Commissioners discuss making the hard choices

Mineral County resident Dennis Hildebrand utilized the public comment portion of Thursday’s meeting of the Mineral County Commissioners to discuss his viewpoint on the meeting with Reed Mountain Construction that took place earlier in the day.

“The commissioners are not district commissioners, they are county commissioners,” Hildebrand said. “The commissioners need to be commissioners for everybody and not give the impression that you are just the commissioners of the district.”

Hildebrand added that the whole county votes on the commissioner position and being present at a lot of meetings he can see how someone could get the impression the commissioners are only acting on behalf of their respective districts.

“There’s the opportunity for someone to get a poor impression, like what happened today, and I don’t want that county image,” Hildebrand said. “I believe that all of you are commissioners for the whole of the county – I believe that strongly. That’s what I want to reinvigorate on how the three of you present yourselves under whatever rules or reasons and decisions that are being made. You’re here for all of us.”

Commissioner Duane Simons responded to Hildebrand’s comment by stating “I do represent the whole county” and the particular situation regarding Reed Mountain Construction reflected his representation of the whole county.

“I did kind of try to take the lead on that because I wanted to get a move on it,” Commissioner Simons said. “You make one happy, you make three mad.”

County Commissioner Administrative Assistant Cindy Grimm commented that Hildebrand was speaking in generalities about the commissioners in general rather than just singling Commissioner Simons out. Grimm also pointed out that the commissioners are forced to make tough decisions in the best interest of the county and that those decisions can and do leave people upset.

“It’s their responsibility and they have to live with the decisions they make,” Grimm said. “Sometimes they have to just stop and look at what is best for the county – this is what they are here for.”