Society’s default responders

Thanks and a shoutout to the Colorado Springs police for performing a wellness check. They were kind in taking the request, and they reported back with equal kindness (that all was well).

A century ago, police patrolled the streets, responded to disturbances, investigated ordinary crimes, controlled traffic and maintained public order.

These days, police are society’s default responders to almost any urgent problem, even noncriminal problems. Their job seems almost overwhelming. I don’t know how they do it, but I sure am grateful.

Madeleine Prendergast

Colorado Springs

Standards come from city council

As I read through the mayor’s six-point “Community-First Data Center Standards” my nonsense detector went off. He is using smoke and mirrors in a poor attempt to appear to be doing something about Project Taurus, and data centers in general.

His first “standard” was actually implemented by the Utilities Board and City Council back in 2025 (not the mayor). He had nothing to do with it. The second “standard” has been Colorado Springs Utilities’ water policy for years – again, the mayor had nothing to do with it.

Numbers 3 and 4 refer to land use, zoning and development criteria – all things which City Council enacts through ordinances and then votes on specific requests, or appeals of requests, like we will be doing with Project Taurus on September 17th. Once more, the mayor has no part in that and isn’t proposing anything specific- no changes to what council has already enacted- in his “standards”.

The final two are just vague statements “…we will welcome data center projects that want to grow with Colorado Springs, not just in Colorado Springs.” What does that even mean?

If the mayor would like to share his opinion on whether Project Taurus should be approved, he could certainly do that. He is under no restrictions to remain neutral – as the city council is. He won’t be acting as a judge at the hearing in September, as will each Councilmember. However, I think the mayor is afraid to answer that question. Each member of council will answer it, by vote, on September 17.

I think anyone running for mayor should answer the question now.

Dave Donelson

Colorado Springs

Crushing small businesses

Why do legislators and bureaucrats in Denver and Washington, D.C. want to crush small businesses like mine with more red tape?

I ask this question more than I would like these days. Following the Biden Administration’s lead in creating a first-ever national heat standard, lawmakers in Denver proposed a similar policy. Both the Biden-era and Denver proposals create new mandates that are completely divorced from workplace realities. The threat of a Colorado heat standard looms over our small businesses as the General Assembly recently passed a law to “study the impacts of heat-related hazards,” in a move toward enacting a massive new regulation in a future legislative session.

There’s no shortage of bad ideas in Colorado these days, but what’s surprising is that the business-friendly Administration in Washington continues to toy with a new federal heat standard. In fact, a newly released plan says federal OSHA officials intend to “finalize the heat illness prevention standard first proposed in 2024.”

I own a heavy industrial construction company that operates in multiple states and across various industries. My business and employees would be negatively impacted by both a state and federal heat standard. These unworkable mandates would drive up costs, add new paperwork and staffing requirements, and make us less competitive with larger businesses. For my employees, it would dictate when and how they take breaks, instead of letting them decide what makes sense.

Heat standards are a solution in search of a problem. To promote safe and healthy work environments, my employees have cooled water, access to shaded tents and electrolyte packets, and rotate schedules to cooler times of the day. More red tape from bureaucrats in Denver or D.C. will not create safer working conditions for my employees.

My employees are my organization’s greatest asset. Our lawmakers need to consider how their unworkable and unnecessary heat standard laws would crush small businesses. We are not asking for a handout or special favor. We are simply urging legislators to reject a state or federal heat standard.

Ed Myers

Pueblo

Oil price gouging

Why has the DOJ not filed price gouging charges against big oil? I saw where one company doubled its previous quarter profits by billions of dollars. Fuel prices should be low enough that Americans are not straining their budgets because of corporate greed. If nothing else, these profits should be taxed so that fuel costs will drop.

Frank Wilmoth

Colorado Springs