Good morning.

Welcome to City of Clara Springs Work Session Meeting Monday, September 22nd, 2025.

Will the clerk please call the role?

Councilmember Bailey.

Councilmember Crow Iverson.

Here.

Councilmember Donaldson.

Here.

Councilmember Gold.

Here.

Councilmember Henjam.

Present.

Councilmember Williams.

I see you're online.

She's just in line.

Here.

Councilmember Linewever.

Here.

Councilmember Rainey.

Here.

Councilmember Risley.

Here.

All nine present.

Are there any changes to the agenda for today?

Seeing none.

Regular meeting comments.

Are there any changes to the regular meeting for tomorrow?

Seeing none, review of previous minutes.

Will the clerk please read item 4A into the record?

City Council Work Session Meeting Minutes, September 8th, 2025.

Are the any changes to these minutes?

Seeing none.

Moving to item number six.

Will the clerk please read item six A into the record?

Circular Economy Development Center presentation.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Yeah.

So I can just advance the slide with this.

Can you make sure the green button is on?

There you go.

Thank you.

Good morning.

My name is Alicia Archibald.

I am satellite office coordinator with the circular economy development center.

Some of you are familiar faces to me, so that's good.

I see a smile back.

The Circular Economy Development Center I will refer to as the Center going forward.

Basically, it's a program of Circular Colorado, which is a nonprofit organization with a mission to develop and implement tangible, actionable, and measurable projects that help to create a circular economy in Colorado and in the region.

And I'd like to start this morning by saying I've been a resident of Colorado Springs for over 30 years.

I've worked in recycling and waste diversion programs for at least the last 25 years.

And in all my time of this work, I haven't had this opportunity with enough interest from council or this type of setting to be able to present something that's near and dear to my heart and is a very big program for the for the community to take hold of.

Renegade Plastics is uh based in South Korea, and they utilize uh polypropylene to uh for a plastic coated fabric.

Uh, if you think of something like the ski lift seat covers or billboards, that type of material, um, they're able to take to utilize the polypropylene version material, make the fabric, and then in the end of that process, they can take any kind of uh overcuts or any kind of waste generated in that process, put it right back into the system.

Uh, they're currently looking for a facility to stand up in Colorado, and they haven't chosen the community they're gonna be in.

So, I mean, why not Colorado Springs, right?

So, there you go.

There's an opportunity.

Today I wanted to also um introduce some colleagues that are gonna bring some uh some media presentation to you for some opportunities that exist um statewide.

Um, first, Morgan Bachman is going to speak to from the Circular Action Alliance.

She's gonna provide an overview of the producer responsibility program.

Uh it's a statewide recycling act, and that's a result of House Bill 22 1355.

And basically, it sets up a producer responsibility program that requires companies that sell products and plastic and paper packaging to fund a statewide recycling system to recycle those materials.

And then following Morgan Liz Kuhn is from the Colorado Circular Communities, um, and you all are fairly familiar with that program.

I know there was a grant from the Department of Public Health and Environment received previously through the forward program, uh, and this is kind of a new version of that.

So, without uh further ado, I would like to invite Morgan.

Thanks, Alicia.

Hi, good morning.

Um happy to be here.

And yes, okay.

So um, as Alicia has already noted, I'm here to talk about EPR, producer responsibility, extended producer responsibility, those are all kind of interchangeable.

I'll use them um interchangeably today.

So what is EPR?

Leisha already alluded to this, but it's basically the idea that we're gonna be shifting financial and operational responsibility for end of life management of products from taxpayers and governments to producers, the folks that put the products into the system.

And so uh what that means is um EPR requires producers to pay dues based on the amount of materials that they distribute into the state of Colorado, and that's paper and packaging materials specifically.

Um and in Colorado, those dues will actually fully fund the entire recycling system.

So collection, sortation, processing, everything that happens to recycling once you hopefully put it in your recycling bin at home.

Um there's a lot of cool things about EPR.

I might be biased, but one of those things is that um it incentivizes better design choices.

So I don't know if you've ever gone somewhere and picked up something that's got like 60 layers of wrapping in it.

It's like is was this super necessary under EPR?

Those kinds of design choices are disincentivized.

Um, and so that will help basically increase the recyclability of the things that um you pick up from the store.

And so, what is CAA and what am I doing here?

So, Circular Action Alliance is the producer responsibility organization or pro.

Um, we are nonprofit and we are producer-led.

So we're ultimately here to help producers comply with the bill that Alicia mentioned and meet their obligations.

We are also responsible for developing and implementing a program plan, um, which is currently under review.

It's actually with CDPHE right now, um, and will hopefully be approved at the end of this year.

Um, and that program plan goes into extensive detail about how we're going to actually implement this program and manage the covered products under EPR.

So, just to paint a little bit more of a picture here, um, all of the logos that you see on the screen.

Can you guys see on the screen?

Actually, okay.

Um, all of the logos that you see on the screen are our founding members.

And so these are obviously some of the most recognizable names in food, beverage, consumer goods, and retail industries.

Um these producers have um come together to basically um fund the pro and ensure that we are set up for success in in many states.

So Colorado is not the only state that has um proceeded down the EPR path.

We are joined by um uh uh Oregon, California, Minnesota, Maryland.

We've got like Maine's on the radar, Indiana, I think Hawaii just passed a needs assessment.

So this is the way that we're headed.

Many, many states are coming on board.

Okay.

So let's talk about what this means for Colorado Springs, because it's exciting.

So producers pay annual dues.

What that ultimately means is that we are intending to provide recycling service to all residents in the state of Colorado at no cost.

And how we do that is we distribute system funding that those dues that we're receiving from the producers, redistributing those funds to various entities.

So I'm gonna talk about education and outreach today, or ENO, because that's highly applicable for Colorado Springs.

But funding also goes to collection and sortation.

So all of the like transportation and the sorting of recyclables once it leaves your home.

Compost facilities also receive some funding for contamination management, which means like basically when recycling gets in the compost or trash gets in the compost, like managing that.

And then we also provide funding to responsible end markets.

Those are the entities that receive your sorted materials.

So once they're all sorted out into their commodities, they're sold to what's called a responsible end market, and those responsible end markets turn it into new products.

So those are all things that receive funding in this system.

Okay.

So what does this mean for Colorado Springs and Colorado Springs residents?

Um Colorado Springs is what's called an open market.

That's uh industry lingo.

What that means is residents subscribe directly to uh private businesses, private service providers to acquire curbside recycling services and trash services as well.

So residents are ultimately right now footing the bill for disposing of paper and packaging materials.

Um under producer responsibility, haulers that um are eligible for reimbursement and that choose to participate in the program will actually receive reimbursements from CAA for recycling collection costs.

Um then what that means is that residents can sign up for those haulers for for service with those haulers to receive recycling services at no cost.

So they will no longer see you know $10 per month for recycling.

It will be zero, zero dollar line item.

Um then uh we just as like a side note, we can't force any haulers to participate.

Um, but we hope that market incentives will drive recycling access and will drive um, you know, if it's free, why not ask for recycling and encourage your hauler to participate?

Um and also wanted to mention for this audience that we are starting um small, not very small, um, but we are focusing our efforts in the first few years on residents and small multifamily homes, so seven and under units.

Um, but by 2028, we're gonna start expanding the program.

So we're gonna include um schools, government buildings, um, public places, and other non-residential covered entities.

Those those are coming as well.

So you'll start to see those benefits here in Colorado Springs in those places.

Okay, I think this is my last slide.

So, how can Colorado Springs participate?

So we've established Colorado Springs as an open market.

Um in open market cities, where there is no contract with a hauler or the city is not collecting recycling from households.

Colorado Springs is eligible for education and outreach payments.

So, what I mean by that is Colorado Springs is already conditionally qualified to receive money from CAA if you choose.

So you have two options.

You can choose Colorado Springs can choose to either receive those funds and utilize them for education and outreach.

Um there's gonna be like an allowable list of activities.

It's gonna be your standard things that you would anticipate, like um, you know, mailers and flyers and website stuff.

But we're talking about the second most populated city in the state.

So your payment is going to be substantial.

You could potentially even hire someone to do Eno.

Um it is it's it's a gonna be a nice chunk of change.

So you can choose to either receive that money and spend it, have control over how you spend it.

Or you can choose to opt to divert the funds and CAA will spend that money on your behalf in Colorado Springs.

So money will be spent in this city on EO on recycling, education, and outreach, regardless.

Or if you want CAA to spend the money on your behalf.

And we'll work with like contractors and folks in the community to spend those funds wisely.

So we are hosting monthly webinars.

We've got um uh a fantastic project manager from the city who's joined a few of them already.

We're we're doing like monthly webinars.

You're welcome to join those if you're interested in learning more.

Um we will also have uh we also have a newsletter as well.

So um, if you want to receive future communications about the EPR program and um the ENO payment process, that's a great place to do that.

Um but what I'm hoping the I think that was my last slide.

Oh, here it is.

Okay, here's some QR codes if you uh want to sign up for those items that I just mentioned.

Um the the message that I just want to make sure I leave you with is that um Colorado Springs is already conditionally qualified for reimbursement.

It's just a question of whether you want to control how the funds are used or if you want CAA to make those decisions on your behalf.

So it's a really cool opportunity to make a significant impact and maybe drive hopefully drive some behavior change around recycling, um, not just in Colorado Springs, but in the whole state.

Um so thank you for your time, and I will pass it over to Liz.

I have a couple council members with questions.

Councilman Hinchum.

Oh, sure.

I didn't realize you weren't done with your presentation.

No, it's totally fine.

Yeah.

Um, go ahead.

Yeah, I mean, come up, come on up.

Um you might be interested.

So no, it's quite all right.

You're you're fine.

I I just have to say personally, I'm so excited that you are here presenting.

I am one of those who's very supported and interested.

Um, just as comment, um, and I don't know if you have read Kate Rayworth or her work.

Um, she's an economist.

She wrote a book called Donut Economics, and it's really about econom circular economies in the broadest sense of the word, with the donut representing, you know, kind of that that area in between the floor being um what is the least amount we need to live well as human beings and the ceiling or the top part being what can the planet sustain or or endure.

And and that section is really that goes around circle is the donut.

Um, so this idea of circular economies has a broader context and reading as well.

I would encourage you to go check out her TED Talk if you don't know about it.

But in terms of your work here, and um what I'd love to do is make a connection to um Colorado Springs wasteless COS program.

And we received a significant grant from the state, and I'm assuming um all connected with you.

I think I've even spent some time on the phone maybe with one of you uh giving Colorado Springs the opportunity to do a waste characterization study, which is now complete.

