Hi neighbors! In Monday night’s Town Board Meeting, we discussed impacts of the Marshall Fire, deferred budgetary decisions for the CAPS Plein Air event and the Tract H playground, and approved the Town’s first ever Sustainability Action Plan. Ready to find out more on what happened? As usual, you may read this post in written form, subscribe to the Laura for Superior podcast, or scroll to the bottom for a video recap.

Disclaimer: While I do my best to represent an honest and accurate portrayal of meetings and events, the following should be considered an editorial that represents one person’s interpretation. At the request of my fellow Board members, I am not attributing any points to them. For the most unbiased and complete information, I encourage residents to watch the meeting video and draw their own conclusions – visit the town website at SuperiorColorado.gov for the official meeting video and meeting minutes.

Item 2D – Marshall Fire Update and Discussion

We kicked off our Board meeting with an update and discussion on the Marshall Fire. We were joined by Congressman Joe Neguse, who helped secure federal aid in the immediate aftermath of the fire, and who expressed his sympathies and support for our community.

Finance Director Paul Nilles provided an update noting that we expect about $2M of revenue losses for the town due to the fire, as well as an extra $4M-5M outlay in rebuilding costs. However, we hope to recoup most of that from FEMA, insurance, and other third parties.

On the potable water front, our Utilities & Public Works department has just had the tanks cleaned to try to mitigate the smell / taste issue. We are also planning to try bypassing our reservoir next week, to see if that helps, and then potentially clean out the reservoir if that is the issue. In the meantime, I have been researching various whole home water filtration systems for my own house, and am also working to negotiate a discount for Superior homeowners – please stay tuned for more on this.

A member of the Board strongly recommended that everyone file a claim with their home insurance and have a full inspection done, to ensure that any soot / smoke / ash damage is remediated now rather than uncovered years down the line, when it may not be covered by insurance. I am personally going to be following this advice, and urge others to do the same.

Town Manager Matt Magley let us know that we are looking into hiring private security to monitor the burn area, as we have been getting many complaints about non-residents coming to “sightsee” and being disrespectful. (During public comment, we heard from a resident on Andrew Drive, Hannah Comb, who noted that there is a constant stream of non-residents coming through the area taking photos and videos; she asked that we put up manned checkpoints like there are in Louisville.)

During public comment, resident Michelle Gazarik also invited any affected residents to come to the free shop at 375 McCaslin Blvd (next to Chipotle), to take what you need to make your life a little more comfortable. The shop is open daily from 10am-5pm; more details are here.

Item 3 – Consent Agenda

Next, our Board unanimously passed the consent agenda – including meeting minutes, an intergovernmental agreement with Boulder County regarding a voter service and polling center for the 2022 general election, an approval of the tenth amendment to the Town Manager’s Employment Agreement, and an approval of the amendment to an agreement with Hoffmann, Parker, Wilson & Carberry, P.C. for General Counsel Services.

Item 3E, funding for the Cultural Arts & Public Spaces (CAPS) Plein Air Event this fall, was pulled for discussion. While this event would cost only $1000 and we are supportive of CAPS’ work, a member of the Board was concerned about spending money on anything other than fire recovery until we can re-work our 2022 budget. We decided to defer this decision until our February 14th meeting, after our Finance Committee can review the budget and provide a recommendation.

Item 3F, consideration of the 2022 Advisory Group Work Plans, was also pulled for discussion. Four of our citizen-led Advisory committees (the Superior Youth Leadership Council (SYLC), the Open Space Advisory Committee (OSAC), the Parks and Recreation Committee (PARC), and the Advisory Committee for Environmental Sustainability (ACES) put together work plans for the year; however, they were developed prior to the fire. As such, we amended them to add the following statement: “Consider issues, problems, and/or challenges resulting from the Marshall Fire that fall within the purview of the committee, and make associated recommendations to the Town Board, as necessary.” With that addition, the work plans were unanimously approved.

Item 4 – Consideration and Approval of Increased Funding Request for Toll Brothers Tract H and Playground

In September 2019, we approved an FDP for blocks 16-24 of Downtown Superior, including a park and playground on Tract H (near the stub end of Coal Creek Drive and Lanterns Lane). We initially approved $300K for this, and then added $75K in April 2021; however, rising building costs have now brought the estimated cost to $484K, or another $109K over our current budget. The new project cost does include a scope reduction, removing the small shade structure and one of three tunnel structures. As with our discussion of the budget for the CAPS Plein Air event, we decided to defer this decision until our February 14 meeting in order to review our Town Budget in light of the fire, and also to ask Toll Brothers to consider shouldering some of the cost increase.

Item 5 – Adoption of a Resolution Approving the 2022 Sustainability Action Plan

Finally, we reviewed and unanimously approved the Town’s first ever Sustainability Action Plan, developed by ACES and our Town Sustainability Analyst with input from residents, the Town Board, and Town Staff. The plan includes seven focus areas, with specific objectives, current state details, and tactical actions for each. The focus areas and objectives are as follows:

• Climate – Achieve net-zero emissions and become resilient to the impacts of climate change (with specific targets to reduce communitywide greenhouse gas emissions by 25% by 2025, by 60% by 2030, and to net zero by 2050)
• Energy – Eliminate the consumption of fossil fuels in Superior (with municipal goals to reduce municipal building and facility energy use intensity by 3% annually over 2019 baseline and continue to receive 100% of residential electric needs from carbon-free sources and increase onsite renewable energy; residential goals to reduce electricity use by 2% annually and natural gas consumption by 2% annually through 2030 and achieve 90% of residential electric needs from carbon-free sources by 2030; and a commercial goal to reduce combined electricity and natural gas use by 3% annually through 2030)
• Zero Waste – Reduce the amount of materials consumed in Superior and discarded in the landfill (including a municipal goal of 65% diversion from landfill by 2025, a single-family residential goal of 65% diversion from landfill by 2030, and a multi-family goal of 50% diversion from landfill by 2035)
• Water – Ensure sufficient, clean water for current and future generations and habitats by reducing consumption, building capacity, improving storm water quality and becoming drought resilient (with community-wide 2030 goals to reduce potable water use by 3.5%, non-potable water use by 13%, and non-revenue water use to 5% of total treated water per year)
• Air Quality – Ensure clean, clear and healthy air for current and future generations
• Transportation – Support environmentally sustainable, equitable, and accommodating transportation choices (including a municipal goal to transition 100% of the Town’s passenger vehicles and light-duty trucks to electric by 2030, a community goal to increase the share of electric vehicles registered in Superior to 30% by 2030, and a commercial goal to increase the number of publicly available chargers on commercial properties)
• Regeneration and Natural Environment – Establish and maintain healthy and vibrant ecosystems that sustain all species, along with our human population (including municipal goals to maintain and increase healthy tree canopy on Town-owned property and reduce the use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides and other toxins on Town-owned property; and a community goal to reduce the use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and other toxins on residential and commercial properties)

I would highly encourage all residents to read this excellent report, and consider how you may be able to help us in achieving these lofty but important goals. You may read the 2022 Sustainability Action Plan here.

Wrap Up

Thank you so much for taking the time to read / listen to this recap – I hope it is helpful! Our Board is always open to hearing your comments, questions, and concerns – you may always email your feedback to townboard@superiorcolorado.gov, or to me specifically at lauras@superiorcolorado.gov. As a reminder, any messages sent to a government email are part of the public record and will have your name attached; if you feel the need to write in anonymously, you may always comment at the bottom of my blog post recaps.