JACKSON, Wyo. — Mayor Arne Jorgensen delivered his first State of the Town Address from Jackson’s Town Hall on Feb. 19, emphasizing past successes and current concerns.
The address continues an annual tradition that former Mayor Hailey Morton Levinson began in 2021.
Jorgensen described 2024 as an eventful year that encompassed wildfires, water pipeline work, the Teton Pass landslide, the Flat Creek affordable housing project and a building moratorium, which placed new restrictions on large scale development.
“The Town of Jackson remained committed and responsive to this and so much more,” Jorgensen said.
Jorgensen shared the Town’s priorities for the years to come; Town Council will continue to work on relationships with local Tribes, and assist the Wind River Tribal Buffalo Initiative in educating youth and restoring Buffalo back to the Wind River landscape.
He said that other future goals include pathway safety, a joint agreement between Town and County to revise sources of revenue, a work plan for the Virginian affordable housing project, developing a budget strategy and reevaluating the disbursement of property tax revenue.
Jorgensen also went off script to address the recent layoffs of thousands of federal employees in the National Park Service, Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management.
“Our public lands make up the core of our community, of our economy, of our culture,” Jorgensen said. “Our public managers are facing untold stress at the moment and my heart goes out to them. The Town of Jackson will do whatever we can to support our community members that are doing this absolutely critical work of maintaining this public land asset.”
Jorgensen also shared that he was headed to Cheyenne as part of the effort to remove the affordable housing amendment on Senate Bill 40. SF0040 would no longer require developers to pay into the housing mitigation impact fee that funds affordable housing. The bill is currently being discussed in committee after passing a third reading in the Wyoming Senate and House.
“The State Legislature is attacking our housing mitigation plans that we have had in place for over 30 years successfully,” Jorgensen said. “This was done in the dark of the night. It was done as part of a committee hearing in the House Appropriations Committee with no opportunity for public comment or review. The amendment was attached to a bill that it was arguably not germane to and it would remove housing mitigation to our community.”
According to Jorgensen, 1,600 restricted/affordable housing units have been created in the valley. He noted that for the 30 years that the housing mitigations have been in place, property values in Teton County have gone up exponentially.
Watch the full address here.
