Ten Sleep mayor confident in two-term achievements

TEN SLEEP — The Town of Ten Sleep Town Council met for their regular monthly meeting on Jan. 7 to hear department reports and afterward, Mayor Jack Haggerty discussed his tenure, and reported that he will retire from the position this year, not running for re-election.

“I’m pretty much done,” said Haggerty. “I’ve been on the council since 2003, and served a term and a half as mayor, and accomplished quite a lot in that time, but it’s time to hand it over to a new mayor.”

During Haggerty’s time as mayor, the town has faced the destruction and reconstruction of the town’s fire hall, negotiations

regarding the town’s water usage, the implementation of a volunteer recycling program, organizing events for residents and visitors, a lengthy project to replace sewage and drainage infrastructure, paving surface streets, and most recently, repairing the town’s sewage lagoon.

Since Feb. 13 of last year, the lagoon has been emptied and sewage transferred to the county lagoon between Worland and Ten Sleep, while a contractor worked to remove sediment and repair a leak, which damaged the lagoon’s original bentonite liner.

The leak was discovered in 2018, and town engineer Lidstone and Associates recommended replacement rather than repair to the facility.

Upon completion of the removal of the debris in the lagoon and the old liner, the lagoon was resurfaced with a plastic liner before reuse. Eventually, according to Mayor Haggerty, the town would like to implement a Green Energy Plan to transition the lagoon to some solar power, to offset costs and ultimately save money.

“Our infrastructure is actually in good shape now, “ remarked Haggerty. “We also have to think of growth, because I do believe Ten Sleep will grow. We’re already seeing more and more people moving into the area, so we need to be ready for that.”

Haggerty welcomes the revenue that growth would bring to the town, but realizes that budget worries will always be forefront.

“Funding is really the biggest concern, from the mayor’s perspective. The direct distributions from the state a re getting smaller [due to budget restraints] and the town really only makes around $30,000 from property taxes, so it’s not much,” noted Haggerty. “The one-cent sales tax funding helps a lot and is beneficial to the community, but you can’t rely on that for everything.”

With most major projects completing this spring, Haggerty sees no major hurdles for the new mayor, after election. “We are in good shape, and 2020 looks pretty good.”

Also up for re-election this year are council members Charles Holmes and Amy Truman.

At press time, no one has filed for the open seats.