MTC grant no longer a certainty

A grant established by the Wyoming Business Council through the Community Facilities Rehabilitation Grant Program was touted by those with whom town officials and staff worked on it as a sure thing for the Moorcroft Town Center (MTC).

Moorcroft Mayor Ben Glenn later said, “Everybody we talked to said it was easy, it was perfect, this is what the grant’s for, you guys are in great shape.”

The assurances convinced the council and HDR Engineering’s Heath Turbiville to meet in October of last year to discuss, in detail, what would be done with the funds when the grant was approved.

However, for no expressed reason at the time, the grant was pulled.

“It went back to the legislature and they…put new rules to it,” the mayor explained.

The legislature has added two more restrictions to the funding, one of which is that the building must be listed as a historical asset.

The council had discussed this option at one time as the MTC can be registered in this category, but there is a catch.

“You can never tear any of it down… the rules all change,” Glenn explained. “So we chose not to go the historical route.”

The grant will be offered again, but with these further restrictions making Moorcroft’s town center no longer a home run. Glenn expressed his frustration: “It’s frustrating for us because it was a home run, then, all of a sudden, it was pulled… Cheryl and I did so much work on this and all of a sudden, here it is.”