Here are my comments for the City Council today:
Good afternoon,
The City spent $5 million dollars repairing the Incline, what is the estimated cost of the needed repairs on the route down from the Incline? I have been asking this simple question for over three years. Are we to believe that you still don't know the answer? Why have these repairs not been discussed publicly?
Does the section of the Barr Trail that we own not have grave problems? Over $200,000 has been spent on it already. Are there not concerns with its long term stability? The City mentioned the drainage and erosion issues once, are we expected to believe that you have not looked into the cost of these repairs? We have owned this land for over two years. I am asking that the land swap be reversed immediately.
I asked last year about the alternate route down from the Incline. The claim that the City is still studying possible routes after 6 years is not believable. What have members of this Council learned? Is an alternate route down even possible? Have you found misconduct by the Manitou Incline Task Force? I only withdrew my oppostion to the legal opening of the Incline because we were led to believe that an alternate route down would be built. Somehow that commitment did not appear in the final report from the Task Force. Did the Task Force know that an alternate route down would never be built, and mislead the public? There are too many people coming down the Barr Trail. I am asking that the Incline be put on a reservation system until an alrernate route down is available.
What do the engineering reports say about the long term stability of the Incline? I asked this last year and Kurt Schroeder lied to me, claiming that the Task Force did not explore that question. That claim is ludicrous. Did the Task Force deceive the public about the long term stability of the Incline? If the Task Force was advised not to try to maintain the Incline because it would not remain stable after the rails had been removed, this would mean that the City has committed grant fraud against GOCO, FEMA and HUD. I thought that I heard something from GOCO to the effect that the Incline has to close to avoid legal problems. Was I mistaken?
Our City Government is the people. You are nothing more than our representatives. If you have found problems with the land swap and the Incline, you have to disclose them to the public.