City Council Wrap-Up- Austin

By Austin Briggs

One of the shortest city council meetings in recent memory saw citizens telling the board they felt cut out of the stadium proposal process.

Citizens who spoke to the board expressed frustration at what they perceived as a lack of transparency with subcommittee meetings on the plan to build a new football stadium near CSU.

“The meetings have been closed to the public,” said Doug Brobst. “Citizens of Fort Collins deserve to be heard; we feel that’s not happening.”

Anne Colwell said she wanted an “open and honest” process in regards to the stadium proposal. As a CSU alumnus she said she felt “embarrassed” at the behavior of CSU administration. Colwell said she felt the administration was trying to shut out public opinion on the proposal.

Deputy City Manager Diane Jones said the stadium board meetings are open to the public. She pointed out the next stadium proposal meeting is Mar. 29 and will be open to the public.

Councilman Gerry Horak said he had doubts as to whether the subcommittee on the stadium proposal was acting in an ethical manner.

“I doubt this passes a legal confidentiality test,” said Horak in regards to the meetings being shut off from the public.

City council also voted to accept the recommendation of the city’s Ethics Review Board that Planning and Zoning board member Gino Campana, a local developer, did not violate city conflict of interest rules by participating in zoning board meetings that could have affected land he planned on developing.

The review board said it was initially not clear if Campana could have benefited from his position on the Planning and Zoning board.

Councilman Ben Manvel said the Ethics Review Board spent over five and half hours in a meeting that looked at all aspects of the complaint against Campana. He said the details of the initial complaint justified taking a closer look at the allegations which is resulted in the five and half hour meeting.

“Appearances are important,” said Manvel. “It’s better to err on the side of caution when things look bad.”

Board members recommended that zoning board members receive additional training on what constitutes conflict of interest and to establish standards of impartiality.

Relocation of Cooper Home Learning For Living

By Corinne Winthrop

While educators spent most of the meeting talking about school lunches, three residents during the Poudre School District Board of Education Meeting Tuesday commented about the issues surrounding the change in address of an assisted living home for 18-21 year-olds living with disabilities.

The Cooper Home Learning for Living is looking to relocate its services to another house in a residential community. Currently, it is operating out of a house at 740 E. Stuart St. This home does not allow for adequate handicap maneuvers, according to Poudre School District Board of Education President Thomas Balchak. With a new location, the Cooper Home is hoping to make living situations for the young adults more handicap accessible. The home prospects the new address to be on Stover and Lake Streets, near Lesher Middle School.

 Part of the PSD Transition Services, the Cooper Home works with young adults with disabilities transition into adulthood. Its ultimate goal is to help promote job skills and independence within a community after two years in the home.

“The home being located within the community is a crucial part of the program,” Balchak noted.

Fort Collins resident David Krueger, during the community comment portion of the board meeting, voiced his concerns about the relocation. Krueger stated how the home would be moving from a “mixed-used to low density residential area.” In addition, he said he was worried about how 25 students living near him would affect his time at home on weekends and evenings.

On the other hand, Jerry Wilson, superintendent of schools, stated neighbors living around the house on Stuart Street now have grown accustomed to the atmosphere that the Cooper Home brings. He said it is “practically unnoticeable after a certain time.” If the program were to move forward with the relocation, other parts of the process would include zoning and appropriation matters, Wilson commented in an interview during a break in the meeting.

A vote deciding the future of the Cooper Home will be in March.

Stadium Snakes?

Fort Collins residents call for justice in CSU's stadium proposal battle
by Colleen Canty

Fort Collins community members worry bias, subjectivity and politically-motivated agendas may be poisoning a deliberation process for Colorado State University's recent on-campus stadium proposal.

According to a third-generation Fort Collins resident and CSU alumnus Anne Colwell, Jack Graham, CSU athletic director and co-chairman of the Stadium Advisory Committee, was allotted 45 minutes to “coach” student facilitators in their class preceding a public input forum recently.

“The whole public input session just reeked of bias,” Colwell told the Fort Collins City Council members at the last council's meeting.

Martin Carcasson, a CSU associate professor in the Department of Communication Studies and director of The Center for Public Deliberation (CPD) heading up the public input process, negated these allegations in a phone interview proceeding the meeting, claiming Graham “has respect for what CPD does and was not coaching the students.”

“I spent three days in our class preparing the student facilitators for the session; Jack had 45 minutes out of three hours to speak to them,” Carcasson said in the interview. “He came to the class to make sure students knew what the specific issues and ideas were.”

Apparently Colwell was not the only outraged vocalist who claims to see this as an injustice to the deliberation process.

