JACKSON, Wyo. — Gabe Koerber, a fourth candidate for Jackson Town Council, has emerged as an option for voters who want to see someone new in the contest.
An 18-year resident of Jackson, Koerber works at the concierge desk at The Cloudveil near Town Square. Koerber told Buckrail that for about 15 of his years in the valley, he has worked directly on Town Square. He has worked in hospitality and retail, driven for START on Demand, and led wildlife tours in the national parks. He said he was originally prompted to run for local office when he saw the list of candidates and didn’t see any fresh options.
“As I was scrolling through, looking at the news, everybody who had applied for county positions, for town positions — it was the same names we’ve been seeing for years,” Koerber said.
One of Koerber’s general campaign outlooks is to ensure that local residents can attain a good quality of life, not just “quantity of life.” He is not always supportive of prioritizing high-density housing over better quality living opportunities. Downtown traffic and parking, parklets, and the new three-hour limit in the Home Ranch Lot are issues on his radar. He is interested in finding a parking solution for workers on Town Square. He also rattled off other issues that tend to get more air-time, like water quality, development and large construction projects.
“With all the jobs I’ve had, I’ve had a lot of different roles, I’ve gotten to work with a lot of different people,” Koerber said. “I think it’s given me a good pool to draw from on opinions of what people think we need.”
Koerber said that his communication with local outdoor companies and outfitters has offered insight into what is affecting most businesses. He said the common challenges are traffic, policy changes and staffing. He supports reining in or steering the local tourism industry in a sustainable direction, especially for the people who make it run, while thinking back on the reasons tourists began visiting in the first place.
“When the settlers came and found ranching was hard and agriculture was even harder, they turned to dude ranching,” Koerber said. “People wanted a taste of the West, and so we started inviting people out here to come and stay here and see what it was like.”
Koerber is looking forward to engaging more with the community, and he said a good place to find him and his opinions will be in the comment sections of local Facebook pages. Also running for the two open Town Council seats are current councilmembers Alyson Spery and Jonathan Schechter, and former councilmember Jessica Sell Chambers.
