Another great year of the Teton County Fair is complete. From the wonderful display of jams, Lego creations and 4-H animals to the rodeo and Figure 8 race events, the fair takes a lot of volunteers and fantastic community support.

The evening events such as rodeo, music and Figure 8 race bring many individuals and families, both locals and visitors, out for great events of western heritage and county fair fun. However, it was difficult to procure anything but alcoholic beverages for a family event, particularly during the Figure 8 Race, which was sold out and had many local families in attendance.

Many folks remarked that water could only be obtained via an hour-plus line, while the beer tents were much more accessible and had no non-alcoholic choices available.

We should have community events which set the patrons up for success and make the right decision of responsible alcohol consumption easy.

We all must do our part, and this issue is not singular to the fair. Many events throughout this community do not provide good non-alcoholic choices to attendees and guests. Teton County has many events, both large and small. We all need to scrutinize what we are making available to drink when we are the organizers and how we support healthy drinking and non-drinking friends, families and ourselves.

Jessica Jaubert and Stephan Abrams

Now that we all enjoyed the Figure 8 Race, braved the Zipper ride, and ogled 4-H’s animal husbandry accomplishments, it’s time to talk about the future of the fairgrounds. Most of us have experienced or are experiencing the reality of our lease ending soon — the fairgrounds themselves are no different.

The land that the fair currently occupies is leased by Teton County from the Town of Jackson. This lease ends in 2030.

We need to use the next eight years to locate a better, permanent, more suitable location for our fair, 4-H clubs, and plethora of community activities.

Imagine a home for our western heritage with adequate parking, an expo center, an amphitheater, RV hookups, multiple arenas built for year-round use, space for 4-H’ers to raise animals, and a covered stall barn! Imagine not having to navigate around bollards on Snow King Avenue with an enormous trailer!

Did you know that the fairgrounds had to stop hosting team ropings, Barrel Races, and Professional Bull Riding “PBR” events because of insufficient facilities and the lack of space?

The relocation of the fairgrounds would also free up a large plot of publicly owned land in Jackson, which could be used for housing vulnerable and essential community members. Imagine permanently deed-restricted homes for local workers, retirees, and their families near transit hubs, jobs, schools and the hospital. Imagine more opportunities for locals to live locally.

All of this is possible if we don’t give into the false nostalgia of the “Save the Fairgrounds” PAC, whose crusade to “protect western heritage” is simply no-growth code to block development of critical affordable housing. We must fight to keep our community a community rather than an enclave for ultra-wealthy pseudo-cowboys. Real cowboys want a permanent, state-of-the-art home for community programs and all of the hard-working people of Jackson.

We support a collaborative process with the Fair Board (whose members also want a permanent and larger home for the fair) and the many community members who enjoy the fairgrounds to relocate them and then build a significant amount of deed-restricted housing on the current site.

Relocation could be a win-win: a win for fairgrounds users who have bigger and better facilities and for locals who need homes in town.

We agree, let’s save our western heritage — by finding a bigger, permanent home for it.

Every election season for the past 20-plus years, local candidates have proposed insufficient measures for tackling two problems plaguing our community: a severe workforce housing shortage and traffic congestion caused in large part by workers commuting from outside the valley. Instead of arguing about how many new affordable units we should build for every new hotel — an obviously never-ending vicious cycle — I would like to hear creative solutions for the existing housing in our valley that is being so inefficiently used. For example, I’d like to know:

- How many homes in Jackson Hole are not occupied by year-round residents?

- Why aren’t we taxing second, third, fourth and fifth homeowners at a significantly higher rate and using that revenue to subsidize housing for workers?

- How much should we tax the above homeowners? (The obvious answer: as much as it takes to make rentals in this valley affordable for our entire workforce!)

- How do we keep landlords from raising rent above the recommended 30% of median income? Let’s ask how other sane communities around the world are succeeding with rent-control measures!

- Why can’t we place a moratorium on short-term rentals until the housing crisis is solved?

If we keep avoiding these questions, we must admit that helping the rich get richer is more important to us than meeting the basic needs of the people our community can’t live without.

I am baffled, even flabbergasted to hear that some of my intelligent and thoughtful friends are not going to switch parties to vote for a candidate who supports the U.S. Constitution and is not an outright 2020 election denier, simply because that candidate’s voting record (on issues of choice, gun control, etc.) is not what they would like. Haven’t my friends heard of the lesser of two evils?

“A vote is not a valentine,” author Rebecca Solnit is credited with saying. You aren’t confessing your love for a candidate by casting your ballot. “It’s a chess move for the world you want to live in.”

I will pat myself on the back here and tell you that I held my nose and voted for my ex-husband in the 2018 and 2020 elections for a Wyoming House District Seat, because he was the better candidate. I didn’t not-vote-for-him because he had made some crummy choices in the past, and I’m glad to say he was elected both times.

I urge my friends: On Aug. 16 remember to bring your ID, and vote for candidates who defend the U.S. Constitution.

