From your Colorado Springs City Council.

We want to wish you a wonderful holiday season.

Merry Christmas.

Good morning and welcome to the City of Colorado Springs City Council meeting for Tuesday, December 9th, 2025.

Will the clerk please call the roll councilmember Bailey?

Here.

Councilmember Crow Emerson.

Here.

Councilmember Donaldson.

Here, go Broncos.

Councilmember Gold.

Here, happy holidays.

Present.

Councilmember Lineweaver.

Here.

Councilmember Rainey.

Here.

Council Member Risley.

Here.

Councilmember Williams.

So please stand for the invocation and the Pledge of Allegiance this morning.

We have the pleasure of having the department, the police department chaplain, Jean Steikenkirchner.

Is that correct?

Thank you.

To City Council, good morning and Merry Christmas.

And to all of you in this room.

Merry Christmas to all of you.

May we bow our heads in prayer.

As scripture from John 1, chap verse 9, the true light which gives light to everyone was coming into the world.

Our most gracious Heavenly Father.

That scripture has come true this day.

For the true light that has come into the world is that of Jesus Christ.

And as we gather in this room today, we ask that light and blessings of the Holy Spirit to be upon our city council.

And those who've gathered here today.

Guide City Council as they guide this city and direct this city in the best way possible.

And it's the blessings that you receive from these folks, all of us are the blessings we need this day.

And so we ask this blessing now, and we do this in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Amen.

Please join us for the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag.

We'll move on to item four, the consent calendar.

We will now consider the consent calendar.

These items will be acted on as as a whole, unless a specific item is called off for discussion by a council member or a citizen wishing to address the city council.

Is there anyone wishing to pull any item off of consent calendar this morning?

Seeing none, I need a motion or have a motion from Councilman Risley and a second from Councilman Bailey.

Can I have a thumbs up?

On to recognitions.

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

A resolution honoring December 7th, 2025 is Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day.

Councilman Donaldson Okay, thank you, Madam President.

And uh today I have the honor of reading this resolution about Pearl Harbor.

And what I'll do is first I'll read the resolution.

Right after that, what I'd like to do is connect what happened at Pearl Harbor with Colorado Springs.

And there's one uh little quick news report we'll watch involving someone that went to what used to be called Colorado Springs High School.

Now it's Palmer.

He graduated from there in 28.

He went in the Navy two years later, and he was the first American killed in World War II on the island of Hawaii, not at Pearl Harbor, but at another place where the Japanese sort of bombing at first and and trying to blow up the planes.

And then we will have uh a couple of speakers from our veterans community uh talk to us today.

Uh Roger Fortin and Andrea, uh, who's a former commander of the American Legion Post 5.

And there may be others, but I know those two.

So with that, I'll get started and read this resolution.

So a resolution honoring December 7, 2025 as Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day.

Whereas on December 7, 1941, the Empire of Japan suddenly and viciously attacked the Pacific Fleet of the United States of America while at Pearl Harbor in the United States territory of Hawaii.

So Hawaii wasn't a state yet, but it was a U.S.

territory.

Whereas this surprise attack resulted in more than 2,350 American deaths, 1,178 wounded, and brought devastation to the U.S.

Pacific Fleet and its and its Air Forces.

And whereas December 7, 1941, a date that forever lives in infamy brought the United States out of isolation and into the Second World War to support the Allies who had been fighting a bitter war in Europe for the two previous years.

And whereas through the untold measure, paid and precious lives, the United States ultimately won this Titantix Titanic struggle and achieved final victory.

And whereas today a new generation, and I see some of that new generation right in this room today, of brave men and women in uniform, stand ready to oppose any threat to our nation and the civilized world.

Now, therefore, be it resolved by the City Council of the City of Colorado Springs.

Section one, the City Council honors December 7, 2025 as Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day, and urges all citizens to set it set aside set aside time today, even though today is the ninth.

We'll still do it.

We'll do it today.

Set aside some time to reflect on the bitter lessons learned, to honor the profound bravery of all those who served, and to pay special tribute to those who gave their li their last full measure of devotion on that fateful day, 84 years ago, dated at Colorado Springs, Colorado, this ninth day of September, ninth day of December 2025, and it's signed by our council president uh Lynette Crow Iverson.

And so it mentioned in that last section uh to honor the profound bravery of all those who served.

And we're gonna we're gonna hear about uh some some true bravery in this first little report.

And this is about someone named Daniel T.

Griffin, who, as I mentioned, graduated from what today is Palmer back then, Colorado Springs High School, and he was an enlisted guy in the Navy, and back then enlisted guys could rise up and become pilots, and he was a pilot of a certain kind of airplane.

And you're gonna hear he actually uh bombs were falling, the Japanese planes were coming in, not at Pearl Harbor, but another place, and he swam out to the plane.

He started swimming.

Normally they had a boat to take him out there.

Uh swam out, got in the plane, started taking off.

I'll let you hear the rest of it in this report.

And would you go ahead and play that, Emily?

Well, I had Colorado Springs native, always to describe Daniel T.

Griffin, who is honored today and cemented into Colorado Springs history.

Griffin was the first American casualty in World War II, who was killed just minutes before the larger attack on Pearl Harbor.

Today, an overpass in Colorado was named after him so his story can live on.

Cardi O13th's McKenzie Stafford spoke with Griffin's grandson at the ceremony to share this absolutely Colorado story.

This is the same type of plane that Colorado Springs native and Navy pilot Daniel T.

Griffin swam towards when he saw Japanese bombers flying towards Kaneowee Bay just minutes before the Pearl Harbor attack.

Daniel's heroism and sacrifice is unparalleled.

Daniel T.

Griffin graduated from what's now known as Palmer High School in 1928.

Two years later, he enlisted in the Navy.

He was on duty serving in Oahu when he saw foreign enemies flying toward their base.

He did not hesitate and hurried to the PBY.

He started the engines, began taxing to lift off out of the bay, only to be shot down.

With the plane engulfed in flames, Griffin miraculously survived.

He was badly burned, but he swam towards the shore.

He was swinged back to shore when he was killed by the strafing machine gun fire.

Griffin was the first American casualty of World War II.

A sacrifice his son made sure was remembered.

I know it was one of his lifelong desires to have the story of my grandfather not forgotten.

Today, after a month's long effort, this sign now stands along the I-25 bridge overpass on North Academy Boulevard to memorialize Daniel T.

Griffin here in his home.

And remind all of us what the definition of heroism is.

Reporting in Colorado Springs, Mackenzie Stafford, Cardi L 13.

Absolutely, Colorado is a grandson.

And his son was actually the older man in the wheelchair there.

And um, so when you're if you're on I-25 and you're driving north, when you go under Academy, you know, where it academy goes across I-25 onto uh the Air Force Academy, you'll see that sign there.

So that bridge is named after him.

And now there's another bridge uh uh that crosses I-25, the Fillmore Bridge.

