Violet Sanderson, Administrator for the Town of Afton, stepped into the SVI Radio studio on Thursday, August 6 for her monthly report from the town. Sanderson discussed upcoming road projects and moving forward with creating a new master plan.

The following transcript of the above interview is AI generated. Minor spelling errors are likely to occur.

(0:00) Joining me live in studio this morning is Violet Sanderson, Administrator for the Town of Afton. (0:05) Violet, good morning. How are you today? Good morning, Duke.

I’m great. Thanks for having me. (0:09) Absolutely.

You and I were just talking about how fast and crazy summer is and trying to squeeze in (0:14) the last you can as a family. I assume for a municipality, it’s very similar. You have some (0:20) projects that you’re trying to get wrapped up while you still can this summer and fall, right? (0:24) We do.

And especially this time of year, we’re always thinking about our road projects and (0:28) trying to make sure we can wrap things up before school gets started and the buses are out and kids (0:32) are moving and shaking around and getting to school. And so maybe that’s the first thing to (0:37) touch on today. We do have maintenance projects for our roads that are coming up as well as we’ve got (0:45) the exciting news of the West Alley project getting started.

Starting off with the West (0:51) Alley, I believe that the contractors are thinking that they’re going to get started (0:54) with tearing up the existing asphalt and chip seal and whatever else has been added to the (0:59) layers over the years on Monday next week. And so they’ll kind of get to a subsurface point, (1:06) I think over next week, and then they’ll come back in the next couple of weeks and start (1:11) putting things back down and then laying the rolling curb in for drainage that we’ll have (1:15) through there. And so, yeah, pretty soon people might be able to drive through there and it’s (1:19) going to be crazy.

Amazing. How many years has that been in the works? (1:23) It’s actually happening. Yeah, Star Valley Power Sports isn’t going to be able to utilize it as (1:28) an area for people to test drive the ATVs they’re attempting to buy from them anymore.

(1:34) No, right, as the off-road course. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. No, great project.

So definitely (1:40) excited to see that one move forward. And then a couple other resurfacing projects on the streets, (1:45) right? Yeah, we’ve got some sealcoat projects happening. And just to kind of highlight those (1:49) dates and times for people so they’re aware, Dr. Perks and Adams Street will be closed or affected (1:56) beginning August 13th.

Adams and Hospital Lane area will be closed or affected August 14th. (2:05) Jefferson Street from 4th Avenue to 2nd Avenue will be affected August 12th. Adams from 1st Avenue (2:13) to 4th Avenue will be affected August 13th.

And then East 3rd Avenue from Washington to (2:19) Madison will be affected on the 14th. So getting most of that done, you know, later next week, (2:25) we do have the maps showing the dates and times of these things affected listed on our website (2:30) under our streets tab, Perks and Streets tab. And then I think we did also kind of put out a blast (2:37) on Facebook with the link to those maps as well.

So it’ll help people kind of understand which (2:42) days and maybe how to reroute if they’re trying to get somewhere. But just kind of notice up the (2:48) public of which areas are going to be affected and when. Perfect.

So just be aware of those (2:52) projects coming forward with the Town of Afton. But the big one, West Alley work, you said this (2:57) upcoming Monday is when you expect to see it, right? Yeah, we had a pre-construction meeting (3:00) with the contractors this week. And they said that they were thinking they were going to try (3:04) to get started next week.

So as we have exactly more information and a more strict schedule, (3:09) we’ll be posting that out as well for people to understand. Perfect. Town of Afton Administrator (3:14) Violet Sanderson in studio for the Weekday Wake-Up today.

Violet also wanted to bring up (3:18) the master plan. We’ve discussed this a couple of times and it sounds like that’s moving forward. (3:22) That is moving forward.

So the Town Council had approved for JUB Engineering to be the consultants (3:28) on our project. We had four proposals that were turned in on the project and JUB kind of came (3:35) top of the list along with another consulting firm. And then they just had everything that (3:42) we needed in an efficient way.

And so that was what we’ve moved forward with. JUB is going to (3:47) be using Jorgensen Engineering as a subcontractor on some of the things they’re going to be helping (3:50) us with. So we’re really excited to get rolling with them.

We’re hoping to have a kickoff meeting (3:55) which will be just internal staff and basically the steering committee being the P&Z and a few (4:02) council members in the next couple of weeks. And then as soon as we get that going, then we’ll be (4:08) able to really put out a better schedule to the public because we’ll be able to adopt some key (4:12) dates for work sessions that P&Z and council members will be having and then also those (4:19) open sessions, open meetings to the public. There will also be, I think, initially a survey that (4:24) goes out to the public.

So I hope people watch out for that because we definitely want to hear (4:29) from everybody in terms of, you know, what does Afton need? What do we want the town of Afton to (4:35) be moving forward? Because this really is the guiding document to the future growth of Afton (4:40) and what we will be trying to do and work from as the town. What do you anticipate the estimated (4:45) timeline is to when the public may start seeing those more public meetings and workshops take (4:51) place? I would say that in the next month they’ll be able to see the timeline and the dates associated (4:56) with that. So we will have some kind of marketing materials helping them understand the schedule, (5:02) when certain key meetings are, when they’re going to be invited to come and share (5:06) on our website.

So they can watch out for that stuff there too. One question I get a lot is what (5:12) the plan is with the Los Cabos building downtown that the town purchased. I’m sure you get that (5:16) as well.

Is that still being considered what the plan will do as you look at this master plan? (5:20) Absolutely. So I think I’ve said before, the council is moving forward with the idea that (5:26) we’re tearing that building down. We’re going to have a fire break in that area similar to what’s (5:30) across the street near the arch as well.

And then create kind of a little parklet, a pass-through. (5:35) It’s going to help things flow better and open up main street to our public parking that is (5:39) available on the east alley. So we’re really excited about that.

What we’re working on right (5:46) now is working with the engineers so we can put out a full depth RFP to a contractor (5:51) so they can understand all the specifics of tearing that building down. You have to do all (5:57) the fun stuff like asbestos testing and all that kind of stuff that you need to be able to notice (6:01) subcontractors about in a project like that. Well, it’s not a new building, right? (6:04) It’s definitely not a new building.

And I’ll tell you, I’ve personally been able to be in (6:08) the basement a couple of times and it’s interesting to say the least. (6:12) Yeah, absolutely. So that’s all happening now with the town of Apton.

Stay tuned for details on (6:17) public input and comment for the, again, master plan that’s moving forward. Administrator Violet (6:22) Sanderson with the town of Apton, anything else happening you wanted to mention? (6:25) I think that’s the majority of what we got going on right now. We’re still moving forward with our (6:29) South Waterline project.

You’ll see it throughout the rest of this fall (6:39) and I would say early spring. We’re just still doing a lot of planning for that. (6:43) But people will start to see us come out with RFP early spring next year for that.

So we’re excited (6:50) to get that on the books and get that ready to go. But yeah, that’s kind of where we’re at with (6:55) our projects right now. We’re just wrapping up some of the final little things that we need to do (7:00) as far as maintenance to facilities and stuff like that and getting ready for school to start, (7:06) like you said.

Here we go. Ready or not. (7:09) Absolutely.

Violet Sanderson, town of Apton administrator this morning. It’s all part of (7:12) the weekday wake up on SBI radio.