State officials, Jacksonites question 'disposal' of Kelly parcel

JACKSON — For the first time in recent memory, a small herd of horses was grazing outside the Teton County Library.

Inside, their owner, Jake Hutton, wore a worn, drooping cowboy hat as he regaled state officials with his thoughts on why 640 acres of state land near Kelly shouldn’t be auctioned off. Hutton grazes his small herd on the parcel, which is just east of Grand Teton National Park, and runs an outfitting business there. He’d like to keep that job, but couldn’t if a developer buys the land and subdivides it.

Hutton and others took issue with the state’s use of the word “disposal” to describe its plans for the land.

“I’ve sadly ‘disposed of’ a few horses over my life, and I have plenty of things that I’ve sent down the kitchen sink disposal, but I cannot think of a single inch of Wyoming I would incinerate and send down the drain,” Hutton said. “We have to ask ourselves, ‘What are the state priorities, here, selling this land?’ ”

Some elected officials are asking themselves the same question.

Though there are weeks before a vote, three of the five elected officials on the State Board of Land Commissioners, which would have to approve an auction, are skeptical of such a plan.

That’s likely welcome news to Hutton and the 100 or so people who packed the Teton County Library on Thursday to weigh in on a possible auction of the Kelly parcel. The event was one of the largest showings of public interest in the last five years, on par with controversial hearings over developing Northern South Park and far outpacing attendance at recent hearings about development at Grand Targhee Resort.

So many people packed into the Ordway Auditorium that onlookers spilled out into the library’s gallery and someone taped information on the wall letting people know how they could listen to the meeting online. But while the room was packed, the crowd was not the biggest in library history.

Library staff said the crowd was comparable to the Jackson Hole Bird and Nature Club’s recent talks about mushrooms and owls, and the club’s 2015 showing of a wildlife film titled “Beavers Behaving Badly” — an indication of just how much Jacksonites care about the area’s wildlife and wild places.

The parcel is the last of four pieces of land that Grand Teton National Park has been trying to buy from the state of Wyoming, hoping to protect wildlife migration, sagebrush flats and unmarred Teton views from development. Wyoming officials, in turn, have been trying to get as much money as they can from the land sales to raise money for state schools. Three sales have gone through with approval from the Wyoming Legislature. The most recent, in 2016, saw the park and the Grand Teton National Park Foundation buy a 640-acre parcel for $46 million.

Representatives from the park and its philanthropic partner made clear Thursday night that they don’t want an auction. They want a deal to buy the land outright.

“We are committed to making this happen for the benefit of our community, our state, and the United States of America,” said Leslie Mattson, the foundation’s executive director.

But attempts to get legislators in Cheyenne to support selling the fourth parcel have fallen flat. Elected officials think the parcel is “priceless” and that past prices have been far too cheap.

Without legislative approval, state land managers are eyeing an open-market auction as the only other constitutionally-sanctioned way to “dispose” of the parcel. But the state may never go down that road.

Three of the five elected officials on the State Board of Land Commissioners need to vote to approve an auction when they meet Dec. 7. The board oversees state trust lands like the Kelly parcel. It consists of Gov. Mark Gordon, Treasurer Curt Meier, Auditor Kristi Racines, Secretary of State Chuck Gray and Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder. Three of those commissioners told KHOL, also known as Jackson Hole Community Radio, that they are skeptical of an auction.

Racines told KHOL that she doesn’t want developers to buy the square mile inholding.

“If it’s an auction that’s just a free for all for anything, I would have a hard time supporting that,” she said.

Gray told KHOL and the Cowboy State Daily that he’s opposed to an auction, and questions whether the appraised value for the parcel — $62 million — matches its true value. The appraised value would be the minimum bid in an auction, but the most the National Park Service could pay per federal policy.

Degenfelder is also skeptical.

Selling to the highest bidder is “short sighted,” she said in a statement to KHOL. “We need visionary leadership on how we can leverage the Kelly Parcels to create a generational benefit to Wyoming citizens.”

Nothing is decided until the Dec. 7 meeting. But if Racines, Gray and Degenfelder vote “no” next month, plans for an open-market auction could be tabled.

Officials with the Office of State Lands and Investments, which manages state land with the Board of Land Commissioners’ direction, said people who oppose a public auction need to let the commissioners know.

“If you feel that a public auction would be wrong, have a detriment to the economy, to the neighborhood, would not be in the benefit of the beneficiaries, the Board of Land Commissioners needs to hear that comment to help them make a good decision,” said Jason Crowder, deputy director of the state land office.

Public comments can be sent via email to [email protected] or via snail mail to Attention: Jason Crowder, Office of State Lands and Investments, 122 W. 25th Street, Herschler Building Suite W103, Cheyenne, WY 82002. Public comment will be taken until Dec. 1.

Teton County residents like Chase Lockhart would be thrilled to see an auction averted.

Lockhart still ranches his family land south of Jackson Hole High School. As a kid, he picked up a calf to raise through 4H on the Kelly parcel. The cow was a vital part of his education, he said, teaching him “respect” and “how to work hard” — education values that he feels the state’s focus on money misses.

“I personally try to follow the Code of the West. One of the principles is, ‘Some things are not for sale,’ ” he said. “I’m pretty sure that these lands and our children’s future is one of the things that is not for sale.”

By Billy ArnoldJackson Hole DailyVia Wyoming News Exchange