And that is uh it's named after uh another gentleman, um, Donald Stratton.

And Donald Stratton was on the USS Arizona, which was one of the big battleships in the harbor there in uh Pearl Harbor, uh, when it was bombed, and the bomb kind of went right down a uh stack and into where they kept all the uh gunpowder.

So a tremendous explosion on that ship.

And and Donald Stratton, I'm gonna read you just the back side of this book.

He wrote this book.

It's called All the Gallant Men.

And if you ever had, I mean, I see some younger folks here.

If you ever had a report to uh write about World War II or military or anything like that, this would be a great book.

Because he lived his final decade or two decades of his life here in Colorado Springs until he passed away at uh 97 years old.

Um let me read you what's on on the back of this.

He was terribly burned.

I'll just give you the short version here.

Terribly burned in this.

His hands were like the flesh was coming off.

He had to crawl across this rope to get to another ship.

And uh then he spent months, if not, I don't know if it was over a year, in hospitals recovering and was discharged because he was so badly burned.

But he wanted to come back in after he went back to his hometown, then decided he wanted to go back in, had to go all back through basic training and all that, and prove he could do everything like uh as if it had never happened, and he did that uh went back in the Navy and then fought in the Pacific.

But uh what it says on the front here is it's an unforgettable story of unfathomable courage.

And uh at 8 06 a.m.

on December 7, 1941, seaman first class, Donald Stratton was consumed by an inferno.

A million pounds of explosives had detonated beneath his battle station aboard the USS Arizona, barely 15 minutes into Japan's surprise attack on American forces at Pearl Harbor, near death and burned across two-thirds of his body.

Don, a 19-year-old Nebraskan who had been stealed by the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl, summoned the will to haul himself hand over hand across a rope tethered to a neighboring vessel.

Forty-five feet below the harbor's flaming oil slick water boiled with enemy bullets.

All around him, the world tore itself apart.

In this extraordinary, never before told eyewitness account of the Pearl Harbor attack, the only memoir ever written by a survivor of the USS Arizona, 95-year-old veteran Donald Stratton finally shares his unforgettable personal tale of bravery and survival on December 7, 1941.

His harrowing recovery, and this it's a heck of a story, he writes, they still used maggots, believe it or not, when you had rotting flesh from these burns.

The doctors of that time would put maggots on you to eat uh the rotting flesh, because they wouldn't eat good flesh.

They only eat the stuff that's dead.

And he talks about that in here, and something he'll he'll never forget.

Um his harrowing recovery and his inspiring determination to return to the fight.

Stratton would sail back to the Pacific War in 1944, where he would participate in the invasion of Okinawa and other major battles.

A top 10 New York Times bestseller with more than 150,000 copies sold.

All the gallant men has been acclaimed as one of the most remarkable and remarkably inspiring memoirs to emerge from World War II.

And this copy is actually signed by him because I was this is before I was ever in on City Council, but I went to the ceremony where we dedicated the bridge to Donald Stratton.

So that's enough out of me.

Um I would like to invite up uh Mr.

Roger Fortin first.

Roger, would you like to come up?

Uh Roger's uh veteran, he'll he runs a group where veterans from World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, uh all the stuff we did in Iraq and Afghanistan, uh, or doesn't matter if you're in wars, but just veterans meet uh over at uh certain restaurant here in town every Wednesday, so that's tomorrow at a certain time.

And in fact, tomorrow they're gonna recognize a couple of World War II guys.

Go ahead.

Uh Roger.

Thank you.

Uh yes, uh Dave is part of our group.

He when he when he can, he joins us.

But uh the name of the group is the Four Town Veterans, and that not anything to do with me.

Uh when they decided they needed a name for the group, uh this is our 17th year.

We started out, we were just a few guys from part of the hole in the wall gang at Cheyenne Mountain that met for coffee.

I came out from South Dakota and called them and we met, and it was only six of us.

Now there's well over 200.

But uh I have a list of a few of the World War II veters that are no longer with us, and I could tell you a little bit about almost everyone in our group, but uh just a fantastic bunch that were all the branch, all branches, all eras.

Uh but some of the World War II guys that are no longer with us are the ones that I'm gonna tell you about today.

Uh far as myself, I'm an only child except for nine brothers and three sisters.

There were only seven of us on active duty during Vietnam and five of us in Vietnam.

I did bring one kid brother's body home uh and returned.

My last trip was in 72 to Vietnam.

But anyway, uh not enough about me.

Uh I'm gonna tell you about uh some of our people start start out with uh better put my glasses on so I can read my notes.

Well we meet every Wednesday at 10 o'clock.

They open an hour early for us on on uh Wednesday, so uh and they also serve breakfast for us.

So any of you veterans that want to join us or any any patriots are welcome.

You don't have to be a veteran, all you have to be is a patriot, and we do have a lot of those.

Two of our members that uh were under thank you.

I thought I think I recognize that ring.

Uh Chris McEwan and Charlie Bailey.

Now, Chris McEwan was with the 101st Airborne.

He was one of the first ones in on D-Day, or the night before D Day to lay out the colored uh mats to direct the gliders in.

He had been all through Africa and and uh then uh got into uh France and uh England the the night before the the bombing or the night before the invasion.

Chris Charlie Bailey was in one of the first boat uh boats ashore on uh D-Day or on uh invasion day on and they uh he hooked up the Bangalore tubes.

He was with the 92nd Engineers, they hooked up the Bangalore tubes that fired the rockets up to blow up the gun emplacements overlooking the harbor.

Uh about the third day, they took all the survivors and marched them up Hells Highway to bat fight the Battle of the Bulge.

Uh, then uh they became they got overrun by the Germans and were under siege at Bastone when Patton broke through the Argonne force and rescued him in 1945.

They went back to their respective outfits, came to the United States, got discharged in uh that was in 1946.

On the 14th of February, excuse me, the 18th of February 2014.

We were at one of our luncheons, and I asked all the World War II members to stand so we could take their picture.

We they did, and and we took the picture, and Chris and Charlie were standing side by side.

I mentioned the fact to Charlie that Chris had been at best owned and Charlie's really, and then I told Charlie that Chris was at best own.

Anyway, he's uh no way.

Well, they started talking.

Come to find out they shared the same foxhole at Bass Stone in 1945, and uh had not seen each other since they were discharged in 1946.

And here we were at the uh uh village inn down here on Palmer Park, and they're standing side by side in the photo.

Uh anyway, that's then uh many of you some of you I know knew Colonel Bruce Morrell.

He was an instructor at the academy.

But when he was uh he was a graduate of uh MIT in engineering, and uh when he reported when he was drafted, he reported and they said, We got all the officers we need uh you're a PFC, here's your rifle, and they threw him a rifle.

He uh was sent, he ended up at underseach, or excuse me, he under ended up uh on the Siegfried lines, and uh it was the temperatures were called this in November of 45, 44, 45, and uh the temperatures were real low of the water, the trenches were full of were full of water almost up to their shoulders.

