Hello,

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

Good morning,

During the public comment process for the land swap in 2016 the city told us that if the Cog Railway were ever sold, the new owner could close the Barr Trail.

That fear is far-fetched to say the least.

If the Cog Railway were sold the new owner WOULD close the Manitou Incline.

The city did not tell the public about this fear, yet the land swap took the revocable license away from the Cog Railway.

Why would anyone want to close the Manitou Incline?

The Manitou Incline Task Force promised us an alternate route down to alleviate the overuse of the Barr Trail.

I do not believe that an alternate route down will ever be built.

I do not believe that the Task Force was sincere because there was no promise of an alternate route down in the Site Development and Management Plan.

Kurt Schroder told me that the Task Force did not study whether the Incline would be stable over the long term, and that they were not even supposed to look into that.

He also stated that the long-term stability of the Incline was not compromised by the rails being removed from the railroad ties.

In my eyes that is a bizarre claim.

There is no need to learn why the Incline is in such a state of disrepair and if it would be possible to prevent it from happening again.

Why were the stage three repairs different from stage one and stage two?

Is the Special Use Permit now invalid because the Manitou Incline as it is defined in the Permit no longer exists?

Clearly, the motivation behind the land swap was not to empower the Broadmoor Hotel to be able to offer horseback riding.

The motivation had to be to strip the Cog Railway of its revocable license in order to make it more difficult for a private entity to close the Incline.

This leads me to the 9-year-old question.

What is the estimated cost of all needed repairs to the section of the Barr Trail that the city acquired in the land swap?

Why is the city refusing to answer this simple question?

I asked this question over and over and over during the public comment process.

By refusing to provide the answers, the city in effect rigged the public comment process.

We will only answer questions that we like.

Did city officials arrange to have my character defamed with the people who heard me speak at public meetings?

If so, that would constitute criminal rigging of the public comment process.

Please tell me - what is the estimated cost of all needed repairs to the section of the Barr Trail that the city acquired in the land swap?

I need the number please.

Thank you, Carl Strow