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Side Streets ~ Neighborhood people and issues

PIKES PEAK REGION LEADS STATE IN HOA COMPLAINTS

January 27th, 2012, 1:15 pm by

Hello, neighbor!

Time again for one of my favorite topics: homeowners associations, or HOAs.

The HOA Information Office and Resource Center just released a year-long study of Colorado’s HOAs. Results are not pretty.

The HOA office fielded 3,053 inquiries, of which 478 were complaints.

Guess what area produced the highest number of complaints.

The Pikes Peak region, of course, with 21 percent of all complaints!

Are we a bunch of whiners, or what?

Not really, says Aaron Acker, the Colorado HOA Information Officer.

“We started with the presumption we’d get a lot of ticky-tack complaints,” Acker said. “We were wrong. Most of the issues were major ones.”

Complaints like HOA boards and managers hiding financial and governing documents.

“Transparency is a big issue,” Acker said. “Homeowners trying to get information are getting significant blow-back from their management companies or HOA boards.”

Aaron Acker, Colorado HOA Information Officer, spoke to a group of Pikes Peak region property managers and HOA board members on Feb. 15, 2011.

“People want to know what’s going on with their money. And HOA boards have a legal obligation to produce records at the behest of members. But we’re seeing a lot of complaints about them not responding, producing incomplete records, fighting requests or charging very high fees for documents.”

Access to HOA board meetings came up often in Acker’s study, as did failure to listen to homeowners — whether by property managers or HOA boards.

“These are pretty major issues, in my estimation,” Acker said.

Acker and his office were created by the 2010 Colorado General Assembly.

Upon opening the office last January, Acker was told to find and register all Colorado HOAs.

 (I used that abbreviation to describe single family resident neighborhoods, condo and townhome associations, voluntary improvement associations, property owners associations.)

So far, he has registered 8,037 asssociations, representing 838,211 homes, condos and townhome units and 2 million residents.

Colorado Springs and the Pikes Peak region are grouped in the South Central category, which has 661 registered HOAs. That’s about 8.2 percent of all HOAs registered. In other words, that 8.2 percent accounted for 21 percent of all complaints!

 (Industry experts believe upwards of 25 percent of Colorado HOAs remain unregistered.)

Acker said he hopes HOAs will use his findings as a wakeup call to reform how they interact with homeowners.

Lawmakers are digging into the data, as well, and likely will use it to decide whether it’s time to license property managers or give Acker greater power to police HOAs. Stay tuned!

Here is a link to a column and blog I wrote recently about the issue of licensing property managers.

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RUSTIC HILLS GOT TIRED OF BEING TRASHY

January 25th, 2012, 11:13 am by

Rustic Hills is doing something I think is a no-brainer for every neighborhood.

In fact, I can’t understand why it hasn’t spread citywide. It’s so simple, it’s brilliant.

What makes Rustic Hills a bunch of Einsteins?

The Rustic Hills Improvement Association, its voluntary neighborhood association, signed a three-year contract to have its 205 property owners’ garbage collected once a week by a single trash company at a significant discount to each.

No longer must they listen to two or three trucks a day roaring around the neighborhood.

They don’t have to worry as much about the safety of kids playing outside.

Nor must they see garbage cans sitting around, day after day, getting knocked over by animals.

Did I mention they are getting this service at a discount upwards of $45 a month for some?

“It’s working out real well,” said Rick Hoover, president of the RHIA. “It saves people a lot of money.”

Hoover said the RHIA board had tried for years to organize a consolidated trash service.

But the board couldn’t find a company willing to deal with its unique situation.

Rustic Hills, on Colorado Springs’ east side, is different than most with its large lots — an acre or two each, mostly — built largely along on gravel roads to accommodate 40 properties with horses and barns.

Of course, houses with horses means trash with manure in it. A lot of companies don’t want harvest road apples.

So the RHIA board had to find a flexible company and convince homeowners to be flexible, as well. Many didn’t want to give up their favorite trash hauler.

It’s important to note this is not one of those homeowners associations with mandatory covenants and dues allowing board members to dictate to residents.

Rustic Hills’ board had to be neighborly and convince folks to try the service.

Of the 160 homes along gravel roads, all but 15 or so have agreed to participate in the new consolidated trash service from Waste Connections.

Hoover hopes to get the rest signed up in a few months, along with the 45 homeowners who live on Constitution Avenue.

 The lure? The $15 monthly fee that buys weekly garbage and bi-weekly single-stream recycling, with a per-pound reward program.

Most save enough each month to pay RHIA’s whopping annual dues of $25!

