Inside Town Hall with Nederland Mayor Nichole Sterling

This week we've got our very first edition of our Town Hall Podcast with Nederland Mayor Nichole Sterling.

OVer the past week, we asked you to submit your questions for Mayor Sterling. Today, we've got answers. We cover everything from downtown signage to fire evacuation routes, and of course the town's pending purchase of Eldora Mountain.

If you'd like to follow up with Nichole Sterling, you can reach her here: nicholes@nederlandco.org.

If you want to get in touch with the team behind The Mountain-Ear Podcast or send us more questions, you can reach out to Tyler Hickman at tyler@themountainear.com.

Our theme song is courtesy of singer-songwriter Brittney Wagner. Stream her record Better off Dead here.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:32

It's been three months since Nicole Sterling was sworn into office as Netherlands' new mayor. In case you forgot, the race was incredibly close. Sterling beat out former mayor Billy Giblin by just three votes. Back in April, Mayor Sterling joined the podcast to talk about her campaign and plans for Ned. After her first few months in office, we invited her back on. This time to answer listener-submitted questions. Welcome to the Mountaineer Podcast. I'm Tyler Hickman. This episode is the very first edition of our Town Hall podcast, where we let you, our listeners, do the questioning. Over the past week, many of you submitted your questions and concerns about signage for local businesses, town proceedings, fire evacuations, and of course the town's potential purchase of Eldora Ski Resort. And today, we've got answers for you. We're going to skip the headlines this time to leave plenty of room to hear from Mayor Sterling. Stick around for the end of the show to hear how you can stay in touch with both the mayor and the staff here at the Mountaineer Podcast. Before we get to the town hall, here's a quick word from today's sponsor, the Regional Air Quality Council. This year, set the summer trend. Take simple steps for better air and avoid idling your car when parked in parking lots, waiting in pickup lines, or in drive-throughs. Turning your car off and on again instead of idling can make a huge difference for summer air quality and helps reduce ground-level ozone pollution in the Colorado Front Range. Know when it matters most by signing up for Ozone Alerts from the Regional Air Quality Council. Learn more at SimpleStepsbetterAir.org. Now it's time to hear from Netherlands Mayor, Nicole Sterling. All right. Welcome to our very first town hall edition of the Mountaineer Podcast. I'm super, super excited about this. I'm joined today by Netherland Mayor Nicole Sterling, who will be answering questions that our listeners have submitted over the past few weeks. Thank you so much for joining us today, Nicole. How are you doing?

SPEAKER_01 2:54

Doing great. Thanks for having me on again. I'm excited for this as well.

SPEAKER_00 2:57

Yeah, yeah, me too. I uh really enjoyed our last episode and I'm glad we got to do this again. I know we talked about doing this again, and this time I'm not going to be the one asking the questions. It's going to be our readers and listeners, the people of Netherland. And yeah, so uh I think we can just dive right into it here. Our first question comes from Chris, and he wants to know do you believe that the mayor and trustees should have power over the town manager when hiring or firing Town of Netherland employees? And I think this is a good question, but I think it would be helpful to provide a little bit of context here before we dive in. What kind of power does the Board of Trustees have over the employment process for town employees in Netherland? And how is that balanced with the town manager's role?

SPEAKER_01 3:50

Yeah, and I'm and I'm gonna take it even a little bit of a couple of steps back in like how does the board interact with town staff in general? And to be honest, like we have statutory authority over the town manager's role and the clerk. After that, it becomes an administrative function to where the town manager has, you know, most of the say. Like, does might the town manager consult us for our opinion on time to time? Yes. But not always. And in fact, there's a there's a very good reason for this. So many people think that the board actually oversees the day-to-day functionality of staff members and they don't, um, except for the town manager and like I said, the clerk. And so where this comes into play is the re and then the reason for that separation is so that the board isn't giving direction to town staff that the town manager has authority over. Because when that happens, right, things can get really messy really quickly. So if like a you know, seven board members are giving staff members each different direction, that's that's not how you run an organization. And then there's some real real ethical implications for doing that. And so, like, no, there's not. So for instance, uh the board, however, can like tell community members, hey, this role is up, you know, you've expressed interest in the past, like go ahead and go take a look at it. Um, but we don't necessarily have a say over those roles that are are hired and for very good reason, you know, just keeps things a little bit cleaner and uh less trouble for our town manager.

