Prowers County Board of Commissioners work session of June 9, 2026

At the June 9, 2026 morning work session, the Prowers County Board of Commissioners heard an update from Tallie Harmon, Executive Director of Prowers Economic Prosperity.  She said PEP’s BEAR committee recently held a roundtable discussion with local financial institutions that was very insightful and helpful.  She has been in communication City Administrator Mitch Hammes concerning Lamar’s airport who said the city would like to work alongside PEP to promote and better utilize the facility.  Harmon said that PEP would have a table at the upcoming June 27 Fly-In event and said she is excited to work with the city on the project.  Harmon said she now proudly represents Southeast Colorado as a member of the Colorado Economic Development Commission and has participated in frequent meetings as a member.  She will be unable to attend the annual conference in September but Brent Bates will attend in her absence.  She and Michelle Hiigel, Prowers County Land Use Administrator recently attended a Colorado Brownsfield partnership workshop and came away with good information and are working on a specific location that needs cleanup and abatements and are hopeful that this can take place.  There are potential tax credits to both the owner of the property and the county.

Joining the meeting virtually was Simon Loftus, Eastern Plains Regional Manager for Care and Share to discuss the Lamar area’s food allocations for Commodities and food pantries.  His office oversees 29 counties in Colorado and he said each community is unique in its needs.  The Lamar Resource and Senior Center is not considered a food pantry but rather a commodity distribution center, while locations serving as pantries in the area receive different goods.  Several volunteers with the Lamar Senior Center’s commodity distribution were present at the meeting to air their concerns over the diminishing size and variety of foods in the boxes received locally.  Loftus explained that due to federal budget cuts, less and less food is available for allocation.  Rick McCorkle spoke for the volunteers, voicing their concern over the lack of meat products and abundance of beans being substituted as well as the overall number of items in the boxes that are given out one day a month.  He said that aside from the lack of meat, often they receive pasta with no sauce or vice-versa, saying that the boxes “maybe” make 3 meals instead of the 5 days a week of meals that they would prefer to receive.  He also said the number of people served  by them has gone down lately, largely because of the lack of enough food in the boxes and the fact that many are looking elsewhere for supplemental food items.  Loftus reminded the commissioners and volunteers that the boxes are meant to be a supplement to food supplies but not the total food source and that the food received here is dependent on availability at the distribution center that delivers the boxes to Lamar.  He said Prowers County is not the only area feeling the effects of the federal budget cuts and that his office does all they can to work with what they can acquire, saying the agency’s goal is to eliminate as many barriers to food access as possible but admits that the need is often greater than the supply.  He praised all the Prowers County volunteers and the agencies that distribute food to needy neighbors, saying he has high respect for all of them and what they do to help others and appreciated how they work in cooperation with each other.

Also at the meeting was Kenneth Shearer, Adult Services Manager with LAVAAA – Lower Arkansas Valley Area Agency on Aging.  He said that LAVAAA is acutely aware of the food needs of persons in Prowers County and said that his office’s top two priorities are nutrition and transportation for their clients.  They too are feeling the pain of the budget cuts, saying this year’s budget is based on amounts received last year but that they are facing a 25% decline in funding for 2027 and that it is unclear how they will be able to meet the needs of the people they service.  He talked about transportation issues to medical offices due to a lack of volunteer drivers and the cost of gas, saying that the mileage stipend drivers receive is minimal alongside the rising fuel costs.  He said that within Prowers County, the PATS buses can fill the needs of people needing transportation to medical facilities but that for anyone traveling outside the county to areas such as Pueblo, Colorado Springs, and Denver, it is becoming a bigger issue funding-wise. He will be visiting the Lamar Senior Center on June 18^th to meet with volunteers and seniors to listen to their concerns and get feedback about our area’s biggest needs.

By: Barbara Crimond