SWEETWATER COUNTY — Doing less with less has been a way of life for different government units and dependent departments for the past few years. Managing how best to use the funds that are available has required financial skill and an ability to parse needs vs. wants. 

“We ask, ‘can we make an old tractor last another year?’” Rock Springs Mayor Tim Kaumo explained. “We hear back that the tractor has broken down twice, but we’ll make it last another year.”

Such is life in difficult financial times caused by a combination of COVID plus the lack of oil and gas revenues. Plus, it’s not just reduced revenues, it’s inflation that has impacted project costs. The cost for phase 2 of the First Security Bank Building project has doubled compared with the cost for Phase 1, Kaumo said. 

Some city staff have been given a 5 percent cost of living salary increase rather than a 9 percent COLA increase. Some older city vehicles have not been replaced, Kaumo said, with at least one city vehicle being 30 years old. And then, there is always the attrition solution, as employees who retire or quit are often simply not replaced. 

The good news for the city is that there is a slight uptick in sales and use tax revenues, up approximately $200,000 this year. Still, that may not go far, considering a $7.5 million budget cut last fiscal year, and a projected $10 million budget cut this fiscal year. Capital projects have had to be put on hold, such as water and sewer projects. The city is looking at grant requests to try to fill some of the gap, with varying degrees of success. 

Green River Woes

The state of financial affairs in Green River is no better. Sales tax revenues now are about the same as 17 or 18 years ago, according to City Manager Reed Clevenger. “We let attrition happen,” Clevenger said. “That’s common in government work.”

One of the results of that has been to cause some city staff to do double-duty that was not part of their original job description. “Our Finance Director heads up our Information Technology Department,” Clevenger said. “We’re looking at people with different skill sets, ‘cross matrix’, with less employees this year than last year.”

Clevenger added that the city is working with different service providers to see where dollars can be pinched. Re-doing street lights and ballfield lights represent prime examples. Working with Rocky Mountain Power to install LED lights at ballfields and elsewhere helped reduce the monthly electric bill from $1,800 to only $70, with better ballfield lighting on top of it. 

Work that might have been contracted out in past times is now being done by city staff. Clevenger described these as “bank aid projects to get by”. Recreation Center improvements are being done by city staff rather than by outside contractors, resulting in a project cost reduction from $300,000 down to $250,000.

Then again, contracting certain jobs out, such as weed control, has saved the city the cost of hiring another part-time staff person. 

The City of Green River has also saved money by lucking out with police recruiting lately, as some of the new officer hires have had experience working in other cities, thus resulting in training cost reductions. 

Moreover, Green River officials have been in contact with other Wyoming communities, such as Casper, to benefit from their knowledge capital on matters such as planning and zoning research. 

Green River is anticipating economic growth in upcoming years, as Exxon, Genesis Alkali and Sisecam all are either in the process of expanding, or else anticipate doing so. Business expansion doesn’t happen without a surrounding community that can provide services, in bad times or good. 

“The infrastructure needs to be in place,” Clevenger summed it up, with economic expansion in mind. 

In other words, whether financially convenient or inconvenient, city streets and services such as water and sewer, cannot simply be allowed to rot due to funding issues. 

“We’re holding our own,” Green River Mayor Pete Rust said. 

One suggestion which the mayor had was for greater cooperation among the different governmental units in Sweetwater County, such as equipment sharing where possible. “There’d be no duplication of equipment, and the city would save some money,” Rust said. 

Notwithstanding all of the above issues, some services have not only been maintained but have actually been enhanced within the past year, Rust added. The GR Recreation Center has been able to add more swimming lessons, for example, and pickleball opportunities are up.

County Commission

“We’ve had to be much more thoughtful in deciding budget priorities,” declared Jeff Smith, Sweetwater County Commission Chairman. 

That process just got a little easier. “We’re getting more money than expected this next fiscal year,” Smith said. “Valuation is at a record high.” The county commission chairman added that “current guesswork” is that an extra $3 million will be available to the county commission this next fiscal year. 

Still, some capital projects are on indefinite hold. “The Lagoon Road complex project has been put away for the foreseeable future,” Smith said.

County commissioners have been dealing with prioritization using the help of a “capital committee” composed of different government and organization officials, which has been listing proposed projects according to priorities ranging from top-level “We gotta get this done” down to “indefinite maybes” and “that would be nice to do someday”. 

Commissioner Roy Lloyd echoed several of Smith’s contentions. “Mineral valuations are up,” Lloyd said. He added, though, that the commissioners have created a new request form. “We need to know what agencies have the greatest impact on the community,” Lloyd said. 

In addition, Lloyd explained that commissioners are wanting component units to tell them what grants they have been requesting, what they are doing to be more efficient, and what they have been doing on their own to get funding, besides asking the commissioners for money. 

Lloyd added that the commissioners are working to get a strategic plan going for the future, since the county has been without one for at least the past decade. Discussions about important topics are always ongoing among the commissioners, but a strategic plan will give clear direction for future budgeting priorities.

Editor’s note: This is the first article in a three-part series on the economic impacts Sweetwater County continues to face.