Riverton Economic and Community Development Association
May 26,2011Meeting Minutes
Present:Lew Diehl, Jim Davis,Alan Moore, Teri Moore,Burl Gies,Sandy Dean,Scott Ratliff,Meygan Cassity, Ron Warpness, Linda Burnette, Garry Burnette, Phil Christopherson Jim Davis and Erin Shirley.
Alan started the meeting with introductions around the room. Meygan Cassity with CWC made an announcement regarding the upcoming Governor’s Summit and offered brochures to the group. She told the group about the event that will be hosted at Central Wyoming College. There are a great group of speakers and breakout session for the event and she urged all to attend. Burl also added that since it is here in Riverton this year it would be nice to have a good turn out and also urged people to attend and/or have a booth at the event to showcase their business.
Alan then turned the floor over to Erin Shirley, Director of the local Habitat for Humanity group as well as the local ReStore on Main Street in Riverton. Erin stated that the group has recently obtained four City lots in the area of the old hospital site. She is in the process of figuring out funding for the newly acquired home sites and will be researching and applying for grants as part of that process. She said they will need about $500,000 to do the four houses on that property. She stated that the Federal Home Loan program has grants for this type of endeavor and she will be figuring out which grants to apply for. The Board of Directors for the local group is required to have at least half of the needed funds for a home in the bank before starting a home build project. She said that she also works with the High School, BOCES, CWC Trades Program and others to find volunteer assistance for her projects. She noted that she also hopes to work with the new Job Corps program when they are in place. Low income housing and Education are making more funds available and that may be helpful for Habitat as well. Although they have looked at building Duplex’s in the smaller towns in the area, the hospital property houses will be single family housing units. Alan asked how many houses they have done in the area. Erin said that they completed the 14th unit in December. Erin said that for people to qualify for a Habitat house, they must have exhausted all other possibilities and have been turned down by every other possible loan available. Linda asked if they have had to foreclose on any of their home loans? Erin said that they have not. She state that there is one house south of town that they built that they have tried to do that on, but have not been able to do so due to local regulations in that area. Ron asked if they have had issues with a limit to only single family units in the old hospital area. She said no, that there was discussion regarding A VS B designations but that they try hard to keep good relations with the City and that there hadn’t been problems. Scotty urged Erin to look at some of the single family housing units being built on the Reservation that were fairly small but functional. Erin said that volunteers are always needed and the volunteers commit to 6-9 months of service. She said the last house in Lander was expensive as a lot there cost them $35,000. She stated that they also have three lots (two building sites) in Shoshoni. She noted that they sent out 75 inquiry packets to potential home owners that might qualify in the area and due to address changes, 72 of them came back. She said the process is to pick a family, build the house and then finance the mortgage for them for up to 30 years.
Phil told the group that even with the new Stage/Beall’s Store coming soon to the old Alco building IDEA, Inc. still has about 15,000 square feet of space available there for more businesses. The new store may open by the end of September. There was discussion about the need for a new County facility for things like the Court and other county offices. The Fremont County Fair grounds are looking for property to move to. Discussion about the moving of these facilities and what could be done for a new complex as well as what could be at the old location were brief topics. Meeting adjourned.