Can you plan a town if you can't plan a meeting?

We were surprised when attending the town of Saratoga Planning meeting, that an agenda was not prepared prior to the Sept. 8 meeting.

Chairman Rory Grubb created an agenda on the fly which included discussing hiring a secretary that could attend meetings.

The currently contracted secretary was not at the meeting because of a conflicting work schedule as a police dispatcher.

The commission discussed the fact that the former Planning and Zoning Officer used to create the agendas and bring many action items to the commission.

“Chuck (Bartlett) would bring us a lot of building permits … we have no way of getting that information anymore unless Kent (Smith, part-time town engineer) was to bring us something. If somebody was to apply for a building permit that was out of the norm, how would that get to us at this point?” Grubb said.

The lack of initiative to delegate making an agenda and querying the engineering department shows a need for leadership on the planning commission.

Later in the meeting, it became apparent that not everyone on the planning and zoning commission is familiar with the ordinances that already exist.

Any board position takes a lot of work and insight. The future of the town cannot be planned for if the commission is not familiar with the statutes already in place and precious meeting time is wasted on basic administrative problems.

We also believe the planning commission should be open to established ideas, rather than trying to reinvent the wheel.

During a discussion of a Sept. 2 Op/Ed in the Saratoga Sun, commissioner Rusty Rogers, stated “I don’t like to see it approached from the direction of ‘so and so’ did it so why can’t we? Nothing gets the hair up stiffer on your neck than saying that. I don’t care how you did it back home,” adding, “Let’s look for our own solutions.”

Commissioner Greg Cooksey pointed out that the examples in the Sun article were from Wyoming municipalities.

This attitude of figuring it out for ourselves needlessly wastes time and energy on problems that have been solved by other communities. The Saratoga Sun suggests the approach of building on what others have done and tailoring it to our towns should fit our town perfectly.

There seems to be a perception among some citizens and seasoned town officials that members of our community and civil servants that are vocal about following statutes already in place, working toward growth and using existing planning models from other communities need to temper their voices and enthusiasm. This does not sound, to us, like a plan for a vibrant future.