By Debora Gerads

Go Vote, and Go Vote for the candidate who makes a difference in your community. One of those people is Municipal Court Judge Alan Kirk. He has served not only the Los Alamos community, but the State as a whole in his work with juveniles.

Judge Kirk was a founder of the State’s Juvenile Justice Advisory Committee, a committee that emphasizes intervention and prevention of crimes by youth. With his background in law enforcement, including serving the community as Chief of Police, he realized that the way to reach kids is not, make the kids come to us and we will fix them. Rather, his philosophy has always been, take the programs to the kids.

It is this attitude and his working directly with community members that resulted in the establishment of the Los Alamos Teen Center. The Teen Center was followed by youth programs like Los Alamos Youth Leadership and post prom and homecoming parties in safe places. Kirk’s work and successful youth programs has led to similar programs being established throughout the State because his approach works!

Judge Kirk is not simply a judge who focuses on kids and intervention. He also makes the hard decisions that hold people appearing before him accountable for their actions. He is well respected among his peers for his ethics, fair dealing and doing the right thing at the right time for the right reason. His strong moral compass led to his appointments to, among other things, the Chief Judges Council and the State Judicial Information Oversight Board.

Get out and vote! And I encourage you to consider voting for Judge Kirk, a man who puts the interest of the community first and foremost.