Douglas activist: city should not allow trucks carrying explosives to park near schools, homes

DOUGLAS — Patrick Ostlund understands trucking. He’s been in the oil field and trucking business his whole adult life. 
What he doesn’t get is why City of Douglas officials have been allowing heavy trucks, many hauling crude oil, explosives and other hazardous materials to drive through – or worse, park overnight or even longer term – on city streets next to residential areas and schools. 
He’s even seen some haz-mat trucks sitting next to school buses and parked across the street from the new Douglas Boys & Girls Club over the years. 
So he began an activism campaign to stop the practice, which he says already violates laws that prohibit having hazardous materials transported within city residential areas. It’s a CDL rule, he insists, that has been fairly well ignored by many truckers, City of Douglas officials and the Wyoming Department of Transportation for more than a decade. 
“That’s what I call this — anything goes,” Ostlund said. “It got so bad I (saw) them servicing trucks – changing the oil on trucks – on Riverbend.” 
For Ostlund, it’s all about community safety. 
Yet he doesn’t understand why it has taken this long for his admonishments and complaints to city and state officials to result in any actions. He began pointing out the issue in 2008 or 2009 when the last boom saw semi-trucks with oil and other hazardous materials parked all over town. 
He’s been making his case to city, state and federal officials ever since – all to little or no avail. 
And Douglas isn’t back to the boom of those times yet, he said, warning, “Wait until it gets busy again. They’re going to explode this place. If you don’t have (no truck parking) signs up . . .” 
So he wonders out loud: “Why are the good citizens of Converse County taking a back seat to the heavy trucks? Why are haz-mat class 1 – explosive equipment – parking on our streets across from the Boys & Girls Club? Anything goes . . . it doesn’t matter?” 
To add insult to injury, Ostlund is trying to understand why the city, in his opinion, has largely ignored the oil field trucks and parking issue while focusing on things like RVs being left on the street too long or someone’s firewood trailer not parked off street. 
“If you park your car the wrong way, you get a ticket. You can’t leave your firewood trailer in front of your house, right? But you can park (a semi-truck) wherever you want?” he asked rhetorically, before mentioning that they don’t just park for a short time; it is often overnight or extended days. 
“Why are they sleeping on our streets? You can’t sleep in your car out here. The cops will come knocking on your window, but these guys are sleeping in their trucks on our (residential) streets.” 
Ostlund rattles off example after example of trucks with hazardous materials or large oil field equipment parked on city streets or near schools and homes as he pulls out piles of photos of those examples to further document his case. Some have large generators or other oversized equipment on trailers, but others display haz-mat warning placards for crude oil, natural gas, acid and flammable materials parked near houses, schools or hotels. 
“The whole thing I’m saying here is it’s a safety issue. Why are truckers competing with moms and dads taking their kids to school?” he said. “What kind of town do we want? Do you want a town that’s respectable or a town that’s run by a bunch of out-of-town truck drivers?” 
Ostlund specifically lays some of the blame at the feet of former City Administrator Jonathan Teichert, who he said told him he didn’t care where the truckers parked because they were contributing to the economy of the city. 

Ostlund’s response was that if they are sleeping in their trucks and parking on the street, how is that contributing to the economy? 
He said nothing changed under Teichert’s leadership, but he said he believes others in the city administration, including Douglas Police Chief Todd Byerly and City Planning/Community Director Clara Chaffin, could be doing more regardless. 
A new city administrator and a council attuned to the truck parking problem may finally be paying attention to the issue. 
While Ostlund has put a bug in their ears, other factors may have played a bigger role right now. 
Growth on Brownfield Road between Center Street and Richards has included a number of industrial companies with semi-trucks needing access and parking – and that access conflict between businesses attracted the attention of city officials. That growth has led to some parking their trucks all along Brownfield, with complaints of blocked access to businesses and traffic hazards. 
JD Cox, just six months into his tenure as the city administrator, said Ostlund’s photos and concerns haven’t gone unnoticed, but many are too old to have much impact immediately, especially when asking for a police response. 
“When we’re actually able to go out and see it,” the city can do something, Cox said. “You can’t write tickets for something that happened six months ago.” 
That, he said, explains why the city was able to address the Brownfield situation so quickly once the city staff, police and council were able to witness the trucks parked up and down the street, some blocking access to businesses. 
Meanwhile, the city ordinance already does not allow for hazardous materials, so someone who sees those in a truck parked on a city street should call police dispatch so it can be handled appropriately at the time, Cox said. 
The rules, however, still allow truck parking in business and industrial zones, which means trucks may be parking in those zones even after housing and other uses encroach on what had been traditionally a business-only area. 
“We’re beginning to look heavier and heavier into this” for solutions, Cox said, but the long-term answer is probably to create off-street parking for trucks in an appropriate area, such as the John Lambert subdivision (the old airport/ raceway across from Safeway). 
“But we can’t just throw up infrastructure overnight, like parking lots,” he said. 
As of last week, the Douglas City Council has approved two of the required three readings for a new city ordinance on truck parking for city streets. (The third reading is scheduled for Dec. 12.) 
The ordinance does not, however, address haz-mat truck parking on private land, such as at hotels and convenience stores, nor near schools and residential areas that abut business roads such as the area behind Maverik and McDonald’s off of W. Yellowstone Highway. 
The city already has an ordinance against parking trucks 10,000 pounds or more on any city street “except in those areas designated as either business or industrial.” 
That exception has allowed trucks to park in many places near homes, schools and even the Boys & Girls Club as Douglas has grown over the years, although the ordinance already prohibits any trucks with explosives and flammable materials from being parked in the city. 
The proposed changes to the ordinance, though, are minor and being called “short term” fixes by the city staff who proposed them, Chaffin and Byerly. 
The changes would limit truck parking on Brownfield Road to the west side of the street from the entrance to the Wyoming State Fairgrounds to the end of the WSF property. Truck parking would be totally prohibited on the east side of Brownfield Road, where most of the industrial and commercial development is occurring. 
It also states no livestock trailers would be allowed to be parked on any city street, and commercial trucks cannot be parked within 15 feet of an access or driveway. 
They also told the Douglas City Council during work sessions that two longer term solutions need to be addressed: working with property owners to create off-street parking for semi-trucks in “appropriate areas,” and “as the John Lambert subdivision develops, incorporate an emergency parking area for times when the interstate closes.” 
Ostlund said he hopes to make the Dec. 12 city council meeting to hear the final vote and discussion on the proposed ordinance, but he’s concerned it doesn’t address the largest safety issues he’s tried to point out for the last decade and more.
 
This story was published on Dec. 7, 2022.