Reply to: "An open letter to Sheridan County Commissioners" Sheridan Press Sept. 4th, 2025
I agree with Kathy Baker, of Ranchester, that our representatives' voting records should be readily available to the public. The County Commissioners and Sheridan Mayor & Council should put their voting record on their websites. This should be true for the Towns of Clearmont, Dayton, and Ranchester and Sheridan College, School Districts 1,2, & 3, and all of Sheridan County's Fire Districts which are voting bodies with agendas. Their websites should have the date of the meeting, the agenda item, the motion taken, the name of the person voting, and their vote.
Government websites would be a way for Commissioners, Mayors, Councilors, and appointees, to inform, the public, before decisions are made, rather than after the decisions are made.
Ms Baker's criticism of Commissioners Arzy and Jennings was, they did not support, a grant application of over $700,000 dollars, to demolish the Holly Sugar building on 5th street. At this location, School District #2 is initiating an Event Center, estimated, final cost, over $21 Million. Government grants and loans are taxpayer funded. Taxpayer debt keeps increasing. This is not balanced spending based on tax collected revenue. Commissioners Arzy and Jennings voted, as fiscal conservatives; they voted no on this grant application.
Ms Baker said, “Grant applications are always a good idea. There is no downside to submitting this grant application …”. An argument, which must be acknowledged, the debt hemorrhage must end. We need to prioritize paying off our debt, and balance our spending to tax collected revenue. The danger of government grants and loans are they obfuscate the cost to the taxpayer.
Returning to Ms Baker's letter, she praised Commissioners Haswell, Siddle and Wright for voting, yes, on the grant application. What are the implications of Ms Baker's comment, on lack of public dialog? These same Commissioners voted, yes, on the $3.2M, Brooks Street Greenspace. Where was the public dialog for the Brooks Street Greenspace?
Our young people are important. Ensuring a stable and debt free future must be the priority. The only thing preventing bankruptcy in Wyoming; are informed Wyoming voters.