Site search
sponsored by
News
Sports
ENLARGE
Donna McGinnis, republican candidate for Lake County Commissioner District 3.
Reporter's note: The following interview is the second in a four part series.
Since August, I have been interviewing the candidates running for Lake County Commissioner while walking along the trail of their choice in Leadville and the surrounding area. I have seen some amazing sights (but in some cases been sworn to secrecy about them!) and learned a lot about our candidates in a more casual, natural setting.
I walked with Donna McGinnis, who is running for County Commissioner District 3, along the Mineral Belt Trail near her business, McGinnis Cottage Bed and Breakfast. We walked a few miles in the warm afternoon sunshine of early September.
KD: First, tell me about yourself: where you're from, a little bit about your hometown, and what brought you here, running for county commissioner.
DM: I was born and raised in a little town called Pitcaron, Pa. This was a railroading town, very blue collar. The trains would be coming through all the time; we had a mechanical shop for repair of the engines. I come from four generations of railroaders. When I was eighteen, my mother died of leukemia, and I had just graduated from high school. Of course everybody was in mourning, and [my dad]...could see I wasn’t happy; he said, 'would you like to go live with your aunt and uncle in Florida?' So I went there and my aunt really helped me out. I started at eighteen working for a land development corporation. Six months later, I moved out of [my aunt and uncle’s] place, and from there on I was taking care of myself. After I had worked there a couple of years, I got another job working for the University of Miami School of Medicine; each of these was in the secretarial area. But what I really wanted to do was be an airline stewardess. I really am an outgoing person, and I just thought, oh, that's so glamorous. I ended up getting a job with National Airlines, and then after a few years, I [found] a job with Overseas National Airlines, which meant we flew overseas, of course. In between all of that, I met my husband when I was at the University of Miami. He was working his way through college... four years later, when flying with Overseas National Airways, we had a trip to Alaska, where he was stationed. At that time, we caught up with each other and got married shortly thereafter. We've been married 38 years, and [it has been] very exciting. We moved a lot of different places in his 26 years in the military. In those years, he always had a job everywhere we moved, of course; but I did not. That was the beginning of the time when couples almost needed two incomes to get ahead. So here I was, often working, going to school to get my degree, and then seven years after we got married, I had my first child, followed by my second: Adam and Heather. So, we were just very busy, I was a very typical woman juggling a lot of things. We ended up in northern Florida, [where] it's very large and spread out. There's a lot of soft industry there, like telemarketing. First I did a little teaching, ninth through 12th grade history, and then got a job with the University of North Florida. When I got a job with the college, I was overseeing a program that trained individuals to be railroaders. Here, my background of growing up in this railroading town and coming from four generations of railroaders...the one thing that I was heard from the railroaders was, ‘railroading is in your blood.’
I finished school with a [bachelor of arts] in history, went right on and got my masters in education administration. We were stationed in Hawaii, and I [taught] a course in keyboarding and beginning computers. I taught there for a few years, then we moved to New Hampshire where I got a job at the University of New Hampshire. I oversaw both credit and noncredit programs and also the professional development seminars. I've had a total of 15 years in the academic world. I was lucky enough to progress to better positions…but I ended up getting laid off at the University of North Florida, because the railroads were slowing down and [being] a typical industry, they started cutting the budget. I looked around, couldn't really find anything, and couldn't really envision myself there anymore. I said to my husband, ‘well, I'm going to start looking for a job somewhere else where we want to be.’ I don't know if he took me seriously. I applied out here for a division director's position, and they moved me out here. In the meantime, my husband was saying to me, ‘you're not really going to take this job, are you?’ And I told him- ‘Hon, I moved 19 times in the military for you-can you just move with me once?’ And he's a very practical man. And he wasn't too crazy about his job, either…that's how we ended up in Leadville.