They could not get out of the trenches even to go to the bathroom.

The Germans had them pinned down for almost three days, and many of them uh lost total use of their legs and because of the cold temperatures.

Uh he was offered a to stay in Europe and uh and with unlimited duty or return to the states and get discharged.

He decided to stay in Europe and uh and then the and they sent him to the engineering school, then they commissioned him a second lieutenant.

Anyway, he retired as a colonel in uh in in 1974.

He was teaching at the Air Force Academy when he retired.

Uh then we have another gentleman named Bill Roche, uh, another colonel.

It was a B-17 waste gunner in World War II shot down twice over Europe.

Uh then uh he went to Monterey, California, took up Russian language and uh was one of the initiators of the Air Force Security Services.

Uh in he was in Russia, was almost and was he was they were taking pictures and and uh a couple of uh the Russian uh agents captured him, and one of them had a pistol pointed at his head, ready to shoot him when he when another a Russian officer uh told him uh to uh not to shoot him.

And uh anyway, he lived through that.

Then uh he came back after he world war two.

He went through Korea and uh and uh ended up teaching at the Air Force Academy.

Uh then uh Colonel Lieutenant Colonel Colonel JJ Inman, uh he lived here in town for quite a some time.

He was a P-40 and P-51 pilot, flew with General Chenault over the in Burma.

He was part of our group.

Uh Noi Romero was on the USS Yorktown at through the Battle of the Coral Sea and at Midway.

Uh the Coral Sea battle was in May of 44, and uh and in June they were at uh midway, and that's when they sunk.

Well, ended up sinking the the uh Yorktown.

Lieutenant Frank Macon, one of the Tusky Air Tuskegee Airmen, he was part of our group.

Uh Lieutenant James, uh Colonel James Lewis.

He's the only commander of the uh Air Force's B-36 Squadron.

We only had one B-36th squadron uh bomber squadron, and he was the commander of that.

He was part of our group.

Charlie Hess was a retired FBI agent.

He was the vice commander of commerce of uh Operation Phoenix in Vietnam.

I was in NASA security at that time.

We provided them with with classified with information on suspected infiltrators, and within 24 hours that infiltrator or that suspected person just disappeared.

Charlie never did tell me what they did with him, but he was a member of our group up until his passing just a couple years back.

Uh he also worked the FBI uh coal case, excuse me, the coal case facts here for Colorado Springs Police Department.

He wrote a book called Hello Charlie.

If you ever get a chance to get a hold of that book uh by Charlie Hess, it tells about uh Robert uh Browning who was down here in Canyon City prison right now.

Charlie was one that proved that helped prove that that Browning had killed 20.

Well, he killed 48 people.

27 of them they proved.

The other 21, they uh he gave them such such precise information about their death and and information about the fact about the cases that there's no doubt he did it, but they couldn't prove it forensically.

But anyways, uh Chris Christensen was on a Navy uh carrier in the Pacific.

We have uh then Father Walter Smeagle.

Uh some of you may have known him from St.

Dominic's parish here in town.

He was our chaplain at our group meetings, and uh we lost him a few years ago.

But he he did a lot, he wasn't a veteran himself, but he served in uh uh with a lot of veteran uh funerals and incidents with involving veterans' weddings and stuff.

Uh two of our members were British uh intelligence people.

One was Lieutenant Barbara Sachs.

She helped translate the uh the uh Da Vinci code in World War II when we broke the German uh code.

She helped translate that and and put it into writing for get it to our troops.

Along with her was Nikki Kinneman.

Nikki was a uh commander of an eight-gun emplacement overlooking the Thames River, uh, just out of London.

She said the Germans would come around this one bend at night, they'd use the river the reflection on a river to fly in at night to bomb London.

She said that when they came around the one bend, they'd open up with all eight guns.

It was kind of like shooting fish in a barrel.

We almost we felt sorry for them.

Almost uh but uh she died at the age of 106 here a year ago, June.

She was part of our group.

Uh still with us.

Uh one of our members was 101 on the 6th of of this month, last Saturday.

Uh, but he called me this morning and didn't want his story or name mentioned, so I won't.

Uh Charlie Wayne will be 100 on the 11th of March.

He's still with us.

He was he was in in World War II also.

Uh Bill Vaniman, who will be there tomorrow.

Uh, we're hoping Charlie Wayne will too, but uh we're not we're not 100% sure.

But Bill Vaniman uh was 17, he joined the the merchant marines.

Uh and uh then two years later he joined the the regular army and was went all through the Philippines and and uh and after after the war he got out, he went into engineering and he helped carve out Cheyenne Mountain here in Colorado and up here in Colorado Springs, a place where I spent four and a half years.

Uh then we have Jack Slocum, who is currently in col in California, but he is he was uh uh all through World War II, Korea and Vietnam and fact and received a battlefield commission in Vietnam.

Bill Maneman and Jack Slocum were only nine are only 98 years old.

They're still with us.

Uh we have a couple other members too that are still with us, but but uh I'm gonna thank you for your time and uh we we don't forget these people.

We have a board we have pictures on.

I had brought some pictures with me, but we have a board with several pictures of those that are gone but not forgotten.

And we do every memorial day, we set up a table for the the uh uh those that are going before us.

Well, thank you for your time and thanks for putting up with me.

Thank you.

Thank you, Roger.

I'll just remind people that uh what Roger's talking about happens at 10 o'clock every Wednesday, almost every Wednesday, and uh it's over at the Black Eyed Pea Restaurant off Academy, just north of uh Platts.

And um, it is important to uh to remember those who who fought for our nation.

Uh and you do you do uh a hell of a job over there, Roger, keeping veterans connected and recognizing uh uh those who've served our country.

So thank you.

And uh Andrea, would you like to come up and speak?

Good morning.

I'm Andrea Finnegan Fosse.

I am the past commander now senior vice at American Legion Post 5.

I'm the junior vice for District 7, and I'm the first chair for Pike's Peak Retchens Council.

I say all those because as veterans, we understand the sacrifice and the courage that the men and women had during Pearl Harbor, and then those who followed.

I also want to say that I'm here uh representing Welling Clark, who was disappointed he couldn't make it, and he senses gratitude for the resolution.

And if you know Welling, I'm paraphrasing.

I do want to say that December 7th reminds us of the cost of freedom.

It makes you take time to say thank you.

It makes you understand what was given that day and what we now receive and the freedoms that we have.

Thank you for honoring their memory.

It speaks to who we are as a community.

May we always remember and may we always strive to be worthy of their sacrifice.

Thank you.

Thank you, Andrea.

Sarah Tobin.

Um I'm profoundly honored to represent 400,000 veterans in the state of Colorado as the senior vice commander for the American Legion.

When I joined, and our my fellow GWAT veterans joined in uh 1990s, society had largely forgotten about World War II and Pearl Harbor Day.

