Violet Sanderson, Administrator for the Town of Afton, called into the Weekday Wake-up on Thursday, June 4 for her monthly report. Sanderson focused on the upcoming America250 celebration for the 4th of July weekend, public comment on the town’s master plan and accepting bids on upcoming summer projects including improvements to the alleyway on the west side of downtown.

(0:00) Heading into this hour’s guest interview segment and Violet Sanderson joining me live over the (0:05) phone this morning, Town Administrator for the Town of Afton. Violet, good morning, how are you today? (0:11) I’m great, thank you for having me, Duke. Yeah, absolutely, appreciate your time and the (0:14) monthly report and here we are, 4th of June, which means 4th of July is officially one month away and (0:21) the Town of Afton working on some great big plans for America 250 celebration 4th of July weekend.

(0:29) We are, we have a lot of things that are going to be happening. So we do still have an Afton (0:35) Junior Rodeo that’s going to be happening, that will actually happen this Saturday before (0:38) the 4th of July, so June 26th at 10 a.m. at the fairgrounds. We’ve got a lot of events (0:47) for anybody under the age of 17, so we’ve got mutton busting, barrels, poles, breakaway, (0:54) goat tying, tie down, calf riding, all sorts of things.

And then we also do have a couple of (1:00) peewee events, including stick horse barrels, goat ribbon tying and dummy, dummy roping. The (1:07) registration link for that is on, can be found at the Afton or at the Afton Main Street Alliance (1:15) social media page on Facebook and so we encourage anybody that’s going to be here on June 26th, (1:21) Saturday and wants to be part of those events to register through that link you can find online. (1:27) And then moving into our events for July 3rd and 4th, we have got a lot going on, (1:33) kicking off that morning of the 3rd with the Elkhorn 5k walk run.

That’s going to start at (1:42) 8 a.m. so you can review a little bit more about that and who’s benefited by that (1:51) with the amputee blade runners at runstarvalley.com. We’re really excited to have them (1:57) back. This has been a fun event that I think we have more and more turnout for each year. (2:02) And then moving into the rest of the day events, we’ve got (2:08) between 12 and 8 p.m. we’ve got Star Valley Street Market that’s going to be on our main (2:12) street which is going to include bounce houses and some vendors.

We’re also going to have a live DJ (2:18) and dance party through the decades between 4 and during that time between about noon and 8 p.m. (2:25) And then between 4 and 8 p.m. we’re also hosting a cornhole tournament. (2:31) And then we’ve got our grand finale of that evening of the 3rd on between 8 and 10 p.m. (2:37) We’ve got an award-winning Flash Pants band that’s an 80s cover band that’s going to be (2:43) coming doing live music on Main Street as well. And so we hope everybody can turn out.

We also (2:49) have an 80s most epic individual and couples costume contest going on that night. So we’re (2:56) excited to celebrate the 250th celebration with that on the 3rd. And then moving into the actual (3:02) 4th of July, we do have our afternoon street parade that’s going to take place at 3 p.m. (3:09) And then we’ve also got from 11 to 5 p.m. the Star Valley Street Market happening.

And then (3:16) at 7 p.m. we’ve got the Star Valley Search and Rescue Ranch Rodeo that’s happening and we will (3:22) be doing fireworks after the rodeo. So we’re hoping that everybody that’s going to be here (3:28) in town can come and take advantage of some of these fun events that we’re going to have. (3:31) Oh, and I almost forgot one important thing.

We are also doing a three-on-three tournament (3:35) during the 250th celebration. So that’s going to be Friday, July 3rd. The proceeds are going (3:42) to benefit the Star Valley High School Boys Basketball.

So it’s a fundraiser for them. (3:46) It’s $80 per team. We’ve got 5th and 6th grade girls and boys teams available, 7th and 8th grade (3:53) girls and boys, as well as JV boys and girls and varsity boys and girls.

And then we do kind of (4:00) have an open class for men as well. Anybody interested in registering for that can text (4:05) Matt Shumway at 208-339-4648. And all of this information on our events is going to be available (4:13) on our Afton Main Street Alliance pages and social media.

So I would encourage anybody that’s (4:18) looking for something to do to go reach out and find those online. Perfect. What a great weekend (4:26) from the Junior Rodeo all the way through the 4th of July.

A lot happening with the town of Afton. (4:32) And again, as Violet said, Afton Main Street Alliance, we’ll have some info there. And of (4:35) course, we’ll have all the events posted on our website as well at svinews.com on the events tab.

(4:40) Violet Sanderson, Town Administrator with the Town of Afton. Violet, what else is going on (4:44) as we head into the summer months with the town? There’s a lot going on, but I’ll just (4:49) touch base on we do have an opportunity for an Afton Summer Flag Football Saturday League (4:56) registration deadline is June 12th. So I want to get that out there for everybody so they can (5:00) get online.

So if you go to our Afton Youth Sports page on Facebook, you can find all that information, (5:06) that registration link where you can register for that at AftonWyoming.SportsSites.com. (5:11) We’ve got Saturday games scheduled for July 11th through August 1st. And so yeah, if your kids are (5:19) interested, ages, kindergarten through sixth grade, boys and girls, and then we’ve got seventh (5:24) through 12th grade girls. Cost will be $50 and that will include the team shirt and flags that (5:30) will be provided for the players.

