March 03, 2010
Driggs unanimous on two issues that will have a big impact on the city.
Driggs City Council took steps toward determining its future on Tuesday with a pair of actions regarding an established free concert series and the Greater Yellowstone Geotourism Center, two issues deemed as important elements for drawing commerce to downtown.As the residents and businesses await the decision of the Teton Valley Foundation with regard to the location of Music on Main this summer, there was solidarity among Driggs City Council members that the city’s proposal to host the event on private property at the end of Depot Street was a good one.
Despite TVF’s interest in using the traditional site outside the Driggs Community Center for one more year, the City Council decided to risk potentially loosing three weeks of the event to the City of Victor by not including the alternative for utilizing the former site.
“They came to us with a relatively wishy-washy option, saying their board was split between having the event in just Driggs or splitting it between Victor and Driggs,” Mayor Dan Powers told the Council before it considered the option of hosting the concert on Main Street again this year.
A key part of the Council’s decision was the future location of the Greater Yellowstone Geotourism Center, a project sponsored by Driggs and funded in part by the Federal Highway Administration through the Idaho Transportation Department and Driggs Urban Renewal Agency, a taxing district established to support the economic viability of Driggs’ commercial core.
Placed in the hands of Teton Valley Chamber of Commerce president Reid Rogers over a year ago, Powers was adamant that the city needed to take the lead on the Geotourism Center in cooperation with Urban Renewal and the Chamber, possibility hiring someone to move the project forward.
City councilman Jay Mazalewski reined the council back in during discussion of the Geotourism Center, wanting closure on the Council’s decision for Music on Main for TVF to consider.
“The option we gave them will see what a dedicated pedestrian mall will do,” Mazalewski said in reference to the Depot Street closure included in Driggs’ proposal that opted to host the event on acreage located along Front and Depot Streets in Driggs.
“We worked out a long term scenario that was beneficial to the City,” said City Council Chairman George Mosher. “I though we gave them an ideal location. Not only is the lawn outside the Community Center getting too congested, if we go ahead with whatever is out there, we don’t want to be limited.”
Two consequences to the Council’s firm stance on offering the Depot Street location for Music on Main this summer were the possibility of the event going to Victor for three weeks, as well as having to maintain the ground to suit TVF by adding grass to the proposed ground.
“There’s always risk,” Powers said, pointing out that a permanent site for Music on Main could ultimately go one block south to the former Stock lumberyard.
Geotourism Center
After the City Council voted unanimously to support the decision to keep the offer to TVF at Depot Street, governmental gears were shifted toward issues surrounding the Greater Yellowstone Geotourism Center, a project that was stalled by the consideration of building a new structure outside the Driggs Community Center instead of constructing the center inside the city’s existing building.
According to the only contract with ITD that Powers referenced, ITD’s Scenic Byway grant allowed for roughly $616,000 to be spent on construction of the center inside the Driggs Community Center, an option that would absorb much of the unused space of a building that has remained vacant since the city bought the structure from the Broulim’s family and renovated it. The directive for this ITD money, which is scheduled to be matched with $425,000 from the Driggs Urban Renewal Agency, was not, however, set in stone, according to interpretation of the grant by Driggs Planning Administrator Doug Self and Driggs Attorney Steve Zollinger.
Despite the codicil in the grant that the money must be used for construction inside the city’s existing building, Powers reviewed a resolution made by the city in September to explore construction of the center outside the city’s building. In the end, it was determined that regardless of the language of the grant or the city’s resolution, the current City Council could redirect the way in which the money could be spent. Ultimately, it was determined that the money needed to be spent before the grant was pulled by the federal government.
“There are pluses and minuses both ways,” Powers said of building the center inside or outside. “An exterior building would have greater street presence, but interior construction would reduce cost to the city to finish the Community Center. I think we need to hold at least one public meeting to discuss this.”
While Rogers helped generate ten design possibilities for construction of the center, as well as a plan to use the Driggs Community Center for a conference center and other uses, Powers indicated that no public comment had been involved in that process.
“The ball needs to get rolling in order to use these funds,” Mazalewski said. “We need to show progress.”
Through further discussion, City Council members were satisfied that the decision of building an interior or an exterior Geotourism Center was not crucial at this time, but all agreed that a request for qualifications on the project needed to be issued. There was further discussion that the city’s request for qualifications could be combined with a request for proposal, but Rogers needed to be part of that process, Mazalewski pointed out, a directive that Powers affirmed.
“We can’t make this decision unilaterally, but it is certainly the city’s responsibility to make sure it gets done,” Powers said.
Mazalewski’s directive that Powers meet with Urban Renewal and the Chamber to at least draw up a request for qualifications and possibly put together a design/build team to generate cost estimates during the process to catapult the center into reality sooner rather than later.
