Debbie Bell was just a young woman when a powerful interest in local government grew within her. As she grew up in Penrose alongside her three siblings, Bell spent significant time attempting to convince her father to run for the highly valued position of Fremont County Commissioner.
It didn’t occur to her that she might be a great fit for the position in later years. However, the thought occurred to her father.
“He finally said, ‘If anybody is going to run for county commissioner, it’s going to be you,'” Bell said. “And I looked at him and thought, ‘I can’t do that — I’m a girl,’ and his response was, ‘Don’t you ever let anyone tell you what you can and can’t do.'”
Though many years would pass between her father’s assertion and the actual occurrence of becoming a commissioner, Bell has enjoyed every moment of life that has come her way.
“It was your basic, stable, great childhood — I loved growing up in Penrose,” she said.
She spent years in 4-H and was considered Fremont County royalty after being elected the Penrose Apple Day Queen in 1976 and served as both a Florence High School Homecoming attendant and the head cheerleader.
“If I could have found a way to do it professionally, I would have a student my entire life,” she said with a smile. “It doesn’t matter what the topic is, I love learning new things.”
She graduated from Florence High School in 1977 and, after getting married, attended two years of college in Alamosa. Fremont County called her back, however, and she returned in 1979.
Fortune smiled on her when a supposed summer job at the Daily Record turned into a flourishing career in June of that year. Bell was tailor-made for the job as she had been the senior editor-in-chief of the Florence yearbook and had always read the paper growing up.
“I wrote the ‘flavor’ articles — I did all the features and reported on community events,” she said fondly.
One of her favorite assignments was a weekly article in which she featured different home cooks. She would head out into the community and find the greatest home cooks she could find and, not only interview them whilst they cooked but likely picked up a few cooking hints along the way.
She left the paper in 1985 and, during the next couple of decades, kept herself particularly busy by raising her three children and keeping tabs on a variety of organizations throughout the community. After earning a bachelor’s degree in Computer Information Systems from CSU-Pueblo, she leapt into the excitement of Fremont County.
Through the years, she has served as the executive director of the Fremont County Adult Literacy Program, development director at the former St. Scholastica Academy, President of Colorado Counties Incorporated, volunteered as a mentor at Southern Peaks Regional Treatment Facility, and has also sat on the board of both CASA and Family Crisis Services.
“Early on, public service became important to me,” she said.
The turn of the century proved to be a pivotal time for Bell as she met her future husband, Charlie, on a blind date in 1997.
Charlie whisked her away to a romantic date in Woodland Park and, according to Bell, they both knew rather quickly that they were meant for each other. The couple were married in 2000.
Despite married bliss, by 2005, the journalism bug was itching Bell again and she returned to the Daily Record that year.
Unlike her previous tenure at the paper, where she focused on the lighter side of the news, she pushed herself to cover the tougher topics, including city and county government and tackled complicated topics, such as the Cotter Uranium Mill and numerous county budget-centric articles.
After five busy years with the paper, she decided it was time to finally make good on the conversation she’d had with her father as a teenager and that meant running as a county commissioner.
She was elected as the district two representative in November of 2010 and has since served an astounding and productive four terms — all as the first elected female Fremont County commissioner.
Through the years, she has worked tirelessly on many projects for the betterment of the community. Some of her proudest achievements include developing a licensing procedure for medical marijuana businesses, implementing an annual goal-setting session, developing an annual accountability report and health and wellness fair, and putting together a safety committee and employee recognition program. However, that just scratches the surface of what has kept Bell busy during the past 14 years.
“I can’t stand here and say that, ‘I have done this,'” she said about her career. “I can only say, ‘we’ … I personally have done nothing by myself … we do everything in conjunction as a team.”
Although this will be her final term as a commissioner, she looks forward to the next two and a half years, where she will continue to work alongside her fellow commissioners and county staff to make Fremont County the good place that it is.
When not attending local meetings, visiting a variety of events, or dreaming up the next big project, Bell keeps herself busy in her personal with a wealth of interests.
A deeply faithful woman, Bell enjoys attending the E-free Church along with Charlie and does whatever she can to stay both physically and mentally sharp.
Her love of reading has only deepened and, although her work keeps her constantly busy, she enjoys dedicating time to her favorite past time and adores what little downtime she has — particularly at lunchtime.
“My sanity really comes at lunchtime,” she said with a smile. “I go home and I fix lunch, unless Charlie has already fixed it for me, and I read and I spend time with my dogs and I breathe.”
Anytime someone sees Bell at a community event, whether it be the annual Wet n’ Dry Parade in Florence or the next county commissioner’s meeting, you’ll likely receive a friendly smile and a good picture of why Fremont County has continued to flourish.
