Sorted by date Results 876 - 900 of 1198
Last Thursday, Andy Van Tol presented changes to the lease agreement in order to resolve issues of renewal and termination in ways that make sense, especially tax-wise, for hangar owners. The Saratoga Airport Board was satisfied with the language, and as of the Jan. 14 meeting, it had been sent out to the town attorney. The vast majority of the language had been borrowed from the commercial lease, according to Van Tol, with one sentence taken from Fort Collins. The changes, which largely...
Council Representative to the Planning Commission Will Faust and Mayor Ed Glode introduced a newly formed Cleanup Committee to the Saratoga Planning Commission at the commissions Jan. 12 meeting. The Cleanup Committee will include eight members including police officers, elected and appointed town officials and town staff. Members are chief of police Thomas Knickerbocker, captain Robert Bifano, sergeant Ken Lehr, zoning officer Kent Smith, director of public works Jon Winter, chairman of the...
The Saratoga Outfall Sewer Project has seen changes since the update at the last Saratoga/Carbon County Impact Joint Powers (water and sewer) Board meeting, according to Heath Overfield, Chief Executive Officer of Engineering Associates (EA). “We’re on hold right now as far as the design goes,” Overfield said. There are serious concerns that the project will not meet the Department of Environmental Quality’s (DEQ) internal April 1 deadline, but since it’s internal, the DEQ has control over it....
In a review of 2015 financial reports the South Central Wyoming Emergency Medical Service (SCWEMS) Joint Powers Board concluded that revenue was down and at the moment costs are exceeding income. The current deficit was attributed to a lower call volume and a lag in invoice payments by member entities Saratoga, Encampment and Riverside. Clerks for the three towns said that they pay invoices from SCWEMS as they come in and have only received the December invoice for the second quarter of 2016...
A Saratoga resident who lives close to the river, Bob Thrasher, brought concerns about flood control to the Saratoga Town Council at the Jan. 5 meeting, wondering what plans were in the works for 2016. Mayor Ed Glode clarified that the lack of activity was due to the long wait for a ground penetrating radar study, which was determined as an improper tool in November. “Since then, we’ve toured the river with Army Corps of Engineers, and we’re going to tour it tomorrow (Jan. 6) with FEMA,...
The community visioning process is winding down for the town of Saratoga Master Plan with the final day for the online public survey set for Jan. 15. Saratoga residents who have not yet completed this survey can go to www.saratogachamber.info and click on the yellow “Saratoga Master Plan Survey” icon. Planning consulting firm Community Builders Inc. (CBI) has worked with the Project Steering Committee to help identify major themes and key topics to address in the Master Plan. To give the public an opportunity to help identify the direction of...
Mayor Ed Glode learned about his hometown from a new standpoint as mayor, and looks forward to another year. “I’ve enjoyed it. It’s been fun working with everybody and learning a lot of new things, and learning town finances. There’s certain challenges working with state and federal government. It’s entertaining,” Glode laughed. While he has known the town well through growing up in Saratoga and held governmental positions in the past, Glode said the position of mayor has given him a new perspec...
Jerry Palen, Creator and artist of "Stampede," the largest rural cartoon series in the United States and Canada, isn't letting rheumatoid arthritis stop his creative flow. Jerry and his wife Ann have settled down in their home at the Saratoga Inn subdivision where he now creates his cartoons, paintings and bronzes. Jerry said, "I just can't work under the stress of the deadlines because some days I will be fine and some days I'll be so swollen up you wouldn't even recognize me." He now walks...
Two new planning commissioners, Jim Beckmann and Chris Duke, were appointed at the Dec. 15 town council meeting. When councilpersons were asked about the reasoning for picking two new planning commissioners as opposed to re-appointing the current ones, Greg Cooksey and Chris Shannon, the resounding reasoning was a desire to add some new faces to the commission. They found the applicants well-suited for the positions, as well. “I think just rubber-stamping, re-appointing someone probably i...
At a packed meeting last Tuesday in Saratoga Town Hall, the Saratoga Planning Commission addressed several citizens concerns about verbal complaints brought up during the zoning officers report at the November meeting. Warden Patzer represented his store, Koyoty Sports at the meeting. With the move of the store to Bridge Ave. there have been verbal concerns about potential problems associated with taxidermy practices. Specific concerns brought to commissioner Rusty Rogers were about vermin that...
Plans to rehabilitate the runway at Shively Field began Dec. 9 with a meeting between Dave Schultz, of Sage Engineering, and the Saratoga Airport Board. There will not be any changes to the position or the length of the runway, Schultz said. The meeting jumpstarted the planning process, Schultz explained. In order to get everything organized, the board needed to hear from the experts at Sage Engineering on steps to ensure they qualify for Wyoming Aviation Capital Improvement Program funds. It...
The Saratoga/Carbon County Impact Joint Powers (water and sewer) Board met on Dec. 9, with the meeting causing a discussion about the wastewater lagoon and what dumping means to the lagoon system. This concern was brought to attention when Blackwater Septic Solutions, of Rawlins, had a representative present and Posey Wagon Portable Toilet Services LLC wrote a letter, both requesting to dump waste at the wastewater lagoons. Chairperson Don Price offered a background of dumping at the lagoon,...
