Jennifer Livingston, Nederland. As election season finds its way into our everyday conversations The Mountain-Ear once again sets out to discover Nederland’s candidates for the Board of Trustees (BOT) and Mayorship in order to share a sense of their background and priorities. As usual, we sent a questionnaire to all candidates, and also invited each one to sit down for an interview. Here are the unfettered results of the mayoral candidates presented in the order in which they will appear on the ballot come April 7, 2020. 

(Editor's NOTE, Dan Harrower has withdrawn from the Mayoral race in Nederland. This has been edited from the original version, to remove the bio for Dan Harrower.)

Kristopher Larsen is Nederland’s incumbent mayor, running for reelection, and to remove the cloud of a recall campaign. Larsen went to Boulder Valley schools and literally became a space scientist. He works at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at CU in Boulder on a number of NASA funded space exploration missions, ranging from climate change monitoring to an instrument going to Jupiter. He’s carried a penchant for public service throughout his career, serving on policy and advocacy groups. Larsen has been a Nederland resident since 2005, served on the Nederland Board of Trustees from 2006 to 2008. He served as liaison to the Downtown Development Authority (DDA) and was Chair of the Planning Commission during the last update to the Comprehensive Plan. He returned to the Board of Trustees, in 2014, and was elected Mayor in 2016. 

“Whomever is mayor come April has to tackle updating Envision 2020 this year, the BOT will have the opportunity to expand that,” and Larsen wants it to be a very public process. Communication and conversation between the BOT, town staff and the larger community is a constant challenge even with the town’s website, Facebook page, press releases in The Mountain-Ear, public meetings and “office hours” he maintained for a while, but were underutilized. “We need to work to ensure that Nederland continues to be home to the wide range of personalities that make it so wonderfully unique.”

In response to the “one sided” format of regular BOT meetings where trustees listen to testimony but rarely have the opportunity for the back and forth of a conversation, Larsen suggested occasionally using a public forum format. The meeting would run even longer, but they’d “provide an opportunity for residents, the BOT and advisory boards to ask questions of each other.” He’d also like to try getting more members of the BOT out into town for “coffee hours,” and “try different things to help with communication.”

Larsen is “proud that we signed the Paris Climate Accords and have moved all town facilities to 100% solar. Our next step is to partner with businesses and residents to reduce their dependence on fossil fuels, and find ways to move away from plastics and polystyrene.” Actually, sustainability is a big motivator for Larsen who would like to prioritize more action there.

Larsen wants to continue working on affordable housing for Nederland and recognizing high property values as a challenge. He’d be looking for partnerships with other governmental bodies as well as public-private partnerships. He’s happy with the accessory dwelling unit (ADU) ordinance. When asked about the tumultuous Short Term Rental (STR) Ordinance he said “I think there’s work to be done.” He says he’d be looking at where the rental distribution falls, and looking at where we are balanced and unbalanced, to get a sense of the “health of our housing situation” post ordinance.  

Larsen was disappointed with Boulder County’s approval of the Powdr Corps request for 800 more parking spaces at Eldora Mountain. It’s not just the traffic for him, it’s about the capacity of the small mountain as well. It doesn’t “deal with bottleneck and safety issues, not to mention the unmitigated environmental impact. I would have preferred they put the money into better public transportation and shuttle services from Boulder, hiring traffic control and determining a traffic mitigation plan.” 

He shared that the town budget now includes funding for a traffic officer dedicated half time to enforce the two hour parking limit and to patrol drivers speeding down Big Springs Dr. 

Larsen invites voters to communicate with him at www.facebook.com/MayorLarsen/

Chris Perret is a longtime Nederland resident of 37 years and remembers playing frisbee in the field now under the Caribou Village shopping center. He was mayor of Nederland from 2004 to 2006 and was on the BOT from 2010 to 2014. He is currently on the Planning Commission and Parks Recreation and Open Space Advisory Board (PROSAB), both from 2018. If elected he would like to vacate PROSAB and become liaison to the Planning Commission. In addition to his service to the town he’s also run a local business. He ran “Dr. Fix It, an automotive repair company for 25 years, and now Peaceful Security and Peaceful Rides.” 

