Last Wednesday evening 500+ people gathered at the Hilton for the Chamber’s Annual Dinner. It was great to hear the buzz in the room. People were so into visiting that it was hard to get the event started! And, it was great to see very worthy people honored for their contributions to the Chamber and community including outgoing Chair Yvonne Myers, outgoing Treasurer / Board Director Jason Ells, Allison Hines as Young Professional of the Year, Steve Tool as Volunteer of the Year and Karen Weitkunat won the prestigious Collins Award. See the story at the right for more information. There was also a brief tribute to past Chamber Chair Bob Everitt who passed the previous week. (A column I wrote about Bob that appeared in Sunday’s Coloradoan can be found here.)
Not on the program was a place to highlight the less formal contributions of others. Five people in particular have provided significant leadership on the effort to secure funding to widen I-25: City of Fort Collins Mayor Pro Tem Gerry Horak, Chair of the Larimer County Commissioner Tom Donnelly, CDOT Region 4 Manager Johnny Olson and Weld County Commissioners Barb Kirkmeyer and Sean Conway.
The risk of singling out just five people, of course, is that dozens of others are involved with the lobbying effort secure the funds to add a third lane each way on I-25 north of Longmont. Many people are working very hard on this.
The reason I wanted to acknowledge Horak, Donnelly, Kirkmeyer and Conway is because they understand the significance of this problem and have been proactive in offering solutions and getting alignment among other government entities in Northern Colorado. For his part Olson is actively seeking solutions and advocating for fixing north I-25.
Hats off to all of them for their leadership.
Finally regarding the dinner, a big ‘thank you’ to Ann Hutchison and Audrey Fraijo of the Chamber staff for orchestrating the Annual Dinner.