Dear Editor,

This letter is in response to Mindy Leary’s article on the Gilpin County food pantry in the April 11th edition. I would like to address her comment “There has been some dissent from residents who claim that the County does not need a new building.”

This is not accurate. What most residents are actually saying is that we don’t need a 1.3 million dollar building. They can’t afford to keep the rec center open more than 4 or 5 days a week. They have been saying they can’t afford the maintenance and have asked residents to pay more taxes to fund it, which as we know failed. I can assume they will try again.

Residents support the food pantry. Residents support fiscal responsibility. The county can provide this service without spending that much on another large building which will require maintenance, etc. Grants are great. If grant funding is the answer, they need to be secured before any further action is taken.

There is no reason to tear down a bunch of trees to build this unnecessarily large building. I believe it would save a lot of money to build it next to the current location or better yet, add it on to the new Health and Human Services building which makes sense on so many other levels. A new building is not the main issue here. This issue is that it doesn’t need to be a 1.3 million dollar building. And it will likely be more than 1.3 million.

Please consider sharing what residents are actually concerned about rather than summing it up in one short sentence with no context.

Sherri Artz Gilbert

Gilpin County