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At RECDA at the Holiday Inn this morning the presenters were Mr. Andy Strike and Mr. Uriel Shelby with HDR engineering. They were with the 1% political action committee (PAC) in support of the roads tax that will be coming up for reapproval. It brought back a flood of memories that I would like to share with you.
In 2011, I was elected as Mayor. We had a very competent city administrator, Mr. Carter Napiery. Unbeknownst to me Carter was planning to leave the city and so when I took office, my first duty was to find his replacement. Through the help of a “search” group we found a wonderful replacement in Mr. John Darrington. A very experienced administrator that was a “gift from God” in my eyes.
After a County Commissioners meeting where members of FCAG had been trying to get PILT (payment in lieu of taxes) monies from the Commissioners, with marginal success as I recall. We (Mr. Darrington, Mr. Bill Urbigkit, public works director and I) were returning to Riverton. In the conversation John said that the only thing that all of the mayors in that meeting had in common was the need to fix their roads and the infrastructure under them. He suggested the idea of a local option tax that he felt was doable in this county. That was the genesis of our 1% tax as we know it today. As I had miles of bad roads all over Riverton that needed work and no budget to come close to helping with them, this idea was very welcome.
A “local option tax” had never been passed before. Capital facilities taxes had passed but not a local option. Through our efforts we got help from Mayor Mick Wolfe of Lander as well as Mr. Kyle Lehto and Mr. Dave Meyer of HDR. There are too many citizens to list but Stephen Weaver was special. When John Darrington left Stephen took over those reins as city administrator. He and I went all over the City and spoke to any group that was willing to listen. Stephen and I gave our vow that those monies would not be abused and we have done pretty good and I strongly support this tax in the future. This tax has brought in $19,388,946.51 that has been used in Riverton alone. The county total is more than $50,000,000 million.
One glitch that came up after the tax was passed, is the fact that in the county there are many miles of roads that are county roads that have not been accepted as “county-maintained roads.” There are many taxpayers that live along those roads that do not even have a seat at the table when it comes to distribution of the 1% monies. This is not fair or right. The commissioners have taken the position that they cannot spend county monies on roads that have not been “accepted for maintenance.” Let’s fix this problem!
Ron Warpness
Riverton