The Town of Nucla, similar to Naturita and its efforts the last few years, is working to get and keep things cleaned up. Brooke Smith has been working as the town’s code enforcement and animal control officer. She has a patrol car, is out on the streets and has the authority to write tickets that must be addressed with the Nucla court system. She’s making sure people are keeping their properties picked up, dealing with their trash and keeping animals under control. As of the end of 2024, she’s also wearing a body camera for safety, transparency and accountability.
Nucla Town Trustee Paula Brown agreed the work is important.
“Yes, absolutely I believe it’s important for safety and beautification,” she said Jan. 4. “When I ran for the board the first time, we had a candidate forum and heard from citizens … They said these things are important things to them. It’s taken a while to find the right person to fill that position, but we have heard from citizens that it’s important.”
Brown said she thinks Smith is doing a good job so far, “based on everything (she’s) seen.” Brown said Smith appears to conduct herself with professionalism, attends town meetings and gives updates on her work.
And, Brown said it is important that all are respectful to Smith.
“She’s there to do a job which is to enforce the town’s code, and she should be treated with the utmost respect,” she said. “Anyone who does any sort of enforcement, it’s not going to be an easy job, and if she doesn’t do her job by the book, she’s going to have a hard time being fair to the citizens.”
Brown said so far Smith has been fair and especially while dealing with challenging situations where people are living in campers and don’t have a variance to do so, or rights-of-way issues, where people have unlicensed vehicles sitting indefinitely.
Brown said Smith is starting small and working to educate people as she goes. She also said the Town of Nucla hasn’t been enforcing many of its ordinances in recent years, so there’s an adjustment.
Town meetings get tense
In Nucla’s Oct. 23 town meeting, related to Smith and her work, Brown said she had concerns with Nucla’s mayor, Kirk Yerke, because of his interactions with Smith. Some written statements were gathered because of the hostile nature of an incident, which involved the mayor’s dog. Brown said she felt it was important to clear the air and obtain a statement from the mayor as well.
The mayor, though, said he wasn’t interested in discussing it. He said the code enforcement officer should get used to it, since she’s bound to take a lot of heat in her code enforcement job. He added he was upset and felt the code enforcement was a personal attack on him. He said his dogs didn’t stray that far, that his dog was just 100 or so feet from his house. He feels the town has more pressing issues to cover in code enforcement, and he’s gotten a few tickets over the dog issue.
“Is that what is important on our list?” he asked trustees in that meeting.
Brown said while Smith’s job might make for tense situations, no negativity toward the officer should come from town staff or officials. Other trustees told the mayor it was important to lead by example. They said the town has a leash law for a reason, and that being an elected official means one is held to a higher standard.
Some argument between the mayor and trustees continued.
The conversation continued into the Nov. 13 town meeting, which was also tense, especially since an additional incident with the mayor and his dog had occurred.
“If you all still have a problem with me and my dogs, then you do something about it,” the mayor told the board.
Trustees again asked him to lead by example and to follow the law with his own dogs.
Yerke said he was trying and had built a big fence in the back of his place. He added that he was elected to serve as mayor by the popular vote, and that he had support from the community, and especially from those who wanted to see him create change at Town Hall.
Trustees told him that he was only elected to run town meetings, which he did very poorly. Yerke then after continued argument with the board left the November meeting before it was adjourned. Trustees and town staff then discussed speaking to attorney to get advice.
Since then, a recall petition circulated in December, and signatures were gathered to warrant a mayoral recall election in 2025. The mayor told the Forum in the Dec. 18 edition that the recall was based on a personal vendetta from real estate developers that he didn’t support in building a project on Nucla’s Main Street. He also said he’d apologized to the code enforcement officer.
Hittinger calls for better leadership
Joseph Hittinger, helping to initiate the recall and who aims to establish a development on Main Street, agreed to speak to the Forum. Hittinger said he attends town meetings said commends Town Clerk Melissa Lampshire, since she does well preparing the meeting packets and distributing them in advance.
According to Hittinger, the mayor, though, is frequently unprepared and has a high number of absences from town meetings, specifically at least eight during the last two years, and other four for which he attempted to call in by phone. Hittinger said he’s displeased with the mayor’s lack of professional conduct, his disrespect toward town staff and a general lack of effort in his approach to serving as mayor.
Hittinger said it’s true that he’s working on a development on Main Street, next to the old Nucla School. He said he’s already received a variance to go to work on his residential and commercial construction. That was seven months ago, however.
“I was awarded the variance I asked for,” he said, though he added the mayor was the only one who voted against it.
Still he said he has no reason to seek retribution, since his project has been approved.
Hittinger said his concern is professionalism and having the town’s best interest at heart.
“Look at what’s been happening in Nucla the last 20 years,” he said. “We have a dwindling population, and no real reinvestment into the town, except for the Tookers. We need slow and steady growth for new energy and ideas.”
Hittinger has been attending the Community Builder’s sessions too, for re-visioning the West End. He said leadership matters at this time.
“It’s about helping the town grow in a very thoughtful manner,” he said. “We have someone at the helm with no vision and who doesn’t want to see any change. It’s not sustainable. This is nothing personal. It’s about leadership.”
Hittinger said it’s true that the mayor was elected, but it’s also true the mayor screamed in a meeting “What are you going to do about it?”
“There is something we can do about it,” he told the Forum. “This is a democracy.”
