Oil City News36%
Local business owners, city officials clash over parking dispute 56%
By Tommy Culkin13%
7/22/2026, 1:03:02 PM
BS Summary: This article contains 28 faulty reasoning types, including Negativity Bias, Anecdotal, and Burden of Proof, with Self-Serving Bias as the most egregious example at 24.1% saturation with 190 hits. Analysis detected 1,263 faulty-reasoning hits from 790 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 53.8% and a BS Rank of 56% (8,859 of 19,841 articles). This article is worse (more manipulative) than 55.40% of the article peer group.
CASPER, Wyo. — An ongoing parking dispute between local businesses in the area of 2nd Street and Kenwood Street led to a confrontation between local business owners and city officials Tuesday during the Casper City Council’s regular meeting.
During the meeting’s public comment section, New Horizon Chiropractic Center owner Dan Staight alleged that since June 29, the owners and employees of Styrrups Soda Shop have intentionally targeted his business by parking vehicles to block patient access, which he said has a disproportionate impact on the elderly and disabled.
Staight claimed that they have primarily been doing this by parking their vehicles in three public spaces directly in front of his business.
“These videos need to be reviewed with the lens of intent.
The videos speak for themselves,” Staight told councilors, referring to videos that he said show Styrrups employees blocking his business.
“In my opinion, they clearly reveal the intent to harass, intimidate, restrict, bully and block patient access to my business.”
This comes after a March council meeting in which Staight, along with other area business owners and Kenwood Street residents, voiced concerns regarding the impact Styrrups was having on traffic.
In June, city officials crafted a plan to ease the traffic strain that retained the center turn lane added to accomodate the influx of Styrrups customers and also added a delineator post at the entrance of the city parking lot.
Business owners also expressed concerns regarding the use of a city-owned parking lot that in 2007 was informally designated as parking for their businesses after on-street parking was removed during a 1990s streets project.
As a result, the city attempted to honor the previous informal parking arrangements by developing official license agreements that granted businesses the right to use designated spaces in the lot.
Despite the city’s efforts to ease problems, Staight said on Tuesday that the issues persist.
Staight said there is a “new norm” of traffic congestion, noise and U-turns, and added that he has been forced to modify his office hours to avoid the shop’s peak traffic.
He also said his video shows Styrrups personnel allegedly running over the city-installed delineator posts and throwing them against fences.
Styrrups owner Dave Starcevich countered during the council meeting, and denied acting with any malice.
Starcevich argued that the city-installed delineator posts inhibit access to his lot, which he claimed is designated for Styrrups’ sole use according to official property plats.
He also defended his employees’ use of the street parking, saying that they have a right to use public spaces, especially after the city instituted private agreements at the parking lot that further restrict their options.
“Recently, the actions that the city staff and the council has made to make the city parking lot there unavailable to us, our people don’t have anywhere to park,” he said.
Following comments from Councilor Gena Jensen about arguments between the businesses neighboring Styrrups, Starcevich stressed that his issues ultimately lie with the city.
“I have not once argued with any of them about anything.
I’m arguing with the city staff,” he said.
“And I don’t have an argument with any of my neighbors.
They’re coming to you guys, you guys are coming to me [and] I’m doing my best to be accommodating while at the same time defending my business and my livelihood.”
Vice Mayor Kyle Gamroth asked what solutions Starcevich would like to see, but the Styrrups owner said it isn’t his place to make suggestions.
“We don’t have a list of things that we want,” he said.
“The things that are being asked for are from everybody else, and they’re being granted at our expense.”
Councilor Pat Sweeney raised concerns regarding Starcevich’s parking habits after reviewing video footage.
Sweeney said that when Starcevich parks his truck downtown on 2nd Street, he sometimes parks outside of the designated lines and occupies two parking spaces.
Starcevich responded that the city’s perpendicular parking spaces are too short for his truck, and that he parks across two spots to avoid traffic obstruction and prevent damage to the back of his vehicle.
However, Sweeney was unconvinced by Starcevich’s words.
“So you’re totally making stuff up, Dave,” Sweeney said.
“And you’re being totally disrespectful to your neighbors.”
Ultimately, the exchange was brought to an end following a tense back-and-forth with Mayor Ray Pacheco, after the mayor made an appeal to the business owners that city staff have been working to figure out a mutually-beneficial solution.
“Give us time, give us patience.
Be patient, we’re trying to figure this out,” Pacheco said.
“The city is caught in the middle of this trying to figure it out.”
“It’s the city’s problem, they made this mess,” Starcevich responded.
Analysis
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