And I'm gonna ask Ryan in a moment to speak.

I got a preview of the results of that study and how Colorado Springs is doing as a municipality overall in the state with our um with how we're managing our waste.

And um I I would love it if this council would be interested in getting a review of that that study and how we're doing, and also to have a conversation, and this is really now where my question comes in is um how can we or how might we participate as a city as an entity, and also I see and hear there's opportunities for individuals to participate in terms of this recycling, which you know, I I pay for recycling, I'm I'm assuming many people do.

It'd be nice to not have to pay um directly for that service and save that on our monthly bill.

Um we actually share with a neighbor.

Um, but uh, but yeah, I guess that's my question, and then Ryan, I would love to hear your thoughts as well.

But yeah, totally.

I can I'm happy to answer that.

Um, so I think the there's kind of two pieces of this.

So CAA is gonna be working with haulers in Colorado Springs to have them uh apply for reimbursement, encourage them to participate.

So that's one piece of this is getting haulers in Colorado Springs that are servicing in this area on board so that they can pass along no cost recycling to residents.

Your question was about how the city can participate.

So there's like, you know, I I've already touched on the education and outreach opportunity.

Um, you know, this is an opportunity for potentially Colorado Springs to open up uh like a recycling drop-off or some sort of other infrastructure that's city run and receive reimbursement for that.

So uh as a part of the program um for local governments, there's like kind of three applic uh funding buckets that a uh government may be eligible for.

The first one is collection.

So, like up in Denver, for example, um, those folks are collecting recycling through like a municipal owned fleet.

So that's like one type of reimbursement.

The second is a drop-off facility.

So if you have um a facility where residents can come and drop off their bottles and cans and paper and cardboard and things, that's another opportunity for reimbursement.

And then the last is education and outreach.

So if Colorado Springs wanted to, you know, for example, open up a drop-off, that would be another avenue for an and uh a bigger way for Colorado Springs to participate, other than just the ENO payment.

Yeah, that's great.

So, Ryan, I'm I am gonna kick it off to you, and maybe you could, especially for newer council members, speak a little bit to the waste characterization study we just did, and how we might have some conversations with the administration and council about um what opportunities and what's the appetite for how we might participate as a city.

Yeah, thank you for the opportunity.

Uh Councilmember Henjam.

Uh, for a bit of a background, we did receive a grant about 350,000 a few years back.

It was actually at the tail end of the uh Southers administration.

Uh, we applied for this grant that was actually paid for through tipping fee.

So there was an increase in the tipping fee, which is basically haulers uh payment in landfills, and that funded this grant program.

So we wanted to take advantage of those funds uh locally here in Colorado Springs.

So we applied for that grant, and over the past few years have been working uh with a consultant, uh RRS, um, who has helped develop a waste characterization study.

Uh, you know, the big impacts of that is really to get a foundation of where we are in terms of recycling.

Uh the study has found that uh our diversion rate in Colorado Springs is estimated at 17%.

Uh so that 17% is basically a diversion rate is basically the the percentage of waste uh that is diverted from the landfill.

So that doesn't go into the landfill that's either re uh recycled or reused.

And so we're at about 17%, which is significantly lower than the national average, and even the state of Colorado is significantly lower than the national average, which was surprising uh given um you know Colorado our general focus on uh on recycling and and um the environment and things along those lines.

Uh so that has has recently been completed.

Uh we're working on an action plan, and I think this extended producer responsibility program uh opens more opportunities than than had we not had that program uh because a lot of it is working with uh with haulers and nonprofits in the community to help increase recycling and and we could do our part in terms of some education and outreach, but without funding to do more programming around it, it was it was very limited.

So I think really the opportunity now is with the extended producer responsibility and on the heels of this waste characterization study uh to to really lean in and work with our partners to see uh what programs or uh or other services that we could provide.

Um, you know, we've been very sensitive through this process that it is an open market, and we also respect that it is uh you know a free market from a business perspective because there's been discussions um since my time with the city on uh you know, there's other municipalities that do waste hauling, and um that that hasn't been something that we've pursued for for a number of reasons.

So we've been very uh I think representative of what our our community would want from that perspective, but uh at the same time there is more access needed to recycling um and to try to get our diversion rate to a higher level.

So that's very high level, but um I don't know if that can be.

No, no, it's exactly uh what I was you know kind of wanting to hear, needing to hear, and I and we are an open market, and that is a value in this city, and I think there's just in addition, still huge opportunity to look for ways where we can, given that ethos that we have, find ways to participate.

I hear from dozens and dozens and dozens of constituents who care deeply about how we are managing our waste and opportunities for composting and recycling and so forth.

And so, and I think about our own Alex Crochet in the um uh parks department, our city horticulturist who's doing his own version.

By the way, he there might be opportunity to take some of these funds and expand the work that he is doing in making our own soil and and doing some you know caught significant composting and in service of of the plants that we have and support in our city.

I don't know what the opportunities are, but I I really would love to explore them.

And now that we have all this data and there's a lot of data, and kudos to uh Asha Curian who came and presented that to me, she's relatively new employee in the city and is um done deep dives and now is uh very well versed in in our own um waste uh characterization for for Colorado Springs.

So I would really like to follow up with this and see what we might be able to do in terms of just exploring what what's possible.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Councilman Rainey.

Thank you, Madam President.

Uh a couple of questions, and and my questions are more about the process in the program uh itself, and if we need to do something a little bit deeper, I would love to set up a meeting with you so I can get a better understanding.

So the way House Bill 22135 lays out, anyone who's a producer, uh, when it comes to selling or distributing uh any type of covered material, they need to be a part of the PRO program, correct?

Correct.

Okay.

And with that being said, if they do not be uh they are not a part of that program, they have to provide or pay a fee annually.

Is that accurate or not?

Almost.

So if um if a producer uh registers with the pro and is an obligated producer, meaning they are over a certain amount of threshold, certain amount of um uh revenue threshold and some other things, um, they are required to pay dues into the system annually based on the amount of materials they're putting into the state.

If a producer either does not register, register and or does not pay those dues, they are barred from selling distributing products in the state of Colorado as of July 1st, 2025.

Okay.

And with that being said, um if they do move forward um and have to pay those fees, from what I'm reading, effective January of 2026, that's when they have to start paying uh annual due on that.

Correct.

That is correct.

Correct.

Okay.

How is that being tracked?

Do we have a list of folks that you know, hey, they this is the group that have complied and they are part of the PRO.

Here's the others that are not complying, and we should expect dues and fees from them, effective January 2026.

Yeah, it's a great question.

So um compliance and enforcement is um is is largely not the pros' responsibility.

It becomes the state regulator's responsibility.

So we'll be in coordination with CDPHE as we get farther into the program to provide information about producers that have um registered but not paid dues, you know uh have not registered, um, just like any of those kinds of things will be in communication with CDPHE and CDPHE would then um initiate enforcement.

I believe they're hiring a few folks next year to um work on compliance for this program.

So for city level, our major and your major focus are those who have joined PRO and that will be contributing to, or I should say in that program.

Yes, Parker.

Thank you.

Thanks for the questions.

Um and speaking of grants and programs that Colorado Springs is eligible for and can take advantage of, I'd like to pass it over to Liz uh with C3 for um her presentation.

I have another question from Kills Homan Line Member Turner.

You're fine.

I'm sorry, I just need some clarity from Ryan uh really quick.

Um we um council did have a sustainability committee that we um we actually eliminated, which dealt with some of these issues.

Um I was just trying to think like where is the department?

Like what like I don't know, I don't know where who who what department is dealing with this.

I guess I need some clarity on where that is now.

I'm not I'm not actually sure.

I don't know.

That's a great question, and thank you for that.

Um so I would say it's been about a year and a half, maybe two years now that we actually have decentralized our Office of Innovation and Sustainability.

And so we had a sustainability coordinator who moved on to uh a different opportunity, and because of the changes and and cuts in budgets, we didn't backfill that position.

So the current person who is managing the project on the waste characterization is the one that Councilwoman Henjam referred to, Asha Curian.

Uh she's a project manager by trade, she's not necessarily a sustainability person.

So there's a number of other projects that she's supporting.

But I would say that she's for this particular project on waste characterization study and any opportunities around waste and recycling between her and myself, we we can help uh facilitate some of those discussions.

So could there be an opportunity through this program?

And now it's kind of shifting to you that we can receive part of that grant money to help finance a person in city staff who would really oversee all this.

Yes.

Are we talking budget this afternoon?

Yeah, and that is a huge potential opportunity that we're gonna be exploring because that that has been a gap.

Uh at the council member henjam's point, there are a lot of uh of community members who care deeply about sustainability and recycling and air quality and water quality, all the things that comes with sustainability.

And so it has been a gap in the city of Carter Springs with the changes that we've had.

So if we can get that back through uh other people's uh funding that's not general fund, that's uh music that I think all of our ears.

Thank you.

Councilman Donaldson.

Yeah, thank you.

Um this I'm gonna ask a question of you, Ryan.

One of the things that I I've heard from um citizens, and it makes common sense to me is is there concern over we have it's good we have competition here among different uh trash uh companies.

Um but it it results in in those trucks driving all the residential streets pretty much every day of the week.

Uh and the I wonder about this too.

What's the impact on our roads?

And has Colorado Springs looked into that, what the impact of having the big truck uh trash trucks driving these residential streets.

Gotta be the heaviest truck that really ever goes in there daily versus once a week is it's a great question.

And and I think that's a lot of the uh the reasoning for uh folks that want the city to actually provide that service.

Uh if you live in an HOA where you have one hauler, all the trash is out at the same time, you have one truck that goes through, uh, but that's not the majority of our community.

And so uh to your question, we haven't got that data specifically from the haulers.

Uh, and frankly, we don't have access to that data on how many how many routes that they're taking, how many vehicles are are driving on our streets.

We can make some assumptions.

We haven't gone through that exercise.

Uh, but there could be some lower hanging fruit uh to where even just getting some reporting from the haulers could be a good first step to where you could see uh how much waste is being diverted without having to go through a full waste diversion study, which is literally people go digging through trash and recycling to see what's been diverted.

Um so there there are opportunities out there to collect more data and and make more database decisions.

We just haven't done that um as of yet.

And then this is a little different than diversion.

This is just the idea that maybe um what people save in uh the competition between the five different trash hauling companies, it's we save a little bit, you know, every month or every year on our bills, but then if we wind up damaging our roads and they they have to be replaced five years, 10 years earlier than they they would have, it's just not worth it.

And is that something that someone could give us some that information on?

I don't know if it's uh uh the city engineer or um uh geez, I'm just drawing a blank on his name, but who who's above uh public uh works now lady?

