Anderson-Faden excited in new role as commissioner

History was made last November in Kimball County when Daria Anderson-Faden became the first-ever female to be elected county commissioner here. She was recently sworn into office.

Anderson-Faden is a teacher at Potter-Dix High School. She will retire from the school in May. She grew up in Kimball, first attending school here when she was in the second grade. Her family has been a part of the businesses in Kimball and she remembers the wonder of the oil boom.

"We moved here when I was about in second grade during the oil boom and my dad had a gas station. I was raised here and went to school here, and both my folks worked in their garage," Anderson-Faden said.

While Anderson-Faden did leave for a time when she attended school, and then when she taught in Wyoming, she eventually ended up back in Kimball and has been teaching in Potter for years.

"You know it just happened life gets away from you get busy with everything. I am really happy here. I like seeing other places but I always like coming home, too," Anderson-Faden said.

Anderson-Faden has a great love for Kimball County and believes it has a lot to offer those already in the community and those who might come to it in the future.

"I think Kimball has lots of things to offer and sometimes people can be so down on Kimball, but I think it has lots to offer. There's good people here. We're close to the mountains, we're close to Denver. It has got lots of stuff, but I think that at times what we need is a little cheerleading, we need the community to want to sing its own praises," she said.

Anderson-Faden said she has the ability to stick to a financial plan, as was exhibited by her 2014 campaign for office. That is something that is important as a commissioner, she said.

"You know I had a plan. We had planned expenses, we wanted to reach as many people as we could and I canvassed roughly 70 percent of the community. I wanted to know what the community wanted," she said.

Despite being told several times that she had an "uphill struggle" due to her being the only female candidate, Anderson-Faden said she never experienced any issues when it came to that.

"You know, I had a few people say that I was going to really have to work extra, given that I was a woman, but I never experienced any problems from that," Anderson-Faden said.

Anderson-Faden also realizes that in order to serve to the best of her ability, personal feelings and preferences must be put aside.

"I know that in order to really serve this community properly, I have got to show that I can make decisions based on what's best for the community," she said.

This is a big change for her and she said there is a lot for her to learn in the coming term, but she is in good spirits.

"I am pretty nervous, but I am excited. I'm excited because I can already tell I am going to learn a lot and that's real exciting to me," Anderson-Faden said.