Public Comments

This is not redistricting, it is a transparent attempt to make sure the people of western colorado have to vote against the more populous (and liberal) areas of eastern colorado. Thanks for trying to take our voice away. You people are a joke.

I'm writing to express my disagreement with the Colorado Congressional Districts' First Staff Plan. This plan essentially eliminates the voice of Colorado's rural communities by dividing the Western Slope into two districts and adding Boulder to one district and Pueblo to the other. While your task is complicated, it's hard to understand why you would do this. It just doesn't make sense. PLEASE retain the rural values and voices of this state by keeping the rural counties together. Thank you.

The Dolores Water Conservancy District (DWCD) was split into two state house districts that divides the connected interests of water delivery in central Montezuma County. The DWCD boundaries share a water source, common taxing district and local agricultural interests with the Montezuma Valley (central Montezuma County), Ute Mountain Ute Tribe and Dolores County. Keeping the joint use of Dolores Project water users, agriculture and municipalities (west of Mancos) in a common representative district.

The people on the Western Slope of Colorado are a mainly conservative, rural, and agricultural constituency who have an entirely different way of thinking from the metropolitan area of the front range. To yoke us with Boulder liberals takes away our voice, our chance to have a say in our representation, and the politics that will govern our lives. I strongly suggest you look at the Colorado congressional redistricting again. The Western Slope should be bound together as one district, not broken up and yoked with entities from the front range. If you continue with the current redistricting map, you have effectively silenced our voices and our votes.

I do not believe that Fort Collins should be moved from District 2 to District 4. Fort Collins has little in common with the Eastern Plains of our state. We are a large city with urban concerns such as homelessness, pollution, transportation and economic diversity. These concerns are much more in line with large cities along the Front Range such as Boulder. I can't understand the reason for carving out Fort Collins from our neighboring towns that are mere minutes away from us. We share economic and other interests with these communities far more than those interests of rural communities on the Eastern Plains. In addition, our new County Seat would be in a different Congressional District than the rest of our county, this makes little sense. Thank you for your time and consideration.

The Colorado Wool Growers Association opposes the first staff drawn map due to a lack of rural representation. As presented, Moffat and Rio Blanco counties are included in the same district as Boulder and Larimer counties even though the latter counties are not representative of the needs of Moffat and Rio Blanco counties. The CWGA strongly recommends that the western slope third congressional district and eastern plains fourth congressional district remain as-is because these districts are appropriately serving rural communities.

After viewing the proposed redistricting where Summit County is split and my local area is now tied in to the likes of Boulder I am jaw struck. I can only assume this is for political posturing and not for the purpose that the board is commissioned to execute as per the points listed above. 1. What shared interests unite your community? Answer: None. Boulder’s culture, infrastructure, social challenges and alike have virtually zero correlation to our mountain community. 2. What are your community’s public concerns ? Answer: First and foremost being redistrict into a metropolitan community that has little to nothing in common to our mountain towns. Although there a few common challenges such as labor shortage these are caused by differing impacts and one solution does NOT fit all. 3. What geographic areas or features are important to your community? Answer: We are situated in a national forest amongst nature, our community is very focused in keeping this pristine for all to enjoy, including those from the city, Boulder included. As it is in our backyard and not those in the metropolitan areas we are cognoscente of the challenge at hand and how best to tackle this. Where as the tourist, aka Boulder, make enjoy our national forest and the work, effort, tax payers money, volunteers and love we put into it our creators work those at sea level to 5000ft cannot in anyway make wise decisions on how best our hard earned tax payers money is prudently spent to keep our forest pristine for ALL to enjoy. 4. What else should the commissions know about your community? Answer: I suggest the committee drive down Pearl St Boulder and then drive down Main St Breckenridge. If you have your glasses on or contacts in and brain engaged you will quickly comprehend the difference and why our small town community should not be in the same jurisdiction as a large University metropolitan city. They just don’t match. If this redistricting continues as proposed the committee has NOT shown their independency nor complied to their own questions as above and failed in their charter of being non-partisan and districting common communities with common challenges and goals.

In the new Staff Map 1 that was released it does a really bad job of representing rural Colorado. The original preliminary map honored rural Colorado by giving Colorado two mostly rural districts which adequately reflected the make up of our state. The new map has only one rural district, every other district touches the metro area. Another area of concern is the fact that you have divided up the lower Arkansas Valley. Just like the Western Slope is a community of interest so is Southeast Colorado. Southeast Colorado should be kept together in their congressional representation. Do not make rural Colorado irrelevant in this map, make two rural districts that have a strong rural voice.

Hello, I am Karn Stiegelmeier, a long time resident of Summit County, and a past County Commissioner here. I believe we are all horrified with the splitting of Summit County in 2 CDs. Obviously, we have common interests within our county. Summit is rec tourism central, with 4 major ski areas, more 2nd homeowners and short term rentals as a percentage of population than any other county. The I-70 corridor is essential common interests with the many front range visitors. Transportation issues of many kinds, especially I-70 connects us with Clear Ck, Jeffco, Gilpin. The I-70 Coalition has been consistently working together for Many years. Summit County's Climate Action plan is a model for some JeffCo communities with electrification of our transportation grid and charging stations being key to getting electric cars up and down the corridor. Health care is another common interest with St. Anthonys in Frisco and Lakewood and Flight for Life and Ambulance services. Within our county, we have obvious common interests in workforce housing, health care, Many shared services. We need to be able to have one voice to communicate with our Congressional Rep. Thank you for all your hard work.

Rural Colorado needs representation for the challenges that we face in our area and they are significantly different than the Front Range especially Boulder and Larimer Counties. There is no logic in combining a very sparsely populated rural county that is dependent on agriculture and energy with two Front Range counties that are densely populated and removed from rural values. It is important that the representation comes from people that have similar relationships and values and understand the needs of all the individuals that they represent. Moffat County is the largest county in the state but the least populated. Along with Rio Blanco, we have a lot of the forest, BLM and State land that is utilized for agriculture, energy and hunting and this shapes the community in which we live.