Author: Pam Zubeck
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Bus service, paving likely to face cuts to cover gap
Colorado Springs residents might see a drop in services next year to cover a $23.3 million budget gap created by falling sales taxes and expenses the city can’t avoid.”The idea is living within our means,” City Manager Penelope Culbreth-Graft said.Among the City Council-endorsed cutbacks are freezing some employees’ salaries, reducing funding for repaving streets by…
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Emissions-purifying system working well so far in Colorado Springs
David Neumann isn’t the most excitable guy.He’s a physicist, after all, who worked at Air Force Space Command and did research at the Air Force Academy.But Neumann was enthused and smiling Friday — his brainchild, which will purify some coal plant emissions, has performed stunningly at Colorado Springs’ Drake Power Plant.The project could have “global…
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THE SPYGLASS: People pushing sales tax are flush
Patti French works housekeeping at the Cliff House in Manitou Springs, but she’s thinking about taking a second job to pay her bills. She turned 49 this week and doesn’t own her home.Thomas Montoya, disabled from his construction job, also rents and buys his clothes at a second-hand store.Those scenarios hardly apply to a group…
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Springs faces $23.3M shortfall
Colorado Springs faces a $23.3 million shortfall next year due to falling sales tax revenues, leaving the City Council facing a decision on cutting spending, increasing fees or asking voters for a tax hike.Two council members said Thursday they’d rather cut than saddle taxpayers with a higher bill for city services.”It’s going to take some…
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Utilities asks Pueblo County for OK on pipeline
Colorado Springs Utilities on Wednesday officially asked Pueblo County for permission to build a water pipeline across the county, a long-awaited step that might lead to litigation.”This application took major, major effort,” project manager John Fredell said of the paperwork that filled 10 boxes. “It moves us way ahead in the process.”The application asks to…
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POLITIGAB: Vet in Bidlack’s corner
Former Georgia senator and Vietnam War disabled veteran Max Cleland endorsed Democrat Hal Bidlack in the 5th Congressional District.”Hal Bidlack has the grit, the guts and the experience it will take to bring change to Colorado’s 5th Congressional District and to the nation,” Cleland said in a release. “We need a true leader – someone…
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City wants to protect police HQ with a wall
The city has asked for bids on a $175,000 stone wall and metal fence to protect the Police Operations Center south of downtown Colorado Springs against a car or truck bomb being driven into the headquarters building that houses police administrators, dispatchers, the emergency operations center and investigators. Police Lt. David Whitlock said Tuesday that…
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POLITIGAB: Floating energy ideas
The free-market, grass-roots group Americans for Prosperity is staging a four-day, seven-stop hot-air balloon tour of the state to promote market-based solutions to energy policies.The balloon tour will highlight the need for policies that would lower gas and energy prices by increasing American supplies and making domestic production less expensive.Even as energy costs remain at…
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Springs requiring work on Woodmen
City officials will require that developers install outlets for an unfinished detention pond to prevent Woodmen Road from washing out, a possibility that forced the closure of the road during heavy rains the past weekend.”Now we will mandate in a letter that we need design and construction timetables to get something in place … until…
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1 city agency overbilled another, audit says
A recent audit of financial transactions between the Colorado Springs Streets Department and Stormwater Enterprise has uncovered overbilling and hundreds of hours of overtime, raising red flags about the close relationship between the departments and oversight of supervisors.The Colorado Springs City Auditor’s Office found that the city’s Streets Department overcharged the Stormwater Enterprise $300,000 for…