Skyway Association Firewise Meeting

Please join The Skyway Association to learn about current mitigation efforts in our area and sign up for free chipping (dates below). 

Thursday, June 20, 2024 

6:00–8:00 p.m. 

Gold Hill Police Station Community Room 

955 West Moreno Avenue

Chipping

Skyway in its entirety plus Bear Creek and Midland neighborhoods' free chipping dates in 2024 are: 

July 29–August 2 

October 21–25 

You must follow their guidelines or your stacks will not be picked up. 

See https://www.coswildfireready.org/ for the following info: 

• Living with Wildfire town hall meeting dates and locations 

• Citywide chipping schedule 

• Chipping-prep guidelines 

• Mitigation stipend info and a list of CSFD-approved tree-cutting contractors

If You'd Like More Info about Our Government

Hello, neighbors,

For information I do not forward, you may sign up for other organizations' correspondences. See links below. I've not forwarded much info in past years, because of the volume of actions these organizations, including the Skyway Association and Historic Neighborhoods Partnership, take to reign in our often-cunning government actions—city, county, and state. Frankly, it's exasperating.

The legislature is slippery, and you might awaken one morning to learn that statewide single-family zoning (R1) is no more—gone—and everyone can have another house on their lot—which could become an STR. This issue is again on the docket. Recall many of you writing to your legislators last year about SB23-213? Well, it's back, even though we're already overbuilt for our population, state demographers have found.

Is there any information I do not send you that you're interested in, such as:

city actions,local concerns [protecting our bears on garbage day, i.e., container out, container in on trash pickup day],

short-term rentals [STRs = Aibnb, VRBO, etc., via Neighborhood Preservation Alliance of Colorado Springs], 

accessory dwelling units [ADUs = another house on one, single lot],*
fire-evacuation concerns [Westside Watch], 

development [City Planning, City Council, Planning Commission via Integrity Matters],

House and Senate bills in the hopper, about which you may want to write your legislator [Find My Legislator, https://leg.colorado.gov/findmylegislator],**
but of course CS Police Department [Would you like to see monthly video summaries?],

and CS Fire Department.

Very few emailings is my goal, and of course, there's always the Delete key : )

* HB24-1152 This bill is subject to modification once it hits the Senate floor.

** Senator Bob Gardner

Senate District 12
E-mail: bob.gardner.senate@coleg.gov
Webpage: Bob Gardner

Representative Marc Snyder

House District 18
E-mail: marc.snyder.house@coleg.gov
Webpage: Marc Snyder

Free Chipping

Skyway in its entirety plus Bear Creek and Midland neighborhoods' free chipping dates in 2024 are:

• July 29–August 2
  
• October 21–25

See https://www.coswildfireready.org/ for the following info: 

• Living with Wildfire town hall meeting dates and locations
  
• Citywide chipping schedule
  
• Chipping-prep guidelines
  
• Mitigation stipend info and a list of CSFD-approved tree-cutting contractors

Feel free to share, and if any data didn't transfer, jot me a note.

leighwestin@gmail.com

Chipping and Wildfire Mitigation

 Hello, neighbors,

Just a reminder that Firewise has divided Skyway at Cresta [city map linked] and is incorporating the western section of the Skyway Association area with Bear Creek, Skyway Heights, and Top of Skyway. 

Upper Skyway: July 3–7, also Oct. 2–6

Lower Skyway: July 17–21, also Oct. 16–20

Strictly follow their guidelines or the crew will no longer take the time to pick up. Sign up here, https://www.coswildfireready.org/neighborhood-chipping-program, where all applicable information is located.

CSFD's cost-sharing stipends are still available. Their detailed (attached) guidelines must be followed.

Keep track of your time and money spent on mitigation. I see on the following link, the State is still offering a 50 percent tax credit on dollars spent, within limits, https://www.coswildfireready.org/mitigation-tax-credit

Crime Stoppers—Anonymity and Rewards

Neighbors,

I participated in an excellent presentation last eve, learning about Crime Stoppers, crimestop.net, 719-634-STOP (7867). Screen shots attached.

For years many have experienced long wait times to report criminal or suspicious behavior when calling the nonemergency line, 719-444-7000, and reporting online at coloradosprings.gov/police-department (left column) isn’t for emergency reports, as 911 is. With each, you’ll be asked your name and phone number. Even if you do not wish to be identified, chances are, you are still traceable.

