Catherine McHale's term as NBA Economic Development Director ends

Last month, Catherine McHale completed her contract with the town of Niwot as the Niwot Business Association's Economic Development Director (EDD). She has held that role since 2018, and this milestone marks a change in her professional life.

"It's been a great five years," McHale said. "At the same time, essentially, I feel that it's time to focus on my core business. I've achieved a lot of things that I wanted to with Niwot but it's time to make a shift."

McHale talked about things she feels she achieved in the position. First was the campaign, Small Town, Big Heart that has become part of Niwot's branding in recent years. McHale said she appreciated being able to work on this campaign because it expressed how it is possible to have a small town, but still express a brand with it. She felt that the phrase's words represent Niwot.

During her tenure, McHale also introduced the use of videos to town marketing. Through the years, these videos have shown what Niwot events are like, and what it feels like to be in the town. She said the first video received more than 16,000 views on Facebook within its first month.

McHale was also a key part of bringing Dancing Under the Stars to Niwot. The Friday night summer event has become part of the community and she plans to continue to work with the event.

McHale has quite a few memories during her tenure as EDD. "One of the things I remember was the celebration that happened when the town purchased the Ukrainian sculpture," she said. "There was music, people were coming together. They were showing support for people from Ukraine. There was so much in one moment. That's Niwot."

From time to time, members of other communities closely connected McHale to the town. "I was out in Longmont in a restaurant once," she said. "Someone came up to me and said, 'I know you, you're the Niwot woman.' That made me kind of proud."

Her work also took place as the community was grappling with Covid-19. She recalled an intense focus on supporting the businesses in town during that time. A key part of that was bringing in information from the state and county levels for business owners.. She also focused on encouraging the community to shop local and encouraged general support of businesses that were here. She recalled a lot of discussion about the Small Town Big Heart concept, and about encouraging the town's residents to look after each other as a community.

McHale recalled that when the EDD role was originally imagined, it was designed to try to keep some vibrancy downtown in the midst of several vacancies in the commercial district. "I'm delighted that, at the end of my tenure, there's only 2 or 3 vacant spaces in the town," she said. And once [the businesses] are here, I've tried my best to support them so they can be successful."

Going forward, McHale plans to use her background in marketing to focus on one of her areas of passion: small businesses. She'll be offering workshops, training and programs that will help them grow. At the same time, as a Niwot resident who is passionate about the businesses and community here, she plans to continue to stay involved as she appreciates the characteristics of the town.

"There are great people here, and they all have an expertise that they share with the community because of their passion for Niwot," she said. "It's great that we can draw on our community to get experts on whatever we need to do for the community. Everyone pulls together."

Eric Bergeson, president of the Niwot Business Association, reported to the Local Improvement Advisory Committee (LID) that the NBA plans to redefine the EDD position to focus more on administrative support for the many events in Niwot, in addition to other areas of focus including marketing and social media. In the future, more than one person may contract to provide those services. The EDD position has been supervised by the Niwot Future League, which Bergeson also heads.