Sunday, October 30, 2005

Pueblo and CSU-P: Some Suggestions

The local university seems to be having problems relating. Here’s some suggestions.

In Thursday’s Chieftain there was an article about Colorado State University-Pueblo and the Hispanic community. A consultant found that CSU-P did not communicate well with the Hispanic community.

On the other hand, I’ve heard faculty and administrators from CSU-P complain that they didn’t feel the school is “embraced” by Pueblo. (This was at a Neighborhood Partnership meeting.) So this problem is seemingly a two-way street. Let’s look at the problem objectively.

At the Pueblo Neighborhood Partnership meeting the CSU-P faculty seemed think that the way to get Pueblo to “embrace” the college was to send students out to “help” in the neighborhoods. I found this attitude rather condescending. So the first thing is for CSU-P, as an institution and as individuals, is to lose the preconceived attitudes that will interfere with open and healthy communications.

Next, if the university wants more acceptance and support from Pueblo then it has to start by offering an excellent education. To Puebloans this means that graduates will obtain a job in their field of study at a median or above salary within two months of graduation. Got that? An excellent education means the student got a good job upon graduation. It does not mean they had an “intellectually stimulating experience” or some other academic smoke for “we had a good time teaching your kids nothing of real world value.”

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Monday, October 24, 2005

A Money-Making Idea for School District 60

I might even tune in.

I’ve got a great idea for raising funds for District 60, and it won’t cost taxpayers a dime. Really.

It’s this simple: sell the rights to School Board Meetings for a reality TV show. Seriously, you can’t make up drama this, well, dramatic.

You’ve got fired employees suing the district for shenanigans by officials. The school board censuring its own members for inappropriate conduct. District officials quitting because they aren’t given enough power. Ex-board members suing because they got kicked off the board for moving out of town. Charter school principals trying to get on the board of the district they’re trying to leave. Mysterious, critical flyers floating around, hot off someone’s copy machine. Plus a lot of the characters are attorneys, which is always a big draw on TV.

Let’s face it, when they announced Christine Pacheco-Kovaleski’s seat vacant, there was a stampede to fill out applications that rivalled a casting call for a major Broadway show. While I’m sure many candidates told themselves “Heck, I can do better than that,” I’m sure there were others thinking, “It’s the only way to find out what’s really going on.” So put it on TV and let us all find out.

Personally, I’ve got some questions I’d like to see answered, and I think they might be on reality TV.

For example, would the law have some precedent that says a wife’s (husband’s) primary residence is automatically assumed to be with her (his) spouse, unless they’re getting a divorce or are legally separated? Especially since their local joint domicile has been sold.

Since the law says that a board member’s primary residence must be within the district in which the member serves, can you accept conducting business within the district as evidence that the member still resides within the district? I wouldn’t think so. Where you live and where you work are two different things. But I suppose that if the board wants to say accepting a job in another state is evidence that you’ve moved, then they have to accept that you’re still doing business here as evidence that you haven’t. So, the next question is, has the ex-member accepted new business in the last few months? That, to me, seems pertinent. And what mail is being forwarded where? And how many days have been spent inside the district as opposed to outside it?

And finally, since Ms. Pacheco-Kovaleski said she was going to resign by a certain date anyway, why is she forcing the district she supposedly cares about to spend thousands of dollars in legal fees, not to mention time spent away from the real business of the district, teaching, to defend itself in this lawsuit saying she was illegally kicked off the board? Just for the principal of the thing? If she knew she was going to resign in a few months anyway, why didn’t she do it in time to have her seat filled by the voters in the election, rather than by the Board she’s been at odds with for over a year?

And then you’ve got an ex-employee, a secretary, who was fired about a year ago, suing the district, claiming some of her boss’s expenses weren’t valid. The question is, of course, was she fired for disagreeing with her boss about his expenses, or is she complaining about his expenses because she was fired?

I tell you, this reality show will be a major hit; something to revive a genre that is supposed to be waning.

