Moorcroft council sets priorities

The repair of the northwest entrance from Crook Street into CDS Services was a question Moorcroft's council discussed at last week's meeting, leading the council to decide it's time to set their project priorities.

The approximately 140-foot gutter is severely compromised, according to Mayor Ben Glenn, who had been informed by Public Works Director Cory Allison of complaints from the business owners.

Glenn opined, "I feel it is going to start having negative effects on the street if we let it go too long. That is a brand new street and I do not want to lose the edging on that street."

The mayor noted that the damaged gutter "catches about 70% of the water in the town". He stated that the only reason he is considering moving forward with replacing the old work is that "it carries a lot of water for the town."

He added that the cost of this would be "a substantial amount of money."

With the budget for the 2023/2024 fiscal year not prepared for this expense, the governing body considered the issue.

Councilman Rob Stewart suggested approaching the business to suggest, "maybe go in and help us fix that since they're the ones complaining?" At this point, though, there is some question as to who actually owns the ingress – the town or CDS – according to Councilman Austin Smith.

This is a salient question, according to Allison. After examining the situation, the director suggested the substandard work was possibly not the work of the town at the time.

"I believe somebody had cut that out before...probably in the '80s, they cemented it and it wasn't up to our standards," he said. However, he admitted this to be only a guess.

Councilman Dale Petersen asked for an idea of the least expensive option if the ruling body decides to spend money to fix this site at this time, a valley pan similar to those at intersections throughout Moorcroft or curb and gutter. The mayor said that the cost would probably be the same.

Petersen candidly shared his concern: "I'm not convinced that it's something we need to tackle right now. I don't have the information on what our other priorities are with our resources."

"That's a fair point," Glenn admitted, "I think we could direct Cory to give us a priority list and we can look at that list and judge for ourselves."

Allison agreed, "This was not on my high priority list until we got somebody complaining on it."

The mayor then did just that, asking the director for a list of priorities, "As far as projects in town, include everything...We need to have an overall picture for the year". The list will not include large grant-funded project, "only the local ones".