Push for Talks on Expansion Objections

DRIGGS — A commissioner wants the two Teton counties to stop pressing their Grand Targhee expansion objections through the federal review process and start working them out directly with the resort. Len Carlman, a Teton County, Wyoming commissioner, floated the idea at the two counties' July 23 joint workshop, and the two board chairs signaled agreement to bring the valley's cities into the effort. No vote was taken.

"Both Teton counties have sent letters of objection regarding the Grand Targhee draft record of decision and final EIS," Carlman said. "If we could convene some way to meet directly with the resort and go through those objections... not just let that be a formal kind of litigation-based conflict process, but turn it into a problem-solving process directly with Grand Targhee Resort." Carlman called it "time-sensitive" and "a start tomorrow thing."

On July 13, Teton County, Idaho's commissioners filed a formal objection; Teton County, Wyoming filed its own, Carlman said. The Idaho county's letter already closes by saying it "remain[s] committed to working collaboratively with the Caribou-Targhee National Forest," so Carlman's proposal presses the expansion objections toward direct talks without retreating from them.

A facilitator from the two universities running the workshop turned to the boards' chairs, Brad Wolfe of Teton County, Idaho and Mark Newcomb of Teton County, Wyoming, and asked whether the counties could bring the municipalities in. "I saw hands up," she said. Driggs Council President Allison Michalski proposed a form for it, "a pre-mediation conference where the objectors somehow have conversations prior to the formal mediation," adding that it "needs to start yesterday." Driggs, Victor, and Tetonia were invited to weigh in. "I like the direction that this discussion is going," said Brent Schindler, Tetonia's mayor. "I definitely want to be part of that process."

The direct talks should come "before we ask for the 1-cent penny," said Sue Muncaster, Victor's interim mayor, a reference to a separate resort-funding idea the workshop had discussed earlier in the day.

Teton County, Idaho Commissioner Ron James has floated for months a toll on Ski Hill Road, the corridor that climbs from Driggs to the resort, arguing that Idaho statute permits toll roads and the state has none. "One way to get the tourist dollar out of it," James said of an idea he had "jokingly" raised: "pay to go up the mountain." Carlman spoke in favor of it, saying he "would support Commissioner James' idea of a toll on the westbound side of Ski Hill Road" and calling it something that "makes a ton of sense." Wes Gardner, vice-chair of the Teton County, Wyoming commission, called it leverage: "maybe it's something you keep in your back pocket as you negotiate with the taxing district up there." The facilitators flagged the toll as needing more information, and it did not make the working groups the counties discussed forming.

The county's notice for the workshop stated that commissioners "will not make policy decisions at this meeting but may direct their staff to work on initiatives." The day's only recorded formal actions were adopting the agenda at the start and the two boards' separate votes to adjourn at the end. The direct-talks proposal came up under the closing "next steps" discussion and drew agreement in the room.

A Push to Negotiate Rather Than Object to Grand Targhee's Expansion

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