County News

By Roger Baker
County Manager

1/13/2005 - Anyone who doubts whether being Gilpin County Commissioner is—or should be—a full-time job should have been at Tuesday’s meeting.

  As it was the first one for the new Commissioners—they were sworn in at the beginning of the meeting—one of the items on the agenda was appointing various members of the Board of County Commissioners to represent the County on a number of committees and boards.

  Just for Colorado Counties, Inc.—the educational and lobbying group to which nearly all of Colorado’s 63 counties belong—there are eight committees, for example, dealing with such areas as Transportation and Telecommunication, Taxation and Finance, and Land Use and Natural Resources.

  Then there are a host of regional organizations—the Denver Regional Council of Governments most notably—that have agendas of their own. Entities like the Upper Clear Creek Watershed Association and Jefferson Center for Mental Health deal with fairly focused issues, while the Gaming Area Sub-Regional Planning Commission is new, a response to potential development along the new Central City Parkway.

  Local boards and committees represent another major commitment of time for the Commissioners. Some of these are County committees, where we have a Commissioner representative to a citizen advisory board, like those for Parks and Recreation or Human Services. In other boards Gilpin County is just one of the entities with representation, as on the Gilpin Ambulance Board or the 911 Authority.

  We had trouble fitting all the appointments on one page, and there will be others that arise throughout the year. All told, these appointments signify a real and significant contribution made by the Commissioners to furthering the interests of the citizens of Gilpin County.