He thinks Colorado Springs Utilities may have done just that when it approached him and his neighbors to “negotiate” the sale of 50-foot permanent easements across their land to bury a 66-inch water pipeline as part of the $2.3 billion Southern Delivery System project.

Dwain Maxwell of Pueblo West rallied his neighbors after Colorado Springs Utilities launched efforts to buy 50-foot easements so it could bury its 66-inch water pipeline as part of the $2.3 billion Southern Delivery System project. Photo by Chris Fryer/The Pueblo Chieftain

Actually, Dwain is a retired hazardous waste product expert who came to Pueblo West five years ago after a career in Arizona’s Department of Environmental Quality.

So he was well-prepared with questions for CSU’s negotiators when they came to visit to explain their need for his land as they build a 66-mile pipeline from the dam of the Pueblo Reservoir north to Colorado Springs.

 They apparently were not prepared to give him or other neighbors answers.

Dwain said they were polite, professional and friendly. Still, they were insulting in their responses, he felt.

He wanted assurances, in writing, about how CSU would handle the dust its construction equipment would generate.

How it would protect his grandhcildren playing in his backyard from equipment and chemicals.

 How it would safeguard pets and wildlife.

How it would prevent stormwater from ruining his septic system and flooding his basement.

Pueblo Reservoir

CSU’s answers were less than satisfying, Dwain said.

“It was ‘My way or no way’ to everything,” he said.

Next-door neighbor Herbert Walsh was angered by utilities’ approach to him.

“They think John Q. Public down here is stupid,” Herbert told me. “We we’re not stupid.”

Maxwell, Walsh and other neighbors decided to stand firm against CSU and refused to take the $2,200 or so they were offered for a permanent easement to bury the pipeline and a temporary, one-year 50-foot easement for construction.

Walsh figures his land is worth much more. And he wants to be compensated for the loss of his property value, which he said is diminished by the easement which prevents him or any future buyer from building a horse barn or shed.

High-voltage power lines run along an existing utility easement, along with a buried Fountain Valley Water pipeline, on property behind Pueblo West homes. Colorado Springs Utilities plans to bury its own 66-inch Southern Delivery System pipeline on a 50-foot strip adjacent to the existing powerlines and pipeline.

Neighbors say CSU shouldn’t appraise their land as “unimproved” because that implies there is no home, utilities or landscaping.

And they want written assurances about how things will happen during construction and promises of how it will look when they are done.

Here’s an aerial view from Google Earth of the area:

Here you can peruse the Gazette’s archive of stories on SDS.

Read a timeline of the project at this link.

Here’s a link to an interesting engineering story about the project.

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PUEBLO WEST RESIDENTS FEEL INSULTED BY SPRINGS UTILITIES is a post from: Side Streets

What is happening to Manitou Springs?

I know it has nice new sidewalks, curbs and gutters.

And rubber tomahawks are giving way to shops devoted to olive oil.

And beautiful lofts and townhomes are replacing creekside shacks.

But you can’t run a chain saw along Manitou Avenue anytime you want anymore?

Say it ain’t so!

Bill Fee, owner of the Nature of Things Chainsaw Art gallery, said neighbors are trying to ruin his business by making him muffle his saws.

But it is so, says Bill Fee. He says Hippy Mayberry, home to fruitcake-tossing, coffin-racing, drum-beating, live-and-let live folks is no longer welcoming his art.

He faces a Feb. 28 deadline to meet strict noise guidelines or he risks losing the business license for his Nature of Things Chainsaw Art  gallery.

The Nature of Things Chainsaw Art gallery on Manitou Avenue in Manitou Springs.

Here’s a look at Fee in his shop.

Bill Fee uses a propane torch to add color to a carving of a bison in his Nature of Things Chainsaw Art gallery as his shop cat, Taboo, wanders along.

Fee said one neighbors is responsible for the attack on his business. He said Thomas Lundgren is rallying other neighbors to complain to City Hall.

Lundgren doesn’t deny it. He’s outraged Fee has been allowed to create an “open-air manufacturing process” on the site. He notes Fee has several apprentice carvers who keep saws running daily.

