Project shouldn’t be celebrated

The City of Colorado Springs is quite pleased with itself over the Tejon Street project. As a lifelong resident, I find what they have done far from something to be celebrated!

Narrowing the single north-south traffic lanes solely to widen the sidewalks has created a big problem. With diagonally parked cars on both sides of the street, the traffic lanes are way too narrow! When normal-sized pickups are parked in this part of Tejon St., they stick out into the traffic lanes so far that vehicles meeting oncoming traffic have to stop and allow one or the other to go by, because you have to swerve out around parked pickups! The lanes aren’t wide enough for traffic to get through unimpeded by diagonally parked vehicles!

The Tejon disaster has given us a street too narrow for normal two-way traffic, but boy, we have some dandy wide sidewalks that will need more snow removal in the winter!

James L. Davidson

Colorado Springs

Clarity on license campaign

I am writing in response to the April 21 letter to the editor titled “Curious about license campaign,” submitted by Jerry Zoebisch.

I appreciate Mr. Zoebisch bringing attention to this important public safety issue and share his interest in understanding the impact of the recent enforcement efforts conducted by the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office, Colorado Springs Police Department, and many of our other local law enforcement agencies.

To provide clarity, I have contacted both the Director and Deputy Director of the Colorado Department of Revenue’s Motor Vehicle Division and respectfully requested detailed information regarding the enforcement period. Specifically, I have asked for data on all delinquent registrations that were renewed during the week of April 6 through April 10, which coincided with the campaign.

Additionally, I have requested that this information be broken down into categories of 0-3 months delinquent, 4-6 months delinquent, and over 6 months delinquent. This will allow for a more meaningful understanding of compliance trends during that timeframe.

I am hopeful that this information will be available within the week. Once received, I will share it with the law enforcement agencies that participated in the campaign and will also publish it on the El Paso County Clerk and Recorder’s website at https://clerkandrecorder.elpasoco.com/ to ensure transparency and keep our community informed.

Steve Schleiker, Clerk and Recorder

El Paso County

Website content inappropriate

As an upper elementary teacher, I’m very cautious about students’ web searching parameters. Sites need to be fact-based, free of advertising, reliable, and educational. For example, we recently researched the Artemis mission using NASA’s excellent website. Last week a student wanted to understand the history of The Whitehouse – since they’d chosen it as a setting for an historical fiction essay.

I helped them search keeping a beady eye on their choice. I naively thought our government’s official site would be a good place to find authentic images of DC from over 100 years ago. Before I could even blink the student was faced with two extremely inappropriate photos (the aim obviously to cherry pick and paint our previous president and family as scandalous). Regardless of party allegiance, I recommend keeping children away from the site. What a shame.

Megan Hunsdale

Colorado Springs

A free, strong Europe

Whether we like Europe’s version of democracy or not, Europe is still the most reliable bloc of free, democratic countries.

The keystone of free Europe is a free and democratic Ukraine. Of all the European countries, Ukraine is the one that most wants to be like us and be with us.

Ukraine has an 800,000-soldier army with cutting-edge experience in modern warfare. If Ukraine wins its war against Russia, that army is on our side.

America needs a free and strong Europe and Ukraine: 1) to stop the brutal totalitarian Putin in his current war in Europe, 2) to prevent any future invasion by totalitarian Russia of the free West, and 3) to be our allies to prevent China from calculating that it can put Southeast Asia under its totalitarian dominance because America stands alone.

America needs to keep the goodwill of all the world’s countries that we have enjoyed in business, culture, and tourism since we saved the free world in and after World War Two. To keep it we must remain the leader of the free world by supporting the free world’s point man: Ukraine.

Ukraine has given the free world, including its leader, America, a great gift, which is its four years of unknowable sacrifice in standing as the point man in the defense of the free world. Ukraine has kept us from having to sacrifice a single life of our soldiers.

James Sayler

Colorado Springs