Dear Editor,

It’s disappointing to see the mill levy 1A lose, for sure. Despite that, I want to thank the Gilpin County voters who did support the issue to stabilize funding for Parks & Recreation. Our bipartisan Friends group worked very hard to get accurate, substantiated facts out to the voters. We’re very grateful to the county officials who shared their time, expertise, and knowledge of budget processes so we could do that.

The Community Center Campus is a place where people from this county (and beyond) connect in many ways. Gabrielle Chisholm and her staff have worked very hard to provide everything it does. So, if the result of the mill levy losing is to cut back its services and hours -- well, that’s counter to everything that so many Gilpinites worked on together to achieve with it over the past twenty years since the Center first opened.

The next moves are really up to the Commissioners and county officials. They will have to step up and find ways to stabilize the P&R budget. They should work together to find resources to replace those that would have been supplied if the mill levy had passed. I hope they can do that.

Carolyn Collins Petersen, President

Friends of the Gilpin County Community Center