The week of February 11th, 2024 was a busy one for Star Valley Ranch; here’s your news roundup—buckle-up it’s a bit of a long one:
The week started off with a flurry of activity on Tuesday, February 13th at the Town of Star Valley Ranch (TSVR) Town Hall beginning with Coffee with the Mayor at 9am. A Town Council work session followed at 10am. Here are a couple of notes from the work session:
The Council is expecting an update from the Town Engineer to the Town’s Water Master Plan by mid-May 2024.
Approval from the Army Corps of Engineers is still pending on the Middle Branch Bridge replacement project.
The Council discussed addressing resident concerns regarding future construction of large post-frame single-family homes (SFH) such as the one currently being built on Cedar Creek Drive.
While Star Valley Ranch does not have a singular style of SFH, the concern stems from the commercial warehouse appearance some of these “barndominium” structures can take and the potential impacts to surrounding homes. The majority of the Council believes updates to the Land Usage section of the Town Code could be a viable path forward. Stay tuned!
Also on Tuesday, the TSVR Municipal Court was in session at 2pm. Only one case was on the docket, however, next month might be a little livelier after the rash of citations issued by TSVR this month to short-term rental (STR) properties currently operating on the Ranch without a 2024 STR permit. I’ll keep you posted!
Finally, Tuesday evening at 7:00pm the monthly Town Council Meeting was held at Town Hall. (You can read the entire meeting packet here and the video recording of the meeting is available here on the Town’s YouTube channel.) A couple of notes—the Council approved the third reading of the updated Nuisance Ordinance and during the public comment period, a resident voiced disappointment on the ongoing chlorination of the Town’s culinary water system. The resident noted the negative impact on the water’s taste as well as the chlorine odor.
Note: Any resident experiencing what you believe to be excessive chlorine odor or taste of your water, please contact Town Hall so the Water Department can look into your particular situation.
Wednesday, February 14th was Valentines Day! There was also a TSVR Planning & Zoning (P&Z) Board meeting held at 5pm. You can read the draft minutes from this P&Z meeting here.
[Photo credit Winnie Molnar (Facebook), Silver Mustang Ranch.] Thursday, February 15th at 2pm, another Town Council work session was held. This one was focused primarily on kicking-off the 2024-2025 TSVR Budget development process. Find the agenda here.
Other quick notes for the week are as follows:
The TSVR Trail Crew continues to keep trails open for snowshoeing. A Trail Crew volunteer plows the trailhead parking pull-out on Vista Drive for access to the south end of the Vista-Prater Trail. And, the Star Valley Ranch Association (SVRA) plows the winter parking area at the entrance to the Cedar Creek Trail. Thank you Trail Crew and SVRA!
Vista-Prater Trail parking pull-out on Vista Drive. The Pole Barn Poll (from the January 7th SVR News Roundup) currently stands at 88% against more pole-barn home, 10% for additional pole-barn homes, and 3% who probably just think the entire poll is silly. [Click here to access the poll and add your opinion if you haven’t already.]
I also need to offer another clarification regarding the rate reduction on four of TSVR’s State Loan and Investment Board (SLIB) water project loans that I previously reported on in the December 10th and December 24th, 2023 SVR News Roundup posts. Specifically, I relayed the loans were reduced "to 1%" when they were actually reduced "by 1%". For the four affected SLIB loans, the loan rates went from 2.5% to 1.5%. I apologize for botching this news item (twice), however, I believe this is now the complete and correct information.
Here are Star Valley Ranch calendar items and notes for the upcoming week:
Monday, February 19th, the TSVR Town Hall and SVRA office will be closed in observance of President’s Day.
Tuesday, February 20th at 10am, the TSVR Travel & Tourism Board will hold its inaugural meeting at Town Hall. You can find the agenda here.
Thursday, February 22nd at 2pm, the Town Council will hold a second budget work session at Town Hall.
Last, but decidedly not least, I received an email earlier in the week from Lincoln County Treasurer Jerry Greenfield. The Treasurer provided a response to my commentary about the Star Valley Chamber of Commerce luncheon I attended on February 5th. For those of you who read last week’s SVR Roundup you’ll recall I didn’t mince words about the luncheon’s primary discussion topic—property taxes. I appreciate the Treasurer reaching out after reading what I had to say. To follow is Treasurer Jerry Greenfield’s response to my commentary in its entirety:
The article as to the Monday (SVCC) monthly luncheon at the Thayne Community center pertaining to taxes, was apparently not presented well. The mission of the County Treasurer was to present the facts and not to point fingers.
o Fact 1. Wyoming State Statutes are the results of the Legislature. Rules/guidelines as to how special districts including counties are to conduct business.
o Fact 2. Property Taxes collected for year ending June 30, 2023 - $67,649,929.75.
o Fact 3. Distribution of those taxes are as follows:
• Education 68.40% • County General 15.62%
• 3 Hospital Districts 5.59%. • Libraries 2.24%
• 9 Towns 1.73% • 5 Fire Districts 1.71%
• Weed & Pest 1.45% • 10 Cemeteries 0.94%
• Fair 0.87% • Recreation 0.74%
• Irrigation Districts 0.71%
o Fact 4. These funds are collected by the Lincoln County Treasurer and by the 10th of each month and distributed.
o Fact 5. If the property taxes are not paid by the May 10th Delinquent notices are sent. If still not paid-Treasurers follow Wyoming State Statutes and sell the taxes at a tax sale. This is how special district's budgets are made whole.
o Fact 6. Not enough time to complete the total intended message. That was to talk about how to reduce property taxes. (A) When the State of WY has excess funds some of those funds could go to reduce property taxes-not all to the state reserves. (B) There is a number of proposed legislation to reduce property taxes, this is totally up to Legislators (C) If we were to reduce property taxes by 50%-what would we cut? Remember education takes 68.40% of property taxes...maybe we all need to attend their budget meeting and see how those tax dollars are spent.
~Jerry Greenfield, Lincoln County TreasurerFinal thoughts—as I noted at the beginning of this post, this week’s SVR News Roundup was longer than usual, however, I felt it was important to publish the entire Treasurer’s response. Thanks to all of you who made it to this final bullet! Beyond all the news, there was also a lot of awesome snow this week. The snow-stake in my garden is finally topping 3-feet! Check out the photo—yeehaw! And, lastly, I too am starting to yearn (just a bit) for spring, however, I’m sure you’ll agree our mountains need the snowpack!
Snow-stake over 3 feet! And, a snow bear because he's cute.
Thank you very much for reading! Your support and feedback is always appreciated! Please invite your neighbors, family, and friends to check out Close to Home 307. You can reach me anytime by email at: close2home307@gmail.com