Wednesday JULY 30, 2025 |
Photo – Rawlins City Hall – Bigfoot99 file photo
A former Rawlins City Council candidate says the governing body isn’t doing enough to fix the city’s water problems.
During the public comment portion of the July 15th Rawlins City Council meeting, Patrick Gonzales, who unsuccessfully ran for a Council seat in the 2024 election, said residents have taken to social media to vent their frustration over the city’s persistent water and sewer infrastructure issues.
Gonzales said he was compelled to address the City Council after learning about the 2025 Wyoming Funding Summit. Held from April 14th to 17th at Central Wyoming College in Riverton. Gonzales said the meeting addressed funding opportunities, specifically for water and sewer projects.
The 2025 Wyoming Funding Summit was hosted by Governor Mark Gordon and Senators John Barrasso and Cynthia Lummis. The four-day event focused on grant writing and discussions on infrastructure, housing, health, agriculture, energy, and emergency management.
Back at the July 15th Rawlins City Council meeting, Gonzales said no city officials attended the funding summit.
Gonzales added that the city is missing three important administrative positions: a finance director, a human resources director, and a grants administrator. Until those three roles are filled, Gonzales said City Manager Tom Sarvey is unable to effectively perform his job.
Next, Gonzales recommended using money from the general budget to support the water and sewer enterprise accounts. The funding can help cover expensive infrastructure projects, such as replacing the sewer lines on La Paloma Drive, which often backs up into residents’ basements.
The La Paloma Drive sewer line replacement project is estimated to cost approximately $3 million.
Water and sewer services are run as enterprise accounts, which by law must generate enough revenue to sustain themselves without additional financial support from the municipality. While state statutes allow municipalities to use funding from the general budget to supplement those enterprise accounts, that money must be treated like a loan and paid back in its entirety. The City Council has discussed the idea in the past. However, since water and sewer bills are already considered high by many residents, raising them further to repay the loan is not a plan the Council supports.
Gonzales said residents’ frustration with the water and sewer issues will continue to grow until the problems are fixed. The former City Council candidate urged the governing body to prioritize finding a finance director, a human resources director, and a grants administrator to support City Manager Sarvey’s efforts to secure grant funding.
Gonzales said he anticipates additional water main breaks occurring in the future. Until the city finds the money to fix its outdated infrastructure, the problem will continue to get worse.
Per city ordinance, the governing body is unable to directly address a citizen during the public comment period. Later in the July 15th meeting, Public Works Director Cody Dill said he was unaware of the Wyoming Funding Summit Gonzales mentioned and would have attended the meeting had he known about the opportunity.
