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April 24, 2014 Elbert County, Colorado | Volume 119, Issue 12 A publication of
elbertcountynews.net
New rules proposed for parades Police chief aims to prevent accidents By Jennifer Edmonds
Special to Colorado Community Media
Elizabeth High School Future Business Leaders of America, from left, Zack Perry, Douglas Coulter and Aleigha Mace are headed to the State Conference on April 27 to present their study on the Town of Elizabeth’s Water and Sewer Enterprise Fund. Photo by Jennifer Edmonds
Getting down to business High school seniors analyze town’s water/sewer fund By Jennifer Edmonds
Special to Colorado Community Media Seniors involved in the Future Business Leaders of America at Elizabeth High School have been working with the Town of Elizabeth to do a case analysis of the town’s Water and Sewer Enterprise Fund. “The water and sewer system of the town was running at a deficit and he (Town Administrator Dick Eason) wanted a way to turn it into a self-sustaining enterprise,” said Zack Perry, the project manager for the FBLA Chapter. The students used a study that was
done by the University of North Carolina that taught how to structure a small town water system as far as pricing. Elizabeth has 14 different pricing tiers, which is higher than any rate structure that the FBLA examined, according to Perry and fellow FBLA member Aleigha Mace. “The most we looked at is three to four,” Mace said. “Even in just lowering the number of tiers we increased there was an added profit of $200,000.” Douglas Coulter, another student on the FBLA team, said it was interesting to see how municipalities work. “A municipality has a lot more attention because they pretty much do control the rates they get,” Coulter stated. The FBLA presented their findings and recommendations to the Board of Trustees on April 8. “They did a fantastic job,” Eason said.
Eason explained that the town’s Water and Sewer Enterprise Fund is not supported by taxes, but instead is completely funded by user fees. “So if we are not charging for our products but costs are going up, that can be a long-term problem,” Eason said. The town has not raised fees for about five years, according to FBLA faculty adviser John Loutzenhiser. Mace said it was a bit of a challenge to speak at the public meeting. “It was pretty nerve racking,” she said “Everyone was pretty chill about it and knew we are high school students and this is the first big thing we’ve ever done. This is the first time I’ve ever spoken in front of a group of people who weren’t teenagers.” Loutzenhiser is proud of his students. “We want the enterprise in this town to Sewer continues on Page 7
With the Elizabeth Stampede Parade coming up on June 7, Police Chief Michael Phibbs is taking steps to make the experience safer for the community by proposing new parade rules to the Town of Elizabeth Board of Trustees. The proposals were discussed April 8 at the board meeting, and were scheduled to resume on April 22. “Many of these tragedies are a result of individuals being caught-up in the excitement of an event not exercising reasonable precautions,” Phibbs wrote in a memo to the board. “If any of you have participated in any of our large parades in the last few years, you know just how chaotic and confusing the staging areas can be for everyone. There can be a very interesting mix of individuals that do not understand anything about the other participants’ animals or equipment. It is very easy for people with horses, tractors, large trucks, motorcycles, or small children to forget that not everyone there understands about the hazards of working around the specific parade entries. “There are a variety of issues to be considered like: noise and visibility, issues for drivers, stopping distance issues, moving parts, startled animals, the physics of large equipment in motion and the inertia of items on those large pieces of equipment.” Although he cannot recall any accidents, he said there have been some near misses. “This is really more about prevention. But if we set expectations before the parade, hopefully people will be safer,” Phibbs said. Parades continues on Page 7
Fracking analysis focuses on economy Consortium pays for study that avoids other potential impacts By Jane Reuter
jreuter@coloradocommunitymedia.com A University of Colorado-Boulder Leeds School of Business study concludes that a Denver South Economic Development Partnership president Mike Fitzgerald kicks off an April 16 Lone Tree Arts Center statewide moratorium on hydraulic fracturing would put a drag on Colorado’s meeting about the economic impact of fracking. Photo by Jane Reuter economy, though the study’s leader said POSTAL ADDRESS they don’t know potential environmental impacts of the controversial practice, known as “fracking.” Such a moratorium is not currently proposed, though several Colorado municiPrinted on recycled newsprint. palities have enacted fracking bans or morPlease recycle this copy. atoriums, and recent initiatives propose more local control and increased setbacks for oil and gas drilling. Researcher Brian Lewandowski talked about the fracking analysis during a May 16
meeting at the Lone Tree Arts Center. A consortium including the Metro Denver Economic Development Corporation, the Denver South Economic Development Partnership and a nonprofit economic think tank, Common Sense Policy Roundtable, contracted with the Leeds School to do the fracking analysis and other studies about economics tied to public policy. Lewandowski said the consortium pays them quarterly. Research subjects are decided by a panel vote including members of the Leeds School and the three groups. Lewandowski does not sit on the panel and said the outside agencies are “hands off” about the studies’ conclusions and methodology. According to the fracking analysis, the oil and gas industry and related activities contributed $29.6 billion to Colorado’s economy in 2012, which Lewandowski said was based on readily available facts. “We studied what we know about the industry,” he said. “We know employment, Fracking continues on Page 7