John Scarffe, Nederland. The Nederland Downtown Development Authority Board of Directors set a meeting to discuss the 2021 budget during a regular online meeting on Wednesday, September 9, 2020, at 6 p.m. The Board also approved a monthly column in The Mountain-Ear newspaper, heard an update on a grant for Barker Meadows Park and discussed investment of funds.

NDDA Executive Director Hope Jordan presented materials regarding the 2021 Budget. Jordan said Board Chair Steve Karowe had asked for a meeting to discuss the budget, so she hoped the Board could take a minute to decide when a meeting can take place.

Karowe said the Board can discuss priorities for the coming year and narrow them down to workable projects that will govern the budget. Town Administrator Karen Gerrity said it would be ideal if the NDDA Budget could be presented to the Nederland Board of Trustees on October 6, so it can be posted on October 15.

Karowe said that during the priority session they can discuss rough budget items, so they have something reasonable on October 6. The Board agreed to meet on Wednesday, September 23, at 9 a.m. 

Jordan said she has provided some tools to work with including a spreadsheet created last year that looks back at prior budgets and proposed future projects. She also provided a rundown of where they are as of September 9. She will put links in the desktop documents.

Barbara Hardt, NDDA Board member and publisher of The Mountain-Ear, proposed a monthly report for the newspaper from the NDDA on what is happening from NDDA’s standpoint. “I hope this will be a catalyst to get other businesses involved in the NDDA and businesses overall in town to work together on building our business district.”

Hardt suggested that Karowe and Jordan write the column on a rotating basis, and if a Board member has a big project happening, allow that member to write, with guidance from Karowe and Jordan. Historically, the NDDA has given a Board report for each meeting. 

This is taking that information and expanding it to present to the public from an NDDA perspective. It will run monthly in The Mountain-Ear, newspaper of record for the Town of Nederland.

Hardt said she joined the NDDA Board to help communicate better with the town, and this goes back to that. The column will take one to two hours every month to turn in, and she said she will not vote on this.

Jordan said if they wanted her to write the column, it would cost $528 for the year. Karowe said he likes this idea and a monthly article is a nice way to do that. He agreed to alternate with Jordan and also see if anyone else is interested in writing it going forward. 

The Board agreed to allocate budget for Jordan to write articles with each committee member. The Board gave a nod of four to put this in place and approved a motion to charge Jordan with writing an article once a month if she submits a format to be approved, and committee members will have something when appropriate. They gave direction to put $528 in the budget for approval at an upcoming meeting.

Jessica Ansari, chair of the Nederland Parks, Recreation and Open Spaces Advisory Board (PROSAB), presented information about their plans to apply for funding through the Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO) Resilient Communities Program (RCP). GOCO offers grants for needs that have emerged in response to the pandemic within the context of their five program values: resource conservation, outdoor stewardship, community vitality, equitable access and youth connections.

Nederland parks have seen a dramatic increase in visitors and resulting impacts this year. The PROSAB goal is to reduce damaging impacts by providing more options for ark visitors to spread out and to restore the natural area along Barker Reservoir shoreline into a usable recreation space. 

Funding will also be sought to refit the bathrooms at Chipeta Park to meet COVID-19 requirements and reopen. PROSAB and Teens, Inc., are working together to involve and hire youth throughout the process from input to construction. 

“An emphasis on multi-use, shared community space and equitable access means that the PROSAB is focusing on achieving the priority improvements from the 2013 Gateway Park Master Plan: ADA accessible trails, native trees, drought tolerant grasses, natural play spaces and other low-maintenance features like doggie waste stations, benches and picnic tables,” according to the agenda information memorandum.

Ansari said PROSAB has been working on outreach with stakeholders including the library and Teens, Inc., touching base with more people. The community sees a high level of visitors who have been in a bottleneck at the reservoir and are getting funneled along one path.

The project plan is very close to the 2013 plan focusing on preserving the open space. The goal is to maintain multi-use benefits, irrigate Guercio to withstand festivals and have a place for teens to run with the focus on native trees and shrubs. 

The Farmer’s Market should be able to return every two weeks. Teens, Inc., offers Teen Works and the opportunity for Colorado youth to engage with public lands. Half of the teens are from the metro area and half from the Peak to Peak area. 

They will have 12 members employed for 15 hours to build trails and produce a play area, and they will learn tools and encourage stewardship. It also will provide a new classroom for Wild Bear and other educational opportunities. 

Nothing in the plan will prohibit future amphitheaters or other development. Town Clerk Miranda Fisher said the timeline is on the website. 

They plan to get feedback in September, and on September 15 will introduce the final presentation with the application due on October 15. They will work on planning with most of the work in March through October, and have the project completed by the end of 2021. 

They are asking for $300,000, including the component for Chipeta Park and have put into the grant a part-times public works employee. They can use in-kind work but have some funds available. 

The NDDA Board expressed excitement about the proposal and said the town needs it. Ansari said she is looking forward to working with the NDDA.

NDDA Treasurer Ron Mitchell presented a proposal to invest in the NDDA’s TIF Funds. He proposed placing some of their idle and uninsured funds. “At this point, I would suggest up to, but no more than, $250,000 in tax certificates to be sold by Boulder County on November 20, 2020.”

Tax liens are the absolute first right against a property and even come in ahead of mortgages from a lending institution or private lender, which make tax liens such secure investments. By dollar volume, 99.9 percent of all tax liens in Boulder county are repaid, with interest. 

Large institutional investors do not normally invest in tax liens as the amounts are too small for the large amounts they have to invest, so most investors are individuals or small companies wishing to temporarily park cash at a return. Mitchell said that while waiting for projects to materialize, the NDDA could take funds and make short-term investments by putting up to $250,000 into Boulder County Tax Credits.

Board members liked the idea but expressed concerns that it should be handled by a professional. Mitchell said they could hire a stockbroker, but the fees would negate everything they make. “It’s a very simple thing and is done by counties.” 

Mitchell agreed to meet individually with Board members to discuss the proposal. He has approached the NDDA attorney who feels this is an adequate short-term solution for gaining on assets. Karowe said the Board of Trustees would have to approve this and suggested that Mitchell talk to Board members, and if they have enough interest, put it on the agenda for the next meeting. 

(Originally published in the September 17, 2020, edition of The Mountain-Ear.)