The Laramie City Council will be taking a look at economic development in Laramie during their council work session tomorrow.

Laramie Mayor Andrea Summerville said the session will be a review of the investments and the role of the city municipal government in economic development and will include a discussion with the city’s economic partners.

“Economic development is always a hot topic in the community,” Summerville said. “We are always looking at ways to help develop and grow the community.”

Summerville said the Laramie Chambers Business Alliance, Wyoming Technology Business Center, Wyoming Business Council will take part in the discussion, which will focus on the economic future of Laramie.

“The last part of the discussion is really going to focus on what that future looks like,” Summerville said. “With the Wyoming Business Council having fewer and fewer funds and everybody’s budget are getting tighter, what does that look like for economic development in the future?”

Summerville said the discussion will include the types of programs the city will be able to sustain as well as looking at new sources of funding.

Summerville said while the city council usually holds a meeting every year regarding economic development, this year is particularly important because of the significant change in the city’s funding. Summerville said the city council recently learned that city’s budget is being slashed by $500,000 for the current fiscal year.

“This meeting is really important because of the change in funding and available programs. We really need to have a discussion about what this looks like going forward,” Summerville said.

Summerville predicts the meeting will likely focus heavily on budgetary topics and the reality that grants from the Wyoming Business Council may be harder to come by as the competition becomes fiercer.

“We really have to take a look at the programs that we’ve relied on in the past and look at how we anticipate being able to work with those programs in the future,” Summerville said. “We really need to talk about some different strategies as far as expanding our basis of where we get funds from and what types of programs we offer to the city.”

The council work session will be held at 6 p.m. and is open to the public.

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