SPEAKER_00 5:27

Yeah. And I think to provide some context, you did mention that there is a little bit more power afforded you for the town manager and the clerk position. How does that work? Is it like a voting process?

SPEAKER_01 5:38

Yeah. So for instance, if the uh town manager were to turn over and the town manager is role is now open, like we actually went through this process with with John's role. We were the hiring committee. We were the ones who decided whether or not, you know, who was going to come into that town um manager role. And um it's the same for the clerk. We have the statutory obligation that if the clerk, you know, to fire the clerk and then to have a say in the hiring of that clerk.

SPEAKER_00 6:04

Excellent. Thank you for that question, Chris. This next listener asks, as a resident and business owner, I'm curious what the town's long-term plan for the growing number of signs throughout Netherland is. They seem to be multiplying in walkways and public spaces, creating visual clutter, and during the winter potentially becoming an obstacle or safety concern. Has the town considered a more organized approach to promoting local businesses, like a rotating spotlight at the visitor center so each business has a chance to be highlighted? It seems that there are other ways to support all local businesses while also keeping downtown more attractive and accessible. I know that this has been a hot topic, so would love to hear your response to this question.

SPEAKER_01 6:50

Yeah, it's a great, and I would love to hear some more ideas on what people are thinking in terms of creative ideas, because yes, the the signs have been a bit of a conversation starter, we'll put it at that. Um, and it's and it's tough because these businesses want visibility. Um, we have a one-way through, and you know, for a lot of those businesses that are kind of uh on the fringes or inside the town, they they want the visibility. And so, you know, the idea of having some sort of rotating sign, I want to hear more. Like, what are the other ideas? Because agreed that it can create some distraction, it can imp implicate some safety issues. And so I'm all ears at this point because I don't necessarily have a great solution. And also to be transparent, this hasn't been a conversation um that has started up. Uh, this has sort of been handled at the administrative or at the you know the town staff level. But hey guys, like write in some more ideas. I want to hear more.

SPEAKER_00 7:46

Yeah. Thank you to that listener for submitting that question. I know it's a, like I said, very hot topic, heavily discussed. I know there's more that's supposed to be coming with some of the town bulletin boards that are potentially planned as well, and some potential grant funding that the uh city's gonna be looking into as well.

SPEAKER_01 8:04

Yeah. It's a tough problem all around though. And until we get some, you know, we just did get the wayfinding signage. There's some there's some feedback and some things that need to happen with that, but yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:15

So this next question is related to the Big Springs fire egress. I know another another hot topic. People were really nailing all the the big big discussion points. So Lindsay asks, with the most recent Big Springs fire, the second within a year blocking one of two ways out of the neighborhood, what's the update on the egress and what is being done to make this a priority? Are there plans if residents cannot get out? And why haven't there been any mock evaluations done to prepare for something like this? So kind of three three-part question there.

SPEAKER_01 8:48

Okay, you might have to remind me as I go out. Well, can you actually what was the first the first question?

SPEAKER_00 8:54

So with the most recent Big Springs fire, the second within a year blocking one of two ways out of the neighborhood, what are the updates on the egress and is there anything being done to make this a priority?

SPEAKER_01 9:06

100%. Uh so uh some of this is not visible because we are having to have conversations with property owners and other local governments. And it wouldn't be appropriate for us to have those conversations in public until we can have those, you know, those conversations on the side. It is a high priority. As many people know, I live in Big Springs. And uh just this week I was responding to letters uh from a particular uh person who actually does not advocating a Big Springs egress and you know, and suggested that the only reason why we're doing this as govern government officials is to check a box. I got really upset with that. That is just like these are our babies and grandbabies that we have to get out of the Big Springs egress. And so, and you're right, like this was the second one that uh happened. And the ones who are opposing it, there is a minority of folks that are opposing it. They're suggesting uh other roads that are just not feasible. And in fact, a few folks are gonna show up this Friday to my mayor uh and manager's talk that's happening at the uh New Moon Bakery at like 8:30 this Friday. What is what are we at? It's uh yeah, the 31st. So that I can visibly show people why some of these alternatives are not feasible. They're it's like almost worse than doing nothing at all. And so, yes, those conversations are happening um and we're pushing to have another public meeting very, very soon. Everyone just rest assured, like this is at one of my top priorities.

