Town of Afton Administrator Violet Sanderson stepped into the SVI Radio studio on Thursday, July 2 to preview the upcoming Afton Freedom Festival on July 3-4 and updates for the Comprehensive Master Plan and street projects.

(0:01) 837 this morning on the SBI radio network heading into our first guest (0:05) interview of the morning today and Violet Sanderson Afton Town Administrator (0:09) in studio. Violet, good morning and exciting time of year. Thanks for coming (0:13) in today.

Good morning, Duke. Thanks for having me. We’ve got quite a lot (0:17) happening coming this weekend.

Absolutely. So America 250 of course (0:21) has been in the works for quite a while and that includes the Afton Freedom (0:25) Festival which has been moved to the 4th of July weekend for the occasion and so (0:30) why don’t you just give you a chance tell us everything going on starting (0:32) tomorrow. So we have a lot of things going on whether you’re a resident Afton (0:37) or whether you’ve you know are coming through or visiting family we hope that (0:40) you’re able to to take advantage of some of these things that we’re putting (0:44) together for the for the public.

So starting off tomorrow we’re gonna have (0:47) Main Street between 4th and 5th Avenue blocked off that’ll we’ll start closing (0:52) the road at 6 a.m. but the Elkhorn 5k walk-run will be starting at 8 a.m. (0:57) downtown at the Alcantara Arch. Also at 3 or 8 a.m. we’re starting the (1:04) three-on-three basketball tournament. I’m not sure if they have all registration (1:08) filled for that but if anybody’s interested they can text Matt Shumway at (1:12) 208-339-4648 and then we also from noon to 8 tomorrow we have got (1:21) Star Valley Street Market with some vendors down that are going to be (1:24) downtown as well as bounce houses again that’s always a fun thing for the kids (1:28) and they’re also large enough for adults to enjoy and we’ve got live DJ and (1:34) dance party through the decades that’s going to be going on from from 12 to 8 as (1:38) well downtown.

