How to pay for Rec Center expansion?
Monday's JIM should be a good one as electeds need to get rolling on the project before it runs further into the red
JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. — It will be right back to work for town and county leaders as the Jackson Town Council and Teton Board of County Commissioners meet this Monday.
The 10 electeds will convene Monday for a Joint Information Meeting (JIM) on April 11 beginning at 2:00pm.
The JIM will include an update on the Housing Nexus Study presented by WSW Consulting led by Ashleigh Kanat. The report should give civic leaders a more in-depth look at how the housing challenges the community faces are affected by new commercial and residential development.
The study will conclude with the third and final phase beginning April 27. Housing stakeholder and public input will continue to be gathered through the summer. Final presentation to the electeds is expected sometime in mid-August.
Rec Center Expansion dialogue
Parks and Recreation director Steve Ashworth will present his department’s budget and latest on the expansion project approved by voters on the 2019 SPET ballot.
Specifically, Ashworth will be looking for councilors and commissioners to sign off on a construction team for the sizeable undertaking now more than $10M in the hole before it has even begun. GE Construction was selected by Parks and Rec after a sealed bid process culminating April 5.
GE Construction promises, via a Guaranteed Maximum Price (GMP) bid, that the job will come in no more than $32,253,969. Far and above the $22,547,290 currently set aside for the project.
To cover the shortfall, staff is recommending electeds dip into the Teton County Energy Mitigation Fund (with a current balance of $3,406,115) for $ $1,080,810. To completely close the gap, the idea is to hit town and county budgets for the next two years—45% ($5,773,829) from the town, 55% ($7,056,902) from the county out of the FY23 and FY24 budgets.
Expect yet another “How did we get in this predicament?” question posed to Ashworth, who managed to run the department’s employee housing project on Snow King well over budget and late delivered. Also, the financial fiasco may elicit more overarching discussions about the use of SPET and the unanticipated downsides of funding large construction project such as this one, scaled out over long time periods with escalating costs and other variables.
