ALAMOSA — Arlan Van Ry, lifelong community member, announced his candidacy for Alamosa County commissioner.

“I believe that with my experience I would be a valued resource to Alamosa County,” Van Ry said. “I have spent most of my life serving my community from cub scouts to school board and other service clubs throughout the years. My roots are here in the Valley. I am proud to live here. I would like to ensure that the youth of our community have a reason to stay and earn a living wage here.”

Van Ry is married with two boys. His oldest son graduated from Alamosa High School and is finishing up his masters at ASU. His youngest son graduated from Fort Collins High School and is attending the University of Texas San Antonio. 

Van Ry attended and graduated from Alamosa high school in 1986 and attended TSJC taking various course throughout the years.

He joined the Army in 1988, completed infantry training, airborne training and the Ranger Indoctrination Program. Van Ry served with the 3rd Ranger BN from 1988 through 1991. He was assigned to weapons pit where he served as gunner on the 60mm mortar. A year later he was promoted to schools NCO where he was in charge of sending other Rangers to military schools and arranging training. Van Ry participated in Operation Just Cause, the invasion of Panama in 1989.

He returned to Alamosa and has since worked with the family business Colorado Construction for 21 years. During that time, Van Ry started a drug and alcohol testing business and a few years later added a staffing company.

He is a member of the Alamosa Elks, American Legion, and lifetime member of the VFW.

Van Ry was elected to the Alamosa school board in 2009, served eight years and in November of 2017 was reappointed after no one ran for his district. Van Ry has served on the Colorado Association of School Boards as a board member since 2015.

“During my time on CASB I have served on the legislative resolutions committee which advocates for public schools at the state level. I have also served on the federal resolutions committee advocating for public schools in Washington D.C.,” he said.

He added, “During my time on school board I have been part of the budgeting process. During my time on the board our district has seen our budget cut by the state. The district has continued to operate on smaller amount of money and still deliver quality education with less resources.”