Carcasson has received a “few” emails complaining about Graham's visit to his class and Colwell was the third resident to come before the council Tuesday with complaints about the stadium's public deliberation process.

“These input sessions are supposed to be unbiased and free of the CSU administration's input,” said Doug Brobst, another concerned Fort Collins resident present at the meeting. “I don't feel like this is happening or that we are being heard as citizens of Fort Collins.”

Seemingly troubled by these allegations and others centered around the sub-committees' public confidentiality, council member Gerry Horak called for “a spirit of openness” and council member Lisa Poppaw “an extremely public process.” Carcasson said he remains confident in his efforts and stands by the CPD's pledge to “passionate impartiality,” as stated in his article on the group's website (http://www.cpd.colostate.edu/) discussing their goals.

While Graham's classroom time was not officially announced at the public forum nor balanced with a voice from the opposition, according to Carcasson, this detail does not erode his group's foundational principle to “challenge unfair tactics and question power and relationships.”

“Trying to deny a conspiracy theory only proves it to the people who had the mindset that the stadium is already a done deal,” Carcasson said. “But I take my job very seriously and I feel comfortable we are in it for the right reasons – the students did what they were supposed to do very well.”

A survey given after the forum showed only nine of 224 respondents (.04 percent) believed the facilitators to be strongly or slightly biased, according to Carcasson.

The next full meeting of the Stadium Advisory Committee is scheduled for March 29 at 7 p.m. at the Hilton in Fort Collins. Carcasson will be giving a report and the public is invited to attend.

Communication between CSU and City Blocked

Open honesty to the public and the city arose as an issue at the City Council meeting Mar. 20.

A proposal to build an on-campus stadium at Colorado State University and non-public  subcommittees of the stadium advisory board prompted great debate during the city council meeting Tuesday.

During the meeting, Fort Collins resident Anne Colwell voiced how she was disappointed that CSU has not been relaying all of the information regarding the new stadium proposal though she saw hope when the Center for Public Deliberation (CPD), an on-campus group holding public hearings on the proposed stadium became part of the proposal.

“We really want an open and honest process at CSU and I have become increasingly disappointed in my alma mater,” said Colwell, CSU 1996 alumnus. “I was really excited when the CPD was hired on to give a public input process, because I thought ‘oh great, everyone is going to have a voice.’ Unfortunately, it is a bit of an illusion that everything is going to be open and honest.”

President Tony Frank appointed Deputy City Manager Diane Jones to attend the stadium advisory committee meetings and subcommittees.

Jones explained how by open meetings law, the CSU board of directors meetings must be open to the public, though the stadium advisory committee meeting is open by choice, but does not include an open community comment section.

When asked about the stadium advisory subcommittee meeting, Jones refrained, saying that she has not asked permission of the board to share that information.

“I am trying to participate with the process that is outlined and keep with that process,” Jones said.

Councilmember Gerry Horak asked multiple questions to Jones regarding the block of communication.

“I am used to a spirit that is very open, meeting at a public time during public deliberations, on public facilities,” Horak said.

City Manager Darin Atteberry moved the issue forward by asking Jones to clear up communication between the stadium advisory committee and city council.


“If it is confidential, then we need to be clear about that,” Atteberry said. “If not, the expectation that the council and I and the public is that [Jones] would provide that information when asked.”

The next stadium advisory committee meeting is scheduled for March 29.

Railroad Nose Reform

By Corinne Winthrop

At the most recent city council meeting Tuesday, March 20, a council member briefly touched on a subject matter that is near and dear to most people’s ears. Audience members heard him loud and clear when the member said the council is looking into ways train noise pollution can be reduced in different areas of Fort Collins.

“It’s annoying and it drives businesses crazy,” Gerry Horak, council member, plainly stated about the train horn in an interview after the meeting. As if the gates and flashing lights at railroad intersections are not enough, Horak believed train horns blaring is not necessary at such a high decibel level.

However, in 2005, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) established a regulation “requiring [trains] to ‘blast’ their horns in a two long, one short, and one long sequence when approaching a crossing,” Karen Cumbo, executive director of Fort Collins Planning, Development and Transportation, said after the meeting. With many railroad intersections near the CSU campus and Old Town that are close together, this rule causes numerous horn wails, one right after another.

To heal the community’s ear drums, the Fort Collins Downtown Development Authority is investigating the possibly of creating Quiet Zones along a main railroad that runs through downtown, Horak explained after the meeting. According to the USA Department of Transportation’s Federal Railroad Administration Train Horn Rule Fact Sheet, these zones mean trains silence their horns at delegated crossings. However, to ensure safety, the crossing “must be equipped at minimum with the standard or conventional flashing light and gate automatic warning system,” according to the fact sheet. Quiet Zones are a part of the 2005 FRA regulation, but have not been implemented yet around the city.

