NEDERLAND - On March 10, 2025, the Nederland Community Center held a “Chat with the Chief.” This was an opportunity where citizens of Nederland were able to have an open conversation with their local law enforcement and the Town Sergeant for Nederland, Jennifer Mendez. 

The main topics that were brought up and discussed were questions about budgets, the unhoused community, and staffing. Questions like, “As far as the budget, will that be discussed annually?” and “There have been more ‘homeless’ in Ned in the last 8-12 months; do you believe that's because they feel safer in Ned? And could that pick up during the summer?”.

Responses given included, “Yes, budgets have been and will continue to be addressed annually,” along with more inconclusive but truthful answers like, “We don’t have jurisdiction over the people at the RTD lot. It's RTD’s private property. We’ve been reaching out about their law enforcement coming out here. They are more generous and let the unhoused stay there for 30 days at a time.” 

Concerns about the Boulder County Jail were addressed as well. Mendez told the group “The jail is down three deputy positions at the moment. Before I began, they were down around 20 people.” Addressing questions concerning the 50/50 contract, Mendez assured citizens that “It’s not 50% of effort, it’s 50% of time. There is a deputy assigned to the town of Nederland 24/7.” 

Several other topics were discussed during this chat, such as fire safety, volunteer groups, average response time to police calls, and more.

All questions were answered fully and the feeling of the meeting at the end was that those Nederland citizens who were present felt more at ease having their thoughts and confusions directly addressed.