County to consider $1.5 million for Jackson stormwater upgrades

Teton County commissioners are set to commit $1.5 million to the Town of Jackson for stormwater system improvements when they take up the Water Quality SPET funding resolution on June 22. For families, this is the kind of infrastructure item that usually stays invisible until creeks get dirtier or streets drain badly, but the county resolution says the money is meant for measurable water quality benefits and would require annual reporting for three years after construction starts.

The bigger question is timing. Voters approved the 2022 Special Purpose Excise Tax for up to $10 million in water quality work, and Jackson's share was supposed to help cut polluted runoff into Flat Creek, which has dealt with urban runoff problems for decades. The county's research history says this stormwater work was once aimed for completion by April 2024, so Monday's resolution looks less like a brand new idea and more like the county formally locking in money for a project that was already promised Water Quality SPET funding resolution.