Mayor Mickelson summarized assessments of the Civic Center and other city facilities and asked residents to prioritize which services to preserve if revenue tightens. “We had architects go through and do an assessment, and they said with their best estimate, 30 to $35,000,000 needs to be put into it to bring it up to modern standards, and then another 15 to 20,000,000 to deal with the foundation issues,” the mayor said.

Why it matters: The Civic Center and the family recreation center are significant capital assets. The mayor said the cheapest long-term path to preserve a community events facility could be to tear down and rebuild rather than spend tens of millions on retrofit and foundation repair. Officials framed the discussion as a triage of priorities: streets, police and fire first, then other amenities.

Service and maintenance details: City staff and the mayor described deferred maintenance across facilities: failing roofs, duct-taped sewer lines at some buildings, and costly specialised repairs — repainting some metal surfaces was estimated at $250,000. The mayor said staffing and operational choices also affect costs; for instance, longer plowing hours are expensive, and changing plow schedules could reduce costs but also change service levels.

Rec center capacity and overflow: Public commenters raised concerns about capacity if the Civic Center were closed. The mayor said the recreation center has underused space and that architects are being asked to evaluate reconfiguration and accessibility upgrades so the rec center could absorb some Civic Center programming. “The bigger issue in terms of if we close the civic center is modifying the entrances to the rec center so that it is more accessible because the people who primarily use the Civic are elderly and have mobility limitations,” the mayor said.

Revenue transparency and public oversight: Several residents urged better public access to line-by-line budget information for city facilities. In response, the city said it will publish facility revenue-and-cost breakdowns and an annual report with those figures.

Community programs and downtown investment: Maria Mortensen, chair of the Rock Springs Main Street Urban Renewal Agency (URA), described 15 years of volunteer-led downtown revitalization, grants for facade improvements, public events and small-business support. Mortensen warned that continued loss of downtown activity and unresolved floodplain issues on the east side — including a vacant church and other shuttered buildings — risk “leaving the east side of our town... to rot.”

Ending: City leaders asked residents to submit budget feedback and attend council budget workshops. Officials emphasized that budgets require trade-offs and invited the public to weigh which services they value most.