Yeah, rich, yeah.

That's something we could explore.

Uh I can certainly take that back to see what assumptions that we can make with the data that we have as an initial first step.

As you know, we spend a lot of money and and and a lot of work on our roads, and if we're damaging them faster than uh we could, uh I think it would make sense to seriously consider that.

So thank you.

Yes, sir.

If I have a few minutes, I'd love to talk about the Colorado Circular Communities Program, which actually can maybe help with that exact issue.

Um my name is Liz Kuhn.

I'm with the C3 program or the Colorado Circular Communities program, and we're a little bit different than some of these other two organizations that you heard from today.

Um so I wanted to explain the program in the context of those other organizations.

So we started out with Alicia from the Circular Economy Development Center or CEDC, and they're really focused on advancing business development in Colorado by supporting solutions for a circular economy around the state.

Uh then, of course, we heard from Morgan at Circular Action Alliance or CAA, and they are that producer responsibility organization that helps manage the producer responsibility program for completely free statewide recycling.

Now, the C3 program or Colorado Circular Communities is a funding and technical assistance program.

It's completely voluntary, and we are also focused on advancing a circular economy.

And the mission of this program is just to support communities, businesses, and organizations around the state to advance circularity in whatever way makes sense for them.

So we do that through funding opportunities, rebates.

We have completely free technical assistance and consultations.

And as mentioned, we are the program that funded your uh waste characterization study, and we are funded entirely through landfill tipping fees.

So a very flat fee at landfills helps support our program entirely.

Um just want to get into because of the conversation that was just had.

Um, that waste characterization study is ultimately pretty much finished, um, completely finishing very soon, and there are some next steps to consider.

And of course, producer responsibility is a really fantastic opportunity to use that waste characterization study to move on to something else and to you know use all of the hard work that the city has done to learn all of that information.

Um there might be some things that producer responsibility wouldn't cover, like maybe a study to look at how many trucks are on the road, what is the impact of that, and how can we ensure that something like recycling and free recycling doesn't have a negative impact on the community?

We can conduct multiple studies looking at that information.

We have funding opportunities if you're looking for any type of infrastructure that you might need related to recycling and circularity and composting, and we can also talk through maybe some of the other things that producer responsibility doesn't cover related to composting or reuse or household hazardous waste.

Um I urge you if you are interested in you know, just another opportunity, another thing that you can do to help either prepare for producer responsibility or maybe you know look at some of the other things that came out of that waste characterization study.

Um please you know go to our website, Colorado Circular Communities.org.

You can talk to a member of our team, we can hire consultants to do these studies for you at no cost to the city.

We also have funding available.

So just wanted to throw that out there as well that there is another resource on top of EPR and producer responsibility.

Councilman Gold.

Thank you, Madam President.

Um I have a question.

Um I see you mentioned composting.

Does C3 work with the local nonprofit Food to Power?

We do not work directly with Food to Power, we're just a funding and technical assistance program.

So if they were interested in funding or some type of assistance from us, we could absolutely help them and provide funding and anything they might need.

Okay, thank you.

Okay, that's all the questions this morning.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Moving on to item 6B.

Will the clerk please read item 6B into the record?

Peg Snake Library District presentation.

Good morning, Julie.

Morning.

All right, you can say here.

Um, our um chief communications officer Denise Abbott will hand out some items to you to look at during our presentation.

We do not have a slide presentation today.

I'll introduce myself briefly.

I am Julie Smythe, the current sitting president of the Pike Peak Library District's Board of Trustees, and this is our CEO, um Tam Shenitz-Krebs, who uh works under the board.

I thank you for giving us the time to come and just present a little bit about who the library is, what we do, give you a little bit better understanding of our services.

So I'll start by introducing who we are, a little bit about our governance, and then um Tana Shenitz-Krebs will present on library services to give you a little bit of background on that.

If you have any questions about the presentation, we will have some time afterwards for that.

All right.

So we're gonna give a high-level overview of what the district does and what our values are, how we see our historic role in the community.

Um, Pikes Peak Library District is a library district as listed in the name, created through Colorado State Statute, specifically CRS 24-90-11.

That means we're a separate legal entity based, so we're not part of the county, we're not part of the city of Colorado Springs.

We're a separate unit, uh separate excuse me.

I need some water government entity.

Um we operate independently in terms of budget management and operations, and we meet all standards in compliance with and required by the governmental accounting standards board that's GASPI for independence.

So we collaborate extensively with other municipalities within El Paso County, but we are separate.

We serve 700, about 700,000 people throughout the county.

As you know, the county has about 740,000 people in the district.

The only area that we do not serve as a library district is the security wide field area.

In terms of our history, the first library opened in Colorado Springs in 1903.

In the 1950s, some bookmobiles also start servicing the area.

And then in 1962, the voters voted to make Pikes Peak Library District recognized district, and then in 1963, both the council here and the county commissioners became our appointing authorities for board members.

We now operate with 14 branches, including three large anchored branches that includes our downtown library, the Penrose Library, just north of here, as well as our East Library, which is on Union Boulevard, and then our 21C Library, which is north in the Chapel Hills area.

In the 1980s, we also added a number of suburban districts, and then we also have a few rural libraries as well, servicing some of the excuse me, some of those further out areas, including Ute Pass and including Cowhan.

So we do service those areas as well through our digital access to resources.

So you can access books online, you can access databases and other learning platforms and things that are available through PPLD.

So we do have those strong partnerships with smaller municipalities.

We work with Manitou Springs, Fountain, Monuments, Cowhan, Palmer Lake, and a number of other smaller communities.

So our goal as a library district is to make sure that no matter where someone lives within the county, that they do have access to library resources.

In terms of our governance, we're governed by a board of trustees, which is made up of seven local residents, all of whom are appointed jointly by the city council and the county commissioners.

They serve two five-year terms, up to two five-year terms.

And by law, they cannot receive compensation.

So it is an all-volunteer board.

Our responsibilities are outlined in CRS 24-90-109.

We meet regularly so that we can conduct business.

All major decisions, including budgeting operations, and policy.

So 11, 12, sometimes 13 times a year, depending on budget and business needs.

We are legally responsible for adopting a budget by December 15th every year, and no funds can be spent beyond that budget without explicit board approval.

This ensures financial accountability and make sure we operate within our means.

Core policies and commitments.

I did want to go over that as well.

In your packets that Denise handed out for us, it has our overarching document, which is our Pikes Peak Library District rights and responsibilities statement.

And so that goes through some key values and things that we adhere to.

So that's kind of the overarching guiding our document for our other policies and administrative operations.

So one thing I would call to your attention is first that we are fully committed to the First Amendment.

That is our guiding light as interpreted by the Supreme Court of the United States.

And then also Colorado Library Law.

Under that, we are a non-partisan, not politically neutral entity.

We do not discriminate in access to books or materials, so all community members are welcome.

And materials are categorized by age.

A little bit of background on how categorization happens is publishers when they create a book, they attach codes to the ISBN number that you see on above the barcode on the back of the book, and that categorizes it by age, and then also by different topic categories.

And so that's how it's filed within the library system as well.

We also want to call to your attention that we have explicit affirmation of parentals, uh, parental rights to guide their kids' access to library services.

So unlike school districts, we don't operate in locus parentes.

So library librarians and library staff are not able to provide the same oversight as teachers, so they don't act in place of the parents while there.

Because of that, we do provide a lot of materials and resources for parents to give them guidance and how they can help their kids access appropriate materials.

So of course, we categorize by age.

We also provide some safety brochures and things like that for parents, which you'll find with our internet safety policies.

Um we have some of those brochures in your packets as well.

Um and then with our new integrated library system uh implementing in 2026, we will also have minor cards available so parents can set parental controls on their access as well if desired.

So we do have specific policies as well on collection development, reconsideration of materials.

You'll see reconsideration in there as well under Colorado law.

Members of the community do have the right to challenge a book if they don't think it belongs in the library or in the categorization area that it's in.

And we have about one to two challenges per year.

And that does go through a process that is outlined again as per library law in our reconsideration policy.

And also people, if they don't um like the way that that came out, if it was recommended to be retained as classified, for example, um, they can't appeal to the board for the board to review.

Um, those are public access.

So if someone does challenge a book, um they're the challenger's name as well as the book title is listed publicly.

And you can find a list of any challenged books on our website.

I think we've had uh, like I said, about one to two per year in the last five years.

Um anyway, our policies um on these issues do protect intellectual freedom as well as community standards.

Um, you'll see our computer usage policy in there as well.

We're in compliance with um US and state law regarding minors' access to information on computers, so we do have filters on the computers as well.

Um so if you have any questions about those policies, I'm happy to answer those at the end of the presentation.

Um, in conclusion, on my part, um, we're in strong independent and accountable institution that's excited to work with the city and the county and the other municipalities to provide services to everyone.

Um, Ms.

Taylor Shenitz Krebs will be also giving you a little bit more information about our services and the ways that we specifically reach the community.

Thank you, Julie.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you so very much for having us to here today.

As Julie mentioned, Pikes Big Library District is governed by seven board members, and they have one employee, and I'm standing in front of you, that's the CEO.

So they also annually set goals for me.

Um, and then based on the accomplishment of those goals, there is a performance evaluation that happens every year.

And one of the goals that they set for me this year was to not only collect data, but also analyze data and provide reports quarterly to the board of trustees.

I am extremely fortunate.

I have an amazing team that they make me look very good, and those reports actually are submitted to a board of trustees, not quarterly, but on a more frequent basis.

The first one we wanted to analyze that was Pike Speak Library District library court uh library card holders.

So, as Julie mentioned, Dinawa Legal Service Area, we serve up to 700,000 individuals.

Out of them, what we learned, and you will also see that in your package that over 45% of the of our patrons have a library card.

But then we decided to go deeper and look at our households.

So in our legal service area, we have over 285,000 households.

So over 65% of them do have library cards.

You might ask why we decided to look at um households.

Um, unfortunately, I need to share the story publicly as a parent of two school-aged children.

I've been using I've actually my library card for many years until the day when I received a stern email from my children's schools administration that my kids needed to have their own PPLD library card.

So for them to do their research.

You can only imagine how I felt, but that's that's how it happened.

And in many households, families do you have library cards parents, and they use their library cards.

So that's why we looked at our household.

Next step was okay, great.

We know how many households or individuals percentage-wise have library card holders.

What about how they use our resources?

So we went further and um analyze our data.

I'm very pleased to announce that PPLD's number one service is to borrow materials.

So we're in a library, also, as you know, biblioteca, that's a word that it's full of books.

Number two is use of our computers.

Number three is ask a question, and number four, it's to attend Pikespeak Library District offered programs.

