The Town of Star Valley Ranch is celebrating 20 years as an incorporated community in Wyoming. “We’re still the youngest town in Wyoming being the 99th town, but there’s been a lot that’s been accomplished the last 20 years and I think that especially in the last five or ten with all the infrastructure projects,” recalled SVR Mayor Ru Rok.

“We’ve also done a lot of things that have made the town more of a community and provided things that people really enjoy, things like dog parks and a community garden.”

She also acknowledged the town’s extensive trail system. “We still have lots to work on, but it’s a great trail system,” she said of the trails that connect Star Valley Ranch to the Bridger-Teton National Forest. “It’s a lot to be proud of for two decades,” she said of the work that continues for the rapidly growing community.

“The town as you know was founded really because of roads and water and so we’ve done a lot with the water system,” the mayor recalled. “We still have a lot of work to do on that as far as water storage.”

She added, “What we want to do more, pivot a little bit and focus on the roads. That seems to be a constant thing that residents are asking us to improve and we did take a big step with that this year in setting ourselves up to do our own chip ceiling.”

The town has purchased the equipment to help maintain roads. “We invested in some equipment, which the town council supported. We did get some work done before the colder weather hit.”

When compared to the expenses of contracted road work, the mayor said the town will experience a cost savings with the town equipment and staff.

Mayor Rok has served on both the town council and as mayor. She noted the work that comes with the positions. “I have to say that it’s definitely been a lot more than I thought it would be,” she said of the responsibilities. “When you’re on the town council, you’re certainly involved in a lot of decision making and policy making and legislation but it’s not to the level of the day-to-day operations of a town and I have to say that I don’t know what I would do without our town administrator and for other towns in the valley.”

She continued, “I know Violet Sanderson (Town Administrator) is really involved with everythingthat happens in Afton and I feel like Trevor Aitken, our administrator, is the same way and again I couldn’t possibly manage everything on a daily basis without him.”

She noted, “It’s everything from responding to residents concerns and issues as well as scheduling, making sure problems are fixed, making sure projects are executed, so it is just a lot on a daily basis, but for me personally, I really have enjoyed it.”