He describes it as “heavy industry” not art. It’s loud, dirty and not compatible with the commercial zone where it exists or near homes like his, which is about 500 feet away, Lundgren said.

Visible beyond the Manitou Springs Chamber of Commerce, through the trees, is the home of Thomas Lundgren, who organized neighbors to demand City Hall enforce noise and nuisance laws against Bill Fee and his Nature of Things Chainsaw Art gallery. Neighbors say Fee often ran chainsaws seven days a week, well into the evenings, and made the peaceful enjoyment of their homes impossible.

Here’s a letter Lundgren wrote explaining his position.

Fee said he’s complied with every request of neighbors and the city to reduce his noise. He 0nly saws 10-5, Monday through Friday. No more weekends or holidays.

He has moved his sawing operation to the side of his building, behind a wall and huge bales of hay and underneath a tent he constructed to muffle the noise.

Bill Fee explains all the steps he's taken to muffle the noise of his chain saws to appease neighbors upset about the buzzing and whining.

Bill Fee has erected a tent beside his building, built walls, stacked bales of hay and used foam to muffle the noise of his chain saw carving.

Several neighbors I spoke to say they are happy with the changes Fee has made. La Rita Mason and Lucy Mills, among others, said they don’t want his business jeopardized. As long as he sticks with the Monday through Friday, 10-5 schedule, they are satisfied.

Other neighbors, including Ken Healey and Janice Montoya at the Briarhurst Manor, praise Fee for everything he’s done to accomodate their business. For years, Fee has shut down his saws when they are having weddings or other events. All it took was a phone call, Montoya said, to quiet the saws so guests could enjoy a romantic dinner on the patio.

Dan Folke, city planner, said he has no choice but enforce noise standards in the face of neighbor complaints.

Fee said he has to carve — put on a show — to attract customers. And he can’t do his job with small, electric-powered saws. They just don’t cut it.

Here’s a video of Fee’s gallery and here’s another video of him in action.

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MANITOU RESIDENTS TELL CHAIN SAW ARTIST TO BUZZ OFF is a post from: Side Streets

To date, the answer is no. No neighborhood organizer/activist has ever been elected mayor of Colorado Springs.

The mayor typically is a product of the establishment . . . a banker, attorney, businessman, a leader of a non-profit or some other executive.

Even as neighborhoods have grown in sophistication, political savvy and influence at City Hall, they have not produced mayoral timber. 

Sallie Clark

The most successful product of a grassroots neighborhood movement, Sallie Clark, tried twice to win the mayor’s seat and lost. 

In 1999, she finished third to incumbent Mary Lou Makepeace and car dealer Will Perkins. 

Then in 2003 she again finished a close third behind winner Lionel Rivera and Ted Eastburn.

Another neighborhood leader who joined her on the council was Margaret Radford.  They were followed by Tom Gallagher.

In 2004 Clark deepened her political resume when she was elected to the El Paso County Commission.

Margaret Radford, former neighborhood activist and two-term member of the Colorado Springs City Council

She’s watching with interest the upcoming race for mayor. That’s because the race includes two men whose roots are in neighborhood organizing like hers: Gallagher and Dave Munger, president of the Council of Neighbors and Organizations, or CONO, the umbrella organization for the city’s neighborhood associations.

Clark is wondering, like I am, if their backgrounds in neighborhood leadership, will translate into votes for mayor.

Radford surprised me with her analysis. Having come from a neighborhood organizer/activist background, I expected her to echo the need for our next mayor to have strong neighborhood sensibilities and perhaps roots similar to hers.

However, Radford said neighborhoods don’t have the corner on leadership training. She urged voters to elect the candidate with the best character, leadlership skills and vision. Interesting.

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CAN A NEIGHBORHOOD ACTIVIST GET ELECTED MAYOR? is a post from: Side Streets

Finally, folks in Colorado have some place to turn besides Side Streets to report a rotten homeowners association!

The state has opened its HOA Information Office and Resource Center within the Division of Real Estate, which is under the umbrella of DORA — the Department of Regulatory Agencies in Denver.

The resource center actually invites folks to submit a complaint about their HOAs.

