Town of Alpine Mayor Eric Green called into the Weekday Wake-up on Wednesday, September 3 for his monthly report. Mayor Green discussed the process of creating a new master plan for the town, the latest in the charter school coming to Alpine and a report on the Sept. 2 Town Council meeting.

(0:00) Joining me over the phone today is Alpine Mayor Eric Green for his monthly report (0:05) from the town of Alpine. Mayor Green, good morning, how are you today? (0:08) Good morning, doing well, thanks for having me, Duke. (0:11) Absolutely, appreciate your time once a month to tell us all things happening in Alpine, (0:15) and there always is a lot.
I wanted to start with the Comprehensive Plan this morning, Mayor, (0:20) something that the town’s been working on, trying to prepare and plan for the future, (0:24) accepting public comment. Maybe tell us where things are currently at (0:26) and what’s in the future for the Comprehensive Plan. (0:30) Sure, so we had some meetings with local stakeholders a couple weeks back.
We had (0:38) the consultants in town and really productive meetings all about future land use and then (0:44) specific topics regarding how we’re going to use the land. We nailed down on some topics, (0:54) had about 25 people that showed up to give us their opinions, so that was kind of the next step, (1:01) and then the consultants take that information and go back and kind of put it all together and (1:10) get it ready for a bigger, more public meeting that will come this fall. (1:16) Okay, so that’s still in the works, and what is the overall goal here with this plan? (1:24) The overall goal is to come up with the plan for what Alpine is going to look like for the next (1:30) 10, 15, 20 years.
Our plan should last, you know, about that long and just kind of lay the groundwork (1:39) for the, you know, are we going to be aggressively going after annexations, you know, are we going to (1:48) be encouraging development to happen in the town of Alpine? All those things are being discussed, (1:56) and we’ve had tons of comments from residents in the town of Alpine, outside the town of Alpine, (2:05) and so I think we’re doing a good job getting the word out and making sure that we’re hearing (2:09) everyone’s voice. Alpine Mayor Eric Green this morning on the Weekday Wake-Up, so stay tuned for (2:14) details coming up later on for more public meetings on the master plan moving forward (2:20) for the town of Alpine. Mayor, let’s talk the charter school a little more, and tell us where (2:25) things stand.
We haven’t talked about it for a couple of months. Where do things stand as far (2:29) as applications, location, all that kind of stuff for the charter school? Sure, so the next step for (2:35) the charter school is we have some public hearings on September 16th. The planning and zoning public (2:42) hearing is at six o’clock, and then we have a public hearing at seven o’clock for town council, (2:48) and the town council public hearing is going to be specifically regarding a special use permit (2:53) for them to put the temporary buildings on town property.
We’ve already offered them a five-year (3:02) lease with certain conditions that have to be met, and they’re really close on all those conditions, (3:09) so things are progressing, and September 16th is kind of the next hurdle for the (3:18) charter school and the foundation board. Okay, and so the plan as of now is still to have (3:24) at least some sort of building, temporary building, maybe in place and ready to go by the fall of 26, (3:30) correct? Correct, yeah. If everything goes to plan, they should have the buildings (3:40) placed by this later this fall, you know, and hopefully they can bring the electrical and the (3:48) plumbing and all that stuff to those buildings, and it would really help them with their enrollment (3:53) too if they could show parents like this is the school, this is where it’s going to be, (3:58) and, you know, if they had the power on, that would be great.
So that’s kind of the goal for (4:03) right now. If that doesn’t happen, then of course everything should be up and going. The building (4:09) should be placed in the spring with power and water and everything, and then they’ll really (4:16) be pushing hard for their enrollment next year.
Mayor Eric Green with the town of Alpine this (4:23) morning on the Weekday Wakeup. Last night had a town council meeting. Mayor, anything of note (4:27) being discussed last night that you’d like to bring up today? Yeah, well, we had a big discussion (4:34) on weeds, and I don’t know if people in the Valley understand how important it is for us to (4:42) take care of our noxious weeds.
