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(OPINION) The Mayor’s Minute with Mayor Patrick Collins (9/13/24)

Cheyenne Mayor Patrick Collins (City of Cheyenne)

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Judy and I have taken a few days off to travel with family. In place of the normal Minute, I thought I would discuss a few topics many of you might find interesting.

Recycling

The first topic I would like to address deals with our residential recycling program. Many question what we do with the recycling once we pick it up.

We started the recycling program while Tom Segrave and I were on City Council years ago. The purpose was to divert recyclable trash from the waste stream and save airspace in the landfill. (Plus, it is the right thing to do.) Once we pick the recycling up at your home, it is trucked to Colorado and we pay Waste Management to take it. They separate the materials, sell them, and share part of the proceeds from the sales with the City. One big problem is contamination. If you bag your recyclable materials, it is automatically rejected as contaminated, and the City must pay Waste Management to put it in a landfill in Colorado. If you put items not on the recycle list in the container or include dirty or wet items, it could also result in contamination and the load is rejected and sent to the landfill at the City’s expense. That is why we monitor the containers and send letters if we find contamination.

Remember, recyclables must be dry, clean, and loose (not bagged) and include the following:

  • Paper products like newspapers, books, junk mail, magazines, etc.
  • Brown paper bags
  • Clean cardboard (cut into 2’ by 2’ squares and flattened)
  • Cereal boxes
  • Aluminum foil or tin cans – empty and clean
  • Plastic containers (#1, #2, #4 & #5)
  • Glass food and beverage containers – brown, clear or green – empty and clean

Road Work

The cone zones are fierce this summer. The city is doing significant road maintenance on more than 90 miles of roads this construction season.

Roads have a lifecycle of maintenance. When you build a new road, the first and most important maintenance you can do is to fill the cracks to prevent water from getting to the base. After around 7 years, you need to seal the road. In Cheyenne, we use a slurry seal. It is a cost-effective maintenance treatment that prevents deterioration by sealing the road from water, oils, UV damage, and normal wear and tear. Eventually, though, we need to mill off part of the asphalt and place new pavement, starting the maintenance cycle all over again.

The city has more than 370 miles of roadways and more than 1,400 lane miles of roads. I like to use the drive from Cheyenne to Evanston and back as an example of the size of our roadways.

Our phones at the City and mayor’s office have rung with folks mad about the inconvenience these road projects bring to the traveling public and in our immediate neighborhoods. I do understand the inconvenience, but there is no way we can improve our roads without it.

You will also see the City fixing the concrete curb, gutter, and valley pans across town. Many have asked me why we’re paying attention to the concrete when the problem is the pavement. As part of our pavement management program, we fix the concrete one year and then replace the asphalt the next. If we pave without fixing the deteriorated concrete, water will get under the road and shorten its lifespan. By splitting the concrete and asphalt contracts, we have more companies that can bid the work. Dell Range Boulevard is an example of current concrete repairs that will see asphalt replacement next year.

We estimate we need to spend $10.5 million a year to make up for past deferred maintenance and to get our roads into a satisfactory condition. 80% of our 5th-penny sales tax is dedicated to this effort and adds $5 million for this work. Your support of the 6th-penny sales tax road maintenance request has given us the needed funding to meet the $10.5 million goal. Thank you!

Our team is asking drivers to take it slow in and around construction sites. The workers would appreciate it.

Data Centers

Dr. Rinne shared a question he has received: Folks have asked about the data center development we are seeing on the outskirts of town. They wonder what the benefits are for this development and why are these companies coming to Cheyenne?

Data centers are choosing Cheyenne for a few reasons. First, the backbone of the internet runs along the railroad right of way, giving our data centers easy access to that connection. The weather here is relatively cool and dry, reducing the cost to operate the cooling systems.

Wyoming also has a sales tax exemption for the replacement of the servers used in the data center buildings, and there has not been a major data center built in a state without this sales tax exemption for more than a decade now. The data center buildings are not cheap but are not a huge part of the cost for the development. The computer servers, however, must be replaced every three, four, or five years. The math tells you paying sales tax on those servers every few years could be equal to the cost of the building. The companies do pay property taxes on the servers, so they help fund our local governments, schools, and other local government agencies.

Lastly, data centers use a large amount of electricity. Black Hills Energy has developed a unique tariff that is attractive to data centers but protects our residents and small businesses from subsidizing their operations. The sales tax on electricity is a large funding component to our local general fund budget.

I do know the companies building data centers in Cheyenne are known for their philanthropic giving, provide high-paying jobs, and are among the top taxpayers. They are also extending infrastructure that should give adjoining property owners the ability to develop their properties. LEADS has been working to develop this industry for more than a decade now. I appreciate their successes and the positive impact on our economy.


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