There’s just one catch . . . the resource center won’t investigate your complaint or your HOA, as I often do. (Nor will some irreverent, sarcastic smarty pants at the resource center write about your HOA as I do.)

It will simply log your complaint, along with all the others it receives, and report its findings to lawmakers.

Supporters hope, and critics fear, that it’s the first step toward strict oversight of the 12,000 or so HOAs operating statewide. 

So far, about 1,200 HOAs and management companies are registered. And you can search the database to see if your HOA is in compliance. It’s important to know if your HOA tries to file a lien against you. If the HOA hasn’t registered, it loses its right to file and enforce liens against its residents, said Marcia Waters, director of the Division of Real Estate.

In fact, HOA scofflaws may face civil lawsuits if they fail to register, Waters said.

The center was created in 2010 by the Colorado General Assemblyto get a handle on the growing issue of HOA abuse. 

Colorado Statehouse

It is the brainchild of Aurora Democrats Rep. Su Ryden and Sen. Morgan Carroll, who introduced and sponsored House Bill 1278 .

Originally, they envisioned creating an HOA ombudsman with power to investigate allegations of abuse by HOA boards as well as to mediate disputes.

Ultimately, lawmakers compromised and agreed to create the resource center, effective Jan. 1, 2011.

It requires each HOA to register with the center, which will gather data on HOAs and track complaints filed by the estimated 1.6 million Coloradans living in associations.

In addition, the center will serve as a clearinghouse for HOA board members and residents, providing basic information about the rights and responsibilities of property owners related to neighborhood covenants — rules governing everything from paint colors to landscaping and parking.

 The sponsors said the bill was a response to growing complaints from people living in covenant-controlled communities — neighborhoods, condos, townhomes and time-share complexes. Voluntary HOAs aren’t affected by the law.

The HOA Information and Resource Center is patterned after a state agency in Nevada, created in 1997 to help people resolve HOA disputes besides suing in civil court. Today its ombudsman has a $1.5 million budget and a staff of 15.

Follow this link to read a previous column on the HOA resource center.

And this link will take you to an earlier Side Streets blog on the topic.

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FINALLY, A PLACE TO REPORT YOUR ROTTEN HOA!!! is a post from: Side Streets

The homeowners association that runs the Satellite Hotel is locked in an ugly battle for control of the 14-story hotel/condo hybrid.

Three officers of the board, including president Margaret Thomas, accuse board member Hayward Rigano of using threats and bullying tactics as he tries to win control of the nine-member board.

They even wrote a letter to their fellow board members in November asking them to censure Rigano, citing a list of complaints from employees, vendors and residents of the building.

Rigano denies ever threatening anyone.

He said the old guard on the board is not qualified to run the building and incapable of making proper business decisions.

The two sides don’t even agree on the issues between them. Is it the 40-year-old heating system that needs major repairs? Or the HOA dues? Or the attempt to cap the number of condos that can be rental units?

Maybe it’s the alleged after-hours sex parties in the building’s restaurant. Or is it the under-performing hotel operation?

Rigano insists he is a peaceful Christian who never threatened anyone. But he admits his year on the board has been stormy as he educates them about the proper way to run the HOA.

His main issue is the hotel operation. When the Satellite opened in 1969, it was the closest hotel to the Colorado Springs Airport. Not anymore. Today it’s 76 hotel rooms sit mostly vacant, leaving little work for the housekeeping and round-the-clock front desk staff.

He said the HOA subsidizes the hotel operation at a cost of $250,000 a year.

Rigano wants to convert those rooms into 35 new condos to be sold with the profits used by the HOA for expensive maintenance.

But Thomas is adamant Rigano is out of control in his dealings with people. She said she is afraid of him. Afraid for her life, even.

She said he berates board members, staff and vendors. She accuses him of bullying and threats.

Elections next month may resolve the issue. Rigano hopes to solidify his majority and gain greater control over the board.

Here’s are some different views of the Satellite from Google Earth and FlashEarth.com.

It sits on the eastern edge of Valley Hi Golf Course.

A closer view shows the tennis courts and swimming pool for owners and hotel guests.

Residents of the Satellite enjoy fabulous views of the mountains and the surrounding city.

