NEDERLAND — Boulder County Commissioners came to Nederland on Tuesday, April 21, 2026, to discuss the County’s community services, housing, and human services, but spent the majority of the one-hour Town Hall meeting fielding questions from angry mountain bikers. 

Commissioners Claire Levy and Ashley Stolzmann were joined by Boulder County’s Deputy Director of Community Services Christine Vogel, Director of Human Services Susan Caskey, and Director of Housing Susana Lopez-Baker to address a room that started at 15 people, but grew larger as the Town Hall progressed.

Representatives for Peak Abundance (Nederland Food Pantry) and Peak to Peak Housing and Human Services Alliance were present in the audience, as were Nederland’s Town Manager Jonathan Cain and new Mayor Nichole Sterling. 

Levy detailed to the crowd the Commissioners’ goal to meet with mountain communities more regularly and discuss their concerns through both diving into specific chosen topics, and allowing the community the opportunity of an open question-and-answer session. 

Stolzmann spoke of the great work Cain was doing to carry Nederland’s tradition of “punching above its weight,” and provided additional examples of what Commissioners are working on in collaboration with Town officials.

These included wildfire mitigation and sustainability initiatives. 

Caskey offered resources for the federal and local Human Services programs administered through the County, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Medicaid, Child Support, Child Welfare, Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP), Adult Protection Services, Aid to the Needy Disabled and Aid to the Blind, as well as the County’s free Personal Finance and Health Coverage Enrollment programs. 

More information on these programs can be accessed directly from Boulder County’s website, at boco.org/HumanServices. 

Caskey also noted the local Human Services Fair—which hosts many of the aforementioned programs, among others—which takes place every fourth Thursday of the month at Peak Abundance at 196 West 1st Street from 10 a.m. to noon. 

Lopez-Baker presented information on the County’s affordable housing units in Nederland —including Beaver Creek, Prime Haven, Rodeo Court, and Tungsten Village—and on their Housing Helpline (bouldercounty.gov/departments/housing/housing-helpline/) and Housing Stabilization Program (bouldercounty.gov/departments/housing/supportive-housing/housing-stabilization-program/).

As for Community Services, Vogel discussed resources for Boulder County programs including their Area Agency on Agency, Head Start, Community Action, Workforce, and  Co-Responder programs, as well as their mental health support team, WellMind Connection.

More information on these programs can be accessed directly from Boulder County’s website, at: boco.org/community-services.

When it came time for commissioners to take questions from the crowd, the overwhelming majority of them were focused on a County website page announcing an Alternating Trail Use Pilot Project that went live the day prior to the Town Hall meeting.

For 45 minutes, representatives from the Greater Nederland Area Riders, Boulder Mountainbike Alliance, Boulder Mountain Bike Patrol, and Nederland’s Parks, Recreation, and Open Space Advisory Board rallied against the pilot project, which they claimed was an “ambush” on mountain bikers that will only serve to further alienate them and exacerbate tensions between other trail users. 

The onslaught of questioning from mountain bikers caused at least one person to leave the meeting. The community member did not leave their name, but told The Mountain-Ear that before bikers “took over” the Town Hall, they intended to urge Commissioners to get the County involved in housing rental incentives introduced as a result of the Sundance Film Festival coming to Boulder. 

The particular website page (bouldercounty.gov/open-space/management/alternating-trail-use/) was lambasted by the roomful of mountain biking enthusiasts for endangering their “quality of life” by introducing a system for alternating trail use on as-of-yet undisclosed County trail systems, much like what is currently in practice at Betasso Preserve, where mountain bikers are prohibited from using the trails on Wednesdays and Saturdays. 

Mountain bikers voiced their displeasure at the alternating trail use system, stating that the Betasso system is often abused by hikers, that reports of conflicts between cyclists and hikers at Heil Valley Ranch are inflated, and that further limiting the County’s options for mountain bikers while limiting public discourse showed a bias against them. 

Of the 66,000 visitors to Heil Valley Ranch in 2025, 4% were involved in a conflict, with negative interactions between bicyclists and pedestrians being the most common. 

As for the County limiting the options for mountain bikers to recreate, one common complaint among the crowd was that the County would acquire open space and then shut it down to recreational use because of a lack of staffing for maintenance.

One such example was the Tucker Property—though it was revealed that recreational use on this property was prohibited after illegal trails were discovered, which in turn “forced” mountain bikers to illegally trespass on a privately-owned mining road in order to continue recreating in that area. 

“We get treated like the problem when we’re part of the solution,” one mountain biker exclaimed, repeating a common theme, claiming that mountain bikers were crucial to the benefit of nature conservation, not a detriment to it. 

Commissioners agreed that the County should shift its staffing and budgetary focuses from property acquisition to maintenance, and reiterated that they hear the mountain bikers loud and clear. 

“I think we get the message,” Levy said, while also noting that, in regard to some in the audience placing the blame of cyclist/pedestrian conflicts on hikers, that “if we had a room full of hikers or equestrians we would be hearing different things.”

Many cyclists felt their voices were being ignored due to the fact that the County’s own Parks and Open Space Advisory Committee did not hold meetings for several months before the announcement of this maligned pilot program.

However, commissioners have scheduled two open house meetings dedicated to the subject of an Alternating Trail Use Pilot Project. 

The first meeting will be on April 30, 2026, from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at the Ron Stewart Building; the second meeting is scheduled for May 13, from 5:30 to 7 p.m., at the Boulder County Courthouse.