Will calm ever come to the Sierra Pointe Condominiums?

I’ve written about the 282-unit complex near Palmer Park several times over the years. It’s homeowners association is a chronic mess.

It’s always the same story: power-hungry HOA board members battling for control.

This time, there’s a twist.

Hossein Forouzandeh, the HOA president elected in January, said he’s under attack because he was born in Iran.

Could he, in fact, be a victim of hate? Or is he just another HOA tyrant who abuses the rules and punishes his opponents?

Hossein Forouzandeh

Hossein Forouzandeh

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Forouzandeh was recruited to run for the Sierra Pointe HOA board by a past president unhappy with the way the 2010 board operated.

That’s not unusual, especially at Sierra Pointe. It has endured years of feuding and upheaval of its HOA board.

What makes him different is his age – he’s 30 – and background as an actor with little experience in the knife-fighting world of HOA boards.

At the time Forouzandeh was elected, Sierra Pointe was being managed by Diversified Property Management, a company formed in 2005 by Steve and Tracy Martin. They manage 24 associations with 8,000 homeowners.

Diversified had been working at Sierra Pointe two years at the time, trying to get caught up on a $4 million backlog of maintenance — especially the repair of failing roofs across the complex and its 34 buildings.

Steve Martin said his team also was working to whittle down the list of folks behind on their association dues. A law firm that specializes in collections was hired to begin the lengthy process.

But after just 90 days of Forouzandeh’s tenure, Diversified quit, walking away from 15 percent of its revenue.

“Hossein was pretty impossible to deal with,” Martin said. “He doesn’t understand the HOA. He thought he could come in and change the workd in a heartbeat.”

Martin further described working with Forouzandeh as a “horror” and “a complete nightmare.”

Forouzandeh, 30, insists he is just a guy trying to restore order after years of chaos at Sierra Pointe. He says he inherited an inept board and management team.

And he says he’s a victim of hate and discrimination because he is a native of Iran who became a naturalized U.S. citizen in second grade.

But former board members paint a darker picture of him. They say Forouzandeh is more often the angry “urban turban” he portrayed in a You Tube video monologue “Persian Rant – Heyokah Project – Garden Of Peaches by Hossein Forouzandeh.”

In it, he describes his U.S. relocation as being “thrown into a den of hungry red, white and blue wolves.”

Former board member Angie Brown says she was unfairly ousted because she challenged Forouzandeh.

She claims he held board meetings and didn’t invite all members. He held executive sessions without following proper procedures, she said, even inviting people who should not have been privy to the sessions. Martin confirms these meetings.

Brown also claims Forouzandeh entered private condos without permission and took action without meeting or getting property board approval.

Forouzandeh denies breaking any rules and attributes the hard feelings to his work trying to reform Sierra Pointe HOA after years of neglect and abuse.

“It’s just lies,” he said, admitting only that he’s been “too blunt” at times.

Part of the problem, Forouzandeh said, is racial.

“I’ve gotten this all my life because I’m brown and my name is Hossein,” he said. “I promise you there’s a little bit of that involved in this.”

He may be right. Martin insists he simply couldn’t take the abuse any longer. But Brown doesn’t like his “Persian rant” and even said she’s worried “Sierra Pointe is coming under Muslim control.”

Hmm. Maybe Forouzandeh has a point.

Here’s a column I wrote in 2007 about Sierra Point and follow this link to the accompanying blog.

This is another column from 2008 and here is the associated blog.
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IS HOSSEIN AN HOA TYRANT OR A MISUNDERSTOOD VICTIM OF HATE is a post from: Side Streets

Steve Wenzel, left, and Ruth Pedrie dance "The Twist" Wednesday, June 23, 2010 during the Street Breakfast on Pikes Peak Avenue in downtown Colorado Springs. Photo by Mark Reis, The Gazette

Until 2008, neighborhood block parties were such a priority in Colorado Springs that the parks department had a program and coordinator to facilitate two dozen or so requests received each year.

It was based on the idea that neighborhoods function better — they are safer and problems get solved at a one-on-one level more easily — if folks get to know each other.

Make friends over a burger and a beer, maybe even dance in the street,  and you are more likely to watch out of suspicious activity across the street.

And you are less likely to call cops when the music is too loud. (You’ll probably walk over and ask them to turn it down. Or you will be at the party and enjoy the music!)

Today, that concept is known as a “community building.”

Anyway, the city valued and encouraged you to make friends with your neighbors. And your life was enriched.

It fell smack under the city’s motto: “We Create Community.”