So after that, um, my team and I we were like, okay, that's great.

That's how our community uses our services.

Maybe let's look at our physical collection popularity.

And that research also was done, and what we found out, district-wide top five collections that we have that's nonfiction, videos, picture books, children's nonfiction, and fiction.

Number one was nonfiction.

Honestly, first I was surprised, and I'm like, nonfiction.

I do not use a lot of nonfiction.

But then what I also realized that we do have this amazing partnership with six uh school districts in our county, it's PowerPass, and about 80,000 students have access to our resources.

And also, as you know, we have a very strong homeschooler community.

They also, and we do partner with them annually, we have fairs that they come and actually just you know share information with each other.

So that's what also is happening, that our community, family schools that utilize our resources pretty well.

I also happen to have to meet someone in a uh school environment.

Again, when you're a parent and you have two children, you do go to a lot of school activities.

And one of the teachers let me know that when we forged this partnership with them, they were so pleased because they knew that they could utilize PPLD's resources to help their students do research.

But another exciting part for them was when she learned that we have parental controls for all our online resources.

Like Julie said, we believe that it's up to parents and guardians to decide if they want to monitor their minors' interaction with our library services.

And you can actually find that's also parental controls that we have there.

We provide it to all schools and also parents.

It's up to the parents and guardians.

And uh that's what also it was.

So uh I was pleasantly surprised that I got that very nice positive feedback from that educator.

After that, uh, when we looked at physical uh uh physical collection popularity, then we decided okay, we have immaterials and we have physical.

Let's look at those two and figure out how our community using them.

Because if you look at the purchase of a physical hard copy, it costs us $15.

But for us to purchase a two-year license for e-material, it costs us about $60.

Also, I need to mention that when we purchase immaterials, we do not have as much of time, staff time involved.

So there is also you can just compare that.

But what we found out from our research that our community uses both equally.

So it's almost 50-50.

All of that information that helps us when we purchase our material and how much we allocate to that.

Another, as you know, we as a library district, we provide different programs to our community.

But I want to highlight two programs uh uh that's a district-wide that's uh winter adult reading program.

I hope some of you participated, and summer adventure.

In the last five years, we've witnessed uh that participation doubled.

Last year we decided to add adults and families to our summer adventure program.

You might ask why, because we believe education literacy starts at home, that it's our responsibility to provide tools to our families to dance, sing, talk, read with their um with their children at home or grandparents.

So and also, as you know, at the end of summer adventure, we also do summer adventure parties.

This year was incredible.

We had over 3,500 participants at East Library Park, which was like we had issues with parking.

Fountain Library also was very popular, about 600 participants.

So right now we're looking at the future.

We always like it's not even year done when we start looking at the future and planning where we can actually hold those summer adventure programs to ensure that all families can have access to that.

Thank you so much for your time.

And if you have any questions pertaining to the information that we provided today to you, I'll be happy to answer.

Councilman Hingem.

Thank you, Madam President.

Um, Julie and Tiona, thank you so much for coming this morning.

I really appreciate you being here and sharing information with this council.

I think this is accurate that since I've been on council, which is coming up, well, it's over four years now into the fifth year.

I think this is actually the first time that we've had an information presentation from the library district.

And uh, and I just would like to say appreciate it, and I would like to see us continue that at least annually, um, given that we are the appointing authority along with the county.

I think, and we hear from many, many organizations, nonprofit, others about how they're doing what they're doing in our community.

Um, and it's it's super important that we we continue this process.

So really, really appreciate it.

Appreciate you both uh reaching out to me as one of the liaisons I know as well as council uh member or President Crow Iverson as well to meet privately and to just kind of talk more.

I think those are important.

I think we have one on the calendar.

I really do appreciate that.

Um, and and I guess with that, I just have a very, very, very high-level question for both of you.

Um, which is and and of course, we all know it's been it's coming up on a year.

There's been a lot of passion expressed about PPLD, a lot of uh controversy actually related to PPLD, the closing of a library, the you know, board, et cetera.

But but my question isn't about that, it's it's just more broadly.

Um, what do you see as the purpose of a library?

And why is it important?

I mean, what is the vision for PPLD in our community?

Sure, as we mentioned, um, we have a commitment to the First Amendment, making sure that people have access to materials, they're able to learn, they're able to improve in literacy and able to access ways that can better their lives.

So, as a library, obviously, a big part of what we do is providing materials from all perspectives for all age groups and making sure that people have access to information.

So, access to information primarily as the purpose.

Yeah.

And Teona, do you have anything to add to that in terms of purpose of a library?

I think Julie also covered it very well, but based on my background, I strongly believe in the First Amendment and access to information to let our community members to interact with our resources as they choose and uh make up their own minds based on data and like that's that's that's how I see libraries.

Okay.

Um it actually, I'm I I didn't hear you say something that um I see as an important purpose of the library and like to know if you agree or disagree, and that is the library also serves as a place, a location where people can go and be together in community in learning and having meetings and using the resources, you know, if you will, the the third space, the the place for a community to connect.

And I'm just wondering um, is that a is that a shared vision of the board of the library uh as the library as a place?

I know you have just actually very recently um with with your funds and with support of the um uh the foundation board purchased a couple buildings.

So um I know you're you're committed to to having those locations.

I'm just curious to know kind of philosophically how you feel about the library as a space for people to connect.

I would say, in terms of our definition of what a library is, we follow Colorado Library Law, so that's mostly what we're aligning with in that regard.

I will say there are, as you mentioned, a lot of places that communities come together, whether that's community centers, whether that's churches, whether that's libraries.

Um, and as much as people want to come and use our community rooms, use our access to study rooms, things like that places um, you know, that we have available for the community to use.

We're grateful to have them there.

Um, and of course, we invite people to book those and to engage with the library in that way as well.

Okay, thank you.

That's all I have.

Council McDonaldson.

Yeah, thank you, Madam President.

And I also want to thank both of you for the presentation today.

And then as you know, I represent District One.

Um, so I'm curious about if you can um make clear what what the plan is for a neighborhood library in the area where the Rock Reman library used to be, somewhere in that northwest part of the city.

Um what what is there a plan?

And and can you kind of share that with us?

The library district's goal and the board's goal is to make sure we have equal access throughout the district.

So we do listen to our communities that have felt needs.

Um, I know Northwest has we've gotten a lot of feedback from there as well as from um, we know there's need in the southeast as well and some other areas.

You'll see the map of our um locations in your packet, and that'll also show some areas where there's not currently library service.

I believe in council members Rainey's district, there aren't any libraries currently, and that's something that we are looking at as well.

Um, we do want to make sure that everyone has access.

Um so those are things that we're looking at.

If you've been following library business, of course, we've been looking into different property possibilities.

We have looked at some things in the Northwest and had some discussions about that, um, as well as some other areas throughout the district monuments, very much wanting us to expand service in that area as well.

Um, so as we evaluate those felt needs, we're looking at opportunities and just um, you know, paying close attention to what are good opportunities for the library to look at other branches, um, also other creative ways of bringing services as well as like holds lockers so people can pick up um books in areas that are not really close to a library.

Um, and of course, we do have our mobile library services as well, which currently is visiting um Rockerman.

I think it's one of um the areas most serviced by our bookmobile at this time.

Um so we are in that area as well.

Um, but yes, we are consider continuing to look at uh properties possibilities in in that and in some other areas of the city and county.

Can I ask, is there a commitment on the part of PPLD to return a library to the Northwest part of the city?

We've always said that that uh the non-renewal of the previous lease was not a decision to move entirely out of the area, and as I've said, we've continued to involve mobile library services and things like that and look into uh physical properties in that area.

So that is something that we've continued to look at and and be committed to doing our due diligence to see if there are other opportunities that we can um look at in that area.

Okay, and when you know, when people bought their homes in the in the northwest, there was a library there.

So it's it's a little different than if you bought a home out east in the county and there was nothing there, and you got a great price on your on the property because there are less amenities out there.

Is there and I hear you clearly, you're saying you're looking.

Yeah, you're you're kind of looking all over and trying to provide equal access all over the district.

But is there a timeline that you would you want to have a library back in the northwest part of the city within one year, within two years, within three years?

We're primarily looking at the quality of the available options rather than timeline.

Obviously, we're very proactively looking.

Um, but in terms of committing to a timeline, that's not something that's really possible to do if you don't have a good opportunity in front of you.

So we are actively looking and being proactive about that.

Um, but in terms of, you know, I'm not gonna promise something that I don't know the timeline yet.

When we do have opportunities available that we're bringing up for a vote that will be announced to the community, um, and we'll make sure that people are updated on that.

Um, I can say that we are proactively looking for um locations there isn't as well as in other parts of the the district.

Okay, and I'll just share with you that there are lots of citizens up there who uh want to support PPLD.

They they do feel like uh they're very disappointed right now in what's happened up there.

They wish there had been a way to uh have you know have a another facility available for we pulled out of the one that we had and left the Northwest with uh with no library.

Um so I appreciate that.

I I know the citizens up in the Northwest deeply uh hope that there will be something uh soon uh back up there.

As you know, there are elderly citizens and and others who can't can't drive across uh to the east side of the city uh and they deeply miss it, miss their library.

Thank you.

Councilman Rainey.

Thank you, Madam President.

Uh I just got one quick question, and once again, um we can go into this at a different opportunity without taking up too much time.

And one of your flyers, uh, there is a percentage of total physical checkouts by location.

And as I'm looking at that, there's another one that talks about e-books.

And one of the I see specifically on the east, uh, there's a very uh significant percentage of ebook uh checkouts.

As we continue to evolve with technology, have you all thought through what does a library look like moving into the future?

Is it still gonna look the way it currently is structured?

Is it gonna be different?

Uh different type of capabilities.

Just when I see these percentages, I see kind of this massive lean in ebooks, at least for this particular stat on this particular flyer.

Can you expand on that?

I'd be happy to, and then I'll hand it over to Tiana for a little bit more detail.

I I suspect part of that could be because in the East area we don't have a lot of service off of powers in the southeast, so there may be higher usage of e-books because of lack of access to physical books.

Um I think we might uh Tana might have more data on that than I do, but that may be something that we need to collect more data on to determine um the desire for physical books in that area.

That's one of the uh aspects what Julie mentioned.

Uh, that's true, and we do have a lot of individuals from different different parts of town uh use uh East Library.

Um and but also what we are looking at younger generation, they really honestly they want to have physical books, so we're also collecting the data.

And even in my own household, my children prefer hard copies than I do.

But and looking at that nonfiction is also very high when it comes to physical um collection as well.

So, but uh as when it comes to future of libraries, and of course, a lot of depends on resources that we have.