In particular, in the town of Alpine, we’re kind of the epicenter (4:48) for spotted knapweed, and Travis from Lincoln County Weed and Pest was there last night, (4:54) and he basically said that spotted knapweed is like the second worst weed that there is out there, (5:02) and so there’s state statutes that say, you know, you can’t have this weed growing on your (5:09) property amongst other weeds, and we also have town ordinances in place that just allow you to (5:16) have this weed on your property, and, you know, we’ve already had the ordinance in place, but I (5:22) think this is a good reminder that we need to take care of our properties and make sure we’re doing (5:27) everything we can to eliminate this weed and the potential for it to spread, so we’re going to (5:35) really go into education mode on this and make sure everyone understands what it looks like, (5:41) what you need to do with it, and, you know, then we’ll probably be a little more aggressive (5:48) with enforcement, whether it’s later on this fall or next year, but right now we’re just kind of in (5:54) education mode to make sure people know that this is something that we need to take care of. (5:59) There’s quite a few resources available now, and I don’t know if Travis touched on those last night, (6:04) but you can always just reach right out to Travis and his staff at the Weed and Pest, right? I’m (6:08) sure that was discussed yesterday. Absolutely, absolutely, and locally, we’re going to be (6:15) putting information up on our website.
We have our code enforcement officer is being kind of (6:23) trained on what to look for with these weeds, and like I said, education is our primary focus (6:29) right now, so we’re going to be getting out there, and you may have someone knocking on your door (6:33) saying, oh, did you know that you have this weed on your property or whatever, and kind of educate (6:40) them on what needs to be done, the best course of action for sure. Mayor Eric Green this morning on (6:46) the weekday wake up. Mayor Green, anything else happening in the town of Alpine you’d like to (6:49) mention today? We have so much going on, but I always appreciate your monthly catch-ups, but (6:58) yeah, there’s a lot going on, especially with the school and other things.
We’re trying to get our (7:07) new ordinances in place for fees for sewer and water and sewer hookups and things of that nature, (7:14) so we’ve got a lot going on. You know, we’ve been working over the past year on kind of doing rate (7:21) studies for water and sewer and things like that, and now we kind of have the study that has informed (7:27) the decisions that we’re going to make, so we do have a lot going on, and coming over the next (7:34) few months, we should hopefully have all that stuff in place, but you also probably heard me (7:41) talk about we have the new radio meter reads for the water system, and all those have pretty much (7:48) been installed, so we’re going to have a new monitoring system, and you’re going to have (7:54) up-to-date monthly bills that show exactly how much water you’ve used, things of that nature, so (8:02) yeah, keep an eye out for all that stuff. The residents in the Alpine area have been waiting (8:09) for that for a while, so we’re excited to say it’s very close.
Absolutely, and you know, outside (8:14) of all the logistics that we’ve talked about as far as running a municipality, there’s always (8:18) something to do in Alpine, and it’s a great weekend to go to Alpine for the reggae and the Rockies, (8:23) this weekend. Oh yeah, thanks, great segue there. Reggae and the Rockies is this weekend.
(8:32) I think they’re going to break records with their attendance, from what I understand, (8:38) you know, tickets are going fast, so if you have any interest in going to that great event, it’s (8:43) going to be up at the 4-H camp, and go to their website, figure out how to buy tickets. There’s also, (8:51) everyone should know, or you probably do already know, that Latogin is going to be (8:55) coming to the Valley this weekend, so keep an eye out for all those bikers on the road, and (8:59) let’s just make sure everyone has a nice, safe event, and yeah, lots of cool events going on (9:07) this week, for sure. That’s Alpine Mayor Eric Green this morning on the Weekday Wake-Up.
Mayor, (9:11) as always, it’s a pleasure to catch up. We’ll talk again next month. (9:15) All right, thanks, Duke.
It’s the Weekday Wake-Up this morning on the SBI Radio Network.