Ongoing topics occupy council

Two topics are still generating interest for the Sundance City Council: a proposed change to the noon siren and the implication of the recent U.S. Census that the city has lost around 150 citizens over the last ten years.

The first came up during Sheriff Jeff Hodge’s monthly report at last Tuesday’s regular meeting. He clarified that, while he has been hearing from the community on this topic, it is actually within the purview of Emergency Management.

“The siren has probably generated the most comments that we’ve had in a long, long time,” said Mayor Paul Brooks, stating that he is not opposed to a uniform siren system across the area to make it easier for the public to understand its meaning when it sounds.

However, he also explained the difficulty the city would face if it stopped testing the siren every day at noon. The daily siren dates back to when the county first got an emergency manager, he said, and realized that state law requires it to be regularly tested.

However, testing it intermittently generated, “An overwhelming amount of calls to dispatch,” he said, and the sheriff at the time said, “You’re going to blow it every day or you’re going to blow it not at all, but I can’t have my dispatch tied up for 20 minutes because you tested the sirens.”

It became a case of either testing the siren every day or never testing it at all, Brooks said. Hodge responded that he prefers the former to the latter, and certainly prefers the idea of testing every day to doing so intermittently for the same reason of potentially clogging up dispatch.

“You’ve still got to test the thing, no matter what,” said the sheriff. People might find it strange to hear the siren go off at random times of the morning or afternoon so, “Unless we have a tornado right at noon,” he felt the middle-of-the-day siren might still be the best time.

On a related note, Brooks mentioned that the city has been working with Range Communications to transfer the sirens from the old copper internet lines to the fiber, which he said was the original agreement made with the cooperative when the fiber project began in Sundance.

Regarding the second topic of ongoing interest, Clerk Treasurer Kathy Lenz said her office had put together some figures to address the fact that the U.S. Census records the Sundance population dropping from 1182 to 1032 people over the last ten years.

Taking the 694 water meters within city limits and adding the large meters that run mobile home parks and apartments creates a total of 779, Lenz said. If just two people use each of those meters, that makes a total population of 1500 people – well above the number recorded on the census.

Mayor Brooks later spoke to the impact of the census. The city receives around $740 to $750 per person from revenue on things like mineral royalties, severance tax and state leases, he said.

“When we gain 100 people, that’s a significant number in our budget,” he explained. The city has begun the process of registering formal concern over the census results.

During Tuesday’s meeting, the council also discussed street crossings in the school zone area, something Sheriff Hodge said he hears about a lot. Since the campus moved with the construction of the new elementary school, some of the existing crossings are now far from where the kids are actually crossing the street.

Brooks agreed that many in the community have said they would like to see lights and crossings at the higher profile intersections and around the football field.

“Not a week goes by that I don’t hear a little bit of concern,” he said.

Council Member Brad Marchant, who is employed by WYDOT, said he would pass the issue to the appropriate department.

The council also heard during the meeting that a railroad is interested in bringing a high-speed passenger rail through this area. Though Brooks commented that he does not know how this would be funded, he does not believe it would hurt to look into such an option for a mass transit system.

While renewing the contract with Blakeman Propane, the council heard that Sundance contracted last year for 11,000 gallons but the city had already used 13,000 at the beginning of October. A motion was approved to increase the contract this year to 14,000 gallons.

Public Works Director Mac Erickson reported that progress is slow on the Sundance Kid water tank project. One pipeline under the interstate has been bored, but construction of the tank itself may need to be delayed until spring.

Lenz passed on a request from the person who successfully bid to lease the pasture by the tank site. As it was necessary to take the fence down, Lenz said, the animals were displaced.

Rather than a refund, the citizen asked to have the pasture again next year to make up for it. City Attorney Mark Hughes said he could see no issue with this request as the rent was paid.

During departmental reports, Council Member Joe Wilson commended the public works department for the amount of effort put into cleaning and cutting trees, saying the town looks awesome. Sheriff Hodge also received praise as he reported 150 calls for service from Sundance, with Brooks commenting, “What I hear from the public is all positive,” while Fire Chief Gari Gill will be honored next month for 50 years of involvement with the Sundance Volunteer Fire Department, many of those as fire chief.