So we’re excited to be doing that as well. So if your (5:36) kids are interested in doing a flag football program on Saturdays throughout the summer, (5:42) that’s going to be available for people. The other thing that we have going on at the town (5:46) is we’ve got, it’s that fabulous time of year where we’ve got all of our projects getting (5:50) kicked off and ready to go.

So we actually do have a pre-bid walkthrough meeting today at 10 (5:58) at town hall. So that’s going to be a pre-bid for any contractors interested in responding to our (6:03) streets projects, which are going to include some seal coding throughout town, as well as (6:09) our updates that we have planned for the West Alley in Afton downtown. So we’re excited for (6:15) that.

We’ve been planning for the updates to the West Alley for quite a while. It’s surely needed. (6:21) So we’re excited for that.

So, and then official bids will need to be received and submitted by (6:27) 2 PM on June 18th for that. Then we’re starting to finish up the engineering and design work for (6:33) our South Afton water project. And as mentioned on the radio before and posted online as well, (6:40) we’ve also sent this out in notices within the bills that our new rate structure that will be (6:45) effective July one, which will be reflected on the August billings will come into effect then.

(6:50) And so that is a 20% increase to the demand charge. And for the general resident who has (6:54) three-quarter one-inch hookup, it’s $4.50 additional each month to the demand charge. (7:00) So just want to make sure everybody is reminded of that, that that’s upcoming.

And I mean, (7:08) I would say in other news for the town of Afton, we do, you know, we had have four council positions (7:14) open. That’ll be on the ballot for the public to decide who they want to have serving the town of (7:18) Afton. So we had one opening for the mayor’s position, the four-year term, and we’ve got (7:26) Jeff Jensen incumbent mayor who has applied to be on the ballot for that.

We have two (7:31) four-year term council positions open. We have Will Wilkes incumbent council member, (7:37) Brock Brown incumbent council member, and Jeremy Price who have applied to put their names on the (7:44) ballot for that position. And then we also have one two-year term and we’ve got Dirk Hilliard (7:49) incumbent council member who’s applied to be on the ballot for that, Link Neal and Stockton Jones.

(7:55) So that’s what we have going on in Afton and it has been in that shell. But one other thing, (8:02) if we have time, Duke, and I’m sorry, I feel like I’m taking a lot of time. (8:05) You’re doing great.

(8:06) We’ve got a lot of things happening. So we’ve got our comprehensive master plan that’s going to be (8:12) out to the public for response for proposal next week in the paper. It’ll also be posted on our (8:18) website and social media as well.

So this is the comprehensive master plan serves as our long-term (8:25) vision for the community. It’ll be a guiding document that we’ll use to look at our community’s (8:32) growth, development, and infrastructure as well as quality of life for the residents. (8:36) And then with this process, we as a town, we’re going to be seeking (8:40) with the RFP qualified planning firms that can help evaluate current conditions, (8:45) identify any future needs that we have.

And the most important part is that they will facilitate (8:50) engagement with the residents and stakeholders. So we can really shape what the vision of the (8:55) community needs to look like for a long-term planning. And community involvement is a key (9:00) part and component in this planning process.

And we’re excited to have the public come (9:07) to any of those meetings and more information will be sent out to the public to ensure that (9:13) they understand how they can participate as we move through the comprehensive planning process. (9:18) But that’s a big thing that we’ve got going on. That has to do with, like I said, our growth, (9:25) our development, land use, some of, you know, economic opportunities we might have, and most (9:30) importantly, the quality of life for our residents.

So just want to touch base on that, but that will (9:35) be going out publicly next week. Okay. Well, absolutely be watching for that.

And along (9:40) with that comprehensive plan, I did want to ask about the West Alley again that you mentioned (9:44) that you’re going to start taking some bids on that. And so remind us what some of the plans (9:49) are that are going out to bid and what’s going to be happening with the West Alley downtown. (9:54) So with the West Alley downtown, this is the alleyway that’s between the fourth and fifth (9:59) avenue on the west side of Main Street.

Anybody who’s attempted to travel that in the last few (10:04) years, it’s pretty degraded. Now that’s an easement that, you know, the town has for right of public (10:12) access. And the council has found it important that we go ahead and move forward with updating that.

(10:19) So this plan that we have in place will actually straighten out the easement or straighten out (10:25) the alleyway. And we’re going to be able to, you know, fix up the subsurface grading as well as (10:34) pave that so we don’t have any, you know, any dramatic potholes anymore back that way. And (10:41) then it also gives us in our design, it gives us an opportunity to create a rolling curb.

(10:46) So that way we can have some better drainage through there in the future as well. (10:50) Project a long time in the coming. I understand.

So it’ll be great to have that one absolutely (10:55) completed. Well, Violet, appreciate the report. Thank you so much.

And yeah, a lot happening in (10:59) the town of Afton right now. So thank you so much. Yes.

Thank you so much for your time, (11:03) Duke. I appreciate it. You bet.

It’s Violet Sanderson, (11:05) town of Afton administrator this morning on the weekday wake up.