We were acutely reminded of our vulnerabilities a few earlier few years later on September 11th.

So thank you, City Council, for keeping this at the forefront of our minds because today our veterans that are raising their so soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines that are raising their hand today, we're not even born on 9-11, and they don't know.

They did not experience that day.

So we need to keep these days at the forefront of their mind and never forget the service and sacrifice that the greatest generation made.

So thank you.

Thank you, Sarah.

Okay, and is there anyone else uh in the audience that would like to say a few words?

And if not, then we'll bring it back up here to the dais, and I'll hand it back to you, uh, Madam President.

Bring it back to the dais.

I see no other comments.

We have a motion from Councilman Henjam and a second from Councilman Donaldson.

Let's vote.

And the motion passes nine to zero.

So of those that was spoken with me to subfront for a celebratory picture, we'll come down.

Moving on to item 5B.

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

The resolution of appreciation of Britt Haley, director of the Parks, Recreational Cultural Services Department, for her 13 years of service to the city of Colorado Springs.

Travis.

Good morning, Council.

Travis Easton over infrastructure and development for the city.

Um, when Britt informed me of her uh retirement, I thought, wow, what a bitter what a bittersweet pill to swallow.

Bitter, and that it's a huge hole for the city to fill.

Um, but sweet for Britt and happy for her next chapter in life.

Um I've been blessed in my career to work with a lot of great people in the private sector, the who's who of Fortune 500 companies while at the city, some people with really great hearts to serve.

I would put Britt amongst those people.

Um she always has a positive attitude.

She's very conscientious and never loses sight of the reason that we show up every day and the important things.

She's also both intelligent and wise, and there is a difference between the two.

Um, and she's just an all-around fantastic person, and I'm gonna miss her.

Um, lastly, I would like the women and men in the parks, recreation, and cultural services department to know how much Britt cares for all of you.

Um, she always does things with a lens through the department employees, and so I want you to know that directly from me to you, how much she cares for you.

So, with that, Madam President, I'll turn it back to you.

We do have a few people signed up.

And if you're not signed up and you still want to speak, you may.

Um first up, we have Glenn Carlson.

Good morning, City Council.

Thanks for having me here today.

Um obviously the on the consent agenda was the Shiron Mountain acquisition, so I'm ecstatic to see that go through.

So that's gonna be a huge acquisition.

But as I've gotten older, I've discovered that uh, much like some of the folks that spoke before me, uh, to do anything for any length of time is hard to do.

And so uh, you know, we were blessed to have Britt um for 13 years running a parks department, and uh she had a very interesting journey starting as an attorney with the city, and so uh now obviously went on to lead um what most of our residents say is the number one reason they love Colorado Springs.

And so, you know, I just want to highlight a few, and obviously there's a lot of great uh there's a class here that has probably been to a lot of these spaces, and I would love for you to raise your hands if you've been to these spaces, but Blogget Peak open space.

Anybody Fisher's Canyon or the property at this point.

Um Corral Bluffs.

This is embarrassing.

I'm sorry.

I haven't been to that one.

Uh Panorama Park.

And the new Cheyenne Mountain State Park acquisition, which is going to be incredible.

Um very excited.

So I just want to say um Tosk and I personally, um, thank you for your partnership, your effort and commitment to again the number one reason why most people say they love Colorado Springs.

And so with that, Britt, thank you very much.

Uh, we're gonna miss you.

Next up, we have Shekinah Hinkle.

Good morning, council.

I am Shakina Hinkle, and I'm here on behalf of those who saw Britt in a different light.

Um I was not in parks, recreational cultural services, but I had the pleasure of being able to spend time with Britt.

As Travis said, she does very much care for everyone in the parks recreation and cultural services department.

She cares for the city of Colorado Springs, but she also cares for someone like me.

Um, she served as my mentor in the city's mentor connect program.

So I got to know her on a different light, as I stated.

I very much appreciate the opportunity to bring that to your attention today, too.

Not only as Travis said, a very wonderful person, professional in her departments, but she took time out of her busy days, early mornings, late nights, her blood, sweat, and tears for the parks, recreation, and cultural services department, but she also took extra time for someone like me.

She encouraged me.

She supported me, and she helped me for my future with the city.

And just want to say thank you, Britt.

Next up, we have Wayne Williams.

For the record, former city council member.

Uh, when Britt was appointed to run the parks department, I had a meeting with her shortly thereafter and expressed some frustration.

Uh we had not done what we had promised the voters we would do.

And I tasked her to the extent that city council can task any city council member, which isn't much, but I begged her.

And if you look now on the city's website with respect to 2B, which is the 2019 ballot issue for $7 million in Tabor retention.

You see a host of completeds.

Because Britt was our parks director.

She stepped in and delivered the promises that we had made to the voters of this community.

And that's why I dragged myself out of my post-surgery recovery to be here today because it matters.

And I want to thank her for her work, her leadership, and her faithfulness to the promises made to the voters, because that is so critical.

We have various ballot issues.

If we want to continue to pass ballot issues at appropriate times, we need to be faithful to the promises that are made.

And she delivered on those promises in a way that had not been done before.

She also worked to make sure our whole community was included.

Councilmember Rainey in your district and that eastern side.

Things that needed to be done have been done to make sure all of our community benefited from Parks and Rec.

And so Britt, thank you.

If there is no other speakers speakers, I'll bring it back up to the dais.

Councilman Donaldson.

Yeah, um, the previous speakers have uh spoken quite eloquently, but I also just want to express my appreciation to Britt.

Uh it's been a pleasure.

Uh, my time on council and all interactions with uh with Britt, especially as the director of parks.

And uh true, true professional, but somebody that cares, you know, with her heart.

She cares about the city, cares about uh parks, cares about people, but very uh smart, uh very knowledgeable, and um and as I said, uh a real professional, so I'm gonna miss you, Britt.

Councilman Lineweber.

Yeah, I just want to say that um Brett has been a key partner.

I think that's probably for me her biggest trait.

She has always wanted to collaborate and bring the right people together to take on some of the challenges in the outdoor rec space.

And um I always have a saying about how sometimes you're work with agencies that the first thing they say is no.

And because they're not willing to like invest any time to consider what the possibilities might be.

Brett has always had an attitude of how can we get to yes.

Now that doesn't mean it's yes.

There's gonna be a high bar often with Brett.

Uh, and that's okay.

But the point is is her attitude to the conversation has always been how can we get to yes?

And that's a collaborative attitude that keeps moving the ball forward to really strengthen our outdoor recreation and really enhance what we know is our identity.

That is who Colorado Springs is outdoor rec.

So I really appreciate all the efforts you put in over the years.

You're gonna be sorely missed.

You're gonna enjoy some dogs, which um I'm actually a little envious about.

That's kind of sounds really pretty cool.

And particularly labs, which is even makes me even happier.

