BLACK HAWK — For a few months, I have been waiting on responses to an email I sent out to all candidates in the upcoming Gilpin County election. Once again, The Mountain-Ear will be offering a forum before voting begins.
These candidates have responded that they will participate: Zach Meyer, Mary Lorenz, Joe Self, April Nielsen, and Susan Berumen. I hope to hear from the other candidates. The only way people can learn about a platform and what a candidate believes, is to show up, open up and share their thoughts about the future of Gilpin County.
Here is how our candidate forums work: We advertise the information to the community. We solicit questions the community would like to ask. We put as many questions as possible into the forum, sometimes combining like questions. All general questions are asked of each candidate. This year, with so many candidates for specific offices, we will also have questions specific to each office.
The forum will take place on Saturday, September 26, from 1-4 p.m. The forum is open to the public, focuses on local candidates only (excluding state or federal-level candidates and questions), and serves as a meet and greet for local constituents to hear candidates' platform. All media outlets are invited to attend and cover the forum.
On to some personal stuff. Well, work-related but also personal. In my position, it is hard to go out in public and have down time. I find myself hanging out at home more, where my day ends when I shut off my computer and I don’t have to think about work until I turn it back on. When I go out, there is always an inevitable question that comes up, a conversation that gets started, and the inability to “focus out.”
On Friday, I chose to go to the Sugarloaf yard sale. I bought a bunch of plant starts to supplement what I have growing at home. I’m thankful to Sugarloaf Sprouts, who always have plants at the sale; I bought a couple dozen — and some other small items, of course. It is always nice to see the same faces at the Sugarloaf sale and to chat with the amazing volunteers.
On Saturday, I went to the Very Nice Brewing Company in Gilpin, where my husband and his band were playing. It was a lovely event! I talked for only a few seconds about work. The rest of the time, I listened to great music, talked with neighbors and family, and had a couple of delicious beers and a kombucha. I also had wonderful pizza, delivered from Black Hawk Pizza right to the brewery. That was a wonderful treat.
On Sunday, I went back to Sugarloaf for a bit, went up to Ward to eat at the Columbia Hotel (absolutely phenomenal brunch), stopped at the Nederland Farmers Market and ran into quite a few wonderful friends and neighbors. I again talked only minimally about work. I listened to music. I visited with neighbors. Then I went to an afternoon gathering of family and friends, enjoyed watching the sun go down and having tasty food and beverages.
Of course today, Monday, I worked. Our deadline at the newspaper doesn’t change for a holiday unless it’s Thanksgiving, Christmas or New Year’s. Some staff had a day off. Some of us worked (thankfully from home). The ones that worked get a different day off, or get a day of vacation later on. It balances itself out.
Some of the biggest things happening at work are getting this paper out (always a process but amazingly smooth these days). We are working hard on final Visitor’s Guide sales (email me for details). We are working on our Studio Tour; look for an announcement next week. Other than that, we are in full swing with our markets for the summer. We will all be seeing you around the Peak to Peak.
On June 8, we have flowers coming for our Nederland office. I can’t wait to get the pots and gardens planted once again. Flowers make me very happy, and seeing our flowers every time I walk in makes me start the day with a big smile.
And—real quick—I just received word The Mountain-Ear online archive had another update: 2015 through 2025 are now fully online at the Colorado Historic Newspaper Collection. Follow this link: bit.ly/4dwKoQFTHEMTNEAR and check out any of the 19,686 digital assets we have online. We are working hard on the missing years, which still need to be scanned page by page.
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Reach me anytime by email at info@themountainear.com or call our office at 303-810-5409. As always, thanks for reading the Voice of the Peak to Peak since 1977.
