SWEETWATER COUNTY — Doing less with less is just something Sweetwater County and city organizations have had to deal with over the past few years. As these organizations and agencies manage how to best use the funds they have, it has made them take a hard look at their needs vs. their wants. 

RS City Engineering, Recreation

Other dependent departments adjust to hard times as best they can, however the Rock Springs City Engineering Department has been particularly hard hit. “Operations have been cut and cut significantly,” City Engineer Paul Kauchich said. “Even where operations have not been budget cut, inflation cost adjustments have not kept up with actual costs for fuel and maintenance such as street upkeep. We want to provide services, but we can’t at the same level.”

Large capital projects have been put on hold. Some projects are looking for funding from state and federal grants rather than from city money. Storm water control, detention ponds such as the Killpecker detention pond for controlled discharge rate to augment flood control, water/sewer line replacement projects, the solid paneling project at the wastewater treatment plant, may all be looking for grant money. However, even if successful, grants require city matching funds. 

Some of the more vital projects are going ahead as funds are made available. The $5 million Bitter Creek stabilization project behind the Plaza Mall has seen completion of the Phase 1 portion of the endeavor, partially funded by AML grant money. The Bitter Creek project will provide increased capacity to protect adjacent properties. However, the remaining three segments of the Bitter Creek project are still awaiting funding.

Funding is not the only problem that the Engineering Department has, however, as it seeks to keep needed projects going forward. COVID has had a serious impact. “Problems with getting raw materials started with COVID,” Kauchich said. “Plants that produce raw materials were shutting down during the pandemic and when they’re starting up again, they are faced with a lot of back orders, and not all of their former employees return to work.”

Problems with getting raw materials for engineering projects can delay city work for weeks or months. It can take up to a year just to get pipes, Kauchich explained. 

The Family Recreation Center (FRC) has had to come to grips with having less money, 10 percent less than two years ago, by not only reducing hours but by looking around for used parts, particularly for the ice rink.

“We’re an old building that needs help,” FRC Superintendent Robyn Rasmussen said. 

Rock Springs Recreation Director Dave Lansang echoed Rasmussen’s sentiments and added to them. “If we don’t have cooling equipment, we don’t have an ice arena,” Lansang said. The existing ice arena cooling equipment was installed in 1984 and became operational in 1986, Lansang explained. That equipment is now several years past its guaranteed lifespan. The FRC has gotten along, bandaid-like, by obtaining used parts from the Casper ice arena. Nonetheless, for the past 6-8 years, Lansang said, they have been “holding their breath” that the ice arena cooling equipment doesn’t give out before money becomes available to replace it.

Lansang and Rasmussen both said that they are hoping that a special use tax up for a November 8 vote can help the FRC, along with more money coming from sales tax revenues, which at least for May, were the highest since 2019, pre-COVID. 

Hours of operation at the Recreation Center have been impacted, to the point where the facility closes at the somewhat odd hour of 4 p.m on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. In an effort to pinch dollars, Rasmussen explained that the current hours of operation are based upon studies showing when the greatest facility use occurs and what the schedule should be that would cause the least disruption for the fewest number of facility users. The Recreation Center is open until 8 p.m Monday through Thursday. The mid-evening closure again reflects hours of greatest facility usage. Keeping the FRC open until, say, 9 p.m on weekdays, would only likely benefit literally one or two people who might get there late, Rasmussen said, and thus a later closure cannot be justified based upon cost considerations. 

The FRC Superintendent added that it is impractical, from a staff-available point of view, to open for a few hours in the morning, then close during the afternoon, and then re-open during the evening, which would result in split shifts for some employees.

Attrition plays a role in cost reduction at the Recreation Center, as it does everywhere else.  Part-time hours have been reduced and two full-time positions have not been filled. Staff numbers have been reduced to near the breaking point, especially if even one of the remaining FRC staff has to call in sick or goes away on vacation. 

“We’re one phone call away” from a staffing crisis, Lansang said. He added that his administrative assistant, who handles park reservations among other duties, has had to fill the gap at times when an employee in a different section can’t make it to work or goes on vacation. 

The Family Recreation Center is the first place that the city looks to reduce expenditures, Lansang explained, since departments such as police and fire understandably take priority. 

Lansang also talked about the golf course, and he mentioned that managers there have sometimes done mowing when no one else is available. 

Rock Springs Urban Renewal Agency

The agency tasked with promoting downtown Rock Springs has not escaped budget cuts and the need to adjust. “There’s not as many (new) murals” explained Chad Banks, Rock Springs URA/Main Street Director. The good news for the URA this past summer was that revenues from one of its big money-makers, the Blues & Brews Festival in Bunning Park, increased by 15 percent compared with 2021. The URA no longer manages the Rods & Rails event, now handled by the Boys & Girls Club. “Rod & Rails just got to be too much, on top of Blues & Brews,” Banks said. 

The Bottom Line

Whether it’s continuing to use a tractor that could break down yet again, having managers do lawn mowing, using if necessary a quarter-century-old fire truck that hasn’t been completely put out to pasture yet, or using cooling equipment for the ice arena that is nearly two generations old, different government levels and dependent component units have tried to provide the relative same level of service as in the past, with sometimes fewer people doing more work and non-routine work, band-aiding some facilities and services while awaiting hopefully sunnier economic times, or simply getting used to doing less with less, operations are continuing to the extent possible. The double whammy of COVID followed by the virtual shutdown of the oil and natural gas industries has impacted local budgets and challenged remaining personnel and managers to pick up a slack that is almost without precedent. 

As Rock Springs Mayor Tim Kaumo put it bluntly, “We do more with less and fewer people and older equipment. We’re in turbulent times, bust times.”

Editor’s note: The is the third article in a three-part series on the economic impacts Sweetwater County continues to face. Click here to read the Part 1 and here for Part 2.