Author’s note: I was going to pepper this with all kinds of links to The Pueblo Chieftain’s web site, but they’re having problems today.  Just do a search on “District 60 School Board,” and you’ll pull references in context.

The Bird Flu Pandemic II

Odd thoughts on what to do if it goes ballistic.

As I’ve mentioned earlier, the current threat with respect to Bird Flu, as it is reported today, is a dramatic rise in the price of chicken. We’ll have to kill off chickens like never before in order to contain a localized outbreak. In light of the current industrial process of raising the birds, this means whole industrial plants will be purged of all birds. The resulting lack of product will drive the price of bird flesh trough the proverbial roof.

On the other hand, there are other aspects as well. The human ones.

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Friday, October 21, 2005

Men, Migs and Municipal Airports

Life is interesting on the final approach flight path.

I love living in Pueblo. There is hardly a dull moment. Between managing this old house, watching the machinations of local government—the D-60 school board has been VERY interesting, of late—and hoping that the corporate cretins at the 8,000,000 pound 4-story gorilla a block away won’t destroy the neighborhood—like it did the Thatcher House—something is always happening. I guess that song from the Shrek sound track, All Star, is so appropos….

That’s the way I like it and I’ll never get bored.

Now, the airport has thrown in a new twist.

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Wednesday, October 19, 2005

The Bird Flu Pandemic I

Thoughts on the pandemic.

Initial thought? The price of chicken is going to go UP.

Caught between a rock and a hard place; brain rotting Mad Cow or a lack of chicken? My advice, like Eddie Murphy’s in Trading Places, is to put your money in sow bellies.

Seriously. With the report of Nine Dead from Mad Cow in Idaho. You get the distinct impression that all is not quite safe with respect to eating beef. Yes, a good friend of mine says ‘stay away from hamburger’. But that’s just to reduce the dosage. It doesn’t prevent being dosed in the first place. Only avoiding the contaminated food source prevents getting dosed with Mad Cow prions.

Then we have the approaching bird flu pandemic. And YES, it IS a ‘pandemic’. It’s just killing off the birds, for the most part….at the moment. And what’s the immediate consequence? There will be fewer chickens available for dinner. Not to mention what will happen with eggs. The price of both will probably sky rocket, where the bird flu is killing large numbers of birds.

So without beef or chicken or even eggs to eat, pork is going to become something other than “the other white meat”. If the fish go bye-bye too, it’s going to be the ONLY meat.

UPDATE: This is going to put some kinda pressure on the Jews and Muslims.

ADDITIONALLY: I think Cox & Forkum did a cute job with the aspect of Bird Flu vs. Humans. More on THAT idea, later.

Tuesday, October 18, 2005

Barbie® Dolls and iPods

What do Barbie® Dolls and iPods have in common?

For months I have been telling the light of my life that iPods are the Barbie® dolls of the electronics world. iPods have accessories, and more accessories, just like Barbie®. However, I didn’t realize how close the analogy was until James Lileks pointed out this site .

Yes, boys and girls, the iPod, which many considered nothing more than a fashion accessory, now has fashions of its own.

Filling the Slot

Machinations of the D-60 School Board.

Watching the business, over the last year, of the D-60 School Board waffling with the Pacheco-Koveleski fiasco has been interesting.

It was blatantly obvious to the casual observer that Pacheco-Koveleski should have been tossed quite some time ago, when she was in violation of the board’s policies regarding attendance at meetings. Let’s face it, if kids were tardy or truant for school, you can bet dollars to donuts this school board would have nodded sagely as the kid and the parents thereof got their come-uppance. However, when it came to the school board practicing what it preached….we got nada. And this is supposed to be a ‘good example’? No wonder kids are dropping school in droves.

I’m particularly interested in why the board took so long to act on this matter. Not to mention why they felt compelled to wait until AFTER the August deadline for candidates to come forward to run for the board. Not sure of the mechanisms involved, but to have waited this long and then, all of a sudden, Pacheco-Koveleski relents and Kennedy FINALLY acts. This is very ‘interesting’.

