Council pushes ahead on projects

At Tuesday’s meeting, the Sundance City Council heard progress reports on several ongoing projects, as well as two that are expected to be underway shortly.

The first new project was paving in several places around the city, including between the bank and the post office and on 1st and 3rd Streets where the pavement was torn up to install a water line. The engineer estimate was slightly lower than the bids came in, said Public Works Director Mac Erickson, but it should be possible to scrounge up the remainder from the budget to go ahead.

The obvious low bidder was Sacrison Paving at $89,887.50. The council approved this bid.

A bid of $697,083 was also approved from Ainsworth Benning of the two that had been submitted for construction of the new park next to Old Stoney, to be named Sundance Square. The approval was contingent on the architect’s review of the bid document.

Erickson reminded the council that the bid does not include the restroom building or splash pad equipment. “If the city purchases them, we can save money on it,” he said.

Dan Mummert of city engineers Trihydro reported that the project to replace the water tank in Sundance West is now being advertised and the bid openings are set for July 7.

“We have our permit from DEQ and we’re ready to go,” he said.

Mummert also reported on the project to replace two water tanks on along I-90 and bore larger lines under the interstate. A kick-off meeting had been held earlier in the day and the goal is to complete the survey and gather additional information by the next council meeting.

“We’re excited to see that project kick off,” Mummer said.

Erickson spoke to a suggestion that had been made to extend the scope of the project to bring the water lines down 3rd Street. However, he said, it has been found that this cannot be incorporated into the original Abandoned Mine Lands funding and no additional money is available.

At this point, he said, the city would need to look for an alternative funding source or move that part of the project ahead at a later date.

Reporting on work to extend city waterline to Old Stoney, Erickson said the tie-in had been completed and buried that morning. Discussions are ongoing to decide what kind of low-pressure cutoff will be needed, however, as the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and state fire marshal’s office have differing requirements.

“They had a meeting together to decide whose rules will win,” said Clerk Treasurer Kathy Lenz.

Once designed, that information will be provided to DEQ and the fire marshal can test for occupancy.

At Tuesday’s meeting, the council also passed a resolution that will permit fireworks on July 3 to 5 for the Independence Day holiday.

The council also considered a request from a landowner whose property is located in the business district, but who wants to build a residence on the adjacent plot to replace the one that is already there. This would require a public hearing for a variance to the zoning code, with the special condition justifying the variance being that there has been a house on the property for decades; a public hearing will be organized during the next meeting of the council.

City Attorney Mark Hughes presented an emergency ordinance amending the costs and fees for municipal courts to comply with new rules set by the Wyoming Supreme Court that go into effect in July.

In departmental reports, Police Chief Marty Noonan said May had been another slow month, with just 26 calls, mostly for service. There is still no official word on whether the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally is going ahead this year in an official capacity, he said, but the process of making preparations will soon begin.

Fire Chief Gari Gill reported that he has changed up protocols since the pandemic arrived and his firefighters are now limited as to what they responded to, which has worked well for firefighter happiness. For instance, he said, the department is not automatically running with the ambulances, though firefighters still attend wrecks to run the extrication equipment.

As this is working well to prevent firefighter burnout, he said, he may continue to run things in this manner.

Lenz told the council that the city is working on getting the pool open and is working on a plan for that with Public Health. She asked if parents should be required to sign a release for summer recreation, but the mayor felt that it would be better to just get things open and start offering activities for the kids.

Hughes asked the council to acknowledge its approval of a nuisance letter sent at the request of the police chief. The mayor also asked him to send a letter to the renter and landlord of a property on N 3rd Street with several unlicensed vehicles and a lack of maintenance to the outside.

The next regular meeting of the Sundance City Council is scheduled for July 7.