After receiving criticism from the Sweetwater County commissioners regarding the city’s project list, Green River representatives submitted a prioritized list to the county last week.
The list is heavy on infrastructure projects, focusing on several road packages and totals $32.4 million. The top priority for the city is its first roads package, listed at a cost of $15.9 million. The package would fund full rebuilds, including water and sewer replacement, on both sides of Riverview Drive, Bridger Drive, Faith Drive, Wilkes Drive, Evans Street, Indian Hills Drive, Stage Place, and Mountain View Drive.
The second road package is valued at $4 million and focuses on overlay work and repairs to Upland Way, Shoshone Avenue, Astle Avenue, Colorado Drive and others. A third streets package, also valued at $4 million would fund rebuilds on smaller residential streets like Easy Street and Reynolds Street.
The fourth priority project is valued at $7.5 million and would be spent on the wastewater treatment facility the intends to build. While the city received conditional support for a State Lands and Investments Board loan for the facility’s construction, the money would help pay off the loan sooner than anticipated.
The fifth project is listed as river corridor asset protection. Valued at $1 million, the money would be spend on the Trona Bridge, Killdeer Wetlands, FMC Park and areas around Centennial Park. A sixth project, not listed as a priority project, is the $6.7 million facility update to the Green River Recreation Center.
City Administrator Reed Clevenger said the city focused on prioritizing $20 million of projects based off its most current pavement condition index model. He said the top two projects match the $40 million Rock Springs is asking for the same type of work.
“We then added a few more priorities that we do not expect to get this time, due to the requested amount, but wanted them on the list,” Clevenger wrote in an email to the Star.
Other proposed uses for the tax were deleted from the list.
Clevenger said those uses were reviewed internally to fins a way to meet them.
With the recreation center, Clevenger said they moved it to a non-priority item and request less than was initially sought. The city prioritized needs within the center and the new $6.7 million request would fund an update tot he aquatic center and remodel the fitness areas and offices.
“We feel the commissioners are looking at an infrastructure initiative, a hospital/medical initiative, and then a quality of life initiative,” Clevenger wrote. “Aligning with Rock Springs in this manner may get this accepted to be on as a ballot initiative.”
Clevenger said to help explain why the recreation center request isn’t a vocal minority seeking a quality of life improvement, the city submitted comments from its recent Parks and Recreation Master Plan to illustrate why the center is a priority in the plan.
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