Courier View Pikes Peak
Pikes Peak 11-13-2013
Teller County, Colorado • Volume 52, Issue 46
November 13, 2013
75 cents
A Colorado Community Media Publication
ourtellercountynews.com
Building department ready to go By Norma Engelberg Contributing writer
Effective Nov. 30, Teller County will no longer provide building services for Woodland Park. That revelation, from the county commissions a couple of months ago left the city with the task of creating a building department of its own. In those two months, City Planning Director Sally Riley and her staff in the Woodland Park Planning Department have done just that through an agreement with Pikes Peak Regional Building Department, joining seven other communities that use their services: unincorporated El Paso County, Colorado Springs, Manitou Springs, Green Mountain Falls, Fountain, Palmer Park and Monument. As one of its last steps toward setting up the department, at its Nov. 7 council meeting Woodland
Park City Council approved an intergovernmental agreement between the city and the Pikes Peak Regional Building Department. The city will provide office space and equipment and one half-time permit technician. All operating costs, including the half-time employee’s salary, will be paid through building permit and inspection fees. Pikes Peak Regional Building will operate the department and provide two inspectors, who will be on hand in Woodland Park four hours a day five days a week, to start. “If construction picks up and we need more inspectors and longer hours, we’ll add them,” said Pikes Peak Regional Building Official Henry Yankowski. As part of the agreement, Woodland Park will establish a board of appeals to handle building and construction questions. Regional building will provide le-
gal counsel for the appeals board. The city will also set fees for commercial and residential building permits and adopt, with a few minor modifications, the 2011 Pikes Peak Regional Building Code, the 2009 International Building Code and several other building codes. “The codes are structured such that we can avoid most appeals; modifications are allowed at times,” Yankowski said. “Some of the fees will be higher than Colorado Springs’ fees but lower than Teller County’s.” The council approved, on first reading, the ordinance adopting the new codes and creating the board of appeals and set Nov. 21 for the public hearing. The resolution setting fees was handed out at the Nov. 7 meeting for the council to look over before making a final decision, also at that Nov. 21 meeting. If the ordinance and fee structure are approved at that time,
Woodland Park Mayor Dave Turley is welcomed back to the city council on Nov. 7 with a banner. Turley is recovering from a motorcycle accident that happened in early October that resulted in major surgery and kept him away from council meetings for a month. Photo by Norma Engelberg they will be retroactive to Nov. 4 so that permits can be issued as soon as Nov. 8. When asked why the city will also retain its board of adjustment,
Riley explained that the board of adjustment only deals with zoning questions while the new board of appeals deals only with construction and building-code issues.
WPPD officer helps solve cold case Police chief accepts severance package
Teller County sues city to reverse recent annexation By Norma Engelberg Contributing writer
In 1993 in Suffolk County, United Kingdom, an armored car guard took off with £1.2 million (about $1.9 million in today’s dollars) and disappeared. Last year Suffolk County Constabulary followed a lead the put the thief in Teller County and called the Woodland Park Police Department for help. The case was assigned to Officer Nikki Tezak, who discovered that the man bought a home near Woodland Park, paying for it with cash from a Swiss Bank account. That information and some other tidbits lead the two constables she was working with to arrest the culprit, who plead guilty in Crown Court in 2012. For her work in solving this 19-year-old international cold case, Tezak was presented with a plaque by Woodland Park Police Chief Robert Larson at the Nov. 7 Woodland Park City Council meeting. For the first time in more than a month, Mayor Dave Turley was back in his place on the council. He is recovering from a motorcycle crash that happened in early October. He gave his thanks to the Woodland Park community for its support during his surgery and recuperation. “This community is a wonderful place,” he said, commenting on all the prayers and thoughts that went out to him, the get-well cards from Woodland Park students, multiple visits by his “baseball kids,” the Pikes Peak Regional Hospital where he was stabilized after the crash and the hard work of a Colorado Springs surgeon who, he said, saved his life. One the first orders of business after Turley picked up the gavel was the approval of an intergovernmental agreement between the city and the Woodland Park RE-2 School District for assigning a second school resource (police) officer to the district. In 2014, the city will pay the full operating costs for both officers, with the district agreeing to pay for equipping and POSTAL ADDRESS
