Teens seek to move Cancer Walk to downtown area

Saratoga Town Hall was filled with young faces at the April 1 town council meeting.

More than a dozen students from Saratoga Middle/High School (SMHS) met with the council and the mayor to propose changes to the 2014 Saratoga Cancer Walk. Heather Oxford, SMHS student, asked the council if the Cancer Walk could go through downtown Saratoga this year.

“We were thinking this year that we could move it downtown, we could get more people interested and participating,” Oxford said.

The proposed changes will include moving the Cancer Walk before the 4th of July Parade. A tentative schedule would have the the walk would begin at 8 a.m. that day.

SMHS teacher Scott Bokelman said that there were around 120 participants in the Cancer Walk last year. However, the walk going through downtown Saratoga would call for temporary closure of Highway 130.

“[Last year] we had everything picked up and cleaned within two hours,” Bokelman said. “The walk itself is maybe an hour, hour and a half.”

The council approved the project on the conditions that they would be able close off the road.

“We will work as fast as we can on our end to get this done,” Saratoga Mayor John Zeiger said.

Property liens

Saratoga Town Clerk Suzie Cox asked permission to file liens on three properties within Saratoga for utility bills.

The owner one home owner owes $1,688.12, which was last paid on March 16, 2012 and the resident who owns that property is no longer living within Saratoga. Two other residents owe $1,668.17 and reportedly refuse to pay the bill. A third resident owes the town more than $4,000, and have not made a payment since 2011.

Cox said that the town has shut off the water to all of these addresses.

Spillman service

up and running

Town of Saratoga police chief Tom Knickerbocker said that the Spillman service, a virtual private network co-operated by Saratoga Encampment, is “up and running” again.

“It was not our responsibility to supply the IT work to get them up and running, but we did,” Knickerbocker said. “We wanted to maintain that good relationship [with Encampment police]. There was a lot of stuff in the paper and I’ve spoken with Chief Wachsmuth and he indicated that the way it came out on the radio the first time was not exactly how we portrayed what was going on with it. He was happy with the way we were trying to get them up and running.”

However, Knickerbocker said that if the system were to fail again, Saratoga Police would likely not assist.

“They will be responsible if the system went down. They can still access their stuff, but it’s going to be their responsibility,” Knickerbocker said.

During public question, the Saratoga Sun asked if the town had set up another public forum with Stantec concerning the Upper North Platte River Restoration Project.

“We have been in contact with Stantec,” Zeiger said. “We are trying to get a date as soon as possible. We are trying to combine (the meeting) with a time that they are up here doing a test to save them a trip. So it is in the works.”

The next town council meeting will take place 6 p.m. on April 15 at Saratoga Town Hall.