Monica LaSalle, Nederland. Sipping on a most delectable New England clam chowder in the local deli, I stared out the window on the lookout for an old friend who was meeting me for lunch and a chat. I first met Chris when I arrived on the scene in Nederland back in 2000. He was one of the first people I met actually, a long-time mechanic where I was just beginning my apprenticeship. Spotting him sliding his truck into a parking spot, I hurriedly gobbled down my soup before it got cold due to involved conversation.

I suppose that entering the world in a New England state could be cited as a good reason to be predisposed to playing hockey. There was no shortage of ice to glide upon in Connecticut during the 60s, and Chris Perret felt drawn to each and every opportunity. He first picked up a hockey stick before he was 5 and was on a team from then till age 15, when an unfortunate accident sent him over the boards backwards landing on hard concrete and resulting in an injury that plagues him to this day.

At that time, the doctor said no more hockey, so Chris picked up a wrench instead. He began trade school in the tenth grade, attended trade school for auto mechanics in Lyndonville, Vermont at the age of 17 and later attended Denver Auto and Diesel College from 1978-1980. It was at that time he made his first visit to Nederland.

The cost of living was too much for a poor trade school student, so his sister’s roommate suggested he “follow this road” and pointed west along 119. Chris says he crested the last hill of the climb (you know, the one where you see the reservoir and town and breathe a deep sigh of relief), saw water, town and a ski area and realized he where he wanted to make a home.

It took Chris a few years to finish his education and move to his dream town, but he arrived in 1982 and bought his first property in the old town neighborhood in 1983. He commuted to Denver to work for nearly 10 years before he built a shop on his property along with his home and began Dr. Fixit auto repair.

Meanwhile, he resumed playing hockey in a pond league, playing for Caribou Wind. He found it easier playing on an outdoor rink and in the position of goalie he flexed his instinctive skills honed since he was 5. With a proud gleam in his eyes, he tells me that once his children came along in 95 and 96, he introduced them to the ice as well, indoctrinating his son, Torin, to the ice culture at age 2.5 and daughter Sarina when she was 6. Both children played in the YMCA league in East Boulder through their childhood and have gone on to play as adults, with Sarina being captain of the CSU team until graduating and becoming their assistant coach.

It was around the time that Chris was realizing one of his life’s dream of being a father, when he was delivered the first of many blows from town staff in the form of the institution of zoning laws. He had gone through all the proper steps to begin his automotive repair business back in 1992 so when in 1996 he was told he would have to cease operations due to the location of his business (residential and not commercial), it had a major impact on being able to raise his children in the town he so loved. He fought it and lost but bargained for the 5 years it took him to afford to buy and build in the commercial district of Second Street where he built a house with a shop attached. There he resumed operations until he was forced to quit for health reasons, at which point he went full-time with his security business, Peaceful Security, and started his transportation business, Peaceful Rides.

Chris has always been a man of few words and big actions and entering the world of Nederland politics is no exception. Having been encouraged to run by his friends and fellow Nedheads for years, Chris threw his hat in the ring for the first time in 2000. Unexpected complications caused him to withdraw his candidacy, however he managed to win over half the vote against Jim Miller as a write in candidate. Determined to do his part to keep Nederland a quaint family and kid-oriented community, he ran again in 2004 and this time he won. His main focus at that time was to correct the serious deficit in the town budget that was extremely skewed toward funding what some believed to be an overactive police department. After just two years, he reversed the deficit. He also collaborated with Laura Farris to pursue and win the GOCO grant that built the combination hockey rink/tennis court as well as the skate park.
As I sit across from Chris and listen to his story, I realize for the first time just how much love and sacrifice he has put into the Nederland community. He describes being slandered in the press, accused of wanting Nederland to be a “drinking and drugging town,” something he has never stated or intended. Having worked toward the exact opposite, it is easy to see how disheartening it must have felt for him to be so misrepresented and misunderstood.

A family man who has always loved children, Chris got in the habit of high-fiving children at the elementary school while there to pick up his own children. He was later asked by the principal to stop, due to a parent complaining that he was being political, rather than sincere.

Nederland has a long history of being tough on politics and anyone who chooses to participate. He served out his term and retired from local politics, for in his eyes Nederland had stopped being the quaint yet wild little town he moved to in the 80s. Referring to it as Boulder West, he says it has become a bedroom community that drives away music festivals and has inflated rent that prevents families from being able to afford to live. He tells me of his new property in Gilpin County and the home he is slowly but surely building in his “spare time.”

To me, it becomes more than evident that the issue remains a sensitive topic for him that draws our visit to a somber close, despite our hearty attempts to drain all the clam chowder out of that deli that we could. It is easy to see that Chris Perret will always love Nederland. Once a Nedhead, always a Nedhead.

(Originally published in the April 4, 2019, print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)