District 1 Commissioner Candidates Share Insights, Challenges for Future

A hotly contested local election on the upcoming
Tuesday, November 5, ballot is for District 1 Hinsdale
County Commissioner.
SILVER WORLD mailed identical questions to the
two District 1 candidates — incumbent Greg Levine,
an Independent who was first elected to a four-year
term as County Commissioner in November 2020,
and his Republican challenger, former Lake City
Town Trustee Steve Ryals — last week with the
request that answers with cumulative total no greater
than 2,500 words for each candidate be returned for
this week’s issue.
Verbatim answers are as follows, each candidate’s
response listed alphabetically following each
question.
In addition to District 1 Commissioner candidates
Levine and Ryals, Robert Hurd, incumbent Republican for Hinsdale County Commissioner
District 3 is seeking re-election unopposed. Hurd
received the same set of questions and his responses
will be published in the Friday, October 11, issue of
the newspaper.
Letters to the Editor explaining views of a
particular candidate or endorsing candidates for
office are accepted by SILVER WORLD on a weekly
basis. In advance of this fall’s election and in fairness
to all candidates, politically themed letters to the
editor will not be accepted after the Friday, October
25, issue of the newspaper.

Here are a list of the questions asked. To see the Candidates answers, plus more details, pick up your own issue of the LCSW.

1.Tell us about yourself: age, education – public
school and college, family?

2.How long have you lived in
Lake City and where did
you previously live?

3. What is your business experience, past job
experience before and since moving to Lake City?

4. What is your job experience
being an elected official?

5. Why do you want to be a County Commissioner?

6. Why should we vote for you?

7. Should the program allowing OHVs on Highway
149 through the town of Lake City remain from
mid-June through the end of September or, go back
to the previous time frame, (Memorial Day through
the end of September), or do you have an alternate
option?

8. Are you in favor of maintaining the current OHV
route, or are you in favor of extending the route?

9. Do you feel the current OHV regulations are
sufficient and is law enforcement adequate?

10. Why is the partnership between the Town of Lake
City and Hinsdale County important, and how do
you feel it could be improved?

11. Emergency services is under the direction of
Hinsdale County; the County is exploring a stable
revenue source for these services. What are your
ideas for these important services?

12. What is your plan to address the lack of affordable
housing in and around Lake City?

13. The income influx to Hinsdale County through the
All Hazards Team earned revenue has been
significant and is an important element of each
year’s county budget [2022 – $428,217; 2023 –
$1,035,976; and 2024 year to date – $872,107 as of
8/31/2024]. Do you feel these funds are being
appropriated properly? What is your plan in the
event the funds are diminished or eliminated?

𝑷𝒊𝒄𝒌 𝒖𝒑 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒄𝒐𝒑𝒚 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒘𝒆𝒆𝒌’𝒔 𝑺𝒊𝒍𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝑾𝒐𝒓𝒍𝒅 𝒂𝒕 𝒍𝒐𝒄𝒂𝒍 𝒃𝒖𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒆𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒇𝒖𝒍𝒍 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒗𝒊𝒆𝒘 𝒐𝒇 𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝑪𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒊𝒅𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒔!