Air quality, community picnic, dangerous ground

The Saratoga Town Council met at 6 p.m on April 3. The council quickly took care of business as usual approving the agenda for the evening, approving March 28 council’s minutes and paying the financials. The total to pay for bills was $177,108.41.

Ed Glode, mayor of Saratoga, said he got correspondence from Chris Duke that requested permission for a 24 hour permit to serve food and alcohol during the Wyoming Open between April 7 and April 8. The council approved the permit.

Glode said he also got correspondence from Grant Roach from the Department of Environmental Quality’s (DEQ) Air Quality Division. Roach told the town council through the correspondence that a mobile monitoring station that measures particles in the air and wind speed and direction was slated to come to Saratoga in the summer. DEQ is putting these stations in populated areas throughout the state for one year to measure air quality. The letter was requesting permission to bring a station to Saratoga.

John Zeiger, resident of Saratoga, came to the council to ask for the town to approve a special event application for a family picnic at Veteran’s Island on July 3.

“You know we used to have these community picnics about 40 years ago, where we had horseshoes and such, so I looked into what would be the best time for the community if we tried to bring it back,” Zeiger said. “I think for music we could have open mike night and I would like the council to wave the open container permit fee, so that if someone wants to bring in a six pack.”

Zeiger said he didn’t want to have any one person or establishment selling alcohol at the event. He wanted to keep the night very family oriented. Zeiger also asked if the pool across the bridge could be free for the evening to complement the family event.

“I want this to be a family and friends affair, more or less, and hopefully we will get to revert to the family picnic and go forward from there,” Zeiger said.

For food, he suggested possibly different Saratoga Middle/Senior High School student organizations could provide the meals for fundraising or people could bring their own provisions.

The council approved all of Zeiger’s requests for the community picnic. He told the council he had created a Saratoga Reunion Facebook page that he will put up for the event.

Randy Stevens, owner of Quality Landscaping, came to the council to talk about block 11 of the Riverside addition concerning complaints he had received from citizens and the state agencies about dangerous conditions in the area.

“We have received verbal notification from the state DEQ, that we need to abate the dangerous situation,” Stevens said.

He said there is not a consensus on who has the responsibility to take care of the situation.

Glode said a fence and signs could go up, but his concern was with the dirt that has been taken away from the hillside that has caused problems.

Steve Wilcoxson, town council member, said the town didn’t create the problem and felt it should be the responsibility of who removed the dirt.

“If the town puts up a fence there to protect something from going on, Mr. Stevens, or whoever took the dirt, created a serious safety issue,” Wilcoxson said. “This wasn’t created by the town and if we accept this by putting the fence up there, that means we are accepting the responsibility of any liability from that point on.”

Robert Bifano, Saratoga Police Chief, said he was looking at a new program called Multiplicity that would allow dispatchers to more easily toggle between two screens or even see two at once. He said the fix should be free to get or cost little.

“The Verizon tower starts breaking ground this week,” Jon Winter, public works director said. He added that the lagoon project was on schedule.

Richard Raymer, town council and airport board member, said the airport would start work on the runway mid April and the facility would be closed for close to a month. The council approved Ellie Dana for the airport board.

Will Faust, town council and planning commission board member, said at the next board meeting on April 10, there would be a review of Title 18 and Ordinance 18.57.

The next scheduled meeting is at 6 p.m. on April 17 at the Saratoga Town Hall.