Coal to Community: How Hayden is Overcoming the Challenge of Coal Transition

Prepared by: Mathew Mendisco

Prepared For: Itasca Economic Development Corporation

Sparking Change Conference

Mathew Mendisco

Master’s Degree: University of Colorado at Denver (CU Denver): Political Science, Emphasis in Public Policy and Leadership

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Undergraduate Degree: Political Science Emphasis in Foreign Policy and Finance.

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Town Manager in Hayden, CO for the last eight years

CliftonLarsonAllen LLP in the public sector group for 10 years as a management consultant for governmental and private real estate clients.

The Real Mathew Mendisco

Purpose, Vision, Mission, Values

Purpose: To give you a launch point. To embolden you to tell your story that leads to ACTION.

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VISION: You set your vision.

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MISSION: I want you to see a future of possibility. But you are going to have to work for it.

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VALUES: I can sometimes be a little poetic (remember, miner at heart). My presentation style is simple: be real, be authentic, and true to my values.

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Challenge Me, Question Me, Push Me, I promise I won’t be offended.

Presentation Structure

Part 1: The Hayden Story

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Part 2: The Hayden Strategy.

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Part 3: 13 Ways to Kill you Community

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Part 4: Hayden’s Stats before and After

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Closing: The importance of leadership and remembering who you are fight for.

History of Hayden’s Coal Journey

Story of Hayden’s Coal Journey

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/visualizing-the-history-of-energy-transitions/

What are you fighting for?

The reality: We are now in the next energy transition.

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When we started this transition most people said “if coal goes, we are done.”

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“Coal has been a part of our history for over 100 years. We are coal and coal is us.”

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The question we had to answer was “why” is it so important? Putting the economic benefits aside, why was it so important to people?

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Maybe energy is energy?

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Maybe Hayden was what was important. MY COMMUNITY MATTERS.

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Photo Credit: Dylan Anderson

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What can happen?

Ever seen the movie “Hillbilly Elegy”?

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When jobs leave, and incomes go down, “other” things replace them.

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Businesses need people.

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Schools need kids.

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Infrastructure needs people. A waste water system does not work without flushing.

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“You always have a choice”

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What did Hayden Do? What was our Strategy?

Bill Hayden, local business owner: “The best investment a community can make is in itself”.

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We had a choice? Would the federal government come to save coal? NO! Would Xcel? NO. It was up to us.

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We decided to lead with purpose. We knew we were (and still are) in a race against time.

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How do you replace 55% of a school or fire districts assessed value?

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How do you replace 250 jobs with an average salary of 85-95K?

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GSD Model: Get Sh** Done.

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Do you know your data?

• Hayden is a Town of around 2,800 people.

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• 41% of folks in Hayden were born in Colorado as of 2022. In 2017 it was 65%. In Routt County is 31%.

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• Coal represents around 250 jobs in our region.

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• Salary of those jobs starting on low end is around 85K per year to 95K per year.

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• Coal Industry represent 55% of total property taxes for our area as of 2017.

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• Based on the jobs #’s and data about spending locally, losing these income levels is a net loss of $6,330,000 per year in the community.

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• In 2018 Xcel Energy announced that it was going to close Hayden Station in 2030 and 2038. In 2020 they announced they were accelerating that closure to 2027 and 2028.

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What did Hayden Do?

We analyzed our data to determine the six most successful business industries since 1970 (6 weeks).

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We invested in ourselves. We upgraded, we created, and we invested in our people.

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We started the “Hayden Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Project”.

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We set up a system of quick response because we did not have time to discuss things in a committee.

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We still wanted to be the leaders in energy production, just differently.

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We stuck to what we knew, but took a lot of risks to get there.

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13 Ways to Kill you Community (From the Book)

• Forget the Water!!!!!!!!!!!
• Don’t engage Youth.
• Grow Complacent.
• Shop Elsewhere.
• Don’t Cooperate.
• Reject Everything New.
• Don’t Take Responsibility.
• Shut out Your Seniors.
• Don’t Attract Business.
• Live in the Past.
• Don’t Paint.

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Grant Making

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• Grants per Year: 6 – 8 per year.
• Average Grant Size: 1.5 to 2 million
• We also apply to the small one that average 15 – 25K.
• Grants Dollars per Year: $ 4.368 million
• 50 million in 8 years.
• Grant Stacking (matching): Tricky business but how you get ahead. Make sure you check with your grantee that you can stack their grant.
• For the most part, our directors write our grants.
• We spend a lot on teaching our directors the importance of the exact writing skills.

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State and Federal Resources

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• State Folks: Communities need help (financial), but they don’t need you to burden them with guidance.
• What do you want for your future? Be realistic, capitalize on your assets (which is usually amazing people) and go for it.
• Federal folks: Did you hear the State Folks Comment?

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Key Ingredient: Leadership

LEADERSHIP! Do you have the right people in place?

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Know that there are going to be folks that say “you won’t be able to get it done”. My response, great you don’t need to be a part of our team then, we are winners.

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Do you have the right plan in place?

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This is hard “sh**”.

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Fail a lot, and pivot quickly. You must be willing to pivot without committee.

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Pushing the Envelope

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• How do you stay nimble?
• Grants help, but you have to be willing to take risks.
• Project Management: We typically start projects within a week of signing grant agreements.
• We turn in grant requests within 1 day of the approval of the check.
• When in doubt, lead the issue, but do it based on reality.
• How do you make decisions? What is your decision tree?

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If they can do it, so can you.

Challenge?

Thank You

Consultant by night mmmendisco@gmail.com, 303-845-0031

Thank You