Jennifer Livingston, Nederland. The Nederland Board of Trustees (BOT) Meeting began promptly at 7 p.m. with Trustees Alan Apt and Dallas Masters absent.

As usual, the meeting began with the consent agenda which included a legal agreement between the Town of Nederland and the Colorado Department of Transportation to be able to receive $1.5 million dollars in in grant funds for the completion of the transportation improvement project. Work will include constructing an ADA compliant concrete sidewalk from the RTD Park-n-Ride to Town Hall, replacing the sidewalk in front of Town Hall, extending the existing sidewalk from Katmandu Plaza to First Street, reconstructing North Jefferson Street, the Visitors’ Center parking lot, and West First Street, including parking improvements as well as adding electric charging stations. 

Also on the consent agenda was the appointment of Deb D’Andrea to the Parks, Recreation and Open Space Advisory Board (PROSAB). D’Andrea has fulfilled important roles in Frozen Dead Guy Days and NedFest. She’s also volunteered for the Nederland Community Thanksgiving Dinner, NedRink, the Peak to Peak Healthy Communities Board, the Peak to Peak Music Association Board and she is now the owner of the High Peaks Art Festival. Trustee Baumhover expressed the BOTs’ appreciation for her efforts and commitment to PROSAB. 

Garrett McDaniel was hired to be Nederland’s first sustainability coordinator, a position created by the Sustainability Advisory Board (SAB). SAB had approached the BOT with a request for matching funds for a $15,000 grant. The BOT was not ultimately able to provide the funds, but SAB was able to use in-kind volunteer time instead and secured the grant. The job description states that the position is “responsible for designing and managing the town’s sustainability programs,” and will be required to secure ongoing grant funds. Twenty six applications were received for the job, including eight from out of state. McDaniel has already been doing similar work for Lyons. Congratulations to McDaniel and SAB. 

Nederland now has an official intergovernmental agreement with Colorado Department of Transportation for the 1.5 million dollar grant awarded for an ADA compliant multiuse sidewalk from the RTD Park-N-Ride to the Visitors’ Center, replacement of the sidewalk in front of town hall and repaving in the parking lot. The design and public vetting will be completed in 2020, construction will begin in 2021 and completed by 2022. Public Works and town staff were commended for their diligent effort to bring the funding and the much-needed project to town. 

Mayor Kristopher Larson read a proclamation into the public record. February 4, 2020, is now recognized as Tom Hendricks Day. The proclamation memorialized Hendricks for his long history of environmentally conscious mining activities as well as his service and dedication to the community. Family and friends were in attendance to witness the recognition. Dan Martin spoke of Nederland’s long history of Miners’ Days and the efforts of the Nederland Area Historical Society, and others in the community, including the Downtown Development Authority and the Nederland Library, who are working hard to bring Miners’ Days back. They will be back September 19 and 20, 2020, and the event will now be called Tom Hendricks Miners Days. 

The BOT workshopped Planned Investment Fees (PIF) in January. They recognized that PIFs for residents are the same as commercial operators, though commercial operations may have a much higher infrastructure impact, and for that reason, most other municipalities in the state charge more for commercial than residential PIFs. The BOT voted to raise commercial PIF fees by 22% and 6% respectively for water and sewer. This increase is intended to be a stop gap measure to enable the town to stay abreast of costs until a rate study is completed. The future BOT will need to renegotiate rates at that time. Grant funds to perform the rate study have been applied for. However, Nederland’s Master Infrastructure Plan will need to be updated to inform the rate study. All of this will need to be budgeted in the 2021 and will likely take over a year to complete.

Ordinance 804, regarding Additional Dwelling Units (ADU) in the town of Nederland, along with its policy and procedures is now complete. Permits to construct an ADU will be available on Monday, February 10, 2020.  

The planning department worked closely with Old Town residents to correct inaccurate mapping of two properties and road easements. The neighbors worked together and with the town to fix the inaccuracies and ensure proper easements ownership, which was very appreciated. 

Trustees Julie Gustafson and Kristin Conrad will not seek reelection in the Tuesday, April 7, 2020, election. As such, they were chosen to pick the order of the names of the seven individuals running for election as trustee and the three mayoral candidates, including one write in candidate. The trustee candidates are Tania Corvalan, Eric Coombs Esmail, Mary Mead, Jonathan Baumhover, Lindsey Danforth, Julian Taylor and Karen Blakemore. Mayoral candidates include Dan Harrower, Kristopher Larsen, Chris Perret and David Shortridge whose name will not appear on the ballot but will be a write-in candidate. 

There will be a Candidate Forum on March 10, 2020, at 7 p.m. in the Nederland Community Center and all are invited. 

Would you like to see Nederland regulate and/or ban single use plastics? Too bad, it is currently against Colorado State Law for local municipalities to do so. Luckily there are people and organizations including the Colorado Municipal League that are working to change this. Trustee Gustafson has been following the issue and updates will be forthcoming. 

The BOT also discussed Mayor Larson’s desire to have an open forum style meeting that would allow for more interaction and Q&A from the BOT and the public in an effort to increase communication and information sharing. Longmont has such meetings and while they can be quite lengthy, they have been found to be helpful by both elected officials and the public. Trustee Baumhover suggested that the various boards such as SAB and PROSAB be available as well. The BOT hopes that new candidates would also attend so they can better understand where the BOT has been, what’s left on their agenda, and chart an informed way forward. This meeting may happen on St. Patrick’s Day, as it coincides with an available agenda on the second BOT meeting in March, wear green. 

The next scheduled Nederland Board of Trustees Meeting is on Tuesday, February 18, 2020, beginning at 7 p.m. at the Nederland Community Center. 

(Originally published in the February 13, 2020, print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)