I started off in Vail, and then they built a new campus in Edwards. By the time I left there, I was running probably seven or eight programs, and all different, all diverse. I am… amazed at what women can do. We're multi-tasking all the time...here I am [at CMC], running the culinary and hospitality program, the [Emergency Medical Technician] program, the certified nurse and assistant program and the real estate program. I started a couple of different medical programs. I was handling all these different programs, a lot of different budgets-very large budgets, hiring and evaluating personnel, supervising. And this brings a lot to the commissioner’s position. Being able to do budgets, deal with a lot of different people, handle a lot of things at one time, manage the politics of a situation…In the small town of Pitcaron, Pennsylvania Railroad was sold to Conway. Conway [sold] the railroad to North Folk Southern. In the meantime, fewer and fewer trains were coming through Pitcaron; the shop closed down…Pitcaron probably wasn't much bigger than Leadville. I don't think the town [of Pitcaron] has ever recovered; there wasn't any talk of tourism or anything. So, I think that's important; I'm not really a big city girl, I'm kind of a small town girl. I understand a lot of the problems here because of where I did come from.
KD: What do you think are some of Lake County's biggest issues?
DM: One thing that really comes to mind is the rift between the city government and the county government. That has to be the first thing to be repaired. Whatever it takes, we've got to do... and it will probably be difficult, but it's been going on for a long time, and maybe the city can give a little and the commissioners can give a little.
Next, I would say is our water situation here. I understand we've sold off all of our water rights. We need to do something to get the water rights back. What's going on with the Leadville Mine Drainage Tunnel is not good, although the Bureau of Reclamation has come back and said that it's all right. I think we've all learned our lesson for the future. I understand that we do now have an emergency plan, we do have a proper management plan for the mine walls breaking in a flood, but I've heard that the water seeping into the Arkansas River is contaminated. It's not hurting us, but it could hurt the fishing, the ecological balance as well as those downstream. As commissioners, we need to try to solve these things, even if it takes a long time. If there's anything I've learned in life is that you need an objective, but you don't always get there straight-line. You have to have patience and want to achieve.
KD: Do you see a growing division between some of the older residents of Lake County and newcomers?
DM: Yes, I think I definitely see a division. We have new folks moving into town, and they're buying up the houses, so housing prices are going up. My question is, is this going to lead to losing younger people to other areas where maybe they can afford to live? Maybe they won't be able to afford to live anywhere [around here]. Older folks don't want to see any kind of a change, and the younger couples and families that are coming into town have a different mentality and they do want change-they are used to change all the time; they're used to computers, cell phones, everything. And they want to see improvements. Everything should be based on what is good for the city and the county-not what is good for you, or for me. We all have to recognize that even if we don't have any control over it, there will be change. The point is, do we want to be in control of it? That might take regulations, zoning and planning. That's something that possibly the older generation has not had to do. I want to bring everybody together-which may sound like a dream at times...people are not listening to each other. Commissioners in the past have been very used to just making decisions on their own, and now we have a changed population and time that is calling these commissioners to consult others on their decision-making. In the last year, I really have seen the commissioners be more accountable for what they're doing-but not until some members of the population started really pushing, pointing out what they're not doing, the regulations that they've fallen under. I have to give the commissioners credit that they have been, in most cases, accountable. And I know that it's a new thing for them, because the commissioners in the past haven't been, at all.
KD: What do think of the United States Forest Service actions to manage the pine beetle, and are pine beetles a valid concern?
DM: Well, is it the forest service's total responsibility, or the county's responsibility? In Summit County, that question is coming up all the time, [with] the cost to the city and the county to dispose of the dead trees. If it was a perfect world, and I had all the information, I'd like to see the trees cut down and replanted with another tree that can resist the pine beetle. I know that's difficult; I have talked to people about that and I understand other [species] can attack it...and actually, the pine beetle hasn't really struck us that much. That doesn't mean to say it won't, though.
KD: If you get elected to commissioner, are you going to continue running your bed and breakfast or give it up?
DM: I am going to be a full time commissioner. I'm not going to close the doors...I will hire a housekeeper to do the cooking and oversee things. I already have a cleaning woman, and she's very dependable. I want to emphasize that I will be a full time commissioner. The job really needs it. You just can't do it part time. I think this town is growing. I've seen a lot of changes from seven years ago when I moved into town. I don't know how anyone can think they can take a part time job and think they can do justice to the county.
