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Pikes Peak
Teller County, Colorado • Volume 52, Issue 50
STORMS MOVE IN
December 11, 2013
75 cents
A Colorado Community Media Publication
pikespeakcourier.net
GMF wins DOLA grant for town hall By Pat Hill
phill@ourcoloradonews.com
School closures, perilous driving conditions, snow accumulations, and sub-zero temperatures all were the results of a stubborn storm that settled in the Pikes Peak area most of last week. Photo by Rob Carrigan
The audience clapped and cheered when Rob McArthur announced that Green Mountain Falls had won a $500,000 grant from the Colorado Department of Local Affairs to help build a new town hall. McArthur, the town’s public works director who wrote the grant, expressed gratitude to Rob Seever, project architect with Keystone Associates, Inc., for representing the community at the DOLA board hearing in November in Trinidad. Seever was accompanied by mayor pro tem Jane Newberry. As well, McArthur credited Clay Brown, regional manager for DOLA, for his championing of the project. “If you ever see Clay Brown, buy him coffee,” said McArthur, who announced the award at the board meeting Dec. 3. Seever followed with a rundown of the key dates of the hall, to be built on 3.5 acres adjacent to Joyland church. Following the closing on the land purchase in January, the groundbreaking is scheduled Feb. 24, a day after the anniversary date of the arson fire that destroyed town hall in 2012. A tentative grand opening is scheduled for Aug. 1. Key players in the project, in addition to McArthur, Seever and Newberry, are
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Budget, new building department approved Woodland Station special sign ordinance repealed, replaced By Norma Engelberg Contributing writer
Woodland Park City Council approved the city’s 2014 budget on Dec. 5 but, as is almost always the case in Woodland Park, it was not approved unanimously. This time it was Councilmember Bob Carlsen’s turn to vote no. He had several questions about how the city uses its 410 Street Capital Fund and how previous councils made decisions that determined which projects should be funded through the city’s general fund and which ones should be funded by the 410 fund. After several attempts at explanation by City Manager David Buttery, Finance Director Kellie Case and the opinion by City Attorney Erin Smith that previous council decisions were within their prerogative and allowed by the courts, he said he was still not satisfied to the point where he could give the new budget his whole-hearted apPOSTAL ADDRESS
proval. In the on-going work to create a city building department using services provided by the Pikes Peak Regional Building Department, the council adopted international and Pikes Peak Regional building codes with a few amendments dictated by local construction conditions, appointed a board of appeals consisting of people in local building trades and set permit and inspection fees. Board of appeals regular members include Gary Crane, Steve McCann, David Dernbach, Monte Houseman and Dick Carpenter. Two alternate members were also appointed: Jeff Cahill and Mac McVicker. The board will meet at least once a month. As requested at the Nov. 21 meeting, Pike Peak Regional building official Henry Yankowski brought in comparisons between Teller County’s permit and inspection fees and those that will be charged under the new fee system. As promised the new fees are less than the county’s fees; in the case of single family dwellings they are substantially less-$679 compared to $2,319. The difference between previous fees and the new fees for commercial construc-
According Woodland Park Planning Director Sally Riley, replacing the Woodland Station special sign code with Woodland Park’s 2010 municipal sign code, section 18.48, will make it easier for the new Woodland Hardware store to install appropriately sized wall signs on its building. The original Woodland Station sign code didn’t address wall signs for large buildings with a single occupant. Photo by Norma Engelberg
tion is still substantial but not by as big a margin. For example, the county charged Wommack Ministries Inc. $140,512 for permits and inspections for construction of Charis Bible College compared to the $114,580 that would have been charged under the new fee structure. With these comparisons in hand, counPrinted on recycled newsprint. Please cil voted to accept the new fee structure recycle this copy. unanimously. They are retroactive to Nov. 4. The council also unanimously approved the repeal of the Woodland Station Special Sign Code approved in 2007 and replaced it, with a few exceptions, with the city’s comprehensive 2010 updated sign code. The
idea was to address situations that weren’t covered by the special sign code and to make signage in the Woodland Station overlay district less restrictive and more flexible. Finally, Brian Fleer, executive director of both the Woodland Park Downtown Development Authority and the Woodland Park Office of Economic Development, announced that a Tax Increment Funding agreement has been worked out with Tractor Supply Co. and that construction on the new 22,000-square-foot farm and ranch equipment retail facility should start in April.