Hello,

This is my contribution to Citizen's Discussion at Tuesday's City Council meeting:

Good morning,

The city made deceptive claims in their effort to get the public to approve the land swap with the Broadmoor Hotel in 2016.

The city said that if the Cog Railway were ever sold the new owner could close the Barr Trail.

On the surface this could be true, but had the city asked the Broadmoor and the Cog Railway to give the Forest Service an easement and had they refused?

If the city had wanted an easement for the Barr Trail they could have made that happen without owning the land.

The city also claimed that acquiring the land from Cog Railway would make it easier to get an alternate route down from the Manitou Incline.

The city acquired that land 7 years ago, where is the alternate route?

During the closure of the Incline for the pandemic, Karen Palus told the Manitou Springs City Council that the NEPA process for the alternate route down would begin later that year.

Today the city refuses to tell us anything about the alternate route down or the promised NEPA process.

Did the city have one or more secret goals for the land swamp?

Sources have told me for years that the city feared that if the Cog Railway was ever sold that a new owner could easily close the Manitou Incline because that person would own a revocable license for the middle third of the Incline.

Did the city want to own that land to make it impossible for a new private party to acquire a revocable license for the Incline, but neglect to inform the public of this agenda?

I must ask this question again:

Did the city, and or the Broadmoor know that $40,000 a year was being spent doing repairs on the land that the city wanted to acquire?

City Parks Dept. and our past Mayor have referred to the city as the “sole managing entity” for the Manitou Incline.

It is not possible that our Parks Dept was not informed every time that workers would be on the Barr Trail because of the excessive traffic from the incline.

Did the city intentionally withhold the fact that $40,000 was being spent doing repairs every year to the land that the city wanted to acquire?

The city can make a public statement:

“The City Attorney's Office has determined that in spite of this omission the appraisal submitted by the Broadmoor is still valid and that the public comment process is also still valid”.

“We have also determined that the concerns raised over the Conservation Easement are irrelevant”.

Thank you, Carl Strow