Courier View Pikes Peak
Teller County, Colorado • Volume 51, Issue 47
November 21, 2012
75 cents
A Colorado Community Media Publication
ourtellercountynews.com
Plan protects pets By Pat Hill
phill@ourcoloradonews.com
Students at Ute Pass Elementary School talked about gratitude at the dedication ceremony of the new playground, which was destroyed in the July rainstorm. Photos by Pat Hill
Playground dedicated at Ute Pass
By Pat Hill
phill@ourcoloradonews.com
Ute Pass Elementary School celebrated the new playground Nov. 15. On a chilly and sunny fall morning, the school’s principal, Christopher Briggs-Hale, tied the destruction of the playground in the floodwaters of summer to the earth’s natural cycle.
“Fires happen and when they do, floods do, too,” he said. “In early August, the realization of what we were truly living with seemed overwhelming, as scorched earth revealed its other horrible nature, the conveyor of water.” However, in the process of assessing the damage, regional officials discovered that the land was once a delta thousands of years ago. “When we looked at the hillsides of our beloved home it struck us that every ravine, not just sand gulch, had been crafted in endless cycles of fire and floods, something burnt, something loosened up,
Ute Pass Elementary students Daniel Everly, right, and his best friend, Chandler Disch, put the finishing touches on the new playground at Ute Pass Elementary School. In a ceremony of gratitude for the contributions from various donors, private as well as nonprofit and government entities, the school is on a new path from the devastating rainstorm this summer that destroyed the playground. Pat Hill
something slid,” he said. “And a new riparian zone of aspen, willow and water came into being. For centuries this land around us has been perfecting itself, collapsing and rising again in so
many ways.” As the land rejuvenates, so, too, has the school grown stronger, Briggs-Hale said. “Like the landscape will, we have recovered.”
Today, the playground, made of recyclable materials, is inviting to all children, including those with special needs. “What you are standing on is the result of the new growth of our thinking,” Briggs-Hale said. In a touching ceremony, the principal thanked the funders of the project, including Eric Cefus, director of new business development for the Pikes Peak Community Foundation, which donated $25,000. As well, Cefus convinced Lockheed Martin Corp. to add $15,000 to the foundation’s contribution. In addition, wildland firefighters in the area, under the name “Wildfire Tees Fund,” sold t-shirts and contributed $15,000. To convey the message of gratitude, several students talked about what they were grateful for, many of them related to having survived the Waldo Canyon Fire and subsequent flooding. The ceremony concluded with a ribbon cutting with the principal and students Daniel Everly and Chandler Disch.
In a county where animals are people, too, the Petaid Disaster Services project is designed to protect owners and their pets in emergencies such as fires and blizzards. “When people are leaving emergency situations, they will often go back in looking for their pets and put themselves at risk,” said Mark Platten, Teller County’s extension agent for Colorado State University. Galvanized by the fires of summer, Platten is working up a plan that analyzes risks and identifies resources for the evacuation and care of pets during emergencies. “We had challenges with Waldo Canyon and Springer fires, a mix-up of the chain-of-command,” he said, adding that, in the midst of the chaos, there were duplications in requests for supplies. Spearheaded by CSU’s extension offices in 13 counties, the Petaid Disaster Services is a two-year grant-funded project. “This is not a redundancy but it’s going to enhance what we already have in place,” Platten said. “The plan is to get people to think about what happens when the next emergency arrives. Because it’s not if but when.” As the county’s extension agent, Platten knows the territory. “A lot of these small-acreage people want to have a piece of the American Dream, own 10 acres, and may have a couple of horses but no trailer to move them,” he said. To avoid the mad dash that happens during emergencies, the goal in many cases is to keep owner and pet together. “We’re trying to set up areas such as the fairgrounds where the owners can actually sleep there and take care of their pets,” Platten said. “They’d have the opportunity to camp and at the same time maintain the relationship with their animals, which is important.” Platten, along with extension agents in El Paso and Park counties, is enrolled in training classes in Fort Collins with Debrah Schnackenberg, Pet Aid’s emergency planner. From lessons learned in the aftermath Pets continues on Page 3
WP Council talks budgets, chickens, weed Ordinances piling up for Dec. 5 meeting By Norma Engelberg
nengelberg@ourcoloradonews. com Woodland Park City Council used its Nov. 15 meeting to discuss three important ordinances it will likely decide at public hear-
ings scheduled for a rare Wednesday meeting on Dec. 5. A fourth and possibly a fifth important ordinance was added later in the meeting. The first two are appropriations to finish out the city’s 2012 budget and approval of its 2013 budget, which must be approved and sent to the state by Dec. 15. The second is an ordinance that would allow for the keeping of do-
mestic fowl in residential areas of the city where they are not prohibited by homeowners’ association covenants. Council has been working on the budget ordinances since early October through a series of workshops. With almost everything regarding the budget hashed out beforehand no surprises are anticipated. If surprises do happen there will be time to hold another meeting to deal with them before
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the state deadline. The Woodland Park Planning Commission has worked almost as long drafting what many are calling “the chicken ordinance” even though it would also allow the keeping of ducks, geese, turkeys, pigeons and other domestic birds. Before city planner Scott Woodford could even finish the initial presentation several councilmembers questioned the need for such an ordinance. “Just tell people they’re permitted unless they become a nuisance and you have codes for that,” said Councilmember Gary Brovetto. “I have a problem with assuming that something is automatically prohibited if it isn’t mentioned in city code.” Bob Carlson’s idea went even farther. He said just to approve all domestic animals and let standards already in place control them.
Councilmember Terry Harrison said, “The last time we had a chicken at a council meeting, 18 months later we had a sign ordinance.” He was referring to the Chicken Man when many thought the city was going to prohibit him and other advertising characters from holding signs advertising their businesses. Someone else pointed out that it actually took two years to revise the city sign codes and that creating a domestic fowl ordinance shouldn’t take that long. After much discussion, council passed the ordinance on initial posting and will hear public input at the next meeting before making its final decision. City Attorney Erin Smith made a short presentation on how the city should react to the passage of Amendment 64, legalizing the Council continues on Page 3