The Saratoga Airport Board has been supervising hangar inspections, performed by Kent Smith, in hopes that they will be completed at the end of the year. This is to maintain standards set by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that limit personal items interfering with aviation activities. While Smith said that most everyone has had something that did not belong, he did not consider anything to be a major issue and everyone is mostly in compliance. There are 10 hangars left to inspect,...
At a special meeting Monday night, the town of Medicine Bow decided not to adopt the proposed first amendment to the South Central Wyoming Emergency Medical Service (SCWEMS) which would allow the town of Hanna as a new member of that Joint Powers Board (JPB). Medicine Bow Deputy Town Clerk/Treasurer Alice Clark reported to the Saratoga Sun that some of the Medicine Bow town council members were not satisfied with the amendment, as written, which does not include language about demographic...
Saratoga Town Councilperson Will Faust brought an update on the oft-discussed issue of daycare in Saratoga at the Dec. 1 Saratoga Town Council Meeting. After meeting with the team of volunteers working to get a daycare in town as well as Jamie Stine, of Developmental Preschool and Daycare, the group identified a problem of staffing, square footage and minor repairs in the preschools. In order to move forward, the town needs to complete a feasibility study. According to Faust, the updated...
The Saratoga Sun sat down with Mike Glode to talk about John Lunt, the long-time physician, who passed away in November. By the time this reporter had moved to Saratoga, Doc Lunt was no longer practicing medicine. He had retired for the second time and continued to be very involved in the community. When Doc Lunt moved to Saratoga, he had just retired as a surgeon in Denver and bought the Highline Ranch east of town. About the same time, the town of Saratoga had purchased the Corbett Clinic,...
“A master plan is a blueprint for the future of the community. It is just a plan. The plan itself has no legal basis other than when the planning commission adopts the master plan, which is their legal duty to do,” said Bobbe Fitzhugh, of Community Builders, Inc., the company responsible for developing the Saratoga Master Plan. The master plan shall be adopted by the planning commission according to their statutes, however once it is adopted, the town and the planning commission have con...
Tourism is now Wyoming’s No. 2 industry, according to Kim Hytrek, Saratoga representative for the Carbon County Visitors Council (CCVC). These numbers are based in the data collected from the lodging tax revenue, which is 2 percent right now. As Hytrek reported at the Nov. 17 Saratoga Town Council meeting, these numbers are well above the average for the halfway point of the 2015-16 fiscal year, at $380,002.94. These numbers do not reflect the Sinclair Refinery turnaround, as the lodging tax i...
A ground penetrating radar (GPR) study will not take place on the North Platte River through Saratoga, director of public works Jon Winter said at the Nov. 17 Saratoga Town Council meeting. Brad Carr, of the University of Wyoming, took some baseline measurements to determine whether the town could utilize GPR as a tool for river reformation. The town currently needs to determine the top of bedrock and a bedrock profile in the river, for which GPR would be unsuccessful. Winter reported that the...
The town of Elk Mountain held a special meeting Monday night at which they approved the proposed joint powers agreement (JPA) amendment to allow Hanna onto the South Central Wyoming Emergency Medical Service (SCWEMS), leaving Medicine Bow as the only SCWEMS member to not sign the amendment as written. Member entities Carbon County, Saratoga, Encampment, Riverside and hopeful member Hanna had all approved the JPA amendment prior to Elk Mountain’s special meeting. The town of Medicine Bow did n...
The South Central Wyoming Emergency Medical Service (SCWEMS) Joint Powers Board (JPB) met for their regular monthly meeting on Nov. 11 in Saratoga. The bulk of the meeting was taken up with discussion of which ambulances should be taken out of service and where new ambulances should be stationed. Ambulance Service Manager Heidi Sifford expressed her opinion that SCWEMS ambulance inventory is too large and is costing the service money that they do not need to expend. An effort to sell some of...
After discussion with county commissioner Sue Jones the Riverside town council approved the South Central Wyoming Emergency Medical Service Joint Powers Board joint powers agreement (JPA) as written at their Nov. 12 meeting. Even in light of the town of Medicine Bow rejecting the JPA amendment Riverside decided to add their approval to that of Carbon County, Saratoga, Hanna. Encampment approved the amendment later in the evening and the town of Elk Mountain approved it at a special meeting on...
At the Nov. 10 Saratoga Planning Commission meeting several complaints made to Kent Smith, zoning officer, were presented to the commission. In light of the complaints, Smith asked for direction from the planning commission regarding code enforcement. The general consensus was that Smith should be enforcing the codes that are on the book. “Blanket statement, we need to enforce the ordinances, period,” Chris Shannon, of the planning commission said. Specific complaints involve fences between ind...
The Saratoga Sun would like to commend the Saratoga Airport Board and Saratoga Mayor Ed Glode for their understanding of the seriousness of Wyoming’s open meetings statutes. Due to a lack of communication with the Saratoga Sun, and an apparent lack of understanding of open meeting law regulations by the town clerk, the airport board did not convene their monthly meeting because they did not give sufficient public notice of the meeting. This was evidenced by the chair of the board and at least one member of the public showing up at town hall at...
The Saratoga/Carbon County Impact Joint Powers Board (water and sewer) continued to discuss the draft ordinance for tap fees at their Nov. 12 meeting. The ordinance, which will raise the rates for water tap installation, indicates price base rates for materials and labor, however the wording for prices on street repair is under deliberation. Board members discussed the motives behind the new tap fee ordinance for clarity, and no action was taken on the draft past sending it to an attorney....
