Erie Mayoral Candidate Profile: Cheryl Hauger

Candidate: Cheryl Hauger

Status: Challenger (currently serving as mayor pro tem)

Candidate Website: hauger4erie.com

Cheryl Hauger knows the issues of Erie. She’s sat on the board of trustees for two terms, and she’s involved herself in numerous issues impacting the town, including transportation, bike lanes and trails, and growth. She’s once again running for mayor, because she feels the board needs to have better leadership and a common vision. With major development decisions on the line, she says the board needs to be more unified in its goals.

Her biggest priorities: She believes the town should be extremely careful while implementing its urban renewal authority and is extremely concerned about using tax-increment financing on greenfields, especially for residential projects (this is a big point where Wilson and Hauger disagree; Wilson says the town should not limit itself to non-greenfield projects). She also says the town needs to continue its inter-governmental agreement with Boulder County and Lafayette, so the town can persue commercial development at 287 and Arapahoe.

Hauger has been a firm supporter of Erie Rising’s education on oil and gas drilling in Erie and is committed to ensuring that future drilling is as safe as possible. She’d like to reinstitute “Erie Hour,” a monthly opportunity for residents to meet with the mayor. She is a proponent of “smart growth,” and Hauger would like to maintain development standards. And she does not believe the town should offer major incentives to potential businesses: “I don’t think we should give the town away,” she said.