Author: Savannah Eller
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Monument closes budget gap despite flat revenue projections
The town of Monument is finalizing its budget for 2026 after working through what town officials previously described as a financial crisis. The budget offsets stalled sales tax revenue and deficit spending. The latest figures see the town ending 2025 with a 32.73% general fund reserve of about $5.6 million, well above the suggested amount.…
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Cheyenne Mountain Zoo panel on wolves focuses on solutions
Karin Vardaman thinks there are ways to prevent wolves from killing cattle in Colorado that don’t always involve lethal force. There is no perfect solution, she cautions. “We do believe it doesn’t have to be one or the other,” she said. Vardaman is the executive director of Working Circle, a group dedicated to mitigating livestock…
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Monument closes budget gap, despite flat revenue projections
The town of Monument is finalizing its budget for 2026 after working through what town officials previously described as a financial crisis. The budget offsets stalled sales tax revenue and deficit spending in the town north of Colorado Springs. The latest figures see the town ending 2025 with a 32.73% general fund reserve of about…
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Palmer Lake could see three special elections next year
Turmoil continues in the town of Palmer Lake, where a Board of Trustees with frequent turnover has been deadlocked on multiple issues for months. The next year could see the town settling its differences in as many as three special elections, following one in 2025. “This is a very intractable problem,” said Trustee Roger Moseley…
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Palmer Lake could see three special elections next year
Turmoil continues in Palmer Lake, where a Board of Trustees with frequent turnover has been deadlocked on multiple issues for months. The next year could see the town settling its differences in as many as three special elections, following one in 2025. “This is a very intractable problem,” said Trustee Roger Moseley during a discussion…
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After Colorado reintroduction, wild turkeys are a common urban encounter
Since moving into her neighborhood in 2017, Fountain resident Nicole Henderson has sighted her feathered neighbors like clockwork. She’s taken videos of them scratching at front lawns and bobbing their heads as they make meandering road crossings. “They are out every morning,” she said. After a successful reintroduction program, turkeys are now in the category…
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Fountain reorganizes tax agreement for 200-acre ‘blight’ area
If you take a wrong turn in the intense commercial development around Mesa Ridge Parkway in Fountain, you might end up in a curious swath of undeveloped land. Designated by the East Infill Urban Renewal Plan, this 213-acre area has resisted development despite the presence of big box stores, dense residential neighborhoods and apartments on…
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Researchers in Colorado using cutting-edge tech to track the continent’s most endangered mammal
LAMAR — Hours after being released into a prairie dog town on the vast Southern Plains Land Trust, a game camera picked up on one of five captive born black-footed ferrets finding a burrow for the night. So far, so good. Later, in the early hours of the morning on Wednesday, a badger came by…
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Nixon Power Plant in El Paso County receives state order over drinking water treatment
The Ray D. Nixon Power Plant and Clear Spring Ranch facility are the subject of a state enforcement order that says Colorado Springs Utilities has missed a deadline for installing treatment necessary for safe drinking water. Colorado Springs Utilities, which was fined just over $1,000 by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, was…
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‘Not … judge and jury:’ Manitou council takes no action on Shada allegations
The Manitou Springs City Council decided not to take any action against fellow Councilman John Shada, who received criticism and a call for resignation last month over an alleged altercation with the director of Visit Manitou Springs. “As a human being, I strive to do the very best I can for this community, but sometimes…