So anyway, I just wanted to really say thank you uh deeply for for just collaborating and being a key partner.

Councilman Henjam.

Thank you, Madam President.

Um I've had the pleasure uh in just these last number of minutes of being able to see Britt's face as people have spoken so highly of her.

And uh what a joy to see that face.

And um Britt, um there's I I I agree with everything that's been said.

I could say so much more, but one thing I do want to highlight that you brought in your short number of years as parks director, too short, but um is the importance of focusing on taking care of what we have.

And that's a focus that you brought to this department that um I hope we will continue with vigor and strength, and um, I'm just so appreciative of what you've given to the city in all of your years of service, um, and certainly especially in these last number of years as leading the parks department.

So thank you for all you've done and wish you the absolute very, very best.

And Britt, I concur with everything everybody said, working with you on the secular side as well as in government.

Um, all I really can add to that is um you have big shoes to fill.

So thank you for your service, and I agree with Councilman Lineweber.

I'm going to be very jealous of you working with the labs.

We will come see you.

Um everything has been said, and I had the pleasure of knowing Britt with both of her hats on, and of course, I will admit I was a little shocked when she voluntarily and I'm sure soberly um decided to undertake the parks department.

But we appreciate it, and she has worked wonders, and I know with uh the award and the recognition they most recently received, she worked very hard for that.

Her team worked very hard for that, and I think that's one of the biggest reflections of her leadership is really being able to interact with her team.

Um, they knew that she had their back and they were comfortable speaking on parks behalf, and I think that's really refreshing and comforting to know that that her staff was supporting her because she was supporting her staff.

We're going to greatly miss you.

You've left some big shoes to fill, but um I'm sure we'll get from here to there with everyone's help, and just want to say thank you and enjoy retirement.

Do you have anything you would like to say?

Well, thank you so much.

It was an honor to be selected for such an meaningful job.

Um, I am proud to work for the city of Colorado Springs, and I always will be.

And I can say that it is extraordinary to run a department and guide it when it is full of people that have selected that department because they appreciate its mission.

So it's really an inspirational job.

I've really appreciated all the support from council from the administration.

And I also want to point out that former councilman Williams is wearing his epic shirt, which shows all of our values in the parks department, and that says it all.

So thank you so much for this recognition.

It really means a lot to me.

Travis, do you have a resolution to read?

I do, ma'am, if you'd like me to do that now.

Yes, please.

A resolution of appreciation for Britt Haley.

Whereas the city has benefited greatly from the dedicated service of Britt Haley, the director of the parks, recreational and cultural services department for the last 13 years.

And whereas Britt began her tenure with the City of Colorado Springs attorney's office on December 10th, 2012, and whereas Britt decided to share her gifts with and brings her expertise to the parks, recreational and cultural services department on July 17th, 2017.

And whereas Britt was always able to reach compromise, be a voice of reason while keeping the citizens at the forefront of her decisions, and whereas Britt was driven to engage the community through high quality programs and services while effectively managing operations, and whereas she celebrated the value of our parks and attractions while promoting their impact on local tourism and the economic economic impact of our parks, and whereas she worked to engage with both employees and be a staunch supporter of the women and men within the department, and whereas Britt fostered a positive organizational culture through department-wide employee engagement activities to recruit and retain, and whereas Britt worked to maintain city parks, trails, and open spaces to safeguard the public investment and ensure that our destinations are safe places for our citizens and visitors alike.

And whereas we appreciate her dedication, commitment, leadership, mentorship, and stewardship of taxpayer dollars throughout her years of service to the city, and whereas the city wishes her happiness and success in all of her free future ventures.

We have a motion from Councilman Donaldson and a second from um Councilman Gould.

Let's vote.

And the motion passes nine to zero.

Those will who spoke in Brit feel me to step front for a celebratory picture, please.

Moving on to five C, will the clerk please read item five C into the record.

City Council appointments to boards, commissions, and committees.

The first one we have is the audit committee.

Council liaison Dave Donaldson and myself recommended evaluate elevating Jana Blanter, who has served as an alternate member since April 2023 to a voting member.

Councilman Donaldson, do you have any comments?

Um thanks, Madam President.

I'll just say that it's uh Janna Blanner.

She's been an alternate, she's been attending meetings and uh has participated, and I think she'll make a good voting member.

Civil Service Commission.

Councilman liaison Randy Williams recommends the reappointment of Matthew Gastino and Stacey Gotto.

Councilman Williams, do you have any comments?

Thank you.

Historic Preservation Board, Council Liaisons, Kimberly Gold and Nancy Hingum recommended Sarah Potter for an appointment to the historic preservation board.

Councilman Gold or Hingem, do you have any comments?

No, simply want to say congratulations to Ms.

Potter.

Old Colorado City Downtown Development Authority Board, Councilmember Brandy Williams and myself, along with Jariah Walker, executive director of the URA, who is in the room, conducted interviews with applicants on November 3rd and November 21st, 2026.

Ryan Lloyd and Jay Gust were originally appointed as part of the initial board upon the establishment of the DDA with their initial term appointments expiring in June 30th of 2025.

Additional recommended appointments include Neil Schroeder, Michelle Garrett, Allison Daniel, and Jim Richardson for their first term.

Councilman Williams, do you have any comments?

I do not have any comments except for the fact that I am ready and excited to get started.

And again, thank everyone for their willingness to volunteer for this brand new uh adventure that we're all getting into, um centering around old Colorado City.

Thank you.

Councilman Hingem.

Uh yes, thank you, Madam President.

Actually, I was hoping um just because I the last I really thought about this board was uh when we voted on sending it to the voters.

And I was hoping that I don't know, either Juraya or maybe Councilmember Williams could just speak a little bit about the composition of the board because I really I don't know much about the composition of the board and how and how that got determined.

And uh Brandy, it looks like uh Jirah is coming up to the podium here.

Uh hello, council.

Uh for the record, Jariah Walker, executive director of the Carall Springs Urban Renewal Authority and uh Councilwoman Williams, feel free to interject here.

Uh but the composition makeup of this board is essentially uh business owners, property owners uh that fall within this particular corridor boundary.

Um, as you know, one of the challenges with this particular DDA is while it was voted on to be uh created, the mills that were needed to fund it were were did not pass.

Um, so that creates uh a little bit of a unique situation, and the conversation as it relates to the board members going in was really driven around you know, the understanding of TIFF mechanisms, how this DDA can function without those mills being included, and then also the unique composition between so many residential units and so many commercial units too, and the conflict that can sometimes occur uh between those two groups.

And so um I won't speak for the council members as they were the ones who ultimately made the selection, uh, but that's that's how the process worked, and who can make up the board?

Well, thank you.

And I'm glad I asked because I don't think I realized or if I did know I did not remember that the mill didn't pass.

So it does beg an interesting question about what this board will be up to.

Correct.

Yeah, there's there's a lot of interesting issues that that fall within that.