SPEAKER_00 10:42

The kind of next two parts of this question, I think, can be kind of bundled into one, but they're concerned about uh any plans for residents who cannot get out, and uh if there have been any uh mock evaluations done with the current state of the egress.

SPEAKER_01 10:59

Mock evaluations with the current state of the egress. Is there any more detail there?

SPEAKER_00 11:07

I I think maybe mock evacuation, perhaps, is what she's suggesting.

SPEAKER_01 11:13

Yeah. I was actually literally just thinking about this the other day because for me, there's like multiple things that have to happen with this resiliency, let's like wildfire resiliency strategy. It's not just an egress, there's hard home hardening that needs to happen. There's a communication systems that we need like better understanding of. Like it's like some people get notified, some people don't. Um, we need like a better communication system in general. Like, and then backup, backup is literally in my head, because I think about this all the time. It's like, how do I get my my kid out? Right? How do he's he's 11 years old? Is it literally having rafts at the bottom of big springs so that people can get out via the reservoir? That's literally what I think through in my head. And like probably what if, you know, if anything happens, uh we would have to resort to either people either doing that or swimming across. And so because I've been thinking about it, this is like kind of one of my next steps as uh as a part of the overall plan, is to go to fire and be like, okay, so if this fails, if this fails and this fails, like what is the next step in the backup? And so this might get back to to Lindsay and Lindsay, if you're out there and you want to write me on the side to make sure that I've like answered your question correctly, if this is what you were intending. That's kind of the next conversation is like, do we have multiple resiliency steps in order to um get people out in case there is a fire up here?

SPEAKER_00 12:36

Yeah, absolutely. And uh I would like to add too that we're planning on opening um another line of communication here. You'll we'll drop a note at the end of the show where you can send uh me an email to make sure that I am interpreting your questions because uh some of them are uh loosely paraphrased. I I'm just I'm I'm doing my best to relay what what I'm reading here. So we'll definitely keep that uh line of communication open uh because we want this to be an open conversation.

SPEAKER_01 13:06

So yeah, yeah. And again, like feel free, uh listeners, correct me if I've misinterpreted also the the question.

SPEAKER_00 13:14

Great. We're gonna move on to our next question here. This one comes from Bert. Bert recently read that a bill came for a large sum of money related to the Eldora purchase. I'm assuming that this is related to the contract established with the Municipal Advisory Services Agreement with Stiffle Nicholas and Company. Bert asks where that money to pay for it is coming from.

SPEAKER_01 13:37

Okay. And so, Bert, I want to direct you because this this question was answered in our most recently frequently asked questions, 7.0. It's up on the website that is being accounted for in our finances that we've paid for. So just go uh take a peek at that 7.0. And if it doesn't answer your question, then please follow up.

SPEAKER_00 13:58

And just to to kind of clarify something here as well, from my understanding is that contract was for municipal services. That dollar amount is listed in the contract. I believe it's $325,000. Uh, that is more or less part of that acquisition cost. Correct me if I'm wrong there.

SPEAKER_01 14:18

I I if I'm to extrapolate, I think that's what it is. And yes, default, um, that contract doesn't get paid unless we close. So, but again, it's in the frequently asked questions. Okay, great.

SPEAKER_00 14:30

We're gonna stay on topic here. Uh, and I think we will actually get to a couple questions about the closing of the sale. So these next questions are kind of part of a series that were submitted by one of our listeners, uh Kristen, and it's largely related to the acquisition costs of Eldora and town reserves. So the first part of this question, Kristen asks uh sort of a clarifier here. She says, Correct me if I'm wrong, but town reserves are funded by Netherland taxpayers. Therefore, they are in fact paying for the acquisition cost using town reserves, despite what's been posted on the town's FAQ page.

SPEAKER_01 15:10

Okay, so I'm gonna have to take that question. So I, you know, for every all the listeners, I want to re-emphasize this point. Um, because we are going through the bond process, we are under SEC rules. And I am um so every every frequently asked question and everything that we put out goes through our disclosure council to make sure that we are not gonna screw up the transaction by saying something that is um adhered to SEC rules. So let me take this question and Tyler, if you can like send me the exact wording of it, that way I can we can make sure that we respond in the appropriate way.

