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A hotly debated underpass for recreators at Coal Creek and a pathway to Trail Creek will likely depend on philanthropy estimated between $2 million and $4.7 million.
County commissioners reversed course Sept. 29 after striking the project from its agenda earlier this year due to high cost estimates and an anticipated shrinking property tax base. Pathway and safety advocates from both sides of Teton Pass rallied this summer by flooding commissioner’s inboxes and showing up to Monday’s meeting in force, urging completion of a project expected to serve mostly bikers and skiers. Victor City Councilor Sue Muncaster was among those who suggested philanthropy could fill the gap for ballooning project costs.
“I’m pretty excited about their decision. I think it was a good compromise,” she said after the vote.
She was one of several who invoked the legacies of recently deceased Teton Pass safety professional Jay Pistono and photographer Flo McCall, who was killed on her bike by a drunk driver in June.
“I think between those two things, that we could have a grassroots [movement and] a pretty significant call to action,” she said.
The county is not leaning entirely on the private sector. It’s still putting in at least $1.2 million to the pathway and underpass while leveraging over $5 million from the federal government. But Monday’s discussion showed rising tensions of the county’s stretched budget covering expensive capital projects like a new $120 million courthouse.
“Our printing press for the funds for this are the people of our community. It’s not downstairs,” said Commissioner Natalia Macker. “People [who] aren’t using this are people that have multiple jobs and are trying to keep it all together.”
The exact amount of philanthropy needed to go for the entire 3.5 miles connecting Trail and Coal creek – a popular landing spot for forest recreators – will depend on flexibility from the federal government, said Public Works Director Heather Overholser.
Adding a specific deadline of 11:59 p.m. on Dec. 31, 2025, commissioners effectively gave unofficial direction to nonprofit fundraisers in the room such as Friends of Pathways and Teton Valley Trails and Pathways. Commission chair Mark Newcomb said the specificity was unorthodox.
“This is one of the most unusual motions I’ve ever heard,” he told the crowd.
Wilsonite Tim Young told Teton County commissioners he’d help fundraise and is confident the community will step up.
“Over the 35 or 40 years I’ve worked in this business of bicycling and walking, I’ve been able to achieve quite a number of projects through assistance of private fundraising,” said the founder of Friends of Pathways, Wyoming Pathways and the county’s first pathways director.
The pathway and underpass are part of 13 transit projects inside a $25 million Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development – or BUILD – grant awarded to neighboring Teton Counties in Wyoming and Idaho in 2020. Other BUILD projects include the Stilson transit center and a park-and-ride in Driggs, Idaho.
