• The Castle Valley Fire Department conducts their training meetings on the first and third Tuesday of every month. The volunteer firefighters meet at Station One on the Castleton Road beginning at 7 p.m. and invite local residents to sit in on a class. They are currently studying “Essentials of Fire Fighting and Fire Department Operations” at each training, and will be reviewing wildland fire training later in the spring.
The commissioners of the Castle Valley Fire Protection Area meet every second Thursday also at Station One at 7 p.m. This is also a public meeting and visitors are invited to attend these meetings.
• The Castle Valley Planning and Land Use Commission meets the first Wednesday of each month at the town hall, beginning at 6:30 p.m. The Castle Valley Town Council holds their meetings on the third Wednesday of the month at 6:30 p.m. at the town hall at 2 Castle Valley Drive. Occasionally, the town council will hold special meetings or workshops at other times, and they will be posted in advance on the bulletin boards or on the town’s website at www.castlevalleyutah.com.
The town’s road committee also conducts a public meeting on the third Tuesday at 9 a.m. at the town hall.
• Every second Tuesday the Castle Valley Branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will host a community potluck dinner at 6:30 p.m. Area residents are welcome to enjoy a short informal evening of good food and conversation with their neighbors. Occasionally, a speaker will be invited to talk afterwards on topics of community interest, such as solar energy, and wills and trusts, as examples of the last two topics.
• The Castle Valley Branch of the Grand County Public Library is open every Tuesday and Friday at the town hall from 2 to 6 p.m. By calling the main library ahead of time, people can order books and have them available at the local library during local hours. Faylene Roth is the local librarian and can be reached at 259-9998 during those hours.
In the past, there has been a loosely organized reading group in the valley but they haven’t met for about a year. Roth indicated this week that if there is an interest in a reading group, she could assist in getting people who have common interests together.
• An exercise group meets every Monday through Friday at 6 a.m. for about an hour at the town hall and they invite all to come and join them. They do a variety of different things including stretching, nia, aerobics, pilates, and weight training.
• The valley has a wonderful resource, which is available to everyone in the community. There is a family history library with microfilm readers and computers to connect you to the past via historical records, family tree websites and much more.
“We would welcome the opportunity to assist one and all in finding your connection to the past generations,” JoAnna Dalton said. If you have questions, would like to see what is available, or would like to set up a time to start your own research, call Dalton at 259-9105.
• There is a perfectly good (and still new) ping-pong table at the town hall that is not getting much use. There used to be weekly tournaments at the town hall where people of all abilities would gather for an evening of great fun and be able to get out on winter nights. If people are interested in getting this started again, Mary Beth Fitzburgh said she is available to get the ball rolling again.
* * *
Looking back 30 years ago in this column, I focused, in a series of articles, on the board members of the Castle Valley River Ranchos Property Owners Association.
During this particular week, Merrill Brady, a transplant from Riverton, Utah two years previously, was the subject of the series. He operated his own business, Castle Valley Stone, and worked for Atlas Minerals as a welder at the time.
The column also reported on a fund-raiser basketball game between the Castle Valley and Moab Valley Fire departments. The Moab team emerged victorious in the encounter, outscoring the Castle Valley firemen 22 to 11 at the Grand County High School gym. Judging by the score, it looked like both teams needed to keep their day jobs.