How long have you lived in Nederland?

Over 7-1/2 years

Briefly describe your current career and home life?

My wife and I are raising our elementary-aged son and daughter in a small home in Old Town Ned. Like many of you, I have a laundry list of home improvement projects, large and small, regularly interrupted by a perpetual stream of laundry, dishes, chopping wood, soccer practices and games, hockey practices and games, skiing, road trips, river trips, kids’ play dates, NES school events, spending time with our kids, and spending time with our friends and family (my brother and his son live next door to us).

For my day job, I work full-time in the energy efficiency, water efficiency and high-performance building industry in residential construction with RESNET, the Residential Energy Services Network. RESNET created and implements the HERS Index (Home Energy Rating System Index). I travel several times a year for work. I also coach the Nederland Middle School Nordic Ski Team. And I am the Mayor of Nederland.

Briefly describe your educational and professional experience and explain how your skill set can best serve the Town of Nederland.

I went to Catholic schools from K-12. I have gone to different state schools over the years, earning an AAS in Forest Technology in 1984, a BS in Psychology in 2002, and an AAS in Energy Management in 2010.

I moved to Colorado in 1985, ski bumming in the winters and doing forestry work, and some commercial fishing, in the summers. In 1993, I began a career which spanned wilderness therapy, outdoor education, recreation therapy, Outward Bound and commercial river guiding. As my girlfriend (now wife) and I planned to get married and have children, in 2009 I changed my career so I could better support a family and be home instead of always gone guiding. Since 2009, I have worked in the high-performance home building and energy efficiency industry, a career that I love and intend to stay in for the rest of my working days!

My work and life experience has taught me love and appreciation of the outdoors and the mountains, strong interpersonal skills, listening skills, analytical skills, and an ability to stay calm and handle many demands and tasks at once. These skills help me and our community in my role as Mayor of Nederland.

In your words, please explain why you wanted to run for this position.

I ran for Mayor in 2022 and am running for re-election as Mayor in 2024 because Nederland is at a very critical time, with many potentially big forces and changes that could respect, maintain and preserve, or otherwise leave behind and destroy, a lot of what we value about this community. I believe that I have the temperament, patience, listening skills and thick skin to lead our community at a time when all the voices in our community need to be expressed, heard, valued and brought into the decision-making now and for our future.

Of the major projects/issues currently facing the BOT (Bobcat Ridge annexation, downtown redevelopment, TEENS, Inc. child care proposal, suggestions for code change to come from the comprehensive plan update, suggestions for streets improvements to come from the multimodal transportation plan, the Chipeta Park pump track, tourism initiatives, water and sewer infrastructure, securing water rights, the keeping animals ordinance, the commitment to Proposition 123 and affordable housing development, an interconnected trails system, etc.) which would you make your top priorities?

Securing our water rights! Without water, most everything else is moot!

Affordable housing development: We need more attainable and healthy housing for more of our seniors, workforce and low-income residents.

Infrastructure: Water and Sewer, Summer Road Improvement Plan, Housing, Childcare.

Developing our Downtown Subarea Plan, a part of the Comprehensive Plan, by giving our community members a voice in the development of our downtown. This Downtown Subarea Plan will allow us to create Design Guidelines and beneficial changes in code.

Who, if anyone, would you consider a mentor or figure who inspired you to run for this position? How did they inspire you?

I was inspired by Julian Taylor’s Speech at the Candidate Forum in March 2022. I was also motivated by the selection of candidates who stepped forward to run for Mayor in the Special Election in 2022. I am inspired by my family and my friends in this community. I am motivated by this unique and special community where we feel so lucky to live and raise our kids.

Have you ever, or are you currently, serving on any boards for any nonprofit organizations? If not, what organizations, or causes, have you considered joining?

Nederland BZA 2018-2022 and Nederland Planning Commission 2000-2022.

Of Nederland’s various boards and subcommittees (Board of Zoning Adjustment, Nederland Downtown Development Authority, Parks, Recreation, and Open Space Advisory Board, Planning Commission, Sustainability Advisory Board, Youth Advisory Board), which would you be most interested in serving as liaison for and why? (Mayoral candidates please answer hypothetically).

Hypothetically, the Planning Commission because they are directly involved in understanding and advising the BOT on Nederland Municipal Code.

Taking into consideration that the community is outspoken against tourism but the Town budget is seemingly reliant on tourism revenue, as Mayor/Trustee, how would you mitigate tourism-based initiatives as they come up on the agenda?

My experience is that many people are against tourism and at the same time many people are for tourism. Overall, I do not believe that there is a majority appetite for marketing for more tourism. And yet there is an appetite to better capture more revenue from the many tourists that already travel through Nederland throughout many times of the year. One of the goals of our Strategic Plan is to leverage the Town’s current tourism in order to increase sales tax revenue. Conversely, the intent of the branding is to better educate these tourists on what we expect of them regarding how they treat our community and the forests and mountains around us.

