YOUR AD HERE »

Granby elects Jynnifer Pierro mayor in a landslide

Tonya Bina
Sky-Hi Daily News
Byron Hetzler/Sky-Hi Daily News
ALL | Sky-Hi Daily News

Elected as Granby’s first known female mayor, Jynnifer Pierro celebrated a landslide victory Tuesday night.

“I am shocked,” she said immediately after hearing the results. “I was not expecting that. I guess people are telling me how they really feel … I’m thrilled and honored.”

Pierro was surrounded by friends and family. The group had dwindled to eight “hard-core” supporters by the time she received the phone call from Town Hall, around 11:30 p.m.



Pierro swept into the office of mayor with 264 votes. Mayor Ted Wang took a distant second with 45 votes, followed by mayoral candidates Kirk Arnold with 43 votes and Joe Fuqua with 28 votes.

“Obviously, I’m disappointed,” said Wang, “but the voters have spoken. I thought I stood for a lot of values my constituency wanted expressed, but I guess the voters moved in another direction.”



Granby has a lot going for it, he continued, and there remains much work to be done with development and with efforts to revitalize the downtown.

“There’s so much happening,” he said, adding that “experience is important.”

Wang was seeking his second term as mayor, with 15 years serving on Granby’s planning commission and 14 years as a Granby trustee under his belt.

“I had hoped to continue doing the work I’d been doing on behalf of the town,” he said, referring to state and regional boards he serves on, including chair of Rural Resort Region, the Colorado Bark Beetle Steering Committee, as municipal representative to Gov. Bill Ritter’s Forest Health Advisory Council, the Northwest Colorado Council of Governments and the Colorado Municipal League.

In the trustee race, Greg Gutheridge with 255 votes, Greg Mordini with 252 votes, Elaine Henrekin with 197 votes and incumbent Deborah Shaw with 185 votes were elected to the town board. Shaw was elected to a two-year term, the rest to four-year terms.

The winning candidates beat out Pete Gallo, who had 174 votes, incumbent Charlie LaBrake, who secured 168 votes and Travis Zeke Burmaster, with 102 votes.

A total of 380 voters voted in the election, with 45 requesting absentee ballots, all of which were returned.

“I’ve never had them all come back before,” said Town Clerk Deb Hess.

By dinner time, about 316 voters out of 1,197 registered voters had voted at town hall, which is about half the number of voters who marked their ballots in the last municipal election.

Hess said she was surprised by the lower voter turnout in light of the number of candidates running this year.

Pierro, whose family owned and operated the Main Street business Country Hardware and Lumber starting in 1979, said her mom and dad would be her next phone call out to share the news.

The Middle Park graduate attended college in Denver and returned to Granby in 1991 to manage the family business. She and husband Tom have two children. The family now owns Legacy Building Specialties, Granby.

During her campaign, Pierro promised to mend relations with businesses, county government and organizations within Granby and Grand County, “promote a positive attitude in all aspects of our community,” focus on attainable housing, support efforts to attract medical services to Granby, and “continue to add facilities for our youth, adults and visitors alike.”

It’s expected the mayor-elect will be sworn in during the April 22 town board meeting. In the meantime, the town board will be actively seeking a town manager, since Wang had been serving in that capacity until a new board could be installed to make decisions about potential candidates for that position.

” Tonya Bina can be reached at 887-3334 ext. 19603 or e-mail tbina@grandcountynews.com.


Support Local Journalism

Support Local Journalism

The Sky-Hi News strives to deliver powerful stories that spark emotion and focus on the place we live.

Over the past year, contributions from readers like you helped to fund some of our most important reporting, including coverage of the East Troublesome Fire.

If you value local journalism, consider making a contribution to our newsroom in support of the work we do.