Candidates for two Routt County Commissioner seats and District 26 state House representative participated in a forum for North Routt voters Tuesday night.

The candidates shared an uneasy wood stage laid over bales of hay as they responded to constituents’ questions in an at times spirited back-and-forth, particularly among the two Democrat and two Republican candidates vying for the county commissioner seats in District 1 and District 2.

Democrat Angelina Salinas is running against Republican Brent Romick to replace Commissioner Tim Corrigan in District 1. Corrigan is stepping down at the end of his term.

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In District 2, incumbent Democrat Tim Redmond is running against Republican challenger Tracy Lawton.

Questions for the commissioner candidates from the more than 50 attendees gathered in a barn at the Hassle Haven Ranch in Clark covered a range of issues from quality of life to affordable housing and wolf reintroduction; but concerns over the upcoming SBT GRVL race and its 3,000 participants and anger over a recent county construction project on County Road 56 stood out.

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County officials admitted Monday that crews using heavy equipment on a section of the rural county road made mistakes after photos showed damaged vegetation in an area with sensitive conservation easements.

The county issued a news release Monday stating that, upon review, county officials determined that spoil piles and water bars appeared to have exceeded the limits of the county’s right away and the quality of the work was not up to standards.

The section of County Road 56 is used during the SBT GRVL race, leading to suspicion the work was done to benefit the major bike race. Race organizers were issued a permit in June that allows the event, which attracts roughly 3,000 participants and uses more than 100 miles of county roads, to take place Aug. 15-19.

Local officials including Corrigan said the shoddy roadwork had “zero connection” to the bike race.

While Romick is running against Salinas for the District 1 seat, he frequently took aim at Redmond over the county’s handling of the project on County Road 56.

He said he also didn’t believe SBT GRVL organizers were involved and, turning to Redmond on the stage of candidates, blamed the county commissioners and staff for a lack of oversight.

“It is the most egregious violation I have ever seen,” Romick said. “It wasn’t (done) for SBT GRVL, but this thing stinks to high heaven. That is one of the most biological sensitive areas in Routt County. I think it’s despicable what you did and I think it is a travesty.”

Redmond said he was also outraged over how the work was performed and that he was going about getting answers from county staff about the work and about the county’s road maintenance schedule.

“I will tell you one of the last things I did before I left the office was, well, was chew some ass,” Redmond said. “I chewed some ass before I left the office because I was frustrated and angry about it as well.”

Salinas and Lawton largely avoided the crossfire over the roadwork, but both responded to concerns expressed by the audience over SBT GRVL and how the event was permitted through a recently adopted county process.

Lawton, who began his initial remarks by saying, “everything Brent said, I agree with,” didn’t think the county should have approved the event even if race organizers followed the permitting process.

“I don’t get why you can’t just say no,” said Lawton, a 40-year ranch owner who also works for a propane company.

“You didn’t need to build a road through there — it didn’t need to be built, I am sorry I am just trying to repeat what he said, but it is a very simple process — just say no every once in a while,” Lawton said of the county’s decision to grant the permit.

Salinas, who works for the Steamboat Springs Chamber of Commerce, underscored her commitment to rural road maintenance and to the local ranching and agriculture community. She said she thought county commissioners could have done a better job communicating during the permitting process.

“I think the community engagement needed to start a lot earlier,” said Salinas. “As SBT GRVL continues to exist in our community, we need to be having these conversations way sooner.”

“I think it’s important that the conversations stay productive,” Salinas added. “I think there is a lot of pointing fingers and a lot of mistrust right now between our commissioners and SBT GRVL and the rural community and North Routt.”

In the contest for District 26 in the state House, Democrat incumbent Meghan Lukens and Republican challenger Nate Butler heard questions on topics largely centered around affordable housing and Brown Ranch.

A Steamboat Springs resident, Lukens said she supported the Brown Ranch development plans before voters ultimately rejected the project in a March annexation referendum.

“I voted yes on Brown Ranch,” she said, adding that she also worked at the state level to help secure grant funding for the proposed project, which could have seen the development of 2,264 affordable and attainable housing units on 420 acres of Yampa Valley Housing Authority property west of Steamboat.

Lukens said she knows “the affordable housing crisis is the top issue” she hears from constituents and will be “happy to partner with the community to ensure state dollars are utilized” on future projects proposed for Brown Ranch or otherwise.

Butler, who previously served on Craig City Council and is a 100% disabled veteran who served in the U.S. Army, said part of the housing problem stemmed from a larger economic malaise affecting the local economy with the planned sunsetting of coal mining and coal plant operations.

“We are making decisions to close down sections of our economy, the coal mines,” said Butler. “We have hundreds of people here that are losing their jobs in a couple of years with no real place for them to transition into.”

On Brown Ranch, the Republican candidate said, “the voters spoke on it — they said nobody wanted it.”

“I know a major part of the housing crisis is you can’t draw in tens of thousands of new people and wonder why are we having a housing crisis,” he added.

A major policy difference between Butler and Lukens emerged with a question concerning the state’s abortion laws. Colorado voters will decide on a citizens’ petition ballot question in November to make abortion a state constitutional right.

The proposed law would ban state and local governments from outlawing or impeding access to abortions and would require abortions to be covered under health insurance plans for state and local government employees as well as enrollees in state and local government insurance programs.

“I think Colorado has some of the most extreme abortion laws in the country to a detriment. … You could have a baby that has been born and the moment before you cut that umbilical cord, you can still abort it,” said Butler, drawing groans from many in the crowd and support from a few.

“The state’s argument is it has never happened and a doctor would never go through with that,” he added. “If that is the case, why do we need to codify that in law? I don’t think that is OK.”

Lukens said she is proud to be a pro-choice candidate.

“I believe that health care decisions should between a woman and her doctor,” she said. “In addition to that, I am in support of a constitutional amendment on the ballot this November, but that is something that is left to the voters.”