On Tuesday July 11th, the Teton County Board of County Commissioners unanimously voted to approve a long-term lease agreement with the Jackson Hole Children’s Museum at 105 Mercill Avenue.
This is a momentous milestone as it secures our long-term operations for the next thirty years. The commissioners strongly endorsed our work in supporting education and childcare programming for the community. They identified the financial hurdles in our industry and leveraged their resources to mitigate those hurdles.
Commissioners Natalia Macker, Luther Propst, Mark Newcomb, Greg Epstein & Wes Gardner were all pivotal partners in finalizing this lease and we are incredibly grateful for their service and support.
So what happens next?
Next we are submitting our building permit and conditional use permit to move staff into one of the Mercill units as quickly as possible and to start improving the space for our ultimate programmatic use. During the permitting process Gyroscope Inc., an award winning children’s museum design firm, will be visiting between August 9th and August 11th to kick-off their design work through stakeholder and community engagement.
We will be inviting you to a community input event in September. Please keep an eye out for a save the date. Your engagement during this critically important moment for the museum is key. Help us build momentum with your engagement.
Last but most importantly, our staff continue to serve the community with full effect. I write this note sitting outside summer camp classrooms that will run 9 weeks this summer where staff are engaging students in creativity, learning and play. They simultaneously are pulled aside to support TCSD summer school programs happening in the same building with enrichment activities for those students who need the extra dose of spectacular learning. Every Thursday through the end of August we are running free programs for the community at the greenspace, and during all of this, staff are gearing up for afterschool in the fall, scheduling out CREST and STEAM programs, and planning for another play space transition.
Thank you for your support through all of these very dynamic and exciting times. I’m so grateful for this community.
You have supported children.
You have supported educators.
You have supported a rich and vibrant community.
Thank you,
Ethan Lobdell
Executive Director
wow