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Buckle-up folks, it has been a very newsy week on the Ranch! Here’s your roundup for the week of December 8th, 2024:
The second Tuesday of the month is always a busy one for the Town of Star Valley Ranch (TSVR) and December 10th was no exception. A 9am Coffee with the Mayor got things going at Town Hall followed by a Council Work Session at 10am (here’s a link to the agenda). Agenda items 3c may come as a surprise to some of you so, please check out the following meeting notes:
Some errors were found in the Town’s draft annual audit document; the latter are currently being corrected by the audit firm.
The Council voted not to pursue rezoning of the town-owned property at Plat 22 Lot 37 for use as an auxiliary public works facility and instead authorized the Town Administrator to move forward with sale of the property for single-family residential use.
And, now for agenda item 3c. Mayor Kathleen Buyers announced her intent to resign from the Town Council for personal reasons. Her resignation will become effective early next year. As a result of this decision, the Town Council went over the processes and procedures for filling a vacancy in the office of Mayor; the latter is described in town Ordinance §32.08 (which aligns with the procedures codified in Wyoming State Statute). Here’s the process and timeline of events discussed by the Town Council:
A successor for the office of Mayor must be filled by a current member of the Town Council. The successor will fulfill the remainder of the Mayor’s term which runs to the end of calendar year 2026.
To fill the resulting vacated Council seat, the Town will seek applications from qualified residents to serve out the councilman’s remaining term.
The Town Council will hold a Special Meeting on January 7th, 2025 to swear in Councilman-elect Katie Toolson and returning Councilman Taylor Ellis. Following the swearing in ceremony, the Town Council will meet to select the new Mayor.
Applications for the vacated Town Council seat will be solicited following the Special Meeting on January 7th through January 23rd. The Town Council will meet at the end of January to review applications and select a new Councilman.
The new Mayor and new Councilman will be sworn in on February 4th, 2025.
You can read this story published by the Star Valley Independent to learn more about Mayor Buyer’s resignation decision.
After the bombshell news at Tuesday morning’s Council Work Session, the rest of the day was fairly benign. TSVR Municipal Court was held upstairs in Town Hall at 2pm. There were only two cases on the docket—one for a resident with a driveway paved through the Town’s right-of-way and the second for a resident keeping poultry on the Ranch. That evening at 7pm, the regular monthly Town Council Meeting was conducted at Town Hall. You can find the Council Meeting packet here and also watch this video recording of the proceedings on the Town’s YouTube page. At the end of the meeting the Mayor took the opportunity to talk briefly about her pending departure with the residents in attendance.
Wednesday, December 11th at 2:30pm the TSVR Travel and Tourism (T&T) Board met at Town Hall. Here’s a link to the T&T Board agenda. The Board discussed the draft Lodging Tax Grant Application as well as items that may become part of the T&T Board’s budget which is currently under development.
Also on Wednesday, December 11th at 5pm the TSVR Planning and Zoning Board met at Town Hall. It was a short meeting with only one item (for a garage permit) on the agenda.
Other news and notes for the week:
Many of you have probably seen the burgeoning sub-division development on the east side of Muddy String Road between Prater Canyon Road and Clark Lane which directly abuts TSVR. This sub-division, Mountain Estates, (being developed by Bucket List, LLC) is now seeking an amendment to their county-approved Master Plan; they are on the agenda of the upcoming Lincoln County Commissioners (LCC) meeting this Tuesday, December 17th at 1:30pm. The Town previously voiced concerns on a number of issues to the LCC (around 2017-2018) to include the density of the Mountain Estates development as well as the project’s Master Plan denoting road access onto Vista West Drive. [Note to date the Town has not approved any road access from Mountain Estates onto TSVR roads.] Some of you may also remember around this same timeframe Bucket List, LLC approached TSVR about possible annexation, however, due to stiff public opposition that topic was dropped. Why am I bringing all this up now? Well, with the developer’s request for a Master Plan amendment, there is opportunity for the Town and residents to again document our concerns with the LCC. The Town has already registered their ongoing concerns (which include project density, potential ground water contamination, community safety, and road access) in advance of the upcoming December 17th meeting, and if you would like to do the same, it could help influence any decision the LCC may be inclined to make. To follow is where you can find more information on the upcoming LLC meeting, the Mountain Estates project, and who to contact with your thoughts:
To review the Bucket List, LLC, Mountain Estates packet for the December 17th LCC meeting, use this link. [Note, it’s a big file and may take some time to load.]
If so inclined, you can send comments or concerns to the Lincoln County Commissioners (Jerry Hansen, Kent Connelly, and Teri Bowers), the Lincoln County Chief of Staff (Stephen Allen) as well as the Lincoln County Planning Office via the following email addresses: kent.connelly@lincolncountywy.gov; jerry.hansen@lincolncountywy.gov; teri.bowers@lincolncountywy.gov; stephen.allen@lincolncountywy.gov; planning@lincolncountywy.gov
I recommend referring to “File #109 MP 24, Bucket List LLC, Mountain Estates” in your email subject line. Thanks for your time and consideration in making comments about this development and its potential impact on our town!
Recently the water bills of some Ranch residents contained a notice about lead pipes which apparently caused alarm for some folks. The Town has been in the process of conducting a water service line inventory and provision of the notice was a requirement of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). You can read more about this EPA required notice using this link from the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality website.
This week, concrete was poured at the Middle Branch Bridge site in preparation for placement of pre-fabricated culvert pieces which are due-in next week. With the snow over the weekend I am uncertain if the placement of the culvert pieces will remain on schedule. I’ll update all of you as soon as I learn more.
Lastly, as you all know it’s the holiday season and that means door-to-door package deliveries by the United Parcel Service (UPS) and Federal Express (FedEx) at the Ranch are going nearly non-stop! Alas, sometimes UPS and FedEx drop packages at the wrong address. If you happen to get a package that is not meant for you, please do the neighborly thing and either take the package to the correct address (if you’re able to) or check the phone number of the recipient on the package and simply give them a call. I know that’d make the intended recipient very happy and it’ll make you feel awesome too by doing the right thing! Thanks everyone for being there for your neighbors at the Ranch!
How about that, I couldn’t find any calendar items for next week! Go figure!
Final thoughts—Thanks for getting all the way to the end of this lengthy news post! Some weeks here at the Ranch are chock-a-block with activity and others not so much. With that in mind, I won’t keep you any longer and will let you get back to whatever wonderful holiday or snow-filled activities you’ve got planned for the rest of your Sunday! For me, that means making more cookies!
That’s all for today—hope you enjoyed the read. And thank you for being a subscriber! If you have Star Valley Ranch news or photographs 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 are very much appreciated!
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