Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Hey, let's talk Gillette.
[00:00:07] What's happening in Gillette?
[00:00:10] Next week on February 17th is a Gillette City Council meeting.
[00:00:14] Before we get to the agenda, let's take a look at some other City of Gillette happenings in the next week or two.
[00:00:20] February 17th is the city council meeting, but on February 16th city offices will be closed for President's Day.
[00:00:28] I never really thought about this before, but several states have slightly different presidents days, and for a lot of them the only difference is the placement or presence of an apostrophe. Some states have President apostrophe s day indicating that it's the day for a single president, usually George Washington. Some states have Presidents Day indicating that it's a day for multiple presidents. A few states even just have presidents. No apostrophe at all day I think indicating that it's a day for presidents generally.
[00:01:04] Like all presidents of everything ever that's their day.
[00:01:08] On different state of Wyoming websites I found it listed both of the first two ways, so I tracked it down to the state code to determine which is technically correct for Wyoming.
[00:01:19] And you know what? They don't call it President's Day in the state code at all. Wyoming Statute 84101 Legal Holidays Dismissal of Schools A Roman numeral 2 lists Washington's and Lincoln's birthdays to be observed on the third Monday in February, which I believe means that President's is the correct abbreviation since Washington's and Lincoln's birthdays is kind of a mouthful anyway. It's a state holiday, so city offices are closed and if your regular trash day is Monday, it will be picked up on Tuesday instead. Are you curious about what the City of gillette did in 2025?
[00:01:58] You can find a brief summary of 2025 for each city department and division by checking out the 2025 annual report, which is available on the city website gillettewy.gov or you can follow the link in the description directly to the report for a better look at just one aspect of the city's operation and budget. You could also visit informjillette.com which has information about the optional 1% sales tax that will be on the ballot in November, where it comes from and how it's used.
[00:02:27] Here's what's on the February 17th city council agenda it's liquor license renewal time. Every year the City Council reviews and approves the various liquor licenses they have to hand out, although that review usually takes the form of blanket asking if any of the license holders have caused problems like getting too many serving to miners tickets or too many disturbances. Aside from the normal renewals, Council will vote on allowing persons under 21 to enter and remain in a winery or microbrewery this year.
[00:02:59] That's another one that the Council has to approve annually so that families can tour the big lost matery. There's also two more liquor license items that aren't annual, the transfer of the retail liquor license from Applebee's which obviously no longer needs it since they closed to Big D oil, and an extension of the non operational status of the license for Gillette Travel Center. Usually the licenses expire if the business hasn't operated for a year, but the City Council has the authority to grant an extension to that and the since the travel center is still being built, they'll consider it at this meeting.
[00:03:33] The optional 1% sales tax is paying for four of the items Council will discuss at this meeting. There will be bid awards for the Shoshone avenue Beautification Project Phase 1 and the Echida Road reconstruction project which will tear up Achida between second and Burma in order to replace an iron water line that was installed in the 70s.
[00:03:52] Then there's a professional services agreement for the Dalby Memorial Park 7 Restroom Improvements Project. During the Dalby park improvements stuff many people said that there should be better public restroom facilities in the park so this project would replace the two in the park. One right in the middle of the park and another composting one which the agenda says has been out of service for 12 years now with newer better ones.
[00:04:16] Finally, the last 1% related item is an amendment to the professional services agreement for the Southern subdivision resurfacing project to add construction management to the existing professional services agreement.
[00:04:28] Council will vote to accept public improvements for the NZ practice fields.
[00:04:33] There's a pre annexation agreement for property at 903 Hennam-Road so that property can be connected to city water.
[00:04:40] There are two planning type items. One is the final plat for the new Campbell County High School and Hillcrest elementary and the other is a zoning map amendment with a public hearing before Council consideration to correct an error up around Belknob Golf Course. We're part of the golf course and several houses are mistakenly labeled as residential when they should be R1 single family residential. Council will consider allowing the Mayor to sign the Federal Highway Administration agreement to re establish the Community project funding grant for rebuilding the overpass. The city already applied for and received this grant but since there was such a long period of inactivity on the project, the Federal Highway Administration asked that the city shelve the funds until they were ready to use them. This agreement would unshelve the funds to use it for design on an overpass replacement.
[00:05:33] That's a brief look at the February 17th meeting. You can find the agenda on the city website, gillettewy.gov and click on any item in the agenda to get a deeper explanation of the topic and see any supporting documentation. Sign up to receive meeting notices by clicking on the Email Updates link in the description of this episode. City Council meetings are broadcast live on GPA TV cable channel 192, as well as streaming online at gelatwy.govnewsletter GPA, where you can also find past meetings archived.
[00:06:02] Let's Talk Gillette is a production of Gillette Public Access Television and the City of Gillette. For more information on city operations, visit the city's website, gillettewy.gov or follow the City of Gillette on Facebook or Instagram.
