Town, county will discuss Rec Center bloat at special JIM
$22M expansion project is already more than $9M over budget and it hasn't even begun
JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. — Only in Teton County could voters pass a tax initiative that builds them a shiny new climbing wall for $22 million only to have everyone immediately gripe it isn’t big enough. This, before it’s even built.
And only in this brave new world, where the price of everything going into an expansion of the Rec Center is going up (an estimated 11.8% since 2019), can the project be overbudget already before so much as a single anchor bolt has been purchased.
On the heels of overspending and overshooting construction timelines with its headquarters/dormitory on Snow King, Parks & Rec (not the popular TV sitcom but almost as funny) says its Rec Center expansion is already $9.4M overbudget and they haven’t done anything yet but pay a healthy list of consultants to look into the project. Perkins and Will Architects, Hoyt Architects, GE Johnson, Wember Associates, Jorgensen Engineers, and Entre‐Prise Climbing all agree…we’re gonna need a bigger boat. As in -load. As in load of cash.
Local alpinists can get busy climbing the walls in lieu of an actual product because this project won’t be done anytime soon. Approved in 2019, Parks & Rec says the goal is to be done planning about it no later than March 2022. Most climbers will have long left the valley by the estimated completion date (Winter 2024) where they will be clamoring for climbing walls in Alpine and Driggs.
To be fair, Rec Center expansion involves more than just the 10,000-sf climbing gym, but that component is driving the conversation. Let’s put it this way: No one is talking about the 750-foot ‘birthday party room.’ Whatever that is.
Town has been hot to get this project done because it includes a pork barrel revamp of infrastructure in north Jackson that will create an alternate route to the hospital—that importance highlighted in the past two years by the number of people flocking to St. John’s with COVID.
But county commissioners—especially Greg Epstein and Mark Barron—have been want to tighten the purse strings, especially if it’s town leading the spending spree.
Town and county leaders will hash all this out at a special JIM this Monday, October 4.