But in 2008 the budget ax fell and the parks department staff was slashed.  It could no longer afford a block party program and coordinator to process permit applications, collect the $25 fee, underwrite the insurance for street parties, alert emergency agencies of closures, schedule delivery and removal of barricades and subsidize the cost of these activities.

Those duties have fallen to the police department. The process is no longer a simple one.

Neighborhoods are complaining about demands for a dozen pages of information, names and phone numbers, traffic studies, insurance policies and unreasonable advance notice.

So many have stopped asking permission and started holding rogue parties.

They put out trash cans and lawn chairs to block their streets and eat, drink and dance. No permits. No fees. No ridiculous red tape.

But no coordination with emergency services, either.

The police recognize this is a problem and recently asked the City Council to adopt a new ordinance defining how parties should be handled.

The ensuing discussion offered an interesting glimpse of our new council.

Bernie Herpin, Jan Martin, Brandy Williams and Lisa Czelatdko want to encourage block parties.

“To me, it’s a matter of informing the city that we would like to have a block party,” Herpin said. “Here’s the time, date and location. I’d rather see this an an informal thing, not asking permission. I think it got blown out of proportion.”

How Colorado Springs City Councilwoman Angela Dougan would handle street partiers

Then there’s Councilwoman Angela Dougan, who says city streets are for cars only.

“I’d rather see an ordinance that we do not allow blocking off our streets,” she said. “If you do, we treat it like blocking a fire hydrant, we might just put a hose right through your car because it wasn’t supposed to be there.”

And call out the Gestapo?

Anyway, the council told police to rethink its ordinance and, more importantly, meet with the Council of Neighbors & Organizations to get input for the folks actually trying to build community. What a concept!

Just maybe, before the summer block-party-season is over, neighborhoods will finally know whether they can legally eat, drink and dance in the streets.

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PARTY TIME IN THE NEIGHBORHOODS! MAYBE is a post from: Side Streets

This is the approximate route taken by Luna, a dog owned by Daryl and Cindy Anderson. Luna escaped a relative's fenced yard and made her way about three miles toward home before she was killed on railroad tracks near Rockrimmon.

Luna

Some good is coming from the sad story of Luna, the dog who escaped a fenced yard and tried to make her way home only to be killed on the railroad tracks along Monument Creek in Rockrimmon.  

Luna’s remains were found by Tom, a Rockrimmon resident, who removed the collar and called Luna’s owners, Daryl and Cindy Anderson, to inform them of Luna’s death.  

Tom called the Andersons himself because he said the Humane Society of the Pikes Peak Region refused to take a “deceased animal” report.  

He said HSPPR staff told him to call the Colorado Springs street department to report a dead animal. Tom was outraged and feared Luna’s owners would never know what happened to their pet.  

Humane Society of the Pikes Peak Region

So he called The Gazette and Luna’s story was the subject of Monday’s Side Streets column. That’s when things happened at HSPPR.  

I received an email Monday from Jan McHugh-Smith, president and CEO of the humane society.  

She told me she was changing policy immediately to accept dead pet reports and log them in a notebook available for viewing at the society’s Lost and Found Pet area.  

Here’s the text of her note to me:  

Dear Bill,  

 After your story was published our currently policies on lost and found pets were reviewed, and we would like to update you and make some corrections to your article entitled: SIDE STREETS: Neighbor helps family get closure for lost pet, questions humane society policy.  

Jan McHugh-Smith, president and CEO of the Humane Society of the Pikes Peak Region

 From this point forward, the City of Colorado Springs Street Division will directly email their finished work logs (recording dead animal description and location) to our lost and found email. We will be publishing all of the logs in a notebook in our Lost and Found Pets area. This will allow owners to read the logs, and hopefully be able to identify if their pet has been found deceased in the city. We will also match the city work logs with lost animals that have been reported to HSPPR to try to reconnect additional stray pets. 

 Our call center will also be taking found reports on deceased animals, and will try to combine logs and reports if efforts are found duplicated. 

 The Humane Society of the Pikes Peak Region works diligently to reunited owners with lost companion animals; we reunited 4,199 stray animals last year alone. Tom should be commended in his actions, and his Good Samaritan efforts will bring positive changes in our policies. 

 Sincerely,   

 Jan McHugh-Smith 

President and CEO  

I should note all the good work HSPPP already does on behalf of pets and their owners in the region. 

According to the 2010 annual report, the society had 21,100 pets in its care in Colorado Springs. 

It handled 7,700 adoptions in addition to the 4,199 reuinted pets and fostered 450 pets. 