It’s for this reason, and a number of others, that I think we need to dramatically change the make-up of the D-60 School Board. I think the kids of Pueblo, as well as the people, deserve better than what we’ve got. I’m voting for Piatt and Garcia, come November.

Monday, October 17, 2005

Chieftain, My Chieftain II

Another step towards the modern age of communications, anyone?

As a number of bloggers, e.g., James “The Bleat” Lileks—who is a columnist with the Minneapolis Star-Tribune—have commented, the future of local newspapers is NOT international or national affairs. People can find out more information on the web than local papers could possibly print. The real future of local newspapers, such as our own Pueblo Chieftain, lies in focusing on the local issues. And the state.

So, with that in mind and thinking of how much time I am at my computer doing work and watching the world, I’m wondering why it is that we can’t find important local information that the Pueblo Chieftain is obliged to publish, on their web-site version? Things like PUBLIC NOTICES. I read those notices daily in the hard copy. One needs to be aware of what’s going on. Especially with respect to the (in)famous Hasan House. [Note: Will they EVER finish it? What will it be? Will someone attempt to rezone the property?]

Then there are things like resolutions and modifications to the City Ordinances. It would be nice if someone could provide good links to such matters as well. I get the impression that the City Fathers are sometimes not quite as forthcoming with these things as I would like for them to be. One has to go to their web-site and dig down to find that sort of material. If the Chieftain’s electronic form would do the digging and provide the links, that’s a time-saving service that would benefit the entire community.

So why can’t the Pueblo Chieftain do something like that? Eh?

By the way, I’d be willing to pay good money for a completely electronic delivery of the complete newspaper. However, the distaff still favors the hard copy version. Something about doing the puzzles, I think…..

Sunday, October 16, 2005

CAVE (the Prequel)

The story begins….in retrospect.

Sorry I missed this last Sunday. But it was the distaff’s birthday weekend and I spent the day pretty much fixing meals to please her, and my, palettes. Brunch of eggs benedict, bacon, Rocky Ford cantaloupe, champagne, home-made hand-tossed pizza for dinner. In other words, my priorities were alligned differently that day.

Today is different. I’m focusing on Steve Henson’s article about CAVE people. I’ve already posted regarding his column in today’s Pueblo Chieftain. Now, I’ve done some background research on his initial column on the matter as of last week. And, after reading it, I’m not surprised he was innundated with responses that contradicted his expressed opinion. And as for his comment about how he thinks he ‘touched a nerve’, I’d say, “Yes. And a rather sore and exacerbated one at that.” I’d recommend he pay heed.

In last weeks installment of this matter, Steve is suggesting that anyone who complains about any company’s plans to make money in Pueblo is a CAVE-dweller. I mean it. He says that they stand in the way of “progress’ in Pueblo. This is absurd. There’s more to life, especially a good one, than merely making money. But maybe Steve forgot his Sunday School lessons regarding that. Just because someone offers you a pile of money doesn’t mean the quality of life in your community is going to improve.

Take a look at Love Canal. I’ll bet the contractors who built that fiasco made a bundle of money. So did the people who were heavily invested in Enron, before things fell apart. The point of fact being that there is more to life than making a pile of money. And the CAVE people, contrary to what Steve would have us believe, are more interested in life than in money. And life can be ‘emotional’, contrary to what Steve might think. Indeed, many people get VERY ‘emotional’ about life. I know of people…people this town hails as living here….who would gladly have give up their life for the quality of life. Does the term “Home of Heroes” ring any bells?

The point here being that CAVE, as an acronym can mean more than one thing. Steve would like us to believe that it means Citizens Against Virtually Everything. As I pointed out in an earlier thread, it can mean Citizens Against Venal Expansion. Then again, it can also mean Corporations—Avaricious, Venal, Expansionistic.

As some English judge put it….

They [corporations] cannot commit treason, nor be outlawed nor excommunicated, for they have no souls. — Sir Edward Coke, Lord Chief Justice of England, 1628

Let us hope that we can see the truth of this statement and make our decision on the ‘vision’ of what Pueblo, in 50 years, should be. Will it be a properous place where people live and work in a reasonable degree of harmony and joy? Or will it more likely resemble Gidi Prime of that speculative future fiction classic, Dune? Something akin to hell on earth and dominated by the proverbial totalitarian/authoritarian ‘king o the hell’.

