Julie Westenforff, a La Plata County commissioner, announced her re-election campaign Thursday morning on a three-town swing through the county.
Starting at the Pine River Public Library, Westendorff touted the monthly meetings she holds the first Thursday of the month in Bayfield to get input from residents from the eastern side of the county.
"I think this approach tells you who I am," she said. Ideas for improvements to county roads have come from citizens who attend the meetings, she said.
Those included improved signs on CR 501 near the entrance to Forest Lakes to slow down and direct traffic. She also said one landowner told her that the newly rerouted road at Vallecito Dam meant his cows could get out on CR 501, "and no one wants a cow on 501."
The county installed a cattle guard on the roadway a short while later.
Westendorff said she and other commissioners heard about a lack of fast Internet access at an "on the road" meeting in Vallecito. The commissioners hold the meetings periodically in the rural areas of the county. The county and all three municipalities in the county put an item on the November ballot that allows local governments to enter agreements with local telecomm companies to provide improved local service. That was previously not allowed by state law.
She was elected to represent the eastern half of the county in 2012.
Westendorff planned to continue her campaign stops at 1 p.m. Thursday at the ELHI building in Ignacio and at 5:30 p.m. at the Rochester Hotel in Durango.
