosted for a number of years,” Johnson said to the council.

Johnson spoke to the council on the regulations with alcohol and the band noise. 

Doby asked Johnson for the financial impact for the city in terms of expenses which the city will occur.

“It should only take a pretty limited amount of officer/ staff time to help with street closure,” Johnson explained. “We’re talking like 15 minutes.”

Johnson continued to list all of the expenses associated with hosting downtown event which totaled approximately $143 of city expense. He also added the fees had been paid by the business requesting the event.

After the discussion, a motion was made by Patterson which was seconded by Kelly. The motion carried and the city approved the special event permit for the street dance.

Moving on to action item three, the council heard from Dale Mundt with the Torrington Volunteer Fire Department. The department requested a special event permit for the 2024 Goshen County Fair Parade to be held on August 1 at 9 a.m. on Main Street. Mundt also requested the permit fee to be waved for the annual community event. Doby called on Johnson to reflect on the city impact.

“Again, this is an annual event we host every year and had good success with,” Johnson said. “In the last few years, I think we have found a nice balance of security and finding the right places to utilize barricades and use vehicle barriers. No parade can be made absolutely safe but ours is as safe as we can reasonably make it. It’s a great community event. We really appreciate the fire department and GoGoshen putting it on,” Johnson said.

After a brief discussion, a motion was made by Deahl which was seconded by Kelly to approve the special event permit request from the fire department for the fair parade. A second motion was made by Paterson to waive the permit fee which was seconded by Dealh. The motion carried and the permit fee was waved for the fair parade.

Next the council moved on to item four where the council heard from director of public works, Jeff Harkins regarding an amendment number to the agreement for professional services with Inberg-Miller Engineers. Staff recommended approving the amendment to the current agreement dated July 1, 2023, in the amount of $40,370. 

Kelly motioned to approve amendment number three to the agreement professional services with Inberg-Miller which was seconded by Patterson. The motion carried.

Moving on to approval of the bills from July 3 to July 16, item five under action items of the agenda, the council voted to approve the bills as presented. 

Next, the council moved on to the public comment portion of the agenda where Torrington Volunteer Fire Department Chief, Luis Correa read the fire report. 

Correa explained the department had been on 18 calls since the last council meeting ranging from reports of gas smells, malfunctioning alarms, multiple grassfire calls, diving operations, and a grain truck fire.
Correa was also pleased to report the department only handled two fires which resulted from fireworks whereas in previous years, the department was called out to nearly a dozen firework fire calls.

“We were mutual aided out to Grey Rocks for assistance in a diving operation and the use of our sonar. I did just see an update that they called off the search for that particular individual with no success,” Correa said. “The other major call we went on was a mutual aid call out on the road to Chugwater, 313. I believe that one was estimated at 5,500 acers burned.”

During the public comment portion of the meeting, Doby reminded the public the next council meeting is Tuesday, August 6 at 6 p.m. at Jirdon Park.

The meeting was adjourned at 6:12 p.m.