As we near the middle of October it seems winter may not be far off given the slushy precipitation earlier in the week. But at least we were back to sunshine by the weekend. Enough about the weather! Here’s a recap of the busy past week at Star Valley Ranch:
Tuesday, October 10th at 1pm the Town of Star Valley Ranch (TSVR) Financial Advisory Board (FAB) met at Town Hall. Here’s the meeting agenda. (Note that the FAB only meets quarterly. You can read the minutes from their July meeting here.)
Also on Tuesday, October 10th at 2pm the TSVR Town Council conducted a work session at Town Hall followed by the regular Town Council Meeting at 7pm. Here are a some items of interest from the work session and regular meeting:
The Town will pursue an opportunity to obtain a rate reduction (from 2.5% to 1.5%) from the State Loan and Investment Board (SLIB) on an existing water project loan.
Following a recent Wyoming Association of Risk Management cybersecurity audit, the Town will likely obtain a new anti-virus service and upgrade procedures to incorporate multi-factor authentication.
The Town Council discussed improving procedures and after-action reporting as an outcome of last month’s Green Canyon water pump failures.
At the Town Council meeting, the Mayor made an introductory statement about the water quality form letter residents received last month. (Note we reported on this in our week of 17 September SVR news email.) The Mayor offered an apology and noted the Town did a poor job of handling the situation and in future more care will be taken to ensure residents receive more complete information.
Click here to read the entire Town Council regular meeting document packet and you can also watch the October Town Council meeting video here. Note the Town now has upgraded audio/video technology which facilitates improved visuals and sound during recorded meetings.
Wednesday, October 11th at 5pm the TSVR Planning and Zoning Board met at Town Hall. You can read draft minutes from this meeting here.
Also, at 5pm on Wednesday, October 11th, the newly formed TSVR Roads Advisory Board (RAB) held their inaugural meeting at Town Hall. The meeting was well-attended by residents. The RAB elected a chairman and will plan to conduct future meetings on the first Tuesday of each month at 5pm.
The Town Council conducted another work session at Town Hall on Thursday, October 12th at 10am. The primary focus of this meeting was a demonstration of the ArcGIS system by the TSVR Town Engineer. ArcGIS is a cloud-based mapping and analysis solution used to make maps, analyze data, and provides tools for being mobile in the field. This application can be used by the TSVR Public Works Department to track roads and water system repairs and can assist in prioritizing future maintenance and repair projects. One other item of interest from this work session was the announcement that next week the final Water Improvement Project 2021 (WIP 2021) notice will be published after which final project payment can be made.
Two other news items worth passing along:
On Thursday morning, October 12th, there was a water system pressure release valve (PRV) malfunction at the PRV pit near the intersection of Aspen Way and Dogwood Drive. The actual repair was completed in a very short time; however, water was shut-off for about two hours affecting much of the north-end of the Ranch while the PRV pit was pumped out.
PRV near Aspen Way and Dogwood Drive being pumped out last Thursday. The Thayne Postmaster recently relayed that locks for the patiently waiting additional package lockers at the TSVR Mail Center have been ordered. She was not able to provide a timeframe as to when those locks will be delivered.
Star Valley Ranch calendar items for next week are as follows:
Tuesday, October 17th at 6pm the Star Valley Ranch Association (SVRA) Board of Directors (BoD) will hold at workshop at Cedar Creek Center.
Thursday, October 19th at 7pm the SVRA BoD will conduct their monthly meeting at Cedar Creek Center.
Final thoughts—I’ve been working on adding more content to the Close to Home 307 website. A new “Around the 307” section is now live, and I’ll also be adding “Local Resources” links and “Local Eats” links to the main website page. Please check out these additions!
Thanks for reading and sharing the Close to Home 307 website with your Ranch friends and neighbors. Reach me by email anytime at: close2home307@gmail.com