Jeff Knight appointed to LID Advisory Committee

Jeff Knight, a Niwot resident since 2005, was appointed to the Niwot Local Improvement District Advisory Committee (LID) by the Boulder County Commissioners. Knight was designated by the Niwot Community Association (NCA) as its nominee for the NCA representative position on the nine-member committee, which considers funding requests for sales tax dollars for projects and events which benefit the business district in Niwot.

Knight, who resides in the Burgundy Park subdivision, also serves on the board of directors of the NCA as the Area 1 representative. He replaces longtime NCA LID representative Laura Skaggs, who served as chair of the advisory committee for several years. Skaggs stepped down just prior to being term limited, and was involved in recruiting Knight for the position.

"We came to Niwot because of Niwot Elementary School," Knight explained. "Our son is on the [autism] spectrum, and we thought Niwot was the best fit." Knight and his wife Ali, who later taught at Niwot Elementary before moving to Altona Middle School to teach, have a son Cooper and a daughter Olivia.

The family moved to Niwot from Erie, and immediately became involved in the community. Olivia set up a table to sell candy at Whistle Stop Park when the summer concert series included a farmer's market. And Jeff Knight helped build the pergola at the park back in 2005. "We have some bricks there with handprints on them," Knight recalled.

He also became involved with Boy Scout Troop 161, where he met several other parents who were involved with the NCA, including David Limbach, John Barto and Johnny Barrett. He signed up to help with NCA projects, such as parade management, and when an Area 1 Representative position opened up on the NCA board, others urged him to join, which he did approximately a year ago.

Cooper went on to earn his Eagle Scout honors, building planters at the former Tiny Tim location in Longmont for his project. His father served on the board of directors there for six years. Cooper went on to earn a degree in communications from CU-Denver, and is working to help children learn movie-making skills.

Olivia has moved on from her farmer's market project to earn a degree from Texas A&M, and now works for Disney in Orlando. And Ali has now retired from teaching.

Knight has also served on the board of the Front Range Community College Foundation for nine years, and is currently the chair. "We've increased the number of scholarships available to adults," he said, noting that adults returning to school often while working are often overlooked when it comes to financial aid. "It's very compelling," he said.

Knight came to Colorado from Minnesota in 1975 after graduating from high school. "I was looking at college catalogs, back when they were booklets, and saw that CU offered a lot of advanced degrees, so I thought it must be a pretty good school," he said. "I arrived with $100 in my pocket, and when I got here, they told me the dorms were full, so I ended up at a youth hostel on the Hill for a few days."

By 1978, Knight had graduated and began working at StorageTek. "I was here for the boom," he said, and he eventually ended up in Australia where his daughter was born. He returned to Colorado, earning a masters degree from CU-Denver, and has continued to work in the high tech field. He currently works for Akira Technologies, a small business that sells products and services to the federal government.

Knight is looking forward to his first meeting on the LID Advisory Committee April 5. "I was talking to Laura Skaggs last summer at Whistle Stop Park where the NCA was helping out at Rock & Rails," he said. "She told me she was stepping down and told me I should apply. I'm looking forward to it as another level of service to the community."