CHEYENNE, Wyo. — In this edition of “Meet the Candidates,” Patrick Collins shares with Cap City News how he envisions leading Cheyenne if reelected mayor. Collins was one of six people running for mayor in the primary election and received enough votes to progress to the general election. He will be going up against Rick Coppinger on November’s ballot.
The following are responses that Collins shared with Cap City News. To view Q&As of other candidates in the general election, click here.
What are your plans for promoting economic growth and attracting new businesses to Cheyenne?
To promote economic growth and attract new business to Cheyenne we must solve our housing shortage. Cheyenne’s economy is doing well, and we are at full employment. Economic growth requires a robust and diverse workforce that needs a place to live. It is one of the top goals for the next four years.
Growth also requires water, and Cheyenne currently has a complex water system with reserves that give us the ability to grow for decades to come. Our challenge is that two-thirds of our water comes from the Colorado River drainage. With the current decades of drought, we expect to lose access to that water in the future. Finding additional water resources to cover a call on the water we could receive from the Colorado River drainage is another of my top goals for the next four years.
For the past few years, we have been looking at our rules and regulations to find ways to improve our business climate. We have made 14 amendments to our UDC to allow more flexibility to our development community and their ability to build the housing we desperately need. I believe a community does need standards, but we can work with the folks building our community to make sure they don’t cause unreasonable delays or costs. We will continue this effort.
One of the biggest things we can do to encourage growth in Cheyenne is to improve quality-of-life amenities. Companies want to invest in communities that invest in themselves. In addition, employees are drawn to communities with a great quality of life. We must continue to invest in quality-of-life projects if we want to see Cheyenne continue to succeed economically.
How do you plan to address public safety concerns and ensure the well-being of Cheyenne residents?
Public safety is the most important responsibility of any city. We have made significant investments to ensure the future safety of our city. Staffing in our fire department went from 89 firefighters to 100 in the past three years. We have built three new fire stations to improve the response times to our residents, and we have purchased two more site locations to ensure public safety as our city grows.
The police department saw similar increases going from 98 police officers on the street to 111 today and 3 more in training. We have hired a crime analyst to add a scientific component to fight crime. We added a crime prevention team of four officers to take that information and focus on solving and preventing those crimes. It is a new team, but they have already had great success. I believe this strategy needs to continue to be emphasized and expanded.
Another area of public safety we are focusing on is our neighborhood streets. I wrote an ordinance to combat speeding on our neighborhood streets. Our police department has focused on dangerous intersections and their efforts have resulted in significant injury accident reductions. To improve safety on our roads, we have two studies in the process that will direct our future road construction. “Safe routes to School” and “Safe Streets for All” will identify ways we can improve safety on our roads for pedestrians, cyclists and drivers. A continued focus on public safety will always be my focus.
What are your plans for improving Cheyenne’s infrastructure, including roads, public transportation, and utilities?
Cheyenne has significant investments in our infrastructure. A major focus for the past four years has been the condition of our roads. We have 370 miles of roads and getting them back to satisfactory conditions has been a top goal for me. We have set a goal of doing significant maintenance on at least 10% of our roads each year. Meeting that goal requires $10.5 million a year and the voters of Laramie County have provided the funding between the 5th and 6th penny sales tax. We have a robust pavement management program and as mayor I will make sure we stay on the schedule each year.
Our Board of Public Utilities has similar investments in our water and sewer systems. They have a similar maintenance program dedicated to insuring Cheyenne will have a dependable system. Their board and staff are dedicated to making sure Cheyenne’s water and sewer system is robust and ready for the growth we know is coming.
Our public transit system has seen significant investments since Covid. They are moving into a new building that will better serve the folks who use their services. We have ordered 10 new buses, and a new master plan has an updated route system. I understand the importance of our public transit system to so many people and will continue to support their mission.
Lastly, we have invested so much in our downtown area. I believe it looks better and cleaner than it has been in so many years. Our next focus is on replacing sidewalks that pose a hazard to pedestrians, especially those with disabilities. Partnering with the Downtown Development Authority, we will start the repairs this fall.
How do you plan to involve the community in decision-making processes and ensure transparency in your administration?
Keeping the community informed about what is happening in our city has been a priority for me. I write the Mayor’s Minute each week to let folks know what we have been doing and to share my thoughts on what is going on. It is important that our residents know what is going on in their city government. Along those same lines, I answer every request from the media. Their job is to hold us accountable and tell our story and it is important that I cooperate in that process.
