Serving the Platte Valley since 1888
Serving the Platte Valley since 1888
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Wyoming legislators, under the guise of “cost saving measures” for local governments, are again attempting to remove vital legal notices from the pages of your local newspaper. Though the Wyoming Legislature is not in session and many legislators will not return to the capitol in January following primary defeats, they are still working on interim topics. One of those topics, approved on a 10-3 vote by the Joint Corporations Committee on September 11, would remove the requirement for municipal and county governments to pub...
Yvonne Johnson, the new director for the Carbon County Economic Development Corporation (CCEDC), was born in Carbon County and grew up in Rawlins. When she left Rawlins, she worked in Saratoga. She worked in hospitality for some years but the job many in the Valley may remember her for was as the Saratoga Museum director. Johnson left the museum to move to Florida, but got side tracked when she was asked to be a short term director for the Chamber of Commerce in Rawlins....
The perennial discussion of Tyler Pickett Park was brought before the Saratoga Town Council during their October 6 meeting. The issue of the park, which has been discussed since 2009, was raised in a letter from James Olguin, Commander of Angus England American Legion Post 54. In addition to Tyler Pickett Park, the American Legion and Sons of the American Legion also requested permission to erect a flagpole near Veterans’ Island in memory of Keith McLendon. Tyler Pickett Park...
Yvonne Johnson, Carbon County Economic Development Corporation Director, was present at the October 8 Riverside Town Council meeting to introduce herself to the council and touch on topics on which she is currently working. Johnson said that her main goal is to bridge the Valley and Rawlins and to let the council know that if there is any need for funding, be it $10 or $10,000, she is there to help. Johnson has been busy, she said that she has already gone through two rolls...
The Upper Platte River Solid Waste District board met on October 7, 2020 at 7:00 pm to discuss several matters involving the landfill. The meeting opened and the minutes and bills were quickly approved. This was followed with correspondence from RNB State Bank and the state of Wyoming regarding the need for equal employment posters. Site reports were issued with a discussion about the disposal and shipping of cardboard following soon after. It was stated that the landfill is currently receiving around four bales of cardboard...
The Carbon County Visitor Council (CCVC) met at 10 a.m. on Saturday at the Cotton Tree Inn in Rawlins. The approval of the agenda and the minutes from the regular meeting September 16 were done quickly. The next order of business was to listen to Angie Iacovetto for the grant application for the Pumpkin Patch and Harvest Festival being put on by the Rawlins Chamber. Iacovetto said that the pumpkins had been delivered on October 3 and that over 200 pumpkins have gone out in...
The vague and ambiguous language of Title 18 of the Saratoga Municipal Code took center stage during the October 6 meeting of the Saratoga Town Council. The definition of “adjacent” was also heavily discussed as Councilmember Jon Nelson defended his approval of a building permit for Memorial Hospital of Carbon County (MHCC). For more than a year, MHCC has pursued the construction of a clinic in Saratoga. Originally announced in July 2019, MHCC announced the purchase of pro...
All candidates for Saratoga Town Council and House District 47 have indicated they will attend the upcoming candidates’ forum sponsored by the Valley Service Organization (VSO), according to Kassey Westring, forum moderator for the organization. The forum is scheduled for Monday, October 12, at 7 p.m. at the Platte Valley Community Center Great Hall. As in past forums, VSO will open the event with a few brief remarks, then the candidates will be asked to tell the audience why they are running, she said. Questions provided t...
A few weeks ago the 1st grade class from Saratoga Elementary School was getting a tour of downtown Saratoga from Sherry McCay, a volunteer with the Saratoga Museum. As they made their way down Bridge Avenue, they stopped in front of the Saratoga Sun where Sherry began telling them about the newspaper. Even though it was a Monday, deadline day for our small weekly paper, I opened the door and asked if the students would like a tour of the newspaper office. Fortunately, their te...
A process that began little more than two years ago finally come to fruition on a warm October day in Saratoga. On Saturday morning, the groundbreaking for the much anticipated North Platte Valley Medical Center was held at its future location at the intersection of West Bridge Avenue and N. 13th Street. The path to the groundbreaking was not an easy one for the Platte Valley Healthcare Project (PVHP), the Corbett Medical Foundation or Health Management Services (HMS). The...
Summer 2020 is officially over and Carbon County, like the state of Wyoming, had to make adjustments as the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) was still impacting life for many residents. It was hoped back in April, and then May, that the virus would be under control with warm weather. That didn't happen. Cases started spiking in the West and South. The summer of COVID-19 started in June and people anxious to get out of lockdowns started to travel but not by public transportation...
Members of the Saratoga Town Council gathered in the Steve Wilcoxson Town Council Chambers on September 18 to discuss job descriptions for town employees and were joined by legal counsel Cathy MacPherson. While there was discussion surrounding descriptions for a few specific jobs within the Town of Saratoga, such as the recreation director and the planning and zoning officer, most of it centered around taking a top down approach. Additionally, three members of the governing...
