Author: Bill Mckeown

Sales tax revenue that supports transit and road maintenance and building in the region came in about $2 million less than budgeted in 2008. The decline in revenues from a one-cent sales tax for the Pikes Peak Rural Transportation Authority (RTA) mirrors those experienced by Colorado Springs and El Paso County, as a crippled economy…

Sales tax revenue that supports transit and road maintenance and building in the region fell in December for the fifth straight month.The latest figures from the Pikes Peak Rural Transportation Authority show December’s revenue from a one-cent sales tax approved by voters in 2004 was $6.2 million, $545,000 below what had been budgeted.December’s 9.14 percent…

The popular Front Range Express commuter bus service between Colorado Springs and Denver will not be eliminated to help the city cover a budget shortfall in 2009. That decision, sure to be welcome by the 700 or so folks who ride the buses up and down Interstate 25 each day, came when the board of…

The city of Colorado Springs has acquired more than three-quarters of the properties needed for the ambitious Woodmen Road widening project and has begun soliciting bids from contractors in hopes of starting construction work in June. Robin Kidder, the city’s roadway engineering manager, said this week the city has acquired 50 of 60 properties it…

With the latest downturn in the economy, the boys of Faricy Boys Chrysler Jeep – all three generations of them – have now done business in hard times. Patriarch Owen Faricy started his Colorado Springs car dealership in 1942, months after America entered World War II. By the time he retired in 1990, he had…

For those with cars, looming cuts to the city’s bus service probably don’t mean a whole lot. But for folks like Pat Meacham and Sally Martin, those colorful Mountain Metro buses are their lifeline. The two older women, who live in Security, use Route 22 to go grocery shopping, visit their doctors and simply get…

Officials with the city’s bus system will hold four public meetings Thursday and Friday to explain possible cuts to bus service and seek public comments. Mountain Metropolitan Transit may be forced to cut up to 50,000 hours of bus service beginning April 5 because of an $8 million revenue shortfall in the city budget. Routes…

A nearly two-year study on the feasibility of moving most railroad freight traffic away from the Front Range is expected to be released late next week. The $1.75 million study, commissioned by the Colorado Department of Transportation, is expected to provide a better understanding of the benefits, costs and issues of moving more than two…

A nearly two-year study on the feasibility of moving most railroad freight traffic away from the Front Range is expected to be released late next week. The $1.75 million study, commissioned by the Colorado Department of Transportation, is expected to provide a better understanding of the benefits, costs and issues of moving more than two…

One of the two westbound lanes on the Platte Avenue bridge over Sand Creek will be closed Tuesday for about a week.The bridge was damaged during record rains in August and September, and crews will be repairing that damage over the coming days.The second westbound lane will remain open. Motorists are urged to drive carefully…