“We’re really proud of ourselves,” Hoover said. “It saves people a lot of money and it’s going to help our roads.”

It’s working well for Waste Connections, said Bobby Baker, its HOA rep.

“This was a test case for us,” Baker said. “We have a couple other neighborhoods we’re looking to do it with.”

Hoover said he’d like to see RHIA’s program spread:

“Perhaps this will be a new trend across the city.”

Maybe. Are there any more Einsteins out there?

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CAN I GET AN ‘AMEN’ FOR PREACHER LEWIS?

January 22nd, 2012, 11:30 am by

Cassius Clay, who changed his name to Muhammad Ali in 1964, is shown in a 1960 photo from the Olympic Games in Rome.

Last Tuesday, much of the world paused to celebrate the 70th birthday of Muhammad Ali, once the most recognized man on the planet and perhaps the greatest boxer ever.

At a west-side nursing home, the milestone went unnoticed in the room of Fred “Preacher” Lewis, who once hit Ali with a right fist so devastating that it dropped him to the canvas.

The day was May 19, 1960, in the Cow Palace in San Francisco where the two men met in a semifinal bout of the U.S. Olympic boxing trials for the 178-pound light-heavyweights.

Ali, known then as Cassius Clay, was a smack-talking, two-time Golden Gloves and AAU national champion from Louisville, Ky.

Lewis was a native of Oklahoma who excelled in several sports as a youth before enlisting in the Air Force and becoming its boxing champ. He was known as “Preacher” because he had a strong Christian faith and led his teammates in prayer before each bout.

Before the fight, Clay was confident, Lewis told The Gazette Telegraph in 1991, predicting he would knock Lewis out.

Lewis said Clay’s taunts angered him and he channeled his fury inside the ring in the second round, knocking Clay on his butt.

So stunning was the blow that the referee forgot to count Clay out.

Fred Lewis in an undated photo

The crowd booed, Lewis recalled, as the referee stood silent. Clay regained his feet and the round ended. In the third, Clay jabbed and moved, winning a split decision by one point.

“He was always thinking in the ring,” Lewis said in 1991, recalling Clay’s punishing jab. “He’d try to get you confused.”

Lewis said Clay frustrated him and made him forget his strategy, lose his poise and, ultimately, the bout.

Clay went on to take the gold medal at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome as Lewis went back to the Air Force.

In 1963, as Clay was floating like a butterfly and stinging like a bee on his way toward the world professional heavyweight championship a year later, Lewis was winning the national amateur championship and the Pan American Games gold medal.

Lewis never dwelled on what might have been.

“I should have won,” Lewis said in 1991. “But when I look back now, it was all in God’s plan.”

Turns out “Preacher” was more than a nickname.

Lewis and his wife, Jean, moved to Colorado Springs in 1969 and retired here as Lewis started a boxing club called 3D for desire, discipline and dedication.

And he became a minister — ordained by the Rev. Milton Proby Jr. at St. John’s Baptist Church in 1975.

Fred "Preacher" Lewis paints a scripture verse on the side of his truck in this 2005 photo.

But Lewis was never a church preacher. His pulpit was his pickup truck, which was covered with scripture verses he painted all over it.

“He was a street preacher,” said Jean, his wife of 56 years.

Rather than stand on the corner and shout, like some, Lewis parked in the street and quietly waited.

I used to see him parked along Academy Boulevard and Hancock Expressway and in Memorial Park.

“People would walk up and start talking about their problems,” Jean said. “He made a lot of friends. Touched a lot of lives.”

Fred "Preacher" Lewis paints scripture verses on his truck at Memorial Park in 2005.

He also used his truck to go visit nursing homes. Every day. Seven days a week, Jean said.

Now, he lives in one.

Clay couldn’t put him down. But a stroke in November 2010 floored him.

This man, once so powerful he flattened The Greatest, now can’t walk or talk.

Fred Lewis paints scripture verses on his truck in this 2000 photo.

But Lewis, who will be 77 in April, recognizes people and loves seeing family and friends.

“He gets really happy when people visit,” she said.

It’s hard for her to see him this way.

This man who was so filled with the scripture that it spilled all over his truck now is limited to a one-word response to everything.

“The only word he says,” Jean said, “is ‘amen.’ ”

What else is there to say?

Amen, Preacher Lewis.

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Here’s a link to a boxing website with information about Fred Preacher Lewis and his career.

Follow this link to a site about Muhammad Ali’s career.

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SNOW ANGELS TO APPEAR WHEN SKIES TURN WHITE

January 18th, 2012, 2:10 pm by

Amy Filipiak is watching for the skies to turn white.

