Dear Editor,

When I ran for county commissioner, I promised to prioritize emergency preparedness. Today the entire state of Colorado is in a drought and fire fighters are trying to protect life and property in many counties. Our firefighters in the Peak to Peak region are vigilantly waiting for when the fires come, not if they come. As a community we must prepare for an increase in fires and floods and be prepared to protect ourselves. Part of being prepared is to stop what causes these natural disasters. Which means we must take action on climate change.

In Gilpin County we have begun the work of reducing our carbon footprint by purchasing wind-generated electricity for all of our County buildings and by moving our fleet to hybrid vehicles. Local communities cannot be the only ones taking action.  As Coloradans we must all be in this together. Colorado has set necessary state wide greenhouse pollution reduction goals and now we must ask the Air Quality Control Commission to implement these goals as soon as possible. Please lend your voice by writing to the Commission:

Colorado Air Quality Control Commission
Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment
4300 Cherry Creek Drive South, 
EDO-AQCC-A5
Denver, Colorado 80246

 Thank you,

Gail Watson
Gilpin County Commissioner