Community Development Effort in Afton Wy.

Dear Mayor and Town Council Members and Community of Afton, Wyoming

I am writing to express my enthusiastic support for the young people of Afton and greater Star Valley who are eager to Design, Build and Maintain a portion of Canyon View Park this summer. As a member of the broader community, I believe that this initiative will not only provide a meaningful outlet for the creativity and energy of our young people but also enhance the beauty and functionality of one of our town’s most beloved public spaces.

It is essential that we recognize and support the aspirations of our youth, and this project is a shining example of their desire to be engaged, productive, and invested in our community. By taking ownership of this project, they will have an opportunity to learn valuable skills in design, construction and project management to develop their own community, which will serve them and their future generations to come.

In addition to providing a learning opportunity, the proposed design will benefit the community. A well-designed and maintained park creates a positive environment that promotes outdoor activities, healthy living, and community engagement and shares who we are with those who come to visit us. It is essential that we as a community continue to invest in our public spaces and provide opportunities for all members of our community to be a part of the building and enjoying of them.

I have been a part of the planning meeting for Canyon View Park for the last 14 months and in the end, we have outsourced the vision to an out of area (outside our county, and even our state) consultant. It is past time that this community came together and made an investment of their own time to be engaged with their personal resource to build the future Star Valley they want to see. It is past time that municipality meetings be on Tuesday evening at 530pm when a good majority are involved with Mutual activities. It is past time that county economic development planning meetings be on Monday mornings 1st of the month at 10 am when no one can show up. It is past time that community members complain about what we don’t have and start showing up and building what we need.

There must be a unity in our community, but it must not be a blind senseless unity, It should not be a unity just for the sake of unity. It needs to be a unity built on sound principles. We Americans have strayed far from sound principles, morally, constitutionally, and historically. Americans at the grass roots level (here in communities like ours) have sensed that their way of life is and has been threatened and are paralyzed (or tapped out) to making a difference beyond complaints and projecting the responsibility on to their neighbors and worse yet the government.

There would be no purpose for us to unite for our community if certain members of the community were opposed to it. However, this is not the case. As I have immersed myself in the service of this community and especially the youth. I have found that everyone wants many of the same things for the community. Whether it is an indoor pool, pickleball, cornhole, skate park, bmx track, rc track, hiking trails, indoor rec facilities, performing and fine arts center, indoor/outdoor equine center, community farm, expanded food pantry, alternative and cottage skill learning center just to name a few.

I have given my life to the work of securing and preserving the land and resources of Star Valley and its 7 generations of people. Making sure that our Youth, Agricutlre and Ranching culture and way of life are baked into the building blocks of our future development of the area. Building community from the inside out instead of being pushed out from outside in development.

I do not blame any of our public officials, board members of community organizations, religious leaders, or my neighbors. Individuals who serve our community through their roles in municipal, county and even state official capacity are outgunned in technology, engineering, and industry expert resourcing leaving them vulnerable prey to outside development. Now they are forced to source industry experts outside the community they serve. This not only sends critical development dollars outside our area, but it also allows someone from out of the area to influence our vision for our community.

The problem with this that I have found is that we have a wealth of resources that I have drawn upon for many community projects I have organized and or been a part of that prove we have what it takes to unite and produce miraculous outcomes for the greater good of our community and beyond.

It is time to start Planning and Building our Community Resource Center to better serve our community. Let’s build a learning center with tech/data stewardship and agriculture-based innovation complimenting and teaching aging out Agriculture and Ranching lifestyle skills that will keep us a self-reliant people. Let’s bring together the aging community infrastructure in one area like the Senior Center, Historical society, and Afton food pantry. Let’s bring 4-h and ffa together in one location to better serve and be served by our community. Lets’ build a real indoor recreation center with pool, basketball, pickle ball, volleyball, ping pong, pinball, rock climbing, cornhole under one roof so we don’t have to suffer depression in the winter. Let’ build a business center with a commercial kitchen, welding, carpentry, 3-d printing shops making up a Star Valley worthy inventors paradise (remember this is how planes got and get built in this valley.

Lets build a Star Valley Technical Agriculture and Ranching Academy that would allow our 7 generations of Self Reliant, Community Resilient know how to become our Industrial and Economic gold rush this valley will need to preserve itself.

Lets buy up our land and turn this Valley floor and its rich soil and natural oasis of resource into the campus of life (therein preserving if from outside grandiose visions of over developed under supported housing developments.) Let’s build and become an area know for it indoor/outdoor equine center and state of the art tech based grow facilities. Lets draw from the healing energy of our environment and create a Star Valley healthy lifestyle healing facility focusing on Mental health and wellness. Let’s show the world how the people of Star Valley Wyoming have endured and prospered from the land and its resources. Let’s create a program from the ways of the pioneering families like The Calls, The Kenningtons, The Allreds, The Nields, The Ericksons, The Martinsens, The Robinsions, The Garners and even The Osmonds (the list is far too long to credit them all). Let’s build a performing and fine arts program and center as part of this Academy to teach and show how Wyoming Western Ranch culture is a wealth of artistic talent and inspiration.

I could put 10 of you together and we could rebuild America from our front porch.

We will then attract the likeminded American Frontier people from across the nation to learn the Star Valley ways and will come with a respect and appreciation instead of seeking to turn our community into something they left for.

Let’s align ourselves with clean sustainable energy innovation like biomass science instead of drinking from Bill Gates hopium kool aid cup of nuclear energy.

Let’s come together and actually solve and build affordable net zero transitory housing that would complement our environment and provide much needed housing for those who support our community.

No one person is going to do this alone. This park project is the perfect first steps and opportunity for us to come together as a community behind and in full support of our youth and show that not only can we do this but that we can do it together while rewriting the way and approach to community development based on our own labors as the pool of resources. I have been working tirelessly behind the scenes and in the rooms of local, county, state and national networks. I have been working in our Rancher and Art Community. I have served you all so that you can see that we all can serve each other. It is past time people. Life is not going to get easier. We have to leave it all on the field for our kids, grandkids and great grandkids. We are not doing nearly enough to secure their future and empower them to defend it.

I encourage you to support the young people of Afton in their efforts to design, build, and maintain a portion of Canyon View Park. This projec

t will be an asset to our town and a source of pride for our young people, who are eager to contribute to the betterment of our community. Thank you for your consideration, and I look forward to seeing this project and our community vision come to fruition to be a beacon of hope to the rest of America and a testimony to our faith in God.