Approve Buc-ees’ plan

Like many of my neighbors, I despise what Monument and El Paso County have done to the county’s north end.  Having said that, I desperately want the disgraceful Buc-ee’s development plan to be approved. My rationale for this seemingly contradictory statement is as follows.

I live on 2.5-mile dead-end Hay Creek Rd off Baptist Road West in a valley up against the mountains, hemmed in by the AF Academy fence line and the National Forest.  Our valley lacks a secondary means of access, as required by the Land Development Code.  Our sole means of egress in a fire situation is via Baptist Road.  In a recent BoCC hearing on a separate development in our valley, Commissioner Holly Williams had the unmitigated gall to suggest that the occupants of our valley get a collection together and build our own secondary means of access.  The development applicant actually stated that those in the valley worried about fire risk should move.  The utter hubris of these statements is astonishing.

The now bigger issue we face is the insane development, both commercial and multiple high-density residential, between I-25 and Old Denver Highway and bordered by Monument and the Academy; all of which will be accessing Baptist Road West.  In their infinite wisdom, Monument deemed it wise and approved what is now a conglomeration of multiple high-density housing developments, three large truck stops and a still-ongoing array of huge commercial facilities that all use semitrailers as part of their business operations and they’re not done yet.  The current estimate is a 12,000-trip-per-day increase in traffic.

The recently redesigned very short section of Baptist Road West is totally inadequate to handle the increased traffic.  It is also becoming increasingly difficult to navigate around the ever-increasing truck traffic in a ridiculously small roundabout.  Additionally, we have a problem with trucks regularly dumping their load in the roundabout.  One truck with a trailer load of scrap metal overturned, dumping its entire contents all over the road and onto the pedestrian sidewalk.  If there had been a pedestrian at this location, they would surely have perished.  Furthermore, the trucks regularly get stuck in the snow and ice attempting to make the uphill climb from the truck stops to the I-25 interchange.

As much as I despise it, if Buc-ee’s approval helps mitigate some of the outrageous traffic and fire-escape access problems down here, then, please God, approve the project.  We all need to share the pain of the unhinged, out-of-control development and destruction of our once magnificent Front Range views.

Mike “Klute” Cloutier

Monument

Litter and  Big Tobacco

 It was with disbelief that I read this headline in the Gazette: ‘ Denver Sues Big Tobacco Companies Over Cigarette Litter’ and Mayor Mike Johnson’s   reason:  “It’s past time Big Tobacco cleaned up the mess it’s created.”  Did the tobacco companies themselves come and litter the streets and sidewalks with cigarette butts? 

     NO! It is the users of the product who littered, causing the mess on the streets and sidewalks.  It is the users who need to take responsibility for putting the item (s) into the proper container when they are finished using the product.  In this case, each person has the freedom to choose whether to smoke a cigarette.  The phrase “clean up after yourself” is appropriate in this situation.  

   Respect for other peoples’ property or in this case the city’s property, is not part of the culture at the moment.  It is all about me.   “Cig butts” aren’t the only litter in Denver, nor in Colorado Springs and so on, but also paper coffee cups, candy wrappers, soda cans.  The list goes on and on.  The citizens of the city need to keep the city clean, not the tobacco companies, food companies and so on.

    Values come from within.  They are part of a person’s being.  A clean city is when the citizenry works to keep it clean by using the available trash containers.  This meant my pocket when my children were young. 

    Being a responsible citizen by cleaning up after oneself will keep the city clean and make it a great place in which to live.

    Maybe the citizens who litter are the ones who should be sued. 

Erna Haring

Colorado Springs

Current lifestyle not what we had in mind

Two little words, such as “SO WHAT?!” plus the question mark, can carry a lot of weight when spoken with indifference and insensitivity toward the major problems being experienced by those who share their despair with the one responsible for them.

Uncertainty about the war in Iran – the number of innocent lives that will be taken before the war is over, uncertainty about financial problems for those who live from paycheck to paycheck; uncertainty about what is safe regarding immunizations for children.

Fortunately for our president, he does not have to concern himself with any of the problems listed above, but what about the many Americans who deserve better than such a cold dismissal with the statement “SO WHAT?”

What makes matters worse is to see how the ego-centered energy among those at the top focuses on power and self-gain, while the rest of us work hard to make a living, pay taxes and say “AMEN” to whatever the government dishes out to us?

Perhaps things are not as simple as this letter states? Based on the serious nature of the problems mentioned here, perhaps coping mechanisms among different segments of inhabitants of this country are not as simple as they appear to be? After all, the increase in psychologically related illnesses can be attributed to the suppressed anger the average Joe in this country is experiencing? Substance abuse, domestic violence, road rage… you name it!

What about the psychosomatic illnesses such as depression, eating disorders, sleeping disorders, migraine headaches? As if this sad life style were not enough, many seem to be in a state of denial, pretending all this will magically go away.

If you are reading this, you are not illiterate, so how about writing letters to the politicians you voted for, stating the fact that this lifestyle in this country is not what you had in mind?

Marcela Gaumer

Colorado Springs