Budget concerns face mayor in second term

WORLAND — While 2020 had several challenges, 2021 looks to just have one major challenge for the City of Worland — funding.

Mayor Jim Gill began his second term as mayor on Jan. 1, officially taking the oath a second time on Jan. 5.

“It’s going to be challenging. We are into tougher times,” Gill said. He added that the city’s biggest challenge is that it will be facing the likelihood of receiving less revenue from the state of Wyoming, specifically direct distribution funding. Direct distribution was set up about 13 years ago when the State Legislature removed the sales tax from food, thus decreasing revenue to cities, towns and counties.

“Now the state is up against it and we’ve been notified that direct distribution will be cut. We don’t know by how much,” Gill said.

He said the budget losses are no different than other local government agencies will be facing including the school districts and the county.

“We’ve tightened our belts and we’ll tighten some more,” Gill said. The city, through attrition, has downsized the workforce at the airport and in the parks department.

“There is only so much we can do until it starts impacting city operations,” Gill said.

“As mayor and council the last thing we want to have to do is cut staff; they have been loyal. They are good people who take care and work hard for the city of Worland,” Gill said. “But I’ve been telling people, you’ll see an impact (with the budget).”

He said Worland is unique in that it has a municipally-owned cemetery, municipally-owned airport and municipally-owned golf course. Regarding the cemetery, Gill said, many cities fund cemeteries through special tax districts.

“Our only revenue source is the internment fee,” Gill said, noting the city uses other revenue sources to supplement the cemetery. He added that the cemetery has ongoing costs year round.

He said some residents have suggested shutting down the airport since there is no longer a commercial air service, however, Gill said the municipal airport is still a valuable asset with many businesses using the airport and Guardian Flight stationed at the airport for air medical evacuations.

The city golf course, he said, is “important to a viable community. I’m excited about what we have going with new golf course management team. They are working hard to reduce costs.”

Regarding the revenue loss, Gill added, “We’ll get through it. I have faith the people of Worland will help us get through.”

Regarding what else might be in store for the city and what the mayor and council will work on this year, Gill said, “Revenue is going to dictate everything.”

He noted that the county considering a contract with Cody Regional Health for a paid ambulance service “couldn’t have come at a worst time” if they need funding from the city due to declining rervenues.

He did note that the council will continue to work hard to address unkept properties and keeping municipal court going through the pandemic.

The city has a lot of green space and parks and continuing with improvements in the parks may have to wait. Gill said the partnerships, with Rotary, American Legion and Kiwanis, the city has had for park improvements have proven invaluable.

This year there are four new council members who have been sworn in — Adam Martinez, Scott Schaeffer, Wendy Fredricks and William Worley. The council still has one vacancy in Ward 1, which is expected to be filled at the Jan. 19 meeting.

The new members took a tour of the city shop area and sewer lagoon to learn about the operations, Gill said.

A LOOK BACK

In addition to taking time to look forward through 2021, Gill took a moment to reflect back on 2020.

“It’s been an interesting year. It started with an extended winter with the ice and snow carrying into March. We don’t have the budget to remove all the snow and ice on every street. Worland never had and I predict it won’t ever have it,” Gill said.

Finally warmer days came and the city begins dealing with extensive breaks in their main water line that crosses the Nowood River. He said there were three major breaks where residents would have been without water had it not been the redundancy set up with Big Horn Regional Water System.

The city has faith in the integrity of the line, but Gill said the shale in the area and way the earth can move the shale causes problems on the line.

During the issues with the water line breaks the COVID-19 pandemic was just beginning in the United States and that created “a huge challenge for everyone.”

Gill said, “I’m proud of our employees and our department heads. We’ve certainly been affected.” He said three employees did contract COVID-19 last year.

“We have just under 50 employees, give our department heads and employees a lot of credit in taking care of business and dealing with challenges, following procedures of social distancing and masks,” Gill said.

He said the city has been able to obtain CARES Act funding to assist with pandemic expenses and he said they have worked hard to be a good partner on the COVID task force.

One of the biggest projects in 2020, was working on the outer area utility agreements. “It wasn’t fun but it needed to be done. Some of the agreements were 40 years old. For the citizens of Worland, it was fair to establish a reserve account to prepare for the day when we will need to replace those lines. It will ensure good water source [and sewer in some cases] in the future.”

He said the city is currently working with the Boys School on their sewer line agreement.

Along with challenges, 2020 did bring some positives, the biggest of which was continued street improvement.

“It takes the will and vote of the people. We work hard to show the money is being spent the way it is supposed to,” Gill said including projects to replacing curbs, gutters and sidewalks as well as the Culbertson Street project.

“All three wards have seen street improvement projects [over the past few years],” Gill said.

Looking into the future, Gill said he hopes during this term in office that the city can move forward with the reconstruction project planned for Washakie Avenue.