The Nederland Parks, Recreation, and Open Space Advisory Board (PROSAB) met on Thursday, September 22, 2023, at 5:30 p.m. to vote to recommend a new PROSAB candidate, to discuss town projects, and to brainstorm a collective approach that all advisory boards should follow in meetings.

The meeting began with an introduction of the two candidates running for appointment, Kate Yzquierdo and Zoe Welz. In a unanimous vote, Yzquierdo was selected as the PROSAB’s recommended candidate. In early October, the Board of Trustees will either appoint Kate to the position or decide to go in a different direction.

Parks manager Nicki Dunn describes Kate as “a pleasure to work with, trainable, and teachable.” As the organizer of the Nederland Farmer’s Market, Yzquierdo is already involved with the community so she should have a great base of support if she is accepted into the position.

An extra order of business was added to the agenda this week. For all of her hard work done for the completion of Meadow Park, the Board took a moment to celebrate Nicki Dunn. Dunn was surprised with a bouquet of flowers and words of appreciation.

In return, Dunn talked about how grateful she is for her team. Many have worked for or volunteered for Dunn over the past few years and she was sure to take the time to give them credit. She stated, “I hire smart people and I had the opportunity of working with people that are spectacular.”

Dunn gave her August staff report on the Barker Meadows Park. Parking spaces were added, along with the dog waste stations, picnic tables, benches, bike racks, and gas lines. The plan for the year is to complete fertilization and drain the pond. The team plans to scarify it, then lay it with winterizer in the winter and fertilizer in the spring. As a consequence of the city of Boulder’s culvert, the pond will need to be drained.

Dunn provided an update of the cemetery. The team is working on getting grants from the state and CU Boulder. This cemetery project will seek out students and volunteers to research the history of the cemetery and identify the graves in order to learn the stories of every tombstone. The goal is to create a “story-map of graves” where there will be history written on every stone.

More progress has been made on other town improvements. NedRINK saw the initial phases of surface removal and with the new co-grant, they hope to mix the color straight into the new concrete to make the process more efficient. The pedestrian bridge just recently received a new roof, new siding, and new flower boxes. The North end of the bridge was replaced with new asphalt.

Miranda Fisher reported on the Wingate Property. Located on the south side of the highway are Mary Wingate’s properties. After her death she gifted three out the four parcels to the town. The final parcel was given to Ms. Wingate’s daughter– who is to divide her parcel in four. Before any work on the property can take place, the team needs to acquire a variance as a minor subdivision rather than major subdivision. Forest mitigation actions will take place once the variance is approved because the property is rated a high risk for fire danger.

Secretary C.T. Hutt has completed the “Open Space” sign made of Spar Urethane. which will be hung up at the corner of Sundown Trail and Indian Peaks Drive.

Alex Zabierek gave an update on the Rink/MPTA GoCo grant. Since the last PROSAB meeting, the team has met with the larger rink and tennis stakeholder group for guidance in pursuing the renovation. The stakeholder representative noted a lack of community support and engagement on the project so the team has created an action plan to fix that. They are asking for two kinds of support letters: community individual engagement letters and organizational support letters. A community engagement letter can be a statement of enthusiasm or a cash donation. Organizational support letters will include statements of how the certain organization will benefit from the recreational space. The team will have a booth at the Farmers Market on October 1 for the community to ask questions and learn more about the project.

Sam Ovett provided an update on the Parks, Recreation, Open Space, Trails master plan (PROST) saying they’ve had their first meeting to discuss how they will approach the revisions. The team will revise the PROST one chapter a month, beginning with chapter two as the first chapter is an executive summary. The team is focusing on reevaluating if the document serves the community efficiently. Changes also need to be made since the town now has a parks committee that didn’t exist when the document was originally created.

The team followed up on its goals for the next year by designating members to keep track of specific priorities to ensure progress is being made. The PROST update, Volunteer Program, Pump Track, and Support Town Staff priorities each have one to two members responsible for the priority.

Chairperson Kat Barr and Sam Ovett reported back on the Board and Commission Leadership Work Session. The session was held to bring together leadership boards and commissions to discuss the best practices for holding meetings. These practices include a clear agenda and consistent structure. The team discussed creating a structure that can be used across all advisory board meetings to make transitioning into a new position or over to a new board more seamless. Also introduced at the meeting was a system of meetings called “Bob’s Rules” based on Robert’s Rules of Order used for parliamentary procedures in the U.S. “Bob’s Rules” is a Colorado-specific way of running meetings that conforms with Colorado laws and is less intense than Robert’s Rules. A common code of conduct is also encouraged to ensure respectful and fair meetings. PROSAB will continue discussing how they will implement this in further meetings.

The Nederland Parks, Recreation, and Open Space Advisory Board meets on the third Thursday of every month. Their next meeting is scheduled for Thursday, September 21, 2023, and can be attended online.