Municipalities in southwestern Wyoming came together for a meeting of planning and coordination in Cokeville September 30.

The Wyoming Association of Municipalities (WAM) hosted the crowded meeting of mayors and town council representatives in the Cokeville Town Council Chambers.

Ashley Harpstreith, WAM Executive Director, emphasized the importance of meetings like Cokeville held throughout Wyoming.

“It’s always great to be back out in the member communities, especially on the opposite side of the state, because the further you are away from Cheyenne, the further you are away from Cheyenne,” she offered with laugh following two hours of in-depth conversation that helped the towns coordinate their activities, ideas and possible changes in revenue, in addition to working with a new Legislative session.

“It’s good to hear on the ground the real issues facing our communities and how we can match that up with the low hanging fruit and use our ability to work together and problem solve on similar issues, all the way to legislature at the state level and federal issues that we’re all trying to solve together,” Harpstreith advised.

Pinedale Mayor Matt Murdock is the current President of WAM and works with the director on key issues. He conducted the Cokeville meeting, as he will do with similar meetings around the state. Mayor Murdock also represents WAM to the Legislature.

Speaking of the Cokeville meeting, Harpstreith said, “This helps people understand the importance of WAM. Now you help everyone from Cokeville to Kemmerer to Afton [understand WAM].”

She continued, “We facilitate the connection between all 99 cities and towns and help them with education, especially as we have a big election, even at the municipal level.”

She suggested the instruction and coordination comes at an important time as several towns will be changing their leadership positions with the November 2026 elections.

“There isn’t a manual for how to lead a municipality until we (WAM) wrote one that’s based on state statute and local control that is authorized from the Wyoming State Constitution,” Harpstreith pointed out.  “We make sure that they are educated and have the guidelines in place to effectively and efficiently run your communities.”

The director said WAM will be coordinating several local concerns with the new Legislative session.

”I would say the main themes are infrastructure funding and what the state’s role is in economic development and how that interplays with what we’re doing already on the ground level,” she advised of the municipality’s work with the Legislature. “This includes things like industrial siding, and utilities.”

She added, “We’re looking, of course, always at revenue. We have a really important initiative on the ballot, Nov. 3 with a property tax initiative, and if that goes through, what that looks like moving forward.”