CAVE? (Part 1)

Where’s an Acronym Control Officer (ACO) when you really need one?

Steve Henson has an interesting observation in today’s Pueblo Chieftain. He seems to think that either we change or we remain the same. I think he’s doing a number of things wrong here. And I’ll address a couple of them right now.

First off, he seems to be putting us into a box; change or don’t. And it’s a ludicrous box at that, as change is invevitable. I think his purpose, unintentional or otherwise, is to try to quell the voices who are opposed to any of a number of changes. It’s as if he’s trying to make them out as Front Range Luddites. I am of a different opinion. Here’s why….

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Saturday, October 15, 2005

Dual Purpose Ponds

Having ‘fun’ with the latest plans to widen I-25.

Speaking of ideas to improve the city.

Let’s look at one of the known changes to the proposed widening of I-25 through the center of town. Specifically let’s look at these storm-water collection ponds that will be scattered along the length of the highway.

Obviously, if you know ANYTHING about weather in this town, you know that we get the occasional deluge. These ponds are intended to help prevent flooding. However, as my former battalion commander would put it, “For a few dollars more, you can go first class.”

What I propose is that a selected number of these collection-ponds be configured for duel purpose use; they not only be collection ponds, but also recreational facilities.

One idea would be that such ponds be laid in concrete and the concrete be configured as a skateboard park. It would not take that much space. Nor that much concrete. And, when the ponds are not being used for their primary purpose, they could be used for recreational purposes by some of the agile young men who like that kind of entertainment.

Others, given space, could be made into local parks with a set of childrens’ playground equipment that would not be damaged by the occasional flooding.

Everyone knows that the occasional deluge and resulting flooding would last only a few hours. The rest of the time, unless these facilities are established for dual-purposes, they’ll be so much wasted space.

I think we can think farther ahead than we are currently doing…..

Friday, October 14, 2005

Another Evening At an Open House

Another evening. Another open house.

This time hosted by the Bureau of Land Reclamation about the Southern Delivery System (SDS); the plans for Colorado Springs to take it’s rightful water from the Arkansas River to slake its every expanding thirst.

It’s a complex issue. Including some people who suggest that Colorado Springs does not have the right to as much water as they claim. But that’s a tome in itself. We won’t address it here unless further evidence comes forward suggesting there IS a problem.

The people at Reclamation did a far better job of running an informative open house, complete with breakout groups and extensive comment-taking, than the event we went to the previous evening. Kudos to their team. I will also add that Reclamation did a good job at trying to be the honest broker during the event.

At this point there are seven alternatives being considered. I won’t bother to enumerate them here, as we determined that some titles to them are misnomers that only confuse your understanding of where and how the water will flow. And it came out that there are other alternatives they could have considered but, for some reason, didn’t make the final cut. But the people in our breakout group saw them and re-suggested them.

Furthermore, as was put forth in an editorial in yesterday’s Pueblo Chieftain, there is the idea that a flood control dam should be built on the Fountain between Colorado Springs and Pueblo. Apparently no one involved with this project, heretofore, had thought of such an idea. [Note: I mentioned such a thing to a meeting of the Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy group over a year ago. Most of the official members of that group politely ignored anything mentioned by the public during the public comment period of their meeting. However, when I mentioned that, one guy started scribbling notes. Maybe he got to someone…]

I think the ideal location for such a dam would be at the ‘choke point’ in the Fountain Creek valley in the vicinity of mile marker 112 on I-25. More on the benefits of such a dam at a later date. Back to the meeting.

As I said, there are seven plans being considered at the moment. Several of these seem to be favored by one group or another.