Crime Stoppers is an alternative, offering anonymity and rewards for your tips. Those answering the phone or receiving your tip online will never ask for nor even want your name or number.

A partnership between the community, schools, law enforcement, and media, and funded 100 percent by donations, Pikes Peak Area Crime Stoppers exists in El Paso and Teller counties, helping the applicable law enforcement agency—city, county, military—solve crime to bring fugitives to justice. The more successful Crime Stoppers is, the more rewards they pay, so they gratefully accept donations. 

Officially formed in Albuquerque in 1976,* Crime Stoppers began with the premise that witnesses would be willing to offer information if they could remain anonymous, with the possibility of earning cash rewards for information leading to an arrest or conviction. Crime Stoppers provides an excellent platform to more quickly get criminals off the streets.
* en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_Stoppers

Take time to view their site.

Garbage Day Bear Feast

Wednesday, Sept. 21, 11:30 a.m., 812 Sirius Drive: Mom and the kids ripping and tearing.

When the city finally re-passed an existing law—take your garbage out on trash pickup morning and place your containers safely out of sight and reach after trash is hauled away—renaming it the Bear Management Area (6.4.106), people seemed to finally listen to common sense. But taking trash out at the permissible 5:00 a.m. doesn't stop bears from their hunger.

https://codelibrary.amlegal.com/codes/coloradospringsco/latest/coloradosprings_co/0-0-0-25081

6.4.106: ESTABLISHMENT OF THE BEAR MANAGEMENT AREA:

The City of Colorado Springs hereby finds that the area within Colorado Springs located west of lnterstate-25 (I-25) has experienced a high incidence of bears foraging for food in waste containers and other sources, occurring at levels that pose a threat to the health, safety, and welfare of the citizens and visitors to the City. In light of such finding, the "Bear Management Area" is hereby established. This area is located generally west of I-25 but is more specifically denoted in the Bear Management Area Map adopted by City Council and updated from time to time. (Ord. 19-72)

6.4.107: COLLECTION AND DISPOSAL WITHIN THE BEAR MANAGEMENT AREA:

The following requirements apply to collection and disposal of waste within the Bear Management Area:

   A.   Within the Bear Management Area, all attractant waste must be secured within a functioning bear resistant container, secured structure, or secured dumpster enclosure at all times except as authorized in this section.

   B.   Non-bear resistant waste containers may be placed at the designated collection location on the scheduled collection day no earlier than 5:00 A.M., and must be removed from the collection location and secured as soon as practicable after collection service has been provided, but no later than 7:00 P.M. on the same scheduled day.

   C.   Any other waste stored in waste containers and stored outside must be sufficiently free from attractant waste so that it is not an enticement to bears.

   D.   Any organizer conducting a special event within the Bear Management Area pursuant to a permit required by City Code section 3.2.404 must remove or secure within a bear resistant container, secured dumpster enclosure, or secured structure attractant waste from the area, subject to the requirements contained in the permit, but no later than one (1) hour following completion of the event each day. (Ord. 19-72)

Charging Bear and Scat

 Neighbors,

Eastern Bear Creek is living up to its name. 

Three weeks ago (later August), neighbor Patty said a guy from Canada was photographing a sow and two cubs, between 9:00 and 10:00 a.m. I think she said, on the two-bridge trail south of EPC Parks' maintenance building near where the six beavers built a pond. 

Two weeks ago, someone reported that a sow with two cubs had charged a jogger's dog in the same location. After hearing that story again yesterday, I met up with Robert this morning who frequents the park, and he said it was his friend Jay and his dog who were charged. Another gal told me she watched the cubs frolicking or destroying "that short tree over there."

Additionally, a week ago a small pile of scat was on the northern Center for Creative Leadership trail, and this morning, a v-e-r-y large pile o' scat sat by the utilities boxes on Skyway Blvd between Eric and the Daves' houses, immediately north of Morning Star.

We've seen and photographed many bears over the years, but rarely do we hear of charging sows. If reporting to Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW), 719-227-5200 (weekends 719-544-2424), they only accept first-person sightings, no second-hand news as you're receiving from me.

Here is a shot of the twins Bonnie Light took in 2020, and a couple I shot in the backyard.