Laramie staff outline surface water drainage utility budget, projects and staffing ahead of July 1 start

City staff told the Laramie City Council on May 19 that the city’s new Surface Water Drainage Fund will begin July 1 with a $5,000,000 transfer from the general fund and a 10-year capital plan that staff say supports a $1.167 per 500-square-foot user rate.

The fund is intended to create a dedicated stormwater utility and local revenue source for drainage projects after the council approved the rate last December; staff described the May 19 presentation as placing that utility into the city’s formal budget framework.

Director Waite said the fund “as of July 1 is $5,000,000. That $5,000,000 is a transfer from the general fund, that the previous council approved when this rate was adopted” and that the 10-year plan includes a roughly $60,500,000 capital investment. Waite said staff deliberately underwrote grant assumptions in the plan and will adjust the mix of grants and rates annually.

City Engineer Eric Jep summarized operational and capital needs the fund is expected to cover: maintaining parcel and impervious-area data for billing, administering a fee-credit program, staffing street-sweeping and pipe-cleaning crews, and camera-inspecting 30–50% of the drainage system annually. Jep listed operational additions for fiscal 2026 that include four new maintenance positions, a senior engineer, an engineering technician, two half-ton pickup trucks, a new pipe-inspection camera system, and future street-sweeper replacements planned for FY27 and FY29.

On revenues staff provided year-one projections on page 255 of the budget book: $3,800,000 in user-rate revenue, about $1,100,000 in grant revenue and roughly $100,000 in interest income. Waite also said the general fund has been covering some start-up costs and that the drainage fund will reimburse limited implementation costs next year — “somewhere around $40,000,” according to Waite.

Jep reviewed planned capital projects drawn from the citywide drainage master plan. Highlights included transferring an ongoing CIPP lining program from the general fund to the drainage fund; new and upsized trunk lines in West Laramie (Polk, Taylor, Van Buren, Buchanan); multiple detention-pond optimizations on the north side of town (20th & Buford, 20th & Reynolds, 30th & Reynolds); a proposed new detention pond east of Jacoby Ridge tied to an NRCS grant application; and upsizing an outfall from Labonte Park to the UPRR outfall. Jep said the Jacoby Ridge pond would be built upon agreement with the University of Wyoming because the site is on UW land, and the mayor and council were told the NRCS grant was “looking pretty favorably now” but not finalized.

Councilors asked clarifying questions about recurring consultant costs, short versus long segments of pipe, and why some pond projects remain contingent on external approvals. Vice Mayor Richardson asked whether the ongoing professional/consulting line — described in the budget as an ongoing allocation — was intended to pay for recurring hydraulic modeling and technical support; Jep and staff said it functions as an extension of staff capacity while the program scales up.

No council vote specifically adopted new drainage rates or projects at the May 19 meeting; staff framed most items as budget bookkeeping and project prioritization for inclusion in the fiscal 2026 budget. Several council members thanked staff for focusing on ongoing maintenance and on addressing flood-prone locations identified in recent heavy rain events.

Ending: City staff said they will return annually with updates on grant awards, revenues and project delivery; several planned projects remain contingent on external approvals and grant awards, and staff said they will bring refined budgets back to council during subsequent budget cycles.