This is the third in a series the Estes Valley Voice is publishing on the individuals who serve as Estes Park Town Trustees. The first featured Mark Igel. The second featured Frank Lancaster.
“It’s the hardest job I’ve ever had, and every day I feel like I’m not good at it,” said Town of Estes Park Trustee Kirby Hazelton about working in local government. Elected in 2022 after living and working in Estes Park for more than a decade, Hazelton is serving her first term as a trustee.
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When she moved to town in 2011, she was hired by Visit Estes Park, the local marketing district, as the director of partnership development. There she quickly became familiar with local issues through the organization’s stakeholders.
“Peggy Campbell hired me, which was the best thing to happen to me because it brought me into such a community experience,” Hazelton said. “I was just thrown into meeting all these people around town and so, I credit it as a big reason why I am now in this seat.”
She didn’t come to town as a complete newcomer, however. Her parents, Ward and Pat Nelson, retired to Estes Park from North Chicago, a suburb about 45 minutes north of the city, in 2008.
“I was 24 when I moved here, and the only people I knew were my parents and my parent’s friends,” she said.
“I loved the family community feel of Estes. It’s like you’re part of a family that lives here. You go through winters together. You go through tough stuff together. And people were so willing to invite me into that from a business perspective, they were always really welcoming. And I think I credit that a lot to what made me fall in love with living here.”
That small-town quality was a surprise to Hazleton, who had grown up and worked in urban areas. After graduating from Colorado College in Colorado Springs with a degree in business and economics, she took a job in Denver and “did the corporate thing for a while,” she said. But this was in the middle of the recession, so her career didn’t take off very quickly. When her lease was up and a relationship ended, she moved to Estes Park to start over.
VEP had just formed when Hazelton was hired. After that, she co-owned a local brewery for a time and then went on to work in marketing for local hospitality businesses.
Currently, she is the communications specialist for the Estes Valley Library and the girls’ soccer coach at Estes Park High School. She’s served on various nonprofit boards in Town over the years, and as a trustee, she is the board liaison to VEP and Estes Park Restorative Justice.
At 37, she’s the youngest member of the current board. She first became interested in participating in local government even earlier, almost from the time she moved to town, but her father, Ward Nelson, ran and served on the board first, so she decided to wait.
“I was attracted to the idea of being one of the decision-makers for our community,” Hazelton said. “I loved the idea of being at that level of strategic planning and visioning, but when I first started thinking about it, (I was thinking) I had a lot of work to do before I would feel qualified to do this job.”
When she’s researching every issue, asking questions about processes she’s not clear on, and listening to all sides of any controversy she rules on, Hazelton is looking for the middle ground. She’s heard the comments and complaints of the local business community since the time she moved here. Working toward compromises seemed like the best use of her time in public service.
“I feel like it’s urgent for us to find this balance where we’re not tipping the scale too far in one direction or the other,” she said of her job as Trustee. She enjoys working with her fellow trustees and appreciates the various points of view brought to each debate.
Hazelton thinks effective teamwork between the seven trustees and among the other local taxing districts and the county are of upmost importance.
“I thought I could give the working (people) representation on Town Board,” said Hazelton. “When I moved here, there was just all this talk about ‘there’s no young people here.’ It was expensive, but not impossible, to buy a house then. All of that nudged me in that direction: running for Town Board.”
During the 1,000-year flood of 2013, literally during it, Kirby Nelson and Jordan Hazelton were married in Estes Park. But first, they met at a bar, The Wheel Bar.
“He was there for poker night because they used to do that huge poker night on Tuesdays,” Hazelton remembered. “And, I lived downtown and had just gone for a run and was like, oh man, I’m gonna have a beer,” she said. She had been introduced to him a few times previously but that night, “he said he watched me walk in, recognized it was me, and on his next hand, went all in so that he could come up to the bar and talk to me that night,” she said. He lost the hand but won over the woman.
Hazelton’s term on the Town Board is up next year, and she might run again.
“I think what I feel most proud of at this moment in time is understanding how to navigate through the tough job of being in public service,” she said. “The tough, but really rewarding, job of being in public service.
“I really want to do a good job for this community,” Hazelton said. “I think I’d be proud of that desire to always be better for our community.”
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