PIKES PEAK 1.9.13-20
Courier View Pikes Peak
Teller County, Colorado • Volume 52, Issue 2
January 9, 2013
75 cents
A Colorado Community Media Publication
ourtellercountynews.com
Rookie auction beats out previous year Nets $3,380 to bottom line By Pat Hill
phill@ourcoloradonews.com As a fundraising experiment, the first annual Virtual Marketplace for the 2012 Tweeds Holiday Home Tour signaled a green light and a “go” for 2013. “It was a decent rookie season,” said Cord Prettyman who, with Karolyn Smith, led the committee that launched the online auction. “We had a lot of action, a lot of interest.” Rookie or not, the online auction beat out all the previous years for bottom-line results. At $3,380, the net proceeds reflected an increase of $499 over 2011, which had been the best year to date. “We were blessed with having things like the cars and the baseballs which got us a lot of attention,” Prettyman said, referring to two of the star-studded donations. The baseballs were signed by 10 U.S. Presidents and the cars, donated anonymously, were a 1982 Corvette and a 2007 Pontiac Solstice. In a re-cap of the marketplace launch, Prettyman and Smith marvel at some of the super-duper deals scored by the winning bettors. For instance, one lucky bidder won what the two view as the best deal of
Karolyn Smith and Cord Prettyman consider the first Virtual Marketplace, an online auction fundraiser for the 2012 Tweeds Sounds of the Season Holiday Home Tour a success. Photo by Pat Hill the auction, two nights at the Edgewood Inn, the entire inn, five rooms and common areas, for $610, a$2,630 value. “That was a steal,” Prettyman said, as Smith added, “Ridiculous.” Savvy bidders scooped up other items to enhance their leisure time, among them, a two-night stay, including six meals and $40
in gambling chits, a $500 package for $203. The autographed guitar by Def Leppard went for $550, the value estimated as “priceless” by the committee. “The things that went the fastest were the `consumables,’” Prettyman said. Buoyed by success, the committee nonetheless plans to refine the process. “We
want our program to be faster, more userfriendly, with more local consumables,” Prettyman said. As it was, the bidders were chiefly in the Pikes Peak Region. “We were hoping to have a national presence and we should never have identified the bidder by name,” Prettyman said. As well, potential buyers expressed frustration over the $2 incremental bids. “We weren’t able to set the increments in $25 and weren’t able to mark the items `sold.’ Instead, the program just removed them from the site,” Smith said. This year’s home tour had a list of firsts, the first online auction and the first hometour website, at www.hht.org. As well, the event Dec. 1 and 2 was the best ever, with more than 800 people viewing the homes in Woodland Park. In spite of the stress and the unknowns, the committee is encouraged by the statistics that show 1,438 page views for the Virtual Marketplace from Nov. 16 to Dec. 9. Proceeds from the marketplace as well as the tour were donated to Teller Senior Coalition, Woodland Park Hockey Association and the Woodland Aquatic Project. “I think it’s accurate to say that we see the online auction as the future for fundraising through a marketplace versus a boutique setup,” Prettyman said.
County finding communications solutions Planning for floods in Waldo Canyon Fire burn scar By Norma Engelberg The offices of Teller County Waste sustained severe smoke damage from an arson fire in the wee hours of Jan. 1. Jay Baker, TCW owner, credits the quick response by the Northeast Teller County Fire Protection District for saving the building. Photo by Pat Hill
Arson ushers in 2013 By Pat Hill
phill@ourcoloradonews.com Woodland Park Police arrested Tyler Scott Morland, 22, Jan. 1 at the scene of a fire in progress at Teller County Waste at 116 N. Center. According to Chief Bob Larson, the department expects to file four charges against Morland: 2nd degree burglary, a Class IV felony; criminal mischief, a felony; 4th degree arson, a Class II misdemeanor; and criminal trespass, a misdemeanor. The charges will be filed in the 4th Judicial District. At the time of his arrest, Mor-
land was intoxicated, Larson added. The chief credits the quick response of Northeast Teller County Fire Protection District for extinguishing the fire within minutes. According to police records, Bradley Blanchard (at Teller Cable) made the “911” call at 3:11 a.m. Jan.1 and fire and police arrived within minutes. “We extinguished the fire quickly,” said Fire Chief Tyler Lambert. “The key to saving the building was the 911 call. A few minutes longer, it would have been a different story.” The fire started on the upper
POSTAL ADDRESS
level of the two-story building; the contents, computers, phone system and files, were destroyed and the building itself sustained heavy smoke damage. Jay Baker, the owner of the waste company, received the call about 4 a.m. “The upstairs was trashed,” Baker said. As a result, Baker has moved the offices to the Woodland Professional Building. “We didn’t miss a beat,” he said. “We opened for business the next day; it was 36 hours from destruction to production.” Baker credits his son, Jayson Baker, who owns Peak Internet, for relocating the phone and internets systems as well as his staff for working on the New Year’s holiday to help get the company up and running. Cpl. Dena Currin and Office Greg Geiman, Woodland Park Police, and Teller County Sheriff’s Deputy Nathan Williams responded to the 911 call, along with a crew of four from NETCO. “It was a cold morning,” Lambert said.
nengelberg@ourcoloradonews. com Teller County started to make major investments in communications upgrades about a year and a half ago but problems remain. “Communications still aren’t working like they should,” said Steve Steed, director of the county’s Office of Emergency Management, at the county’s Local Emergency Planning Committee meeting on Jan. 2. “We’ve cut our ties with our former communications provider and we’re reaching out to new vendors. … We’re trying to find out why we’re not getting optimal performance.” He said that, so far, consultants think the problem is in the software. “We have all the right pieces; they just need to be programed properly,” he said. Successful upgrades will give the sheriff’s department better coverage in the mountains and will allow all emergency response agencies to communicate literally on the same frequency. Steed also announced that El Paso Teller E911 will be replacing back-up power systems in Teller County and consolidating all its local systems into a space being
constructed for that purpose in the Teller County Sheriff’s building. “It should take about 90 days to complete this upgrade and clean up a lot of old technology and wiring,” he said. Bill Mayfield, emergency services liaison for Memorial Hospital/University of Colorado Health in Colorado Springs, talked about the possibility of flood events in the Waldo Canyon Fire burn scar. He said a study by a committee in El Paso County dealing with medical support for flood events shows that for the next three to four years any time it rains more than 1 inch on the burn scar there is a possibility of 100,000 cubic feet of debris sliding into Ute Pass. This could close U.S. 24 for up to 72-hours at a time. “The first couple of years the debris could be small stuff like silt,” he said. “In year three and four the debris could be trees and large boulders. We need to be planning for this happening every spring and summer.” While most of the flood damage would be in El Paso County close to Manitou Springs, Teller County’s problem would be with access to medical care facilities in Colorado Springs. This lack of access could County continues on Page 5
NEWS TIPS Email to Editor Pat Hill at phill@ourcoloradonews. com or call her at 719687-3006 ext. 107.
Printed on recycled newsprint. Please recycle this copy.