Buffalo Trails Board
Jun 23, 2008
Author: Bill Cooley

Minutes for May 9, 2008


A regular meeting of the Buffalo Trails Board (BTB) was held at Buffalo’s City Hall at 12:00pm on May 9, 2008.

The following board members were present:
Bill Mentock, Norb Lyle, Bill Cooley, Jerry Gladson, Fred Gray, Assistant City Planner Alicia Bankston,
Absent members: Ed Von Holst, Jack Tarter, and Steve Nuckolls.

Chairman Mentock called the meeting to order at 12:03pm.

The first item was to approve the minutes from the April 17, 2008 meeting. Two changes in spelling were noted and Secretary Cooley agreed to make the changes to the record. The minutes were approved with changes, all members voting aye.

The next item was to approve the minutes from the May 5, 2008 meeting. No changes are needed, and all members present voted aye to approve.

Public Comment: Regina Kottke was present and mentioned that she would like to submit a forthcoming letter about her concerns about the future expansion of the trail from the Wyoming Vets Home to the Mentock Trail.

Public Comment: Glenn Hare expressed his opinion that it may be beneficial for the board to look for an employee of the school district to fill one of the open positions on the board. Ms. Bankston mentioned she would check with Julie Silbernagle to find out how other boards fill positions and what the criteria may be.

Public Comment: Mrs. Kottke mentioned that she would like to be able to get involved with the trail system, but being a county landowner was not sure what to do. Ms. Bankston passed along the advice to get in touch with the Johnson County Commissioners, and the County Planner.

Update: Ms. Bankston gave us an update on the idea that Fred Gray mentioned at the last meeting about possibly having WYDOT include a parking lot for the Centennial Trailhead in their upcoming plans in regards to the North Bypass/Hart St. improvements. Ms. Bankston mentioned she had contacted Ron Williams. The basic gist of the conversation was that it is too late to get a parking lot into the plans, but we may be able to have a conversation with the contractor who is selected and see if they would be willing to create a parking lot. We may be able to convince them that it would be a good public gesture. Ms. Bankston also mentioned that she has tried to contact the owner of the property that is currently being used as a parking lot.

Update: Ms. Bankston gave us an update about the MOA between the County Sheriff and City Police. The two entities will work together to help enforce the rules and regulations.

Update: Ms. Bankston showed the board the flyer that will be posted to invite trail users to the open house on May 19, 2008.

The next item on the agenda was to go over the Permited and NonPermited uses for each trail segment. The first issue we discussed was whether “paintballing” would be permitted. It was discussed that we would not allow “paintballing” within a certain distance of the trails. Next, the board then went through trail by trail as to uses that will and will-not be allowed. Mr. Lyle made a motion to accept the resulting document except in regards to the William J. Mentock trail with changes stated. Mr. Gladson seconded and all members present voted aye. Next the board considered uses that would be allowed on the Mentock trail. There was much discussion about the original purpose of the trail, and the uses that are happening now. Mr. Gladson made a motion to approve the uses for the Mentock trail to be multi use which will include foot travel, bicycle touring, mountain biking, skateboarding, fishing, Nordic skiing, strollers, and picnic area. The motion also included verbiage to bring the trail up to standards of a safe and sustainable mountain bike trail. The use of paintballing will not be allowed within 500 feet of the trail. Mr. Cooley seconded the motion. All members present voted aye.

Public comment: Mrs. Kottke mentioned that she was troubled by a gentleman who would not put his dog on a leash until the sign said “manual leash”. He has an electronic leash and feels that his dog(s) are under control. Mr. Mentock said he would check with the City Attorney to find out what we can do about this situation.

As the meeting had lasted close to, two hours members had to leave and the meeting was adjourned at 1:57pm