He said, “Nederland needs me. The old timers and other locals are unhappy with what’s going on in town. We’ve got teachers living in cars due to no affordable rentals in town. This is not Boulder West. My goal is to be sure this is a family friendly place where people are able to afford to raise their family. Nederland needs to be economically sustainable so you can live here, work here and raise your kids here. I don’t want Nederland to become ie. Vail or ie. Breckenridge. “Remembering we’re all family here and listening to the public” is very important for him.

He thinks the ADU ordinance is a good idea and doesn’t have a problem with STRs “except there’s a lack of long term rentals.” He spoke about perhaps creating a tiny home community. 

Perret also spoke about Nederland’s public schools and suggested we need “a grassroots campaign to keep our schools and our good teachers so we don’t lose all of our fine teachers and programs.”  

He’d like it to be “easy and inexpensive to start up a new business, and when business rentals are so high, it’s a big problem.” He’d also like to ensure all businesses are required to have parking without exception, and he’d like to see some of the revenue from events go to a parking fund, perhaps to help fund a parking structure. He notes that “Nederland has become a bedroom community and that increases traffic.”  

When asked about the approval of Powdr Corps 800 new parking spaces at Eldora Mountain he said, “Nederland should have been all over it, 800 spaces is too much traffic and when it fills up they’ll still park all over town without mitigation.” He also remembers when kids had much more than two days a year to ski at Eldora and when night skiing was a favorite. 

Perret has worked security for seven years for Frozen Dead Guy Days and will do so again this year. He said “Ned Fest came closest to having a real parking plan. Nederland needs a parking plan and an overflow parking plan. He is also very supportive of the Nederland Police Department saying, “Larry Johns is outstanding, I’ve known him since his grandparents had a house right around the corner.”

He would like to see Nederland create a bridge connecting to Conger along the “utility access by Snyder’s … make bridge up to traffic code for emergency access but used as a pedestrian bridge year round. He’d also like to continue working on egress as well as water and sewer connection for Big Springs. 

Perret envisions Snyder’s Garage becoming a “music and arts venue with poetry readings, kids plays and acoustic performances. 

Perret remembers being mayor when “the skate park and the Nederland Ice and Raquet Park were developed,” and thinks it’s “time for a Parks and Recreation District, possibly including parts of Gilpin County.” The District would be able to hire people to manage and maintain area parks, trails and the Nederland Cemetery.  

Environmental sustainability is also important to Perret who would like to see Nederland become more sustainable and more energy independent in general and would like to explore and establish a solar energy farm, work on waste reduction and other related environmental initiatives.

Perret says he is “ready open and willing to talk with anyone and everyone. Voters can reach him at (303) 588-9317.

David Shortridge is a Write-In Candidate for Mayor, and as such his name will not appear on the ballot. Regardless, he is included here as a mayoral candidate. Shortridge is the only candidate who declined to interview with The Mountain-Ear and stated humorously that he can be reached the old fashioned way - via Facebook, by name. He did complete the survey though not many details were provided.

Shortridge has been a Nederland resident for 40 years. He is a retired stockbroker and manager of the Shortridge Family Foundation, a nonprofit charitable foundation. He was Mayor Pro Tem and Commissioner of Economic Development from 1992 to 1994. He’s served on many boards and commissions including Nederland Planning Commission, Boulder County Aging Advisory Council, among many more mostly in the early to mid 1990’s. 

His priorities as mayor would be “road maintenance and repair, Parks and Recreation and Downtown Redevelopment.”  There was a series of questions regarding the role the BOT should play in the town’s environmental health, meeting the needs of families, infrastructure, business development, cultural events and the police department. “Active” was written in response to all questions.

All Mayoral and Trustee candidates will be participating in a moderated Candidates Forum on March 10, 2020 from at 7 p.m. in the Nederland Community Center. The public is encouraged to attend. Town Hall will be compiling questions for the candidates. Questions can be submitted via the town’s website or in written form the night of. 

(Originally published in the February 20, 2020, print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)