YOUR AD HERE »

Tony Stich: Voting for an ideal fit

Tony Stich / For the Steamboat Today
Tony Stich
120911_TStich

My name is Tony Stich, and I am running for Routt County Commissioner District 1. As you’re considering who to vote for in this highly contested primary, please consider that should the moon and stars align, there could be a complete change in the Board of Commissioners.

In case you haven’t heard, there are three Republican candidates running for the District 1 chair. In my opinion, we all share the best interest of the community at heart, as I have heard them share their thoughts several times in the past few months. This is a plus, at least in my opinion, for the community at large. The biggest issue facing the county today and for the near future is oil and gas exploration. As candidates, we’re all behind oil and gas exploration in some form or another because we all know it’s the quickest way to help the county recover from this extended recession. The 427 families on food assistance need employment or a better job. Many of our commuter roads are in desperate needed of repairs, and there is not a soul who doesn’t know that information technology is and will continue to be the job engine of the future and maybe the century. So if we want our children and businesses to prosper, it is critical that we expand our broadband capacity as we cannot rely on weather-based industries alone to totally control our destiny!

This is my take on how the three of us stack up as candidates:



Ladies first, Brita Horn is a high-energy ranch wife and mother of two teenage daughters and professes to be a servant of the people, and I can attest to this as her mentor Nancy Stahoviak has her involved with a huge amount of committees plus she’s served on the Routt County Planning Commission for several months. She resides in McCoy. No, McCoy is not in Routt County. Her ranch is in Routt County. She has a sweet, bubbly personality, and she’s grown into an all-around cowgirl.

Age before beauty, (tee-hee) Moose has a couple of years on me. James “Moose” Barrows is high energy and should be considered a Colorado native. This olympian is Ski Town USA, a pilot, a Realtor, teaches a couple of classes at Colorado Mountain College and chairs a fundraiser for Children’s Hospital. Truly a credit to the community and all-around good guy!



Now here is where I get to toot my own horn. We, my bride of 46 years and I, are Colorado natives and have deep Yampa Valley roots. We moved to Stagecoach in 2001 and completed our home in 2003. I have taken an active involvement in every aspect of the Routt County community since my retirement.

I’m a fiscal conservative, family-oriented gentleman with two grown daughters and two grandchildren. We love Routt County, her people and are involved with the community and our church. I’m an active member of the Knights of Columbus, I chair our parish finance council and I’ve been mentoring Chris, my junior partner, for the past four years in conjunction with Partners in Routt County.

My formal education was computer science. My first job after graduation was with Martin Marietta at its Waterton facility. It was quite a commute, as we lived in the northern suburbs. So, I applied to Western Electric and found work as a loan employee to Bell Laboratories. After four years, I found writing code and computer operation boring as you have very limited contact with the public. Following that, I spent thirty years working in the heavy industrial marketplace. Our primary client base was comprised of refineries, chemical and petro-chemical facilities. Whew, I hope I’m not boring you to tears! Stay with me I’m almost done.

You can vote Brita Horn if you want nothing to change. If you believe that there should be more emphasis placed on Ski Town USA, Jim “Moose” Barrows should be your choice. If you believe that my 30-year career working with refineries, chemical and petro-chemical solving plants issues throughout the U.S. is an ideal fit as I do, then I’m your guy.

Should you care to know in more detail where I stand on the issues, visit my campaign website at http://www.routtcounty

commissioner.com or just pick up the phone and call.

I hope you made it to this point and still have a smile on you face, thank you, and God bless! Thank you for your vote of confidence. If I make it past the primary, I’d do my best to earn your respect and make it into office.

Tony Stich is running for Routt County Commissioner District 1.


Support Local Journalism

Support Local Journalism

Readers around Steamboat and Routt County make the Steamboat Pilot & Today’s work possible. Your financial contribution supports our efforts to deliver quality, locally relevant journalism.

Now more than ever, your support is critical to help us keep our community informed about the evolving coronavirus pandemic and the impact it is having locally. Every contribution, however large or small, will make a difference.

Each donation will be used exclusively for the development and creation of increased news coverage.