The Carbon County Council of Governments (CCCOG) met at 6:30 p.m. on September 16 at the Medicine Bow Community Hall. Baggs, Dixon, Elk Mountain, Hanna, Medicine Bow, Rawlins and Saratoga had representatives. Chairman Morgan Irene, Vice Chairman Jon Nelson and Travis Moore, Secretary/Treasurer, were present. After all attendees made introductions, the council approved the minutes from the July 15 regular meeting. The treasurer’s report was approved after a quick review. Kara C...
As the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) rolls out updated flood insurance maps for Carbon County, the Saratoga Town Council is asking residents to closely examine the changes that have been made and how it will affect them. During the September 15 meeting of the governing body, Councilmember Jon Nelson gave a brief synopsis of the Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM) Open House that had been held by FEMA concurrently on Zoom and at the Platte Valley Community Center the...
The Carbon County Visitors Council (CCVC) met at 10 a.m. on September 16 at Firewater Public House in Saratoga. The agenda and minutes from the regularly scheduled meeting on August 19 were approved. A presentation was made by Leanna Jones, CEO of the Saratoga/Platte Valley Chamber of Commerce, for a visual guide on the businesses and special services in the Valley area. “It will have table of contents that help you key on what you are looking for,” Jones said. “I am hopin...
Eight years ago, the Town of Saratoga passed Ordinance 809, which created regulations for specially permitted events within the town limits. At the September 15 meeting of the Saratoga Town Council, Councilmember Jon Nelson proposed changes to Chapter 5.30 of the Saratoga Municipal Code. Since taking his seat on the council in January 2019, Nelson has been consistent in his ‘nay’ votes on special events applications that have not followed the current town code, spe...
Previous suggestions by Councilmember Jon Nelson to wait on an appointment to the vacancy for Saratoga mayor until after the general election appear to have been taken quite literally by Mayor Pro-Tem Bob Keel. During the September 15 meeting of the Saratoga Town Council, Keel had proposed rescheduling the first November meeting of the governing body from November 3 to November 4. “Looking ahead, the general election is the 3rd of November which is the night of our town counci...
The Upper Platte River Solid Waste Disposal District (UPRSWDD) is formally requesting an audit of the district’s funds as managed by the Town of Saratoga. The board formally approved a letter to be sent to Mayor Pro-Tem Bob Keel and the Saratoga Town Council during their September 2 meeting in Riverside. The request from the disposal district comes following a months long wait as third-party accountant James Childress examined the Town of Saratoga’s financial history and new...
The Hanna Town Council met at 6:30 p.m. on September 8 p.m. at the Hanna Town Hall. The mayor, Lois Buchanan and council members Tracy Fowler, Bob Patton and Sam Sikes were present. Council member Linda Schisel was absent. The town clerk, Ann Calvert, told the council that the financials were not ready with the exception of payroll and the financial report had to be amended to reflect that. After the approval of the agenda, the minutes from the July 14 regular meeting, August...
With seven board positions and four board members, the Saratoga Planning Commission only had two members in attendance for their September 8 meeting at Saratoga Town Hall; Chairman Jim Beckmann and Council Representative D’Ron Campbell. Commission members Tom Westring and Mike Lamprecht were not in attendance and Deb Clark had officially resigned from the commission in August. This also marked the first meeting since the resignation of Kent Smith, who had been serving as t...
At their September 1 meeting, the Saratoga Town Council began the process of moving excess revenues from Fiscal Year 2019/2020 into corresponding reserve funds. While the council appeared to agree that such an action needed to take place, the governing body disagreed on the how and the timeline. A four month period, proposed by Mayor Pro-Tem Keel at the guidance of third-party accountant James Childress, drew criticism from council members Jon Nelson and D’Ron Campbell. The e...
Two weeks after the resignation of Mayor John Zeiger, the Saratoga Town Council is no closer to filling the now vacant position. During the September 1 meeting of the governing body, Mayor Pro-Tem Bob Keel read a letter from legal counsel Tom Thompson regarding the vacant position. Discussion among the council appeared to show the town council agreeing to wait on filling the position until after the general election. In his letter to the council, Thompson wrote that he had...
Following two special meetings, one on Tuesday and one on Friday, between two counties and several municipalities, it appears that the entities have settled on a request to be presented to the Industrial Siting Council (ISC) for the Gateway South Wind Project totaling $6,097,769. The lion’s share of the request is easily Carbon County which put in a combined request of $4.5 million and accounts for approximately 74 percent of the total request. Of that, the Board of Carbon Cou...
As the dust has settled from the 2020 Primary Election on August 18, the roster has been set for the general election on November 3. On the national stage, Wyomingites will have four women from the two major parties to choose from in both the House and the Senate to represent them come January. Meanwhile, incumbent Representative Jerry Paxton still faces a challenger. President of the United States President Donald J. Trump and Vice President Michael R. Pence will be running...
The last time a mayor resigned in Saratoga was on August 5, 1996 when Mayor Brad Cary read a brief statement and then exited the council chambers leaving both his council and town hall staff stunned. A little more than 24 years later, Mayor John Zeiger announced his resignation as well. A distinct difference, however, is that Zeiger did not attend the August 18 meeting nor did he read a statement. The announcement, instead, was posted on social media and read at the meeting...