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November 26, 2014 VOLU M E 49 | I S S UE 45 | 7 5 ¢
Tri-LakesTribune.net T R I - L A K E S R E G I O N , M O N U M E N T, G L E N E A G L E , B L A C K F O R E S T A N D N O R T H E R N E L P A S O C O U N T Y
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Academy moving ahead with plans for new Gateway Visitor Center New AFA Visitor Center could open by late 2018 By Danny Summers
dsummers @coloradocommunitymedia.com The location has changed and price tag has gone up, but plans for the new Air Force Academy Gateway Visitor Center remain in place. “We are in the project development planning stage,” said Carlos Cruz-Gonzalez, the Academy’s director of installations. “At this point if everything goes according to plan we plan on breaking ground in late 2016 or early 2017. We’re probably looking at moving into the new facility in late 2018 or early 2019.” Gonzalez has been the point man for the Academy on the new Visitor Center project which - at least for the time being - is still part of the ambitious City For Champions venture. The City For Champions is a $250 to $300 million project that will give Colorado Springs, and the surrounding communities, the distinction that would set the Pikes Peak region apart from the rest of the state. “No more brand campaigns; no more hiding in the shadows of Peyton Manning’s Denver; no more telling the relatives in Nebraska, or Ohio that Colorado Springs is a great place just to visit to see Pikes Peak, America’s Mountain, and ride
LEFT: The proposed site for the new Air Force Academy visitor center is at the northwest corner of North Gate exit 256 before you enter the Academy. This is an artist rendering of what the new visitor center might look like. RIGHT: The Air Force Academy is moving ahead with plans for a new visitor center as part of the City For Champions project. This is a photo of the current visitor center. Courtesy images
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the cog railway to the summit,” said Mike Moran, the chief spokesman for the United States Olympic Committee for 25 years and a leading advocate for City For Champions. According to the most recent information provided by City for Champion organizers, there will be several huge benefits to having four anchor projects. Over 30 years, City for Champions proponents are projecting as many as 500,000 net new out-of-state visitors to Colorado annually; $6.9 billion in net new state retail sales; $140 million in net new sales tax revenue; more than $4.4 million in net new local sales tax revenue; more than 2,900 new and permanent jobs and more than 2,200 new construction jobs. In addition to a new $34 million
Gateway Visitor Center (up from $30 million last fall), the City for Champions project includes a new $59.4 million museum that would display Olympic exhibits, a $92.7 million Colorado Sports Event Center that would have a 10,000-seat outdoor stadium, and a 3,000-seat indoor arena. The University of Colorado at Colorado Springs would get money toward a $27 million project that would include a state-of-the-art rehabilitation clinic. The entire City For Champions project is sort of a work in progress. Cruz-Gonzalez said that the Gateway Visitor Center will be about 36,000 square feet (up from 30,000 feet last fall) and include a 250-seat theater, conference room, merchan-
dise store, interactive and engaging displays, and food center. There will also be plenty of parking for buses and automobiles. The site of the Gateway Visitor Center has already been moved from near Falcon Stadium inside Academy gates, to the northwest corner of North Gate exit 256 - outside the Academy’s north entrance. “We looked at five different locations on the Academy and then trimmed it down to three,” CruzGonzalez said. “Then we refined it to one location that will meet or needs and make it more accessible and more viable to the community.” By not having to pass through the entrances of the Academy, Cruz and his team are hoping to attract more visitors. Academy spokesman John
Van Winkle said that that the current Academy Visitor Center had 440,996 people pass through its doors in 2013. “But that only counts the people who went to the Visitor Center during their visit to the Academy,” Van Winkle said. “We have many more visitors attending events at the Cadet Chapel, such as weddings, or Falcon Stadium for football games, lacrosse games, graduation and local band competitions. Or Clune Arena for (District 20 and District 38) graduations and sporting events, and many of those visitors don’t hit the Visitor Center based on their schedules and the time they’ve allocated. So the 440,996 people who hit the Visitor Center last year are just the tip of the tourism iceberg.”
”Awake Palmer Lake” full steam ahead TRI-LAKES TRIBUNE (USPS 418-960)
Awake Palmer Lake committee will have more of a plan by the fall By Danny Summers
OFFICE: 325 Second Street, Suite R Monument, CO 80132
dsummers @coloradocommunitymedia.com
PHONE: 719-687-3006
Jeff Hulsmann remembers a time - not too many years ago - when the lake of Palmer Lake was filled to the brim with water, stocked with fish and a summer playground for thousands of local Tri-Lakes area residents. If he has his way, it will be that way again much sooner than later. “I’m not making any predictions, but we a year we could be on our way to having the lake be like the old days,” he said. Hulsmann is the chair of the Palmer Lake Restoration Committee. He is also is the lead spokesman for the “Awake Palmer Lake” project. “There’s going to be like three phases of this,” Hulsmann said. “One will be the information gathering phase, the plan, and then we implement. “Because the lake is dry we have the unique opportunity to find out what’s underneath it. We
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Residents of Palmer Lake are hoping the town’s lake will have a supply of water much sooner than later. Courtesy photo