Here’s a nice story former Gazette columnist Rich Tosches wrote about the Satellite Hotel in 2004.

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SATELLITE HOTEL HOA LOSING ORBIT is a post from: Side Streets

 

Tami West in her backyard in Pioneer Village in Rancho Colorado subdivision south of Colorado Springs in 2005. By Carol Lawrence, the Gazette file

Tami West doesn’t mind living on a desert. After all, Rancho Colorado isn’t much different with its barren sand hills, arroyos and cactus.

Howeer, she doesn’t want to live on a desert island. But that’s kind of how it feels to her.

She says the Army and El Paso County are turning the 50 or so homeowners in Pioneer Village, in the north section of the rural subdivision south of Colorado Springs on the Pueblo County border.

The county, acting on behalf of the Pentagon, is buying vacant land in Rancho Colorado. Since 2005, it has bought about 120 lots and 937 acres at a cost of $4.1 million. Generally, it pays about $3,000 an acre.

The idea is to stop development on the edges of the post and create a 1.5-mile buffer zone around Fort Carson. Here’s a look at the property purchased to date.

Officials say 30 million old tires are buried up to 35 feet deep at a 58-acre dump in Midway, near Rancho Colorado subdivision. This is a September 2010 Gazette photo.

Rancho Colorado sits behind the sprawling 553-acre Waste Management landfill, and the 58-acre dump where 30 million old tires are buried, as well as the 76-acre Black Hills Energy plant with its network of high-voltage powerlines and near the 200-acre Pikes Peak International Raceway track.

And it is snug up against the southeast edge of Fort Carson. And just a half-mile from its artillery range.

Can you say Ka-BOOM!

Here’s another map of the neighborhood:

Here’s a story we ran in 2005 as the county embarked on the program.

And here’s a link to a website talking about other efforts to create a buffer zone using conservation easements and working in concert with the Nature Conservancy.

Follow this link to an Army website talking about the buffer zone project. On the site, click on the link to “Army Compatible Use Buffers.”

RANCHO COLORADO RESIDENTS AFRAID OF BECOMING DESERT ISLAND is a post from: Side Streets

Round One goes to the Van Wormers. But Round Two is already costing them cash.

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Cynthia Van Wormer kisses one of the birds she breeds and sells from her home in Woodmoor. The neighborhood homeowners association has ordered her to move her business because it violates covenants prohibiting animal breeding. Photo courtesy of KRDO Newschannel 13.

Cynthia and Thomas Van Wormer convinced the El Paso County Commission on Thursday to wink at state laws and county ordinances and let them keep their Rocky Mountain Bird Farm & Pet Supply in their Woodmoor home.

Thomas and Cynthia Van Wormer spoke Thursday to the El Paso County Commission in defense of their Rocky Mountain Bird Farm & Pet Supply business that they operate from their Woodmoor home.

It didn’t bother three members of the commission — Wayne Williams, Amy Lathen and Dennis Hisey — that the business violates state and county rules for home businesses and bird breeding.

Williams said if neighbors can’t hear or smell the birds, then the government should butt out. I call the policy “Don’t Ask, Don’t Smell.”

The three commissioners’ attitude incensed the Woodmoor Improvement Association, which is the homeowners association for the 3,000-home community in the woods east of Monument.

WIA President Chuck Maher called the commissioners gutless and said he wished he hadn’t voted for them. And he vowed the WIA would do what the commission didn’t have the spine to do.

Thomas Van Wormer, business partner Shawn Rapley, and Cynthia Van Wormer listen to testimony Thursday before the El Paso County Commission.

“We will enforce our covenants,” Maher said, vowing to use all means necessary including asking a judge for a restraining order to evict the business from the home.

In fact, the wheels of HOA justice already are turning.

On Friday, the WIA won a court decision against the Van Wormers over legal fees associated with fighting a restraining order the couple brought against the association in October.

The WIA submitted fees of about $1,600 in that case.

And the couple now is liable for daily fines stemming from their home business.

At a November WIA board meeting, the couple was found to be in violation of two covenants. Board members described it as a tense meeting in which Cynthia Van Wormer shouted and used obscenities in addressing the board and neighbors.