I am writing in grateful response to the recent restraining order on Wyoming’s trigger abortion ban. District Judge Melissa Owens objected to the Wyoming legislature’s automatic refutation of a woman’s right to determine her own health decisions, after hearing a Jackson OB/GYN and her patient argue a most valid point. That the ban violates a tenet in the Wyoming Constitution, regarding an individual’s right to make our own health care decisions, seems secondary, if confusing — seat belts, speed limits and vaccines notwithstanding.

By illustration, in 1976 I learned the hard way that women’s health concerns are not treated equally everywhere.

My husband and I were living in Cheyenne, and a week after finding out I was pregnant with our first child, I started hemorrhaging. We drove to an area hospital’s emergency room where, after examining me, the attending doctor announced that I was having a “threatened abortion.” He declared he couldn’t do anything about it and told me to go home. I was devastated, naturally, and more than a little confused. I called the Planned Parenthood office in Laramie. The British doctor, her lilting accent sounding pointedly miffed, told me to get over there immediately. After settling me in the car, my husband and I drove the 50 miles west.

By the time we arrived, I was distraught, and the staff at the facility helped me understand the circumstances and, more important, allowed for my emotions. The doctor was incredulous I had been dismissed, and when asked “Which hospital?” I muttered “de Paul.” I hadn’t realized that Catholic hospital physicians were (are?) not permitted to perform certain procedures like D&C, or dilation and curettage, which this staff prepared to do.

Conscious during the process, I remember weeping as they made sure no tissue remained that could have caused sepsis — the infection that can lead to severe illness or even death. The good doctor assured me that, sadly, my particular problem was not unusual, especially in first pregnancies. I don’t know if she was merely being kind and didn’t want me bearing undue responsibility for miscarrying, but I do know she attended me with compassion, care, and good sense.

Women’s health (including access to safe terminations and birth control) is beyond the purview, moral or otherwise, of politicians, male or female, except for their responsibility to guarantee the right to seek and receive a good “standard of care,” through — it is to be hoped — respectful, honest, and confidential conversations between practitioner and patient.

There exist myriad reasons for terminations — i.e., miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy, and the circumstance a woman finds herself in with regard to a pregnancy, even apart from incest and rape. These are deeply personal considerations, and not subject to parsimonious analysis by an insensible collective of legislators. Insensible to a particular woman’s situation and consciousness.

My sister-in-law drove up from Denver to take care of me after the miscarriage, a kindness I shall never forget. The helpful, deliberate British doctor, her nurse, and my sister-in-law knew more about women’s health than the present U.S. Supreme Court.

The Town of Jackson’s largest urban redevelopment project in perhaps the last 30 years is off to a disappointing start. The Jackson Street Apartments, nine three-and-a-half story buildings that will contain 57 apartments on the city block bordered by West Kelly, South Jackson, West Hansen and South Millward are now under construction.

However, in true fashion, now that the project is underway, our mayor, Town Council and staff have washed their hands of any consideration for the neighborhoods that border this massive project.

It is disconcerting, to say the least, that neighborhood impact and public safety do not appear to be “top of mind” when it comes to this massive project.

For example, since the project began, virtually all heavy construction vehicles have been using West Kelly and West Karns avenues as their major east-west route to and from the site. The mayor and Town Council, staff, and the construction company have all been contacted (more than once) and asked to install stop signs, pedestrian right of way crossing signs and to reroute the construction vehicle traffic away from our once quiet residential neighborhoods and onto larger thoroughfares more appropriate to handle this traffic.

The construction company has requested the installation of stop signs at key intersections. One would think these are easy, practical “fixes.” Yet, despite repeated requests for assistance, the town has decided this is “not a priority for town at this time” and when the demolition phase is finished, the problem will go away.

Really? What about cranes, concrete, heavy building materials, and all the other traffic that is part of any major, multi-year construction project?

With any development project, but particularly one of this size and magnitude, neighborhood impact and public safety should be anticipated and addressed proactively for the benefit of the community. These are basic, fundamental principles of planning and community development.

One would think that adhering to these simple, common-sense best practices would be of utmost importance to Town leaders. It’s not only an issue of neighborhood impact, it’s an issue of public safety. How are we expected to support housing initiatives when what we have thus far is irresponsible behavior, contempt for town residents and basic incompetence?

Don’t rush Tribal Trail

The Guest Shot by Dawn Webster in the Aug. 3 Jackson News & Guide seems very appropriate. I certainly agree that the Tribal Trails Connector is a project with so many negative repercussions that it should not be rushed into.

Though the project has been on drawing board for years, it doesn’t take into account the loss of wetlands, the vast amount of tax payer money and unanswered questions regarding WYDOT’s plans. WYDOT’s record in our valley has not been outstanding what with the need to redo connection of the road and the bridge at Hoback or the need to redo the Spring Gulch connection to Highway 22, both requiring lots of money to make things work.

Maybe we should wait and see what WYDOT does with the expansion on 22 and see if we can get by without the disruption that might be caused, should the Tribal Trail project be done. I hope the commissioners can put off this decision until more information is available. Certainly if we get this decision wrong there will be no going back.

Letters to the editor should be limited to 400 words, be signed and include a town of residence and a telephone number for verification. Letters are due by noon Monday. No thank yous or political endorsement letters. Guest Shot columns are limited to 800 words. Email editor@jhnewsandguide.com.

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