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It’s September! Here’s your Ranch roundup for the first week of the month:
Tuesday, September 3rd at 6pm the Town of Star Valley Ranch (TSVR) Roads Advisory Board (RAB) met at Town Hall. The agenda with draft meeting minutes can be found here. One item of note, the RAB will be working to draft fliers and provide educational information for voters to assist them in making an informed choice on the Specific Purpose 1% Sales and Use Tax (aka the Sixth Penny Tax) question that will appear on the upcoming November General Election ballot.
What is the Sixth Penny Tax you may ask? In a nutshell, Wyoming State law allows counties, in cooperation with cities and towns, to fund specific projects through a voluntary sales tax. Counties, cities, and towns pass resolutions that include proposed projects and amounts needed to complete those projects. Voters are then asked to vote on those projects. If approved by the majority of voters, a “sixth penny” sales tax is added to your purchases. When the specific amount is collected, the tax stops. TSVR’s proposed project language for the November ballot will appear as follows:
$3,300,000 to the Town of Star Valley Ranch for Walking Paths that lead to forest trails, development of Town commons, and pavement of major arterial roads within the Town of Star Valley Ranch.
Thursday, September 5th at 12:30pm the TSVR Water Utility Board was scheduled to meet at Town Hall. Unfortunately, there is no agenda posted on the Town website for this meeting so I am not certain if it was held or not.
Also on Thursday, September 5th at 2:30pm the TSVR Travel and Tourism (T&T) Board met at Town Hall. Here’s a link to the agenda along with a couple of quick notes from the meeting:
The T&T Board received an update on the Ranch Rendezvous Market and discussed how to continue improving the market in future.
Duke Dance from Star Valley Independent Media provided a presentation to the T&T Board on opportunities in the area of targeted digital display advertising.
The T&T Board reviewed a draft TSVR Lodging Tax Grant Application. Once finalized the grant application will assist the board in allocating portions of lodging tax revenues to fund Star Valley Ranch events and to resource other meaningful visitor-resident interactions.
Saturday September 7th the TSVR Ranch Rendezvous Market took place in the Town Hall parking lot. Foot traffic was lighter than the previous weekend so I encourage all of my readers to check out the Rendezvous from 8am to 11am on Saturday mornings (through the end of September). The market once again had fresh produce (tomatoes, corn, melons, and more) along with multiple vendors such as Wyo’Pa Hoagie Wagon, Jacknife Ranch, and Blue Ribbon Barn. There were also local dairy products, homemade breads, tamales and jellies, as well as artisan crafts.
I had my first taste of a Philly Cheesesteak from Wyo’Pa Hoagie Wagon at Saturday’s Rendezvous and it was absolutely delicious! I can’t wait for next Saturday so I can have another one!
Other news and notes from the week:
On Tuesday, September 3rd there was a water line break that caused an outage on Vista Drive. I know everyone sure will be happy when that water project finally raps up! Work also got underway at Town Hall on Wednesday, September 4th to replace the concrete sidewalks and to install better steps between the lower and upper parking lot areas. Work to apply road base and dust guard also continued throughout the week.
Other work around Town included removal of a large evergreen tree on Middle Branch Drive in preparation for the bridge replacement later this fall. Additionally, several small trees were cut down where Hardman Drive traverses Cedar Creek in preparation for that crossing’s replacement next year.
Tree removal and other preparatory work on Middle Branch Drive and Hardman Drive this week. Also on Tuesday, this is interesting, following the August 20th Primary Election, there was a tie for one of the three Star Valley Ranch Republican Precinct 2-10 Committeemen positions (between residents Bobby Dickerson and Dennis Christianson). To break the tie, the Lincoln County Republican Party held a coin flip in Afton at 7:30pm that evening. You can watch the video and coin toss results here (on Facebook).
Now, here’s an update on where things stand with the chicken poll. As of the writing of this post, things are neck-and-neck with a dead-heat of 42% for and 42% against along with 16% in need of more information.
You can still cast your vote in the chicken poll by visiting last week’s SVR News Roundup—cluck, I mean click here and scroll toward the bottom of the page.
Above, a screenshot of the current state of the chicken poll.
And, lastly—a quick correction to the annexation date of Sunrise Mountain Estates that I published last week as being “about 2021”. I have since received clarification the annexation was actually finalized on December 9th, 2015. So, there you have it!
It’ll be busy at the Ranch next week; here’s a look at calendar items:
Tuesday, September 10th has the following schedule of events:
Coffee with the Mayor, 9am at Town Hall
Town Council Work Session, 10am at Town Hall.
TSVR Municipal Court, 2pm, upstairs at Town Hall
Town Council Meeting, 7pm at Town Hall.
Wednesday, September 11th at 5pm the TSVR Planning and Zoning Board will meet at Town Hall.
Thursday, September 12th at 7pm a Town-Hall style meeting will be held at Cedar Creek Center (I think) with participation from the TSVR Town Council, Star Valley Ranch Association (SVRA) Board of Directors, and the Lincoln County Sheriff.
The purpose of the meeting is to provide residents with information on the jurisdictional responsibilities of each entity and also afford an opportunity for questions and answers.
Thursday, September 12th the SVRA office will be closing at 3:00pm for an employee retirement celebration. The SVRA office will also be closed on Friday, September 13th as staff will be participating in the Sponsor Scramble golf outing.
Saturday, September 14th from 8am to 11am the Ranch Rendezvous Market will be held in the Town Hall parking lot.
Final thoughts—it’s starting to feel like fall. I noticed while out and about in Town this week the colors of autumn are beginning to emerge. It won’t be long before yellow leaves are trembling and tumbling from the aspens like tiddlywinks. Enjoy this beautiful season while it lasts!
That’s all for today! Thank you for reading. If you have Star Valley Ranch news to share please drop me an email at close2home307@gmail.com. And, if you find this weekly email useful, please invite your neighbors, family, and friends to check out Close to Home 307. Your support and feedback is very much appreciated!
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