When I became mayor, I wanted to change the way my office and the city council worked together. Instead of private meetings between our offices, we now do public work sessions where the public and media can watch as we learn about things that are important to our governing body. We spend many Fridays during lunch learning together.
Judy and I attend as many public events as we can. First, they are fun, and it gives me an opportunity to meet with so many different groups of people. This is one of my favorite parts of the job.
When I was elected, I made promises to bring civility back to city hall, work to reduce the regulatory burden on our development community and take the maintenance of our roads seriously. We have worked hard to keep those promises. Promises made and kept are one of the best predictors of future performance. Transparency is important to our residents and to me.
What initiatives will you implement to promote environmental sustainability and address climate change at the local level?
Sustainability is the right way to approach the way we work. We want to leave our city to the next generation better than we found it.
I was on the city council when we started our single-stream residential recycling program. We continue that program today and are looking to expand it like adding glass to the program recently. Diverting waste from the landfill is the right thing to do. We also began recycling the water coming out of our wastewater treatment plant. We are using it today to water the landscaping in our parks and cemeteries. This saves potable water for human consumption.
Water is a precious commodity, and we face shortages in the coming years. We have begun converting some of our landscaping to water-wise landscapes using more native plantings that save hundreds of thousands of gallons of water. A beautiful example is the Burns triangle on 26th and Pioneer that was a partnership with the Leadership Cheyenne class, Cheyenne Board of Realtors, and the city. We hope these projects will encourage our community to convert their water-guzzling landscaping to these beautiful water-wise landscapes.
Our city has a robust program to plant trees. Our city forester and his team plant hundreds of trees each year and they have an incredibly powerful influence on the quality of life we enjoy. We also support Rooted in Cheyenne, a nonprofit organization that plants street trees in our residential areas at a significant discount and in some cases free of charge. Recently I volunteered to help plant these trees. One way we can continue to support this vision is to restore the historic greenhouse located at the High Plains Arboretum and begin growing the trees we need locally. We are currently working on this project with the State Parks department.
Converting the lights in our buildings to LED is an ongoing effort that will save an amazing amount of electricity and is also a benefit to our budget.
A couple of very exciting programs we have begun are community solar and renewable natural gas projects. Our Happy Jack Landfill is an area that has been undeveloped for decades. A program called Bright Field was designed to take a blighted area like our landfill and bring it to life by creating a community solar project. Creating green energy and a funding source to continue improving our community is exciting.
Our wastewater treatment plant creates 188 mcf of dirty methane gas a day. Currently it is being flared off. Technology can take this dirty gas, clean it and see it used again. Renewable natural gas is in high demand by many industries and again is the right thing to do. We hope to have both projects built in the next few years.
Is there anything else you’d like voters to know about you?
I am a husband to Judy for 42 years, dad to two wonderful sons, grandpa to a 2-year-old boy and a 3-month-old girl, dog dad, and a huge University of Wyoming sports fan. I went to Carey Jr. High School, East High School, and UW.
I love my job serving as mayor of Cheyenne. I have spent the past 42 years working as a small businessman. As a small business you never have enough resources, and you learn to prioritize what is most important. 12 years on the city council helped me understand how our city government works. I have spent the past four years serving as mayor. I promised to work hard to mend the relationship with the city council. You can’t accomplish the city’s goals if the mayor and council are fighting. I promised to look hard at our UDC and to modify these regulations to encourage our development community to build the housing and industry we need. I also promised to take maintenance of our 370 miles of roads seriously. We have implemented a robust pavement management program to bring our roads to the condition we all want. We still have work to do in these areas and I am excited to continue the work.
A priority for the next four years will be to work on our housing shortage and to find new water resources for our community.
The Wyoming Community Development Authority recently reported that Laramie County will be 4,386 to 7,266 housing units short in the year 2030. That is just over five years from now. We can’t build a workforce if we don’t have a place for them to live. I have been meeting with developers from neighboring states to learn how they have successfully met the challenges. We have asked the legislature to give us more tools to help encourage housing developers, and a bill is currently in the works. We must meet the challenge, and I am excited to work to solve it.
Cheyenne has robust water resources that give our community the ability to grow for decades to come. The challenge is that 2/3 of our water comes from the Colorado River drainage system. With the decades-long drought, the river can’t keep up with the demands for water usage. We expect the folks who manage the river to make cuts that may take away our Colorado River water. We need to find new water resources to bridge the gap when we lose the Colorado River water and to ensure our future. We have made good progress, but nothing has been finalized yet. This challenge keeps me up some nights and I look forward to working to solve it.
I love my job! I have worked hard to be a mayor you can be proud of, and I would appreciate your vote to continue our work for the next four years.
