Everything on their wish list

This letter is in response to your article “Less water, less cash flow” in Saturday’s paper, April 20. The Colorado Springs Utilities states that there is no plans on raising our water rates to compensate for their budget shortfall due to customer’s using less water.

What they have done is lowered the Tier 2 from 2,500 to 2,000cf — a cost increase to the customers. Most everyone will be going in to Tier 3, in which the cost is doubled. They know this, so this is the way they compensate for their loss of revenue. They said they would have to look internally to compensate for their loss. I know of one good way, and that is cutting out these bonuses to their fat cats.

I hope that the new City Council starts policing Utilities and quit giving them everything on their wish list like the previous council did.

Albert Burns

Colorado Springs

Shining a light on a problem

To summarize the problem, I own a condo at the Satellite Condominiums at 411 Lakewood Circle, which is at South Academy Boulevard and Airport Road. Within a stone’s throw there is a NAPA Auto Parts store at 755 S. Academy Blvd. It is one of six in the city. According to their website, these stores are individually owned, not franchised. The outside store lights come on at 4:40 pm and stay on all night long. The lights are multicolored and are so bright they light up my living room and even reflect off my large-screen TV. Letters complaining to the owner/manager have been ignored.

The manager is defiant and refuses to be a good neighbor. This overhead expense is bound to be eating into his net profit!

Lee Conrad

Colorado Springs

The real victims in these cases

Ryan Handy’s recent article on convicted sex offender Eric Martinez misconstrues the notion of who really suffers as a result of sexual abuse in our communities and society as a whole. It seems the reporter was mainly interested in portraying offenders as the “real victims” in these cases.

While I agree there are numerous pitfalls in our legal and judicial systems, we must not overlook the choices that are made by offenders. Communicating with a minor via the Internet was a decision this offender made. Sex offenders often groom potential child sexual abuse victims and may use the Internet to connect and establish “trust” with victims. This offender was given numerous chances at probation and community corrections, which he also made the decision not to adhere to. So, it becomes difficult to feel sympathetic for offenders, when victims and survivors often struggle with a lifetime of devastating effects and don’t get “second chances” to take back their childhoods or lives prior to abuse.

So, while we may not have the best system in place, I think most citizens would agree that management, treatment, and close monitoring of convicted sex offenders is absolutely imperative for public safety.

Jill Cimino

Colorado Springs

Extremists in the USA

In a few days, I expect a hue and cry over the sale of pressure cookers, including background checks for those seeking to buy them.

My point being that many things can be used to create death and havoc in the hands of insane fanatics whether foreign or home grown. We know how destructive fertilizer can be, for instance, in the Oklahoma bombing and the recent tragedy in West, Texas. It is becoming easier to empathize with the innocent citizens who are in the wrong place at the wrong time and lose their lives in other countries. We used to think “it can only happen over there”, but extremists are making it their goal in life to bring it home to the USA. God help us all.

Carol Bishop

Colorado Springs

New council must “cowboy up”

Now that the posturing of City Council elections is behind us, it’s time for the new council to act on a responsible oil and gas exploration ordinance.

The majority of the former council was comfortable leaving Colorado Springs citizens and businesses swinging in the breeze, uncertain about our future involvement in the state and national surge in oil and gas production, unable to plan a course in the face of non-existent city regulations affecting our environment and economy. The new council must “cowboy up”, take the reins of the future back into the city’s hands, and responsibly ride herd on the exploration that will inevitably take place within city boundaries.

The Colorado state regulations that are the basis for the ordinance are acknowledged as the most stringent in the nation, from site selection, through drilling, to final waste disposal. The drafted ordinance works in coordination with state law and the state oil and gas commission; the city’s own Local Government Designee (LGD) gives the city a voice at the commission. The additional safeguards in the proposed ordinance are more than sufficient to address local concerns, thanks to the exhaustive work by members of the former council’s task force.

The council task force addressed issues on a factual basis, examining the lessons learned about hydraulic fracturing over the last 60+ years and at least 1.5 million hydraulically fractured wells around the country. The proposed ordinance is based on factual, evidence-based knowledge developed by the task force over the last 18 months.

The task force’s objective evidence about the safety and risks of hydraulic fracturing stands in contrast to the emotional, story-based scare tactics of the “No Fracking!” crowd. Emotional appeals by passionate, nonresident college students must not cloud the clear vision that the council holds for our economic future.

If we fail to adopt city regulation soon, we lose our voice in the matter — county and state mandates will drive oil and gas exploration and production. I strongly urge City Council to resurrect and adopt the proposed oil and gas ordinance and resolve the uncertainty of our city’s energy production future.

Jon Macomber

Colorado Springs