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WORLAND — The Worland Board of Adjustment and Planning Commission approved the site plan for a four-bay garage for the Worland Senior Center with an attached storage area for the Worland Community Center Complex on Thursday, Nov. 21.

Worland Senior Center Executive Director Wendy Fredricks said the garage will house their transportation vans and get them out of the winter cold and summer heat. “This will help to maintain them over a longer period of time,” she said.

Keeping them inside a heated garage in the winter is especially beneficial for the American with Disabilities Act doors, which can freeze up in the subzero temperatures. Currently the fleet of five vans, one of which will be sold, are parked outside.

“We’ve been working toward this project since 2015, Fredricks said. They obtained a $192,000 federal grant through the Wyoming Department of Transportation. The grant has a 20% match. Fredricks said they have $12,871.50 earmarked for the project that they have received from numerous local donors.

Along with the heated garage for their transportation program they are also working on rebranding the program so people throughout the community realize that it is public transportation available to all residents, not just senior citizens.

The public transportation services are available from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. There is no transportation on Saturday and they have limited hours on Sunday, which Fredricks said has been mainly people going to and from church.

The transportation program provides regularly scheduled trips to Cody, Casper and Thermopolis.

“We will go statewide with enough notice. We try to guarantee rides with 24-hour notice and on-call services are based on availability.

Fredricks said they also have been providing transportation for some evening public events, such as the Wyoming State Championship BBQ and Bluegrass Festival, the brewfest, poker runs and the Mammoth Quick Draw.

During the BAPC meeting Nov. 21, contractor Steve Trombley said work would begin this spring.

In answering a question about services to the garage, Worland Building Official Randy Adams told the BAPC that the plumbing would be stubbed out in case a restroom is added later. He said just adding a restroom would not require another site plan. However, if they added an office in there as well, that would change the use of the facility and require a site plan for renovation.

COMMUNITY CENTER STORAGE

Worland Public Works Superintendent Brian Burky said the city, the Worland Recreation Board and WCC Joint Powers Board organized a project on community center grounds three to four years ago with brand new irrigation and landscaping. He said part of the project was to take down the old 20-foot by 20-foot storage shed. The shed, he said, had come to the end of its useful life and they needed to replace it with something bigger.

He said at that time they were informed that the senior center was looking to build a garage. “We didn’t want the back of the community center to have several buildings and we wanted to coordinate it,” he said, adding that they wanted the looks of the building to be similar. During discussions with the senior center, he said they began discussing sharing a building with different entrances.

“I’m pleased that it did work out,” he said. “One building is going to look better and make the campus look cleaner.”

The storage area for the WCCC will be 30-foot by 30-foot and include recreation supplies, scoreboard, city mowers and other equipment for maintaining the lawns and the community center.

For their portion of the building, Burky said the WCC Joint Powers Board and Recreation Board each have pledged $15,000 to cover costs.

The colors of the building, Burky said will blend with the community center and the senior center.

The building will be in the corner where the old storage shed was located.