Broadband still on its way

The Saratoga Town Council received updates on the Union Wireless broadband build-out and approved a transfer of entitlements from the Saratoga Municipal Airport during their March 21 meeting. The council also approved several grant applications including one for mosquito mitigation. 

Not so fast

Brian Woody, chief customer relations officer for Union Wireless, provided an update on the company’s broadband buildout for Saratoga. According to Woody, 43% of permanent structures in the town have fiber optic cable internet access, 80% of users have broadband high speed internet with greater than 25 megs per second download and 99% of Saratoga residents have access to the internet.

While there had been progress on the buildout early on in the project, recently it has slowed. Though updating to broadband has been mandated by the federal government, it will currently only fund 39% of the replacement of the infrastructure. The federal government is working on how to fund the remaining cost, and Union is waiting to see how that will be done, said Myra Robinson, Public Relations Manager from Union Wireless, in a follow-up email with the Saratoga Sun.

Woody said while he didn’t see Union Wireless being able to do any construction this year, he said they would hopefully have the funds to do construction next year.

Airport entitlements

In Fiscal Year 2022, the Saratoga Municipal Airport received an entitlement amount of $101,756 as part of the Airport Improvement Program through the Federal Aviation Administration from the Lusk Airport. The entitlement was transferred to Saratoga as Lusk would not be using it for that fiscal year.

Now, as Lusk prepares to work on projects of their own, they are requesting the entitlement back from Saratoga. The request for entitlement was approved unanimously by the Saratoga Town Council.

Granting Grant Applications

This year, the Town of Saratoga will be applying for more than $60,000 for the 2023 Wyoming Emergency Insect Management Grant for mosquito abatement in Saratoga.

According to Mayor Chuck Davis, the Town of Saratoga budgeted $63,820 for mosquito abatement in the Fiscal Year 2022/2023 budget. Davis said the Town fogged for a total of 22 days, while this year the goal is fog for 112 days with two foggers running each evening.

Last year, the foggers were paid $20 per hour.  Based on that information, the estimated cost for the foggers would be $8,960.00 for 112 days.  By air, the goal is to do three applications with one or two of those applications being when the weather warms up to focus on the larva.  

The cost to spray by air would be $2.86 per acre and the total area covered would be 3,500 acres.  The total acres would be 10,500 if sprayed three times and the total price would come out to be $30,030. Miscellaneous materials and supplies would be $1000. Adulticide and Larvicide would cost $16,208.00 and this is reimbursable to the Town through Carbon County Weed and Pest.  

Administrative costs would be billed out at $36 per hour for 30 hours.  Fuel prices would come out to be approximately $5,400. With the cost of advertisement to inform the public of when spraying occurs, the grand total was $63,820.  

The town council unanimously approved the 2023 Wyoming EIMG Package and application for the Wyoming Emergency Insect Management Grant for a total of $63,820.  

Another grant application approved by the Saratoga Town Council was one for the 2023 State Homeland Security Program through Resolution 2023-09 for the Saratoga Police Department.

The funds from the grant would be used to update the radio system so communications are made via radio frequencies from dispatch to the water tower. This will cover Saratoga Police Department, Saratoga Volunteer Fire Department, Encampment Police Department and Encampment Volunteer Fire Department channels. 

This is a 100% reimbursable grant from Homeland Security. The total amount of money to be requested is still being determined. Resolution 2023-09 was approved unanimously.

The next meeting of the Saratoga Town Council will be at 6 p.m. on April 7 at Saratoga Town Hall.