Niwot Community Association's events: back on track in '22

The Niwot Community Association’s annual meeting was held April 19 at Left Hand Grange No. 9, facilitated by Niwot Community Association (NCA) president, David Limbach. An in-person audience of nearly 30 people and live online viewers were provided with information regarding 2022 NCA board elections, a review of the NCA’s 2019 activities, and other plans for the present year. It was followed by a timely presentation about wildfires given by Sterling Folden, Deputy Fire Chief of Mountain View Fire Rescue, and Curtis Johnson, Division Chief of the Boulder County Sheriff’s office.

NCA Elections

Slated to close at midnight on April 19, the NCA’s elections gave members the opportunity to vote on re-election of half of the board. As is the NCA’s protocol, allowing for bi-annual rotation of board members, the other positions will be up for election next year.

The final outcome of this year’s election has since been announced with the following results:

David Limbach - President

Leonard Sitongia - Secretary

Kim Hawksworth - Director of Events

Liz Marr - Director of Subdivision Roads.

Each candidate ran unopposed and was reelected to the office they held previously. Newly elected to this year’s board is Emily Limbach - Director of Communications.

Of the eight NCA designated areas within the community, area 4 will once again be represented by Mark Brigham, and Derek Curd was reelected to represent area 8. No one put their name in the hat for area 2 or area 6 or for the position of Director of Trails and Open Space. Instead, three individuals’ names were written in for those positions and, if the individuals agree to join the board, their names will be officially announced.

2021 in Review

With the pandemic overshadowing many public events, the NCA made decisions regarding which of its community attended happenings could occur as usual in 2021, and which were best delayed or morphed into a different version. National Night Out and the Veterans Banner Day were held as originally planned, but the Fourth of July parade became a motorcade only event and Clean Up Day was moved from May to September.

Membership hit an all-time high of 430 households owing to a compelling half-price offer to new members and a free renewal year for existing members. The bargains were extended because pandemic safety measures necessitated canceled events in 2020.

The NCA also supported victims of the Marshall Fire by raising over $2,000 in donations for approximately nine families staying in the Niwot area. The donations included gift cards to Niwot restaurants and the Niwot Market.

NCA 2022 Plans

Limbach also talked about other NCA plans. He said, “For this year, we will be back on track.” The new addition to the NCA happenings calendar is the Tractor Event on June 11. For a full list of upcoming events visit, http://www.niwot.org/events.

The NCA plans to continue its mission of disseminating information to Niwot residents regarding anything pertinent to the community, such as the proposed new library district and the ongoing subdivision road maintenance discussion with the county.

The Niwot Road underpass mural near Centrebridge will be freshened up in July and traffic support by the NCA road crew will continue to keep participants and drivers safe at various Niwot events.

Regarding road maintenance, Limbach said the NCA and the SPC (Subdivision Paving Coalition) are working with Boulder County Public Works to potentially include Niwot street paving in a larger transportation measure in the upcoming fall elections.The first step is for Boulder County to conduct a road paving survey next month..

The possibility of Niwot being included in the Boulder Public Library District garnered the most discussion by meeting attendees. Limbach explained that while the Boulder City Council voted to approve the resolution with Niwot being included. He explained that “The Boulder County Commissioners have tabled the discussion with no resumption date,” adding that that the commissioners are awaiting additional financial information as well as more feedback from the community.

Limbach presented the results of a recent NCA survey showing the majority of respondents were not in favor of paying the proposed tax increase of $26 per $100K of assessed home value being collected to fund Niwot being part of the proposed Boulder library district.

The survey question, “Would you be in favor of being part of the Boulder Library District?” was also met with the majority choosing no on the survey. But if pressed to join either Boulder or Longmont library districts, 87% said they’d prefer Longmont. The survey was not considered by the county to be statistically valid given the small number of 150 respondents. However, the county did find “it was intriguing and worthy of discussion” according to Limbach. Once the discussion with the Boulder County Commissioners resumes, the NCA will be involved.

Presentation on Marshall Fire and other wildfire preparation efforts

As part of the meeting, guest speakers Sterling Folden, Deputy Fire Chief Mountain View Fire Rescue, and Curtis Johnson, Division Chief Boulder County Sheriff’s office, gave an overview of the Marshall Fire outcome and important information about how Niwot residents should prepare in the event the community becomes endangered by a wildfire.

Opting into the Everbridge emergency alert system was an important take-away from the presentation. The system automatically registers community members to receive weather, fire, and other emergency situation warnings. For detailed information on the officials’ presentation and links to recommendations, visit http://www.niwot.org/nca-annual-meeting-note/.

To watch the recorded meeting and presentation, visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WbMiDJpDVk.