Dennis Luttrell is back at it, running for a seat on the Teller County Board of Commissioners. Luttrell, a Democrat, hopes to replace the term-limited Bob Campbell, a Republican.

In the 1980s, Luttrell served two four-year terms as a Republican on the county’s board of commissioners before switching parties several years ago. He is unopposed on the Democratic ticket.

“I’m still a conservative and have served the county for more than 30 years,” he said. “There was never an increase in my budgets and we never raised taxes. We only lowered them.”

Last month, Luttrell was part of the wildfire forum at Summit Elementary School where he relayed questions from the audience to the panelists. 

“You didn’t hear much from the speakers about an emergency route in the county,” he said. “The county didn’t indicate that they’re doing anything.”

Luttrell acknowledges that the county recently completed the Community Wildfire Protection Plan.

“They really don’t have much of an action plan; they pushed off all the action on the subdivisions and the fire districts,” he said. “And the county has a role to play. Even now, they can’t even keep a director of the office of emergency management.”

Luttrell is referring to the recent departure of Michelle Boley who is no longer serving as the OEM; before Boley, Jay Teague served and resigned.

“We need stability in the OEM,” Luttrell said. “OEM is an important position, somebody who can be a partner in the community with regard to preparation and planning.”

As a board member of Divide Fire Protection District, Luttrell says the district officials were never contacted for input to the protection plan.

“I actually wrote an action plan, the oil response plan, the first one in the country,” he said.  “I organized all the local entities and worked with the captain of the port in Rhode Island where they had an oil spill two years before.”

Luttrell’s resume include serving as an environmental planner for the Environmental Protection Agency, as a community development director, grants administrator in addition to stints as town/city administrators.

As a Teller County resident since 1979, Luttrell fought fires for fire departments in Florissant and Divide and has served as county planning commissioner.

While a Teller County commissioner, Luttrell, working with other communities, formed the Mountain Communities Council of Governments.

“It was basically an insurance policy that we funded to cover costs from wildfire response,” he said. “We never used it because we didn’t have fires back then.”

Today, Luttrell continues his advocacy for mitigation as a volunteer for the NoFlo group based in Florissant.

Luttrell’s experience includes creating an affordable housing project in an historic district in Rhode Island. The award-winning project was in partnership with the federal Housing and Urban Development.

In addition to Luttrell’s multifaceted professional career, he served 20 years in the U.S. Coast Guard where he was the branch chief for marine safety and the environment.

As a candidate for county commissioner, Luttrell plans to campaign in ways other than with signs all over the county.

“I don’t like looking at them,” he said. “We’ve got too many illegal signs on county roads as it is.”

Luttrell planned to be at the Democratic Teller County caucus and assembly March 7 at the Divide Community Center. The election is in November.