City Of Cheyenne: The Mayor's Minute From Mayor Patrick Collins – May 27th

Cheyenne WY

31 May, 2022

3:59 PM

Description

Press release from the City of Cheyenne: May 27, 2022 CHEYENNE – My family traveled to Chicago last weekend to attend the memorial for my little sister Colleen. She did not want a funeral, but a party where stories would be told, and a toast given. I find as I get older, it takes a wedding or a funeral to get families together. I love seeing everyone but hated the reason. Colleen was a great woman, and she will be missed. I have shared the struggle the governing body went through in deciding how to give out the lone liquor license the city received due to the census. It has been our goal to petition the legislature to ask for changes to state law allowing for more licenses. I traveled to Casper to meet with the six largest cities in the state to discuss their liquor licenses situations. I found that they are all out of retail licenses, and most are out of bar and grill licenses as well. It was great to listen to the other city leaders and to plan how we will approach our legislators for help. We also talked about our housing situations. I was not surprised to learn that we are all short of housing and share a concern that inflation and growth is leaving folks unable to afford housing. I am happy that the legislature has decided to take workforce housing on as an interim topic. I believe it will take all our partners to solve this problem. I plan on testifying and listening at the Corporations Committee meeting at the end of June. I am hopeful we will find a solution. For six years we have been working with the Air Force to build a housing development using what the Air Force calls an Enhanced Use Lease (EUL). They have land outside their security gate, where Cheyenne Frontier Days has their remote parking lot. The plan is to build an apartment complex that will serve not only airmen, but also our community. I had dinner with General Allen, the person in charge of the Air Force's program. I was happy to learn the Air Force is planning to open the project up for RFP and we will have an opportunity to see this project happen. We really need the housing units. This press release was produced by the City of Cheyenne. The views expressed here are the author's own.