Public Comments

Lakewood shares little in common with Douglas and should not be included with that district

Lakewood should not be combined with Douglas County. We have very little in common with them. We should remain with Arvada and Wheat Ridge.

We write today to ask that you please re-unite the westside of Colorado Springs into one Senate seat and one House seat. By grouping these like-minded and similarly situated populations together, the communities west of I-25 could be fully contained within one House district, and one Senate district inside El Paso County.

I hope to assure that any Central Colorado rural community mapping/ redistricting process includes year-round citizens, local lawmakers, local advocacy and grassroots organizations to jointly work on proposed solutions. I understand redistricting allows districts to be rebalanced, ensuring to the greatest extent possible that all districts are both equally populated and representative. Chaffee County, Colorado has a unique blend of ranchers, farmers, outdoor recreation industries, artists, non profits, drive market economic center needs, and a growing community of remote workers just getting established. I hope we get to elect representatives that reflect these differing histories, environmental priorities, and well rounded community support systems for families. I would like to be sure you keep our County and unique blend of communities intact. A good redistricting process will be open and transparent, allowing Chaffee County residents to ask questions and give input. Our geographic area is getting squeezed by development and out of state enterprises. We need to protect our high mountain desert valley, our Collegiate Peak open ranges, and gold Arkansas river waters / Browns Canyon National Monument corridor.

If you knew there was a gold field that lay across an entire region of Colorado, and it took virtually no effort to gather the gold, would you be willing to take it? Would your answer be the same if you knew that retrieving the gold would do no harm at all to the earth? There is such a gold field. And it is in Colorado. And that gold is there for the taking without hurting a person or any creature or our water, our air, or our earth. That “gold field” is the energy from the sun and the wind, and it lies across what we refer to as Colorado’s eastern plains. This “gold field” stretches from the Wyoming-Colorado state line to the Colorado-New Mexico state line and includes virtually all of the counties in between. It provides important, future-looking, earth-protecting jobs to those who build wind farms, those who construct the turbines that capture the energy, and those who work at plants to produce the turbines, the towers, and their constituent parts in plants in Windsor (Weld County), Pueblo (Pueblo County), and Castle Rock (Douglas County). That gold field is known and findable. In fact, a map, showing where you can find this gold, has been published by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. You can see it here: https://windexchange.energy.gov/maps-data/258 (Colorado 110-Meter Potential Wind Capacity Map). If you used this map to draw your alternative energy district, that district would include rural Weld County and counties directly east of Weld including Logan, Morgan, and Yuma; the mid-plains counties including Cheyenne, Kit Carson, Elbert, and Douglas Counties; and then south to Baca, Prowers, Bent, Otero, Crowley, and Pueblo. Who will speak for this region and this resource? You will determine whether the people who live here can be heard. Please do not ignore this opportunity. Thank you! Roy Chavez (submitted by email 6/13/2021)

June 13, 2021 My family and I are wind farmers. We also grow millet, milo, wheat and corn plus raise cows. Right among our fields, though, are 30 wind turbines. We are part of the Rush Creek Wind Project, which has more than 300 wind turbines across in five counties: Lincoln, Arapahoe, Elbert, Kit Carson and Cheyenne and delivers energy to families and homes all the way to Douglas County. I’m proud of the energy generated on my farm. In addition to helping feed people through our crops, we are also helping to power their lives. We are proud to say that we are supporting renewable energy and helping to make sure it is a reliable resource for years to come. Knowing that the energy generated on my farm creates jobs (manufacturing, installing and operating these turbines) is meaningful and keeps our communities connected – and not just through transmission lines. The wind farm development is an economic benefit to not only the community and the state but to the landowners involved in the project. Colorado is fortunate to possess a wealth of energy resources. Traditional forms of energy including oil, natural gas, coal and hydropower have and will continue to play a significant role in meeting our energy needs. At the same time, wind and solar will continue to expand as technology improves and installation costs decline. Together, this mix of resources promises reliable, affordable energy for our state. When you are redrawing the district lines, please keep our wind farm in mind. Wind farmers like me are part of a growing industry, one that includes companies that produce our turbines, people like us who use our land so turbines create energy, and businesses that transmit that energy so it can be used by consumers. We are all important links in this chain and have a common interest in seeing to it that Congress looks at alternative energy as a continuing, affordable priority. To keep our power strong, we need a member of Congress who understands and advocates for all of us who make the energy from renewable sources as well as supporting agriculture in the area. When representing our area it is important to remember that renewable energy is only one part of the puzzle. We are involved in agriculture and renewable energy but residents in our district are interested in rural economic development, traditional forms of energy like gas and oil as well. It takes a balance in all areas for a healthy economy. Our representative must understand this. Janette Kochis Matheson, CO 80830 Elbert County (submitted by email 6/13/2021)

