There are lots of reasons to go to Nederland Town Hall. Pull a permit, report a broken water meter, apologize for fomenting a petty recall election. I go for the free notary service, and that’s how I came to know Peter Cacek.

Peter is the town’s administrative assistant. His job is to help. “I’m fortunate that I get to help people in town, and make their lives better. My primary job is to make sure that happens. I find answers to their questions, and if they come in with a problem, I try to help them solve it. If I can’t solve it, I can connect them with someone who can,” shares Peter.

Peter started life near Long Beach, California, and moved around for his first eight years. His Dad worked for the Defense Department, and mom was, and is, a well-known author. When the Soviet Union collapsed, Dad’s department was shut down and he was furloughed. The family took that opportunity to move to Arvada in 1992.

Arvada was normal, average, a suburban-style setting. Not super exciting. ”It was nice to have friends who lived in the neighborhood, but it was the same thing constantly.”

Peter has always been a creative guy. As a kid, he wrote short stories and played Dungeons & Dragons. “It’s ultimately a story-telling game, focusing on light acting and roleplaying. I’d get together with people and we’d tell a story together.”

College was not a happy time. “I went through a pretty bad depression, it’s always been a part of me. It was compounded by the fact that I didn’t really know what I wanted to do, or what direction to go in. Eventually I got a degree in English, focused on creative writing.”

He’s still writing, self-publishing at times on the internet. “I’m hard on myself. My ideas are interesting, but I’m still not quite there on a technical level. I usually come up with some sort of hook or concept I like and build around it. Usually fantasy or science-fiction based, exploring how life would be different if just one thing changed.”

Peter has other creative pursuits. He makes chain mail – interlocking metal rings that knights used to wear as armor. Peter’s is made of colorful, anodized aluminum. He’s done some jewelry, but mostly he makes weird, intricate things, like boxes, cubes, guitar straps, foot bags for hacky sack. Even a pumpkin once.

And he’s a brewer. “When I got out of college I started home-brewing beer with some friends. As I got more into that, I started working in breweries like Wonderland Brewery in Broomfield, Renegade Brewing in Denver, and Left Hand Brewing in Longmont. I eventually became a brewer, and that was my career for ten years.”

Peter first came to Nederland when the family moved to Arvada. “I distinctly remember seeing the houses and how people live in the mountains, with mudrooms that were really for mud, and wood stoves for heat, and thinking ‘Oh, people can live like this, it isn’t just millionaires on mountaintops.’

The family continued to make day trips to the mountains, and when Peter was old enough he’d come up for Frozen Dead Guy Days. But he never thought about living here. At least, until The Date.

“I was at a party at a friend’s house when I met one of her co-workers, a woman named Ari. She lived in Ned. I asked her out, and for our first date we went to Ubon, the Thai restaurant in Ned.” It went really well, and as the relationship blossomed, Ari let Peter know that she didn’t ever want to leave the mountains.

“I was very okay with that, it was a reason for me to come up here more, and the more I did the more comfortable I was with the area.” After a year they got an apartment together on Third Street.

At the same time, Peter was becoming less comfortable with life down below. “I was getting burned out on the brewing industry. It’s a lot of hard work, the pay isn’t great, the drive.” After an injury, Peter put in his notice.

He took some time to clear his head, doing some free-lance writing. There wasn’t much money in that, so when Peter heard the town was looking for a front desk person, he took the job.

Peter and Ari are engaged now. He proposed in October, at a nice spot by a waterfall, in Zion National Park. He had it all planned out, but still he was pretty nervous. As he says, “awkward” and “clumsy.” Ari said yes without any hesitation.

There is no date set, but they’d like to honeymoon in Japan, and Octobers are best for that - fall leaves, no crowds. Peter’s already working on his Japanese.

And then? They’d like to do some traveling, have some kids down the line, stay in the mountains, of course. Peter’s big dream is to publish a novel. “That’s the big check mark for me, and it will happen. I’ve had some starts, and I’ve got four drafts floating around in the ether.”

As for Ned: “I would like to see Ned be able to accommodate everyone who wants to live here, while retaining its identity. That’s the way I approach the projects I work on for the town. There’s a big history here, a different feeling in this town, it’s a delicate thing that can be easily crushed and turned into something commercial.”

There is a different feeling in this town. We’ve had some challenges lately, but when I go to the Feed Store and talk to Adam, visit with Ross at the Deli, or stop by Town Hall to say hi to Peter, I can still feel the Ned. Let’s try not to lose that.