NCA Cleanup Day

Members of the Niwot Community Association (NCA) are hoping that this year’s Niwot Cleanup Day doesn’t resemble last year’s event.

“I think we are all hoping for much better weather this year,” NCA President Dick Piland said at the NCA’s May 4 meeting. “Last year we all got pretty wet.”

Early weather forecasts call for sunny weather on May 14 in contrast to the wet and snowy weekends in the recent past. “Maybe we’ll get a good day this year,” event chair Heidi Storz said.

Niwot Cleanup Day will be held from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, May 14 in the parking lot of Niwot High School on Niwot Road. “We work with St. Vrain Valley School District to set the date each year,” NCA board member Kathy Koehler explained. “They have a spring schedule for cleaning their parking lots before graduation is held on Memorial Day weekend, and we have to be finished before they come to clean the parking lot at Niwot High.”

Cleanup Day is a service provided free to NCA members; non-members pay $40 a load. However, non-members can join the NCA on-the-spot by paying the $30 annual dues. “We usually get about 35 membership renewals on Cleanup Day,” commented Koehler.

Members can bring yard waste including limbs, clippings, and leaves; household debris, furniture, metal, and junk; latex paint; and metals to recycle such as iron, steel, aluminum and common alloys. Electronics, including computers and peripherals will be recycled for an extra fee. There will also be a swap area for gently used items.

Some items will not be accepted at Cleanup Day. Those include refrigerators, motorized equipment with gas or oil, construction debris including drywall and fixtures, hazardous waste, non-latex paint, solvents and household garbage.

“We will also not take any televisions,” Piland said. “Best Buy will take those and recycle them for free, so we want people to take their TVs to Best Buy.”

Last year, despite the cold and rainy weather, the NCA collected three dumpsters of yard waste, five dumpsters of assorted debris, and recycled 1,500 pounds of electronics. One dumpster of scrap metal also was collected and recycled, along with several gallons of latex paint.

Audiovisuals

At the May 4 meeting, NCA members agreed to ask Boulder County Commissioners to allow members of the public to use audiovisual materials when they present their positions at public hearings on the proposed retail marijuana outlet in Niwot. Boulder County staff often use audiovisual materials for presentations on the topic prior to the public hearing before commissioners.

At a recent Boulder County Planning Commission public hearing on the Niwot proposal, county Land Use staff and the applicant used audiovisual materials. Planning commissioners also allowed pooled-time speakers to use the audiovisual system to present their position, which planning commissioners said went “smoothly.”

NCA members agreed that the same opportunity should be available during the commissioners’ public hearing on the proposal.

In other news, the NCA board voted to donate $500 to the fifth grade team from Niwot Elementary to help fund the team’s competition at the Odyssey of the Mind world finals in Ames, Iowa, on May 24-28.