Mayor Eric Green with the Town of Alpine stepped into the SVI Radio studio on Wednesday, January 7 for his monthly report. Mayor Green discussed housing in Alpine and a resolution passed by the council to seek grant funding for a housing project.

(0:00) And joining me live this time in studio today is Town of Alpine Mayor Eric Green. Mayor, (0:06) welcome to the SBI studio this morning. Thanks for having me in the studio.

This is great. And (0:12) let me start off by putting in my vote for Chick-fil-A sauce. Oh, you’re a Chick-fil-A guy.

(0:17) Yeah, yeah. Why not? I might go get some today. I’m heading down the road, so why not? Go get (0:21) some in Logan.

The why not is the best part about it. You may as well. I mean, you’re going (0:26) somewhere.

You may as well. Exactly. Well, I love it.

I appreciate your time as always. A (0:30) monthly report from the Town of Alpine. A lot going on as always.

Sounds like a couple items (0:35) of business last night in the town council meeting took place. Yeah, we had a town council meeting (0:39) last night. One of the biggest things that came out of last night’s meeting was a discussion we (0:45) had regarding a grant that the state has put forward for $5 million to try to combat the (0:52) unmet housing needs in the state.

And obviously, everyone knows that there’s a problem in the state (1:00) and it’s a nationwide problem, to be completely honest, about affordable housing for workforce. (1:06) And North Lincoln County is, you know, the state of Wyoming has their own study that says North (1:13) Lincoln County is the second worst as far as cost of living in the state. And so everyone listening (1:19) knows that we have a problem with affordable housing.

So our intention is to put in an (1:25) application for that grant. We’re not going to be able to get $5 million, but we think we have a (1:31) huge opportunity because we own a piece of land, 1.5 acres. And, you know, I don’t know exactly (1:40) what it’s worth, but, you know, it’s very valuable for sure.

And if we can put that forward on our (1:46) application and say, you know, we’re bringing something to the table and we think this is the (1:52) perfect place where we can make a huge impact, then we’re hopeful that the State Lands and (1:56) Investment Board will kind of agree and give us some funding to build some more workforce housing (2:04) in the area. And Alpine specifically, the extreme north end of the county, just because of the (2:10) Jackson Connection, right? That’s one of the issues. And so what is the goal here, the end (2:15) goal to have town-owned housing, or would it be to make it easier for a developer to build (2:21) something? Those questions are still kind of up in the air, but I will give you a little background (2:26) on it.

The previous administration was in discussions with the sheriff for years about (2:33) making this happen. And it was really going to be specifically for a sheriff’s deputy. And (2:38) um, that ended up, excuse me, not working out with a particular piece of property that we (2:44) also owned in town.

And then it kind of came to light that maybe we should consider this other. (2:50) So now, um, the, the thought is that maybe the town does own it and maybe, um, their town homes (2:58) or something like that. And we could put some density on this piece of property and kind of (3:03) get a lot of bang for our buck.

And so maybe it’s a sheriff’s deputy, maybe it’s a couple (3:08) sheriff’s deputies, um, you know, uh, a teacher, some of the works for the County, um, even (3:13) interested in people that, um, you know, are in Teton County, um, people that work for YDOT, (3:22) you know, really make it a diverse group. And of course we have employees that work for the (3:27) town of Alpine that are commuting from even Smoot. So it’d be amazing opportunity to be able to have (3:33) some affordable local housing for them.

So that it does sound like, like the, the angle right now (3:39) is that the housing would be for employees of, of the town or County or, or, or, or at this point, (3:44) that’s kind of the direction it may be going. Yeah, exactly. And then, um, I don’t know if (3:48) we necessarily did restrict it for any of those in particular, but we’re always going to have a (3:53) need for, um, you know, either it’s a sheriff’s deputy or eventually the town of Alpine might (3:58) grow to the point that we have our own police department.

So maybe that does make sense for (4:02) one or two of the units, but in general, um, you know, I think there’s also a, it’s need-based, (4:09) like we don’t want to just go in, obviously we’re not going to get the $5 million, but just go in (4:15) and build a ton of housing and not be able to put people in it. So maybe we, um, it’s clusters (4:22) of homes or something that we can start small and then build this up. Um, but, uh, yeah, that, uh, (4:29) town council voted last night for, uh, to approve staff to go and put an application together.

(4:34) Alpine Mayor Eric Green in the studio this morning for the weekday wake up when it comes to just (4:38) general housing. Alpine has seen a lot more of that urban style in recent years, more townhomes, (4:44) right? Do you see that trend continuing? I think so. I mean, because developers see that need, (4:49) um, and honestly we’re in the middle of the master plan.

