[DISCLAIMER: The “SVR News Roundup” is the personal newsletter of the author and is not an official publication of the Town of Star Valley Ranch or the Star Valley Ranch Association. The SVR News Roundup provides a weekly summary of publicly available information and also occasionally includes opinion and commentary by the author.]
April is flying by! Here’s your news roundup for the week of April 20th, 2025:
Wednesday, April 23rd at 8am the Town of Star Valley Ranch (TSVR) Town Council conducted a work session at Town Hall. Here’s a link to the agenda along with a few notes:
The Town Council appointed current Billing Clerk, Ms. Herd, to serve as the temporary Town Clerk. Former Town Clerk, Ms. Gray, recently left the Town’s employment. The Town will conduct a recruitment effort to hire a new permanent Town Clerk.
The Town Council reviewed the second reading version of the TSVR Fiscal Year 2025-2026 Budget.
The Town Council is taking a hard look at the multitude of capital projects with an eye toward balancing what can be accomplished during the next fiscal year while not cutting into reserves too deeply.
The Town Council reviewed a number of potential new building permit requirements with the Town Building Official. A permit requirement for installation of solar energy systems is likely.
Also on Wednesday at 5pm, the TSVR Planning Commission held their second meeting of the month at Town Hall. You can find the meeting agenda here. The main item from the meeting was a question and answer session with the developer of the Mountain Estates subdivision, Mr. Izatt. The Commissioners questioned Mr. Izatt about the development’s water infrastructure plans and also inquired about formation of a subdivision homeowners association.
Thursday, April 24th from 6:30pm to 8:30pm, the TSVR Natural Resources Board (NRB) hosted a "Certified Nature Mapper" training class upstairs at Town Hall. I’m pleased to report the course was very well attended. Great job Ranch residents! The course and nature mapping application were provided by the Jackson Hole Wildlife Foundation who uses the data collected to aide in placing wildlife crossings, encourage wildlife friendly fencing, promote wildlife warning signage, and other types of wildlife conservation efforts. I had a great time and learning to use the nature mapping application was fun and easy. I’m also pleased to report I’m already mapping away using the Project Backyard observation portion of the application.
Other news and notes for the week:
One update about the Hardman Bridge project was posted to the TSVR News & Notices webpage on Monday. You can read that update here. Speaking of the Hardman Bridge project, it’s moving along pretty quickly and barring any unforeseen complications, the bridge should be open next week! Here’s a short video I took at the work-site last week while one of the concrete culvert pieces was being unloaded from a tractor-trailer.
A resident was kind enough to share this beautiful photo of a rare piebald American robin that she spotted while out for a walk near her home on Wednesday of this week. She also relayed her research indicates this mutation only occurs in 1 out of every 30,000 robins! Wow!
A “pied” or “piebald” American Robin displays a condition called leucism. [I wrote about this trait in a post from January of this year about a leucistic mule deer fawn.] This genetic mutation results in reduced pigmentation leading to white or light-colored plumage patches on the head, breast, or other parts of the body. What a cool thing to see!
Piebald American robin. Thanks Carol! And, on Friday, the Star Valley Ranch Trail Crew posted an update to their Facebook page about the Cedar Creek Trail #3078 and trailhead. For the time being trail enthusiasts should continue to use the winter parking area at the entrance to the Trailhead Road; the road itself is not yet open due to a the amount of snow still covering portions of it. As for Cedar Creek Trail itself, there are some dry spots but also good amounts of snow and icy spots too. Bottom line, it’s springtime trail conditions y’all!
Only one calendar item to note for next week:
Thursday, May 1st is the first day residents can stop by Town Hall to pick up yellow bags and gloves in preparation for the TSVR Spring Roadside Clean-Up event that begins on May 8th and runs through May 11th. I’ll include more details about this event next week.
Final thoughts—I’m about 95% sure I heard the trilling wing sound of a Broad-tailed hummingbird overhead today. I never spotted the little guy (and it would be a male as they are the first spring arrivals ahead of the ladies), but accordingly to my Arrivals Observation Log (which I’ve maintained for the past 7 years), the average date of first sighting here at my house is April 30th. If you’ve spotted any of these little beauties yet, please let me know. In the meantime, here is an audio file which captures the wing-trilling along with some other display sounds. I bet some of you will hear this before you put eyes on one of these tiny birds whizzing by. Enjoy the week!
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