Laramie will celebrate its first ever “Disability Awareness Month” this March.
Tuesday, Laramie Mayor Andi Summerville announced the new awareness month to the City Council.
“Thousands in Wyoming face challenges with disability daily,” Summervile said. “The month of March has been designated as Disability Awareness Month to celebrate and recognize disabled individuals and promote awareness.”
After the announcement, Summerville thanked Nicholas Wiseman and John Pollen, two members of the Laramie Disabilities Commission present at the meeting, for their service.
“Thank you very much for everything that you guys do with the Disabilities Commission,” Summerville said.
The Disabilities commission will be on the agenda in future City Council meetings.
The council is also slated to review a ground lease agreement between the city and Air Resource Specialists, of Fort Collins, Colorado, for the temporary placement of an air quality monitoring station near the intersection of Ninth and Russell in Laramie.
“The (Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality) is doing some statewide monitoring to make sure the residents have safe, clean air,” Laramie Department of Parks and Recreation Director Todd Feezer said. “They’re monitoring the air for particulates and temperature.”
The monitoring could include testing the air for concentrations of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, methane and ozone. The site was chosen due to its proximity to residential areas and the available electric source for the unit.
“The intent for the ground lease is to provide $150 per month for 14 months to the city of Laramie for this operation,” Freezer said. “It is planned to be temporary.”
Currently, the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality is broadcasting data collected at 21 monitoring stations across the state.
“Anytime you can get data on air quality in a community it’s a good thing,” Summerville said.
Council member Klaus Hanson asked why the city needs these air quality control measures.
“Has anyone in the city complained about air quality?” Hanson said.
Wyoming Air Quality Control Project Manager Daniel Shrome told the council the projects are being put in place to fill data gaps.
“There were no complaints of air quality in this area,” he said. “The city of Laramie had no historic pollution data, this is really just to fill a data gap.”
The proposition was passed unanimously.
In the future The council is slated to review an agreement with the Wyoming Department of Transportation regarding a reconnaissance study of the Bill Nye Avenue corridor and connecting it with existing streets.
“It’s a study about the impacts of connecting Bill Nye [Avenue] into South Third [street],” Summerville said.
Also in future work sessions, the council will review the possibility of adding parking meters downtown in order to combat issues with parking.
“That way, we would not only punish overdue parking but we would also collect some money,” Hanson said. “It is very cost efficient and it does make money and money is in tight supply for the city anyway.”