Councilman Gold.

Thank you, Madam President.

Well, and I can I add on to uh Nancy's question real quick.

Of course.

But it's like the Civil Service Commission.

Um, I tried to overemphasize in the interviews that at this stage it's gonna be a lot of conversation and a lot of planning, but the action is obviously not going to be brought to the forefront because the mill of we did not pass civil service commission is more of a reactive board and less of a proactive board.

So I wanted to impress upon all of the board members that um I appreciate their time, effort, and energy.

And at this point in time, we're like I said, we're really gonna do our best to highlight the needs and wants of old Colorado City um with myself as the the liaison to this board, but because the mill levy didn't pass, it's got a little bit of a different feel than um had it passed.

Thank you.

Councilman Gold.

Thank you, Madam President.

I'd just like to publicly congratulate Alison Daniel on her appointment to this board.

I think she'll be a great asset to the team.

And I believe we do have some citizens that were voting on in the room this morning.

Just two.

Okay.

Um I have a motion from Councilman Lineweber and a second from Kimberly Gold or Councilman Gold, let's vote.

The motion passes nine to zero.

Moving on to six A.

Um, do you have any mayor's business?

Just a few, uh Madam President.

Um by way of reminder, uh, we held a legislative tour a few Fridays ago where we invited the state uh legislators down to two or three businesses with us.

I want to thank council again for their participation in that.

Uh we had a follow-up meeting last week.

Uh, thank you again, council and uh councilmember Donaldson for attending that meeting last week.

Several of those legislators attended last week's meeting as well.

Um pursuant to all of that, we're going to be seeking reform around failure to appear and retail theft in the upcoming session, which is right on the corner.

Um, so I want to make everybody aware of that.

Um sales tax was up by seven tenths of a percent.

So that's good news.

Um take take what we can get there.

And then um uh also looking at I'm sorry, going back one uh looking at uh reform around the uh AI bill.

The Colorado put forward state before last year, and then lastly, commendations to the public works department for the uh snow removal and ice removal last week.

Mountain Metro did not have any cancellations at all, and the public works crews drove almost 6400 miles clearing our roadways.

So commendations to them, and that is all thank you.

Moving on to new business, item 10A.

Will the clerk please read item 10a into the record?

Appointment to the Pikes Peak Library District District Board of Trustees on May 19th, 2025, the joint appointment committee converted convened to recommend an appointment of the Board of Trustee member to the Pikes Peak Library District Board.

The committee included County Commissioners Carrie Geitner and Laura Nelson and Councilmembers Nancy Hingum and myself.

I am bringing this item forward for council's consideration for the appointment of Mr.

Austin Jergensmeyer, whose term will end on December 30th, 2030.

Trustee appointments must be ratified by two-thirds of majority of the city council.

Um Councilman Hinchem.

Uh thank you, Madam President.

Um I actually have made a motion to accept the appointment of Austin Jurgensen.

And there's some things I would like to share and make sure that the public is aware of.

Um and it has to do with the process of appointing uh trustees to the board of trustees for the library district.

That process has dramatically changed in the past 12 months uh from what it was historically, which I think historically was really uh rather a collaborative process between the city council and the um board of county commissioners and the library itself, the library board itself.

That has dramatically changed.

Um the process has become really quite political.

And as the chair of the joint appointment committee said in a recent meeting, um, who happens to also be the chair of the board of county commissioners, that this is a political appointment.

And it is actually truly a very political appointment.

And I say that because um in this last go round in the selection of uh of Mr.

Jurgensmeyer in the JAC.

Um the the liaisons all received a packet of in this case 11 nomination or 11 applicants, I should say.

That application process um was posted um uh by the county by the city.

Um I don't actually believe it was posted on the library's website.

Um there was not really much communication um formally between um the the JAC and the library.

Um so we received these applications, they went separately to each of the four liaisons.

The four liaisons independently went through those 11 applications and decided who they wanted to interview.

So I had no visibility into who the other um liaisons were interviewing, and no one uh really reached out to find out who I was interviewing.

Historically in the past, uh with this JAC, I had tried to communicate with liaisons, um, and that was uh it was not always uh well received.

But at any rate, I uh selected three people to interview.

Um, and in each case, I asked the applicants so who else have you been called by anybody else to be interviewed?

And only one of the applicant applicants that I chose to interview had been interviewed by any of the other liaisons.

It happened to be uh my fellow counsel liaison, Lynette Crow Iverson, who um also interviewed that person who was not nominated, but we got to the JAC.

So I had um actually uh no idea who was going to be nominated in that joint appointment committee uh meeting, and it was someone that I had not um interviewed, Austin Jurgensmeyer.

And um, and I I share that story because it it points to what, at least from my experience appeared to be a pretty political set of alliances, that there was agreement among the three joint appointment um committee liaisons uh that Austin was the uh the person to to interview or to uh to put forth to this body and to the board of county commissioners.

Um at any rate, I I did end up interviewing um and I contacted Austin and had an interview with him, and it was it was very positive.

I it would not have been my first choice, actually.

My first choice was less gruen.

Um nobody else interviewed less.

I mean, very, very qualified, I think, for this position.

Um, but he was not he was not selected.

At any rate, I it was not a reason to uh not support Austin.

He answered my questions uh fairly well.

Um, again, not my first uh selection, but he did say one of the the things I asked him that was very important to me is how are you going to really represent the taxpayers whose mill levy creates this 40 million dollar budget that you'll be responsible for?

How are you gonna know what they want?

And he said, I'm gonna meet with them, I'm gonna talk with them.

And I said, That's great.

He actually didn't even know how the board um currently works and uh meets or you know listens to the public.

So I shared a little bit with him.

So I let him know that this was a very political process, in my opinion, and we had a very good conversation, a very frank conversation.

I think he's ready to serve.

Um, and then I was invited by the public relations committee of the board of trustees to meet with them last week, which I did.

Um, and Debbie English, whose position actually he will be filling, invited me to come and have a conversation with that committee about the communication between the uh the Board of County Commissioners, the city council, and the library, and how could it improve?

Um, and we had a we talked for about 45 minutes.

I would say the majority of the board was uh was present at that um meeting.

And what I found most interesting about it was that the members who were there expressed incredible um, well, maybe I shouldn't say incredible.

They expressed frustration and disappointment in the lack of collaboration between the joint appointment committee and the board.

And they were reminiscing about the days when, hey, when we had dozens of applications, we would host a a coffee or uh uh you know a uh uh meeting for people who were interested in serving on the board and to come and talk with um board members and find out what is it, what is this really about?

What is serving on this library board really about as an example?

And uh, and and they were reflecting on um how they they didn't even know who the applicants were.

Um so I share all of that to say what is wrong with this process.

What's wrong with this process?

I ask you to reflect, and based on what I've shared with you, what do you think is wrong with this process?

For me, this process has lost its focus on good governance.

