Dear Gilpin Commissioners,

If I had a million dollars to help my community, I would invest in early childcare services and our Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP).

Accessible and affordable early childcare services is my highest community priority. Without new families moving in, our community will not be able to maintain itself. Families are not going to move someplace which is an early childcare desert. We need to support the efforts of those who are working on this issue.

The CWPP is my second highest priority. The current CWPP plan that is being developed for the county this year has several public meetings planned for this summer. The plan developers are seeking to develop an up-to-date plan with extensive public input. This plan needs to be achievable, affordable, and visionary in its scope.

If successful, this plan could improve the area’s home insurance risk rating which could help keep home insurance policies from increasing or being dropped. This helps every property owner in the county.

Funding the CWPP plan under development and all of its specified projects is one of the most important things we can do in this generation. A hundred years from now, nobody will remember how many days the swimming pool was open, but they will know if we protected our forests and thrived living in a Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) area because we financed the right projects.

My lowest priority for investing a million dollars in our community would be our Rec. Center. I think the Rec Center has a key role in maintaining safe after school programs until commuting parents can pick them up, which a bare bones budget could provide. I don’t see keeping the swimming pool open seven days a week as more important than providing accessible and affordable early childcare services in the county.

The financing proposed for the Community Center is basically junk food financing. You may get something to eat, but it isn’t nutritious. A bare bones budget is better in the long run for the Rec Center than junk food financing with all of the stipulations and political strings attached to it.

It’s like spending money that is supposed to be used for repairing your roof on a 10-day vacation to Hawaii. When you get home you will still need to repair your roof.

There is a saying that a house divided cannot stand but a house united can achieve great things. Let us be united in working together to achieve these objectives of a safer community and a vibrant next generation.

Wes Isenhart

Black Hawk