Sheriff ’s office assumes law-enforcement duties By Pat Hill
phill@ourcoloradonews.com
Woodland Park Police Officer Nikki Tezak, center, is flanked by Police Chief Robert Larson, left, Detective Tom Kinney, Deputy Chief John Gomes, Teller County Victims Advocate Jan McKamy and Sgt. Chris Adams. Tezak earned a commendation from the department for her help in cracking a 19-year-old armored car theft that happened in the United Kingdom. Photo by Norma Engelberg training the second officer. By 2017, 80 percent of the operating costs for the second officer will be paid by the school district with the city paying the rest. The city will continue to fund operational costs for the first officer. The newly elected RE-2 Board of Education will have to ratify the agreement at its next school board meeting before it will become effective. Before the meeting, the council met with City Attorney Erin Smith to discuss a lawsuit filed by Teller County in district court. The county wants the city to reverse the Southwest Valley Annexation decision it approved in late August. The annexed property is proposed as a new Teller County Waste facility. County officials tried to appeal council’s decision directly but submitted that appeal after the deadline. During the regular meeting, a scheduled ordinance hearing on the facility was
tabled to the Jan. 16 council meeting at the request of Teller County Waste owner Jay Baker and Erin Smith was directed by council to defend the city’s decision in the lawsuit. The council also decided not to set a work session to go over plans for Memorial Park. Members agreed that they have enough information to make a decision on the two park-renovation plans submitted last month by Land Patterns Inc. The city’s Parks and Recreation Advisory Board submitted a letter to support the plan that doesn’t set aside space for an aquatic center in the northwest corner of the park. The letter states that preserving green space in the park is a top priority and that the aquatic center has other options. Woodland Park Economic Development Director Brian Fleer, also executive director for the Woodland Park Downtown Development Authority, updated council on various projects, including Woodland Hardware’s plan to have a grand opening in mid February and groundbreaking for Trail Ridge Apartments on Nov. 13. He also talked about the holiday season Printed on recycled newsprint. Please that has already started in the city. In conrecycle this copy. junction with the Woodland Park Chamber of Commerce, 5,000 “Elevate and Celebrate the Season” brochures have been mailed to Officer continues on Page 4
Green Mountain Falls Police Chief Tim Bradley has accepted a severance package of $12,000 to leave his post as the town’s chief law enforcement officer. As a result, Bradley submitted a letter of resignation on Nov. 7. Bradley was not fired, said Howard Price, the town’s liaison to the department. “Tim has done a good job,” Price said. “But we are redesigning the marshal’s office.” The redesign is the result of Price’s initiation of a pending agreement with El Paso County Sheriff Terry Maketa to open a substation in Green Mountain Falls. If the agreement is accepted by El Paso County, the sheriff’s law-enforcement officers will patrol the area from Crystola to the first exit to Manitou Springs. The deputies will also investigate crimes and provide prosecutions for criminal activity. “With a substation in town the deputies can respond faster to calls in our area,” Price said at the board meeting on Nov. 5. In a town patrolled by a marshal for the past century, Bradley’s farewell is monumental, and the ushering in of a new era in Green Mountain Falls. Bradley incurred public censure by Price for patrolling U.S. 24 rather than remaining exclusively in town. While Bradley won high praise from vocal citizens, others were enraged about the number of speeding tickets he has issued. Bradley was also recognized by the town’s school children for his morning patrols on Ute Pass Avenue near the elementary school. In the afternoon of Nov. 8, the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office issued a release stating that, effective that day, the office will assume all law-enforcement duties and responsibilities for the town.