Fires, gas and water

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 overtime on Halloween and into the early morning hours of Nov. 1.

The earlier fire started around 4:45 p.m. and ultimately engulfed two outbuildings owned by Connie McGuire. The second fire was a late night affair that left a building on the corner of Northeast River St. and East Rochester Ave. damaged but standing. The causes of both fires remain under investigation.

Glode described the department’s response time as “very impressive” and continued, “if you see anybody that was on those calls, thank them.”

At the meeting, Glode also notified the council that a Colorado company had approached him about constructing a cell phone tower for Verizon within town limits. Glode did not provide details about where the tower would be located or what financial arrangements would be made if the tower were to be built. “We’ll have to meet in the future and see how that turns out,” the mayor said, suggesting the council should start thinking about the idea and be ready for more discussion at a later date.

The council did take action, however, on dispersement of an annual grant from Wyoming Community Gas to the Town of Saratoga. The company reinvests a portion of its revenues back into the communities that it services, and this year those funds amounted to about $3,690, a slight uptick from last year’s figure of about $3,235.

According to the Wyoming Community Gas website, funds from the grant must be used to “address community-related issues.” Last year, the council opted to put the money toward beautifying Good Times Park. This year, the council needed little discussion to determine how the money should be spent: Council member Will Faust suggested that the funds be put towards renovating Tyler Pickett Park, and the council unanimously supported the idea.

From the department of public works, Jon Winter said that in late October he had met with a representative from Maguire Iron to discuss how much it would cost to repair the town’s one-million gallon water tank. Both of the town’s tanks will also need to be cleaned next year, and Winter said Maguire Iron was also going to give him quotes on how much that would cost. Neither price was yet available, however, he said.

Winter also said that he, the mayor and the water and sewer joint powers board had recently met with representatives from the U.S. Forest Service. The meeting was held in order to discuss what options the Forest Service would have for tapping into the town’s water and sewer system at it’s Brush Creek/Hayden Ranger District Station. Earlier in the year, Saratoga “annexed” the Ranger Station into town limits so the Forest Service could hook into those systems.

On the subject of a river project set to remove a gravel bar on the Platte River just South of the HWY 130 bridge, Winter reported a minor hiccup. He said officials at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had bundled the town’s project with a private venture in the same area. The mix-up delayed the publication of a Turbidity Waiver notice required by the Environmental Protection Agency, and may slightly delay the start of the project, Winter said.

The next meeting of the Saratoga Town Council will be 6 p.m. Nov. 15 at the Saratoga Town Hall.