University of Denver Spring 2025

A Tale of Two DU Mayors in Grand County More than 3,800 DU alumni live west of the Continental Divide, and two of them are neighboring mayors and friends who serve the adjacent towns of Fraser and Winter Park. Brian Cerk v enik( BSBA ’02), mayor of F raser since 2024, is a Pioneer L eadership Program alum, an avid DU hockey fan and owner of Home James T ransportation Services. At 8,18 3 feet and a population of 1,500, F raser is known for a vibrant arts scene that helps “ keep F raser funky, ” which is the town’s motto. N ick K utrumbos (BSBA ’05), mayor of Winter Park since 2020, was raised in O bservatory Park near DU, where his mom was a professor. He’s also a hockey fan and owner of the family restaurant Deno’s Mountain Bistro. Home to Colorado’s longest continually operating ski resort, Winter Park has 1,000 residents and more than 3 million visitors a year. We sat down with Cerkvenik and Kutrumbos to talk about their work in Grand County and how DU prepared them for public service. Grand county

What is your proudest achievement as mayor?

K utru m bos :We’ve built a public transportation system from scratch, and the Town of Winter Park owns and operates the regional system serving Grand County. We’ve received grants for electric buses and a maintenance facility that can charge over 20 electric busses. We’re working on a multimodal transportation system which includes rail, bus and fixed cable transit. The town is participating in the Mountain Rail Coalition and supporting the Colorado Department of Transportation and the governor’s office to expand subsidized daily train service to Winter Park and beyond. And we’re working on a gondola less than 100 yards from the train platform that would connect downtown Winter Park to the base of the ski resort.

Cer kv eni k :We’re at a tipping point, where people are moving here and development is booming. We have over 9,000 housing units that are going to be built. To handle that kind of growth, Fraser set up a downtown development authority that will allow the tax increments from property tax to stay within the downtown area so that we can make more improvements to it. We’re also converting the old trailer park in our downtown area into a riverfront district, bringing a walkable area in Fraser that people will want to spend time in.

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