Colorado Springs City Council to vote on funding Bancroft Park restoration
As the Colorado Springs parks staff struggles to maintain trails, parks and open space without enough money, one lucky little park appears poised to cash in big-time.
The 1.26-acre Bancroft Park in Old Colorado City could get $250,000 when the City Council votes Tuesday, and it could get that same amount again later.
Someone set the park’s historic band shell ablaze Jan. 27, and the city’s insurer estimates $106,379 will be needed to restore it.
“It was not minor damage,” Parks Operations Manager Kurt Schroeder has advised.
The council now is being asked to provide $100,000 from the general fund and $150,000 from the Conservation Trust Fund.
But the genesis of that funding request caused quite the contretemps two weeks ago.
The council had voted 5-4 against giving $200,000 to the private U.S. Olympic Museum, citing promises to citizens that no City for Champions project would get local tax dollars without their consent through a vote.
But Councilman Keith King later decided to change his vote, saying the administration had promised him a funding strategy and execution plan to get $500,000 for Bancroft Park.
So the museum vote was repeated, and King that time voted to give $200,000 to the Olympic Museum this year, the first payment toward the $500,000 the museum has requested.
Council members Helen Collins, Jill Gaebler, Bill Murray and Andres G. Pico lost in the 5-4 vote.
The question is whether King will get sufficient support from his colleagues Tuesday to win the park money for District 3, which he represents until he is replaced in the April 4 election.
When council members got an update on Bancroft two weeks ago, several chastised the parks staff for not moving more quickly to get bids to do the work.
Experts had to test for asbestos, get a damage assessment from the insurer and determine the historic value attached to the bandshell, which was a contributing element to designation of the Old Colorado City Historic Commercial District.
The staff also wants to hear what changes residents want at the small but popular park, and now a survey is underway and a public meeting is planned.
Over the past two weeks, the staff has met with the insurer, who advised replacing the entire roof; has contacted contractors to review an engineer’s report; and has met with stakeholders, including King and Councilman Tom Strand, who lives in Old Colorado City, reported Schroeder.
But while King originally insisted all work be done before summer events begin there, the Parks Advisory Board won’t be able to approve the construction contract until May 11.
Territory Days still will commence in Bancroft Park, as will the well-attended farmer’s market. Other events already have chosen different venues.
The council meets at 1 p.m. Tuesday in City Hall, 107 N. Nevada Ave.
Colorado Springs employee Ron Gabaldon drops de-icer to the frozen ground in front of the band shell in Bancroft Park after a early morning fire damaged the historic structure Friday, Jan. 27, 2017. (The Gazette, Christian Murdock)
Photo courtesy of City of Colorado Springs
Colorado Springs employee Ron Gabaldon drops de-icer to the frozen ground in front of the band shell in Bancroft Park after a early morning fire damaged the historic structure Friday, Jan. 27, 2017. (The Gazette, Christian Murdock)
Photo courtesy of City of Colorado Springs