The Mountain-Ear newspaper in Nederland hosted a candidate forum for candidates running for mayor and the Board of Trustees on Tuesday, August 9, 2022 at 5 p.m. at the Nederland Public Library. Two candidates are running for mayor, and three candidates are running for trustees in the upcoming elections.

The elections will be on August 23, and ballots were mailed on August 10.

The two candidates running for mayor are Billy Giblin and Tom Mahowald. The three candidates running for Trustee are Steve Cepek, Riley McAllister, and Jesse Seavers.

Scott Papich with the Library Board welcomed everyone to the forum. He introduced the publisher of The Mountain-Ear, Barbara Hardt, who helped organize this candidate forum and others here and in Gilpin County.

Hardt said questions have been submitted for all the candidates and some for specific candidates. The Forum was scheduled to end at 6 p.m. so others can use the library. She gave each candidate five minutes for an introduction.

Current Mayor Pro-Tem Tom Mahowald lived in Nederland from 1973 to 1975 on Doe Trail in Big Springs. Since 2016, he has lived in the Dyers subdivision, and built their home in 2021. Previously, he lived for many years in south Boulder, as well as stints in Chicago and Frankfurt, Germany.

He said that on March 3, Julian Taylor was mayor for a month, and he was sworn in as a Trustee. Taylor asked him to be Mayor Pro-Tem and then resigned. By Mahowald’s second meeting, he had the gavel.

Billy Giblin has been a homeowner in Old Town for more than six years, since July 2016. He lived in the Fraser Valley for about 22 years. He also lived in Utah in Moab, Salt Lake City, and outside Park City.

Giblin said he had been a ski bum, moving away and coming back. He got into outdoor guiding, ran a ski program, and was with Outward Bound. Since 1985, he has been watching small towns in the Intermountain West.

It’s hard to name a town that doesn’t have issues, he said. Many towns grow in a way he hasn’t liked. Nederland is growing but hasn’t become something we don’t like.

Giblin said he is 59 years old and has an eight-year-old and a four-year-old, so he is interested in education, and continuing to work to make the schools sustainable.

Trustee Candidate Jesse Seavers has lived in Nederland for 12 years in Old Town and for four years and eight months now in Sunnyside. He previously lived in Boulder and his hometown of Silver City, New Mexico.

He said he is proud to be part of the community. He has been a volunteer on the Nederland Sustainability Advisory Board and has worked with NedCompost. He also spent time on the planning commission. He has an excavation business.

His greatest strength, he says, is his ability to maintain good relationships, and he prides himself on finding good solutions. He has lived in many countries and wants to bridge gaps. He has a sustainability background in education and asks the voters to keep sustainability in mind.

Riley McAllister has lived in Nederland for more than three years. He was born and raised in Colorado and previously lived in Evergreen. He said Tom Hendricks brought him up here. “He reined me in and taught me appreciation for helping your neighbor. He would stop to help anyone,” McAllister said.

McAllister is a safety officer for the Cross and Caribou mines. He wants to hold on to the values we hold. “We’re all family. I’d like to make a difference.”

Steve Cepek has lived in the Nederland area for the past nine years. He first lived in the Ridge Road neighborhood and then off of Lazy Z for about a year. He has been in town for the past seven years.

He started working in bicycle shops in 1999 and found his career. He works at Tin Shed Sports in Nederland and lives not far away from the shop.

Cepek has also worked on nonprofit boards and has seen the great things cycling can do. “We need to have people who can work,” he says. “The businesses and restaurants are closing. The Town needs drastic infrastructure improvements. We need less people in cars.” He wants to get kids involved in the community

Hardt then posited that the biggest short-term issue is the decision facing the Town regarding the Nederland Police Department. She asked the candidates, “How important is it you to keep and fund the Nederland Police Department?” She gave each candidate two minutes to respond.

Cepek said, if we lose our police department, we’re not losing response time or policing up here. If we didn’t have the budget for the police department, we should have a couple of mental health first responders. He would explore that question first. “It’s a rather important aspect,” he stated.

McAllister agreed about mental health. He would like to see the Nederland Police Department continue and would look for ways to fund them.

Seavers said that after playing chess with his brother he is thinking about tactics and strategy. From tactical: don’t lose the service and coverage. The police department is in immediate crisis.

“They do not want to run the current Police Chief into the ground,” he said. “At the strategic level, a whole lot of great stuff is in Vision 2020. We need more of a community process.” He stated that he has had the best experiences working with the police department.

Giblin said there has been a lot of misunderstanding. We are in a crisis. He understands the local police who knew people. The majority of people in Nederland want a police department. It will have to be funded, but it takes up a quarter of the budget. He is for working hard to preserve the local police department.

Mahowald said he has been working with Trustee Blackmore on this directly. “I don’t think we want to push out the police department. Staffing is expensive, and it’s hard to find good candidates. It’s $1.3 million to $4.2 million we have to find. We are lucky to have what we have,” he said. “We’re in good shape financially.”

Hardt asked if the candidates approve the redevelopment of downtown.

Seavers said he is in construction, both new and maintenance. He has heard a lot of talk of redeveloping, but maintenance needs to be done. He is open to starting from scratch or doing maintenance first.

He knows Ron Mitchell, and he has been preparing a proposal for the Town for redeveloping downtown. They could have a dialog and come up with a great solution.

McAllister said something needs to be done with traffic. He has read Mitchell’s plan. “We can make it happen… by working together and opening communications.”

Cepek said he worked on Pearl Street in Boulder and saw it going from a cool neighborhood to something like Breckenridge. He works at Salto, and believes a three-story building at that location is a bad idea.

Mahowald said that in his professional life, he works on smart cities. He said, “Look at what’s underneath the town. It starts below the ground.

“They should start with a template, getting trucks in and out and getting cars parked. We need more restaurants and stores, but we don’t have enough room. Sales tax revenues held up nicely during COVIC, but we don’t have the infrastructure. Mitchell’s plan is a great way to start.”

Giblin said he supports development of downtown and wants to keep business development propped up. “We have to do something or we will lose our water rights….I have a history of listening to public input, so you should weigh in and write letters.” He also said he was open to more surveys.

Seavers remarked, regarding sustainable living, he has six pieces of equipment and three trucks. He has been converting them to run on vegetable oil. He rides a bike to work. He has chickens and ducks in the yard and hasn’t had to irrigate. Before he was involved in excavation, he said, he was building homes in New Mexico.

A question for McAllister asked him to explain environmental health. He said it is about interaction with wildlife. We have had a lot more moose encounters in town and outside town we have bears and mountain lions.

He proposed having other routes that are environmentally friendly, and he is open to redesigning the foot traffic. “We want to see Nederland clean and pristine,” he said.

Cepek said that when he was a kid, his father passed away when he was nine years old, and his mother worked herself to the bones. He wants to work with the community center and provide resources like the Teen Center. He loves to see programs for the kids.

Hardt asked what the candidates want to accomplish.

Mahowald said a police department budget and a code that makes sense. “The Town has a ton of federal money coming in, so they should work on wildfire preparedness, water security to protect our watershed, and a bridge across the river.”

Giblin said stabilizing the police department, the staff, and Town government are his priorities. He suggested working with other towns on a cooperative basis to improve benefits.

The Town needs to do something on housing, he said, and he would work more with the high school to keep kids up here. He would increase communication. People don’t feel respected for their opinions, so he would like to make it easier to contribute and get people involved.

The forum ended at 6 p.m. with an opportunity to go outside the library and continue conversations with the candidates.