Gilpin County residents sharply divided over proposed food pantry expansion and commercial kitchen

Dozens of Gilpin County residents told the Board of County Commissioners on March 25 that a planned replacement for the county food pantry should either be paused for more public review or built immediately and to a higher standard, with repeated debate centering on rising cost estimates and whether the project needs a commercial kitchen.

At a public-comment period before regular business, resident Dan Adler said he opposed what he described as an "expensive food pantry which includes office space and a commercial kitchen," adding, "as a county of under thousand people we can't afford another building to defer maintenance on" and urging the commissioners to prioritize existing building maintenance over new construction.

The dispute stems in part from shifting cost figures that residents said were disclosed only recently. "Last week we watched and listened while we learned that the funds proposed for the food pantry have grown from $1,100,000 to $3,300,000 over the last year and nine months," Bruce Perman said. Perman also said the board had since reduced the scope and that the current figure discussed publicly was about $2,465,000.

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