It is our responsibility as city council and the board of county commissioners to find and interview and select applicants who will serve the library board of trustees, 40 million dollars of taxpayer dollars in with good governance in mind.

And yet it has become very political and seemingly uh driven by, I don't know what.

I mean, I'm I I can only really speculate.

I have my speculations about the agendas that are being driven, but I certainly do not feel a part of a joint appointment committee that is aligned and even quite frankly willing to have conversations about what good governance look looks like and what does a good applicant look like.

I tried to introduce the idea of having a rubric to say, hey, how do we how do we evaluate these folks who are going to be representing taxpayers that are not elected?

What does that look like?

And and that joint appointment committee not interested in that conversation.

So I share a lot of that because I just think it's important for the public and the taxpayers who pay mill levy to our board of trustees for the library district, the Pikes Peak Library District, to know how these board members are being selected.

And with that, I I have made the motion.

I think he will uh uh put his full self into this role.

I hope he learns a lot.

Um my hope for this board is that they will um really dig in and dive into their own good governance and learning more about TABE and um the tax realities, URAs, um, what it means to be managing this budget.

Uh thank you for listening.

We have one citizen signed up for this topic, um, Carla Powers.

Madam President, before uh uh Carlos speaks, do you mind if I just make a couple of comments over?

I appreciate it.

And um separate from what Nancy's talking about, or uh Councilwoman Henjam is talking about that process.

Um I'll just talk about uh Mr.

Well, I'll call him Austin because I get his last name mixed up.

Juergensmeyer.

Um he met with me, you know, after he was uh nominated by the joint appointing committee, and after he had met with uh councilwoman henjam.

Um it was a good meeting.

Um I was satisfied uh with uh the items we discussed.

And uh I think significantly also he agreed to meet with a couple citizens, you know, from my district who are very uh have been involved with uh library and especially the whole uh closure of the library in uh in district one, and so I I'll be supporting him.

I think he'll uh I think he'll do a good job on the uh uh board of trustees.

Thank you.

Carla Powers.

Can you make sure the green light is on?

And you have three minutes.

Okay.

Um I'm Carla Powers.

I was able to speak with Austin Jurgismeier last week.

He was willing to speak to us, unlike other people in the past.

Um, while other applicants who are not discussed came with more experience, such as extensive state recognized knowledge of TABER, the URA, and our particular library's budget and grants, or an executive management background with 120 million dollar 500 employee company, or even one with 41 years in real estate public policy advisement and asset management.

We still believe that he's a solid choice who is ready to learn what he needs in order to serve our community.

Austin comes um with quality people, leadership, and analytical skills.

He is committed to putting the community's needs and wishes first through active listening and collaboration and making decisions only after everyone clearly understands the reasoning.

We truly appreciate his willingness to meet with us and others throughout our district, and he promises to stay in touch with us.

Getting back to the previously mentioned applicants who came with such intriguing credentials and what were not even interviewed or even discussed, the joint appointment committee seems to be broken.

When Kenny Kuniyuki was appointed, three out of four joint appointment committee members choice him first out of 51 applicants, ready to nominate him with no prior discussion.

And here we are again.

Three out of four joint appointment committee members, coincidentally, chose Austin Jurgensmeyer independently with at least one member interviewing only him.

What is going on?

Again, other applicants showed extensive backgrounds in Pikes Peak Library District Finance, Tabor, URAs, public policy, and executive leadership.

One would think that these applicants would have least been mentioned.

The Pikes Peak Library Board of Trustees manages roughly 40 million dollar budget.

The state statute gives a skeletal mandate as to what should be done for setting up the joint appointment committee and how to select um appointments.

We need to consider how we're going to fill in the rest of that skeleton to make this fit our unique district here and do a better job with getting people that will support all of our community, all of our district.

That's all I have to say.

Seeing no other comments, I have a motion from Councilman Henjam and a second uh second from Councilman Rainey.

Let's vote.

The motion passes nine to zero.

Moving on to item 13, one hour of citizens discussion for items not on today's agenda per city council rules.

Citizens will have three minutes to share their comments.

I have a list of those um signed up.

When I call your name, please come forward, introduce yourself, your limit yourself to topics that are relevant in Germain to city business.

Um first up, we have Benjamin Roth.

Good morning.

Make sure the green light is on and state your name for the case.

My name is Madeleine Roth.

I'm 14 years old, and I'm here to talk to you guys about putting a crosswalk at Drydenwell Place and Cowpoke Road intersection.

I went to Grand Peak Academy when fifth through eighth grade, and I never once took the other crosswalk on the other side because it was further, and obviously lazy.

But so yeah.

Um people have made numerous attempts to try to put this crosswalk up, and it still hasn't happened.

So yeah.

Um I'm sorry, I'm just really nervous.

Uh uh, this also the speed limit should be changed from 35 miles per hour to 25.

Me and my siblings have almost got ran over many times by different cars.

So, yeah.

Here you can talk.

So the question is where do you put a crosswalk?

At an intersection where pedestrians cross.

Um, there's an intersection and lots of pedestrians cross there.

Why is there not an intersection there?

Because the designated crossing is on the other side of the school, and the school would have to put a crossing guard at this location then.

So instead, what do we do?

We ignore the problem and we blame the kids.

Tell them they should go down there.

They're not going to at all hours of the day.

Um, when I uh put in submission for this request, I was told that there was going to be a raised walkway in 2027.

Well, this is that's kind of where do you put raised walkways?

Over an interstate, over a highway, over a small neighborhood road.

That doesn't make sense.

Okay.

Um so I believe our most important job as adults is to take care of, protect our next generation, and to prepare them.

So I hope you take this into consideration.

Thank you for your time.

Well, it's your lucky day.

We actually have a comment from Councilman Rainey, but we also have our traffic um department here.

So we'll start with our councilman Rainey.

Uh thank you, Madam President.

And actually, thank you for being here and uh sharing your concern.

Um as the uh city council president already mentioned, we have our traffic engineer here.

Uh and based on this, I would like to invite you up to maybe provide some perspective on why the decision to go the direction that you all have decided to go.

Uh if you don't mind sharing a couple of comments on that.

Thank you.

Uh good morning, council, madam president.

Uh Todd Frisbee City Traffic Engineering uh division.

Uh when it comes to uh school safety uh and safety around our schools, we take a bit we take it very seriously because it's is uh it's a moment if you ever dropped off a kid at school or walked a kid of school is um it could be chaos uh around there, uh especially in schools where the primary mode of transportation is to uh is by vehicle, right?

So we've looked at this location, have been in talks with the school uh multiple times uh and have a plan work moving forward.

Um as we remember from last week, before I get into the plan, uh last time I was here, I talked about crosswalks, right?

And why we do crosswalks, where we do crosswalks, and and we're very intentional about that.

Um and when we do crosswalks, um often uh we let them add a controlled intersection.

