Cheyenne Council OKs Purchase of Carey Building for New Court
After months of discussion, the Cheyenne City Council has decided to move forward with buying the Carey Building site at 308 W. 17th Street to make way for the new municipal court.
The council actually rejected the purchase back in February, but did an about-face two weeks later, deciding to spend $275,000 on the building provided a feasibility study showed the project could be done for $9 million, the amount approved by voters on last May's sixth-penny ballot.
On Monday night, the council passed two consent agenda items -- a resolution acknowledging receipt of the study and authorizing the city attorney to complete the purchase of the property and a $697,500 agreement with Noel Griffith Jr., & Associates Architects for analytical and design engineering for the construction of the new court.
Resident Joe Dougherty called the council out at the end of the meeting, saying he had emailed Mayor Marian Orr and Councilman Bryan Cook about the items and expected them to be removed from the consent agenda for discussion.
"I personally feel that is inappropriate and represents this body in a poor matter," said Dougherty.
"You specifically requested to pull it off consent," asked Councilman Dicky Shanor.
"I did not make that specific request," said Dougherty. "I just didn't think in my own mind that you would actually move forward with $9 million worth of action on two agenda items without taking it off the consent agenda."
"A specific request wasn't made," said Cook. "Quite frankly, the way I look at this is ample opportunity for public comment has been had over the last several months on this specific issue."
Councilmen Richard Johnson and Pete Laybourn were absent from Monday night's meeting.