PT Wood and Toby Taylor sat down with Grace Garrett of the Chaffee County League of Women Voters and Heart of the Rockies Radio’s News Director Dan R, about their campaigns for the Chaffee County Commissioner District 3 Seat.

Republican  Toby Taylor, is challenging the incumbent Democrat, PT Wood for this seat. Wood  moved to Salida in the late ’80s and since then has developed several businesses and served on the Salida Planning and Zoning Commission, was Mayor of Salida for two terms and is nearing the end of his first term as county commissioner.

Taylor has been in construction in Salida for many decades. He turned in his intent to run just two days before the deadline, responding to community members who encouraged him to run against a, so far, unchallenged seat.

The topics of discussion covered affordable housing, listening to the community, data centers with respect to use of water, fire mitigation as it relates to increased use of electricity and managing the city’s resources efficiently.

Wood’s overarching responses about communication included noting the Commissioners’ expansion of the availability of public hearings, especially during exploration of the land use code, in order to hear what the people in Chaffee County wanted in that code. He talked about work to improve the internal county organization to becoming more responsive to citizens, as well as improved interdepartmental cooperation He asserted that those elements help the county run smoother.

He spoke on recent initiatives around our agricultural resiliency, ensuring that producers can stay, thrive and pass on their operations for the long term, tying producers to the end consumer and making sure that we have the ability within our valley to produce food and get it to the people that live here so we’re not as reliant on outside resources.

Wood shared data from the recent housing assessment indicating that affordability is still a big issue but that the Housing Authority today has over 200 affordable rental units that they’re managing. He asserted that the switch in building code to more electric efficient housing will have a trickle down effect for affordability, that the code is one of the most modern in the state and that builders can rely on that code being consistent for the next four to six years.

When it comes to data centers, Wood shared that Chaffee County does not have a moratorium on them but he basically opposes allowing them in the valley and the land use code would make it difficult to adopt them here anyway.

When asked why people should vote for him Wood asserted that it’s hard to learn what you need to learn for this job, on-the-job and that he has decades of experience to pull from to continue to do the job.

Taylor began his part of the interview by sharing his thoughts on the building code. He said that many community members and builders had told him how the code has made building a house more expensive for them. Thus, Taylor is calling for changes in the building code, mainly in the requirements for electric, positing that mixed-use energy is more affordable. He added that the use of more electric runs the risk of more fire danger.

He brought up property taxes and stated that he sees it unfair for those dollars to be calculated on equity and that that is paralyzing the affordability for long time home owners.

Taylor also brought up the need for Chaffee County to implement an actual recycling center in the area so that recycling does not have to be driven to Colorado Springs for processing.

When asked about leadership, he stated that communication is pinnacle and that he would like to provide more ways for the community to hear about what is going on in county commissioners’ office. He added that he would have no problem working with his peers who are Democrat by affiliation, saying that sitting down and talking out conflicts is key.

With data centers, Taylor was concerned about keeping water rights in the county. He ended his portion of the interview by thanking the residents who nominated him.

The election is November 3rd. To listen to this full interview, go here: https://redcircle.com/shows/22d860b7-e8f8-40d2-b9df-6ce2d37c4911/ep/e642ca6e-8b54-48fc-a0b0-1ab7865446c4