Side Streets ~ Neighborhood people and issues

Archive for the 'Victor' Tag

NOT READY TO BE A GHOST TOWN, VICTOR IS PULLING TOGETHER

October 16th, 2011, 11:30 am by

 

 

Two years ago, the historic gold mining town of Victor was staring at a crisis.

The loss of state gambling grants left City Hall on the brink of insolvency. The possible closing of the town’s largest employer, the Cripple Creek & Victor Gold Mine, threatened to push Victor to financial ruin. I feared it was becoming Colorado’s newest ghost town.

“It was the perfect storm,” said Clay Brown, a regional manager of the Colorado Department of Local Affairs, or DOLA. “It was a real wake-up call.”

Everyone holding the ribbon, left to right: -Veldean Petri, Victor City Council; Clay Brown, regional manager, Colorado Department of Local Affairs (DOLA); Victor Mayor Buck Hakes; Reeves Brown, executive director, DOLA; Don Daniel and Michael Wallace, both Victor City Council; and Robert Thompson, assistant regional manager, DOLA

 

Today, Victor stands as the poster child for how state and town officials can work together.

It’s an example of how businesses and citizens can help rescue their local government and each other.

They even held a ribbon-cutting on Sept. 29 to celebrate their achievements. DOLA executives were there along with town leaders, business officials and residents.

This was the view west down Victor Avenue in May 2010.

They are happy because Victor is a blueprint for survival and recovery from hard times.

Want proof? Just take a walk in the heart of town.

Check out the shiny black asphalt and creamy new concrete sidewalks, curbs and gutters.

What you can’t readily see is the new drainage system protecting businesses and homes from chronic flooding.

 Or the new electronic water meters.

Or the water treatment plant upgrades.

Or the gas lines being installed to allow a total town conversion from propane to more efficient natural gas.

This was the vew west down Victor Avenue in October 2011 after new asphalt was laid and new sidewalks, curbs and gutters were installed.

It’s happening thanks to a powerful partnership between City Hall and DOLA.

“Things are really looking up,” Mayor Buck Hakes said last week.

 “It’s gratifying to see the changes. People are starting to get more excited. There’s a whole new attitude. It’s much more pleasant than it was several years ago.”

In 2009 with Victor teetering on a budget meltdown, Clay Brown came in to stabilize finances and help get the town budget in order.

He determined Victor was giving away its most valuable asset: water.

This view looks south down 3rd Street from Diamond Avenue. Besides the new asphalt, sidewalks, curbs and gutters, Victor boasts new red-white-and-blue banners donated anonymously by a resident.

Ancient, failing meters, coupled with a leaking delivery and sewage system were costing precious revenue.

Brown helped Victor get grants to replace all meters in town, map and repair the sewers and water lines. Same for the crumbling or non-existent sidewalks and streets downtown.

“We’ve caught up on our budget shortfall,” Hakes said. “We’ve got a new drainage system so gravel from Battle Mountain doesn’t wash down into our streets with every hard rain.

“Now people can come and walk around on sidewalks that aren’t cracked  and broken. We have handicapped ramps.  You can stop and walk around, go shopping or eat at a restaurant on good sidewalks. It’s very important.”

Brown credits the mine for helping rescue Victor, mainly by paying more for its water supply.

“It’s the most community-minded mining company I’ve ever seen,” Brown said.

Residents are helping, too, working to attract businesses and tourists.

“It’s amazing what they’ve done,” Brown said. “It’s been a great community effort.”

A Victor City Council member plants and waters flowers in the ore carts downtown to spruce up the shopping district.

I went up recently to see the fall colors. I’ve always liked Victor with its massive headframe in the park, the great architecture of the downtown, the cool broom business and shops.

Over the years, my family has routinely made the trip up Old Stage Road. We’ve even spent the night once in the Victor Hotel.

It’s a fun place to wander around, grab a burger and a beer, shop and imagine life a century ago. I also like the cemetery on the west edge of town.

There’s a lot to see in Victor. And, judging from their recovery, a lot to learn.

Are you taking notes, Colorado Springs?

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81-YEAR-OLD MRS. SMITH AND HER BAD HIP CAN PARK IN THE ALLEY!

September 18th, 2011, 11:30 am by

Harold and Phyllis Smith met in Victor, where she grew up the daughter of a gold miner in Winfield Scott Stratton‘s Independence and Cresson mines.  

They married in 19445 and moved to Colorado Springs where he worked as a mortician and then laying wood floors. She worked at Penrose Hospital for years.  

In the mid-1950s, they built a house on the north edge of town on Parker Street and raised two daughters. Harold and Phyllis lived there 50-plus years until his death in 2010.  

Phyllis Smith, 81, is upset with a city plan to turn Parker Street into a dead end, leaving her and another neighbor stranded on a narrow access road, unable to even park in front of their homes.

 

Under the city plan, unveiled at a recent public meeting, Parker Street would become a cul de sac and Chestnut Street would veer west, bypassing a dangerous intersection at Fillmore Street and Interstate 25. Two houses beyond the end of Parker would access their homes by a narrow road.

 

The tidy little house is full of memories. But Phyllis is ready to sell it to the city and let it be torn down rather than suffer through what city engineers have planned for her.  

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Engineers want to re-route Chestnut Street to bypass a dangerous intersection at Fillmore Street and Interstate 25.  

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 The plan, as outlined by city engineers at a recent neighborhood meeting, calls for five houses to be bought and removed on the east side of Parker to allow Chestnut to swing west. It will cross Fillmore at a new traffic signal and jog back to the east to reconnect with its original alignment.  

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Parker, meanwhile, will become a long dead end — a cul de sac in fancy terms.  

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 That’s bad enough.  

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 Even worse is what the plan would do to Mrs. Smith and her next-door neighbors, Ruth and Joe Wagner.  

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Both houses will sit beyond the end of Parker. To reach their driveway, the Wagners will drive past Mrs. Smith’s home on a tiny access road.  

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To reach her garage on the alley behind her house, Phyllis Smith, 81, must climb 19 stairs. She said it's too hard, especially after her broken hip and multiple surgeries. She can't get her groceries in the house or easily reach her car. So she parks in front of her house.

 

Phyllis Smith loves her home, but she'd rather sell and let it be torn down than suffer through what the city has planned for her and Parker Street.

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Phyllis Smith's house on Parker Street. Next door, obscured by the spruce tree, is the home of Ruth and Joe Wagner. To get out of their gravel drive, the Wagners would have to back down the access road, past Mrs. Smith's house.

 

 

Here's a rough map of the city's plan to reroute Chestnut Stree to bypass a dangerous intersection at Fillmore Street and Interstate 25. It involves buying and demolishing at least five houses on Parker Street and more on Chestnut.

 

City Councilman Tim Leigh, who attended the meeting. He was not impressed with the engineers — “they seemed to be arrogant” — or their plan.
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“I think it’s a horrible plan,” Leigh said. “They are trying to push a plan too quickly when they have better options. It’s government gone bad. It’s out of control. I’m going to try and stop it.”
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Mike Chaves, acting city engineer, insists everyone is overreacting a tad.
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 “The meeting was to get peoples’ concerns so we can address them,” he said. “Nothing is final. We don’t have an exact plan.
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 “The drawings were rough and schematic. We’re going to make sure people have adequate access.”  

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 Adequate for an 81-year-old with a bad hip, by gosh! 

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The five houses in the box on the right would be bought by the city and demolished while the two on the left would be left beyond the end of Parker Street, accessible by a narrow road and the alley.

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