Steamboat Pilot & Today

Steamboat Springs — Nancy Stahoviak attributes her three decades of service to Routt County to her upbringing.

"It was just how I was raised, that you need to give back to your community, so that's what I do," said Stahoviak, who among a litany of other community involvements recently announced her intent to seek a fifth term as a Routt County commissioner.

"What motivates me is a desire to make the place that I live better by serving the people of the community any way that I can," she said.

On March 15, Stahoviak will be the 20th local woman to receive the Hazie Werner Award for Excellence from Steamboat Ski and Resort Corp.

"We get a fair amount of nominations every year, and we like to pay tribute to a woman who has really set a high standard of excellence in their field," Ski Corp. spokeswoman Heidi Thomsen said.

Stahoviak moved to Oak Creek from the Front Range in 1976. Her first step toward community involvement came with Little Friends Daycare & Preschool, where she wanted her 2-year-old son to be able to have a preschool experience.

"That kind of evolved into activities with the town of Oak Creek," Stahoviak said. Those activities included the Oak Creek Quality of Life Committee, a group that pioneered land-use regulations that remain the basis for Oak Creek's land-use code.

The way Stahoviak tells it, the next few steps just happened - with no fanfare and no particular emotion. But she says they seemed like the best way to keep serving her neighbors. So she ran for Oak Creek Town Board, served as the town's mayor for two years and spent five years as its treasurer. In her four terms as a Routt County commissioner, Stahoviak has been challenged only once, and she won her 2004 race with 72 percent of the vote.

During her time in office, Stahoviak has served on many nonprofit boards and commissions, including being involved with Routt County United Way, Community Agriculture Alliance, Yampa Valley Medical Center, the South Routt Community Center, First Impressions and the Governor's State Workforce Development Council.

"She's currently serving on 11 boards, if I've counted all these right," Thomsen said. "So she's doing a lot."