The El Paso County Board of County Commissioners voted unanimously to realign their districts. The El Paso County Clerk and Recorder’s office proposed the changes to keep the five commissioner districts about the same population size, as the county continues to grow at different rates in different areas.The commission districts are allowed to be redrawn every other year, if differences between the population counts in each district warrant a change. Slower population growth in the county means fewer changes within the district map, said Dave Rose, chief public information officer for the county.The county skipped a possible 2013 map change because the districts were roughly the same population distribution since the last change. By this year, the county grew and changed enough to make commissioner districts vary by about 4 percent. Ryan Parsell, public information officer for the clerk and recorder’s office, said districts should only deviate by about 1 or 2 percent.Relatively few people spoke or provided written statements during the public comment period in this round, Rose said. ìI don’t think anybody’s ox was gored this time around,î he said.Most of the changes occurred in districts 2 and 4, which represent the east and south portions of the county. Falcon, Peyton and Calhan remain in District 2, currently represented by Commissioner Amy Lathen. District 2 picked up a portion of Black Forest and the rest of the Woodmen Road corridor to Powers Road, from Darryl Glenn’s District 1.Much of rural Eastern El Paso County, south of Falcon Highway and east of Curtis Road, has been transferred to District 4, currently represented by Dennis Hisey. The communities of Ellicott, Yoder, Rush, Truckton and Edison are now in District 4.History indicates the political makeup of the board is not likely to change. No Democrat has been on the board since 1975.