What with the resources we have right now, we're thinking about expanding those services, and one of that is also halt lockers and just see because we are getting a lot of requests, particularly from your district.

They want to have something, they don't want to drive.

I think they said what 40 minutes and and one of the one of the uh resources uh those uh citizens use that's our immaterial.

Thank you.

I don't see any other questions.

Thank you for your time this morning.

Thank you.

Thank you, thank you.

Moving on to 7A, staff and appointee reports.

Will the clerk please read item 7A into the record?

Agenda planner review.

Do we have any questions on the agenda re planner review?

Seeing none for the record, there are no questions on the upcoming agenda.

Moving on to item 8A.

Will the clerk please read item 8A into the record?

Resolution of the City of Colorado Springs approving an amended and restated service plan with the Bradley Ranch Metropolitan District located generally southeast of the intersection of Elder Ranch Road and North Union.

Good morning, Allison.

Good morning.

Uh for the record, Alison Stocker with City's land use land use review division.

Um so today we're gonna start off with Bradley Ranch Metropolitan District.

This is a request to amend and restate the service plan.

So as I said, this is a request to amend and restate the service plan.

The current service plan is from 2006, so it is based on an old model service policy, so it's pretty different than any of the newer uh service plans you've seen in recent months.

The request is to increase the OM, the operation and maintenance mill levy from the previous 10 mills, which was the cap, to 22 mills.

This change would also come with a change in the assessment rates to the 2022 assessment values.

Additionally, there is a request to replace the 2006 financial plan with the 2024 audited financial statements.

Um, this is just to bring things up to the current date, and removal of service plan language that is no longer relevant to the district's um continued operations.

So for context, this is located southeast of the intersection of Old Ranch Road and North Union Boulevard.

This is located in council district number two.

The district consists of approximately 126 acres.

As I mentioned before, it was created in 2006 under an old service plan policy, all of which to support public and private improvements in the district.

The district is completely built out and it has roughly 359 single-family detached homes.

So the reason we are looking at an amended and restated service plan is because we are going from the old policy to a newer policy.

So usually when we do that, we like to bring everything up into the current policy so that everything is consistent.

Um with the request from the community to raise the operation and maintenance mill levy from that 10 to the 22.

Um, that is kind of the impetus for the full amend and restated service plan.

The request particularly is funny enough that we were talking about it earlier, but to consolidate garage garbage services under a single company to kind of prevent um additional wear and tear on the roads in the community, and just to kind of decrease the number of heavy vehicles moving around the neighborhood.

So, as I said, this does uh create the need to amend and restate the service plan, and many of the changes you're gonna see in this plan is really to those mill levies, the assessment rates, um, bringing some of our language up to date with state and local policy changes that have occurred over the years and to account for the built-out status of the district.

Um, so here's another little uh image of the neighborhood.

You can see you know, everything is there that is planned to be there, so there are no plans for new construction, new development, or any major maintenance activities.

So, with that amended and restated plan, there is a request to reduce the maximum debt allowance from 30 million to 10 million.

This is because the district does not anticipate issuing any new debt as of now since all of the construction and development activities have already been completed.

The reason it's being kept at 10 million is just because there's an existing 8.4 million, roughly that is outstanding.

So as that continues to go down, um, we don't expect any new debt to be issued.

So with the mill levies um to account for the need to consolidate uh garbage services under a single provider, that is where the request to raise um those mill levyes from 10 to 22 come into play.

Um the point of increasing to 2020 22, which is two over the normal limit, is to account for these service needs without increasing other fees to the community.

So while this does exceed the city's model service plan for allowed mill levies, this is a request coming from the landowning board members.

So there are no developers on the district board as of now.

Um and they believe that this is a better um situation for their community than having to go some other way to account for that financial need to pay for those services.

Um the only other thing that is not changing as a part of this uh amended and restated plan is that we are keeping the 2006 um assessment rates and the mill levy for the debt service.

And the reason we are keeping that under the old service plan is just because the existing bonds are already based on those old um standards.

So changing that now kind of in the middle of things would be a little confusing for their financial policies.

So that one we are keeping the same, but they will be kept under the same assessment values.

So they aren't necessarily getting a better rate or something out of that being kept the same.

Um in addition to those more technical changes, um, there is the change from the 2006 financial plan to the 2024 report.

Um, this is mostly just to demonstrate the more current status of the financial state of the district.

So it'll explain where the finances are presently, uh, what the responsibilities will be going forward, how that remaining debt is being paid.

Um, and as I said, the um district does not anticipate any new debt.

So those types of usual exhibits we have in the financial plans aren't really relevant in this case.

Um in addition to that, there is a lot of language that is being struck out from our normal model service plan.

And most of this, as you can see in the example on screen, is mostly just related to the fact that the district is no longer doing any development or construction.

So uh language pertaining to construction and physical improvements on site just isn't really relevant.

And given that the board is managed by landowning individuals, the uh district manager wanted to find a way to make the service plan a little more digestible to the average neighbor, so that you know, implementing you know future um district activities would be a little simpler.

So um in your packet, you would have seen the clean version of the new service plan, a comparison to today's 2022 service plan, as well as all of the normal exhibits.

Um I've also included um a petitioner cover memo and the original service plan for comparison.

And uh this is expected to go to regular meeting on October 14th.

I'm available for questions, and I do have the petitioner here as well.

Councilman Hincham.

Uh thank you, Madam President.

So um one, I find this just super interesting that it's coming today after a presentation on waste management.

And this is actually, I think a really interesting indication of uh a broad community who is interested in not having you know 14 different trash trucks going up and down the road all week.

Uh so I love seeing that.

Um, and uh, and I recognize the, you know, so much of our city now, especially the outer circles of our city are run by metro districts, and and so those fakes folks pay a little bit more in taxes than for example, where I do, more in the center of the city.

Um but I might want to meet separately with someone, not to go into the detail.

I'm just trying to understand the so it's great, you don't we don't often see like reducing um the debt, so that that's great.

Um, but what is the actual cost and needing to come to council to increase the mills for I don't know what the actual cost is of having one single trash service?

This isn't an HOA.

Um can you give me a sense of that?

Um I know the district um manager did have some information on why specifically they needed to get to the 2022.

I'm sorry, the 22 mills, um they can probably explain that detail a little bit better than I can just because I don't have those numbers in front of me.

I wouldn't mind hearing that um from the petitioner.

And this is uh one of those metro districts that is run now by residents who live there.

That is correct, which is fantastic.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Uh good morning.

My name is uh Sean Helser.

I am uh the board president for the Bradley Ranch Metro District and a resident uh there in the Bradley Ranch Metro District.

So thanks for coming.

Yeah, thanks.

Thanks for hearing us today.

Um took some time off of work to come down here and be able to speak with you all about it.

Um your question was about the increase on the mill levy in order to cover the cost.

So um the the cost is about um worked out to be about $20 per home per month, which is lower than what residents are typically paying for the same service on an individual basis.

Uh also the fact that it's incorporated into their taxes means that um there's a reduction in their taxable uh cost as well.

So it actually has a bigger impact on their overall um overall budget and their overall taxable income as well.

So uh there's an increase because the original uh 10 mils was just to cover some basic things like uh landscaping and covenant enforcement and those kinds of things.

And so the trash service actually is gonna be the largest part of our budget moving forward uh because it is a consistent weekly service for all of the residents.

So that's why, in order to make sure we had enough room to cover that, uh part of what the board, and again the board is composed uh completely of homeowners or uh residents and homeowners currently that are homeowners as well, and uh previous board members who were uh that we've we've we're we're not that far into getting you know taken over from the developers, so the previous board members were also we've been talking about this for a while, but weren't able to do it until we got the service plan update.

Um, but wanting to be able to uh have um like a like a local like spring cleanup or or maybe additional recycling activities or things like that.

And so yeah, so that overall mill just kind of gives us that extra uh buffer to be able to provide that for all of our residents.

We do have five miles of roads in our neighborhood.

There's only one entrance, and so we currently do have four different trash companies, each of them coming through with two trucks every single week.

And so the wear and tear, the noise, the I mean residential neighborhoods are big trucks, of course.

And so um definitely looking forward to the opportunity to not have so much traffic in the neighborhood.

So that's great.

Just uh just uh parenthetically uh in my district.

We have I have have one HOA who has organized um themselves to essentially do this through the HOA and then a neighborhood association who is you know kind of working on adding more and more neighbors every day uh and have negotiated separately with one trash company.

But I think I I'm I'm I'm guessing this is a trend to cost the city and something we need to be paying attention to.

But thank you for coming.

I appreciate the explanation.

I don't see any other questions.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Moving on to item 8B, will the clerk please rate item 8B into the record?

A resolution of the city council, the city of Colorado Springs, Colorado, approving the issuance of debt by the Ellston Part Metropolitan District of Senior Limited Tax General Obligation Bonds and subordinate limited tax general obligation obligation bonds series 2025 and the estimated principal aggregate amount of four million.

All right, hello again.

Um Alison Stocker, senior planner land use review division.

So next we're gonna talk about Elston Park Metropolitan District, and this request is for a bond issuance.

So the request today is to complete the first debt issuance for this district.

That would be no more than four million.

Um it is anticipated that um the total of the actual debt issuance would be more in the ballpark of 2.5.

But just because market conditions are you know constantly a moving target, we're gonna uh have the maximum just be a little bit above that.

And these funds are supposed to be used for ongoing development on site.

This is a relatively new district, so this is just the first bond to continue paying for construction cost.

So this is located just northwest of the intersection of West Fillmore and I-25.

It's in district one.

The district consists of about 29 acres.

It was created in 2021 under our old model service plan.

So I think we have another one that's gonna have a little bit different policies than we usually are looking at.

Um, the most recent entitlement application was uh a minor amendment in 2024.

Um, but the district does have about 167 single family detached and single family attached units.

So the maximum authorized debt is approximately 15 million.

No debt has been issued as of now since the district is still very early on in the construction process.

Um, with the district being created in the old service plan, they were limited to 30 mils of debt service and 10 for operations and maintenance.

And that is the financing plan that they would use to cover the cost of that debt.

So of course, 4 million is going to be much lower than their threshold.

We're not worried about them hitting that today with this issuance.

So that helps make things a little easy for us in terms of math.

And the subordinate bond would be about 300,000.

When we're looking at these requests, you know, as city planning, we are looking just for the reasonableness of the request of the debt issuance.

So keep that in mind in terms of some of the materials we've received.

Here we have a list of the total cost of all of the planned public and private improvements.

So these are just a portion of what you'll be seeing or being paid into with this bond issuance.