We also um we'll do uncontrolled crosswalks if there's a school nearby, you know, if it's part of a school route or part of a trail network.

I went through all that a couple of weeks ago.

So in this uh in this situation, um what uh um what we are proposing or what we have um funding for, grant funding for is a uh is to take, I don't know what was handed out, but there's an existing crosswalk at a road called Canary.

Uh we're gonna remove that crosswalk and move that crosswalk to the school entrance.

Uh and that crosswalk will be a raised crosswalk.

And what I mean by raised crosswalk, a raised crosswalk is essentially a speed hump.

It's we raise the road, we you know, we put you know come in there, we raise the road, you know, raise the you know, the crosswalk four inches, uh, and we ramp it up and and then we mark it as a crosswalk.

Uh and so uh and then because it's by a school, uh the um we will have a school crossing guard at that crosswalk.

And so for all our philosophy is let's let's control that environment as much as we can.

And so we try to concentrate all our crossings at one location where we have a crossing guard.

Um a raised crosswalk will slow traffic on that street.

Um uh because you you can't hit it at much more than 20 miles an hour.

We have a school zone in place already, flashing at 20 miles per hour.

So and I'll just say, like this school particularly um uh is one is in a um is a model for us in how to handle modern day school traffic.

They built a long queuing area at our request when they came in there.

They're they're built in a residential area where traffic is less.

I mean, this school was originally at Dublin and Peterson, so you can imagine trying to cross those roads to get to that school.

So I you know, I think what we have proposed and what we are moving forward is with um falls right in line with our you know, our philosophy and our approach to school safety uh in the crossing of the road.

So so for those who are coming from the east off uh I think it's called dry needle, that the next intersection to the east, that crosswalk is being moved closer to them.

So um and it's being moved right to the entrance where they're where the school wants their kids to come into.

So I can I can take any questions, but that's our plan.

I do have funding, I will say uh grant funding uh for 26.

So toward the end of 26, we hope to have that raised crossing installed.

Councilman Henjam.

Yeah, actually, that was gonna be my question was about funding.

So end of 26 Todd.

Is it feasible to um I mean, are you confident enough in that grant funding coming in at the end of the year that you could move that timeline up for safety purposes and or does it have to coincide with the actual construction of the crosswalk?

Oh, you just say move the crosswalk.

Yeah, can you move it up?

Can you move the construction up?

Well, uh we're in design right now, so I have to check.

But I think we already we've already been awarded the money uh and just it and it comes to we've asked uh it's state safety money.

Uh and so we can ask to move that forward.

Uh I ideally it would be better for us to, you know, now you know, better for us to do it during the summer when there's no when there's when the school traffic.

So we'll look at moving it up for sure.

Yeah, thank you very much.

Councilman Donaldson.

Well, that was gonna be my you've kind of touched on it there at the end, Todd, that you're you're you're always fitting projects into other things that are already on the calendar.

Right.

Um we have requests from you know, because I've passed them to you from other neighborhoods to hey, we need uh uh traffic calming or speed reduction measures taken in our our neighborhood.

And so um when we try to pick a favorite and move it up, um somebody's getting bumped to some degree and um do you I know we we take these uh the gentleman's um concerns very seriously.

Uh have there been any accidents uh at this at this school in in this area.

Yeah, I I am not aware of any pedestrian car crashes.

I mean, there's crashes everywhere, but in this particular school, I am not aware of any crashes involving um pedestrians uh at these locations.

Okay, yeah, one high priority.

Yeah.

Okay.

Um so that's what I'm very aware of because I get lots of uh emails and phone calls about I need my neighborhood done now.

And at some point uh everybody can't uh go go first or go as fast as they would want to, and it's totally understandable.

Um, it looks like when you're you're you're projecting it to be done.

Yeah, our goal would be the summer.

Yeah, for sure.

Because you know, the school's not in session.

Um it's state funding that we match with local funding.

Yeah.

Uh I've already budgeted uh we have the state funding coming.

I've already budgeted the local funding match for it.

Uh so it's just a matter and you know the process, you know, you know, I have to have the funding in place, and then I have to put a contract out and get a contractor on board.

You know, there you know, that just takes time to do.

We have a round of uh safety improvements we're doing here um in February March using that same state money.

Second round, um, which is the next year's funding.

We're you know, we've been successful moving that funding up a year, and so I think that's the goal is would be to get it in, you know, you know, by you know, by the end of the year.

Okay.

Okay.

But it sounds like perhaps this is uh this might be a little bit of breaking news, because I believe uh uh the gentleman mentioned 27 for when he understood this to be done, but you're saying you know, ideally summer, if not later in 26.

So that's that's all I have.

Councilman Rainey.

Thank you, Madam President.

Uh just uh one, I guess, point of clarity.

You mentioned that you've already spoken with the school.

Um did they provide you any feedback or thoughts on the placement of the crosswalk or shared any concerns?

Uh we yes.

Uh we do all of this in conjunction with the school and the school administrators.

And so yes, they are in favor of this um position.

They've offered, you know, we initially asked for some funding to help support it.

Uh they said that you know, this is not a good budget year for us, but we'll come back.

You know, they have a new budget year coming up.

Um so we'll come back and ask them if they're willing to uh support um you know provide funding for the crossing.

Uh and so uh and they provide the school crossing guard uh as well.

And so they're you know, they're very interested in their school kid, you know.

Obviously, they're very interested in their kids getting to school safely, right?

Uh and so we work very closely with this school and all schools across the city.

Okay.

If you don't mind, uh and thank you very much, Mr.

Rod, for being here today and and sharing your concern and thanks for for the details.

Uh I I would just uh implore both of you uh maybe have a if you haven't already have a meeting just to make sure that you have a thorough understanding of what raised crosswalk truly means in this particular structure, and then maybe you can provide some context on what that construction looks like and how it's in the best interest of public safety for our kids.

So yeah, thank you both.

I greatly appreciate it because you both have uh genuine concern about the safety of our kids just like I do, and uh those are the type of things I can deal with all day long.

So greatly appreciate you both.

Thank you.

Okay.

The green lead.

Okay.

Yes, I believe it is.

Honorable President Crow Iverson, President Pro Tam Risley, City Council members, and exemplary staff.

My name is Charles Barber.

I have lived here for many moons.

May I say thank you?

Thank you very much for your time.

Keep smiling if you please.

Thank you, Mr.

Barber.

Actually, you know what's really interesting about that applause?

The longest clap currently on record, I believe, is a standing ovation for Sean Connery.

One minute and fifty something seconds.

I have to go back and verify again, but you're almost made it.

That's a challenge, Mr.

Barber.

That's a challenge.

Next up we have Wayne Williams.

Turn on the green light, and you have three minutes.

But because of various provisions of Colorado law, the library district is unable to collect all of that.

And so I just want it to be noted as we talk about the library and the importance that it is in our community that the taxpayers actually did approve a larger budget, but they're not allowed to collect it at the present time.

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