Last Monday, the Colorado Springs City Council informally approved a long-range (the year 2035) regional transportation plan that includes, among other things, a highway 24 bypass around Woodland Park (with 6+ lanes). This bypass is something that's been discussed for a long, long time, but most view it as an inevitability and it appears to be getting the attention needed to make it happen. The economic effects of this are potentially large, but in reality, are uncertain so you can expect this to create quite a bit of commotion in town as the project draws nearer. You can read more about this in the Gazette or read the entire plan here (sure, it's a boring read, but it's Sunday and it's snowy and windy outside, a perfect time for curling up on a chair and falling asleep while reading government reports!).
As you know, our government recently passed a $160 billion economic stimulus plan, which effectively is creating money out of thin air to try to get people to spend more and help the economy. This plan received much criticism, but they obviously felt the need to put on appearances of trying to do something to help the economy. The hope is that a one-time cash infusion might somehow help things, when what would really help long term is building our economy and creating jobs. So, when the time came recently to award a $40B contract to build new in-air refueling tankers for the Air Force (a contract which may grow to $100B), one would think they'd look at this as a chance to create jobs for Americans. Nope. The contract was awarded to a partnership between US-based Northrop Grumman and the European company that makes the popular Airbus series of passenger jets. Final assembly will be done in the US so it's not like all of the money is being shipped overseas, but the bottom line is that we'll be spending many billions of dollars to create jobs overseas instead of in the US. The competitor for this contract was US-based Boeing, and Boeing very nearly got the contract until, according to the New York Times, Republican Presidential Candidate John McCain scuttled that plan and opened the door for European competition. You can read more about this in the New York Times article.
For a long time, many people have yearned for skiing close to Woodland Park, a sort of small casual place to lure you out of the office early on a Friday. It's a dream that has remained that, a dream, since the last local ski area closed seventeen years ago. The dream is edging closer to reality, as John Ball (former CEO of a Boulder-based broadband company) is aiming to buy 320 acres of land near The Crags and turn it into a small skiing getaway, with perhaps five lifts, 33 ski trails, three restaurants, a 300 room hotel, and 350 condos. Of course, anyone who's ever hiked at The Crags or Putney Gulch knows that perhaps the biggest challenge involves the road improvements necessary to handle that sort of resort! Not to mention the expected local backlash from the people living back there trying to get away from it all. It'll be sure to be a heated political debate, but in the end commerce and tourism is likely to triumph. This news was found on a Gazette blog (thanks Zen for pointing it out to us); an article will be in Thursday's Gazette and we'll post a link to that here.
Update: the developer has posted to the Gazette blog (linked to above) clarifying that the '350 condo' number is really far out there, a more realistic number would be 27 at first, maybe someday growing beyond that. There's also a promotional video on Youtube, you can view that by clicking through to read the rest of this story.
Update: The story in the gazette can be found here.
The Mayor and three City Council positions are up for election on April 8th! If interested, you have until March 14th to file your petition to run for one of these seats. For more information, contact Debbie Miller at 719-687-9885 or
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The CEOs of all three local hospitals (Pikes Peak Regional, Penrose, and Memorial) are all leaving their positions for one reason or another. Pikes Peak Regional Hospital CEO Harley Smith quit (saying the position was not a good fit), Penrose CEO Rick O'Connell resigned, citing personal reasons, and Memorial CEO Dick Eitel announced he's retiring at the end of March. Read more in the Gazette.
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