Have you reviewed the 2024 Strategic Plan? Of the listed priorities for 2024 which are most important to you as a resident of Nederland? In your opinion as a resident of Nederland is there a priority for the Town that was not listed in the Strategic Plan?

Securing our water rights! Again, without water, most everything else is moot!

Affordable housing development: We need more attainable and healthy housing for more of our seniors, workforce and low-income residents.

Stabilizing our Town staff: We need a strong team to work on and deliver these projects.

Infrastructure: Water and Sewer, Summer Road Improvement Plan, accessibility

Promote orderly, sustainable and resilient development in the Town through thoughtful, engaged and equitable planning processes.

The Town of Nederland, having committed to Proposition 123, is required to provide 13 affordable housing units in three years. What are your suggestions for how to achieve this goal? Do you believe that the Boulder County requirements for what constitutes affordable housing is acceptable for Nederland?

We will need to enter public/private partnerships with the Town and private developers to build these homes. There are numerous Town properties on which affordable housing can be built.

We are challenged by the fact that the average incomes in Boulder County are greater than the average incomes in our community. We are exploring options to create a regional housing authority with Gilpin County, Nederland, Lyons and unincorporated western Boulder County. This would allow us to better define our requirements for what constitutes affordable housing in our community.

How familiar are you with the Town of Nederland’s 2024 budget? How would you mitigate a discussion or action item on your agenda that is of concern to the community but is not prioritized in either the budget or the 2024 Strategic Plan?

Town staff, the Town boards, and the BOT all did a lot of work towards the 2024 budget. It was a heavy lift with a lot of pencil sharpening and critical thinking. It seems complete, and yet if some other community need was made clear at any time throughout this coming year, then the town staff, the applicable boards, and the BOT would respond, and if needed, adjust the budget through a supplementary budget or budget amendment process. This budget was calculated very conservatively, and there is potential room for some adjustments that wouldn’t drastically lead to budgetary problems.

Town staff and the BOT all did a lot of work towards the 2023-2024 Strategic Plan. We intend to use this Plan to focus our priorities for the rest of 2024. And the BOT reserves the right to revisit the Strategic Plan if another significant community need was made clear at any time throughout this coming year. In such a case, the town staff and the BOT would respond and adjust the Strategic Plan accordingly if that seemed necessary.

In relation to the several proposals on the BOT’s table that involve large development projects either in the heart of downtown Nederland or sprawling just beyond our borders, requiring annexation, the term “responsible growth” has been used liberally. How do you describe responsible growth for Nederland?

Responsible growth is thoughtful, deliberate, measured and patient. Keeping the horse in front of the cart! Many forces inside and outside of Nederland would apply both feet to the accelerator on growth and development. For responsible growth and development, I believe that we need to be more focused on carefully steering and applying brakes as needed. And I believe that responsible growth listens to the many voices of the people who live in our community.

Many people speak of diversity here in Nederland. Though we lack cultural and ethnic diversity, we are rich in the diversity of values, lifestyles and socioeconomic status. That is the diversity that we need to celebrate and preserve.

Nederland needs to be a community in which folks of wealth, middle income and low income can live and thrive and prosper. Wealthy folks and some middleincome folks will have the financial means to continue to thrive and prosper. These community members bring essential resources and skills to make things happen in a society where money is needed to grow responsibly.

Prosperity means that we create options so people can still afford to live here, thrive here, and have a good standard of living here. And yet to prosper, I do not mean that everyone must be wealthy or middle class; because some folks are not driven to be wealthy and will never care to set themselves up for that. And some of us want to age in place beyond our ‘working years’. These community members also contribute other essential resources and skills to make Nederland a special place.

Our community includes many mountain folk that choose to live a simple life and are not driven to make much money. And professionals such as teachers, childcare providers, town staff, firefighters, law enforcement officers, social workers, healthcare workers, food and beverage workers, grocery store workers, retail employees, construction trades, musicians, miners, ski area employees, foresters, outdoor educators, etc., etc., etc. And some generational families that could be forced to move away if they cannot afford it. And our seasonal homeless and workforce homeless, who are part of our community. We need to work to create more affordable housing to provide more options for roofs over everyone’s heads.

We need to value all people across a full range of socioeconomic backgrounds for this town to truly be the community of diversity that I hear folks describe.

I am against the gentrification of Nederland, which would push too many people out of our community. Since moving to the intermountain west in 1985, I have seen way too many mountain towns develop in a way that forced people out. Since 2018, I am in Town government to work to keep Nederland a place where we will maintain what’s great about our community. And I will continue to work to ensure that this is a place where anyone who lives in and around Nederland can continue to live and thrive in our community, if this is where they choose to be.

You can reach me by email at billy4ned@gmail.com