From 4 to 8 there will be a cornhole tournament on Main Street as (1:43) well. There will be walk-up registration capabilities tomorrow so I’d encourage (1:48) anybody that is going to come and enjoy the rest of the festivities to be able to (1:51) look out for that and register for that and then obviously backed by popular (1:57) demand we’ve got our fish scramble that’s set to go off at 2 p.m. tomorrow (2:01) so that will be something available to everybody between ages 3 and 12 so we’re (2:06) excited to have that again downtown again as well downtown again as well so (2:10) that’ll be kind of on the corner of it over on 5th Avenue in Washington over (2:14) that way and then we do on our stage that we’re gonna have up for the DJ and (2:21) then for the live music later that night at 4 o’clock will be the Lincoln County (2:25) coin challenge presentation so they’ll kind of honor some of those people that (2:28) were able to complete the entire challenge and stuff like that and and do (2:32) the coin ceremony here in Afton and then at 730 there’s going to be a veteran (2:38) salute and patriotic sing-along so we encourage everybody to come out celebrate (2:42) our veterans and all they’ve done for us in our country and as part of this you (2:49) know 250 celebration from 8 to 10 we’ve got our grand finale of the evening (2:55) tomorrow night which is going to be the award-winning flash pants band and (2:59) they’re going to be playing they’re an 80s cover band so they’re going to be (3:02) celebrating some 80s pop so we’re excited about that there is also I (3:06) believe in 80s costume contest later in the afternoon right before the band as (3:12) well so if you you know if you love the 80s if you want to be a part of that (3:16) that’s going to be available to tomorrow and then moving into Saturday (3:20) we have we still have quite a bit of an action-packed day so 730 to 930 we’ve (3:27) got our Afton volunteer fire department that’s doing the pancake breakfast over (3:30) in the Afton Brolems parking lot I’m excited to have that that back in the (3:34) lineup to people seem to enjoy it like your text and topic fire fire pancakes (3:40) they call it yes so and then at 10 a.m. we do have the Heritage Hall of Fame (3:45) ceremony at the Civic Center so our mayor will be there kind of highlighting (3:49) the two inductees that we have there which I believe is Linda Michelson and (3:53) Ernest Brogue and so we’re excited for the families to be able to be part of (3:59) that celebration those families are also invited to be in the parade later that (4:05) day we’re kind of highlighting those those two inductees as well so the Star (4:10) Valley Street Market will continue from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the 4th as well but (4:15) not located downtown they’ll be moved over by the fairgrounds so there’ll (4:19) still be some vendor opportunities some some opportunity to shop over in that (4:22) area then at 3 p.m. is when we’re actually having the parade we’re doing (4:27) it a little bit earlier this year we’re hoping that that’s going to make things (4:30) a little bit safer for people as they leave the parade and then try to make it (4:34) to the fairgrounds for the search-and-rescue Ranch Rodeo which is (4:37) set to begin at 7 p.m. tomorrow night or on Saturday night sorry and the other (4:41) thing to know is that we are doing a parade route a little different so we’re (4:45) going the same route in terms of Main Street and Fifth Avenue but we’re going (4:50) to start on Fifth Avenue or we’re going to start on Lincoln Street go up to Fifth (4:55) Avenue then turn on Main Street and come back it’s gonna go backwards it’s gonna (5:00) go backwards so just to help the public understand that’s what we’re doing and (5:04) the reason we’re doing that is because when we had changed the route and (5:07) started going down Fifth Avenue and Lincoln at the at the parade of lights (5:12) that we had this winter we found that we didn’t have good traffic control on (5:19) Lincoln Street so as the rest of us in the parade we’re still walking down (5:23) Lincoln Street people were driving up there so we’re thinking if we start that (5:27) way and then come up then we’re then we’re gonna alleviate some of that (5:30) congestion we had with the pedestrians that are walking with floats and the (5:34) people that are trying to leave so probably worth noting that for those in (5:38) the parade they gotta face the other direction and obviously we have some you (5:42) know we’re gonna have people available for the parade lineup instructing them (5:46) and letting them know parade registration I believe it’s still open (5:51) and available that I believe that link to the parade registration is available (5:55) on our on the visit Afton website and the Afton Main Street Alliance board (6:01) Facebook page and then like I just mentioned the 7 p.m. search-and-rescue (6:05) ranch rodeo that’s such an awesome thing it’s it’s so much fun to be able to (6:09) watch you know some of the local Cowboys that we have show us exactly what they’re (6:13) able to do and then we will be having the Afton fireworks over in the same (6:19) location on the west side of the fairgrounds as soon as it gets dark (6:23) after the rodeo so perfect a lot going on with Freedom Festival at the town of (6:27) Afton Violet Sanderson administrator in studio this morning and that’s what’s (6:31) going on Friday and Saturday Violet it takes a whole bunch of people to make an (6:36) event like this happen it does so I want to thank a lot of people that have been (6:39) involved so first of all our tourism board we couldn’t do a lot of these (6:43) festivities without their time and effort and planning and funds that they (6:47) have available that we’re able to garner from all the lodging taxes that come (6:51) through our community secondly I’d like to thank Lisa Grimsley who is our current (6:56) tourism director and event coordinator she’s been doing a great job trying to (6:59) help put this together our Afton Main Street Alliance board have been (7:02) instrumental in getting some of the festivities that we have lined up for (7:05) tomorrow they’ve been phenomenal and helping to plan as well so I want to (7:09) thank them and then our Afton volunteer fire department they will actually be (7:14) the ones that are running the fish scramble tomorrow and then they’re (7:17) obviously doing their pancake breakfast we couldn’t do what we try to do for the (7:22) public without the volunteers that we have for these events the other thing I (7:26) want to mention is that the town of Afton staff you know there’s a lot of (7:29) calls that come in administrative wise there is so much work behind the scenes (7:34) before these events in terms of making sure we have everything planned properly (7:37) for parades getting the signage having things lined out and you know tomorrow (7:41) is is a holiday for our staff it’s the observed 4th of July holiday day and so (7:47) we won’t have a lot of staff on hand tomorrow but we have had a lot of staff (7:53) time and effort put into this of these events as well so I just want to shout (7:57) out to our town of Afton staff both from the administrative side and to you know (8:01) our maintenance staff both in utilities and in parks and streets because on top (8:06) of their general operational duties that we have to ensure that the public has (8:10) the general services that we provide they’ve had to do some of these things as (8:14) well so there’s there’s a ton of work that goes into it and a lot of it you (8:19) know a lot of it does happen the day of but there’s so much planning preparation (8:22) and and and thought and time that’s you know put into providing something like (8:27) this to the public so we have so many people to thank and and so we’re just (8:31) very grateful that we’re able to do this and you know excited to celebrate you (8:36) know America’s 250th. Perfect you can find the full schedule of events for the (8:40) Freedom Festival and this week’s Star Voting Independent also on the events (8:43) page of svinews.com and through the town of Afton Facebook pages along with the (8:48) Main Street Alliance.

Violet Sanderson town administrator anything we missed (8:51) that you’d like to mention today? Just in terms of general town operation I think I (8:55) had mentioned in last month’s time with you that we had sent out the RFP for (9:00) comprehensive master plan we did receive four responses for proposals in regards (9:06) to that RFP we sent out so planning and zoning next Monday we’ll be looking at (9:11) all four of those proposals in regards to the scoring matrix that we had sent (9:15) out with RFP and making a recommendation to the council for the following council (9:20) meeting which will be the following week on Tuesday that night and so we’re (9:24) hoping that we will know who the consultant after that council meeting (9:27) will be that will help us start with our comprehensive master plan. We do also (9:31) have three bids for three different contractors that bid for our streets (9:37) projects both for our seal coating and then the West Alley updates that we’re (9:42) hoping to do and those will be officially decided by the council as (9:47) well in review of the bid tabulation so that we got a couple of really good (9:52) decisions that we get to make at the next council meeting seeing what the (9:55) next couple of months look like for us and obviously for the comprehensive (9:58) master plan that’s a few months of work that’s gonna take place that will be (10:02) calling on the public to help with obviously as we discussed at the last on (10:07) my last radio interview but maybe a couple things for the public to watch (10:13) out for we have a couple of job descriptions that are going to be going (10:17) out we’ve got we’re looking to fill the sergeant position again with our Afton (10:23) Police Department as well as we are creating a building official position (10:29) which will be a plan review code enforcement and building inspection (10:33) position and so in the next couple of weeks people see that coming out in the (10:37) paper and yeah we’re hoping that anybody’s interested and excited to do (10:42) that kind of work for the town of Afton apply so sounds great perfect so watch (10:46) for those details coming up and that’s the Afton town administrator Violet (10:50) Sanderson this morning Violet thanks so much and wish you in the town all the (10:53) best this weekend thank you thank you Duke it’s all part of the weekday wake (10:56) up this morning on SVI radio