When they do, if all goes according to plans, teams of Snow Angels will emerge to clear sidewalks within at least 1,500 feet of a half dozen schools in the region.

Filipiak and a group of neighborhood leaders and city officials have spent a year organizing Snow Angels around these elementary schools: Steele, Carver and West in District 11, Pikes Peak in D2, Frontier in D20 and Odyssey in D49.

Eventually, Filipiak hopes to see similar teams spread to all elementary schools in the Pikes Peak region.

“We put together a pilot program to see how best to get people to participate,” she said.

Amy credits the idea to bicycling advocate Al Brody. Both believe snow should never block a child’s path to school so they set about organizing teams of Snow Angels to clear the way.

Amy Filipiak, leader of the Snow Angel army

Brody sought out Amy because of her role as volunteer coordinator for the area’s Safe Routes to School program, which program promotes walking and biking to school by building sidewalks and bike paths, training crossing guards, installing bike racks at schools and encouraging students and families to participate.

Since Congress authorized it in 2005, the program has distributed $612 million in grants to more than 10,400 schools nationwide, covering 4.8 million children.

Filipiak then approached the city’s traffic engineering department and the Council of Neighbors & Organizations, the umbrella organization for area neighborhood groups.

CONO president Dave Munger said his folks quickly saw the potential and began contacting neighborhood associations where they might test the idea, such as the Old North End and the Organization of Westside Neighbors.

“Part of being a good neighbor is making sure kids can get to school safely without slipping and sliding,” Munger said.

CONO treasurer John Nuwer said the city embraced the idea and printed door hangers to help get the word out to residents within a radius of the six schools in the pilot program.

“They also printed some nice decals to give people who shovel their sidewalks to let people know you are a Snow Angel,” Nuwer said.

The program benefits more than just school children, said Vic Appugliese, president of the Old North End group.

Nobody wants to see Grandma out plowing her own sidewalk.

“This will help elderly neighbors who can no longer pick up a shovel. It will help us identify those folks and get them help,” he said. “This is a great program. We have a lot of pedestrians in our neighborhood. This is about helping everybody.”

There’s just one problem.

It hasn’t snowed enough to trigger the program.

When it does, the group is ready.

“We’re hoping a little bit of awareness will get people out to shovel their walks,” Filipiak said.

Are you ready, Snow Angels? The kids are counting on you! 

Here's the 1,500-foot radius around Steele Elementary in the Old North End Neighborhood. It's approximately three blocks in every direction. Organizers hope Snow Angels will clear all sidewalks in the zone each time it snows.

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POOLS ARE PUBLIC AMENITIES NOT PROFIT CENTERS

January 15th, 2012, 11:30 am by

Deb Barry

Deb Barry wasn’t terribly surprised to learn a private company was hemorrhaging money trying to run three city swimming pools.

Deb was Colorado Springs’ aquatics director 22 years until her retirement in 2009. She was responsible for two large indoor facilities and a half dozen outdoor pools.

She knows exactly what it costs to keep pools open.

Still, she was terribly sad.

“I feel sicker than most people in the community about the whole thing,” Deb said.

But she was not surprised. Pools, she said, require tons of TLC — preventive maintenance and repair. And they demand intense staffing. None of it’s cheap.

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“It’s difficult to run these pools at a profit,” she said. “You can’t even break event. That’s why they were city pools. They were never designed to be profit-making centers.”

Gen. William Jackson Palmer, founder of Colorado Springs

Deb viewed the pools the way Colorado Springs’ founder, Gen. William Jackson Palmer viewed other public amenities: they enhance the culture and beauty of the community.

That’s why he donated more than 2,000 acres for parks to the city and insisted they not be sold.

In other words, she’s not buying the popular political mantra that “government must be run like a business.”

 “Our parks are a public service,” Deb said. “They were not designed to make money. City pools are a community service, too. The same for our community centers.”

That message was ignored 18 months ago when the city decided to close all but its Cottonwood Creek Recreation Center and let a private company try to run three pools.

Now, Deb and her colleague, Daisy Chun Rhodes, of the Friends of Aquatics non-profit group, are trying to remind a new City Council of the city’s historic role in enhancing life.

They know the pools are much more than just a place for kids to cool off in summer or to shed a few pounds swimming laps.

“Learning to swim is a life preserver,” Daisy said, repeating the group’s slogan.

Through the Friends’ subsidy of city “Learn to Swin” program, they are dedicated to teaching as many people as possible for the simple reason it saves lives.But there is far more to their mission.

Both have seen the therapeutic value of water for seniors with arthritis, for example, or recovering from a stroke and enrolled in the Aqua Rehab program.

