Josiah Masingale, Nederland.  The Nederland Downtown Development Authority (NDDA) partnered with the Nederland Community Presbyterian Church’s Rocky Mountain Mission to realize the beautification plan for the round-about in Town just in time for the festivities of Independence Day. On Friday June 29, 2018, Rocky Mountain Mission Work Coordinator Jim Reis, church member David Copeland and a group of volunteers from Alamogordo, NM joined Elizabeth Allen of Coloring Colorado and NDDA Director Josiah Masingale on finalizing the landscaping for the junction of State Highways 72 and 119 in Downtown Nederland.

The church, through Pastor Hansen Wendlandt’s ministry, sponsors the Rocky Mountain Mission program (RMM), which brings groups of teens from other churches from across the US to live in the church for a week, working in the Nederland community by day and holding church devotionals in the evenings. Their mission work has included working with the Town building the new path from the pedestrian bridge to Chipeta Park and helping multiple Nederland area seniors do yard work and haul away junk.

“With 2 of 5 groups complete for summer 2018, we hope to do a lot more work by the time we finish in mid-August” said RMM Work Coordinator Jim Reis.

The NDDA led the project to beautify the round-about in partnership with the Town Public Works Department, and Coloring Colorado which is the Town’s beautification vendor, after the March 2018 water main break presented an opportunity to the Town and the NDDA to improve the round-about.

Voter approved Tax Increment Financing (TIF) funds were approved by the NDDA Board of Directors and the Town Board of Trustees to purchase river rock, other materials, and seven dwarf globe blue spruce bushes, along with a large pot of plants provided through the NDDA’s 2018 Beautification Plan.

The project totaled $3,755 in TIF funds and included $100 of in-kind materials, and the generous in-kind labor from the church and RMM volunteers. “We are very excited to have the round-about finished in time for the Independence Day Parade in Town,” said NDDA Director Josiah Masingale, “And we are very appreciative of Pastor Wendlandt and the Nederland Community Presbyterian Church’s assistance, and the hard work provided by the Rocky Mountain Mission Group volunteers and coordinator Jim Reis.”

You can learn more about the NDDA at www.NederlandDowntown.org.