SCWEMS amendment finds more opposition

It was announced at the Nov. 3 Saratoga Town Council Meeting that Saratoga Police Chief Tom Knickerbocker resigned. However, mayor Ed Glode called the Saratoga Sun to resolve the issue, stating that Tom Knickerbocker had not resigned and that it had been a miscommunication.

The fence ordinance, ordinance 2015-831, was passed on its third and final reading by the council at the meeting. There was no discussion about the home occupation ordinance. The South Central Wyoming Emergency Medical Service (SCWEMS) amendment signed by the mayor at the Oct. 20 town council meeting was discussed as it cannot move forward at this time. According to Glode, the town of Medicine Bow decided not to sign it out of disagreement with the terms.

“Basically off the documents we were working off of at the time, there was some language we wanted to clean up a little bit more,” said Kevin Colman of the SCWEMS amendment in a later comment. One reason for not signing, Colman said, was language surrounding grants and funding that allows “blanket grantability,” which the town of Medicine Bow was uncomfortable with. The main reason, Colman continued, was that with Hanna’s new involvement in SCWEMS, there would be three seats on the SCWEMS Joint Powers Board living in one municipality. According to Colman, the town of Medicine Bow would like language amended to prevent members from holding seats outside a buffer zone of their residence.

Director of Public Works Jon Winter announced that the variable frequency drives (VFD), which were damaged earlier this year during lightning surges at the water well, would cost about $9,730 total to repair all seven. The repairs were approved, which Winter added could be completed one at a time to spread out the cost with each VFD taking about 30 days to repair. These would be used as backups and spares in the case of damage to newer ones.

Winter continued to discuss the river reformation project, announcing that the University of Wyoming (UW) had contacted the town after a period of insecurity, scheduling the ground penetrating radar evaluation to take begin last Friday. UW came out to take some baseline measurements and profiles to see if the GPR study is actually right for the area to move the study forward, Winter said in a later interview. According to Winter, the town hopes that GPR can be effectively utilized on the North Platte River to move forward with planning the river reformation project.

Regarding the Sewer Outfall Project, the Army Corps of Engineers wrote that from their end, Saratoga could move forward with reclamation work. The Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) will hopefully be published this week with a 30 day public comment period.

The newest multi-hazard mitigation plan was introduced to the council for approval, however it was tabled until all members had a chance to look at it.

The next regular Saratoga Town Council meeting is scheduled for November 17 at 6 p.m. at the Saratoga Town Hall.

 

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