So it'll likely be that this district will need additional bonds in the future to continue paying for these improvements.

But this is just kind of a snapshot on what some of this funding would go to.

And that is essentially all I have for you today.

Um including the bond issuance resolution from the board that authorized the maximum of four million.

So that's kind of step one that the board has to do is say that that is their absolute maximum they're willing to allow.

Then council, of course, can agree on whether or not that is acceptable, and then the actual bond issuance would then take place from there.

And that's where those minor details would start to get hammered out a little more.

Um but to support that, the applicant has provided um a number of different um opinion letters, um, other financial statements to help kind of support the the numbers that they had come up with and things like that.

Um additionally, I've also provided the current service plan for reference as well as the latest development plan, so that you can kind of see how all those improvements line up with what was approved by planning.

And similarly, this would go to regular session on October 14th.

I don't see any questions.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Moving on to items 8C.

Will the clerk please read item 8C into the record?

Resolution recognizing the partial donation of approximately 54 acres of land to the Colorado Springs Municipal Airport.

And just an agenda note, this item is back to back, so it is on your agenda tomorrow for for a vote, which is it will be item 10A.

That is correct.

Good morning, Troy.

Good morning, council members.

Troy Stover, the uh director of Peak Innovation Business Park.

Do we have the presentation?

I am not seeing a presentation loaded in SharePoint, but I can try and pull one off the agenda real quick.

And Madam President, if I could while while we're waiting, I'm just curious why why is this back to back?

Because oh, go ahead, you can explain it.

Yeah, we've uh we've closed on the land and we've been working with the uh seller to try to get this going and get done.

We weren't able to get it onto the calendar earlier, because we're just trying to get it done and get uh it back to back for the seller uh and trying to get it for year-end documents uh for the seller for IRS tax purposes.

And I believe you've closed, right?

Yeah, we did close on the land, this parcel of land uh last week.

And the it's sitting escrow, but the developer is leaving on the 23rd out of the country.

Um so that's why we're putting it back to back so we can get it done since it's already closed.

So he leaves tomorrow, the 23rd.

Well, I believe so.

I believe so, yeah.

And this is 50 acres, right?

Roughly yeah, roughly 50 acres of ground, and then it's a partial uh donation, but I get the presentations I can go through that, and if there's more questions.

Are we ready?

Yeah.

Go ahead.

All right.

Again, uh Troy Stover, uh, director of Peak Innovation Development Uh Park.

Uh I'm here before you today on a partial land donation uh for the Colorado Springs Airport.

Um I'll go through the uh PSA update and overview, uh update the phase closing plan uh that actually got started in 2023.

Partial donation, we'll go over that, and then a staff recommendation and questions.

Uh the site location is just to the east of the airport, and you originally started out as parcel four.

Uh and you can see on the right-hand side there is parcel four A and four B.

Today we're just gonna be talking about parcel four A, which was the acquisition that we moved forward with uh last week.

Um the PSA, as I said, was uh executed in May of 2023.

It was scheduled for uh a phase closing.

Uh we closed on parcels one, two, and three and twenty-three.

Uh we issued a fourth amendment uh over the summer to the PSA splitting parcel four into parcel four A and four B.

And this was for the purpose of the airport and continuing cash flow.

Um, and so we worked with the seller on a couple different aspects of renegotiating that PSA and uh out of the graciousness of the seller, uh, we were able to split that parcel and acquire just uh 50% of that parcel um without any penalties uh added to our purchase and sale agreement.

Uh the Fifth Amendment uh was renegotiating and we concluded that negotiation on parcel four A on the annual price escalator and uh negotiated that from a four to two point five percent annual escalator, uh again bringing the cost of the land down for the airport uh by about ninety-eight thousand dollars.

Uh parcel four A appraised above the negotiated price point, uh, creating an in-kind exchange donation.

Um the phase plan uh again we completed phase one, which is parcels one, two, and three.

Phase two was just completed last week.

Um and then uh uh phase three and phase four are the two remaining phases.

In the phase three, I'll just draw your attention to the parcel four B has been added to next year's phase closing.

And again, all this was put in place uh for cash flow management for the airport uh with the uh collaboration of uh our the director of the airport, Alex Kovacs.

Um staff recommendation is to approve a resolution recognizing partial uh donation associated with parcel four A.

The donation is the value of increase of the sale price uh from the fair market value price.

So the fair market value price was slightly above the actual sale price, which creates the donation under the city policies.

We don't recognize the exact dollar amount that comes from the IRS submittal of the seller at the time when they use their own appraisal to submit their IRS tax forms.

Questions Councilman Donaldson, do you still have a question?

Um this uh has been reviewed by our uh the city attorney's office, and they approve this.

Uh yes, it has been reviewed by the city attorney's office and uh those attorneys did approve it.

Okay, thanks.

Thank you.

Yes, for tomorrow.

Can we can we put this on consent for tomorrow?

It can't be because the agenda has to be noticed.

I guess not.

So okay, we'll hear it again tomorrow.

So we both move it forward for tomorrow.

Yes.

All right.

Thank you all very much.

Thank you.

Moving on to item 8D.

Will the city clerk please read item 8D into the record?

A resolution authorizing the acquisition of rail property permanent easements and temporary easements using PPRTA funds for the top boulevard extension, doublemar to Timbleton Gap Road Project.

Good morning, Gail.

Good morning, Madam President, members of council.

Uh Gail Sturdivant, City Engineer and Deputy Public Works Director here for Colorado Springs.

Uh with me today, I'm joined by our real estate services manager, Kelly Billingsley.

We're bringing forth for you a resolution to acquire funds using our property using PPRTA funds for the purpose of the PPRTA to TUT Boulevard Extension Project.

Just as we jump in this, I want to let you know for particularly those counselors who've been around for a couple years.

Almost two years ago to the day we actually came to you to get permission for possession and use to be able to proceed with this property, and you'll see that a little bit more detail.

We did get possession.

We've completed the construction project, and now we're just uh looking for your approval uh to uh reach the settlement agreement.

So just to give you a reminder where this is located, um again, it's a PPRTA 2 project.

Um sits relatively to the northeast of the Powers in Dublin intersection and completes that TUT extension uh through some of those properties.

And if you've been out there, it has been complete uh since September of last year.

Uh you can see in this map, which really was involved in this.

Um, the the brown, I'm sorry, the gray color was almost 37 or just over 3,700 square feet of ride of way.

Um we also had public improvement easement, which is so shown in the uh red.

Um we had some temporary drainage easements shown in the blue, and then we had some temporary construction easements in that area.

Uh before I leave this area, I want to point out there was a remnant, so uh it's in there, it's actually still shown in white that leaves kind of a triangle on the property there to the west side of where that roadway goes through.

Let's dig into the history of where we went.

We we started doing a notice of intent to acquire November 22.

Um, we did make an offer in the amount of um $580,000 in May of 23, which was based on the city's appraisal.

Um we did not uh we actually made a modified settlement agreement um in July of 23, and we did not hear anything from the owner at that time, and nor did they provide their own appraisal.

So it's again like two years ago we approached you to get permission to be able to use possession and use in possibly eminent domain if necessary.

Uh we did counter with one more settlement offer in October of 23.

Um we did not reach resolution on the cost.

However, the owners agree to sign the possession and use agreement.

Uh so they were able to sign that agreement in uh March of 24, and we were able to start construction a couple weeks later.

So that's why the project was able to proceed.

One of the beautiful things about this project proceeds, and we still have time to be able to come to an agreement.

Um we also um deposited the money in the accounts necessary to be able to do that, which is just the city's appraised value for what we're taking.

Um we've been working with the seller, they did finally go and get an appraisal in July of 24.

Their appraised value came in at over 1.2 million dollars.

So again, our original appraisers 580,000.

Their appraisals 1.2.

So we've been working diligently for over a year to come to some kind of resolution, and we have come to a settlement agreement of $110,000 that takes into account um their appraised value along with what we're considering damages to that remnant piece that's included that um there.

We feel like this is a uh reasonable uh cost for the property that was needed for that project.

So staff is recommending approval to move forward with this wrestle resolution authorizing us to proceed.

Um, because it is over 100,000, we do require council approval, and it is contingent on PPRTA funding.

I will tell you PPRTA has already approved the original $580,000, and I plan on taking an item um to the October 8th board to approve the remaining $330,000 necessary.

Um I'm gonna open it up to questions, but I'd also ask you to consider it for the consent agenda, which is currently considered for October 14th.

So, any questions?

I don't see any questions, and can I get a thumbs up for consent?

Okay, it's on consent for October 14th.

Perfect, thank you.

I appreciate it.

Uh-huh.

No items under study.

Moving on to item 10, Council member reports and open discussion if there are any council member reports.

Councilman Hinjam.

Uh thank you, Madam President.

Actually, quite a few things.

Uh I'll just start with the most recent, which was Saturday in our city.

We had thousands and thousands and thousands of firefighters and their families at the International Firefighter Um Firefighter Memorial.

And it's a spectacular event.

And I just want to highlight in particular the work of local five and what they do behind the scenes to support these families coming in, especially those who have lost someone in this last year or few years, be it on the line of duty or because of really the most troubling trend of increase of cancer uh related diagnoses due to their service in the fire uh service.

So it was very powerful, very moving, encourage if you have never been to at some point go uh to one of those ceremonies, quite beautiful.

Along the lines of ceremonies and remembrances at Mitchell High School on 911, also uh joined by Councilmember Donaldson, um uh remembering um uh a uh an alumni of uh alumnus of uh Mitchell High School Um and all of a sudden her name is blanking on me, Dave.

Do you remember it?

I'm I'm blanking on her name.

Anyway, she was a flight attendant on um a plane that crashed into the South Tower and very, very moving ceremony.

In particular, I would share with you all that what surprised everyone was at the very end of the ceremony, a gentleman who lives in California who is just um really moved and uh feels very committed to remembering um those who died on that day, um, is started a bike ride across the country, essentially a mile for every person killed in that event.

And he has a dog tag with the name of every victim.

And he presented the very first dog tag to the father of um, I'm so sorry.

I'm Catherine Yancey, yeah, Labore.

I'm so sorry to her family for forgetting her name.

But it was very, very moving, it was very touching.

And uh so just wanted to comment on that and the incredible work that Mitchell does every year and their um ROTC students.

Um also enjoyed the sober soiree.

Um uh also joined by Councilmember Lime Weber.

I think he's the only other council member I saw it, not that others maybe didn't go, but really great uh fun and celebrating being sober and our restaurants and uh uh actual bars who do nothing but um um you know uh cocktails that that are mocktails, and it was really fun, great food, um, and a lot of funds raised uh for homework homeward Pikes Peak.