They know what it means for soldiers enrolled in the Wounded Warriors program.It’s why they’ve spent years raising and donating tens of thousands of dollars to pay for poor children and adults to swim at city pools.Aquatics and Fitness Center in Memorial Park

Cottonwood Creek Recreation Center

Deb and Daisy and the rest of the Friends of Aquatics board will meet Wednesday to talk about the pool crisis.

They don’t have the $200,000 they estimate it would cost to reopen the Aquatics and Fitness Center in Memorial Park.

And they understand city revenues are tight and business principles do apply to the budget. (Even though City Council found $175,000 to upgrade city tennis courts.)

But Deb has an interesting idea: finish both indoor facilities as they were designed and, in the long run, they will require far less subsidy.

Turns out both Cottonwood Creek and the Memorial Park centers were supposed to have gymnasiums, which generate revenue while requiring far less staff.

Deb said Thornton has a wave pool similar to Cottonwood and it comes close to breaking even thanks to all its gym revenue.

Hmm. Invest money to make money? That sounds like good business to me!

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Click here to see a blog I wrote about the Friends of Aquatics fundraising efforts on behalf of city pools.

The city created a little video about Cottonwood Creek Recreation Center than you can view here!

Here’s the Friends of Aquatics latest fundraising effort:

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FILLMORE STREET BRIDGE GETS NATIONWIDE ATTENTION AS EXPERTS INSIST IT IS SAFE

January 11th, 2012, 11:30 am by

Charlie Sheen in his mug shot after his arrest in Aspen on Christmas morning, 2009.

The Fillmore Street bridge over Monument Creek is becoming famous. But as Charlie Sheen taught us, fame has its drawbacks.

In  a June 2009 column, I introduced you to the bridge, which is 288 feet long and five lanes wide and sits just east of Interstate 25.

Of course, I wrote about it in my June 28, 2009, blog.

Since then, it’s fame has grown from coast to coast. It has been featured in discussions by engineers at Stanford University in California and at the Northeast Bridge Preservation Conference in Hartford, Conn.

The Fillmore Street bridge even has its own video on You Tube.

But all its buzz is not necessarily a good thing. Engineers are talking about it because of its rocker bearings.

The Fillmore Street bridge over Monument Creek, looking south, taken Dec. 12, 2011. Rocker bearings, which sit between 38-feet-tall concrete piers and the steel beams of the bridge, are tilting, prompting worried calls to Colorado Springs engineers.

Rocker bearings are stubby, steel supports — like big shoe boxes — rounded on top and bottom.

Several of the Fillmore bridge bearings are tilted at alarming angles.

The bearing are sandwiched between the top of 38-foot-tall concrete bridge piers and the hortizontal steel beams of the bridge.

Folks called me in 2009, scared the bridge might fall based on what they saw underneath as they traveled the Pikes Peak Greenway trail.

Tilted rocker bearings are visible in this closer view of the north side of the Fillmore Street bridge over Monument Creek. The view is facing south.Here's a closer look at the rocker bearings:The rocker bearings are shaped like large shoe boxes and rest between the concrete pier, which rises about 38 feet from the creek, and the steel beams of the bridge. They are designed to tilt to compensate for movement in the structure.

So I called Dan Krueger, a senior civil engineer in Colorado Springs’ engineering department.

Krueger told me when the bridge was built in 1961, rocker bearings were used to allow slight rotatation to compensate for movement in a bridge.

The Fillmore bridge slopes from west to east and flexes, like most bridges, from thermal forces each day. It expands in the sun and contracts as it cools, especially in summer.

He said the city took ownership of the bridge in 2007 from the Colorado Department of Transportation and had been inspecting it every three months. He said the bridge was stable and safe.

I took a few photos, posted them on my blog and went back to harassing homeowners associations.

I never realized the city decided a few months later to start taking a harder look at the bridge.

Then I received an email in December from a structural and forensic engineer in New York. She wanted permission to use my photos in her research proposal to study bridge rocker bearings. The Fillmore bridge rocker bearings caught her attention.

She told me the Fillmore rocker bearings were the subject of discussion in engineering circles. I learned our little bridge was discussed at engineering conferences from California to Connecticut. (They even used my photos.)

I found references on the Web, even the You Tube video, and learned the city had put the bridge under intense scrutiny.

So I called Krueger back and learned that in 2009 the city hired Structure Inspection and Monitoring Inc., or SIM, of San Jose, Calif., to install sophisticated sensors to determine the stability of the bridge and learn why its bearings tilted.

The good news: experts say the bridge is safe.

