John Scarffe, Nederland. The Nederland Board of Trustees approved grants for Nederland businesses during a regular online meeting on May 5, 2009. The Nederland Downtown Development Authority Board of Directors previously voted to divide an allotted $100,000 evenly for grants to all Nederland businesses that qualify in the Downtown Development Authority district during an online meeting at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, April 29, 2020. 

As Mayor Kristopher Larsen pointed out, grants get the money into the community faster. 

On April 21, 2020, the Nederland Board of Trustees approved funding a collaboration between the Nederland Downtown Development Authority and the Town of Nederland to vet a third party to disburse up to $100,000 earmarked for Covid-19 relief funding for businesses within the downtown district. 

A committee comprised of Trustee Jonathon Baumhover, Town Administrator Karen Gerrity, Town Clerk Miranda Fisher, NDDA Board Member Claudia Schaufler and NDDA Executive Director Hope Jordan formed to provide recommendations to the NDDA on how the funds should be distributed to businesses and what the application process would look like. 

The committee recommended Boulder County as the third-party vendor. On April 28, 2020, Boulder County confirmed that they had the staffing and the technical resources to assist the Town and NDDA in managing a NDDA specific grant for businesses in the district. 

The Town and DDA would hold the money and handle the distribution. The County would provide an online portal for grant applications and a template for an application to be submitted and reviewed. They would assist in organizing the review process and the allocation of the funds.

After lengthy, detailed discussions, the committee strongly recommended that funding available through the NDDA would be distributed as a grant. If the NDDA board moves forward with a loan, a new committee will need to be formed as the expertise on the current committee is geared more toward grants.

The committee also requested the ability to make decisions moving forward without having to go back to the NDDA board for approval. Baumhover said, “Essentially, the easiest way to go is to work with Boulder County, and they won’t charge a fee but will only do it if it’s a grant.

“We can move this forward with the original goal to get money to the businesses. It’s the best use of resources and money at-hand as long as it is awarded based on criteria.”

Board Member Brent Tregaskis asked that if the funds are distributed across the businesses, but based on need, who will be the judge of that. Fisher said the committee recommends a scorecard for who can qualify, and the committee will be part of that process. 

After much Board discussion about criteria for the grants, Baumhover said that what he is hearing is a lot of consensus on guidelines for the use of the funds including property tax, sales tax, rents mortgages and utilities, many of which are TIF funds that will go back into the town.

The Board agreed that the application should be based on use of funds for those five criteria and give everyone the same amount if the applied by the deadline. The Board approved the motion for relief fund grant criteria to equal DDA properties who pay taxes into the DDA for sewer and water, taxes, utilities, rent and mortgage.

On May 5, Baumhover told the Board that the DDA has conducted two emergency meetings and three committee meetings and the last meeting was long and intense. The Board had a lot of concerns about grants versus loans, and the third party was better for grants. 

The Board has a fair way to have funds distributed, so the Board settled on a resolution for approval of a grant program with requirements that the funds will be available for DDA business district businesses, and the money could be used for items mentioned above. 

Working with Town Clerk Fisher, he hopes they will have a draft application to keep it as complete as possible. Applications will open for 10 days, and the application will be released on May 6 and will be due May 15.

We’re looking forward to get this out tomorrow, and once applications have been submitted by May 17, the funds will be divided among the applicants.

The goal is to get the businesses some liquidity with a minimum of $500 to a maximum of $5,000. If 100 businesses apply, they get $1,000 each. Gerrity estimated they have 50 to 75 businesses, who might apply.

The DDA will meet next on May 13, 2020, at 6 p.m.

(Originally published in the May 7, 2020, print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)