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At the town of Saratoga’s Tuesday town council meeting, a new 911 system, river work and the appointment of a local resident to the Carbon County Economic Development Board took center stage amid routine business. The council voted to spend $94,000 on a new 911 system to replace the current system owned by the Carbon County Sheriff’s Department the town pays to use. Council members were swayed after figures provided by Saratoga Police Chief Robert Bifano showed the town would save $34 per month at first and would later save $840 per month onc...
The Saratoga Water and Sewer Joint Powers Board (sewer board) met Wednesday to deal with routine business facing the board, as well as to discuss several ongoing projects. Besides routine business, the board discussed the results of an engineering study prepared by a contractor to find potential improvements for the town’s treatment lagoon, passed a draft ordinance to the town council that would raise sewer tap fees and the board discussed bringing the U.S. Forest Service (USFS)office near the airport on to the town’s water supply and sew...
The Saratoga Community Garden Board will continue operating as a branch of municipal government for the next year. On January 24, the board held a 100-minute workshop with the mayor and town council after a month of strained relations between Saratoga’s town government and garden board members. Dissolution of the garden board within months, originally suggested by council member Will Faust at a Dec. 20 town council meeting, was shelved for at least a year at the workshop. It is likely the board...
At a Jan. 17 meeting of the Saratoga Town Council, mayor Ed Glode revealed long-awaited details of a gravel bar removal operation in the North Platte River upstream of the HWY 130 bridge. Dixon-based Ready Oilfield Service (ROS) won a town contract for the job, offering a price just north of $133,000–a third higher than the $100,000 cost Glode anticipated in November. Four other contractors offered bids for the work, and three (including ROS) were selected for further interview in the weeks l...
The Riverside Town Council met Thursday to swear in a new member, make appointments and make other preparations for the upcoming year in governance in the town. New council member Katie Cheesebrough was sworn in by mayor Leroy Stephenson. Cheesebrough ran for the position after former council member Margaret Weber resigned her position because she had sold her business and residence in Riverside and moved just outside town limits. Cheesebrough’s introduction to the world of town council politics went smoothly, with the board conducting mostly h...
The Saratoga Water and Sewer Joint Powers Board (sewer board) met Wednesday for a brief meeting where they discussed potential lagoon improvements and got to the bottom of a supposed illegal lift pump that had been uncovered on Rochester Street in Saratoga. The pump was installed by Triple-D Construction with the purpose of lifting sewage from basement hookups at three lots being developed by the company to a sewage line that runs into a town-owned main that runs through the alleyway. In late 2016, Triple-D ran into issues with the line after...
No petitioners approached the Saratoga Planning Commission at their Jan. 10 meeting, but the body made substantial progress on a number of long-term projects. Karl Smith was elected the commission’s new chair, adding additional oversight to the town building permit was discussed and the commission voted to send long-worked on alterations to Chapter 18.51 of the town code to the town attorney for review. Less encouragingly, the commission continues to lack a zoning officer and a Carbon C...
What? What a shock it was to read in the Saratoga Sun of the accusations of financial impropriety against Garden Board member Cindy Bloomquist and her partner Chris Shannon voiced at the recent Saratoga Town Council meeting. Is this how Saratoga rewards those who have given so generously of their time and energy to make the town a better place to live? What proof has been presented? Thankfully, the knowledgeable and well-informed Glee Johnson was at the Town Council meeting to provide some factual information regarding Garden Board operations....
Dear Editor, The purpose of this letter is to attempt to clarify the ongoing situation involving the Saratoga Community Garden and the Town of Saratoga. Let me begin by being very clear, it is my personal belief that we are extremely lucky to have such an asset in our community. A place where we can gather and share ideas, techniques and local knowledge about how to reap the bounties our short and challenging growing season can provide. The hours and hard work of local volunteers should not go unnoticed, a big thanks to them for creating such...
An imbroglio that began at a sparsely-attended Dec. 20 meeting of the Saratoga Town Council carried over into the New Year, drawing a crowd of about 35 to the council’s Jan. 3 gathering. Despite being sharply chastised by several members of the public for remarks he’d made at the Dec. 20 meeting, council member Will Faust continued to assert that the community garden board had improperly disbursed federal grant money. Those charges were denied by board members, and a review of the town’s annua...
At the Dec. 20 meeting of the Saratoga Town Council, about five members of the public were present to hear council member Will Faust level accusations of financial impropriety against members of the community garden board. “They’re writing their own grants to line their own pockets,” Faust said after the meeting, referring to garden member Cindy Bloomquist and Chris Shannon, who is in a relationship with Bloomquist and owns Prancing Antelope construction Faust suggested the council begin think...
An approaching winter storm likely kept several regular attendees at home during the monthly meeting of the Saratoga Airport Board Dec. 13. About five members of the public did turn out, however, and unlike November’s meeting, the board achieved a quorum. Animating much of the day’s discussion was a rehash of an old issue: revisions to the lease terms for hangar owners at the airport that went into effect in the early part of 2016. When the new terms were adopted, several hangar owners objected...
