No, dear. Honest. I don’t know any Ashley Madison. Why do you ask? page A5
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A man for all seasons: Jason Kekich is a three-sport star B1
Courier Pikes Peak
VO LUME 55 | ISSUE 9 | 7 5 ¢
March 2, 2016
Teller County, Colorado
Old Ponderosa pine memorialized in WP City Hall Tree saw a lot of history in its 208 years By Norma Engelberg njengel60@gmail.com
Three candidates offer differing visions for voters By Courier staff Three men are running for mayor of Woodland Park in the April 5 election: incumbent Mayor Neil Levy; City Councilman Noel Sawyer; and longtime resident Mike Maddux. Levy started working at the Swiss Chalet Restaurant in 1991, bought it and moved to Woodland Park in 1999. He has a wife and three sons. He coaches the Woodland Park High School baseball team. He was appointed to the mayor’s position in August 2014. Sawyer was elected to the Woodland Park City Council in April 2014. Originally from Cleveland, Sawyer has lived in Woodland Park since 2001 and coaches Woodland Park High School boys soccer. He is married and has a teenaged son. He works for Oracle Corp. as a database administrator and also has his own computer business. Maddux competed with Levy for the mayoral appointment in 2014. He grew up on a farm in Kansas and moved with his family to Woodland Park in 1985. They left but returned and bought a home 17 years ago. He is an award-winning guitarist and plays for the Colorado Springs Contemporary Big Band. Last week, the Courier’s Pat Hill sat down with each for a question-and-answer session. Read their conversations on page A3.
For more than two centuries, a Ponderosa pine stood in what eventually became Woodland Park and ultimately in Memorial Park. When it sprouted in 1808, the land was part of the Louisiana Territory, which the U.S. purchased in 1803 from France. In fact, it took root just two years after Zebulon Pike abandoned his attempt to reach the summit of the peak that now bears his name. Consider, it was in its fifth decade of life when the Civil War ended slavery. And by the time Bob Womack discovered gold in Poverty Gulch in 1890, triggering the Cripple Creek gold rush, the tree was closing in a century of life. The year it turned 100, in 1908, was the last time the Chicago Cubs won the World Series. And it was the same year Henry Ford produced his first Model T. Its life spanned world wars, the Great Depression, the birth of flight, space travel, the dawn of electricity and the computer age. All that history was taken into consideration when the tree was removed recently for park renovations. “We knew it had to come down, but it was such an old tree that we wanted to do something with the wood,” said Suzanne Brown, administrative assistant in the city’s public works department. “We were hoping
This is a slab taken from a Ponderosa pine tree that was removed from Memorial Park during renovations. The tree had too many nails in it to be milled for lumber, but a Woodland Park Parks, Streets and Grounds crew was able to save this slab. Tree rings show that the tree was 208 years old. /Photo by Norma Engelberg for The Courier we could have it milled into lumber, but it had too many nails to make milling safe.” Only a cross-section of the tree was saved. But it’s been given special treatment by Bruce Vanderpool, Parks, Streets and Grounds crew chief, and his staff. Vanderpool filled in the cracks,
sanded and coated the surface for display. Buz Jennings, a crew member with a passion for wood and woodworking, counted the tree’s rings to come up with an age of 208 years. The rings show numerous
See “Tree” on page A2
Testing shows area water safe from lead, chemicals By Evan Musick evanmusick.yourpeaknews@gmail.com As a lead-contamination water crisis unfolds in Flint, Mich., along with recent news of contaminants found in Security-Widefield water, area residents might worry about the quality of their drinking water. The town of Woodland Park and Teller County Water and Sanitation District 1, both conduct extensive testing on their water, and results are published in their Drinking Water Quality Report. Minerals and chemicals do exist, but the water is safe. Kip Wiley, utilities director for Woodland Park, said
the town has three sources of water: ground, surface and augmentation from Twin Lakes. Once the water is collected, it goes to a water treatment plant to be purified before it is sent through the distribution system. The system is made up of plastic PVC pipes, PermaStrand, ductile iron, galvanized steel and copper. There are no lead pipes like those in Flint that led to contaminated water. And Woodland Park’s water is monitored closely. “We test water at the water treatment plant, and test water throughout the distribution system,” Wiley said. If a contaminant is found to be above acceptable levels,
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PIKES PEAK COURIER (USPS 654-460)
Wiley said the state is notified and an action plan developed for treatment. “The state would basically tell us what to do,” he said. In his four years as the utilities director, Wiley has not experienced such an incident. He noted that though there is no lead pipe in the city’s distribution system, it’s unknown if lead pipes exist in individual homes or businesses. He said if people are concerned about their water quality, they can take a sample of it to the El Paso County Health Department for testing. To learn more about the
See “Pipes” on page A2
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