GREEN RIVER — The candidates for the Green River mayoral and city council races participated in a forum Wednesday night to discuss the most important issues facing the city in this election.

The forum was hosted by the Green River Chamber of Commerce at the Western Wyoming Community College Green River campus.

Jon Fernandez and Ronald Williams, both running for the City Council Ward 1 seat, and Incumbent Gary Killpack and Robert Ross, both running for Ward 3, participated in the city council forum. Incumbent Mike Shutran, Ward 2, who is running unopposed, gave a statement at the start of the forum before the other candidates began their portion of the evening.

Incumbent Pete Rust is running against Mark Peterson in the mayoral race.

Green River City Council

The candidates discussed what they believe to be the biggest issues in Green River including repairing streets and infrastructure, the proposed Special Purpose Tax, and attracting more businesses.

Streets and Special Purpose Tax

All the candidates agreed repairing the streets is one of their biggest priorities. However, while some believed the special purpose tax is a good way to pay for streets, others believed the city shouldn’t be relying on those funds to get these types of projects done.

Williams said the city should try to use its employees more often for infrastructure, streets, and sidewalk projects. He also proposed an option where the city and residents pay for sidewalk repairs 50/50.

“Infrastructure in Green River is in pretty poor shape right now,” Williams said.

However, he said Green River needs to not rely on the one percent tax to “bail us out” all the time.

Killpack noted that while in 2021 the city had an average monthly sales tax revenue of $784,000, it’s currently operating on an average monthly sales tax revenue of $489,000. This means there is less money coming into the city for the council to dedicate to projects like streets. He said that the city cannot fix roads on that budget without firing half the police force, parks department, and other city staff.

“We just can’t do it on existing dollars,” Killpack said. “To improve the streets is a real challenge.”

Ross said he believes the city should be dedicating more of its budget to the streets department to help fix the roads.

“The roads didn’t get bad this year,” Ross said. “They got bad over a series of years.”

The candidates were split on their support for for the specific use tax. Williams said that “it’s a good thing, bad timing.” He said the current $80 million proposed list of projects needs to be pared down before the county and cities ask for residents to pay extra taxes.

Fernandez, on the other hand, said that he understands that extra taxes are tough in times of inflation but he supports it for getting roads fixed. When he looks at it in terms of what’s best for the city and residents, he believes the tax is worth it.

Killpack pointed out that Green River has 55 miles of roads. He said according to a city engineer, if the city dedicated $3 million every year to repair the streets it would still take 36 years to get them all done. He also said that it’s not his position to support or not support the tax.

“What matters most is how the citizens vote,” he said.

Ross said he struggles with asking the residents to pay more taxes even though he wants the roads fixed.

“If I have overspent my budget I don’t go and ask my employer for more money,” Ross said.

Attracting Business and Tourism

All the candidates said their other priorities are to attract more business to Green River as well as enhancing tourism. Ross said he would like to see more opportunities for shopping, going out to eat, and more things for kids to enjoy. He said the city has “very limited options”.

Fernandez said he would like to bring in another grocery store, and more specifically a Whole Foods. He believes this would attract Rock Springs residents to shop in Green River too.

Killpack agreed he would like to bring more businesses into Green River but it’s more complicated than that. He said that most businesses won’t open a store or restaurant in a town unless there is a higher population of people.

“We need more population so busineses are willing to get in their pockets and spend money to open a store in town,” Killpack said.

Each of the candidates highlighted how important tourism is to Green River as it brings in more sales tax revenue. Williams pointed out that places in Utah always have events that attracts different tourism, and he believes Green River could capitalize on its vast history to bring in more tourism.

Killpack explained that Green River gets 21 cents of every sales tax dollar, and the rest is split amongst the rest of the county. Therefore he said events are a great way to boost revenue and tourism. He suggested adding an events planner to the city staff. However, he said that to get a good one it would cost over $50,000 which is too much for the city at this point in time.

He also added that Green River is the trona capital of the world and that the city should promote this more to attract tourism.

Green River Mayor

Both current mayor Pete Rust and Mark Peterson agreed that the biggest issues in Green River are the lack of state funding and housing shortages.

State Funding

Peterson said that one of the main reasons he is running for office is because the state pulled funding from cities and counties and he believes the city should have been petitioning that. He said that the city should be going to get that money rather than taxing its residents with a special purpose tax. 

“Why should I tax residents when the state has money?” he asked.

However, he said that the decision for the tax is up to the voters. He did note that the city needs to be specific where they’re spending it.

Rust also said the decision is up to the voters and supports the voters expressing themselves. He also added that the city needs to educate constituents on the budget. Rust said the city is operating on 2002 level revenue because of cutbacks in the oil and gas industry.

“That’s not a fault of the city,” Rust said.

Peterson said there was a sewer fund when he served on the Green River City Council, and he questioned why the city would need more money to pay for a new wastewater treatment plant. However, Rust used this as an example of the issues the city is facing in terms of inflation and increased costs of supplies.

Rust said that the waste water treatment plant project went from being a $25 million project to a $50 million project because of supply and demand.

Rust also said the number one problem in Green River isn’t infrastructure but that the state is hoarding money. He said Governor Mark Gordon has said that they are using the interest on that money to run the city governments. However, Rust said that 70 percent of people in Wyoming live in the towns and cities and they need that money now. 

“We need to get all the mayors in the Wyoming Association of Municipalities regionally and approach the state legislature,” Rust said about securing state funding.

Peterson claimed former Governor Matt Mead walked him through how to get money from the state. But he will not reveal Mead’s tips until he is elected mayor. 

Housing Shortage

Green River’s percentage of funds received from the state has decreased in recent years due to its smaller population in comparison to Rock Springs in recent census. Some believe this is due to a housing shortage, and the candidates were asked if they would support selling one of the 27 parks or attractable municipal lands in the city to use for housing development.

Both candidates said they would not, but they do believe housing is a major issue in the city. 

Peterson said that the mines are “begging” for housing. He wants to terrace one of the hills in town to develop hillside housing. 

“The city council back in the 50s or something got in a tiff with the people who own Husky Hill. I want to put a community in there. I want to put 400 homes and terrace that hill where everyone has a view,” Peterson said. “The other thing that I want to put in there is an 8-10 story retirement community. What do old people do? They sit around and look out the window, so I’m going to give them a view of the city.”

He said a retirement community would pull seniors out of their homes and open those up for families while giving the seniors a community of people to be around and take care of each other.

Rust said that Green River has other areas to develop without having to sell any of their parks.  

“We have three subdivisions that have been approved within the last couple weeks that are going to add 40 residential units in Green River. That’s a big deal for what we normally have, and that’s a good beginning,” Rust said.

He also said that many of the corporations with local facilities such as Exxon, Genesis, Sisecam, Kel-Tec, Williams, and carbon capture projects have billions of dollars of upcoming economic activity that’s going to greatly help out the city’s economic situation. 

He also said the FMC area has water, sewer, and roads, and that it’s going to develop soon. He said Rock Springs mayoral candidate Matt Jackman’s family owns that land and that Jackman has indicated that the lots are going to be around $80,000 per lot. Rust added that city employees have said that there is a subdivision in Green River where lots are $110,000. 

“It costs a lot of money to develop on hillsides in this area, and I believe that [FMC] subdivision is going to go,” Rust said.