November 10, 2022 Vol. 21, No. 51 Serving Manitou Springs, Old Colorado City and Lower Ute Pass
$100
City Council hears pitches for boards’ 2023 budget needs
2022 Skeleton Craze
winners
The Manitou Art Center’s horrifying skeleton won the judges’ hearts.
Manitou Springs Real Estate’s fortuneteller skeleton took second place.
SEE LIST OF WINNERS ON PAGE 7
By William J. Dagendesh During the Nov. 8 work session, Manitou Springs City Council met with eight boards, committees and commissions to hear their budget goals for 2023. Alison Gerbig, chair of the Housing Advisory Board, said 2022 saw staff and board changes, but that it also adopted a new housing habitability code. Also, the HAB established the energy-efficiency program and researched a potential rental licensing program. According to Gerbig, the HAB’s goals for 2023 are to review and update the strategic plan as necessary, continue discussion of the rental licensing program and spend the remaining $10,000 for the energy-efficiency program. “We’re happy that we hopefully can keep that $10,000 that we had originally had to do more, like housing rehab work with an agency called Brothers Redevelopment. We lost that partnership, so Alea German (vice chair), worked hard to develop the energy efficiency program,” Gerbig said. See COUNCIL/page 3
Courtesy images
Colorado Springs voters give recreational marijuana legalization a thumbs-down Compiled by Rhonda Van Pelt Results are trickling in from the Nov. 8 election but, as always, election officials caution that it can take days or weeks to confirm votes. In El Paso County, one of the most closely watched races was the question of legalizing recreational marijuana in Colorado Springs — if
approved, that would likely have impacted the city of Manitou Springs budget, since marijuana sales tax constitutes a large part of the city’s revenues. The measure was voted down by 57 percent of Colorado Springs voters. Former Manitou Mayor Marc
Snyder was leading Republican challenger Shana Black in the race for District 18 state representative. Snyder, the incumbent, had 52.9 percent of the vote, with Black at 44.69 percent, as of 1:10 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 9. According to the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office, 1,920,701
people cast ballots, about 50 percent of the state’s eligible voters. In El Paso County, 213,797 voters participated, 45.71 percent of the 467,724 active voters. Gov. Jared Polis kept his seat, defeating Republican Heidi Ganahl See ELECTION/page 5
INSIDE COLORADO SPRINGS ANNEXING ACREAGE..............PAGE 4 WE’RE NOT OUT OF THE WOODS YET........................PAGE 7 VOLLEYBALL TEAM PREPS FOR STATE....................PAGE 10