This photo from GoogleEarth.com shows the manmade hills built to separate Interstate 25, the railroad tracks and Monument Creek. Experts believe the hill became saturated and settled, perhaps causing the bridge to shift east.

“If the bridge was unsafe, we would close it,” Krueger said. “It’s open and we’re watching it.”

But he acknowledged the bridge is puzzling.

“The bridge does have some issues but it appears to be stablized,” Krueger said. “There are some head-scratcher things about the structure.”

Like why the rocker bearings tilted. And why the bridge seems to have slid against the east abutment.

A runner on the Pikes Peak Greenway trail heads under the Fillmore Street bridge and its tilting rocker bearings in this Dec. 12, 2011, photo. This view looks north. Beyond the bridge is the Rick "Goose" Gossage Youth Sports Complex.

Spencer Graves, president of SIM, said he’s studied a year’s worth of data and agrees with Krueger’s assessment.

“It seems to be quite safe,” Graves said. “It’s not dangerous. The city is taking responsible action. The prudent thing is to monitor.”

Graves believes a 38-foot-tall concrete pier which rises from Monument Creek moved in a flood sometime since the bridge was widened in 1971.

And, he said, he believes saturation of manmade hill at the west end caused it to slump, causing the bridge to shift.

Measuring devices can be seen in this photo of a rocker bearing on the Fillmore Street bridge.

His company installed an array of sensors and probes on the bridge and is conducting intense monitoring of the bridge to determine if it is moving.

Krueger said the question of movement is the key.

“We have to establish whether the bridge is moving or not,” he said. “That’s why the equipment has been installed. To answer that question.

This expansion joint, at the east end of the bridge, repeatedly cracked open, requiring constant patching. It was a red flag to experts that the Fillmore Street bridge was moving.

“If it’s moving, then we need to get something in the hopper to fix it.” 

He understands why people who see the bridge are worried.

“There are some odd things that are worthy of concern and watching and monitoring, which is what we’re doing.”

But he believes it is not moving more than any other bridge.

“It is anchored on the west abutment,” Krueger said. “And it rests against the east abutment only in summer. A gap opens in winter, which is good.”

It means the bridge is expanding and contracting as designed. Not moving freely and premanently lodged against the east end.

 That flexing explains why the expansion joint at the east end was a chronic problem for street crews.

 It constantly needed to be patched as the bridge moved back and forth.

 Krueger said the new information has allowed the city to address the joint with a more weather-proof solution to minimize the constant cracking.

Here's the point the bridge meets the east abutment. Note how the railings are smashed together and the concrete is crushed where the bridge is resting on it. The expansion joint is visible on the surface.

Below I’ve posted photos explaining some of the impressive technology employed by Graves’ SIMS group to monitor the bridge.

After a year of monitoring to establish a baseline of data, the city now will spend another year watching it to determine if it is acting up and in need of an expensive repair or even more expensive replacement.

It would cost upwards of $2 million to replace.

The problem is that the bridge scored an 85.6 sufficiency rating on its 2010 inspection. It needs to score a 50-80 rating to qualify for fedreal bridge rehabilitation funds. And it must score below 50 to qualify for federal bridge replacement funds.

This link takes you to UglyBridges.com where you can see its 2008 evaluation data. Notice the tilted rocker bearings are not even mentioned in the evaluation of the bridge!

So any work done now would be funded solely by Colorado Springs taxpayers. And nobody wants to buy a new bridge if they don’t have to.

Of course, no one wants the bridge to end up like Charlie Sheen, either.

Sophisticated computerized sensors and probes were installed by Structure Inspection and Monitoring Inc. of San Jose, Calif.

 
 
 
 
 
 

A sophisticated high-tech monitoring system was installed on the bridge after my 2009 column. The solar-powered system collects real-time data every second on soil moisture, temperature and bridge movement from dozens of sensors and probes. Consultants collected a year of data to establish a baseline for the bridge and now is collecting a second year of data and conducting real-time analyses.

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This graphic from SIM -- Structure Inspection and Monitoring Inc. from San Jose, Calif. -- maps the dozen "linear displacement" sensors deployed on the Fillmore Street bridge as well as the solar-powered computer system used to transmit data in real time.

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This graphic from SIM -- Structural Inspection and Monitoring Inc in San Jose, Calif. -- explains the work of linear displacement sensors on the Fillmore Street bridge.

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Another SIM graphic maps acceleromters, which are employed on the bridge, as well as "strain gauges."

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CHESTNUT STREET BYPASS GETS REDRAWN; CHECK IT OUT

January 8th, 2012, 11:30 am by

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This drawing shows the proposed north section of the Chestnut Street bypass at Fillmore Street with a new exit ramp from southbound Interstate 25.

