“It’s very satisfying for us, because we’re feeling more integrated into the community of Jackson,” she said.

On Thursday Latino families visited the site for the first time, at the explicit invitation of park planners. Kids and parents flew kites at the Father’s Day-themed event, played with balloon animals and bubbles and lined up for snacks from a taco food truck.

They also viewed renderings of the future park and provided additional feedback.

Kid-friendly wading pools and open spaces for adult exercise are noted in the sketch plans. There’s a need for parks with the correct engineering to hang pinatas the right way, and park pavilions that can accommodate a family of 20 to 30 people, said Miriam Morillon, who has served as a liaison between the Latino community and the trust.

“In Mexico the name of those things are big kioscos, when you have in the center the table and then around it seats with cement,” she said.

She has also heard of interest in a space that can be used to host parties.

“We like parties and we like to dance,” Morillon said. “One of the families said, ‘We wish we can have a salon, a party place, where you don’t have to bother houses around the place.’”

When the trust set out to plan the park, the nonprofit knew it wanted input from everyone in Jackson, said Paige Byron, who is directing fundraising and outreach efforts for the group.

That meant soliciting ideas and feedback at open houses held at the library, farmers markets and Old Bill’s Fun Run.

She said they reached more than 2,000 people.

Byron also focused on reaching the 30 percent of the population that is Latino. She and her cohorts went to La Liga’s Sunday soccer games and Zumba classes frequented by Latina moms, and sent surveys home with families through programs like Early Head Start.

“One of the tenets of our park creation projects is to really focus on how these public spaces can improve equity in communities,” Byron said. “We were really focused on trying to get initial input from the Latino community about what things we were not thinking about that would be culturally welcoming for them.”

Sharing the outdoors

Crucial to the effort was outreach through leaders within the Latino community to help bring people into the process, like Lety Liera of the Children’s Learning Center. Liera sees the park as a way to encourage Latino families to engage in outdoor activities, encouraging healthy habits and integration with other members of the community.

“In our community, people don’t get outside much,” Liera said. “They live and work, and don’t take advantage of the natural resources that many of us live here because of.”

Enjoying public lands is an important part of being involved in the Jackson community, she said.

“Even though it doesn’t come as naturally maybe for the parents, if we implement this at this moment it will be natural for their kids to go to the park and feel like they’re part of the community,” Liera said.

Chris Deming of the Trust for Public Land said that gratitude for being asked for their input was “shocking.”

“It’s indicative of the fact that they don’t have a voice,” Deming said. “We’re really driving at that equity issue by engaging them in the process.”

Morillon and Garnica said Latinos are sometimes reluctant to engage in outdoor activities because they spend a lot of time working, activities can be cost-prohibitive, and people can feel shy or fearful to go out if they don’t speak English or have papers.

The hot springs park is planned to offer low admission fees and features that cater to a wide demographic, Deming said.

A way of welcoming

The outreach effort is also helping Astoria have a “welcoming” feel, Morillion said.

“I think it is important to do socialization with all the multicultural people,” she said, “and I think here will be a really good place to do that.”

Astoria Hot Springs, located 16 miles south of Jackson, closed in 1999. After a complicated series of failed development plans, the Trust for Public Land acquired the 100-acre parcel last June. Renderings show plans for hot soaking pools, a leisure pool, a kids pool, decks, lawns, picnic space and hammock setups. There are also plans for a passive park with adjacent walking trails.

The trust is working to raise $5 million to revive the once-popular spot for mineral bathing and community gatherings.

The project’s final development plan was OK’d by the Teton County Planning Commission on Monday. It heads to the county commissioners’ desk next for a final stamp of approval.

Byron said she expects construction to start next year.