Dear Editor and Readers,

The Gilpin County Commissioner Candidate Forum on September 20, 2024, brought together the candidates and community to hear about the candidate’s backgrounds and their proposals for running the county government for the next four years.

While there was some good dialogue and thoughtful comments, there were also frequent assertions that the county was engaged in rampant “deficit spending”.

For a family, taking money out of savings to fix the car is NOT deficit spending. Borrowing money to fix the car and then having to pay it back with interest would be deficit spending. When you are making enough to pay the day-to-day bills and are putting 8% of your paycheck into savings for rainy day expenditures, you are not engaged in deficit spending.

The County recovered financially after the pandemic and is spending money from their reserves for delayed maintenance. The County doesn't have any long-term debt or interest paying loans. They are proposing maintenance projects in 2025 to the tune of $8 million that will be paid off with cash.

Web Sill was a competent commissioner who could work collaboratively with his peers for the benefit of ALL his constituents. In 2021, Sill supported Commissioner Hollingsworth’s policy proposal of directing 8% of the yearly gaming revenue to the reserve account to replenish it.

The County is in great financial shape and can continue funding the Community Center next year at the current levels without surrendering our sovereignty to Black Hawk’s non-negotiable IGA.

The question I would like to see the candidates answer is whether they intend to support and fund the proposed projects that will come out of the Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP). This is where our real focus should be. I am voting for whoever pledges to figure out how to finance and implement these CWPP projects as fully as possible. It’s time. 

Wes Isenhart

Black Hawk