Dear Congressional and Legislative Redistricting Commissioners: I grew up in the Greeley-Evans area, graduating from Greeley West High School and now raising my children in our great community. I’m also proud to say that I serve on the Greeley-Evans School District 6 Board of Education. That service gives me a pretty good place to observe where Greeley is today is and where it’s going. Our community has experienced great changes in the many years I have lived and worked here. The needs of our community have also changed. We used to be the social and economic gathering point for those in surrounding towns. And the City’s economic vitality wasn’t all it would become. The dramatic increase in oil and gas exploration in areas around the City and to the south really changed that. We are now much more similar to Longmont, Commerce City, Brighton and Northglenn, cities that all are facing the challenges and opportunities of growing Latino populations and focusing on environment and quality of life issues like never before. With all of our growth and economic activity, the Latino community needs and deserves representation that will work on the support needed to help all working families succeed, including gaining access to affordable housing, quality health care, good schools, and economic opportunities. We need a member of Congress who will actively engage to help solve problems in our community. By uniting Greeley with other nearby communities like ours, a member of Congress would have the ability to fully root himself or herself in these issues and advocate for our communities. We have seen how important that is at the state level. Our school district, Greeley-Evans School District 6, is fully in House District 50. We have been able to work with our legislator to ensure that they understand the needs of our students and schools. An example of this important connection is the recent School Finance Act (SB21-264). The changes in our population have meant that our schools educate more students who need additional support to be successful than we have in the past. Having one House member, who also serves on the House Education Committee, has ensured that she has the knowledge and connections to our communities to effectively represent us. The new School Finance Act expands funding for our poorest students and added more resources for English Language Learners. If our school district had multiple representatives, I don’t know if we would have seen such positive impacts for our district in this bill. Ensuring that our community is effectively represented in Congress and the State Legislature matters a great deal to me. It matters to future generations of our children. When you are drawing new maps, I hope you take this all into consideration. Sincerely, Rhonda Solis

Dear Colorado Congressional Redistricting Commission, Thank you for dedicating your time and expertise to all Coloradans by serving on this commission. My name is Dan Lang, a resident, homeowner and current constituent of Colorado Congressional District 2. My community is located in the north central area of Boulder known as the Winding Trail Village neighborhood. My immediate community borders are Twenty-sixth St. to the west, Twenty-eighth St. to the east, Kalmia Ave. to the south and Wonderland Creek Trail to the north. Winding Trail is ninety-three percent white, which I believe exceeds the state’s white demographic by eight percent. The community is friendly, educated and open-minded, in my opinion. Other areas of the city are more diverse, but we need more diversity in Boulder. Some diversity is provided by the University of Colorado, and its student community. Boulder, the city, is the county seat and the most populous municipality of Boulder County. It has a marvelous library, culture and dining. It’s a nice place to live. However, the incessant development and redevelopment, and regionalization of services, in the area means many people working in jobs in the city, from restaurant employees to nurses, will have to live elsewhere. As corporations and developers change the city, with shiny new buildings, residential condos for the wealthy and office buildings for tech companies, automobile traffic coming into Boulder, already heavy, worsens. The new BCH Hospital replaced the old Broadway hospital. It’s a better facility but it serves as a medical center for a much larger area, and pulls patients from outside the county. Some years ago, the only sound at night was the wail of the train whistles. Now, you’re likely to hear ambulance sirens at all hours of the night. I wish I could say that the diversity and housing interests of my community could be solved by the commission drawing the lines differently. Until Boulder, the city, commits itself to building more affordable housing, I limit myself to requesting that the commission leave in place the existing map. Thank-you. Daniel W. Lang (submitted by email 6/13/2021)

Lakewood shares little in common with Douglas County, and should stay in a district with Arvada+Wheat Ridge.

Dear Congressional Redistricting Commission, Thank you for allowing me to comment on the preliminary map for Colorado’s 8 congressional districts and on my community of interest, Aurora. My name is Beth Strimpel, and I am a resident of Aurora since 2015. I am a public health and occupational health nurse, and was the past President of the DelMar Neighborhoods United, a neighborhood group. I moved to Original Aurora because I was working at the Anschutz campus, and one of my colleagues at the Community Campus Partnership informed me about a bus tour being given . I wanted to learn more about the community I worked in, so I attended. We were able to take an unplanned tour of Stanley Marketplace before it was open, and I was hooked. It was then after the tour and learning about Aurora and all the services available, i decided to buy a house in the community I worked. I love being a resident of Aurora. I am advocating for Aurora to stay whole on the primary map - do not divide us. The diversity of the city is what attracted me to live here. Aurora Public Schools has students from over 130 countries who speak over 160 languages. 74% of the total student population receive free or reduced lunch. These students and residents of Aurora need to be able to receive all the benefits of federal legislation as a whole. We need to have fair and effective representation for all Aurora residents. The only way to do that , as I see it, is to keep us together as one district. The community campus partnership(CCP) was developed in order to assist residents of Aurora to obtain a job on campus, and have a voice. There was a huge divide between individuals doing research or working in the medical field, students and the community surrounding the campus.The CCP is educating and advocating for our residents and is one example of a group dedicated to community inclusion. In these times of greater focus on the issues of health disparities in communities of color, I hope you will take time to consider my comments, and to vote to keep Aurora as one district on the preliminary map. Thank you for your time and service. With warm regards, Beth A. Strimpel, RN Aurora, CO 80010 (submitted by email 6/13/2021)