MINERAL COUNTY- Mineral County Commissioners met with department heads during their meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 17. Creede and Mineral County Chamber of Commerce Director Kathleen Murphy began the meeting with an update stating that the chamber is continuing with their new marketing strategy outside of the Creede area.

Murphy explained that businesses are reporting really good numbers for the year. “I have had business owners tell me they have had their strongest October ever, I’ve had business owners tell me they had their strongest September ever, I had a business owner tell me they had their strongest Fourth of July ever. Yes, we are in a pandemic and people aren’t traveling to Europe but kudos to the webpage for having information up to date and making it so people can find the information they need about our area and bringing them to town.”

Murphy state that beginning next year the chamber will be focusing on marketing the area during winter and will be using winter images to bring people to the area during the slow season. Murphy stated that the chamber is still waiting on the results of the Silver Thread Scenic Byway national designation and that she hoped to hear about the results by the end of December.

“There were 64 scenic byways in the nation that either applied for national designation or a change in designation to an all-American road. The statutory deadline is December 22 so hopefully we should hear something in the next month. The state has about 20 more D/C fast charging stations to install across the state and then the Colorado Office of Energy will be ready to designate those electric byway infrastructures and we are on the list to be one of the three Colorado Electric byways.”

Next, Mineral County Dental Clinic Manager Lori Dooley gave an update on the clinic stating that they were surprisingly in the black for the end of their 2020 budget and were preparing to look at the budget for 2021. “I think you guys will be a bit surprised about some of the numbers, I know when I put them together, I was; in a positive way, mind you.  We started seeing patients August 10 and obviously on a much heavier schedule than we normally do. We have been working pretty much full time trying to catch up.”

Dooley continued to explain that they were able to get to a majority of the people in need over the last three months. “There was a long time without revenue, but we also had little to no expenses because we weren’t open. The account shows after deposits in October and November we are in the black.”

Dooley stated that the county will receive funding from the CARES Act that will help replenish the clinic’s savings and will finish the year in good standing. Next, the clinic will be working with the County Administrator to plan for next year’s budget.