Cheyenne City Council Finalizes 6th-Penny Ballot

The Cheyenne City Council has finalized its list of sixth-penny projects and, despite a push to move the election to August, will put the ballot before voters on May 2.

During a special meeting Tuesday night, the City Council decided to cut three projects totaling $8.85 million and use roughly two-thirds of that money for street repairs instead.

"What came off was funding for the Belvoir (and) funding for the downtown water feature and alley cleanup," said Mayor Marian Orr.

"Then (we) took a portion of the money for a new fire station and actually combined it with another proposition, so there's a total now of $6 million that will be able to be used for either a new fire station and/or renovations to the others," Orr added.

The council also decided to reduce the cost of a $21 million project to renovate and expand the Laramie County Governmental Complex to $18 million and split the money with the county.

"We were packaged in with the county with a District Court scenario," said Orr. "They need certainly some renovations, some space for a new judge there, and rather than build a new Municipal Court on the county lot, what we decided to do was to take a look at our own existing structure."

"For a lot less money we can build a Municipal Court at the Municipal Building," she added.

Councilman Pete Laybourn, who unsuccessfully tried to amend the date of the election from May 2 to August 22 during Monday's Finance Committee meeting, decided not to offer the amendment again on Tuesday.

"The County Commissioners held very firm on that," said Orr. "They communicated to us, I believe yesterday or the day before, that really on no uncertain terms would the election be held in August and that's despite my belief that an August ballot would certainly afford voters the opportunity to ask more questions (and) have more input."

"Hopefully when the Legislature leaves town and things settle down we'll realize the sky isn't falling," Orr added.