SPEAKER_00 15:47

Yeah, absolutely. I can do that. So this could be a theme for the next uh few questions that she has. So there's a follow-up here as well. Kristen adds that by depleting town reserves, this uh allocates funds away from current and future needs that could be determined by a public vote. She asks, how does the BOT and town attorney wall off the use of taxpayer reserves under the NDA shield without disclosing accurate budget and expenditure information to net taxpayers?

SPEAKER_01 16:16

Yeah, so one piece of this is um we are under that NDA and per our seller, we were always going to have costs for acquisition. This was always disclosed upfront in public meetings. Um and in fact, every transaction that has happened, and this is again reiterated in the FAQs, but every transaction that has happened has always been uh presented in a public meeting through our warrants section. Um that's always uh it's in under the consent aspect of it, of the meeting. So that piece I can remark, I can respond to. And then yes, if you can get me the regul the rest of the the question, then we'll make sure that we follow up in an FAQ.

SPEAKER_00 16:55

Yeah, absolutely. Her kind of third part of the question here, a follow-up to the last one. Kristen is wondering if you can at all share what the total amount of executed town contracts that have been paid for regardless of acquisition closure is, and new and pending contracts that will require payment regardless of closure. And I know that some of that information is public. So if there's anything that you can share regarding a number of that total acquisition cost, I think it would be uh beneficial to answering the question.

SPEAKER_01 17:29

Yeah, so this was a similar question that we had written in this week as well. Um and again, I'll have to take it away, but um, all contracts have been in a public meeting, except for, you know, the the sensitive information that is held under NDA. And again, like many of those are contingent upon like the cell of the mountain. And so, but we'll again, I'll take this this converse or this particular question and we'll roll it into a next set of FAQs.

SPEAKER_00 18:00

Okay. Kind of my own follow-up here. Are there any contracts that the town has entered into that are available to in in the public sphere that are not contingent on the closure that will require payment regardless if the the sale is closed or not?

SPEAKER_01 18:18

Yeah, and I and again, like those have been in our public meetings, but there is there has been a request of like, hey, we don't want to go search through all your public meetings. Can you just pull those? Can you just give us like the clean answer or the like the clean number? Um, and so you know that's that's the thing that we'll have to go back and like provide an answer on. So again, I I know it's like nobody wants to go and like look through the the public meetings. It's it's hard work because our staff has to do it as well. So but understood. I understood what or understand what the question is.

SPEAKER_00 18:49

Yes, yes. And we we do it as well. I spend some time watching a lot of uh town meetings as a government reporter. Um it's tough.

SPEAKER_01 18:58

Like if you're if you're not sitting on these meetings, right, it's tough to track. Like, because we've been working on this for two years. Like that's like honestly, like we first went and announced that this was happening in the fall of 2024. So like folks are all of a sudden like, oh, wait a second, like what's what's happening? And in and so unless you've been really sort of like close and paying attention since then, it's I get it. Like it's it's tough. Like I need reminders every once in a while too.

SPEAKER_00 19:25

Yeah, I I think in general, it seems like townspeople are very concerned about the amount of information that is and isn't being disclosed. And I understand that a lot of that is under that NDA secrecy and that there are, you know, certain things that you cannot disclose due to the SEC regulations. And I I get the sense that folks maybe feel like they have not had enough input over this outside of public comments. So I did want to give you a chance to kind of respond to this sentiment of townspeople who maybe feel like there is a responsibility to allow citizens to have a say or um understand a little bit more of what's going on. And, you know, maybe some folks are asking for some more transparency. Do you have a response, anything that you wanted to say to folks who are very concerned about this?

SPEAKER_01 20:13

Yeah, I mean, I guess I would say, like, for like again, two years that we've been working on this, and all along the way, there have been ordinances are and ordinances um always have that um that period, that time period where citizens can um basically petition to say we don't like the decision that you're making. We've had two ordinances as a part of this entire transaction. And in that time period, that 30-day time period, where citizens could raise their hand and say, hey, we don't like what you're doing. We need to, we need to pull this back. That that has not happened. And so I think what hap, you know, it's like, yes, there are questions in terms of why we haven't closed. Um, we are still working on the process. Uh and so now I think like some of these questions are um are bubbling up, and that's okay and perfectly okay. But at the same time, like we've been going through this process and had the ordinances and have the the period where people could petition to say this is we don't like this, and that just hasn't happened yet. So now um we are where we're at and we're gonna do the best that we can to get people's uh questions answered, and then celebrate when this is done.