Um then uh did a tour of the Pikes the Peak Housing Network and some of the um incredible different housing uh products that we have in our city.

I know there's it's always a concern about how much housing we have in Colorado Springs, but highlighting some of the the great different products that we do have to address affordability and so appreciate the work of Pikes Peak Housing Network, um Joe Gabler and and the chamber who hosts them.

Um and uh the walkability summit um also uh Councilmember Lyme Weber and Gold were at that.

I I only went for a part of that, but we saw the presentation from Lelia at our last work session, and uh just terrific uh work done by uh that that group and uh paying close attention to walkability in our city in particular in the Southeast, and so really appreciate their work.

Finally, I would um uh actually like to make note of uh community meeting that's happening this Wednesday at Edison Elementary, and my gratitude to the parks department for working with me and the neighbors of the Cragmore Pape Town neighborhood and focusing in particular on three parks in that neighborhood that are really in need of uh at the very least some good maintenance.

Um Portal Park, which has a pool that's been um decommissioned for quite a few years, and that building is is really uh falling apart and and becoming quite a nuisance in the area.

Flanagan Park and Danville.

Um so I'm really looking for a significant turnout at Edison, grateful to the parks department.

Um, and we will have many people there to talk about what can we do, even in this very very constrained um budget reality that we face now.

Um, what is possible?

What are additional grant dollars that we can um leverage showing the the um commitment of the of the neighbors in the in the area who really love these parks, they're really quite beautiful and uh and deserve the the kind of attention they don't have the benefit of Metro District dollars uh really just dependent on our general fund for the parks in the center part of our city.

So I want to thank in advance our parks department and um and if anybody's listening and you live in that neighborhood, please join us on Wednesday at Edison Elementary at 5 30.

Thank you.

Councilman Donaldson.

Yes, thanks, Madam President, and uh Nancy's hit on some of these, but I'll I'll just uh touch on a few others.

And on 911, there was also uh uh there was the memorial at Mitchell High School, which is uh they do a fantastic job there.

It's really well done.

They have a big ROTC program there, so uh the cadets are out, uh, some in uniform, some not, but they're in formation.

They have you know giant American flags held up by the uh our fire department.

Um in fact, our our own Wayne Williams was the uh keynote speaker there that day.

Uh so that that is really, really well done, and it's outdoors.

Uh it's it's very touching, especially with the connection of one of their graduates, you know, was on one of the aircraft that hit hit the towers.

Uh and she was the head stewardess.

Um, but there was also a ceremony before that at UCCS.

And uh uh I believe uh Councilman Rainey was also there for that, and that was the first time I've been to that one.

It might be the first time they've had it at UCCS, but I would encourage you to do that.

Later in the day, there is uh lunch with a General uh Lieutenant General uh Mike Gold Gould was uh the speaker there, and he happened to be the uh commander of Cheyenne Mountain Operations Center on 911.

Um last year he spoke at the ceremony at Memorial Park, which we didn't have this year.

So uh he's a very he's an excellent speaker.

So a lot of a lot of different ceremonies on 911.

On the 17th of September, which is last Wednesday, there was an event, and this was the fourth time it's been done, and it was at Evergreen Cemetery organization called Saluting Branches, and what they do is is our city forester uh uh he kind of led it, but it's arborists uh from Colorado Springs and the County come and they uh volunteer to trim the trees uh there in Evergreen Cemetery, which is a cemetery where General Palmer is buried.

Um very historic cemetery, a lot of veterans uh buried there, and they they tie it to that, you know, saluting branches.

Uh we talked about how four years ago a lot of us from council were there the first year it happened, and there were only 35 arborists there, 35 uh uh pretty much guys that worked.

This time there were more than a hundred.

I think it was like a hundred and sixty-five.

So this has really grown.

Um it's also something I would recommend uh attending.

Starts early in the morning and then uh and then they work all day.

Something else that Nancy and I did on Thursday, September uh 18th.

The Humane Society, their board uh had invited council over for a presentation and uh kind of a presentation on what what the Humane Society does here in town.

They do a lot, and in fact, I would ask that uh I don't know if we need to do this formally, get three people to sponsor it.

I know Nancy and I uh would would agree uh to do it, but have them come here uh since it's harder for all of us to make it there, do a presentation.

They do the uh law enforcement side of animal control here in Colorado Springs, and they also do it down in Pueblo.

Um the city uh has a contract with them, so it's important for council to be aware uh of the services they provide.

Um and then on Saturday.

Well, Friday there was a downtown um partnership breakfast, which I know several of us were at.

I know I saw uh I believe Councilman Rainey was there and and pro Tim Risley were there.

And then Saturday it is it is a very touching and uh meaningful ceremony when more than 300 uh more names of of fallen firefighters were added to the uh wall there.

Uh and Nancy mentioned who who from our our council was there.

Um local five, you know, our local uh union here, they do it.

They organize this thing every year, and uh it is a huge operation to pull it off.

They have what they call the war room down at uh Antlers Hotel, and they meet these families when they fly into the airport, they'll be greeted right there and driven uh, you know, in a vehicle they're taken right to the hotel, and our local Union Five guys and gals um really take good care of the families, and it makes such an impression on some of them that they're uh they feel such camaraderie that that they have uh some of those families come back year after year and they volunteer to help others uh that are going through this.

Um so that's a fantastic event.

It's a huge driver for the downtown too.

Uh, and that's a reason why LART should continue to fully fund uh the request for that.

Um so thanks.

Councilman Langweber.

Well, I have I have a lot.

Um I was able to uh take part in the DC fly-in, and um it it it just couldn't have been a better trip in a lot of different ways.

Um I'll first um relay that um the National Guard was present and um I had several opportunities to talk.

You know, I just stopped and talked to them, and uh, and then I actually talked to a couple of police officers also about the you know increased information and there's no question.

I mean, obviously, if you put more eyes and ears on the street, you're going to help prevent crime, and they clearly have done that, and and they are visible.

I mean, I I pretty much you didn't always see them, but every now and then they would they would be in these different places and and stuff like that.

And um, and just talking to them, it it really has given the police able more ability to target um particular crimes and stuff like that when they might get pulled aside for um other types of events or things.

The National Guard's been able to kind of fill in just doing like general just you know, surveillance duties or you know, that kind of stuff.

Um, but it it um it was interesting and you did feel pretty safe.

Um I actually walked the Safeway at 10 o'clock at night um and um with uh another uh person and um and we we commented on how it was I mean the places where we walked, I don't know they weren't very well lighted and some other issues, but um it still um we we still saw some National Guard folks out at that time.

So anyway, just wanted to make a general comment because it's been in the media um and that sort of thing.

But the biggest thing um I was able to do is um I was able to take um what's been done well, um the outdoor Pikes Peak Initiative, which is really a full study on how we look at the future of Pikes Peak and how we leverage this for the outdoors.

And um we were able to meet with the deputy chief of the Forest Service.

Um we also met with um some representatives of the BLM and um just had exceptional meetings.

They they just weren't aware of America's mountain.

Um, you know, they they they they have so many different areas around the country, and for us to highlight that um they got really really excited about the project, and we have a lot of contacts now to kind of lean into and try to move forward to really get this initiative really moving in a really, really positive direction.

On top of that, um the largest outdoor rec um political um body in the country is called outdoor recreation roundtable.

And um it's a pretty large group.

Um many people, when you think of outdoor recreation, what's the largest industry in outdoor recreation?

And try to get that to mind, and then I'll tell you what it is.

And you'll go, oh yeah.

It's the boat industry.

The boat industry is the largest outdoor recreation industry.

Um when you have 200,000 boats being purchased every day, it kind of gets those numbers high.

They're I mean, they're 10 to 20 times bigger than any other industry.

Uh, they're really huge.

And then the RV community is also very, very big.

So often you think of like camping next to the campsite and stuff like that with a pup, you know, a tent and a sleeping bag, but there's so much more to it.

And uh, and so um anyway, um uh Jessica Wall Turner is the executive director.

She met with Doug Bergam earlier this year, and um Doug Bergen um being from um I believe North Carolina, uh North Dakota, um, he is a huge advocate for outdoor rec.

And um he asked her um, let's start a summit around innovation and technology around outdoor recreation.

And so they started the first ever summit, and I got to participate in it, and that was on Tuesday, and it was great.

It's about 120 people involved, first time there.

The CEO of All Trails, the CEO of Strava, the CEO of Onyx Out Onyx.

All these are huge technology mapping companies.

They were all there and several different components of technology and how it works with outdoor recreation.

There was a company that focuses on emergency readiness and stuff like that in Outdoor Rec that was there.

I got a chance to talk to him a little bit.

But most importantly, I got to sit right behind Doug Bergum, who was at the entire event.

I mean, it was a four-hour event.

And I got to introduce myself.

I got to share the plan with him directly.

He got super excited about it.

He's just such a great guy.

I just was like overwhelmed.

And he kept turning around in his chair and talking to me the whole kind of the whole event every time there's a little break or something.

I mean, here's Doug Bergum, the running the Department of Interior, and we're just kind of chatting like we're buds, you know.

So it was actually really, really a great opportunity to kind of meet these people.

On top of all that, all the leaders, we had 92 leaders from Colorado Springs who went.

And so we had lots of side conversations about the city, uh, challenges that we have and really great connections with different people.

Um housing was probably the most talked about and probably the most unsatisfied answer about.

Um there, we we didn't really we didn't come to really good.

We didn't solve the problem.

Let's just say that.

But it seemed to be like the buzz, and there could have been so much more around the housing question.

Um I think I I left kind of wanting more with that.

Um it would have been nice to meet more with some of the HUD representatives and uh some other things to kind of discuss, even Freddie Mack and you know, those are agencies, it would be kind of neat about that.

Um the other thing is Bill Weisong actually set up a meeting with the FCC, and um it was an exceptional meeting.

We had an hour meeting with them, and they were so engaging, it was crazy, and particularly around emergency response and how do you handle cell phone traffic during emergencies because everyone wants to see if their dog's okay and you know, where's my son, and you know, all those kind of things when an emergency happens, you everyone calls.

They overload the net the system.

And um, so they have been running this test pilot that's been really, really kind of cool.

They have kind of a plug and play thing.

So around DC, they have these areas that ATT, ATT, and Verizon can go and literally take their mobile unit, prop up the antenna, and plug in, and boom, they've just increased bandwidth.

And um it would be something to possibly look into for our community to kind of maybe strategically place some of these around that at any point in time, you know, one of these mobile units could come in and immediately enhance um the bandwidth in the region.

Um as long as they can just you know plug and play.

That's kind of what they do.

