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Experts from the federal government are coming to help revitalize Park County’s economy, but it may be another year before they arrive.
The Environmental Protection Agency and other federal …
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Experts from the federal government are coming to help revitalize Park County’s economy, but it may be another year before they arrive.
The Environmental Protection Agency and other federal entities announced in September that they’ll be helping develop a plan to boost Powell’s, Cody’s and Meeteetse’s economies through outdoor recreation.
Outgoing Powell Economic Partnership (PEP) Executive Director Rebekah Burns, who helped get Park County into the federal program, said the work will start sometime between next spring and the winter of 2027.
The timeline “is a little further out than I initially anticipated,” Burns told the Powell City Council on Monday, but the local steering committee hopes the feds will be able to come in the fall/winter of 2026.
Under the Recreation
Economy for Rural Communities planning assistance program, federal experts typically work with locals for roughly eight to 12 months and build an action plan.
“The whole point of this program is to benefit downtowns with recreation economies,” Burns told the council.
The outside assistance comes amid significant turnover and vacancies in Powell’s downtown area. Later in the council meeting, while discussing the potential deannexation of two of his properties, Dash Storage owner Mike Birdsley said he doesn’t see the city growing right now.
“The only thing that’s selling here is plywood for boarding up windows downtown,” Birdsley remarked.
Burns has expressed confidence that the vacant storefronts will fill up, noting that much of the empty spaces came from Ace Hardware and One Health moving to bigger buildings elsewhere in the city.
Burns led the Powell Economic Partnership’s (PEP) successful application for the Recreation Economy for Rural Communities program, which was submitted back in 2024. However, she won’t be with PEP when the federal experts arrive: After eight years with the nonprofit organization, Burns moved to Maryland last summer to be with family. Her departure was announced in mid-September and she is now wrapping up her tenure with PEP.
