City Of Cheyenne: The Mayor's Minute From Mayor Patrick Collins – April 15th

Cheyenne WY

18 April, 2022

12:46 PM

Description

Press release from the City of Cheyenne: April 15, 2022 CHEYENNE – My wife Judy has told me about Stars of Tomorrow for over 40 years. She competed as a fifth grader and won second place. We still have the trophy in the basement. I really had no idea what the program entailed until I was asked to judge the 68th Kiwanis Stars of Tomorrow competition at the Surbrugg/Prentice Auditorium on the LCCC campus. While acknowledging my lack of expertise in the subject, I loved the experience. The young men and women were so talented. We saw dancers, singers, a comedy act, martial arts, musicians, and Claire Nelson who did an act from the Broadway show Mean Girls to win best of show. By the way, the theater is an amazing addition to Cheyenne. This week was a nice break from last week's crazy schedule. Monday ended with a four-hour city council meeting. I was so sure it would be a short meeting, I skipped dinner. Boy was that a mistake. One interesting part that took much of the time included the public hearing for the new liquor license we are hoping to award in a couple of weeks. The room was packed with supporters who each wanted to share their reasons. It was a thoughtful and fun conversation. I think we had up to 20 folks who shared. Later in the meeting, we had another liquor discussion. This time we discussed the transfer to the Horse Palace in the Array building. Many of the speakers were worried about the ills of gambling addiction, and what adding this kind of business would do to our downtown. In the end it was approved. We will revisit the issue next March to see if they manage the responsibility of having the license properly. Youth Alternatives was started over 50 years ago by Ronn Jeffrey, currently our municipal judge. Today Jay Sullivan is the skipper. He stopped by to discuss his budget request for next year. Youth Alternatives is doing well, the only concern right now is the short fall from the United Way Campaign. It means programs like Special Friends and Foster Grandparents will get a reduction of 39 percent in United Way funding. We will need to find a way to keep these programs, housed in Youth Alternatives, and more like them that help so many people, operational. It also means we need to support next year's United Way campaign. I did not know that realtors must do continuing education as part of their license. I was asked to speak to the Cheyenne Board of Realtors during their general membership luncheon to read a proclamation declaring April as Fair Housing Month. I also discussed the hateful covenants that can still be found in subdivisions in Cheyenne and other cities across the nation. These covenants prevent people of color from buying homes in the subdivisions. These were outlawed federally with the passage of the 1968 Fair Housing Act. Our legislature passed a law that lets homeowners remove the covenants simply by filling out a form and taking it to the courthouse. The filing is done at no charge. Soon, our GIS team at the city will have a map that will show if your home has the covenants in question, and the form to make them go away. I do admire our realtors, so much enthusiasm in a market with no inventory. This press release was produced by the City of Cheyenne. The views expressed here are the author's own.