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This drawing of the proposed Chestnut Street bypass will be unveiled Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2012, as a public meeting at the El Paso County Citizens Service Center, 1675 W. Garden of the Gods Road

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Here's a closer look at the plans for Parker Street, which becomes a dead-end in front of Ruth and Joe Wagner's home. Seven homes and two gas stations will be bought and demolished to make room for the bypass.

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Here's a look at the properties to be bought and demolished to make way for the Chestnut Street bypass.Here's an overview of the project from the city's website.

In September, city engineers riled up residents of Parker Street in the Mesa Springs neighborhood when they unveiled plans for rerouting Chestnut Street to unclog a dangerous intersection with Fillmore Street and Interstate 25.

Back to the drawing board they went and now they are back with refined plans.

Here's an overview of the project from the city's website.

The new design for the Chestnut Street Bypass will be formally unveiled at a public meeting scheduled 5-7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 10, at the El Paso County Citizens Service Center, 1675 W. Garden of the Gods, Room 1019. (Use the west entrance.)

Hopefully it won’t get testy like the September meeting.

Folks were cranky because the original design showed Parker becoming a cul de sac with a poorly thought-out access lane for two houses stuck at the end.

Some felt the city had yanked them around, telling them one day to look for a new house because they were in the path of the bypass; then they were told later they were staying put.

Some felt the city was ignoring their need to be able to park in front of their homes.

A couple homeowners pleaded to be bought out by the city because they are convinced the project will ruin their property values and they would rather move than get left behind.

It seems the city has done a better job communicating with neighbors about the revised plan. Those who have seen previews are a tad happier with the new drawings.

 In the new plan, there is room for cars to get all the way down Parker and turn around, unlike the original plan.

“It’s better than the previous version,” said Ruth Wagner, whose house will be at the end of Parker Street’s cul de sac.

“We won’t be backing down the street to our house,” she said, referring to the September drawing. “That was the stupidest thing I’d ever heard. In this plan, we’ll have a parking area. It’s totally changed.”

Other neighbors echoed Ruth’s opinion that the revised design looks better.

But all seem to dread a year of brain damage once construction starts in the spring with the demolition of seven houses and two gas stations.

When it’s done, some worry about the noise they’ll have to endure from the traffic that will zip up and down the bypass to the large American Furniture Warehouse store to the south.

Others expect to be frustrated at their loss of direct access to Fillmore Street.

This is a 2009 graphic showing plans at the time to extend Centennial Boulevard.

Some fear the bypass will be a favorite short-cut route and wonder why the city doesn’t complete the roughed-in southern leg of Centennial Boulevard to Van Buren Street or even to Fontanero Street.

I asked Mike Chaves, acting city engineer, about the neighbors’ concerns. He said the city has tried to respond to all concerns about the bypass.

“We’ve met with most of the residents,” he said. “We want to give everyone a final view to show where we’re headed and hopefully answer any questions.”

I wrote about plans to extend Centennial Boulevard in this 2009 blog.

Follow this link to my September column about the unhappy Parker Street residents.

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SOL’S DAIRY WAS ALREADY A GONER; BUT A PIECE WAS SAVED

January 4th, 2012, 11:30 am by
Three views taken  nearly 60 years apart.
 
First, Sol’s Dairy at 630 N. Prospect St. in 1953. 
Sol’s Dairy as seen in a 1953 photo by Myron Wood. He described it as a “small, wooden building wiht number 630 above window and ‘Sol’s Dairy’ and sign for Coca Cola painted on the gable. Virginia creeper vines cover chicken wire fence in front of the building. Photo copyright by Pikes Peak Library District.

Then, the same old dairy barn in the summer of 2011 as seen by Dave Philipps of The Gazette:

Sol's Dairy as it appeared in summer 2011. Photo by Dave Philipps, The Gazette

Finally, the scene changed dramatically on Jan. 3, 2012 as the barn came down:

The view changed dramatically on Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2012, as the barn was demolished.

I’m so disappointed. I didn’t get there in time to save old Sol’s life.

By the time I raced up Prospect Street on Tuesday to the Middle Shooks Run neighborhood, a Bobcat had chewed right through old Sol’s concrete-and-brick mid-section.

All that remained of the century-old barn was the weathered, wooden triangular facade that read: “Sol’s Dairy.”

I found it leaning, upside-down, against a tiny old cottage on the same lot. But there wasn’t much left of the building that had housed Sam Rollins’ Highland View Dairy in 1923 and then Sol Cox’s dairy into the 1950s.

But all is not lost.

