The Kemmerer City Council meeting on Monday, June 12, was busy. The council reviewed and passed the Fiscal Year 2017-2018 budget, learned the results of the Resident Satisfaction Survey (see A7), passed on second reading the city’s new ordinance concerning liquor, and addressed the staff shortage of the Kemmerer Police Department. 

Representatives of American Legion Post 55 thanked the City of Kemmerer for employing veterans, and presented City Administrator Andrew Nelson with a certificate.

Mayor Anthony Tomassi presented Randy Hanney with a certificate and thanked him for his decades of service to the city. Hanney is retiring after 30 years with the sanitation department.

Randy Hanney, left, is presented a certificate of retirement recognition by Mayor Anthony Tomassi at the June 12 City Council meeting. Hanney worked for 30 years with the sanitation department. (GAZETTE PHOTO / Theresa Davis)

Kemmerer City Administrator Andrew Nelson presented the Council with the city budget for Fiscal Year 2017-2018. Copies of the budget were available to those who attended the meeting and will be available online soon.

“This is as close to a balanced operating budget as we could reasonably get without a further reduction of services,” Nelson said.

The budget will use $82,000 out of city reserves, and Nelson said the budget would have been balanced but for the unforeseen high cost of city employees’ health care.

Nelson explained that because of budget constraints and vacancies, they have reduced the city workforce by 20 percent.

“It’s been a tough year, and a tough six weeks for the city,” Nelson said. “We’ve had seven full-time or contract city employees leave in the past 45 days.”

Nelson recommended several programs for funding in the upcoming fiscal year, and included funding for those in the budget.These programs and projects include the Elk Street repavement project, increased funding for street maintenance and street repair, a new lawn mower for the parks division, funding for the South Lincoln Economic Development Corporation, funding for the Kemmerer Main Street program, and funding for a new police vehicle.

“We’ve made great strides into an operational balanced budget,” said Councilman Robert Reetz.

“We also intend to hire a golf course superintendent who also takes care of the Events Center as a full time city employee,” Nelson said.

Nelson also discussed plans in the budget to make the Events Center and the Recreation Center accessible to patrons  24/7 without staff.

For the rec center, these plans would include a different security system that requires card access.

“I think it would be a low cost way to achieve high-quality services,” Nelson said.

“All the city staff has been really conscientious in spending, and we’ve had to make really difficult decisions,” said Mayor Anthony Tomassi.

“It’s been a rough year, it’s tough to change and start from scratch, but despite that, everybody has done an exemplary job,” Nelson said.

In his written budget proposal, Nelson wrote, “This has been an incredibly difficult budget season as I have tried to meet Council’s budget goals of (1) maintaining services and (2) balancing the budget. I believe the budget as presented meets these goals as closely as can be expected given the fiscal, economic, and operational challenges faced by the City. I appreciate the many hours spent by Council and by staff, particularly Glenda Young, to produce this document.”

Sergeant Mike Kahre, the interim Kemmerer Police Chief, addressed the council about officer shortages.

The Kemmerer Police Department has been functioning with five staff members since Chief Stacy Buck and Officer Jake Walker resigned.

The funds to hire a sixth Kemmerer police fficer were already built into the proposed budget for FY18.

“If we’re at six officers, we could still do 24-hour coverage,” Sergeant Kahre said.

Sergeant Kahre voiced his concerns that if the police department continued to function with five officers, 24-hour police coverage would be nearly impossible, especially with vacancies because of vacation time, training, illness or family emergencies. 

Andrew Nelson also weighed in about the policing issue.

“Proportionally, we are over-policed, and we need to look at a long-term paradigm shift as far as how we do policing,” Nelson said. “But for now I would recommend the city hire a sixth officer.”

The council passed the budget with the funds included to hire a sixth police officer.

“We really appreciate the police force stepping up when they’re understaffed,” Councilman McGinnis said.

The council also passed on second reading Ordinance 2017-854 concerning liquor licsnses.

“This is a modification to the state liquor laws that were just passed in the legislature,” Nelson said.

The state laws said that any establishment serving alcohol must be classified as a bar, therefore no one under the age of 21 is allowed inside. The City of Kemmerer modified this state law as allowed by municipalities and Wyoming, and the city will  now have an application for exempting a portion of a building from the state law.

“This means that establishments, like the bowling alley or other business that do serve alcohol but have other commercial purposes, will be allowed to have children in the designated areas,” Nelson said. “The exemption applications will be approved by the city council, and it is an administrative tool to do what we need to for our community”

The exemption would be required annually as an establishment renews its liquor license with the city.