Author: Barry Noreen
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Hiking Grand Canyon from rim to rim is quite an experience
Ten years ago, I did the first of my four rim-to-rim hikes in the Grand Canyon. We dropped off the North Rim a bit past 6:30 a.m., and before long, we were staring at the least attractive end of a horse – the last in a string of about 15 animals slowly making their way…
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NOREEN: Cone zone, go slow
Highway work means lower speed limits in work zones. Reader Leslie Lorenz wrote, “So many of us will be contending with the road construction on I-25. The speed limit is 65 through that area. My question is does the speed limit apply all the time or just when there are workers present? Sometimes you see…
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NOREEN: A Garden of the Gods retention pond?
In the wake of the Waldo Canyon fire many are worried that heavy rains on the burn scar could result in serious flooding on the west side, especially in Pleasant Valley downstream of Garden of the Gods. Included on a list of proposed flood mitigation projects released April 17 by Colorado Springs Mayor Steve Bach’s…
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NOREEN: Taxes don’t pay for all work in medians
“Very interesting,” wrote reader Gene Blake, “that the city has money to build curbs and flower garden on Nevada where none was needed, have no one to tend the ones they already have, and have a water shortage, but cannot find money or time to fix crumbling curbs that need handicap ramps for the last…
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NOREEN: Agency says chairs can be sold
This week The Gazette reported on a creative fundraising project initiated by the Community Partnership for Community Development, which runs the Head Start pre-school program for low-income families. Challenged by a $530,000 budget cut resulting from the federal government’s sequestration of funds, CPCD launched the Fill a Seat project, which involves decorating old chairs and…
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NOREEN: Projects impact trails — for now
Regular users of parks and trails notice everything that goes on there and they care a lot about it. Consider the recent dust-up over a proposal to close a trail in the Bear Creek drainage west of Colorado Springs to protect habitat for the rare greenback cutthroat trout. Reader Wade Bowe is no exception: “There…
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NOREEN: Timing of settling city lawsuits was exquisite
Precisely a week after a City Council election in which four of the members were trying to keep their seats and a council pay raise measure also was on the ballot, the council approved legal settlements totalling $9.2 million — a ton of bad news for taxpayers, all on the same day. To a number…
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NOREEN: Heterosexual couples can get civil union license, too
Coloradans will be able to enter into civil unions beginning May 1 and what has been a lightning rod political issue already is being absorbed by the bureaucracy because, like anything else government does, the job isn’t complete until the paperwork is done. At 8 a.m. on May 1, El Paso County couples will be…
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NOREEN: Many unhappy with water restrictions
Reading the mail about Colorado Springs watering restrictions is akin to Goldilocks and the Three Bears — some say the rules are too harsh, some say they are not harsh enough and presumably, many who do not write in think the rules are just right. Reader Jean Kane of Florissant wrote, “I was wondering why…
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NOREEN: Majority rules — most of the time
Four of the six winners in the April 2 Colorado Springs City Council race got less than 40 percent of the vote and will take office with tepid pluralities, given that overall voter turnout was only 39 percent. Those results beg the question, and quite a few people have been asking it: Should the city…