I am still waiting for my questions to be answered!
Hello,
This is my contribution for Citizen's Discussion for Tuesday's City Council meeting:
Good Morning,
The rear seat heater is still on in nearly every bus. At 8 am it is on very low, one can sit in the back row and still be comfortable. By 11 am or noon it is turned up much higher, on some buses the entire rear section of the bus is hot because of it.
The air conditioning is on very little or none on nearly every bus. The daytime temperature is in the 80's or 90's everyday. With a couple of windows open for the virus the temperature inside the bus will be higher than the outside temperature because of the sun hitting the roof and windows of the bus.
There is some breeze when the bus is moving but not at red lights or stops. Everyone is required to wear a mask. The temperature on the bus is harmful to various types of individuals for different reasons. I often spend a lot of time out in the sun in the morning, then get on a bus that is warm or hot.
The time is never displayed for the benefit of the passengers as it used to be.
Please tell us why Mountain Metro has the rear seat heater turned on all day on every bus in the summer.
Please tell us why the air conditioning is not used to keep the buses comfortably cool during the summer. Last summer and the summer before the buses were all kept very cool all summer. Is this not a perk for people who choose to ride the bus, and to do so must walk in the heat to a bus stop, or suffer in the sun at a bus stop?
Please tell us why Mountain Metro stopped displaying the time for the passengers benefit on every single bus.
I went for a short hike up the Barr Trail Friday. I was shocked at how many people were coming down from the Incline. I was also shocked at the arrogance of nearly all of them.
They were making no effort to stay 6 feet away from me. Most did not have a mask visible. I kept my mask with me hiking up, and put it on immediately every time that I saw someone approaching.
The condition of the trail was also shocking, I saw erosion damage that I have never seen before on that trail.
I hiked up the trail between eleven am and noon and there were many, many people coming down from the Incline. Soon after I reached my destination there were far fewer.
Did the Incline attendants let people hike the Incline without reservations late Friday morning?
Did some Incline or City Official direct them to do so, or encourage people to head up there without reservations?
Are there rules concerning social distancing and wearing a mask when it is not possible to remain far away from other hikers?
Why was no one on the Barr Trail supervising to ensure that public health is being properly respected? It is not possible to keep a safe distance from other hikers on many sections of the narrow Barr Trail.
The Incline is keeping track of the names and contact information of people who hike the Incline for the sake of contact tracing. What about me? How will I know if I come into close contact with an infected person on the Barr Trail? Or on the Incline shuttle once it starts running.
The Barr Trail alone is not a huge concern because there are not large numbers of people going in both directions. The Incline, for some reason feels that it is reasonable to allow 1080 people to hike the Incline everyday. Plus those who hike up before 6 am or after 6 pm.
I have been watching Manitou Springs City Council meetings for months to try to get a sense of what was being planned for the Incline. Several members have consistently expressed a proper concern for public health, social distancing, etc. I was shocked that they now agreed to reopen the Incline at a time when the number of Covid 19 cases and fatalities are growing.
They seemed to have no intention of allowing the Incline to reopen with out the Incline shuttle running, but that is exactly what they have done. Mountain Metro says that the shuttle will not be operational until at least August 24th.
I was under the impression that Manitou Springs would not allow the shuttle to run until the pandemic danger had passed, and that they would not allow the Incline to open with out the shuttle. What changed?
I strongly suspect foul play, or an undue influence in all of this.
Why the rush? Why not agree to let the Incline open when the shuttle is ready? Or keep it closed because the shuttle bus is a tiny tin can with no possibility for social distancing.
Operating the Incline without the shuttle is causing traffic overload on Ruxton Ave., and in the Barr Trail lot.
Mountain Metro now has “please do not sit here” signs on every other seat on their buses. The drivers are required to call in every time that they have 10 or more passengers on their bus.
Will the smaller Incline shuttle bus have those signs? How many people do we expect to be on the average bus? Will limits be put on the number of passengers? Will hikers be allowed to stand in the aisles?
There are concerns about airborne virus substance, and that which is left on surfaces on the bus. How many people do we estimate will ride the shuttle each day?
Mountain Metro has canceled route #18, and one or two others in order to have extra buses and drivers to reduce the ridership on their busiest routes #5 and #11. They run a second “express” bus on those routes.
Will the Incline shuttle become the new Mountain Metro problem child?
Do some City Officials have an unhealthy obsession with the Incline? Karen Palus making repeated false statements like saying that a fee cannot be charged for the Incline without a NEPA process, or that Manitou is required by the IGA to pay for the shuttle.
Mayor Suthers stated publicly that Colorado Springs manages the Incline, and that Manitou only has a right to interfere because of the pandemic. The IGA clearly says that management is shared. Is the mayor not an attorney and extremely intelligent?
The entire reservation system is a farce. It was designed on a flawed foundation, namely the claim by Karen Palus that a fee cannot be charged for the Incline without a NEPA process. That is absurd. This tainted the entire process, and led to a badly flawed result. The Incline is still not required to pay its own way.
Is the Barr Trail deteriorating? There are erosion ravines that come down the hillside and carve right through the trail in a few places now. I have never seen that before. Several washouts are much bigger, and some eat a good portion of the trail. Those appear to be very dangerous.
Does our Parks Dept. say that Manitou Springs is to blame for all of that? They are not administering the $40,000 each year properly.
There is water running in the erosion ravines. This has to be halted because as long as this is going on the ravines will get deeper and deeper.
When is Manitou Springs going to take the necessary steps to stop this?
What are those steps?
How many years of spending $40,000 do we estimate will be necessary to complete that work, and repair the erosion damage?
Is a study by a professional firm necessary before performing the work of stopping water from running in the erosion ravines?
Of the $40,000 spent on repairs each year how much is to repair damage that arouse in the last year, and how much is spent on old existing damage? Will the day come when it is no longer necessary to spend $40,000 every year on repairs? If so, please tell us when?
Do any other trails in our area need $40,000 spent each year on a section of trail that is less than 2 and one half miles long?
How much money has been spent on this trail to repair damage that existed in the spring of 2016, or make improvements that were needed in the spring of 2016?
While Manitou Springs is the entity conducting the repairs on our land, our Parks Dept. is analyzing the issues and costs on the land that we own, right? Please make the details public.
The Barr Trail lot was over full when I went up. Two vehicles were even parked in areas without marked spaces. That is where I have seen emergency vehicles parked in the past, just west of the kiosk. Did they get tickets?
When I came down a couple of hours later there was one space available.
Where do people with reservations to camp at the Barr Camp park?
At the entrance to Hydro Loop a sign says:
PARKING FOR BARR TRAIL HIKERS AND CAMPERS ONLY.
NO INCLINE ACCESS.
Where are the Incline Friends group volunteers, new signs, and media announcements saying please to not park in the Barr Trail lot to hike the incline?
Will they now start gouging Barr Trail hikers for parking again, claiming that there is no other possible way to control the misconduct of Incline hikers?
Was the Incline ever actually closed? Please release to the public the numbers of people who hiked the Incline each month from March through July of this year. Did Colorado Springs actually pay to empty and clean the Porta Potties at the Incline trail head over the last several months? How many Porta Potties were cleaned, and how often? What was the monthly cost? Why would we provide services to people who were breaking the law and violating public health orders? The normal protocol would be to lock the Port Potties to say THE INCLINE IS CLOSED, GO AWAY.
Thank you, Carl Strow