The Saratoga Water and Sewer Joint Powers Board (sewer board) met Dec. 14 to begin discussing the use of a state grant to improve the lagoon system at the sewage treatment plant, put to rest the controversy surrounding the Happy Tails kennel sewer line on the North side of town, and bid farewell to a member of the board. The Sewer Board hired an engineering firm, Sunrise Engineering, to do a scope of work on improvements at the treatment facility. The Board also heard from the DEQ who lifted an injunction against the town stemming from the...
About 15 different contractors representing eight different firms gathered at the Saratoga Town Hall Dec. 8 for an informational session on a project to clear Platte River gravel bars near the HWY 130 bridge. The project has long been on the town docket, but previously undisclosed details about its execution were released at the pre-bid meeting. Laying out the parameters of the operation were Saratoga Mayor Ed Glode, council member Richard Raymer, director of public works Jon Winter and an...
Few ventured into howling winter wind to attend the Dec. 6 meeting of the Saratoga Town Council. About five members of the public (including incoming council member Jennie Lou Ivory) turned out for the conclave, which wrapped up in less than 25 minutes, after the council had attended to a slate of routine business. On top of the to-do list for the council is determining who to vote for in elections to the Local Government Liability Pool (LGLP). The LGLP is “a self-insurance liability pool for W...
Judy Welton will be stepping down from her post as a Saratoga Town Council member when her term expires early next year. She had one last idea she wanted to float before she returns to the life of a private citizen, however: year-round LED lights adorning the Bridge Avenue light posts. "What I've heard is (merchants) really enjoy having (lights) on the polls and would like to leave them up year-round," Welton said at the Nov. 15 meeting of the council. According to Saratoga Director of Public Wo...
Friday library hours will be returning, and the liquor will keep flowing in Saratoga. With about 15 members of the public in attendance (including incoming council members Steve Wilcoxson and Jennie Lou Ivory), the Saratoga Town Council voted to pitch in $1,500 for the local library and to renew liquor licenses at its Nov. 15 meeting. Carbon County Library System Director Jacob Mickelson petitioned the council for $1,500 so the facility could return to being open on Fridays starting Dec. 1. In...
The town of Riverside council met briefly Thursday, absent mayor Leroy Stephenson, and quickly dispensed with routine business. The entire meeting lasted about 18 minutes and most of that time was spent hearing issues from the public. The board quickly approved meeting minutes and voted to pay the town’s bills before moving on to guest speakers and voting to allocate $500 to the Carbon County Library System which will go directly to benefit the Encampment-Riverside branch. Over the summer, as a funding battle between the library board and count...
The Town of Encampment Town Council met Thursday, without the town mayor present, to deal with routine business facing the town and to hear from two members of the public. After approving the minutes of the last meeting and voting to pay the town’s bills, the council heard from Christy Smith of the Grand Encampment Museum (GEM) who was there to ask the town for help paying for a full-page ad to advertise the museum, the towns of Encampment and Riverside and local businesses in a travel publication. A full-page color ad in the publication c...
What should “open space” requirements be in a land famed for its big skies and distant horizons? The question was one of the main animating forces of a 90-minute Saratoga Planning Commission meeting attended by about five. Though little was voted on, discussion was far-ranging at the Nov. 8 meeting. Open space ordinances are municipal codes that mandate a certain percentage of new developments be set aside for park space or green belts. Whether or not Saratoga’s Planned Unit Development (PUD)...
Two fires from the night before and a forthcoming World Series baseball game were weighing on several minds at a Nov. 1 meeting of the Saratoga Town Council. It was the last meeting of the council before elections Nov. 8 will determine who will replace departing council members Sue Howe and Judy Welton. “I wish some of our fire department was here to thank, but I’m sure they’re all sleeping,” Saratoga Mayor Ed Glode said at the meeting. Two separate blazes had the firefighters working overtim...
A gravel bar in the Platte River going through town has been put on notice. At an Oct. 18 meeting of the Saratoga Town Council, director of public works Jon Winter announced details of a long-awaited gravel-clearing operation that’s been slated for the first part of December. About 10 members of the public were in attendance to hear the news. “The goal is to get rid of the big bar (immediately south of the HWY 130 bridge). That’s the primary goal,” Winter said in an Oct. 24 interview with the Su...
The night of Oct. 18 all four Carbon County Commissioner candidates found themselves on the hot seat, with a pair of Rawlins High School students doing the grilling. The occasion was a forum hosted by the Carbon County Higher Education Center (CCHEC), where about 30 people gathered to watch the three Republican incumbents and their lone Democratic challenger vie for three open positions on the board. The forum was also live-streamed on the CCHEC’s facebook feed, where it had generated over 1...
After more than 35 years, Kim Lorenzen of Saratoga Aviation has started the process of selling-off his Fixed Base Operator (FBO) business at Shively Field to a new firm, Mountain Flight Services. The transaction was announced and approved at an Oct. 12 meeting of the Saratoga Airport Board attended by about five members of the public. An FBO is the entity in charge of keeping an airport up to Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) standards, and it is also responsible for providing a host of...
