District 1 Commissioner Candidates Share Insights, Challenges for Future
A hotly contested local election on the upcomingTuesday, November 5, ballot is for District 1 HinsdaleCounty Commissioner.SILVER WORLD mailed identical questions to thetwo District 1 candidates — incumbent Greg Levine,an Independent who was first elected to a four-yearterm as County Commissioner in November 2020,and his Republican challenger, former Lake CityTown Trustee Steve Ryals — last week with therequest that answers with cumulative total no greaterthan 2,500 words for each candidate be returned forthis week’s issue.Verbatim answers are as follows, each candidate’sresponse listed alphabetically following eachquestion.In addition to District 1 Commissioner candidatesLevine and Ryals, Robert Hurd, incumbent Republican for Hinsdale County CommissionerDistrict 3 is seeking re-election unopposed. Hurdreceived the same set of questions and his responseswill be published in the Friday, October 11, issue ofthe newspaper.Letters to the Editor explaining views of aparticular candidate or endorsing candidates foroffice are accepted by SILVER WORLD on a weeklybasis. In advance of this fall’s election and in fairnessto all candidates, politically themed letters to theeditor will not be accepted after the Friday, October25, 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 – publicschool and college, family? 2.How long have you lived inLake City and where didyou previously live? 3. What is your business experience, past jobexperience before and since moving to Lake City? 4. What is your job experiencebeing 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 Highway149 through the town of Lake City remain frommid-June through the end of September or, go backto the previous time frame, (Memorial Day throughthe end of September), or do you have an alternateoption? 8. Are you in favor of maintaining the current OHVroute, or are you in favor of extending the route? 9. Do you feel the current OHV regulations aresufficient and is law enforcement adequate? 10. Why is the partnership between the Town of LakeCity and Hinsdale County important, and how doyou feel it could be improved? 11. Emergency services is under the direction ofHinsdale County; the County is exploring a stablerevenue source for these services. What are yourideas for these important services? 12. What is your plan to address the lack of affordablehousing in and around Lake City? 13. The income influx to Hinsdale County through theAll Hazards Team earned revenue has beensignificant and is an important element of eachyear’s county budget [2022 – $428,217; 2023 –$1,035,976; and 2024 year to date – $872,107 as of8/31/2024]. Do you feel these funds are beingappropriated properly? What is your plan in theevent 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!