It’s animal law enforcement unit responded to 24,000 calls for service and conducted 3,800 cruelty investigations. 

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CHANGE COMES QUICKLY TO HUMANE SOCIETY is a post from: Side Streets

This was Luna, the beloved pet of Daryl and Cindy Anderson and their family.

Luna

Luna was a pound puppy, adopted by the Andersons from a humane society shelter in Las Vegas about 10 years ago.

A couple weeks ago, Luna was visiting a relative’s house near Flintridge and Dublin. She apparently panicked when left in a fenced yard, dug her way out and vanished far from her home near Garden of the Gods Road and Centennial Boulevard.

Daryl said he and his sons put 100 miles on their car searching for Luna.

They reported Luna to the Humane Society of the Pikes Peak Region, checked its kennels daily to see if Luna was among its captured strays and they scanned reports on the society’s lost pet website.

Then, late last week, Daryl received a call from a stranger who said he had Luna’s collar.

Tom, who declined to reveal his full name, had taken the collar off the dog’s remains, which he found on railroad tracks that run past Rockrimmon.

Tom had noticed Luna’s remains as he walked his own dogs along Monument Creek near Mark Dabling Boulevard in Rockrimmon.

Luna had died trying to get home from the relative’s house. (See map of Luna’s approximate route at the bottom of this blog).

She had crossed Academy and Union boulevards, Interstate 25 and the creek. But she’d failed to cross the tracks safely.

 I’m guessing she made it a few blocks north to Cottonwood Creek, followed it west to Monument Creek and then a bit south along Mark Dabling before she strayed onto the tracks.

I’d guess she’d gone about three miles!

Daryl tells me Tom and his wife not only showed him the location of Luna’s remains, they helped him retrieve the remains. He described it as “a very messy and unpleasant task.”

“Tom’s a wonderful person,” Daryl said. “That gentleman was the best ‘Good Samaritan’ that I could have run into.”

Tom said he braved the decomposing remains because he, too, had lost a pet cat, Barney, a few years ago and never learned its fate.

He didn’t want Daryl’s family to wonder about Luna, the chow mix they had adopted from a humane society in Las Vegas.

“They needed closure,” Tom said. “We never got closure with Barney.”

Normally, the story of Luna, Daryl and Tom would would end there. But this incident raised questions in Tom’s mind about how the Humane Society of the Pikes Peak Region deals with dead pets.

Tom was surprised to learn he could not make a “deceased animal” report after he saw Luna’s remains.

“They said they don’t do that,” he said. “They just wanted me to call the city to get it hauled away. I was more interested in reuniting it with its owner.”

So he didn’t call the city street division to retrieve the remains. That was a mistake, the society says.

Crews would’ve picked up Luna’s remains and called the society promptly.

“Every day, the city gives us detailed reports of the deceased pets they pick up,” said Erica Meyer, society spokeswoman. “If there’s a collar, they remove it, and give it to us with the report so we can call the owner.

“If there is no collar, they give us breed information, size, color, location. Then we try to match it with the lost pet reports we have.”

Allowing folks like Tom to report animal remains would cause duplication and confusion, she said.

And deceased pet reports are not displayed online, as Tom proposes, to protect owners from shock.

“Rather than putting it on the web, we have a department that notifies owners personally,” Meyer said.

“We work really hard to reunite people with their lost pets, whether they are alive or deceased.

“We have an entire unit that works on it every day.”

Meyer reminds everyone to call the Humane Society immediately if they see an injured animal or suspect it may be suffering. Don’t always assume an animal that has been struck by a car, for example, is dead.

The number is 473-1741.

To report a dead animal in the city, call the street division at 385-5934.

n El Paso County, call 520-6460.

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A LESSON IN LUNA’S SAD DEATH is a post from: Side Streets

The battle over Sertoma Park in unincorporated Widefield was a loud, angry fight in 2008.

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Sertoma Park, as it is known, looks like a big vacant lot with an access road off Squire Street. It is surrounded by homes and slopes steeply to the west where there is a pond and trees.

Neighbors, led by Joe Berkhoff, denounced the sale of the 5.4-acre vacant lot by the Widefield School District to a developer.

They alleged violations of law.

They accused officials of misdeeds.

They claimed conspiracies.

They attacked the developer who proposed building a 72-unit senior assisted living center.

They even tried to buy the property, offering $175,000.

But developer Ron Hall had an option on the land for $210,000 so the neighbors were rebuffed.

This thing got ugly.

