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With Pine Bluffs judge Mark Moran administering the oath of office, new mayor Bill Shain and council members Mark Fornstrom and Alan Curtis were swore in during Monday’s regular session of council.
Leading his first meeting as mayor, Shain quickly dispensed with administrative tasks – approving the agenda, prior minutes and paying the bills and began introducing individuals key to the town.
First on the agenda was Chris Lidstone of Fort Collins-based Lidstone and Associates, the engineering firm responsible for much of the work being done on the town’s water and sewer system.
Lidstone gave a brief overview of the items his firm are working on and then told council they should expect a draft of the Level 1 Master Plan from the Wyoming Water Development Commission.
The Level 1 Master Plan includes recommendations on how the town can best utilize its diminishing water supply and possible steps to maximize water supply longevity.
Speaking about the Level 3 plan, deep well drilling, Lidstone said he was hopeful drilling would begin on a lot owned by Leonard Anderson on the east side of town by early fall 2009.
Moving from the deep well project, Lidstone then spoke about the landfill monitoring wells installed by the town at the insistence of the Department of Environmental Quality.
Per DEQ’s request, three monitoring wells were installed and the Lidstone firm has begun pulling samples from the wells.
“Two of the wells pulled what we expected,” said Lidstone. “But a third well is producing something of a mixed bag of data,” he added.

Lidstone went on to say  one sample is showing elements not consistent with those normally found in the Brule formation. The Brule formation is where the town draws the majority of its water from.
“I say it’s a mixed bag because not only is the sample not consistent with what you’d expect to see in the Brule, it’s also not what you would expect to see in the event of landfill contamination,” he said.
Adding that the sample was causing more questions, Lidstone was careful to note that he wasn’t drawing any conclusions just yet.
“This is only the first sample we’ve pulled with three more to go,” he said. “Right now, we aren’t making any conclusions.”
Lidstone and Associates will pull three more samples for their final report due to DEQ by May 2010.
Following Lidstone was Scott Brelsford of Cheyenne-based Alliance Construction, the company who built the town’s new commerce building.
“I didn’t really expect to be on the agenda this evening,” Brelsford said as he took the opportunity to introduce himself to the new council members.
From there, Todd Bishop of Kaiser and Company of Cheyenne took the floor and introduced himself and his company. Kaiser and Company is a financial services company and is currently working with the town to bond 6th Penny monies.
Bishop informed council his company was nearly finished in finalizing the town’s financing options.
“What we need to do now is really identify those projects that are a priority and get the legal descriptions of them for inclusion in the final document,” said Bishop.
Currently the town is considering bonding money for water and sewer projects, pool renovations and the new day care facility.
Bishop explained once he had the legal descriptions, his company would begin shopping the bond to “sophisticated investors.”
“Typically local banks look to add municipal bonds to their portfolio and we’ve even had some interest from the state of Wyoming in these types of bonds,” Bishop said.
Bishop said he was still optimistic the town would be able to lock in a low interest rate for the amount financed — somewhere in the neighborhood of 4 percent or lower Bishop said.
Councilmember Mark Fornstrom asked Bishop what happened if 6th penny collections didn’t keep pace with the loan repayment schedule.
“That’s a very good question and one that was also asked back in February when we originally made our proposal,” said Bishop, who went on to say the financing plan included several worst case scenarios in the event collections didn’t match repayment.
“What we’ve done is taken a small amount of the loan repayment and placed it in an escrow account that can be utilized for exactly those purposes,” Bishop said.
Moving on to new business, members of the council listened to a proposal to join Laramie County in repaving portions of Beech Street. Specifically, the town would be responsible for the portion of Beech Street known as Cemetery Hill, beginning at the grates under the over-pass and ending just after passing through the bluffs.
Town Engineer Scott Larson reported that compared to other portions of County Road 164 (Beech Street) the portion in question looked all right, giving it a fair rating.
“This is will cost the town $130,000 if we are to join the county and do this now,” Larson reported.
Under a tight deadline (two weeks) in which to respond to the county, town maintenance supervisor Tom McDonough said he recommended the town not join the county.
“The money we’d spend could be better spent elsewhere,” McDonough said.
“Are we talking about a significant price increase if we do this on our own at a later time?” asked Fornstrom.
Larson reported the town would save $30,000 to $40,000 by joining the county’s existing project.
“I just can’t see us spending nearly half our street budget for the next four years for this one project,” Shain said.
Following his comments, Shain asked that a motion be brought before the council to vote on, no such motion was made and the issue died.
Larson said he would inform the county of the town’s intent not to join the project.
In other business, council approved the building permits for the Pine Bluffs Baptist Church parsonage at 412 Pine Street for a deck and patio, the Pine Bluffs Baptist Church at 418 Pine Street for a new church wing and to John Wise at 306 Walnut Street for a new deck awning.
Council also heard from members of the Mayor’s Youth Council who presented council with their new by-laws.
In the additions, the meeting schedule was changed for the Mayor’s Youth Council, meaning it will hold two meetings a month. The new by-laws also included additional attendance penalties and requirements and ethics standards.
In the report of department heads and committees, town treasurer Cate Cundall reported the quarterly meeting of area elected officials would take place June 17 at the Rock Ranch Grill.
With no new business to discuss, council moved to executive session to discuss real estate, law enforcement, and personnel issues. No actions were taken following the executive session.
The next regular session of the Pine Bluffs Town Council is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Monday, June 15 at town hall.