• Town deals with 30 new home applications.

With steady and continual growth in the Town of Star Valley Ranch, the municipality has brought on a person to focus on the number of building permits seeking new construction in that community.

“We have hired an individual, and we call him ‘the building department,’ ” Mayor Kathleen Buyers explained in an interview with SVI Media on Monday. “He does all the inspections and is helping to update all of ordinances.”

The town is addressing a steady number of requests for construction.

“Just to give you an example this year we have already issued 80 building permits and 30 of those are new homes,” the mayor offered. “We give them three years to build and there is a lot of construction everywhere in town.”

She added, “We talked about this [position] six years ago, but now it is something that had to be done. We feel comfortable with what we are doing with our buildings.”

In addition to having an office focused on new construction, the town is reworking the responsibilities for planning and zoning.

“We are redoing our planning and zoning board and calling it a planning commission which is more consistent with statute,” she explained. “They will be working on land use, zoning, annexations, and updating our ordinances with some of the same people and new people coming on board. We are looking forward to that.”

In other news related to the Town of Star Valley Ranch:

• Two bridges in the community will be undergoing needed repairs and replacement.

“It took two-and-half years to get through all of the applications and the bid process. We have that finished,” The mayor reported. “The Middle Branch Bridge has been closed for two-and-half years.

They will start construction on that Dec. 9. It’s prefabbed concrete that will come in on trucks.”

She added, “The other one is the Hardman Bridge and that one will be done in the Spring. It takes a while to get all of the cement parts made.”

• With the summer season closed, the town can look back at accomplishments with water system improvements.

“Last summer the biggest part of our water project was Vista Drive and that is complete but there are several roads in town that still need to be finished,” the mayor said of water line replacement. “These are small stretches of pipe that need to be replaced. That should be done next summer and that will finalize everything in the ground. Then everything in the ground will be new.”

She added,  “Water projects have been ongoing for the past 20 years. It will be exciting to have that finished. Lot of trips to Cheyenne.”

• Check the Town of Star Valley Ranch website for updates on the winter snow removal plan and the recent audit.

“The public works department has a snow plan, that will be on the town website,” the mayor noted. “Town Audit is also on the town website.”