Berkhoff and his neighbors were passionate about this property.

Emotional.

Angry.

The 5.4-acre parcel known as Sertoma Park in Widefield as seen from Google Earth.

I’d even say irrational to the point of making angry threats to me when they didn’t like what I wrote about the dispute.

They felt ownership of the property. It was their park, in their minds. They played there. Walked their pets there. Berkoff’s aunt even used it as the driveway to her garage.

So when it was sold and plans were announced, they felt betrayed, misled, lied to by just about everyone.

Blueprints for the Senior Assisted Living Center

I don’t blame them for being upset if someone had promised them a park and suddenly they discovered it was private property and soon a nursing home would be built.

I understand why they’d be angry at the thought of their cul de sacs becoming through streets.

But I don’t understand the nasty way they approached Hall.

Developer Ron Hall had concrete barriers placed in front of the garage of Anna Maria Stevens, 73, in June 2008 in retaliation for her family's opposition to his senior living center project.

Hall got so upset at the public thrashing he received that he indulged in a petty bullying tactic and piled a bunch of concrete barriers in front of garage doors of Anna Maria Stevens, Berkoff’s aunt, blocking her access.

He removed them after a few days.

I talked to Hall, who has had financial problems since the economy crashed. He still hopes to resurrect his project.

But El Paso County project manager Craig Dossey said the property has a huge drainage problem which will expensive to overcome. He hasn’t heard anything from Hall in months.

And the property owner, Daryl Slinkard, wants to be rid of the property, leading him to post it for sale. He is shocked Berkhoff declined his offer to sell him the land and even finance the purchase.

Berkhoff said his circumstances have changed since 2008. No other neighbors want to step up and help buy it. He can’t afford it. And the price is too high.

But he vows to sue if Hall tries to build the project as planned with emergency access roads coming off Raemar Circle and Raemar Place.

Here’s a link to my April 2008 column on Sertoma Park. My accompanying blog can be read here.

This link takes you to the June 2008 blog I wrote after Hall blocked Anna Maria Stevens.

An artist's rendering of the proposed senior living center.

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WIDEFIELD PASSES ON CHANCE TO PRESERVE PARK is a post from: Side Streets

Pikes Peak rises behind the Kissing Camels rock formation, on the right, in this file photo by Mark Reis of The Gazette

Kissing Camels Estates is one of the most affluent and prestigious neighborhoods in Colorado Springs.

It is a gated community overlooking Garden of the Gods and Pikes Peak.

It represents old money, wealth and power – a place where 80 people were invited to join if they passed a series of interviews with founders Al and Margaret Hill and their associates.

The lucky elite charter members — legend says the list included Walt Disney and John Wayne — were granted access to the regions most exclusive golf, tennis and social club.

Behind its guardhouse off Mesa Road are 550 custom homes and townhomes along a sprawling, wooded 27-hole golf course. It has a 108-room club complex and recreation center with 13 tennis courts, pools and a fleet of golf carts.

But all is not as placid as it appears in the community the Hill opened in 1951 .

Below is a photo of construction of the Garden of the Gods Club in May 1950, taken from the club’s Web site, showing developer Al Hill, third from left, overseeing work on his project. He conceived it as a luxury summertime-only tennis and social club with guest rooms.

Developer Al Hill, third from left, is seen in this May 1950 photograph on the mesa where he built the Garden of the Gods Club and the Kissing Camels Estates and golf course.

The Kissing Camels Estates housing development began at the same time but, according to the Web site, it was years before Hill was convinced to include a golf course. The original 18-hole course opened in 1961, 10 years after the club.

Here’s how it looks today.

I saw this photo on the Garden of the Gods Club Blog. It shows the Kissing Camels Golf Course in 1969.

Margaret Hunt Hill in a 1994 file photo

According to its history, Al and Margaret Hill bought the 1,600-acre mesa in 1949 and the club held its grand opening in June 1951.

It soon rivaled The Broadmoor as a retreat for the rich and famous.

This 2007 obituary for Margaret Hunt Hill gives more detail of the couple and their vision for Kissing Camels. Al Hill died of complications from hip surgery in 1988, four months shy of the couple’s 50th wedding anniversary.

I wrote about Kissing Camels and problems with its homeowners associations back in 2007. This is a link.

I also wrote a blog in 2007. It was one of my first. See it here.

Read all about the lawsuit filed by the Kissing Camels Property Owners Association against the 49 members of the Kissing Camels Townhomes.

You can read Judge Timothy Schutz’s complete ruling here.

