Town sees more turnover

The Town of Saratoga is in search of a full-time recreation director following the resignation of Lisa Burton on August 3.

Mayor Creed James read an email from Burton, who was not in attendance, announcing her resignation as recreation director at the August 3 meeting of the Saratoga Town Council. Burton’s resignation comes as the governing body continues its search for a treasurer and a planning and zoning officer.

Burton bids farewell

When James read the email from Burton announcing her resignation, there appeared to be little surprise from the other members of the council. In the email, the outgoing recreation director informed the council of her resignation and gave her last day as August 13, a Friday. After reading the email, James entertained a motion to begin advertising for a full-time recreation director.

Burton, who was employed as the recreation director by the Town of Saratoga for well over a decade, had been full-time until 2018 when her position was cut to part-time. While she presented budgets which put her position back to full-time for the past two fiscal years, it wasn’t until this fiscal year a full-time position was budgeted.

Earlier this year, Burton’s husband, Biff Burton, retired from the Wyoming Game and Fish Department as the Saratoga Game Warden after 38 years in Saratoga and over 40 years with the department.

Treasurer search continues

At the July 20 meeting of the Saratoga Town Council, James had announced his intention to hire a new treasurer following advertising and interviews with applicants. The mayor, however, did not reveal whom he intended to hire as he had not yet informed the other applicants.

Just two weeks later, however, advertising resumed. James informed the rest of the council on August 3 the applicant he had hoped to hire had been offered another position somewhere else. Since then, however, the Town of Saratoga had received three more applications. He added interviews would be scheduled, again, with applicants and individual members of the council.

The Town of Saratoga has been without a treasurer since the resignation of Sammy Flohr in May 2021. Since then, former Town of Hanna treasurer Pam Paulson has been offering her services. Paulson was originally contracted by the Town of Saratoga following the resignation of former clerk Suzie Cox and was aiding Flohr with the town’s finances.

Zoning in on planning

Amid all the other news of staffing at the Town of Saratoga, James informed the council he had received interivewed two applicants for the full-time planning and zoning officer position. He did not publicly state who he intended to hire, but stated he wanted to move forward with one of the two applicants.

The Town of Saratoga has been without a permanent planning and zoning officer since March 2019 following the resignation of Dan Ferrin. Ferrin, who was employed by the Town part-time, left to work for WLC. Following his resignation, his predecessor Kent Smith returned to help the Town of Saratoga on an as-needed basis. Smith would serve on that basis for over a year, until September 2020, when he also resigned.

During that time, the Town advertised and budgeted the position as part-time with little success in filling it. When Councilmember D’Ron Campbell was appointed to the council the first time in August 2020, she reached out to a local contractor, Alex Dorothy, to perform building inspections and issue building permits for the Town of Saratoga on a contractual basis.

Dorothy then resigned in June of this year.

The need for a full-time planning and zoning officer has, in recent months, become apparent. Octagon Construction continues to move forward with development of a subdivision west of Airport Avenue while Triple D Construction is building condominiums west of Saratoga Middle High School. Meanwhile, the North Platte Valley Medical Center is undergoing construction at the corner of 13th Street and Bridge Avenue.

The next meeting of the Saratoga Town Council will be at 6 p.m. on August 17 at Saratoga Town Hall.