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Eagle County: Candidates vie for fire board seat

Edward Stoner
Vail, CO Colorado

AVON, Colorado ” Two Eagle-Vail residents will vie for a seat on the Eagle River Fire Protection District’s board of directors in Tuesday’s election.

Kate Hawthorne and Clark Shivley are candidates for the seat from District 1, most of which is in Eagle-Vail.

The Eagle River Fire Protection District provides fire and emergency service to 240 square miles stretching from Red Cliff to Wolcott. The district also includes Minturn, Eagle-Vail, Avon, Edwards, Beaver Creek, Bachelor Gulch and Cordillera.



All electors within the entire fire district can vote for the District 1 seat.

Hawthorne, an employee of the fire district from 2001-2007, said her familiarity with the district makes her a good candidate. She served as a permit technician, a public information officer, a public education coordinator and a wildland firefighter with the district.

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“I’m very familiar with the department, the employees, the budget, the equipment, the fire stations,” Hawthorne said. “I have a very broad knowledge of the Eagle River Fire Protection District, pretty much from the inside out.”

She wants the district to communicate better with its constituents. For instance, the district should put its board-meeting minutes and budget on its Web site, she said.

“I think (taxpayers) want to really have a better idea of where their pennies and dollars are going,” she said.

Hawthorne now works as an emergency medical technician for the Western Eagle County Ambulance District.

Shivley touted his experience as a volunteer firefighter with the Avon Fire Department for nearly 10 years.

“I feel as though I’ve had some insight into operations, that other people would hopefully feel as through I have the competence to be able to move the fire district forward further into the future,” he said.

He said he has an appreciation for the challenges the fire district faces, from dealing with wildland fires to protecting homes to working with other agencies such as the Greater Eagle Fire Protection District ” especially with the impending development of Wolcott.

And the Ginn Company’s planned development between Red Cliff and Minturn is another challenge, Shivley said.

“The Ginn Project’s just going to be another large project that’s going to need some consideration,” he said.

Shivley is an operations and maintenance manager for Eagle County.

Two candidates will run for uncontested seats on the board. Incumbent Ed O’Brien is running for the seat from District 3, which includes parts of Cordillera, Edwards and Avon. Jennifer Cartmell-Hays is running for the director seat from District 5, most of which is in Cordillera.

Staff Writer Edward Stoner can be reached at 748-2929 or estoner@vaildaily.com.


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