Thursday, May 21, 2009
Teton Valley News
It seems that every generation has its period of economic hardship – the Great Depression for my grandparents and the recession of the 80s for my parents. And now we have ours. There is no hiding the fact that Teton County, like many communities in the country, got on board the debt financed real estate and construction boom of the last 10 years. We binged. Now we are on a diet.
As a new Board of County Commissioners, we spent our first four months cutting our teeth on serious financial issues, cutting nearly $1 million from the county budget, addressing the financial crisis at the hospital and the underfunded new courthouse. We have worked hard and so far it has paid off: we are on track with our budget, the hospital is starting to experience increased revenues and we have a plan to fund the new courthouse through completion.
During tough times it’s common to hunker down and put our goals to the side until the situation gets better. Sometimes it’s the only thing we can do. Other times, it could actually be an opportunity. In order to build a better community, we have to stay focused on our goals and not succumb to all the reasons we can’t achieve them – lack of money, time and resources.
Just like our households, we are looking creatively at how to find efficiencies - efficiencies we didn’t think were there. The current economic slowdown is our opportunity to get the county’s house in order. It’s our time to get systems in place that are efficient, effective and give taxpayers the most bang for their buck. We all agree we want a fair, predictable government process that works. We don’t want, and can’t afford, the inefficiencies we have now.
Last week the Planning and Zoning Commission and the Board of County Commissioners held a joint meeting where we discussed a vision to help guide us in our planning priorities. It was a vision of smart growth. A vision that creates more job opportunities, creates places where people want to live and visit, preserves the qualities we love about Teton Valley, and protects environmental resources that are vital to our economic future. With a collective vision on where we are going and a plan on how we are going to get there, when the economy recovers (which it will), we will have more opportunities and be a stronger and more efficient community.
The old timers in our valley understand the history of adversity. Generations have coped with the economic and natural challenges of living in an isolated community. As newcomers move in, the salt of the community seems to have a constant – when times get tough, Teton Valley steps up. The success of the Tin Cup Challenge, the passage of the latest school bond and residents stepping up to pay for their own street signs, is testament to our character. We have a window of opportunity; we are going to take advantage of it.