Colorado Springs favors the one where they take water out of the Arkansas and return it there in the vicinity of Florence. This is likely to be a result of Pueblo’s favored plan

In light of all the sewage spills in the Fountain of late, Pueblo has been favoring placing the water intake for the system east of the confluence of the Fountain with the Arkansas; forcing Colorado Springs to either cleanup their act or Drink S—- And Die. But there are other plans that Pueblo would favor before the one Colorado Springs would like best.

The impacts on the communities and the environment vary dramatically based on each of the plans.

There is an alternative called No-Action. However, in light of the growth pressure on Colorado, this is hardly likely to happen. But, just to help people understand what is meant by Reclamation when they say “No Action”....it means that the proponents can do whatever they want; Reclamation will take “no action” in the affair, as far as I could tell. See what I mean by misnomers? I’m sure it makes sense to Reclamation, but it confuses the rest of us mightily.

There were a number of questions about how Reclamation is going to require Colorado Springs to cleanup its sewage dumping ways. However, I got the distinct impression that Reclamation wasn’t going to touch that issue with a 10-foot pole. Why? Well, because it seems to me that getting one city to clean up it’s problems with sewage treatment as they impact on another city within the same state is NOT a ‘federal’ matter. It’s a state matter. No state lines were crossed. So, instead of putting pressure on the feds to be all things to all people, we should be beating the State Department of Public Health up over this. Not to forget other departments that oversee water ways. And not to forget our elected officials as well.

All in all it was an informative presentation. We’ll be addressing some of the details a bit later, once we have more information on the various alternatives.

Thursday, October 13, 2005

Action On Sewage in Fountain Creek

The DA makes his move.

The Pueblo Chieftain, today, announced the long overdue—in my personal opinion—law suit filed by our new District Attorney in response to the continuing failures on the part of Colorado Springs to contain its waste materials from cascading, untreated, down the Fountain Creek past our neighborhoods and downtown; not to forget into the Arkansas and down through all the towns along its path.

Our new DA, being less than a year in the job, was brought to us at the behest of the local Democratic Party because, as far as I could tell, his predecessor would not file a law suit against the Republican County Sheriff over allegations of sexual harrassment. The old DA claiming there was not enough evidence to prosecute. They didn’t like that answer, according to the Democrats I heard speaking on the subject. So they dumped him and got our current one, there being no Republican candidate running against him. It’s interesting to note that the new DA has yet to file any charges of sexual harrassment against the County Sheriff either.

But, that’s beside the point. It’s good to see that after all this time in position, and so much filthy water having passed ‘under the bridge’, we are finally seeing something coming from his good offices to deal with this continual problem. This, after a group of local citizens and even the State of Colorado were taking up this matter. The state actually fining Colorado Springs for past spills. Somehow, I get the distinct impression that had not the Sierra Club threatened to file a suit, our DA might still be waiting. It would be very bad form for the civilians to have beat him to the punch.

An Evening At the Open House

Our friends at CH2MHill host a small party.

Attended the New Pueblo Freeway Open House last night. It was hosted by our friends at CH2MHill at the behest of CDOT.

The topic of the overall program was Pueblo’s heritage vis-a-vis that part of which was under potential threat of being demolished or at least degraded as part of the proposed plan to widen Interstate 25 as it passes through the center of the city.

There was a cute series of presentations by 8th-graders from Beulah School on the history of Colorado, stemming from the initial exploration by Coronado, in his vain effort to find the fabled Seven Cities of Cibola, through the founding of CF&I from three competing steel/metal smelting operations. Each of the kids was dressed in attire apropos for their part of the presentation. Personally, I found part of it informative, as I’m a service brat and learned all about Louisiana history, being there at that age. However, I get the impression that the natives were getting a re-bluing—as we’d say in the Army—of stuff they’d known all their lives.

I am curious why they had to go to a charter school in Beulah to get these children. But that’s another question, better asked of Christian Piatt and Kitty Kennedy, who are running for D-60 school board.

Back on topic….

I had hoped that our friends from CH2MHill would have spent a bit of time at the lectern bringing us up to speed on changes to their plans and the current state of affairs with respect to the timeline on the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA), both of which are essential to the overall project. But we didn’t hear anything specific.

