Yahoo Finance ‘Privilege of a lifetime’: Longest-serving Caldwell mayor prepares to retire
On a recent Saturday morning, Garret Nancolas was strolling through the Caldwell Farmers Market at Indian Creek Plaza. He felt the hand of his 11-year-old granddaughter, Lilly, in his. He could hear music from the market, the rush of Indian Creek behind them.
The 64-year-old Caldwell mayor took a moment to admire the scene — a city where families could gather, a city he helped to mold. Nancolas said he felt a sense of accomplishment, knowing Caldwell leaders had built a brighter, safer future for Lilly.
When Nancolas announced his retirement in April, city staff, elected officials and community members praised his commitment to follow through with a long-term plan to make Caldwell a safe place for families and a desirable city for business and development.
“It was a goose bump moment,” Nancolas said. “I looked around and I thought, ‘Gosh, this, this is real.’”
Nancolas says he wants to give back, runs for City Council
Nancolas still remembers being 5 years old and running through downtown Caldwell with his brother. His mother had just dropped them off to see a summer movie at the theater and had gone shopping at nearby Safeway and Sears. This was the family’s summer routine, spending afternoons in the city’s bustling downtown.
With children of his own in the early 1990s, Nancolas said he watched those businesses he loved leave Caldwell to go to the Karcher Mall in Nampa and elsewhere in the Treasure Valley. The vacancy rate in the city was 65%, he said.
The city “was in state of disinvestment,” Nancolas said. “Crime started to increase, and we weren’t growing.”
Nancolas’ vision for revitalizing Caldwell began to take shape.
Nancolas was a sales and businessman at the time, working as operations manager at Blacker’s Complete Home Furnishings, a furniture store in Caldwell, when he decided to run for a seat on the City Council in 1989. Little did he know, his decision would lead to 24 years in public office.
“I had these wonderful memories as a young kid,” Nancolas said. “Now I’m raising children and I wanted to do everything I could to give them that same opportunity, and to have a city that gave them all those unique opportunities I had when I was a kid. “
After eight years on the council, Nancolas wanted to do more.
But his decision to run for mayor did not come lightly, Nancolas said. He and his wife, Pamela, had two children, Caleb and Ashley, who were in high school. Nancolas and his wife were planning for their kids’ college tuition.
The family had countless conversations and many prayers together, he said, before Nancolas decided to run for his first four-year term in 1997. His platform emphasized cooperation with other local jurisdictions in the area and his vision for the community.
He was reelected for five more terms, and became the longest-serving mayor in the city’s history.
Mayor Nancolas champions urban renewal in Caldwell
As mayor, Nancolas said his goal was to return to “its proper place as the treasure of the Valley.” He said he wanted to emphasize families in every decision he made as mayor.
The city adopted an initiative through the National League of Cities that helped the city rewrite ordinances to create more walkable communities and open space. It helped the city invest in parks and walking paths and create the mayor’s Youth Advisory Council.
With plans drawn up, Nancolas knew he had to have the funding in place to start his dream projects.
“You’ve heard the saying that ‘a vision without a plan is only a dream,’” Nancolas said. “Early on, I added to that and said, ‘but a vision without a funding mechanism is only a hallucination.’”
In 1998, Nancolas worked to establish the city’s first Urban Renewal District, to provide funding for his plan for downtown.
With an Urban Renewal District, a city freezes all property taxes in a place that’s considered a blighted area. The revenue produced from any increase in property valuations over the district’s lifespan goes into public infrastructure, such as roads and pathways, sanitation services and recreation features.
The city used urban renewal to build Indian Creek Plaza and the Sky Ranch Business Park in North Caldwell. Nancolas said revenue from those districts allowed Caldwell to upgrade its water treatment plant, invest in infrastructure and widen Chinden Boulevard.
Nancola’s 20-plus year plan is just beginning to materialize, said Steven Jenkins, economic development director for Caldwell.
Under Nancola’s last two terms as mayor, the city was challenged with booming growth. Caldwell now has a population of about 60,000, according to the 2020 census — a 30% rise in the past 10 years.
“Without that vision and without the aptitude that he has towards development and growth ... and how that all comes together to build a community, we would not be where we are today,” Jenkins said.
Nancolas says being mayor was privilege of a lifetime
Nancolas stood up in the city’s beloved plaza on Thursday to give his last State of the City address.
He started his speech by thanking the City Council and city employees for their work over the past 30 years. As mayor, he always thought about children of the Caldwell, Nancolas said. He boasted his work to bring a YMCA building with youth programs to Caldwell. He took the Mayor’s Youth Advisory Council on trips for conferences across the U.S.
Nancolas also touted having lowered the city’s crime rate. He worked with the Idaho Legislature to pass a law that created harsher penalties for people suspected of being in gangs.
Toward the end of his speech, Nancolas began to tear up.
“I cannot tell you how much I love the people I work with,” he said. “There are so many times I felt so inadequate to deal with the issues facing this community — but something happened and we all pulled together and made it through whatever it was. It gave me strength to come in to work the next morning.”
In the past year and a half, Nancolas has battled health issues. He began to wonder about the years he had left, the hunting trips, the soccer games or cross country meets where he would get to watch his granddaughter.
Nancolas said he began to take his steps toward retirement in the same way he started thinking about running for mayor 24 years ago: conversations with his family.
Pamela Nancolas has been the mayor’s rock, he said. The couple has been married 44 years and, he said, they would like to spend more time together as husband and wife — rather than as mayor and first lady of the city.
Being mayor of Caldwell has been the privilege of a lifetime, he said.
“It is an honor that I can’t even properly put into words,” he said. “But it’s also been an experience that I will treasure for the rest of my life.”
