Hello,
This is my contribution to Citizen's Discussion at Tuesday's City Council meeting:
Good morning,
At the public meeting at Gold Camp Elementary School on February 24th, 2016, Sara Bryarly of our Parks Dept. stated that the land that was owned by the Cog Railway had drainage problems and erosion damage.
The city has owned that land for over 8 years, why has the city not fixed those problems yet?
The city acquired millions of dollars in grant money to do repairs to the Manitou Incline, is the city not making any effort to obtain grant money to do repairs to the Barr Trail?
Does GOCO not negotiate with the city on such matters in advance?
Are these repairs not even on the city's long-term wish list?
How many trails in our area require $40,000 in repairs or annual maintenance?
The city refers to itself as the “Proud Stewards of America's Mountain”.
The city did millions of dollars of work on the Manitou Incline.
The city spent tens of millions building a new Summit House Complex on the summit of Pikes Peak.
The city did not own the first two miles of the Barr Trail, then decided to acquire that land.
Did the city not take upon itself the obligation to be a good steward of this land?
The $40,000 in annual repairs on this land will never fix the drainage problems or the erosion damage.
It will never build a new fence along the trail.
It is not making the trail safer overall or more hike-able by removing the many obstacles in the trail.
It is doing some stability work and a lot of repairs of the annual damage caused to the trail by its need for major drainage work.
Has the city decided whether we are going to close the section of the Barr Trail that we acquired from the Cog Railway and build a reroute?
If the city does build a reroute would you leave the erosion damage as it is now?
A drainage study and major drainage improvements would have to be done before repairing the erosion damage to prevent a relapse.
Does the city have any kind of long range plan for this section of the Barr Trail?
Thank you, Carl Strow