Sandy Hollingsworth looks forward to continuing to serve the people of Gilpin

Hello Community,

First, I want to express my appreciation to residents, colleagues, friends, and fellow volunteers for supporting my re-election campaign. Promoting quality of life and a thriving mountain community through investing in county staff, quality services, and long-term planning is my focus. I am a fellow resident serving our community, am an “army brat,” social worker, having worked in private and public jobs. I value answering questions about my first term accomplishments and challenges, what factored into county decisions, and what I have learned as commissioner. Listening to varied views does not mean every person gets what they hope, since priorities for some are not the same for others. Finding compromise while working on, and as, a Board is complex and rewarding, publicly discussing issues before decisions are made. What an honor to serve with four commissioners so far, each adding different perspectives and backgrounds.

Public safety is critical for our entire community and I will continue to support our sheriff’s office, dispatch, firefighters, and ambulance responders. Current fire mitigation and improving egress is reducing wildfire risks. I will work to retain safety net services for families and individuals facing financial squeezes or life challenges. I support more programs for older adults and caregivers, plus expanding job skills education.

What are other positive goals underway? I support and help on issues important to different subsets of county residents. These include mental health services, reliable childcare, senior and veterans’ services, reducing food insecurity, healthcare, community center and youth programs, and faster broadband. Longer-term are economic development supported by improved infrastructure, especially hospitality, creative and recreation-tourism industry businesses, plus workforce and senior housing. Also, conservation and recreation management, dedicated trails, historic preservation of our current properties, and potential mountain rail. I serve on collaborations preserving our watersheds, forest health, natural resources, and completing forest safety plans within our unique mountain environment. Creating incentives to attract businesses, grants to help homeowners with fire mitigation and septic replacements mean stronger and safer neighborhoods. Engaging with statewide commissioners and legislators on legislation beneficial to Gilpin County and our region is important advocacy work.

Besides initiatives for our community, commissioner duties include budget oversight and county policies. We have implemented a five-year plan increasing capital improvement using accumulated reserves with awareness of TABOR restrictions, while retaining funds for six months of county operations and emergencies like wildfire. The current increased spending is a short-term boost to get projects done. After the one-time projects are completed, assuming valuable gaming revenues are stable, future years can budget for other building and road maintenance, rising materials costs, public safety and jail mandates, infrastructure improvements in the county, community center sustainability, fire mitigation, and other expenses valued by residents and businesses. 

I support more community meetings between residents and county staff to share information and updates, field questions on topics, furthering understanding between people and county government.

I look forward to continuing to serve you using my commissioner experience.

Warm regards,

Commissioner Sandy Hollingsworth, District 3