SPEAKER_00 21:28

So yeah, yes, I think everybody's looking forward to to that possibility. So those were all the questions that I had for you. I really, really appreciate it. Is there anything that you would like to add uh before we close off here?

SPEAKER_01 21:43

That was it?

SPEAKER_00 21:44

That was it, yes. Yeah, I think it was a total of uh seven, six or seven questions.

SPEAKER_01 21:52

Well, I do have a couple of things that I would love for folks to be paying attention to, is that um we are going into a strategic planning process. And this has been something that I have been really adamant about because if the board of trustees goes into this and they do it well, like this 20%, like sort of if you look at the total time that a a board of trustees allocates over the part of the year, um, or part you know, over the a full year, if if 20% of that was really done in a dedicated way and put into strategic planning, then it would make for an 80% impact. Meaning, like it's it's great if you know where you're going and how you're getting there. Instead of having these sort of loose, vague goals, it's we're I'm asking the board of trustees to be specific and I'm asking us to be concrete, kind of what we had for that um initial, you know, 2022 to 2024 type of strategic plan. We kept on task, and many of those grants and those projects are coming to close and fruition. So I would ask that folks just like pay attention to what's happening um there, look at the documents, look at what we are talking about. My big thing is going to be like resiliency in this whole conversation around wildfire. Um, but then how do we build resiliency in other ways for the future, right? Um, economic resiliency, that kind of thing. And then the other thing I would like actually just a public service announcement here. I got a letter from um almost 13-year-old in Big Springs, and he says he's scared to ride his bike because of how fast people go up this hill. And I've got children and I've got, you know, little ones that I'm looking out for. And so I would just ask like community members, if I'm starting to get a letter from a 13-year-old, like, please just slow down. This is I I cannot live on my conscience that a 13-year-old is um is feeling unsafe because people are zooming up. Speed limit is 15 miles per hour. 15. That's it. Thanks. That's all I have.

SPEAKER_00 23:53

Yes. And I will also add, too, that as a government reporter, strategic planning is can be dense. It can be very at times esoteric and difficult to understand. It is one of the most important things that your local government does. And it is incredibly important to pay attention and follow along. If you care, if you want to know more about what the government is doing, about what they plan to do, strategic planning is where you should be focusing on. It sounds super boring on the service, but there are tons of little like nuggets of information in there that can uh keep you informed as a citizen and can help you do your job as a citizen to hold government employees and elected officials accountable.

SPEAKER_01 24:37

So maybe we could do a podcast just on strategic planning and I would actually love that. I think it would be a great way to keep folks up to speed on what's actually like what are we talking about? What are the priorities that we're trying to make? And when it comes down to it, like we're not going to be a good leadership and a good government if we can't prioritize. Because it would be wonderful to do everything and to have 20 number one things to do, but then we are sacrificing the ability to actually get those things done in the long run. And so it comes to hard decisions, and I would love for the public to be able to comment more on those hard decisions that we have to make, right?

SPEAKER_00 25:13

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And thanks to all the listeners who submitted questions for this. We really appreciate it. We couldn't have done it without you, and we hope that you get some answers and that your interest has peaked and that we can do this again. So uh one last thank you to Nicole. Really appreciate you joining us today.

SPEAKER_01 25:34

Yep, and thanks everyone for your questions. And again, write me on the side if if something didn't come through. So, yeah, excited to have more of these.

SPEAKER_00 25:51

Once again, huge thanks to Nicole for joining the show to answer some tough questions, and to all of our listeners who wrote into us this week. We truly could not have made this episode without you. To any of you who submitted questions, or to anyone else who wants to hear more from Nicole, reach out to her at Nicole S at netherlandco.org. That's N-I-C-H-O-L-E-S at netherlandco.org. We would also love to hear from you ourselves. Tell us what you liked, ask more questions, or just drop a note to introduce yourself. Shoot me an email at Tyler at the Mountain Ear.com. That's T-Y-L-E-R at themountear.com. It's always great to hear from you. If you liked today's episode and you want to hear more town halls with Netherland or Gilpin County officials, please share it around. It's the best thing you can do to help us grow. You can subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts to get the news the moment we hit the airwaves every single week. Once again, this is the Mountaineer Podcast. I'm Tyler Hickman. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next week.