NEDERLAND — The Nederland Board of Trustees (BOT) met on Tuesday, September 1, 2026, to tackle a rather large list of issues.

Topping that agenda was the complicated matter of the request from local nonprofit TEENS, Inc. to pay the outstanding water and wastewater fees for their new seven million dollar childcare center over a five-year period. 

The issue of TEENS, Inc.’s $361,582 debt to the Town of Nederland’s Utilities Department for tap in fees—or PIF, which the Town defines as Public Infrastructure Fees—was originally brought to the Board’s attention on August 4, 2026, when TEENS, Inc. Executive Director Stephen LeFaiver discussed his formal letter requesting a payment plan. 

As the fees were expected to be collected during the permitting process back in 2025, they had already been budgeted by the Town for the Utilities Departments’ needs in 2026 and 2027. Because of this, the “trade-off” to the BOT granting TEENS, Inc.’s request could result in delays in progress for some of the Town’s capital improvement projects, and possibly in a rate increase for all water and wastewater rate-payers. 

As a result of the Board’s previous discussion on this matter on August 18, Town staff was directed to return with information regarding TEENS, Inc.’s collateral options, and an analysis on what a three-year payment plan would look like. Additionally, the nonprofit youth organization was asked to consider paying 3% interest on their staged payments, and with making their first payment in 2026. 

By September 1, the discussion had slightly evolved, with TEENS, Inc. and the Town having included some additional terms for consideration, including the ability for prepayment at any time without penalty; a 5% late charge, with “late” meaning 10 days after a due date; a reasonable notice and cure period before enforcement measures are enacted; and “good faith” efforts to be conducted by TEENS, Inc. in identifying outside funding opportunities to repay the debt quickly. 

TEENS, Inc. remained open to paying a 3% interest rate, and to either a three-year payment plan at $127,830 a year, or a five-year plan at $79,953 a year. When it came to payments, TEENS, Inc. expressed that they would prefer annual payments, but would accept making quarterly, semiannual, or monthly payments if preferred by the Town. 

As for whether TEENS, Inc. was willing to consider an escrow arrangement involving the childcare center at 750 West 5th Street, and/or the teen center at 151 East Street, the organization would rather not propose any real property or other collateral in order to secure the obligation, but would rather use its lease of the teen center as the “principal enforcement mechanism” in case of payment default. 

“Following default and an appropriate notice and cure period, the Town could terminate or otherwise enforce the Teen Center lease in a manner that would prevent TEENS from continuing operations at that property,” the September 1 report from the Town reads. “Staff does not consider this equivalent to financial security for the obligation.”

According to the report, TEENS, Inc. prefers this arrangement over the difficulty involved with establishing real property as collateral, and believes that the potential loss of the childcare center and the “resulting consequences for its relationships with Boulder Valley School District (BVSD), funders, students, and families” is sufficient motivation for the organization to make its payments. 

Town staff, however, has trepidations about the proposal, particularly seeing the teen center as no asset that would in any way secure the debt. Additionally, the Town does not believe that shutting down the teen center is a practical enforcement measure, considering the impact it would have.

 “Once TEENS is operating programs—and students, families, BVSD, and outside funders are relying on those programs—terminating operations could create substantial consequences for parties other than TEENS,” the report reads. “The Town could therefore reach a point where it has the contractual ability to exercise a remedy but significant reasons not to do so.”

LeFaiver reiterated to the Board that TEENS, Inc. is in good standing according to their lease, referring to whether the organization was late on the fees.

“We have until 60 days after substantial completion of the building to pay these fees,” LeFaiver said, “and it’s important because it portrays that we’re not doing things the way we’re supposed to be doing them, but we’re right where we’re supposed to be based on the lease.” 

He also wanted to clarify that, according to the Town’s recent discussions with the Utilities Department regarding their expensive capital plans and the inevitability of 9% rate hikes a year for the next five years, TEENS, Inc. is not the sole cause of the previously estimated $461 increase for each rate payer. 

Both of these claims by LeFaiver were challenged by Trustees and Town Manager Jonathan Cain, who argued that the $461 is a calculation based on the amount of expected revenue from TEENS, Inc.’s unpaid PIFs that the Town had already budgeted for. 

Trustee Topher Donahue noted that the $461 calculation is a “moot point” since TEENS, Inc. is actually planning to pay their fees, not waive them. 

Cain also added that the lease states that the fees are due before the facility is awarded the certificate of occupancy—which LeFaiver said TEENS, Inc. had received on August 18, permitting them to open by September 21.  

Section 3.03 of the Ground Lease approved under Emergency Ordinance 872 back in February, 2025 states: “no later than 60 days after the last day of the Construction Period and receipt of an itemized statement from Nederland (‘Itemized Statement of Tap In Fees’) and approval of the same, by TEENS, in TEENS sole discretion, for TEENS Intended Use, TEENS agrees to pay all legally required water and sewer tap fees (the ‘Tap In Fees’), in a timely manner.”

After many parents took the podium to emotionally describe their hardships due to the lack of childcare in the area, and after LeFaiver noted the decline in elementary school enrollment and the closing of local schools, the BOT approved granting TEENS, Inc. a five-year payment plan. There will be no interest on the first payment in 2026, and with the interest on all following payments to be adjusted according to annual inflation.  

This matter will be drafted in an official ordinance for Trustees to review and vote on for approval during their next meeting.

The Nederland Board of Trustees meets on the first and third Tuesday of every month. The next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, September 15, 2026, at 7 p.m. and can be attended either online or in person at the Nederland Community Center. 

For more information go to: townofnederland.colorado.gov/board-of-trustees.