My experiences [have] assisted me to this point [through] patience. The other thing is getting the job done. What I have seen in the past, often, is that commissioners have been so overwhelmed with different requirements that they start something, and it never goes anywhere. I am just the type of person that I just stick on it, until we get the job done. For instance, the airport. According to FAA regulations, we have to hire a new engineering department. And we have to advertise this. I would walk into a particular commissioner's office, and ask if the ad was ready to go in the paper. And I would hear, oh yeah, it's ready to go. I have it right here. Well, it never got in the paper. We finally got the ad in the paper just about three months ago; this was something that was started two or three years ago. And I can only attribute it to the fact that commissioners are so busy that they just cannot handle everything that is coming at them. I feel like I can.
DM: I was born and raised in a little town called Pitcaron, Pa. This was a railroading town, very blue collar. The trains would be coming through all the time; we had a mechanical shop for repair of the engines. I come from four generations of railroaders. When I was eighteen, my mother died of leukemia, and I had just graduated from high school. Of course everybody was in mourning, and [my dad]...could see I wasn’t happy; he said, 'would you like to go live with your aunt and uncle in Florida?' So I went there and my aunt really helped me out. I started at eighteen working for a land development corporation. Six months later, I moved out of [my aunt and uncle’s] place, and from there on I was taking care of myself. After I had worked there a couple of years, I got another job working for the University of Miami School of Medicine; each of these was in the secretarial area. But what I really wanted to do was be an airline stewardess. I really am an outgoing person, and I just thought, oh, that's so glamorous. I ended up getting a job with National Airlines, and then after a few years, I [found] a job with Overseas National Airlines, which meant we flew overseas, of course. In between all of that, I met my husband when I was at the University of Miami. He was working his way through college... four years later, when flying with Overseas National Airways, we had a trip to Alaska, where he was stationed. At that time, we caught up with each other and got married shortly thereafter. We've been married 38 years, and [it has been] very exciting. We moved a lot of different places in his 26 years in the military. In those years, he always had a job everywhere we moved, of course; but I did not. That was the beginning of the time when couples almost needed two incomes to get ahead. So here I was, often working, going to school to get my degree, and then seven years after we got married, I had my first child, followed by my second: Adam and Heather. So, we were just very busy, I was a very typical woman juggling a lot of things. We ended up in northern Florida, [where] it's very large and spread out. There's a lot of soft industry there, like telemarketing. First I did a little teaching, ninth through 12th grade history, and then got a job with the University of North Florida. When I got a job with the college, I was overseeing a program that trained individuals to be railroaders. Here, my background of growing up in this railroading town and coming from four generations of railroaders...the one thing that I was heard from the railroaders was, ‘railroading is in your blood.’
I finished school with a [bachelor of arts] in history, went right on and got my masters in education administration. We were stationed in Hawaii, and I [taught] a course in keyboarding and beginning computers. I taught there for a few years, then we moved to New Hampshire where I got a job at the University of New Hampshire. I oversaw both credit and noncredit programs and also the professional development seminars. I've had a total of 15 years in the academic world. I was lucky enough to progress to better positions…but I ended up getting laid off at the University of North Florida, because the railroads were slowing down and [being] a typical industry, they started cutting the budget. I looked around, couldn't really find anything, and couldn't really envision myself there anymore. I said to my husband, ‘well, I'm going to start looking for a job somewhere else where we want to be.’ I don't know if he took me seriously. I applied out here for a division director's position, and they moved me out here. In the meantime, my husband was saying to me, ‘you're not really going to take this job, are you?’ And I told him- ‘Hon, I moved 19 times in the military for you-can you just move with me once?’ And he's a very practical man. And he wasn't too crazy about his job, either…that's how we ended up in Leadville.
I started off in Vail, and then they built a new campus in Edwards. By the time I left there, I was running probably seven or eight programs, and all different, all diverse. I am… amazed at what women can do. We're multi-tasking all the time...here I am [at CMC], running the culinary and hospitality program, the [Emergency Medical Technician] program, the certified nurse and assistant program and the real estate program. I started a couple of different medical programs. I was handling all these different programs, a lot of different budgets-very large budgets, hiring and evaluating personnel, supervising. And this brings a lot to the commissioner’s position. Being able to do budgets, deal with a lot of different people, handle a lot of things at one time, manage the politics of a situation…In the small town of Pitcaron, Pennsylvania Railroad was sold to Conway. Conway [sold] the railroad to North Folk Southern. In the meantime, fewer and fewer trains were coming through Pitcaron; the shop closed down…Pitcaron probably wasn't much bigger than Leadville. I don't think the town [of Pitcaron] has ever recovered; there wasn't any talk of tourism or anything. So, I think that's important; I'm not really a big city girl, I'm kind of a small town girl. I understand a lot of the problems here because of where I did come from.
