KGWN –Cheyenne, WY– Scottsbluff, NE News,Weather, SportsRec Center Still Alive on 6th Penny

Rec Center Still Alive on 6th Penny

Things didn't look good for the recreation center earlier this week when City Council did not rank it high enough on its priority list to make the sixth-penny ballot.

Thursday night the City Council finalized their sixth-penny sales tax priority list. The rec center did not make the list of $57 million worth of city projects, but the council came up with another way they will attempt to get it on the ballot and let the people of Laramie County decide.

The council chambers was full for Thursday night's special meeting, many of them coming in support of the rec center.

Some say they need it to recruit young professionals to work in Cheyenne.

"What do I have to sell them? My selling point, Fort Collins isn't too far away. That's not the selling point I want to give them," said a Frontier Refinery representative.

Youths said they need a place to go and seniors argued many are already moving to Colorado because there aren't enough places where they can remain active.

"We need a rec center. Not for just the youth, to keep the grandparents in Cheyenne as well," said a rec center supporter.

Council unanimously agreed to add the $33 million rec center as a stand alone countywide project.

"Because we're asking for the rec center to be added as an extra project we'll pay for all of the other $105 million that passed first and then the rec center will get their money at the end of that," said Patrick Collins, City Council President.

The council agreed to leave the priority list exactly the same. That means the public safety building, downtown flood control, Botanic Gardens renovation and expansion, police radios, landfill equipment, municipal pool renovation and Christensen Road overpass would get fully funded if they pass and the remaining money would go toward the 17th street lighting project.

The greenway did not make the list, but efforts are being made to find another source of funding to keep it maintained.

"I meet with the mayor today though, we think we've found some funding that will keep the greenway going, keep the planning staff there and the money that we need for the maintenance of the greenway," Collins said.

The countywide committee will meet again this coming Tuesday. Cheyenne will make their proposal of a rec center as a countywide project at that meeting and the committee as a whole will continue working on the final ballot.