Pueblog USa
Wednesday, March 02, 2005
March 2005 Pueblo Neighborhood Partnership Meeting
An After Action Report.
Attended the monthly meeting of the Pueblo Neighborhood Partnership (PNP) yesterday, before heading home to put together the rest of the food and stuff for last nights OHNO Quarterly General Meeting.
Lots of interesting information was being passed around by the PNP group. And a very informative presentation by representatives of the Colorado Springs Utilities regarding the planned Southern Delivery System (SDS).
Points to keep in mind….
• This saturday, 5 Mar 05, at 10:00 am, at the public library there will be one of a few public forums on the plans to implement mandatory curb-side recycling throughout Pueblo. This will be one of the few opportunities to give your opinion on this proposal.
As I understand it, there will be a panel of people from the city government and possibly some recyclers. They will speak on the matter and field questions from the public. Each member of the public attending the meeting who wishes to speak, will be alloted about 3 minutes in which to express themselves. Three minutes is not a whole lot of time. So if there are complicated issues, and what ISN’T complicated about this, people should coordinate their presentation in order to avoid stealing each others’ thunder and providing the planners and decision makers with the most complete set of concerns.
• As a result of last month’s Human Relations Commission (HRC) meeting over on the Eastside, regarding the untimely shooting death of Daniel Pino, the Pueblo Police Department is going over into a PR blitz. Part of this will be a “Citizens Academy”. It is intended to “enhance your knowledge on the everyday efforts of the Police Department!”
It is scheduled to take place every Tuesday and Thursday between 6 and 29 April 2005. It starts at 6:00 pm and runs to 10:00 pm at the Pueblo Police Department’s Training facilities. The classes will cover history of the police department, patrol function, arrest control [UP AGAINST THE CAR! HANDS ON THE HOOD!], Firearms, SWAT, Bomb Squad, Police Driving, K-9s [Niiiiiice doggieeee….] and building searches. There will be additional information on various departments such as investigations, Gangs, Narcotics and D.A.R.E.
Sounds interesting. Can I repell with the SWAT team? Pat Heine likes the Australian repell technique best. I think it’s highly useful myself. Especially since you have your weapon at the ready with your free hand. However, my favorite is the free repell, i.e., no wall for foot support, as in descent from a hovering heliocopter. [Note: Just try to avoid carrying the heavy radio. I wound up coming in head-down on that occassion. Fortunately the pilot didn’t bob me into the ground.]
When I asked if Steve Guttenberg, of the infamous Police Academy movie series, was going to put in a guest appearance I got an evil look. And, please, don’t ask them about Citizens on Patrol….
• A follow-up meeting to the HRC meeting mentioned immediately above, is planned, but the date is not set. Probably later this month. It is requested that each neighborhood should send someone to represent them on a panel to be composed of the neighborhoods. Personally? I think this is a great idea. If there are issues, they are not limited to any one neighborhood, as the police patrol all of Pueblo. Additional information will be forthcoming.
• The Southern Delivery System (SDS) was presented by a team from Colorado Springs.
They provided a lot of useful information about their perspective on the project. Here are my observations:
[1] They think that they have been misrepresented in the Pueblo Chieftain. That some articles in the paper are giving ‘misinformation’. I’m not sure which ones, as they did not ennumerate the perceived misinformations published there.
[2] It IS ‘their water’, in accordance with court rulings. Therefore they have rights under the law to use it.
[3] As most of the water in question comes from the Western Slope, it is not managed as water that is what I’d call ‘native’ to the Arkansas River. Therefore, Colorado Springs has the right, by court ruling, to ‘use to extinction’. This gives me pause for concern. Extinction is a serious word. It means use it all up and return nothing.
My question here is what is the impact on the people in the lower Arkansas River area? The people from Colorado Springs said their action would not dry up the Arkansas, but if they take their share and use it to extinction, as they have the legal authority to, I don’t see any of that water helping people downstream from here. I’m looking forward to seeing the Environmental Impact Statement on this matter. Will it address that?
[4] Phase I of the SDS will take 10-50 million gallons of water per day from the Arkansas and re-route it through Colorado Springs and, if any is left, back to the Arkansas River via Fountain Creek. The speaker said that about 50% would be returned. The report is not out on what the impact of pumping an additional 25 million gallons of water per day down the Fountain will do vis-a-vis increased potential for flooding. That’ll be part of the Environmental Impact Statement.
It’s an interesting project. And a complicated one. My personal opinion is that part of the project’s flood mitigation program should be to build a dam on the Fountain in the vicinity of I-25 mile marker 115. Such a structure would eliminate the chance of a major flood on the Fountain through Pueblo. It would also provide a great recreational opportunity.
There was a comment that the Fountain is not a good place to build a dam due to soil conditions. Well, that would not outweigh the need for a dam to avoid flooding. All we need is a good cloud-burst in Ute Pass, above Manitou Springs, and we’d see parts of Colorado Springs washing past the Target store. Followed shortly thereafter by the Target store itself…the Union Pacific rail line to the east of I-25 at 13th, then parts of I-25’s 13th Street interchange…..etc., etc., etc.
What would be the cost of all that damage repair, direct and indirect, as opposed to building a good dam?
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