That facade, captured in a 1953 Myron Wood photo and mostly obscured for decades by Virginia creeper vines, might yet be saved in a sort of historic organ donation.

Chet Delarm of Dale Street Enterprises shows the blueprints for the addition he's building on the old Mary Ford cottage.

Chet Delarm, a builder who removed the barn so he could expand the old cottage, said he’d gladly donate the facade to the neighborhood or the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum, if anyone wanted it.

Want it?

Matt Mayberry, museum director, almost immediately pounced on the sign: “I think we’ll take it.”

He recognized its value as an historic landmark; a link to the neighborhood’s roots as a rural pasture along the Shooks Run creek on the east outskirts of Colorado Springs.

In fact, the area was first used by 17-year-old Melvin Sinton in 1880 to graze his dozen dairy cows before the city encroached and pushed his herd south and east.

Neighbors such as Suzanne Eubank had hoped the front of the barn building, including the sign, might be saved as a neighborhood landmark and homage to Mary Ford, who was Sam Rollins’ daughter and lived most of her 95 years in the tiny one-bedroom, one-bath cottage until her death Jan. 1, 2011.

“It dates to the time when Shooks Run was all pastures and dairy barns,” Suzanne said. “I think they should leave it as a monument to the neighborhood.”

Neighborhood activist Gary Rapp also values the sign, but he said the Middle Shooks Run Neighborhood Association probably didn’t have any place to display it.

Other neighbors shared fond memories of the sign and Mary Ford, who used to sit on her tiny front porch on hot days and chat with passersby.

Her son, Claude Ford, 69, said his grandfather, Sam, ran the dairy until he died of a burst appendix in 1929. The business was sold to Sol Cox, who carried on processing milk in the barn for nearly 30 years.

“They didn’t milk cows in the barn,” Claude said.

The original Ford cottage is visible on the bottom right of this drawing. The addition Chet Delarm is building will feature four bedrooms and three baths. At 2,200 square feet, it will dwarf the 624-square-foot cottage.

“The barn had a dock on the back and farmers would drop off cans of milk. He’d process the milk, rinse the cans, and set them out for the farmers to take away.”

I understand we can’t keep every old building, but I’m glad folks like Mayberry are around to salvage at least key souvenirs of our past.

This link takes you to a cool “Then & Now” photo project by Dave Philipps in which he matched up historic photos, like the Myron Wood photo of Sol’s Dairy, with current views.

As for Melvin Sinton, I have written about him in the past. He came here from New York due to health reasons. His father bought him a dozen cows to set him up in a business.

He was joined by his brother, George, and before long they were milking cows and getting omplaints from neighbors.

In fact, they were repeatedly forced to move to accommodate the growing city.

 They went from their original barn at Corona Street and Willamette Avenue in 1880 to a new pasture, barn and processing plant near Prospect Lake. The plant and barn opened in 1887 in what is now the Hillside neighborhood

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R.I.P. DESSIE AND C. ROB ON YOUR TAYLOR’S ACRE IN THE SKY

December 25th, 2011, 11:30 am by

The sayings on the side of the Taylor's Acre barn just off of Fillmore Street near Templeton Gap have been catching eyes since 1972 when they first one was painted. That tradition continues on even though Dessie Taylor, 82, here with one her donkeys Applejuice, finds it harder and harder to get around. "I love this place. I'll be here until they haul me away," said Taylor. She and her husband C. Bob built their home in 1960 and lived there together until he died in 1996.

For decades, Taylor’s Acre was a special corner of Colorado Springs near Fillmore Street and Templeton Gap Road.

It was a tiny farm surrounded by the city. A place roosters crowed, drowned out by the roar of traffic to nearby fast-food joints, pawn shops and medical office buildings. A place where passers-by were greeted by donkeys Twinkle Star and Applejuice and words of inspiration painted on a barn.

Applesauce enjoyed treats from neighbors who regularly visited the pasture at Fillmore Street and Templeton Gap Road.

It was, to be precise, C. Bob and Dessie Taylor’s acre. It’s where they built a home in 1960, raised their four boys and two daughters and where the kids raised hell with dance and pool parties.

It was a place of refuge, too, when cancer struck Dessie in 1971, when tragedy claimed daughter Dessie Bob in 1980 and then cancer took her beloved C. Bob in 1996 after 56 years of marriage.

I met Dessie in August 2002, sitting  under her cottonless cottonwood tree. The matriarch of the Taylor clan was 82 then and melancholy.

This was the view of Taylor's Acre looking east from the front sidewalk. In 2002, I found Dessie sitting under a tree. The family painted murals on the barn, visible behind the trees. Plans call for a medical building to be built where the barn sits. The house will make way for a parking lot.

