NEDERLAND — The Nederland Board of Trustees (BOT) faced an agenda full with a property rezoning request, a commercial land use issue, a Boulder County property tax increase proposal, and the opportunity to recommit to the state’s Proposition 123 affordable housing initiative. But only one issue was creating any significant backlash from the community: the Eldora acquisition. 

More than 17 Nederland residents showed up to the BOT’s October 20, 2026, meeting in person, along with another dozen locals who joined online, all to voice their concerns and condemnation regarding the Town of Nederland’s troubled attempt to acquire the Eldora Mountain Resort from POWDR. 

Though the acquisition process has been underway for nearly two years, residents who were once slightly skeptical became irate after the recent announcement from Mayor Nichole Sterling revealing that the previous purchase agreement with POWDR had expired and that the Town was in over $2.5 million in debt from the due diligence and bond underwriting processes.

The community discourse has mainly remained online and has included talk of bankruptcy, disincorporation, and mayoral recall, as well as the threat of introducing citizen-drafted resolutions and petitions to limit or end entirely the Town’s continued efforts toward the acquisition. 

In an effort to calm the discourse and “support ongoing transparency,” the BOT has made the Eldora Transaction a standing informational item that will return on each meeting’s agenda. Though the item included an expenditure summary, the Town stated that a more thorough expenditures report will be provided during the Board’s first 2027 Town Budget work session on November 5. 

Recently, resident and former trustee Dallas Masters amassed all available financial information on the acquisition into a central database: eldorarecord.org. The data, compiled by Claude AI, has been hailed by Nederland residents as more comprehensive than anything the Town of Nederland has provided them. 

Masters spoke during the Public Comment portion of the October 20 meeting, providing a resolution to halt further spending, impose deadlines, and require Board votes for specific milestones. He drafted the resolution himself and hoped that it would be brought to the table by at least one trustee, which did not happen. 

Over 30 minutes of the meeting was spent hearing public comments, all on the Eldora acquisition and the majority of which were in opposition to the Town continuing to pursue the ski area. 

Residents, business litigators, wildfire specialists, local business owners, former Planning Commission members, former trustees, and former mayors of other Colorado small towns took to the microphone to comment on what the majority of the community felt was an investment gone sour with the potential to wreak irreparable financial harm on the Town. 

The comments from the community included anger over the misdirection from trustees that no taxpayer funds would be required to pay off the accrued debt in the event the acquisition is not completed.

Many brought up the Town’s lack of expertise with such deals, and demanded the BOT end the acquisition and shift their focus to parking, housing, sidewalks, infrastructure, and other goals outlined in the recently updated Comprehensive Plan. 

Various speakers demanded transparency and that all trustees sign an agreement recusing themselves from any potential employment opportunities from the Eldora acquisition. One former Nederland volunteer noted that the debt accrued by the acquisition has the potential to put Town employees’ retirement funds at risk if the Town were to bear the cost. 

After public comment, the BOT continued with their informational update regarding Eldora and stated that the Town “continues to pursue opportunities to acquire Eldora at the purchase price of $120 million,” and that Mayor Sterling is continuing to “explore revenue bonds, governmental grants, foundation funding, and private contributions” to support that pursuit. 

Also included in the update was a general overview of the sale-leaseback structure which was introduced by Sterling in her September 30 announcement as a means to provide potential bond purchasers with a more secure deal.

The structure was compared to commercial mortgage financing, though lenders do not have to go through a foreclosure process in order to “realize on the underlying collateral” in the event of default. 

“In simple terms,” the Town wrote in the overview, “the (Bond) Trustee holds legal title to the land and improvements throughout the term of the bonds. If an Event of Default occurs, the Trustee may exercise remedies authorized by the financing documents without first completing a traditional foreclosure process; those remedies could affect who operates or leases the resort. Once the bonds are paid in full, title to the property is conveyed back to the Enterprise.”

Trustees Kristopher Larsen and Billy Giblin, as well as Mayor Pro Tem Luke Miller gave statements regarding the growing community demand to end the acquisition, reiterating that the Town has gone too far to turn back now, and they they are currently in a position with the acquisition where they are not incurring additional costs. 

Giblin said that, though he did not blame the community for losing trust in their representatives, stopping the acquisition at this time would be “immature,” “irresponsible,” and “negligent,” and equated such a move to flushing $2.5 million down the toilet. 

Residents in attendance were shocked at the Board’s doubling-down on seeming to ignore their request to end the acquisition or accept the citizen-drafted guardrails, and, though public comment was not called for, began speaking out and demanding answers.  

Masters asked why his resolution was not being considered, and soon after, several other members of the public raised their voices to be heard. Much of the criticism was directed at Mayor Sterling, who was noted in the Board’s Agenda Information Memorandum as being the person primarily working on the acquisition.

The crowd wanted to know why Sterling did not personally provide any update to the public alongside Larsen, Giblin, and Miller. They also criticized Trustee Larsen’s statement that the Town’s hired attorney would be committing more work to the acquisition, as that directly contradicted the narrative that no more debt was being accrued. 

Just as Mayor Sterling forcefully ended the discussion and moved on to the next item on the Board’s agenda, the majority of the crowd walked out and left the building, roughly 15 minutes before two Boulder County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrived.  

A final comment was shouted by one resident as the crowd left—a sentiment shared by many who felt not only misrepresented, but ignored, and who wanted something to resonate with their elected officials—“I hope you feel this anger when you deliberate about this. I really hope you do.” 

The Nederland Board of Trustees meets on the first and third Tuesday of every month. The next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, November 3, 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.