One of the most talked about outdoor attractions in the Pikes Peak region means daily headaches and several big problems to solve for Manitou Springs officials.

That’s what mayoral candidates Nicole Nicoletta and Coreen Toll each said recently when asked to rank the biggest issues that will face current mayor Marc Snyder’s successor.

“It’s the hottest issue,” said Toll, the city’s current Ward 2 council representative and Mayor Pro Tem.

Until recently, the Incline had always been a popular, but illegal attraction for rogue fitness nuts and tourists. But since it became legal in 2013, use of the mile-long, 2,000-foot ascent has more than quadrupled. The U.S. Forest Service estimated that about 70,000 people visited the incline each year before legalization. And impact sensors now show about 300,000 annual trips up the mountain adjacent to Ruxton Avenue.

Hype on social media platforms has brought people from around the world to test their endurance on the Incline.

“It’s a world-class physical event,” Toll said.

The influx means congested streets with loud vehicles roaming residential corridors long before sun up and barking dogs and excited hikers forcing residents to keep windows closed.

Nicoletta, who is also on City Council representing Ward 3, insists that the answer is parking. She is a proponent of giving Incline enthusiasts more parking options away from Ruxton Avenue and making sure the city accommodates them with a frequently running shuttle service.

“I’d like to see no Incline user going up Ruxton Avenue at all,” she said, noting that a revamped Incline plan can help bring better peace of mind and quality of life for Manitou residents.

Nicoletta and Toll each said Incline users tend to have a get-in-and-get-out mindset, filling parking spots along Manitou Avenue downtown but leaving without spending much money at local shops and restaurants.

While Toll agrees a parking fix would help remedy the situation, Toll said Thursday that she would first prescribe more restricted Incline hours. While she didn’t have a plan outlined, Toll said keeping the popular trail closed from sundown to 7 a.m. and making sure those hours are enforced would help ease the stress for residents looking for a little more sleep. She says the Incline has been a “double-edged sword” and requires a delicate balancing act to encourage both quality of life for residents and continued growth to Manitou’s tourism industry.

Toll’s platform

Toll points to her four years of experience on city council and more than 20 years running the Celebration New Age Store in Colorado Springs when asked what gives her the edge in the mayoral race. Toll said her years building a successful business has prepared her to totally immerse herself in the “business of the city.” Toll is retired but said she is not ready to slow down.

“I’m going to wrap myself around something, so why not wrap myself around the city,” she said.

Before joining council, Toll was already involved in city activism. She consulted city officials and joined boards as an advocate for energy conservation in Manitou. That involvement eventually led to Snyder and other Manitou officials asking Toll to apply for council after Councilwoman Ingrid Richter left office in 2012.

Toll continued to push for conservation while on council, playing a role in the city moving to power five city facilities with electricity from a solar array in the Security area. That achievement will likely save the city an estimated $350,000 over the next 20 years. Toll said she aims to encourage more recycling, clean air and water and more energy efficiencies in the city.

Toll said other projects that will need attention from the incoming mayor include work on land use, hazard mitigation and parks and open space master plans.

“Part of what we need to do is be patient until those plans are done,” she said.

She also believes more work needs to be done by the workforce housing task force to ensure that the city has enough low-income housing for those who need it.

Nicoletta’s platform

Nicoletta sees herself as a healer when it comes to Manitou Springs’ civic matters. During her almost two years on city council, the town has been healing from the 2012 Waldo Canyon Fire and ensuing flash floods that damaged several homes as well as infrastructure in the Manitou Springs area.

Nicoletta professes that the key to healing from those disasters is a community that has been very involved, engaging officials as well as each other while getting involved in the recovery and preparedness process. She believes a segment of the Manitou Springs population exists that has fallen away from engagement after the floods and in the midst of the recent Incline issues.

“My leadership style is sustainable because it actually engages the community,” Nicoletta said.

While Nicoletta, like Toll, knows that continued recovery and proactive mitigation needs to continue to help deter future floods, the Ward 3 councilwoman puts the Manitou senior community second on her list of most pressing matters right behind the Incline. She would like to see a push toward improved housing that would be more senior-friendly.

Nicoletta believes that Manitou Springs, with its steep grades and older homes, is in danger of losing many its older residents because they just can’t manage as easily as they once did. She points to the Urban Renewal Area east of U.S. 24 as a place where senior housing might be a good fit.

“We have folks that have lived in Manitou since high school,” she said. “I don’t want them to leave town.”

Nicoletta, who earned her master’s degree in sociology from UCCS, plays a key role in the Golden Circle Nutrition Program and is on the HEAL Cities and Towns Campaign advisory board. The HEAL campaign encourages officials around the state to encourage healthy living with new policies.

Fire mitigation is one area that Nicoletta said has been neglected as Manitou Springs continues to focus on fending off flash floods.

“It’s absolute luck that we did not burn (during the Waldo Canyon fire),” she said.

Nicoletta said the south side of town has several areas that are overgrown and need thinning. If that zone is not mitigated, wildfire could breach the city and destroy many homes and businesses, she said.

Security concerns

Both Toll and Nicoletta commented on a growing concern with security in downtown Manitou Springs. The city recently hired a Strategic Alliance Security to patrol downtown in two-man teams during busy hours from early August through the end of October. The hiring was prompted by complaints from residents and business owners that some homeless people were harassing patrons along the Manitou Avenue corridor.

Both mayoral candidates hope to work for a solution by boosting Manitou Springs police staff and have city foot patrols in downtown. Nicoletta said there is 16 full-time employees in the police department. Chief Joe Ribeiro is requesting five more to become full-staffed.

Until that happens, however, Nicoletta and Toll each support extending the contract with Strategic Alliance to continue patrols from Memorial Day to Labor Day in 2016 and bring even more peace of mind to the city.