In order to learn about those activities we had to go to the boards and beat the bushes.

The boards did have information about the timeline for the EIS, but nothing specific that I could see about who was doing what with it right now. There was no one at that particular board to ‘beat about the bush’ with in order to find out.

Looking that the boards on the planned widening of the interstate, it was not readily apparent what had changed since our friends from CH2MHill had last shown us what was planned. I had to ‘beat about the bush’ with the guy there for details. He did point out that some rainwater collection ponds had been added to the plans. This in an effort to prevent localized flooding in the event of another deluge we have every Summer. [Note: With respect to these intermittent ponds, I would like to make a suggestion on how to use them for two purposes. I see a potential recreational use for them when they are not being used for their original purpose. More on that later.]

The gentleman working that board could not identify much else in the way of changes. I would like CH2MHill to highlight any changes they’ve made to their plan as we saw it last year, just so we can catch up to them. We all studied their plans last year. But we’ve slept since then. They’ve slept WITH their plans. We’d like to get up to their level of familiarity.

There was a board about the plans for Mineral Palace Park. However, I did not see anyone I could talk to about any changes to the plans to mitigate the impacts I-25 has had in the past and will have in the future on that district park. Looking over the plans, I did not see anything that jumped out at me as a significant change to what we had seen described before.

There was no board nor any person to beat about the bush with over the status of the IGA. However, I did catch wind that the IGA was being discussed. I think it would be VERY nice if our friends at CH2MHIll would bring us up to speed on the IGA process. Where it is. Who is doing what. And allow some of us to kibitz on the meetings.

It was nice of CH2MHill to invite us to their open house. The children were, as all children dressed-up, rehearsed and trotted before serious adults are, charming. Some good information was provided. A lot of necessary information was not.

In all honesty, I still think this whole project is going to be significantly impacted by the proposed Super-Slab to the east of town. The Slab is coming. It’s much more needed than this project, in my personal opinion. But that’s another essay.

Thursday, October 06, 2005

Referenda C & D? No

It’s sooooo confusing!

My little blue booklet on the state ballot election arrived today and I plowed through it. It discusses Referenda C and D. I’ve decided to vote against them.

Whoever put these ballot proposals together does not have his priorities straight. Referendum D depends on passage of Referendum C. Referendum D would allow the state to borrow X amount of money in order to satisfy certain OBLIGATIONS it has regarding police and fire pensions and the repair of public school buildings. It also allows money to be borrowed for other things, like highways. Note that an obligation is something the state has to pay. Yet this request was put in the secondary referendum, not the primary one.

What I got out of Referendum C was that because of the recession in 2002, the state hasn’t been allowed to spend as much money as it would have if there wasn’t a recession because of the passage of TABOR. Well, duh. For some reason which I don’t feel was adequately explained, somebody, who is not clearly identified, but I assume it’s the General Assembly of the State of Colorado, feels that the state should be allowed to play catch up by keeping revenues collected in excess of what TABOR allows. I personally would be a whole lot happier if they just said, “TABOR was a mistake for the following reasons and we want to repeal it” instead of dinking around with a 5-year moratorium, which sounds like it won’t exactly end if D also passes because it allows the state to spend more money regardless after a certain year. If I understood the booklet correctly.

I would have been willing to vote for keeping the “excess” money if it was simply to pay off the obligations the state has regarding pensions and school repairs. The obligations are clear-cut, well-defined and limited, if large. I’m not saying I’m against paying these obligations, I’m just not willing to do it in such a complicated way, with several other things tacked on.

And, if I understood the booklet correctly, the loans taken out in D will be repaid, in part, by the “excess” funds retained by C, except, of course, there’s no guarantees that there will be “excess” funds to be retained.

The booklet was prepared by the research staff of the state legislature and the staff is supposed to be nonpartisan. I didn’t think the booklet was particularly well-written, since some of the statements were unnecessarily vague and I thought the over-all tone was that these measures should be passed.

And I wonder how many voters will spend time trying to figure out where to vote on Referenda A & B?

Full info is supposed to be at ballotbook.