Erie Business Survey: Former, Current, Prospective Owners
Andrew Sawusch • February 3, 2020
A survey designed to identify the issues, concerns, and barriers to entry for businesses in the Town of Erie - experienced by current, former, and prospective business owners
The information that you provide will remain ANONYMOUS. Except for the results attained as a whole from all responses by all respondents and any general non-identifiable responses, I will not provide to anyone the specific information that you might provide. This is to ensure that the responses you provide within this survey are unable to specifically identify as to who they might have come from.
The results WILL NOT be used for a future blog post, but will instead be provided to Erie residents as a "Market Survey". This is not intended to be "political" in nature - it is intended for the use of gaining a better understanding of how Erie's business owners view the Town's current economy.
The survey will be available for 2 weeks, starting today, Monday, February 3, 2020, and will close on Monday, February 17, 2020. Please be sure to complete the survey by that time so that your feedback is included.
Also, Erie Residents: Please help me to understand how you feel about the topic of "Home Rule" by
completing the survey available here (the survey closes on Thursday, February 13th).
Please complete the survey below. I appreciate all of your feedback, and for taking the time to complete this survey. Thank you in advance!
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Since the very first time I ran for Board of Trustees, before it was a "Council", I told myself that I would never accept personal endorsements. To this day, I have kept true to this promise.
The Town owned Page Property is currently moving through the steps of being rezoned as Reserved Open Space. Because half of the property was originally purchased using ARPA Federal grant funds, $3.35 million from our TNACC 4.0 mill levy tax funds will be used to repay the General Fund. Should TNACC property tax be used to fund Affordable Housing (future development, future residents), or to support critical or required Town needs and services (current residents)? With the Town currently experiencing significant budgetary issues and funding constraints, personally, the choice is clear: we should use the funds for general town services that help current residents – not affordable housing, which serves future development and future residents.
Traditional political campaigns are full of broad platforms, general stances, and lofty promises, but they rarely tell how things will actually get fixed. This bridges that gap by offering concrete, immediate solutions rather than just vague goals. I break down 10 practical, actionable policy shifts into single-focus topics. Each highlights one specific, manageable change that can be tackled right away to build momentum in the first 100 days.
An interview with Andrew Sawusch - candidate for Town of Erie Town Council District 1, current Town of Erie Planning Commission Chair, former Town of Erie Council Member - for YellowScene Magazine (Salem Goodman). Interview conducted on September 14, 2026.
Public Comment provided at the August 25, 2026 Town of Erie Council Meeting Ordinance 31-206: An Ordinance of the Town Council of the Town of Erie Repealing Ordinance No. 028-2026 Authorizing the Sale of Minerals to 7N, LLC, Accepting the Conveyance of Real Property from 7N, LLC, and Approving Agreements with 7N, LLC, SM Energy Company, and Extraction Oil and Gas, Inc.
The Town's Finance team has indicated that we will be exhausting our Capital Improvement Fund by 2028. When this occurs, we will not even have enough money to fund such things as our street maintenance needs. In response, Staff has recommended the priority of sustaining this CIF fund, which to do so includes a 10% cut across all departments. As well, they are recommending a new fee be added to our utility bills - a dedicated "Transportation Maintenance Fee" - in order to ensure we have adequate funding for street maintenance in the future. All of this is currently being done to answer one question: How do we pay for our capital needs? Personally, I believe this is the single most important issue facing the Town. It has the potential to affect our everyday life as residents, impacting us in ways both big and small. A concerted effort must be made to stabilize our budget in order to avoid a cascading affect that detrimentally affects all Town services.
Projected to be depleted by 2027, Erie's finance team forecasts the Town's Capital Fund to only have $2.5million available for capital projects (after $4million Street Maintenance) from 2027 through 2029 — due to overspending caused by operational and capital expenses exceeding the growth of revenues
While some call it an "Affordable Housing" issue, in reality the root of the problem is a lack of housing diversity. During the Town's massive growth over the years, a lack of available inventory and the national housing market have created a housing affordability issue as the Town's makeup has comprised almost entirely of single family homes. The best way to resolve this issue is to work with our stakeholders in the community - our development partners - to address the cause, not the symptoms of the issue.
Erie has quickly moved from "the best kept secret" to "the gem of North Metro Denver", becoming a destination that others want to call home. In order to set our Town up for the best chances for success, a plan must be created that provides us with an ability to manage our current and future growth.
The blueprint below is designed to do just that, providing an understanding of where we are now (our "Current Position"), where we are going (our "Upcoming Needs"), and where we want to be (our "Future Growth"). It starts with assessing what's needed at this moment, preparing for what's needed later, and then having a vision to plan for the future.
Tell us briefly about yourself and where you are from and why you think you're a good candidate for the position you are running for: Originally from the Chicagoland area, I have been a resident of Erie since 2016, previously a resident of Broomfield for 7 years. I graduated from CU Boulder in 2009, with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration with dual concentrations in Management and Marketing. I am a business operations and marketing professional, with experience growing businesses from the ground up. Currently, I serve as the Sr. Manager of Customer Operations for a data analytics software company. As a solutions-driven individual, I use a holistic-view approach to identify and resolve issues that deliver results, which are both effective and efficient. I am married to my amazing wife, Gabrielle, and am the doting father of my two husky fur-babies, Kaia and Koda. I currently serve as both a Planning Commissioner and a Comprehensive Plan Amendment Steering Committee member for the Town. As an individual from the business world, I believe the Town needs leaders who can create solutions that will be positive and Forward Thinking for Erie’s Future. I believe that I am a good candidate for the position of Trustee because I am committed to making Erie the thriving and sought-after place to live, work, and raise a family - the place we love to call "home"!