I was curious about the big sign on the barn which declared: “What we do in life echoes in eternity.” Quickly I discovered the barn was just one of many signs that punctuated Dessie’s life.

As I walked to the gate, I was greeted by a small “Taylor’s Acre” sign.

Then “No Trespassing.”

And “Absolutely no city inspectors.”

Finally: “No Bibles.”

They were no-nonsense directives. Kind of like Dessie.

I asked about the barn and learned it was painted each summer with a new musing, proverb or exhortation.

The first went up in 1972 after Dessie survived a brain tumor even though doctors had given her just weeks to live. The clan threw a party and painted the barn: “We are proud to be Americans.”

The tradition was born.

Each year, the barn’s message changed, kind of the way the spider saved Wilbur the pig in “Charlotte’s Web.”

But we all know how the classic childrens’ book ended . . . Charlotte died.

Now, Taylor’s Acre is dying, as well.

These are blueprints for a medical building to replace Taylor's Acre.

Twinkle Star died years ago. In 2009, Dessie died too. She’d spent years of loneliness rattling around on her acre, longing for C. Bob and her children, now scattered.

Applejuice went to live on a farm in Fountain and the farmhouse was cleaned out of all her figurines with the words of love she gave C. Bob. Gone, too, are her ceramic turtles, C Bob’s treasured rock collection and all the family photos.

There’s little to remind anyone of all the life that occurred on Taylor’s Acre.

Soon, nothing will be left. The property is for sale and plans call for a medical office building. (Here’s a link to the application filed with the city’s Land Use Review office.)

The little acre Dessie and C. Bob created and fought to preserve when city annexation came in 1980 soon will disappear. Like them.

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It makes the barn’s final painting so appropriate.

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It’s painted in a sunset  and inscribed: “Vaya con Dios.”

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Go with God, indeed.

The final mural on the Taylor's Acre barn reads "Vaya con Dios"

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MAYBE COLORADO SPRINGS ISN’T SO BAD AFTER ALL

December 21st, 2011, 11:27 am by

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A couple months ago, I was surprised to read in the Quality of Life survey that fewer than 50 percent of Colorado Springs residents surveyed feel “very safe” walking their neighborhoods at night.

This is the Springs, not Oakland, I snorted.

Well a headline last week on Forbes.com gives comfort to all those scared-y cats: Colorado Springs is the eighth safest U.S. city!

I’ve always thought the Springs was a great, safe place to live. But I didn’t think the Pikes Peak region ranked among the elite safe cities in the nation.

So I looked at Forbes’ criteria. It started with metropolitan areas of 250,000 or more and looked at the FBI’s crime data for 2010. Forbes then ranked each city’s rate of violent crime — murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault — per 100,000 residents. (There are some big omissions because Chicago and other cities did not submit complete reports to the FBI.)

From the 72 metro areas with complete FBI reports, Forbes then factored in traffic-fatality data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Forbes averaged it all out and, POOF, the Springs metro area of El Paso and Teller counties ranked eighth.

According to the FBI report, the Pikes Peak region area had 462 violent crimes per 100,000 residents in 2010. That’s based on a  population of 626,259.

By comparison, if you pull Oakland out of the San Francisco Bay Area metro report, it had 1,532 violent crimes per 100,000, based on a population of 409,723.

That is far higher than even Detroit, which ranked No. 1 on Forbes’ “Most Dangerous Cities” list in October. Detroit had 1,111 violent crimes per 100,000.

Pueblo, with 156,522 residents, had a rate of 585 violent crimes per 100,000. (Chalk up one more reason to be glad you don’t live in Pueblo!)

While I was not surprised at our relatively low violent crime rate, I was shocked by our ranking as a safe place to drive. The  Springs’ car fatality rating was 11th overall.

Based on what I see each day from behind my windshield and bicycle handlebars, I’d have guessed our streets were much more dangerous to drive.

Not so, says Forbes and the highway safety folks.

Our region had just 43 traffic fatalities in 2010. That’s up from 33 in 2006 but it’s still far fewer than the rest of the nation.

Consider Pueblo’s rate of 11.91 per 100,000 residents is nearly double the El Paso County rate of 6.54. (See earlier snarky comment about living in Pueblo.)

Forbes explained that its safest cities shared several characteristics: wealth, civic involvement, heavily used public spaces like parks, shopping districts and museums, and a strong tax based that invests in public safety and police.

It’s easy to find things to criticize and the Springs has its share of problems.

But maybe it isn’t such a bad place after all. Ya think?

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