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For the week of June 16th, 2024—here’s your Ranch news roundup:
The week got off to a rather interesting meteorological start on Monday with a little bit of frozen precipitation for some of us on the Ranch. What the heck—snow on June 17th! Good thing I covered up those veggies!
Earlier in the day on Monday June 17th, and continuing through Thursday June 20th, the Town of Star Valley Ranch (TSVR) Public Works crews were out and about collecting brush piles from residents participating in Firewise 2024. I don’t know about you, but from what I saw around town, it looked like Ranch residents went “all in” when it came to clearing out woody fuels this year! Great job neighbors!
This week also saw a number of Star Valley Ranch Association (SVRA) events at Cedar Creek Center. To summarize, there was a SVRA Board of Directors (BoD) workshop on Tuesday, June 18th at 6pm, a SVRA BoD Candidate Night on Friday June 21st at 7pm, and on Saturday, June 22nd the SVRA Annual Meeting got going bright and early at 8am. [Note as I was a bit under the weather this week I participated in all of these events via Zoom rather than in person.] The big culmination of these events was the election of three new members for the SVRA BoD. You can check out the final vote tally below. Congratulations to the new BoD members!
Thursday, June 20th at 1pm the TSVR Water Utility Board (WUB) met at Town Hall. Here’s a link to the meeting agenda. From the agenda, it appears the WUB received a brief on the new water rates process; I’ll be looking forward to seeing the meeting minutes once they’re posted.
Other news and notes from the week:
Work to pave Brambleberry Drive has begun at long last! HK Contractors spent the week removing old road surface material and per my understanding, asphalt should begin going down on Tuesday of next week. Yippee! Thanks for your patience Plat 5 residents as this project is underway!
HK Contractors at work on Brambleberry Drive this past Monday. In case you didn’t already know, I thought I’d pass along that the new Pizza Shack at the Ranch (next to Cedar Creek swimming pool) is now open 7 days a week from 11am to 9pm! Yum!
There is currently a power outage along Vista Drive from Town Hall to the Town entrance at Muddy String Road. The outage, which affects the street lights and flag pole lights, is due to the construction of the new entrance into the Town Hall parking lot from Vista Drive. The outage is expected to last until Friday June 28th , however, every effort will be made to restore service sooner if possible.
Also, the TSVR Trail Crew kicked some butt on the Prater-Murphy Trail and Cedar Creek Trail this week! Well done! On Prater-Murphy, volunteers completed work up to the second avalanche chute including rehab of the two Prater drainage crossings, cleanup at the first avalanche chute crossing, as well as water bar clean-out and reconstruction. On Cedar Creek, volunteers completed full annual maintenance on the first quarter mile from the trailhead including a rebuild of the rock wall next to the creek, trimming back brush from the Spruce Grove to just shy of the switchbacks, and some initial switchback tread work. Thank you so much Trail Crew for keeping our local trails in such outstanding condition! We love our Trail Crew volunteers!
Here’s a look at calendar items for next week:
Tuesday, June 25th at 2pm the TSVR Natural Resources Board (NRB) will meet at Town Hall.
Also on Tuesday, June 25th at 7pm the TSVR Town Council will hold a Special Meeting at 7pm. [As of the writing of this post, this meeting is not on the Town’s public calendar, however, it is my understanding the meeting will be held.]
Wednesday, June 26th at 5pm the TSVR Planning and Zoning Board will meet at Town Hall.
Friday, June 28th from 9am to 1pm is War on Weeds Day at Star Valley Ranch.
Lincoln County Weed and Pest (LCWP) along with representatives from TSVR’s NRB will be set up at the First Response Center on the corner of Vista Drive and Vista West Drive. Be sure to stop by and have LCWP help you remedy your noxious weed problems!
Final thoughts—I wanted to share a couple of photos from the snow-event earlier in the week. Here are a couple of shots of hummingbirds at one of my back-deck feeders. I love that in the second photo below you can actually see snow flakes on the little birds head! We live in a beautiful and glorious place where Mother Nature does not shy away from flexing her muscle with authority—no doubt!
That’s all for now—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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