Dear Editor,

I wanted to say, "Thank You!" to the friendly neighbors of Nederland that took a moment to catch their breath while resting on snow shovels to hear us out regarding the Special Review Use decision at 750 W. 5th St. (Ordinance 859). It was so great meeting you and talking with you about the decision by the BOT to basically give away your public land on February 20. I learned a ton from you--I am grateful.

Some of us spent 12+ hours going door to door with a referendum petition talking with residents about how a 10,000 sq. ft. commercial building is overkill in a community the size of Nederland. Land, a very valuable resource, should not be given away without notifying you... and your public land given away for free rightly irritated a lot of you!

Moreover, 85% of the 100ish people I spoke with didn't even know what I was referring to. This is an obvious problem. When a publicly owned resource is going to be given away, the voters need to know about it. The lack of widespread communication was missing.

I told people over and over; I know we need childcare in Nederland and I have nothing against Teens Inc. I'm personally not in alignment with the use of public land for this purpose, the scale of the building, and the $1/yr ninety-nine year lease. I reminded people that we will be dead when a lease renewal comes up again! The goal in this effort was to push this to a vote of Nederland voters. That is all. I didn’t feel that a decision of such magnitude should be made without seeking proper input and I’m not sure why people are so upset by a little democracy. Unless it was intentionally designed to bypass the voters, which in my mind is wrong.

The petitioners talked with all people. We spoke calmly and respectfully. We spoke face to face. I tried to ask questions to learn more. I am humbled by your support and your willingness to talk to me, a stranger in some cases, about politics. A hard subject to discuss. In spite of differences, many of you thanked us for telling you what is going on! And I thanked you for your perspective.

In closing, I would like to remind you that NO smear campaign by those opposing the proposal was created on social media. Yet, those that felt threatened by the referendum petition did just that. Are you going to trust those that speak to you face to face or those that seek to isolate and destroy (behind the safety of their keyboards) simply because someone has a different opinion? The referendum petition only seeks to send this to a vote. We actually did something constructive with our democracy! We are not resorting to name calling or smear campaigns and never will. Those that signed stand firm in the belief that everyone should have a voice at the table.

April Laliberte

Nederland