TORRINGTON - Plans have been put together for the City of Torrington to proceed with temporary power to the building site of the new prison to be built in Goshen County.

Mayor Mike Varney and council members Randy Adams and Leroy Schafer met with Goshen County Commissioners Lloyd Peterson, Ross Newman and Robert Ward on Wednesday to make sure there was no problem with the county's right-of-way easements as the city is preparing to set power poles for the construction at the new prison site on Sheep Creek Road.

The commissioners saw no problem with the city staying on the north side of the road as they extended their lines to the prison construction site, which is approximately two miles from town.

Chairman Lloyd Peterson suggested for the city to come up with a Memo of Understanding.

Wyoming Department of Correction representatives met with Varney and others on Thursday, sharing some dates of interest.

Varney said either at the end of July or the beginning of August, the state will be letting bids for the deep soil compaction at the site, which will hopefully begin in September.

Wyoming Department of Corrections Director Bob Lampert told Varney he hopes to have a groundbreaking ceremony in September, then award bids before Christmas and begin construction after the first of the year.

"The bid package is not ready and won't be ready until November," Varney said.

Peterson and Varney both agreed that since the corrections department changed the footprint of the prison, it will cause a few changes to city and county plans.

The parking lot to the prison entrance will now be on the east side instead of the north. The road leading to the entrance will still be Sheep Creek Road.

The commissioners would prefer to see a new state highway to the prison come from the south instead of having to rebuild Sheep Creek Road.

Peterson said he has traveled several times to Cheyenne in the past month to try and talk to the Wyoming Department of Transportation about getting a Highway 26 connection to the prison site. So far, he has hit brick walls.

"You look at any other prison in the state, there is a state highway that runs to those prisons," Peterson said.

"We're talking $100,000 (to rebuild Sheep Creek). We're poor folks, we need the Highway 26 connector bad and get the traffic off of East D Street," he said.

If Goshen County does not get emergency funding for a state highway, Sheep Creek will not be rebuilt until after the prison is complete.

"I think it would be horribly disruptive to build the road while they're building the prison," Newman added.

Varney will hold a utilities meeting later this month to keep entities up to date on the prison progress report.