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Colorado Springs Mayor Steve Bach
The Friends of Cheyenne Cañon nonprofit was surprised recently to learn Colorado Springs Mayor Steve Bach is giving the group the heave-ho.
In a brief Jan. 6 letter, Bach said the city will honor a $25,000 appropriation authorized by the City Council. But he warned the group to “seek replacement funding” in 2013.
The note shocked Ron Leasure and Lee Wolf and other Friends leaders.
The city doesn’t fund Friends of Cheyenne Cañon.
Reality is just the opposite.
“We contribute thousands to the city from our funds to keep the cañon alive,” said Leasure, the Friends president. “That letter hurt a little bit. He put some bruises in our organization.”
Leasure and Wolf feel Bach doesn’t appreciate how much their 500-member, all-volunteer group has given the city since its founding in 1992 to preserve the 1,600-acre park, which features miles of trails, Helen Hunt Falls, granite spires and cliffs making it popular for hikers, bikers and climbers.
Friends of Cheyenne Canon leaders Ron Leasure and Lee Wolf
Lee Wolf examines the deteriorating Helen Hunt Falls Visitors Center in this 2009 photo.
Wolf, treasurer and past president, said the group has been subsidizing the city for years. He calculates the group’s cash donations and volunteer hours at $1 million in the past six years.
The Friends build and maintain trails, remove graffiti, conduct major clean-up and maintenance campaigns in the park at the base of Cheyenne Mountain.
“When money got tight in 2009, they were going to close the visitors centers,” Wolf said. “We provided all the funding to pay for a full-time city employee plus the part-time people.”
In fact, the group is about to begin work on one of its single largest contributions to the park.
An artists rendering of the new visitors center.
Demolition is expected to begin this week on the Helen Hunt Falls Visitors Center.
The dilapidated log cabin structure will be replaced by an $80,000-plus log facility to be built with funds donated by the Friends of Cheyenne Cañon.
Then it will be staffed by city employees whose salaries are paid for by the Friends. You get the picture?
“It’s the perfect private-public partnership,” Wolf said. “We give money to the city and they hire people.”
A major source of funding, besides cash donations, comes from Bristol Brewery.
All proceeds from the sale of its Cheyenne Cañon Pinon Nut Ale are donated to the Friends group.
Bristol Brewing has dedicated all proceeds from its Cheyenne Canon Ale to pay for a new visitors center at Helen Hunt Falls.
“The new building is a gift from us to the city,” Wolf said. “And the mayor is throwing shots at us?”
So you can understand why Leasure and Wolf were upset to learn Bach announced the city was cutting off the Friends.
I’d say Bach better hope the Friends group doesn’t cut off the city!
The Friends won’t, though, because this group lives up to its name.
“We’ll sit down with the city,” Wolf said, describing how friends resolve misunderstandings. “We’ll straighten this all out.”
I hope so. This city needs all the “friends” it can get!
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Yet another communications gaffe by our idiot mayor. You’d think with all those high-price communications people he’s hired recently that he could get that part of his mayor gig right. Guess not.
Bach needs to go. He’s killing this city, starting with our parks.
Thanks for setting the record straight, Bill.
@Bruce Johnson: One wonders if it was really a “gaffe” at all, or part of some dumb plan the mayor has thought up?
If the “Friends” have provided such a benefit to the City, why are they upset the Mayor is ending their annual $25,000 appropriation? Could it be the City employees they “pay” for obligate the City to pay for benefits (healthcare, retirement, etc) beyond their salaries?
Few seem to be paying attention when the Mayor shows the chart of how, at our current pace, expenditures will exceed revenues – we will go broke funding “nice-to-haves” at the expense of “must-haves”. I like parks and tennis courts as much as anyone, but not at the expense of needed road and bridge repairs.
With “Friends” like these…
It’s NOT an appropriation to support the Friends. The city is reimbursing the Friends some of the tens of thousands they’ve spent subsidizing the city during the budget crunch.
Pubilius. Sure you need roads, but while you’re building awesome roads, which are just part of the amenities of a city, just like parks and open spaces, all your technology people have moved to castle rock, or Broomfield, and now your entire city dies.
How bad did losing Intel cost Colorado Springs? Could you afford to lose all those business parks above academy? Business go where the talent they need is.
Just something to think on.
@Pubilus and Bill Vogrin: The Friends didn’t ask for an appropriation (they have NEVER received one) nor did they ask for reimbursement. What they did was tell the city that they could not give the city $50k this year (along with giving them $80k for a new building), and asked the city to split it. The Friends would kick in $25K, and the city $25K…
Adam H: You are so correct, and so many people just don’t get it. You can have the nicest roads in the world, but if your parks look like crap, and there are no recreational activities for people to participate in, the businesses that provide good paying jobs (not call centers, etc) will not come here because their employees won’t want to come here. Build a safe, ATTRACTIVE city, and the businesses will come. Unfortunately, we the voters have been too busy cutting off their noses to spite their faces. I wonder when the $180K/year “Economic Vitality” guru is going to start earning his pay?