The Nederland Board of Trustees approved an ordinance regarding the Town’s utility base fees during a regular, virtual meeting on Tuesday, December 21, 2021, at 7 p.m. The Board also approved Safer Main Street Grant funds and the use of Special Event funding. They also discussed proposals for American Rescue Plan funding.

Utility Base Fees

At the December 7, 2021, meeting, the Board had agreed to use American Rescue Plan (ARPA) funds to pay off utility bills in arrears as of Quarter 3, 2021, and to pay off any accounts with liens. For residential accounts, the amount is $16,615.62; commercial, $2,558.38; liens; $3,898.10; for a total of $23,072.10

A letter went out to all account holders explaining that their bills would be paid off. The Utilities Department was expected to apply the funds to the accounts on December 22, 2021.

Town Administrator Miranda Fisher introduced an ordinance for changes in the utility base fee for adoption. It will go into effect on January 23, 2022.

Nederland’s current municipal codes regarding utility base fees state that any building with one or more users will be assessed a base fee rate for each separate use on the property. Historically, if a single-family residence was being used for more than one family then that property would be charged a second base fee.

“Property owners that were being charged this second fee thought that this was an unfair charge and requested that the BOT clarify this language,” staff had reported. Trustee Julian Taylor worked with staff to clarify this language to remove the word “use,” which is considered ambiguous. Instead, the language was changed to associate the base fee to a unique address rather than a use.

According to the proposed ordinance, the Board wishes to amend the Code to limit the number of utility base fees charged to a single address such that no more than one base fee is charged for each address.

A Board of Trustees work session on July 20, 2021, provided direction to the Town’s contracted rate consultants. On September 21, the final rate study was presented to the Board for adoption.

At this meeting, the Board directed staff to bring the final changes to code regarding base fees at a future meeting before the end of the year. On November 9, the Board reviewed the ordinance and had no recommended edits.

At the December 21, meeting, the Board approved the ordinance to clarify how utility base fees are assessed.

Safer Main Street grant

Nederland Downtown Development Authority (NDDA) Executive Director Kate Massingale introduced a request for matching funds for the Safer Main Streets grant. The NDDA has received $70,000 from the grant.

The NDDA Board previously approved providing matching funds in the amount of $70,000 to the Town of Nederland for the Safer Main Streets grant. The Town was successful in receiving the grant and now needs to access the funding.

The resolution is for the provision of matching funds for the Safer Main Streets grant. This will be used for sidewalks crossing from RTD to the library, and it will have a raised sidewalk and signage. The Board approved the request.

Special Event Grant

Massingale introduced the Special Event Grant. During the 2021 budget process, the Nederland Downtown Development Authority Board and the Board of Trustees approved special event grant funding and authorized a loan from the fund balance in the Town’s Water Fund in the amount of $10,000 to the NDDA Fund, which will bear interest at 1 percent or $50, whichever is less.

The NDDA Executive Director will oversee repayment of this loan from the NDDA Tax Increment Financing receipts to the Water Fund within 30 days of the resolution’s approval and the subsequent payment from the Town of Nederland of loan funds to the NDDA within 60 days of the loan approval.

The resolution is needed to authorize the funding and make it available for the community. There will be another $10,000 for 2022.

The Board approved the request.

American Rescue Plan Funding

Fisher reported that the Board has received additional fund requests for the American Rescue Plan (ARPA) funding. The Board has already committed $123,072 of the first tranche of ARPA funds, leaving $69,587.49.

The Board would be able to fund all of the requests for funding: The Mountain- Ear request for $25,000; the Food Pantry for $7,500, the Police Department request for $14,045; and the Premium Pay for Essential Workers at $22,195, for a total of $68,740.This would leave $846.77 that would could be applied to the second tranche of ARPA funds which Town expects to receive in May 2022.

The Mountain-Ear has requested ARPA funds to showcase local businesses in an effort to help them recover financially from the economic impacts of the pandemic. Publisher Barbara Hardt plans to call this the “Keep It Local” campaign.

The total request is for $25,000: $23,400 will be used for full-page newspaper ads featuring local businesses, and $1,600 will be used for a social media and a website marketing campaign. It will encompass all businesses in Nederland with full-page ads, social media, and website ads. The paper will feature two pages per week for a year. Gilpin County Commissioners have already approved a similar grant for the paper.

Board members said this proposal has broad-based community support, but it would be helpful to see a case study regarding how it has worked in the past and how it will work in the future.

The Nederland Food Pantry requested that the funds which the Town allocates to them annually be doubled and that an additional $7,500 be provided under ARPA to support and enhance the services they already provide to this community. The Food Pantry has more than doubled the number of households they serve since the start of the pandemic.

The Police Department requested funds for a policy manual through Lexipol at a cost of $14,045. The annual fee for Lexipol would be $2,799, which would be incorporated into the budget in 2023.

It was recently identified that the Police Department is lacking a robust and comprehensive Policies and Procedures manual. Lexipol is a program that numerous law enforcement departments use throughout the country.

If the Town were to use Lexipol, the company would work with the Police Department to draft all the policies needed to adhere to federal and state statutes as well as local municipal code, and they would provide training modules which officers would be required to complete in order to ensure they understand all policies.

The Board had previously asked Town staff to bring back figures for premium pay for the Town’s essential workers, which include the Police Department and Public Works. Premium pay for essential workers is paid out at an hourly rate multiplied by the number of hours the employee worked within a set timeframe.

If salaried managerial employees were paid $2 an hour additional and hourly direct-service employees were paid $1 per hour additional, the total paid from ARPA in the form of a one-time bonus would be $22,195.72.

The Board agreed that ARPA funding for the Food Pantry, the Police Department, and premium pay for employees would be on the consent agenda for the next meeting, and the request from The Mountain-Ear will be an action item.

The next Nederland Board of Trustees meeting will be virtual on January 4, 2022. For more information, go to https:// nederlandco. civicweb.net/Portal/MeetingInformation. aspx?Org=Cal&Id=391.