Here’s a link to the covenants and governing documents for all the Kissing Camels neighborhoods.

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NEW REALITY SHOW . . . HOUSEWIVES OF KISSING CAMELS is a post from: Side Streets

A geyser spouts after thieves stole an expensive copper backflow valve. Photo courtesy Scot Smelker, All American Landscape Co.

Photo courtsey Scot Smelker, All American Landscape Co.

Unfortunately, geysers like this are becoming a common sight around Coloardo Springs as thieves get more and more aggressive stealing expensive copper backflow valves.

From one end of the city to the other, irrigation systems are being targeted. The result is expensive repairs and wasted water. A gusher like this one spouts upwards of 150 to 200 gallons per second.

And thieves are so bold they come back time and again after the valves are replaced, at a cost to the customer of hundreds apiece, said Scot Smelker, president of All American Landscape Co.

His company has a contract to maintain irrigation systems in city parks and on private property all over the Springs. He said no region is immune.

Even worse, thieves no longer are detered by steel cages the city had started using to protect the valves.

Smelker said thieves simply put a chain on the cages and rip them from their concrete bases.

Copper thieves ripped a steel cage away from the copper backflow valve it was protecting and cut away the valve. Photo courtesy of Scot Smelker, All American Landscape Co.

On May 24, a traffic stop led to the arrests of William Matuska, 44, and Bruce Williams, 48. Police believe the pair committed more than 50 thefts over the past six to 12 months, causing an estimated $150,000 worth of damage.

Colorado Springs Police arrested William Matuska, left, and Bruce Williams on suspicion of copper theft.

Not only are copper thieves leaving neighborhood parks high and dry, they are leaving neighborhoods in the dark because they are targeting the copper wires in streetlights.

These creeps are risking electrocution to pull the wire from city streetlights.

Smelker believes scrap metal dealers ought to be held accountable for facilitiating the thefts.

He blames them for not policing their purchases of backflow valves and wire.

A crate of backflow valves sits in a scrap metal dealer. Photo courtesy of Scot Smelker, All American Landscape Co.

In fact, he said a “sting” operation recently showed him there’s a thriving black market for the backflow valves. Smelker said his supplier took three new valves, which cost $200 to $500 apiece, to a scrap metal dealer who paid $78 cash and tossed them into a crate of similar valves.

“There were crates and crates of backflow valves,” Smelker said. “Pallets of them everywhere. The guy took the valves, handed over the cash and out the door.”

Smelker said a new state law requiring scrap dealers to check the identification of anyone selling more than $300 of precious metals has “too many loopholes.”

But it’s a start.

He also likes the idea of neighborhoods getting more involved in policing their parks for copper thieves.

The city recently issued a plea for folks to call police – 444-7000 – or text “CSPD” to 847411 on their mobile devices when they see suspicious activity. It could be men “working” on streetlights or irrigation systems.

Many besides Smelker blame the scrap metal industry for the spike in copper thefts and point to reports like this on the website of the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries showing record earnings.

In its defense, the institute points to its aggressive campaign to stop the purchase of stolen metal whether it’s wiring, backflow valves, beer kegs, automobile catalytic converters or more.

Folks see reports like this and blame the scrap metal industry for contributing to the theft of copper nationwide.

In fact, the institute has launched Stop Theft Alert an effort to get dealers to report suspected theft and tracks theft on its website.

It also offers posters for its dealers to print out and display.

Here are some of the posters offered on the website of the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries.

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COPPER THIEVES HURTING NEIGHBORHOODS is a post from: Side Streets

I have been getting brutalized by Texans who got their feelings hurt by the headline on Sunday’s Side Streets column: 

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SIDE STREETS: Not only must we share our highways and trails with Texans, now our neighborhoods too

The headline was a riff on one of the oldest jokes in Colorado — how Texans flock to Colorado and you can always spot them by the way they drive.

(They swerve all over the road because they are used to dodging armadillos sleeping in the middle of all their highways!)

 The column was about the proliferation of vacation home rentals and how Colorado Springs has decided not to regulate them. The result is that your neighborhood rental could become a vacation home for tourists. Of course, that means Texans, right?

It was a harmless reference, so I thought. Wrong.

Some readers OUTRAGED!

One actually called City Hall demanding: “All y’ all butter dew sumpen ’bout that Gah-zette!”

OK, I made up the quote. But the call to City Hall actually happened.

So I did what anyone would do . . . I googled Texas to see if others make fun of the Lone Star State or if I was off base.  