It fined them $50 for barking dog violations and $50 for having an unapproved home business, according to WIA attorney Debra Oppenheimer.

Both fines were suspended to let the couple remedy the violations. When their two wolf hybrids were shipped to a sanctuary in California late last month, they avoided the first fine.

But Oppenheimer said the home business continues to operate and the $50 fine will be reinstated along with a $25 daily fine that will accrue until the business is gone. The daily fine took effect Dec. 31, meaning the couple now owes $250 and counting!

I tried to talk to the Van Wormers about all this.

Cynthia Van Wormer called the commission’s decision “fair” but declined to tell me her next move. Instead, she attacked me, accusing me of slanting my original column against them.

Cynthia got very angry when I asked her about her testimony to the commission in which she said only about 25 percent of her 1883-square-foot home is dedicated to the business.

I reminded her that she told me her entire basement — about 1,000 square feet — is filled with 50 birds and she had put her living room and dining room furniture in storage to accomodate another 48 birds. That sounded like far more than 25 percent — the legal limit — to me.

Thomas and their business partner, Shawn Rapley, also criticized me and accused me of being unfair in my portrayal of them.

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BIRD BUSINESS GETTING EXPENSIVE AS FINES MOUNT is a post from: Side Streets

Cynthia Van Wormer can’t understand why her neighbors care if she keeps 100 exotic birds, breeds them and sells them from her modest ranch home in Woodmoor, east of Monument.

She doesn’t understand why anyone thinks her Akita dogs were vicious or dangerous and had to be destroyed.

And she’s angry the county forced her to send her wolf-hybrids to a shelter in California.

She hopes her response to complaints will convince the El Paso County Commission to let her keep her menagerie. At least her birds and her business at her home.

“It’s really sad I can’t live and run a little business in my own home and be left alone,” Van Wormer said Wednesday.

She blames her neighbor, John Clark, for her problems. He has filed repeated complaints against Van Wormer over her animals. It goes back to 2002 when one of Van Wormer’s dogs, Kai, left her yard and attacked his golden retriever pups.

The humane society impounded Kai, held it 101 days before a judge released the dog and it returned home. A few months later, the dog died unexpectedly and Van Wormer blamed Clark.

Here is a look at the neighborhood from Google Earth:

Here is the packet of information prepared for El Paso County Commissioners by the code enforcement officers to be presented at Thursday’s meeting. Here is the second violation notice mailed in November.

Clark denies Van Wormer’s allegation that he poisoned Kai. And tests of the dog were inconclusive. She sued him anyway and won a small settlement.

Things intensified around 2009 when her bird collection grew to about 100, she got three new Akitas and two wolf-hybrids. She found herself facing complaints from Clark, other neighbors, the Woodmoor Improvement Association and the county.

In September, the three Akitas were destroyed after complaints about vicious fighting. And Van Wormer sent the wolf hybrids to a sanctuary in California a couple weeks ago after county complaints.

And she has sought a restraining order against Clark, accusing him of threatening her life.

He denies making any threats and cites her “erratic” behavior as the reason he’s thinking of moving. He said he is scared of her after a domestic dispute in her home in June 2000 led to her arrest for assault on a police officer. And he cited her use of a gun around 1999, shooting at someone in her home.

What about the shooting in 1999? She says an intruder threatened her life so she grabbed her husband’s gun and fired, being careful to aim about six inches to the side of the man’s head. The man fled and was not immediately caught.

Van Wormer said Thursday the man was caught, eventually, and is incarcerated. But she did not give his name and declined to answer any more questions from me about the incident.

What about that arrest back in June 2000? She said it happened after EL Paso County Sheriff’s deputies answered a call about a domestic dispute at the home. She wanted to throw her husband out of the house. She said he kicked the door in.

But when police arrived, she said one of the officers sexually assaulted her by placing both hands on her breasts and pushing her up against a wall to restrain her. She responded by slapping him. The slap was minor, she said, and didn’t even leave a red mark.

Here’s the police report of the incident. The arresting officers paint a much different, and darker, picture of events.

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100 EXOTIC BIRDS, FIVE AKITAS, TWO WOLF HYBRIDS and a patridge in a pear tree is a post from: Side Streets