[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.]
The year is flying by! Here’s your news update for the week of June 22nd, 2025:
The Roundup
Here’s a summary of meetings and events from the past week:
Wednesday, June 25th at 6pm the Town of Star Valley Ranch (TSVR) Town Council held a work session at Town Hall. Here’s a link to the agenda along with a few notes. You can also watch a video recording of the entire work session on the TSVR YouTube channel by clicking here.
The Town will hire a second, seasonal Special Municipal Officer (SMO) to work code enforcement at the Ranch during the summer months. The new SMO is expected to start within the next week.
The Town Public Works (PW) Department recently completed maintenance work on the access road that leads to the Prater-Murphy Trailhead parking area in Prater Canyon. The PW crew covered an exposed water line and also worked to make the road more passable in terms of getting to the trailhead parking area.
I’m sure many of you know this road gets washed out frequently due to spring run-off. And, to complicate matters, any work done by the Town on this road requires permission from the U.S. Forest Service in advance.
A look at the access road (at the end of Cedar Drive) that leads to the Prater-Murphy Trailhead parking area. This photo (courtesy of the SVR Trail Crew) is from 2023, but the road looks like this quite often! The Town expects to put bids out this fall for the asphalt work on Vista Drive along with chipseal projects on plats 21 and 5.
And, the Town Council discussed the ongoing conversation across municipalities about how to make Emergency Management Services (EMS) sustainable within Star Valley. The Town currently contracts with Star Valley Health for EMS. I’ll keep folks posted on this topic as it evolves.
Friday June 27th and Saturday June 28th the TSVR Natural Resources Board (NRB) held their annual Garage Sale for Trails and Parks across from Town Hall next to the First Response Center on Vista Drive. While the official tally isn’t in yet, my understanding is the event went great and that the total proceeds are likely in excess of $10,000! Way to go NRB!
Lastly, also on Saturday, June 28th the Star Valley Ranch Association (SVRA) held their Annual Meeting & Election and Property Owner’s Weekend (the latter including a potluck dinner, live music, and more).
A quorum was achieved for the election and both ballot measures were passed. Additionally, Tony Viollis was re-elected to the SVRA Board of Directors and a new director, Marcus Occhi, will also join the Board. If you missed the results, here is a link to the election outcome.
Other News and Notes for the Week
Additional news items of interest from the week:
Work on Water Improvement Project 2023 (WIP 2023) continued this week with most of the effort happening along Ridgecrest Drive which also involved some road closures.
Today, Sunday June 29th, the Friends of the Bridger Teton (FBT) set up a “Friends Fort” at the Cedar Creek Trailhead from 8:30am to 3pm. The Friends Fort, manned today by FBT interns Kara and Lis, provided public engagement at the trailhead and offered information such as how to avoid wildlife conflicts, leave no trace hiking principles, noxious weed prevention, and many other topics. The interns also collected trail-use data. When I stopped by around 12:30pm this afternoon they had already logged 35 trail users, plus 11 dogs, and 2 horses! The Friends Fort is part of the FBT Ambassador for Responsible Recreation Program. You may recall our TSVR Travel & Tourism Board recently awarded a lodging tax grant to sponsor an FBT Ambassador who will spend his time here at our SVR trails this summer and also at Grover Park. If you missed today’s Friends Fort, additional dates this summer are planned for July 13th and August 2nd (trailhead locations to be announced).
And, finally, here’s where things currently stand with the “Dwelling Space” poll. As of today, votes are running 45% for allowing dwelling in detached garages and accessory buildings and 55% against (see screenshot below).
If you haven’t voted you can still do so by clicking here which will take you to last week’s SVR News Roundup post. From there just scroll down until you see the poll and submit your vote. Thanks!
Calendar Items
Here’s a look at calendar items for next week:
Tuesday, July 1st at 4:30pm the TSVR Water Utility Board will meet at Town Hall.
Also on Tuesday at 6pm, the TSVR Roads Advisory Board will meet at Town Hall.
Last, but certainly not least, on Friday July 4th the SVRA will hold an Independence Day Celebration that begins at 7:30am with a Veterans of Foreign Wars flag raising at Cedar Creek Park. See the image below for a complete list of follow-on event details.
Final Thoughts
The Uinta ground squirrels have now officially taken up residence in my yard. I wrote about these little rodents a couple of months ago in my SVR News Roundup post from the week of April 27th. At that time, I had spied these critters in the empty lot behind my house where there is nothing but tall grass, a dozen spruce trees, and my running battle against all the weeds. Well, it seems my new neighborhood chisler (that’s a commonly used nickname for the Uinta ground squirrel, that or “potgut”) wasn’t content with the mostly open field where it might quickly fall prey to the talons of a raptor, and thus, he (or she) has decided the shade of the aspen trees near my compost bin is a better spot. I’m sure I’ll start seeing the establishment of a new colony complete with lots of burrow entrances and chisler sentries chirping out their alarm calls any day now. I’m sure you’re all familiar with the sound these rodents make, but for fun, I’m embedding an audio file below for your enjoyment. Well, that’s quite enough about rodents for one day! I hope everyone has a great week and a wonderful Independence Day holiday! I’ll catch up with you next week!
Uinta ground squirrel alarm call audio file (courtesy of the National Park Service).
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