KD: What do you think are some of Lake County's biggest issues?
DM: One thing that really comes to mind is the rift between the city government and the county government. That has to be the first thing to be repaired. Whatever it takes, we've got to do... and it will probably be difficult, but it's been going on for a long time, and maybe the city can give a little and the commissioners can give a little.
Next, I would say is our water situation here. I understand we've sold off all of our water rights. We need to do something to get the water rights back. What's going on with the Leadville Mine Drainage Tunnel is not good, although the Bureau of Reclamation has come back and said that it's all right. I think we've all learned our lesson for the future. I understand that we do now have an emergency plan, we do have a proper management plan for the mine walls breaking in a flood, but I've heard that the water seeping into the Arkansas River is contaminated. It's not hurting us, but it could hurt the fishing, the ecological balance as well as those downstream. As commissioners, we need to try to solve these things, even if it takes a long time. If there's anything I've learned in life is that you need an objective, but you don't always get there straight-line. You have to have patience and want to achieve.
KD: Do you see a growing division between some of the older residents of Lake County and newcomers?
DM: Yes, I think I definitely see a division. We have new folks moving into town, and they're buying up the houses, so housing prices are going up. My question is, is this going to lead to losing younger people to other areas where maybe they can afford to live? Maybe they won't be able to afford to live anywhere [around here]. Older folks don't want to see any kind of a change, and the younger couples and families that are coming into town have a different mentality and they do want change-they are used to change all the time; they're used to computers, cell phones, everything. And they want to see improvements. Everything should be based on what is good for the city and the county-not what is good for you, or for me. We all have to recognize that even if we don't have any control over it, there will be change. The point is, do we want to be in control of it? That might take regulations, zoning and planning. That's something that possibly the older generation has not had to do. I want to bring everybody together-which may sound like a dream at times...people are not listening to each other. Commissioners in the past have been very used to just making decisions on their own, and now we have a changed population and time that is calling these commissioners to consult others on their decision-making. In the last year, I really have seen the commissioners be more accountable for what they're doing-but not until some members of the population started really pushing, pointing out what they're not doing, the regulations that they've fallen under. I have to give the commissioners credit that they have been, in most cases, accountable. And I know that it's a new thing for them, because the commissioners in the past haven't been, at all.
KD: What do think of the United States Forest Service actions to manage the pine beetle, and are pine beetles a valid concern?
DM: Well, is it the forest service's total responsibility, or the county's responsibility? In Summit County, that question is coming up all the time, [with] the cost to the city and the county to dispose of the dead trees. If it was a perfect world, and I had all the information, I'd like to see the trees cut down and replanted with another tree that can resist the pine beetle. I know that's difficult; I have talked to people about that and I understand other [species] can attack it...and actually, the pine beetle hasn't really struck us that much. That doesn't mean to say it won't, though.
KD: If you get elected to commissioner, are you going to continue running your bed and breakfast or give it up?
DM: I am going to be a full time commissioner. I'm not going to close the doors...I will hire a housekeeper to do the cooking and oversee things. I already have a cleaning woman, and she's very dependable. I want to emphasize that I will be a full time commissioner. The job really needs it. You just can't do it part time. I think this town is growing. I've seen a lot of changes from seven years ago when I moved into town. I don't know how anyone can think they can take a part time job and think they can do justice to the county.
My experiences [have] assisted me to this point [through] patience. The other thing is getting the job done. What I have seen in the past, often, is that commissioners have been so overwhelmed with different requirements that they start something, and it never goes anywhere. I am just the type of person that I just stick on it, until we get the job done. For instance, the airport. According to FAA regulations, we have to hire a new engineering department. And we have to advertise this. I would walk into a particular commissioner's office, and ask if the ad was ready to go in the paper. And I would hear, oh yeah, it's ready to go. I have it right here. Well, it never got in the paper. We finally got the ad in the paper just about three months ago; this was something that was started two or three years ago. And I can only attribute it to the fact that commissioners are so busy that they just cannot handle everything that is coming at them. I feel like I can.
