July 2014

Having been Mayor for the past year and a half has been a good experience.  People ask me how I like it and I can honestly answer that I have really enjoyed my time in office.  

Our council is a diverse group.   They represent different religions, different backgrounds, different working/home life situations and are a good cross section of the community.   My responsibility is to carry out the council directives and administrate the town government.

I made it my goal, to spend the time in the office necessary to really see first hand on a daily basis how things are and what needs to be done.  Hours were spent going over legal documents and past council actions so I could get a sense of the past decisions and why they were made.  

When I came into office, there were three paid staff in the clerks office.  We now have one very capable clerk who handles all responsibilities including, parks, recreation, water, sewer and the Police Department clerk duties.    We also did away with some of the positions which were on a monthly retainer situation and made them an "as needed" position.  This has saved the town thousands and is working well.  

For the first time we have our budget and finances in a form that is suggested for municipalities.  There is transparency in each department.  Our water and sewer are now true enterprise funds (meaning self sustaining)  as required by Wyoming State Statute.  We have set up reserve funds for replacement and maintenance of water and sewer which are key to having a community that is secure in its future offerings of services to "we the people".

We are now in a position to strongly advocate for our town and receive the grants and or loans that are available for improving our town.

Making the changes in these budget items has freed up many thousands of dollars in our general fund to attend to the investments that have been made by your tax dollars such as streets and improvements in our infrastructure.  

The immediate goals for the town are based on studies done a few years ago with the communities input.  We have addressed the many pot holes in our streets and will soon be doing the crack seal.  Our streets are an improvement that every citizen was assessed for and some have just in this last year finished paying their assessment.  Streets are a large investment for a community and we cannot afford to let them continue to deteriorate.  We want to pave the rest of the streets in town but there are some underground drainage issues that we will need to address first and we are in the process of working with the drainage board to do just that.  

The sewer system on main and south of main is still the old clay tile and we will look at replacing those areas that are compromised beginning with each end of Main street.  When that is done we will then be ready to work with WYDOT on the resurfacing of main street and will work to improve the look of our street through town.

We are working with the Wyoming Business council on helping us make our community more business ready and investment worthy.  

Our recreation department has grown to be a great addition to our community for pre-school through senior citizens.  We now have a well equipped weight room, access to the gym for after school activities, the auditorium for area events such as the candidates forum, dance recitals, and family movie nights.    We have rented many areas such as the cafeteria for birthday and other celebrations.

We just had Byron Days and are pleased that for the first year, we were able to put on this wonderful event without spending any of the Rec. budget or money from general funds as has been done in all previous years.  The fireworks are still an expense however, and our goal is to make them self sustaining through sponsors rather than the town paying for them.  This is a goal that is already being implemented through area businesses.

We are looking forward to have a Mobile medical unit in our community to meet the needs here.  We will be doing a health fair in August to introduce the public to what this Mobile unit can offer, such as lab screenings etc.  

We were able to finally finish the Memorial park which is an attractive entrance to our town.

So, as you can see it has been a busy year and a half and good things have taken place.  There is not a way to govern a town where every single citizen is happy all of the time, but I hope that when looking at the decisions that have been made by the council for the overall good of the community and in response to being in compliance with all state statutes, you will not be a one issue voter and will re-elect me to this position to be able to finish these projects and work with you to make our town the best it can be.