Sorted by date Results 1051 - 1075 of 1200
7 Years Ago July 5, 1989 Council, Mayor at odds over planning commission An appointment to fill a vacancy on the planning commission was the main point of contention between members of the Saratoga Town Council and Mayor R.T. Buchholz during Monday night’s council meeting. Buchholz chose to ignore a recommendation from the planning commission that Fran Fisher be appointed to fill the vacancy and instead named Walt Miller to fill the position. Buchholz cited the ordinance empowering him to make the appointment, which he said he can do w...
By Mike Dunn As America celebrates its 238th birthday, Valley residents will be putting on their own celebrations this weekend. Cancer Walk For the third year in a row, the SkillsUSA chapter of Saratoga High School will be hosting their annual Cancer Walk in Saratoga. Starting at 8 a.m. on July 4, residents will participate in a walk through downtown to benefit the Wyoming affiliate of Susan G. Komen. Over the past two years, SkillsUSA raised $8,000. This summer, they hope to raise at least $10,000 for cancer research. More than 120 people...
Dorman Ewing, of Saratoga, passed away on June 23, 2014 at the Deseret Health Care Center in Saratoga. Dorman James Ewing was born on Nov. 10, 1927 to Amos and Helen (Warner) Ewing in a ranch house east of Sundance, Wyo. When he was nine years old, the family moved to a ranch they bought on Houston Creek, west of Sundance, where he grew up. He attended rural Crook County Schools. When he was 17 years old, he enlisted in the United States Navy and was honorably discharged in 1946. He married...
Editor It is time to dump our Mayor and his administration and get new blood to run our town that will hopefully demonstrate some administrative competence that has been totally lacking. Here are a few of the in-competences demonstrated by the current administration: 1) The new $4M budget they approved that is an 84% increase. That is ridiculous! 2) The disastrous water meter/sewer line replacement project. I am an engineer and I watched the implementation of this project with total dismay. I did not see a city official inspect one piece of...
Editor, I write in opposition to the Town Council passing an ordinance which would add a 4% franchise fee to the franchise agreement in negotiation now with the Carbon Power and Light (CP&L) which would begin July 1, 2014. This would affect the CP&L bills of the 1032 households and 262 commercial accounts within the Town of Saratoga. This is an anti-business maneuver by this administration that will last for the next 10 years. In the last 10 years our water bills have gone up greatly, despite the “money-saving” wells that replaced the tre...
The Saratoga Town Council passed the 2014/2015 budget on the third reading at their June 17 meeting. Ordinance 826 provides the income necessary to finance the 2014-2015 fiscal budget, which will raise $4,186,002.80 for the town of Saratoga. The budget shows an 84 percent increase in expenditures from this fiscal year to last year. Most notably, the sewer department increased from $232,701.00 to $1,561,200.00 this year. The 571 percent increase in expenditures for the sewer department is due to...
The town of Saratoga will receive a grant to develop a master plan. Mayor of Saratoga John Zeiger said they received a $49,000 from a community development block grant. Community development block grants come from the state of Wyoming. The money has not yet been given to the town of Saratoga, but Zeiger said “the check is in the mail.” The town of Saratoga will have to contribute around $16,000 towards the master plan project, and Voices of the Valley is contributing an additional $2,500. The mo...
Editor, First I want to all the people who were involved in the effort to keep the river out of Saratoga: the military, the volunteers, the town staff, and the local businesses and employees who supported those who were doing the work of filling and placing sandbags. Thanks to Mayor Zieger for making it all work smoothly. It is my understanding that some people think it is up to you to get the river work done and that you have the money to do that. Please write a letter to the Sun explaining what all is needed to make that project a reality. I...
Editor, And the Three Ring Spending Circus came to Town again last night! And the Un-Thrifty Mayor who won’t Resign was in Center Ring and prevailed again to over-spend next year’s budget (2014-15) by $89,000.00 on top of this year’s budget (2013-14) over-spending of $659,000.00. This Three Ring (2 Council Members and Mayors yes vote and one sane no vote) in spite of Citizens objections to another unbalanced budget. Saratoga Jonny Homeowner’s must balance their budgets to avoid bankruptcy or negative Credit Ratings. No consideration was giv...
Town of Saratoga planning commission board member Bob Thrasher submitted his letter of resignation at the June 10 meeting. In his letter, Thrasher said after the May Saratoga planning commission, he has “had to really think about what the planning commission can actually accomplish.” Thrasher’s letter listed several reasons why he was leaving the board. The letter said the present board has no power to act or enforce the zoning ordinances, and the double-vote situation by councilman and planning...
Editor, I am writing to express support for the Lodging Tax, it’s Board of Directors and to clear up some apparent misinformation submitted by Leroy Stephenson in his letter to the editor on Thursday, June 19th. (Editor’s note: the letter was submitted to the Rawlins Daily Times and the Saratoga Sun. Since Stephenson is a candidate for mayor in Riverside, the Saratoga Sun is not printing the letter.) Before I begin, let me first disclose that I have previously served on the Carbon County Visitors Council (CCVC) Board of Directors (from mid-2008...
Saratoga Airport Board chairman Mike “Hack” Patterson submitted a letter of resignation in April. Patterson did not cite a reason for his resignation in his letter. The letter has already been seen by the Saratoga Town Council and was effective at the June meeting. The board has already received a letter of interest from a Saratoga resident Tyler Trevillyan. Vice-chairman Lance Grubb will take over the position of the chairman on the Airport board. With low attendance at the meetings, the boa...
