JACKSON, Wyo. — At Town Council Workshop on Tuesday, Feb. 17, Director of Teton County/Jackson Parks and Recreation Department Tyler Florence presented a five-year Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) for a variety of services and systems in the Town of Jackson. It was a strictly informational session to discuss the proposed items.
Projects proposed include: Replacing the Phil Baux Park playground; adding locking systems at four public restrooms (Powderhorn Park, Miller Park, Owen Bircher Park and Phil Baux Park); Karns Meadow Park development, building a public restroom, playground and lighting at Wayne May Park; executing repairs and replacements at the Teton County/Jackson Community Recreation Center (which includes replacing the rotunda roof and replastering the pool); and doing a Recreation Center pool expansion feasibility study.
Most questions from Councilmembers centered around funding and how funding would be acquired to execute these projects.
“To me this is an interesting policy question about how are we leveraging the capacity within our county and our community to pay for some of these projects,” Mayor Arne Jorgensen said during the meeting. “[The spending] does not feel very strategic at all other than we have a strategic plan that is very reactive … and I think that we can do better.”
Other unscheduled but contingent projects include building a permanent dog park, Rec Center pool expansion and an indoor tennis facility. The dog park has community support but some unresolved constraints (such as strong local opposition) and the tennis facility has strong vocal advocates without any formal adoption or strategy as of yet.
Since the plan is a five-year CIP, discussions regarding funding these projects will take place during the spring budget session. The fiscal year for the Town of Jackson and Teton County runs from July 1 until June 30 of the following year.
