A busy week at the Ranch, here are your news updates:
On Monday, January 8th the Town of Star Valley Ranch (TSVR) Water Utility Board (WUB) met at Town Hall. No draft minutes are posted yet, however, here is a link to the meeting agenda.
Tuesday, January 9th was busy at Town Hall. Coffee with the Mayor got the day started at 9am followed by the TSVR Finance Advisory Board (FAB) meeting at 1pm. Draft minutes from the FAB meeting can be found here. A couple of noteworthy items from the minutes:
Review of the Town’s December 2023 financials indicate a better-than-budgeted surplus in the Town’s general fund and a budget projection that the Town water fund will also end the full fiscal year with a positive surplus.
Work on the new Water Rate Setting Process is progressing as planned and a draft Water Rates Modeling Tool is in development. The Water Rate Setting Group will use the model to determine rates and present that information to the Town Council in the coming months. The new rates will feed into development of the 2024-2025 TSVR budget and any changes would go into effect on July 1st.
Also on Tuesday, January 9th a Town Council Work Session was held at 2pm. Here are a couple of notes from this meeting:
Chlorination of the Town’s water system is ongoing (since last month) with the Fox Run Park Well and Prater Canyon Water Tanks as the locations where chlorine is being introduced into the system. The Town’s water operators are now also conducting additional routine sampling of the water system to monitor chlorine residuals in compliance with Environmental Protection Agency rules.
TSVR Councilmen received new Town board liaison assignments from the Mayor (board liaison responsibilities are rotated annually among the Councilmen). The following liaison assignments are in effect for 2024:
Councilman Ellis: WUB and Travel and Tourism (T&T) Board
Councilman Denny: FAB
Councilman Merrill: Roads Advisory Board and Natural Resources Board (NRB)
Councilman Rok: T&T Board and Planning & Zoning (P&Z) Board
On Tuesday evening, January 9th, the Town Council conducted their regular monthly meeting at 7pm. With lots of wintery weather ongoing that evening, the meeting was sparsely attended and relatively short. The primary business conducted included appointment of members to the new T&T Board and also brief discussion of short-term rental ordinance updates. You can read the complete Town Council meeting packet here and also watch the meeting’s video recording at this link.
On Wednesday, January 10th the TSVR P&Z Board met at Town Hall. The draft meeting minutes from the meeting are available here. One item of particular interest was a brief exploratory discussion about “barndominiums” going up within TSVR and if there is any way to prevent this type of single-family home (SFH) from being built in future. More discussion to follow on this topic I’m sure.
You can take a look at my October 22nd, 2023 SVR News Roundup post for previous discussion about these pole-barn SFH structures and their dubious aesthetic impacts on our Town.
And for fun, take the following poll to let folks know what you think about barndominiums continuing to be constructed on the Ranch.
On Friday, January 12th, the Star Valley Ranch Association (SVRA) announced the appointment of new board member Mike Perretta.
A couple of other quick notes:
The TSVR Coat Drive starts next week on January 16th. Look for Coat Drive flyers at Town Hall and also in the Mail Center. And, check out this story from last week’s Star Valley Independent about the Coat Drive! Thanks to Jill Mackey for organizing!
Heads up Plats 4 and 5 residents—in case you missed the Town advisory messages that went out today, please be aware your water will be out from 9am to 3pm on Tuesday, January 16th in order to repair a leak. Every effort will be made to restore service as soon as possible.
Star Valley Ranch calendar items for next week are as follows:
Monday, January 15th the TSVR Town Hall and SVRA offices will be closed in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Tuesday, January 16th at 2pm a Town Council Work Session will be conducted at Town Hall.
Thursday, January 18th the TSVR NRB will meet at Town Hall.
Final thoughts—it has been cold, cold, cold in recent days—brrrr! The thermometer at my house had a frigid “0 degrees” yesterday morning! And, then there has been the snow, my snow stake is creeping up on 2 feet—finally! Seems like winter has finally shown up!
Thank you very much for reading! I appreciate your support and if you like what you read please invite your neighbors, family, and friends to check out Close to Home 307. Stay warm and safe out there and reach me anytime at: close2home307@gmail.com