You’ve heard that a lot from us (4:54) and, um, developers are kind of waiting for us to, uh, finish the master plan and then update the (5:01) land use development code when, when we get there to kind of implement those things. But obviously (5:07) developers see that, um, housing is a need. And I will say that you think, okay, North Lincoln (5:13) County, we’re up by Jackson.

We’re going to put in, you know, a lot of multimillion dollar (5:18) condominiums or whatever. And I will say that there may be someone that’s interested in that (5:24) eventually, but for the most part, people are interested in putting in commercial space for (5:29) businesses and housing. And it kind of goes hand in hand what I’ve been saying since day one, (5:35) that we want people to live and work in Alpine in North Lincoln County.

And so that’s obvious (5:41) our goal for sure. Uh, Mayor Green in studio this morning, any other items or resolutions (5:47) that discussed last night in the town council? Just a couple of, um, minor things, nothing, (5:52) nothing too big. Um, but as always, we have a lot going on.

I did mention the land use development (5:59) code. We had a little bit of a work session last night to just discuss it because it has (6:04) become apparent that updating the master plan is really only phase one of what we need to do (6:09) and updating the land use development code is real important. Ours is 20 years old.

It’s probably (6:15) about the same as other municipalities in the Valley. And, um, it’s just this document that (6:21) gets updated, uh, once a year at least. And it’s just, um, it doesn’t really work for us.

It’s (6:29) very confusing and it’s not very, uh, friendly to people that want to build in the town. Um, and so (6:36) we’re looking at hiring a consultant to update that for us. Um, we didn’t make any decisions (6:42) on that last night, but you know, staff brought a report and gave some great information on that.

(6:47) So, um, we anticipate, um, maybe the next meeting or the meeting after that bringing forward a (6:53) resolution and kind of more of a plan that how we’re going to be able to pay for that consultant. (6:59) Okay. Mayor Green, any other items happening in Alpine, maybe not related to last night’s town (7:04) council you wanted to mention? Well, I guess the only other thing that I would say is, um, (7:08) I don’t know if we’ve made any headway on the commissioners and live streaming their meetings.

(7:14) Um, I will thank you for attending the meetings here locally and after whenever you can. (7:20) Um, I, I think that’s real important that the, the residents up here in North Lincoln County (7:25) have an idea of what’s going down at the commissioner level. And, um, I honestly think (7:29) we need to just keep putting pressure on them.

And, um, it’s really an, an easy thing, um, (7:36) to live stream the meetings. And, uh, I think they’re making it way more difficult than it (7:42) needs to be. And in any pressure that we can keep on them, I think is great because honestly, uh, (7:48) I’m just not in a position where I can drive two hours to go meet with the commissioners once a (7:52) month.

And I’d much rather just watch a live stream or watch a, uh, a YouTube video, um, (7:58) that shows what happened in their meeting. And I, I don’t think it’s too much to ask. So (8:03) I would encourage everyone to, uh, you know, put pressure on them and hopefully we can, um, get (8:09) them to, to follow our, our lead with, um, pretty much everyone in, in, uh, North Lincoln County (8:15) is doing it already.

Town of Alpine mayor, Eric Green this morning on the weekday wake up also (8:19) worth mentioning here, uh, end of the month, we’re supposed to have a winter Jubilee in Alpine, uh, (8:25) snow pack levels at this point, not fantastic, but the event will go on, right? Yeah, absolutely. (8:30) And, um, it’s going to be another great event every year. Uh, it just keeps building last (8:36) year.

We had the fire dancers you’ll remember. Um, as far as I understand, they’re coming back (8:40) this year. So, um, the event last year, it couldn’t have been more perfect.

It was just dumping snow (8:46) and they had the fire shooting up. It was amazing. So, um, but yeah, um, snow will come soon (8:52) guaranteed.

So, uh, yeah. Winter Jubilee coming up. Um, you have the dates in front of you.

(8:58) Yeah. The 30th and 31st. So last Friday and Saturday of the month, uh, fire dancers are on (9:03) the schedule.

The Coney classic, it looks like we’ll be running in conjunction with it this (9:07) year as well. And, and of course the casino night and the hot dog roast and all the traditionals. (9:11) Yeah.

You’ll see me at the casino night. That’s always really fun. And it, and it, um, raises (9:14) money for scholarships for local students.

So that’s, that’s huge. And, um, yeah, we appreciate (9:21) everything that staff and all the volunteers do to put that event together. Looking forward to it (9:26) end of the month, January 30th and 31st town of Alpine mayor, Eric green in studio today, (9:31) mayor.

Thank you so much. Enjoy your chick-fil-a sauce. I’ve got to get it now.

Yeah. You’ve, (9:36) you’ve, you’ve committed live on it. So yeah, it’s all part of the weekday.

Wake up this morning (9:40) on SBI radio.