City Council Meeting update 10/7/09

Zowie Batman, What a time last night. First to start with the mundane. Surprisingly there was not a prayer this week. Whew...Read my last CC post and you'll understand. Attending was Dan, Sandra, Bruce and Lois. Gary is traveling. The administrators report was of course short. I'm failing to see why the City Managers cannot attend and report themselves to Council. The fire hydrants are being tested as per State regs. The tops are being color coded with spray paint so that the fire dept can tell which hydrants put out the most water. I won't go into all of the color coding details here but I will say that if you have a bag over one in front of your house, you might consider buying a really big garden hose. A reminder that snow removal is the responsibility of each property owner or tenent of a business or residence. As is maintenence or repair of sidewalks. The city admin not so nicely reminded everyone that they can bill you if the city does the work because you were neglegent. Ouch.....A spirit of civic pride and not fist slamming would be nice here. A private individual would like to build a house just outside of city limits on 4th street. The city would have to draft an agreement for water service. This issue will be addressed at a later date after more info. Last, the Medical Center has no Flu shots yet. Ha. You heard it here first!!Larry Manning from Planning gave an update on the "transportation exhibit". So far as Ii understand it is an addition to the Heritage Center. I'm guessing it was a state grant because I can't see Dan funneling any more money into the glass house. It was decided that any work wouldn't happen until next Spring anyway.
On to the agenda. Bronco Billys has been trying to use their lots by District Supply for storage for quite sometime now. I think the biggest objection was the proposed use of Conex Boxes. They have agreed to build an actual building that would be used for storage and maintenence. This seemed to be more agreeable to Council and they passed the rezoning of Lots from C1 to C2.
Item 2. Improvememts to Bennett. Chip Huffman, public works and Bill, City Admin. A really big poster with details of every pothole problem and curb issue from the District Museum to the Jailhouse Museum. Bill gave an impassioned, albeit whiny, speech about how the State refused to maintain or repair the State highway, technically Bennett Ave, that runs through town. Hmmm.... Now they know how we feel about the fence. Temp plan will get started right away to fill in the potholes with asphalt. Duh...After a quite lengthy disscusion over who talked to who, it turns out the Larry seemed to have everything worked out and was the one talking to all the right people.
Item 3. Womacks asked for money to repair the Palace sign. Passed with restictions on neon tubing. Old vs New. Same old story.
Item 4. The Elks lodge asked for HP monies to repair and paint the front facade of the building. John Sharpe, an Elks trustee, spoke about some of the strucrual problems the building is having. Item was tabled until the engineers report can be discussed in detail.
Now the rest of the meeting was the public comment portion. I spoke first and asked the Council about the feasibility of getting the Council meetings webcast. I think this would be great for all of us because you could just watch them yourselves at your convenience and you wouldn't have to put up with my sarcasm. Dan asked if I would be willing to set this up and of course I said yes, because I can't say no.....So, look for this to happen soon because I like to get things done. The rest of the Public Comments were very impassioned pleas to the Council not to let the Butte close or TATC leave our community. Dan specifically said that they would not close down the Butte but that they needed to scale back. Mary Barron and Michelle Kohne said it best when they both stated that they'd rather miss a few potholes, refering to Bennett, than miss the Butte. Mel Moser speaking later, after many others, said that he wanted to thank the City for the opportunity to produce live theatre in Cripple Creek and that he wanted everyone to know that they were good stewards of the City's money. I know this is true because as the costume shop manager I think I'm making about $2 an hour, and I know that there are other city dept managers making far more money than Mickey. He's working 12-14 hour days. In one last note. The mandatory trash service issue is, as Dan put it, DOA. In other words. Dead......

City Council Agenda 10/7 2009

Ok, Civic minded citizens, here's the scoop on the agenda. First is of course the reports from the city administrator, finance, and historic preservation. I really think that all city managers should be required to attend and update council themselves. I'll work on that. Back to the agenda. Planning commision- request approval for rezone of C1 to C2 to allow storage facility. John Bowman and Pioneer group applicants.
2- Disscusion- Improvement to Bennett Ave. and Safety Hazards. Chip Huffman and Bill McPherson. Ya think?
3- Recommendation- Historic Preservation Commission- funding from Vacant and under Maintained historic Building Program, Womacks Casino, I hope this isn't going towards that big empty storage unit with the really great mural.
Recommendation- HPC funding and repairs and painting, Elks Lodge
The only way to complain is be part of the process. If you don't get involved then you can't whine later.See you there.

The Real City Council Meeting

I have been to a few council meetings as of late and I think the most strikingly odd thing that happens there is the invocation, or prayer, that starts the meeting. Yes, I do believe in God and we say prayers every night together, but there is something disconcerting about praying in a public meeting. Especially when your sitting there knowing that not everybody in a governmental postion is even being honest or has any kind of integrity and yet they bow their head. Crazy. Point two is that the gentleman who gave the prayer, I assume he is from one of our local churches, prayed for God to make the leaves turn beautiful colors so that lots of  people would come here and make our town prosperous. Ok, That is like praying for lots of money, and I don't think that is what the point of religon is. He should be praying for enlightenment, so that council would not believe all the nonsense from the city administrator or city attorney. My two cents.
Ok, off the soap box and on to the real news. The cattle guard is finally in. The base of the old one was busted and they had to wait for it to be delivered. Yea right. That's not the real story, but continuing on. Something about sending out plans to be bid upon for a new transportation building. I am questioning the need for this but it's the first I've heard of it. I'll keep you posted, and yet they have no money for a fence.... Mary Bielz asked for the City to restore its funds for the YPYCS formally known as the EPYCS grants. This is monies distributed by a group of kids at the school. They try to fund community programs. In the past the money has come from the El Pomar Foundation with matching funds coming from the city, but unfortunately this funding will be gone by the Spring. If your organization would like to help continue this program please contact Mary Bielz. The City Council told her to move ahead with the program but ultimately could not promise any funding. After alot of hem hawing, Paul Harris recommended that the City hire a new auditing firm. We have had the same firm for 14 years, which is almost unheard of, Council all agreed that change is good. Public comment was again, of course, about the cows. Too bad the city administrator has had two years to deal with this but has ultimately failed. Wish he would actually tell the truth about it. The thing about lying is that it almost always comes back to bite you in the butt. I'll let it go at that since that's a story for another blog.

More weekend stuff for Sept. 19th, 2009

Kirstie reminded me that there is a Four Mile High dance on Saturday night at the hall. In case your not familiar with them they are great dances especially for families.  The kids can go and learn how to country dance, and it's a great community activity. Kinda reminds you of the good old days... The dance starts at 8pm and I believe the band is Timberline. Kirstie, correct me if I'm wrong. You can find the Four Mile Hall right acroos the road from the entrance to Lakemoor West subdivision. That is by the "Y" of Teller 11 and High Park Road.
Also P&R's annual BMX race will be on the 19th at the BMX track right outside of town by the public works building. It starts at 10am. Great stuff for the kids.
Well, I'm off to the City Council Meeting tonight. City Hall at 5:30 pm. I'll tell you what really happened tommorrow. None of this biased reporting here....Watch for my new weekly citizen award. Make sure you vote on the name on the sidebar. Don't you just love democracy?