Town positions filled

The Town of Saratoga has filled two vacant positions and hired a fourth police officer following the September 7 meeting of the Saratoga Town Council.

The position of treasurer, which has been open since the departure of Sammy Flohr in May, was filled with new treasurer Georgia Gayle sworn in by Mayor Creed James on Tuesday evening. The governing body also announced the replacement for Lisa Burton, former recreation director, who resigned August 13.

New treasurer

While there was no public in attendance at the September 7 meeting of the town council, those in attendance would have seen the new treasurer sitting between Town Clerk Marie Christen and Assistant Town Clerk/Treasurer Brenda Matilske. The hiring of Gayle comes after two rounds of advertising and one candidate first accepting and then turning down the position.

Gayle lives in Buford, Wyoming with her husband. According to the new treasurer, she will spend the week in Saratoga and the weekend in Buford. In an email to the Saratoga Sun, Gayle stated her first experience with municipal financing came when she served as a consultant to the Town of Guernsey. Since then, Gayle has had experience in the private sector as a small business owner.

“I studied business, accounting, cost estimating, communication and team building, but I actually learned it when it all had to be done by me,” wrote Gayle.

Since 2007, Gayle has co-owned and operated two separate research and design businesses along with administrating and managing multiple state and federal contracts and grants.

New recreation director

Following a two-week period of advertising, in which both James and Councilmember Ben Spaulding stated they received multiple applications, the interview process narrowed the pool of applicants down to three. The announcement of who the Town of Saratoga would offer the position to, however, did not come until after executive session. Upon returning to open session, the governing body announced they would offer the position to Sarah Laughlin.

Laughlin, a lifelong resident of Saratoga, graduated from Saratoga High School in 2003 and was most recently employed by Platte Valley Pharmacy. While Burton had worked in a part-time position since 2018, Laughlin will be in a full-time position which was budgeted for in the current fiscal year.

New officer

While giving his report to the governing body, Chief Ken Lehr informed the council he was in talks with a potential new officer for the department. Even though the council budgeted for six full-time officers this fiscal year, the Saratoga Police Department has struggled to maintain just four.

Following the resignation of Robert Bifano, the department had hired Justin Brown following weeks of discussions both in and out of executive sessions with the town council. Shortly after Brown was hired, however, Kyle Murphy tendered his resignation and is now employed by the Rawlins Police Department. Since then, the department has been interviewing and speaking to several potential applicants while also searching for housing.

Lehr said he would request permission from the council to hire the new officer once he filled out the packet provided by the Saratoga Police Department. Rather than wait until the next meeting, Councilmember Ron Hutchins made a motion to hire the officer should he meet all the qualifications. The motion passed unanimously.

Councilmember Ben Spaulding, who serves as the liaison to the Saratoga Police Department, said he had met with the candidate and believed he would be a benefit to both the department and the community as a whole. According to Lehr, while he was a K9 officer in his current department, the K9 would not be transferred over to the Saratoga Police Department.

The next meeting of the Saratoga Town Council will be at 6 p.m. on September 21 at Saratoga Town Hall.