The Afton town council met June 14 for their monthly meeting. Several community members as well as a youth delegation were in attendance.
Dustin Hill, owner of Star Valley Powersports on Main Street, proposed a plan to the council concerning Roosevelt Street. The alley, which is on the west side of Main Street businesses, is currently owned by individual private business owners.
Hill has worked with the businesses and has a tentative agreement to allow the town of Afton to acquire the land that makes up the road. This is needed in order for the town to take over the plowing and other maintenance of the alley. Mayor Inskeep praised Hill’s work and the council made preliminary plans to move forward.
The role the city plays in maintaining the Simplot ballfields was discussed. Currently, the fields are county property but the town of Afton pays for the lighting and provides the grounds work. The council was concerned with assuring the town was receiving enough benefit to offset the costs of maintenance.
A few solutions that were mentioned were implementing a better scheduling system of the fields and updating the lease language to eliminate ambiguity.
Several residents were attending to hear if two ordinances would pass the first reading. Ordinance 676, which would form a street improvement district for Aspen Court, passed. This is the first step to get the cul-de-sac paved to make plowing easier.
A special meeting was set for June 24 to allow enough time for the ordinance to go through its required three readings and leave enough time for the work to potentially be completed before winter.
Ordinance 677 was also of interest to Afton residents. This ordinance would create a conditional use permit in the town to allow for cryptocurrency mining activities. The council discussed shifting the permit to a specific cryptocurrency permit.
Sound was one of the most heavily discussed factors in the permit. Currently, the town has an ordinance against any continuous sound over 30 decibels at a property line. Several council members expressed concern that this would not be enough, especially in zones near residential areas.
The council determined to allow zero decibels of continuous sound at the property line in mixed commercial industrial and general commercial zoned areas. This passed on its first reading, with Councilman Wilkes voting nay.
The council heard options for repairing the length of 4th Avenue. Mayor Inskeep expressed that he wants to get it done right so it will last many years and not be an issue. The council moved to redo the road by doing a full depth reclamation. The project will tentatively start next summer.
Motions to approve three subdivisions were carried. This included the Honeybee Acres south of Afton, a division southeast of Old Sawmill, and a final plat of Horizon Communications, Inc.
Mayor Inskeep moved to begin updating the town master plan. The current plan was finalized in 2008.
