Fairplay, CO -Michael Bennet, U.S. Senator for Colorado, today completed a 64-County tour of Colorado with a visit to Park County to hold a roundtable discussion with local health care providers. In just eight months, Bennet has visited each county in the state at least once to hear from Coloradans about the economy, health care, energy and much more.
“The best part of my job is spending time with Coloradans where they live and work and raise their families and getting a chance to hear their views on important issues,” Bennet said. “These are tough times. People across our state are worried about the economy, they are concerned about rising health care costs, and they want to know how we are going to get our government’s deficits and debt under control. From Montezuma to Pueblo to Mesa to Kit Carson Counties, I’ve heard good Colorado common sense and gotten great input on what we should be doing in Washington to address these problems.”
“Between January and today, I have visited with soldiers and veterans, doctors and nurses, ranchers and farmers, students and teachers, seniors, young people training for new energy jobs and small business owners and so many more. It’s their stories and their voices that I bring back to Washington each and every day.”
Below are some highlights from the Fighting for Colorado Families Tour in August and early September:
- In the Arkansas River Valley, Bennet held several events on the topic of health care, including a roundtable with Pueblo small business owners, families and medical professionals at Parkview Medical Center and a town hall with nearly 300 Coloradans on health care at Colorado State University-Pueblo. He also held roundtable discussions on rural health care with doctors and nurses in Walsenburg, Westcliffe and Las Animas.
- Bennet also met with health care providers from Durango and Cortez to talk about the challenges they face in providing care for their patients. In Pagosa Springs, local leaders updated Bennet on the progress of the Geothermal Greenhouse Project, which would utilize the energy provided by the local geothermal hot springs to provide produce for the community and spur further economic development.
- In Northwest Colorado, U.S. Forest Service employees showed Bennet around a Hazardous Fuel Mitigation Project site near Grand Lake, where they are working to remove bark beetle infested trees to reduce the potential for wild fires. Later that day, Bennet visited the Rocky Mountain Pellet Factory in Walden, which is converting some of these felled trees into pine pellets with multiple uses.
- Along with town hall meetings in Frisco and Edwards, Bennet talked with constituents at the Palisade Peach Festival. He stopped at local small businesses in Montrose and Silverton and heard from their owners on challenges they are facing. He also met with law enforcement officials and Public Lands Partnership representatives in Montrose and toured a natural gas flex rig in Rifle.
- In Northern Colorado, Bennet visited Colorado State University’s Community Supported Agriculture Research Project and toured the university’s Engines and Energy Labs with local leaders of the smart grid project in Fort Collins. He also spoke at a gathering of farmers and ranchers in Fort Morgan to talk about how rural communities can take advantage of the new energy economy.
- Bennet spoke with servicemen and military leaders at Buckley Air Force Base and participated in the groundbreaking ceremony for the long-awaited VA hospital in Aurora.
- Across the Metro Region, Bennet met with member of regional chambers of commerce to talk about how health care reform is a key part of fixing the current fiscal crisis and the need to bring fiscal responsibility back to Washington.