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About the City by Councilman Leroy Kingery A project affecting all of us that drive on Richards Street is the WYDOT (Wyoming Dept. of Transportation) Richards Street project. WYDOT is going to do an overlay to Richards Street and prior to doing so, the City is upgrading our water and sewer infrastructure along that route. The City does this now so we hopefully will not need to damage the new surface by repairing broken sewer and water lines along that route. This is a project involving the City and the WYDOT in a cooperative agreement. An important aspect is the bedding material used for bedding new water and sewer pipes to prevent damage by rocks and other debris coming in contact with pipes during backfilling, compacting or later during settling. This same, or similar, material will be used as road fill material just before the resurfacing procedure. A subcontractor is supplying this material and it is being hauled from many miles away. To make it more economical for all of us, it is being stockpiled at the new City yard on Richards Street. This means people in the near vicinity of the City yard are experiencing increased traffic during delivery and then again as they utilize the stockpiled material as needed for the project. One of the annoying aspects is the "back-up alarms" on the loaders as they work in the yard and in the project areas. Safety prevents all of us from avoiding these annoying alarms. In addition to the equipment working on the project and in the City yard, there is normal traffic being diverted into neighborhoods of the area, again increasing noise, dust and inconvenience. Ask the business owners! It is quite inconvenient for them because it makes it difficult for customers to get to the businesses. Project managers from WYDOT and the City officials are trying to keep all of this inconvenience to a minimum and if you have been driving in the area you have probably noticed that the "detour" areas have gradually moved from the eastern end toward the western end of the project. Unfortunately, there will continue to be disruption and inconvenience while this project continues. The bright side of all this, is that we will eventually get a smoother street and the "man holes" (say vehicle holes) may not "jar your teeth" every time you forget to avoid them. I'm not sure I will know how to drive down Richards street without swerving to the right or left, or being severely jolted when I forget to swerve right or left! If I have been correctly informed, the company doing this new project is the same company that has been doing the project going on for most of my memory span, out on the far reaches of Richards Street near the new WYDOT location. If this is true, I may never live long enough to quit dodging Richards Street man holes! I hope I am wrong about the duration of this new project. I still have hopes the project out near the new WYDOT will actually be completed some day soon:)