Two new graduates from the South Central Wyoming Emergency Medical Service (SCWEMS) training program were announced at Thursday’s Riverside Town Council meeting. Helen Weiland, EMT and Encampment Station Manager for SCWEMS, said there were two graduates from Encampment who recently passed the EMT class. The two were Virginia Parker and Kelly Ralston. “They both passed their EMT and will be getting their EMT cards, so we have two new EMTs on our service,” Weiland said. “We’re so excited a...
In the June 11 edition of the Saratoga Sun, the Saratoga Town Treasurer was referred to as Tommy Flohr rather than Sammy Flohr. Additionally, it was reported the Saratoga town council had passed the budget on the third reading. It was the second reading of the budget. In the June 4 edition, the Saratoga Sun reported Lynda Healey worked as treasurer at the town of Saratoga from 2006 to 2012. She was the treasurer from 2009 to 2012. The staff at the Saratoga Sun apologizes for these errors In the June 11, 2014 Saratoga Sun, Tonya Bartholomew was...
Despite the short agenda and 20 minute meeting, the June 3 Saratoga Town Council meeting was filled with heated discussions between Mayor John Zeiger and Saratoga residents. Ordinance 826, an ordinance to provide the necessary income to finance the 2014-2015 fiscal year, was passed by the Saratoga town council on the third reading. The ordinance proposes the town raise $2,954,874.41 for the general fund. Saratoga resident and candidate for Mayor of Saratoga Glee Johnson asked the council if a...
Editor, In the next couple months the council will be considering if the town is going to start charging a franchise fee to Carbon Power and Light for the use of town easement/right-of-ways for their power lines. If the decision is made to charge a franchise fee it will be the first time in Carbon Powers history that they were charged a fee by the Town of Saratoga. Carbon Power currently pays the City of Laramie a 5 percent franchise fee on 6-8 meters that are within the City of Laramie and absorb that cost because it is minimum number of...
Editor: First of all let me say thank you to the Saratoga Sun for the opportunity to review and address the comments made by Mayor Zeiger in his letter to the editor included in this week’s edition of the paper. After reading Mr. Zeiger’s comments and as I began writing my response, a quote from the late Paul Harvey kept coming to mind…something about “The rest of the story”. For the most part, the statements made by Mr. Zeiger in his effort to justify the Town of Saratoga’s (Town) need to charge Carbon Power and Light (Carbon) a franchise f...
Lynda Healey is seeking $189,833.42 in damages from the town of Saratoga in a wrongful termination lawsuit. Healey, who was the treasurer for the town of Saratoga from 2006 to 2012, was fired on Oct. 18 2012, with insubordination as the grounds for termination. Her lawsuit argues the town violated section 15-2-102(a) of the Wyoming Statutes Annotated, which states a town treasurer can be removed for “incompetency or neglect of duty.” Additionally, she says the town violated Section 2.08.020 of...
Two Carbon County community members were given awards on behalf of the Valley Service Organization (VSO) Thursday at the Hotel Wolf. Longtime VSO member Sue Jones received the VSO 2014 Woman of Distinction Award, which she was given for more than 30 years of public service. Jones' credits include serving on the Saratoga Town Council; council liaison to the recreation board; board member of the Carbon County Economic Development Corporation and Voices of the Valley; and current Carbon County...
In celebration of Arbor Day, Saratoga Elementary School students planted trees with the Saratoga-Encampment-Rawlins Conservation District (SERCD) Wyoming Game and Fish (WGFD) and Wyoming State Forestry Divsion last Friday. Students and teachers, alongside officials from the SERCD, WGFD, forestry division and town of Saratoga, were also celebrating the 10th year Saratoga achieved "Tree City USA" status. Saratoga Recreation Department Director Lisa Burton helped organize a field trip to Saratoga...
The hiring of Saratoga Town Treasurer, Sammy Flohr, was not approved by the Saratoga Town Council. At the May 6 town council meeting, Flohr was introduced as the new treasurer for the town of Saratoga. Saratoga Mayor John Zeiger said Flohr had been working as treasurer since May 5. According to 2.08.031 of the Saratoga municipal code, “the town clerk, treasurer, chief of police, attorney and municipal judge shall be appointed by the mayor with the consent of the governing body and may be r...
Many Saratoga residents spoke out against the Carbon Power and Light’s (CP&L) franchise agreement with the town of Saratoga at the May 20 town council meeting. As the current franchise agreement will end July of this year, town attorney Tom Thompson asked the council for guidance to draft an ordinance for CP&L’s franchise agreement with the town. Thompson requested the council decide how long the franchise agreement would last, and how much the agreement would charge the power company. The franc...
Local residents are concerned the Saratoga zoning laws are not being enforced. At the May 13 meeting, Saratoga resident Andy Van Tol complained to members of the Saratoga Planning Commission, saying his neighbor, Royce Kelley, has yet to stop operations on his property after being issued a cease and desist by the town. “I just wanted to encourage the planning commission to apply and enforce the zoning laws equally for everyone in Saratoga,” Van Tol said. The feud between Kelley and Van Tol sta...
Riverside Town Council members were reminded of general elections coming up while at Thursday’s town council meeting. Town Clerk/Treasurer Jan Cook said the filing period for people interested in running for office positions in the general election is May 15-30. For the placement of a new generator, the council approved a bid from Prairie Dog Electric out of Saratoga. The bid was in the dollar amount of $5,248.58. Council members also discussed a tree beautification project along Highway 70. ...
A franchise fee could lead to increased costs for the entire town, Chuck Larsen with Carbon Power and Light told Mayor John Zeiger and the Saratoga Town Council at their regular meeting on May 6. Carbon Power and Light, a major provider of electricity in the Platte Valley, has to renew their franchise agreement with the town of Saratoga. Larsen said after discussions with Mayor Zeiger and Saratoga Town Attorney Tom Thompson, the town “has considered charging a franchise fee to Carbon Power a...