Have coffee with the mayor

Have you ever wanted to sit down with the mayor of Hill City for a cup of coffee to talk about what is going on in town? Now you can. 

Mayor Mike Verchio is inviting community members to come have coffee with him on Saturdays at 10 a.m. at the Hill City Café. Anyone interested can join Verchio at the table for a conversation, and Verchio will buy the coffee. 

“I wanted to make sure once I told people how open I was going to be that they had every chance in the world to come and see me and talk to me,” Verchio said. 

Since being appointed to the role, Verchio has spent quite a bit of time at city hall and has had many meetings with citizen groups and individuals to discuss things. He also spends time at the Hill City Center talking to seniors and visiting business owners on Main Street to see how things are going and if there is anything the city is doing that is harming them. 

For those hesitant to come to city hall for a conversation, Verchio started Coffee with the Mayor. 

“I think it’s good,” said Verchio. “I should be held accountable for what happens in the city, and people should do that and come and be open and honest about it, hopefully have polite exchanges and discussions, not arguments.” 

Ideally, Verchio would like to see six to 10 people come every Saturday. He finds that the more people you have, the more questions are asked and the more one conversation leads to another. 

“It makes a big difference,” said Verchio. “Hopefully, we’ll have pertinent questions about the city. If not, we can talk about anything they want to talk about.” 

The conversation can cover anything to do with the city whether it is employees, taxes, housing, water, sewer or something else. 

Verchio said there are a lot of things going on in the water and water treatment area. Alderwoman Lori Miner is working on wastewater projects, and alderman Dale Householder is working on water distribution projects. 

“Their charge there was to identify what the problems are and to come up with ideas for solutions, and then if they can some idea of cost and availability of funds to do that. We can’t tax the people enough to build a water tower. We cannot. So we got to find somewhere else,” said Verchio. 

Last week Verchio met with Sen. Mike Rounds’ representative and talked about the water tower. He said she was going to see what kind of federal assistance the city could receive. 

Verchio also heard there is new money that the governor is going to accept for water projects in the state.

“We’re having our engineers look at that to see if we could get a chunk of that for a new water tower,” he said.

Ultimately though, Verchio said, “Our major problems here are multi-year solutions.”

There are other things the city cannot do anything about. Verchio said the biggest complaint he hears is people own a business in Hill City but live outside of town and therefore cannot vote in town elections. Some thought they might be able to use their business address as a voting address, but Verchio talked with the Secretary of State and it is against state law. 

“I did tell them I’m your vote so if you’ve got a problem, come and see me or one of your alderman or somebody and let us know that you have a concern,” said Verchio. “Their voices are important.”

Verchio also said unfortunately, a lot of people hear things on the streets that are not necessarily true or that are based on incomplete information. 

“That’s why I wish more people would come and talk to me or any of the employees at city hall,” said Verchio. 

Verchio said the goal of Coffee with the Mayor is “to make sure that people understand exactly what the issues are and what’s driving those issues and how we make some of the decisions we make.” 

As an example, Verchio referred to the Ranger Square project, saying it has been “very contentious” lately. Verchio thinks it will be good for the future of Hill City. He said housing is always needed whatever that may look like, and the property taxes will benefit the school. Meanwhile, he said the businesses will improve the sales tax revenue. 

Just in the last month Verchio said there was a great increase in sales tax with The Pack Mule and Lemongrass adding to the base as well as from the other businesses that are staying open more often or at least on weekends. 

“It’s been a really big boost for us,” said Verchio.

While Verchio understands that people want to keep Hill City a small mountain town with tiny neighborhood interactions like it was 30 to 40 years ago, he said, “If we don’t grow, we’ll die on the vine. So we have to develop, and it has to be intelligent development.” 

“We’re trying very hard. I want to make it a good partnership between the city council and the citizens,” Verchio continued. 

Admittedly, Verchio said he was getting a little bit down about the future of Hill City because of things going on nationally and statewide. 

“But the more I get involved with things in town, I go to all of these different organizations and fundraisers and stuff and watch the group of younger people that we have now, how involved they are,” said Verchio. “Some of the older citizens don’t appreciate that enough because those are the guys that are our future. There’s absolutely no doubt about that. We need to thank them and show them appreciation for all they are doing for the city. 

“To me government should be represented. I know I wasn’t elected. I was appointed, but it is still a big responsibility to do as much as you can when it comes to the citizens’ will and what they want done.” 

So as long as the Hill City Café is open, Verchio will be there every Saturday at 10 a.m. to meet with the citizens of Hill City.