So they they have a number of these, um, I guess along the mall, whenever they have these big events and stuff, and they just can come in, plug in, boom, they're up and running, they can handle all the extra load, and then when the event goes away, they unplug, and it's it's done.

So that was a really interesting conversation around that and just public safety and stuff, and and how our citizens can kind of operate.

So tons more conversations, and um, it was just a really, really fruitful time.

Um the chamber is going to restructure these.

Uh, evidently there's more decisions to be made in the spring than in the fall.

And and so they're gonna change it to a spring event.

And so, because of that, they're gonna skip this next year, and then it would come the next one will be in spring 2027.

So they're gonna they're gonna do um they it to fill the void, they are going to do a special um uh what do we want to call it?

Um a special envoy um to possibly uh do more with honey than vinegar.

Um, and they're gonna do a visit to Huntsville, Alabama.

And so there's gonna be a special uh uh chamber trip to Huntsville, um, which I kind of find kind of interesting.

So we'll see how that kind of goes.

Um, but anyway, so that's that's that will be coming.

So anyway, lots of other stuff.

Sober Surrey was amazing.

It was the best one ever.

And um, everyone really you if you if you don't go to next year, you really are missing out.

It was just a it was a great event.

So anyway, thanks.

Councilman Risley.

Thank you, madam president.

I just wanted to report on a really positive outcome from a uh constituent earlier this summer.

I was um contacted by somebody that lives in the Briar Gate area who uh had observed some very significant damage to a trail and open space area.

Um and he was having a hard time getting anybody to respond from the city.

But uh at some point he was connected with a gentleman named Jake Butterfield, who is a project um uh capital project coordinator in the parks department.

And um Jake was able to determine that the damage was caused by a couple of the fiber optic installers in the area, not the one that's doing the installation for Collar Springs utilities, but a couple of other companies.

And Jake went above and beyond the call of duty to uh identify the problem, figure out how to fix it, um, rectify it, and get Metronet and Xfinity, the the two service providers to get out and uh repair the trail damage and uh restore the open space.

And so I just wanted to um uh extend my gratitude and and that of the constituents in the Briar Gate area to uh Mr.

Jake Butterfield in the parks department.

So, Ryan, if you'd um convey that, and if anybody from the parks department is listening, again, a really positive outcome and our constituents are very pleased with the uh response from the city.

Thanks.

Councilman Rainey.

Uh thank you, madam president, and much like my colleagues, uh got a couple of items.

Uh I'm gonna try my best not to repeat some of them that was already mentioned.

Uh, but the first one I want to mention is and and highlight and recognize someone in the mayor's office, and that's Yemi Sanchez.

Um when I first uh got here city council and became a member uh liaison to Sister Cities, I told her that is a program that we really need to ignite a fire under.

And that she did.

And so far, we've been able to host our sister city from Japan, and most recently, uh on a weekend, we were also able to host some folks from uh our sister city and Mexico.

So we will continue to move forward with those, but I do want to highlight uh, and if you can please convey to her my uh sincere gratitude for the hard work and effort that she has put forward.

Uh, she definitely keeps me on tap, and she's always sending me message about hey, when is the next one?

What do you want to do?

So it's great to have a really solid partner who wants to see this program not just succeed but expand.

Uh so thank you to Yemi uh for that.

Um it was already mentioned about the uh 911 memorial at uh UCCS, but I want to also highlight and thank the UCCS leadership, but also the Military Affairs Committee uh leadership for that partnership and making sure that they put together a great ceremony.

I know the mayor, uh he did a resolution while out there.

Uh it was a great crowd, even saw some old uh familiar faces from some other uh previous city council members who were there.

Um so once again, another great ceremony to continue to remember uh those who uh lost their lives during 9-11.

Um I had the opportunity to participate in a briefing, and uh I really want to highlight this one because I think it showcases quite often in city council, uh there seems to be this uh separation between what happens in a school district, what ver what happens versus in a city council uh uh district per se.

And I got a briefing from School District 49.

And during that briefing, one of the major items that was brought up is their thoughts and concerns and and how they see their school district future with the way we're growing.

And they want to have more dialogue and more conversations with uh members uh in city council.

So I would definitely uh recommend to all my colleagues here that um maybe reach out to your particular major school district and get a briefing from them.

Uh I definitely plan on building a stronger relationship there, uh, but it was very enlightening on some of the things that they were doing, but also highlighting how they saw growth in the in the district, uh, specifically for district six and what did that look like moving into the future and how did that apply to the students and uh one of the items that we really talked about, which I found was quite intriguing, is homeschool numbers and how those numbers have gone up and some of the rationale and reasoning behind it.

So if anyone would like to have a meeting with District 49 or some of the information that they shared, I would more than uh happy to share that information with you.

But I uh once again, thanks to that leadership team out there for sharing that information with me.

Uh it was already mentioned about the DC fly in.

I'm very happy I got a chance to go.

Uh I was on the defense and aerospace track, and uh I definitely want to recognize uh the Space Force uh command chief uh Chief Benthavania.

Uh he gave us a briefing, not about space command clarity there.

It was not a space command briefing.

This was Space Force briefing.

But what he also emphasized, and I'm glad I I heard a lot of what he said because I already took him up on it.

He emphasized the importance of having this close relationship with the senior leaders of Shrever Space Force Base and and uh Peterson Space Force Base and others around the area.

Uh and I've already taken him up on that.

Uh I already reached out to leadership aud at Shrever and uh the staff is currently working that meeting for me.

But he also emphasized what some of the young troops are in need of from this city and how to keep them not just invested it in this city, but how they are growing in this city uh also based on the way space operations is growing.

Uh also want to highlight a couple of other uh Pentagon reps who gave us a really phenomenal briefing and really highlight where they think uh the sec the Secretary of War.

Want to make sure I get that correct.

Uh you know, the Department of War, not the Department of Defense anymore, and where uh he was going on that one.

Uh and I also want to definitely give one special um thank you.

And I think my colleague uh who was there with me, uh you know, Councilman Lyon Weber can attest to this.

Uh Representative Crank uh took the opportunity out of his busy schedule one evening, late one evening in the midst of a rainstorm, by the way, and he took everyone who wanted to attend into the halls of Congress and not only through the halls, he took us to the floor of the house.

And what a moment because to to be there and stand there behind the mic where the president gives the State of the Union address, it's just one of those moments you rarely get.

And to understand the history of what happens on that floor is uh pretty spectacular.

So uh special thank you to representative uh crank for making that happen.

And to uh my colleagues uh comment next year's um fly, I won't call it fly in per se, uh, but the envoy is going to be very focused, uh group focused on specific items.

And one of the reasons that they the chamber would like to move it to the spring is to have more influence.

Uh oftentimes when you go way late in the fall, the the budget cycle is already baked in, and there's not a whole lot you can change.

Being there earlier in a year, maybe there's a lot more financial influence, budgetary influence uh that you can have there.

Uh the firefighter memorial, just what can I say about that?

Um, but I do want to highlight it wasn't just uh associations from across the U.S.

There were associations from Canada uh that were also there.

So it the true notion of a international association was really on display.

And uh once again, thank you to uh the other colleagues who were there.

I think that was great for us to be there uh and represent the city accordingly.

Uh downtown partnership that happened just recently.

It was great to see everyone there.

That was a packed house.

Uh, and it was great to see some of the thought processes of how to move downtown into the future and why it was so important.

Uh so can uh great leadership there from uh those involved in that process.

Uh and the only other last two things I do want to highlight and uh make sure that everyone is tracking.

Remember this Wednesday, the fire station 24 uh grand opening ceremony is gonna be this Wednesday.

And uh also we have the state of the city uh address that will be uh this Thursday, the 25th.

So that's all I have.

Councilman, Jim, do you have an allegory?

Just a quick alibi.

Uh one, uh Cheryl Dylan was sitting here and she left, but the Medal of Valor Dinner is Friday night, and she's the executive director of the police protective association.

Um the the last one really is tomorrow morning.

I can't believe I forgot this one.

It's the Homefront Military Networks uh breakfast.

And if you don't have a seat and you want to go, please talk with me.

Um it's actually an organization that started out uh as the Homefront Care is uh co-founded by my dad and Bob Carlone.

And I'll be presenting it uh it's called the Honoring the Brave Breakfast, and I'll be presenting an award in honor of my dad's legacy uh tomorrow morning and making the ask.

So if uh if you would like to join and you don't have a seat or a table, uh a table to be at, let me know, and I'll make sure you can be there.

And thanks for those of you who are going.

It's uh it's a very, very important organization serving our families of military and military vote folks.

Thanks.

Councilman Gold.

Thank you, Madam President, and thank you, Nancy.

I'll mark that off of my list.

Um we have been quite busy, I see.

I just wanted to share that I um recently attended um a mobile town hall for those impacted by traffic violence by route to change.

It was really uh fascinating and quite sad and humbling to hear of all the folks who have been impacted by traffic violence, particularly uh pedestrians and cyclists.

Um I also want to thank Gail and her team for the Academy Boulevard Improvement Project update that we had on September 10th, I believe that was.

There was the very first uh Korean festival that was held this past Saturday, um, very well attended at Acacia Park and what a uh fabulous demonstration of our uh multicultural community here in Colorado Springs.

And to Councilmember Rainey's point on interacting with um your local school districts.

Um, Harrison School District um was very generous to invite me to their groundbreaking for Bricker Elementary School.

They're doing a community garden and a play uh playground.

Um, and also they invited me to their superintendents uh cup, their football game where uh where I was able to do the coin toss, which was kind of cool.

Um I also want to mention that this uh Sunday is state of the neighborhood um sponsored by Hey Neighbor.

There's like a community luncheon that will be happening this Sunday, which is actually National Good Neighbor Day.

And the last thing, I just want to shout out Master Sergeant Select Shea Murphy, who will be getting promoted this Friday.

Thank you, everybody.

I just want to echo my colleagues that um highlighted the firefighter um foundation this weekend, and that is also a very good use of those LART dollars that bring something that important to our city, but at the same time helps increase our sales and use tags.

And last week, um pro Tim Risley and I were able to um welcome the delegates from Romania through the El Pamar Foundation.

So we had about 10, would you say about 10 or 12 delegates from Romania?

When I say delegates, they're all attorneys that work in different parts of their um parliament and different villages, and they called them villages.

And it was a really interesting hour conversation about everything from their gas and oil in the sea that they provide to Germany and electric grid, all the way down to um, you know, they have in one village 32 council members.

So it was it was a really um fun conversation, but it was really fun to host them as well.

Um, and so that ends our council member reports this morning, and we do have a budget meeting at lunch today, so we will adjourn and head down for budget.