Turns out the web is filled with Texas jokes. There’s an entire Facebook page devoted to slamming Texas! Who knew? (Actually, it’s way too harsh for my taste.)

Then a colleague suggested I should hold a little contest. Let readers offer their own Texas jokes.

A few folks posted their own Texas jokes in the comment section.

Here’s one from kmancos:

“Heh, reminds me of standing in a lift line at Breck. You could tell the Texans from the locals because us locals had 501′s with scotch guard, and the Texans had the latest ski suits. My friend said “What’s up with all of these Texans?” and I said “I don’t know, I just hope that they ski better than they drive.”

I like that one. Guess they just can’t stop dodging armadillos!

Anyway, I’m inviting everyone to offer their own Texas jokes.

I’ll get things started with this one:

Ever hear about the Olympic athlete from Texas who was so proud of the gold medal he won that he went and had it bronzed?

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DON’T MESS WITH TEXAS . . . BECAUSE TEXANS CAN’T TAKE A JOKE! is a post from: Side Streets

Neighborhoods in Colorado Springs will get no vacation from homes being used as short-term rental properties under new rules being proposed by city planning officials.

Since 2008, a few neighborhoods have complained about the growing trend of vacation home rentals. We’ve seen it for years in ski resort towns.

At the time, about 60 houses in the city were known vacation home rentals. Today, that number is 90 and growing.

Most vocal among the neighborhoods was the Organization of Westside Neighbors, the Cedar Heights Community Assocation and a group in the Broadmoor.

The took up the cause after chonic problems developed with vacation home rentals: neighbors upset having strangers around, coming and going late at night; loud and late parties; guests abusing wildlife; even a house in Cedar Heights being turned into an events center.

But three years of study — including two task forces to look into the problem —  has not changed the city planners’ opinion that sufficient codes exist to regulate the short-term rentals.

Welling Clark, OWN president, compiled extensive research on vacation home rentals and proposed a detailed code for regulating the properties.

But the city was not swayed and, on Friday, distributed this draft of its proposed short-term rental regulations.

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Essentially, the regulations make no changes to existing codes.

To read more, check out this July 2010 column and its blog on the subject.

And here’s a November 2009 column I wrote, as well as it’s accompanying blog.

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NEIGHBORHOODS TO GET NO VACATION FROM RENTALS is a post from: Side Streets

Joyce Cheney and her dog, Poodles

Joyce Cheney, seen here with her dog, Poodles, loves to hike.

She especially enjoys the Mount Manitou Incline and Barr Trail in Manitou Springs, as well as Section 16 and Waldo Canyon.

Of course, those are four of the most popular trails in the region.

Cheney wishes they got a little less use from members of the military who regularly go on training runs on those same trails.

Cheney said she regularly sees soldiers from Fort Carson and Air Force Academy cadets on the trails.

It bugs her.

Why, she asks, can’t they train on the thousands of acres set aside for them?

“I wish they’d train somewhere else,” she said. “These are public recreational trails. They have thousands of acres of base land available to train on.”

Isn’t it bad enough we have to share them with every Texan who wanders into town? (OK, the Texan crack is my smart-mouth remark, not Cheney’s words.)

And something else really bugs her. Some of the military smoke. And, she said, they drop cigarette butts on the trails. Even lit butts!

Dropping cigarette butts on trails is not cool. Doesn’t matter who you are, military or civilian. It’s like letting your dog drop something on the trail. It’s just wrong.

And lit butts are dangerous. Stupid and dangerous.

I was shocked at the idea soldiers and cadets are puffing and dropping butts after a 10-mile jaunt up Barr Trail. So I called a trails expert, Susan Davies, executive director of the Trails and Open Space Coalition, to see how bad the situation really is.

She said it’s true our friends in the military, when they aren’t risking their lives for us halfway around the world, do like to run our trails.

“But so what?” Davies said.

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Davies added that the military doesn’t just run the trails, they volunteer regularly to perform trail building and maintenance.

Here’s proof: Air Force cadets with picks and shovels building trail in Red Rock Canyon Open Space and collecting trash along the Pikes Peak Greenway downtown Colorado Springs.

Air Force Academy cadets perform trail maintenance in Red Rock Canyon Open Space on April 2, 2011. Photo courtesy the Trails and Open Space Coalition

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Air Force Academy cadets perform trail maintenance in Red Rock Canyon on April 2, 2011. Photo courtesy the Trails and Open Space Coalition.

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THIS IS A PUBLIC TRAIL, SOLDIER. BUTT OUT! is a post from: Side Streets