Get to know new Boulder County Commissioner Ashley Stolzmann

Louisville Mayor Ashley Stolzmann prevailed in the Nov. 8 election to replace Matt Jones as Boulder County Commissioner for District 3. She won her race by a wide margin, and when she takes office, she will be representing the needs of the Niwot community as part of her work.

Stolzmann brings a great deal of civic service to her new role. Prior to the election and prior to her service as Louisville's mayor, she was, among other things, a member of Louisville's Finance Committee, represented her community on the Denver Regional Council of Governments (DRCOG), and served on area transportation committees. Stolzmann brought leadership to her community during last year's devastating Marshall Fire,

Once she is sworn into her new position as Commissioner next month, Stolzmann says will be focused on representing Boulder County needs at a broader level. With this in mind, she said she will be focusing on several issues that impact Boulder County residents as well as Niwot business owners including climate, housing, transportation and emergency preparedness.

Specifically, Stolzmann said, "Countywide, there is a need to electrify our buildings and transportation to reduce our carbon emissions. This, coupled with cleaning the electric grid (which is on a good pathway), will have the greatest effect on improving our climate future."

She said that in the next several years, families can expect to see programs to educate and help incentivize the transition to energy sources that reduce carbon emissions.

She also believes that the lack of housing affordability is "a nationwide crisis" and indicated that residents should expect to see Boulder County Housing Authority continuing to work with communities to address housing solutions.

Niwot residents may also be looking to Stolzmann to shepherd the emerging bikeway along the Diagonal. She is optimistic about the positive impacts the bikeway will bring to the area and is also looking to the improvements in the road design at the intersection of Highway 52 and the Diagonal Highway to decrease travel time and greatly improve safety.

Another major issue that will affect Niwot is the question about subdivision paving. When asked about this, Stolzmann responded, "In incorporated cities, people pay for their subdivisions to be paved through HOAs or through local city taxes, or, in the worst case, they are not maintained at all. In unincorporated areas, there is not a dedicated tax or single way to pay for the subdivision streets."

She further indicated that finding funding for this may be difficult, and not necessarily equitable to those in incorporated areas of the county. "If the county were to simply pay to pave these roads, the equitable thing to do would be to pave this type of hyper local street for everyone in the county, since we all pay the same county taxes. There is simply not enough funding for this. When the voters have been asked about funding this type of work, which would involve increasing taxes, they have declined."

Stolzmann then reiterated that the County Commissioners are working to care for the existing transportation system and find solutions where possible. She also invited community members to help her find solutions, saying, "I look forward to hearing from Niwot area residents and working together to address our issues and elevate our successes."