It is a “lengthy federal process to build expensive gates,” Cumbo said, defending the reasons why Quiet Zones are not in place. Horak also added it could cost “five to 10 millions of dollars” if the city were to position the zones along tracks from campus all the way to Cherry Street.

High-priced Quiet Zones would not be needed if the city asked FRA officials to ease up on the regulations concerning the high decibel volumes coming from the train horn. Although, Cumbo said in this solution, train horns would still be heard, as opposed to the alternative Quiet Zone solution.
This issue often causes Fort Collins residents to toss and turn late at night, not only because they are concerned but also because train horns wake them up.

School lunches in need of a facelift

By Courtney West

School lunches may be getting a healthy makeover, steering away from former staples like pizza and nachos.

The Tuesday, Feb, 28, meeting of the Poudre School District (PSD) Board of Education revolved around the topic of nutrition in school lunches.
Community speakers said that they felt that schools need to offer healthier choices, but that they also need to appeal to students, especially when they have the option of leaving campus.
“If an item is healthy and students aren’t eating it, it’s not doing them any good,” said Craig Schneider, dietician and Director of Child Nutrition at PSD.
Deirdre Sullivan, a member of the School Nutrition Action Council (SNAC) came to the podium to discuss changes to the system of school lunches. She introduced the idea of nutrition being a learning process, referring to the kitchen staff as “lunch teachers, not just lunch ladies,” and stressing the importance of such ideas as utilizing local produce, scratch cooking and not serving items with “ingredients lists that take up half a page.”
Scratch cooking, according to Schneider, is cooking that involves combining minimally processed food items together on site to create items such as chicken burritos, vegetarian lasagna and other healthier items than frozen, processed and reheated menu items.
Another dietician, Virginia Clark, also spoke about the nutrition in school lunches and proposed changes that could be implemented to take the district from “good” to “great,” in the words of PSD Board of Education President Thomas Balchak.
Clark, a member of the Coalition for Activity and Nutrition to Defeat Obesity, or CanDo, stated that school nutrition is directly linked to school performance, which is why it is such an important issue.
CanDo consists of both individuals and organizations that assist Colorado communities to “defeat the damaging effects of obesity through healthier living,” according to its website (www.candoonline.org/fort-collins).
Clark’s agency has been involved with PSD to help schools create healthier meals that students enjoy.
Healthier meal options and entrees, meals made from unprocessed or minimally processed foods, a decreased amount of sugar-sweetened beverages and an overall consistent health message were possible solutions presented by Clark.
She further suggested that a comprehensive food service assessment was in order to see the areas in which PSD falls short concerning current nutrition issues. A similar survey has already been completed by her agency, but she emphasized the importance of a follow-up survey to determine what more the district could do in the coming years.
The agency is not a direct part of PSD, so they would give an “outside objective view” to school nutrition, which would result in a final report “specific to the Poudre School District” with ideas for yearly goals, said Clark.
Schneider echoed many of Clark’s ideas in his presentation. He focused on ideas like scratch cooking, an increase of local and organic foods and a decrease in overly processed foods with added preservatives “to increase shelf life.”
He was also in favor of a food advisory panel with an updated food survey to get parents’ opinions on school nutrition. In his plan of action, he suggested an outside program evaluation that would rank where the district stood in terms of nutrition.
The board of education asked a few questions but did not offer a lot of counterpoints to either Clark or Schneider’s presentations. However, financial issues were a small point of contention.
Patrick Albright, a director on the PSD Board of Education, said that he agreed with the need to beef up nutrition, but pointed out that he did not feel a complete overhaul was necessary. He said that he did not feel that the nutrition system was broken, and that he did not want to fix it until it was, among cheers from the audience.

Cafeteria Conundrums

PSD community divided on topic of nutrition in schools

by Colleen Canty

Money talks, but when it comes to school districts, so does pizza.

Although Poudre School District (PSD) may be above the national average in the arena of nutritional meal programs – offering a menu increasingly peppered with local food products, scratch food recipes and unprocessed food components – the topic of school lunch is as hot as the nacho cheese served every Friday.

At Tuesday's PSD Board of Education Meeting, all sides of the lunch line fought over proposals for a comprehensive food service assessment and school meal reform – and what it all means for families' and schools' wallets.

The road to healthier meal choices in schools means burning more money to get there: approximately 5 percent more than what is already being spent, according to Craig Schneider, director of child nutrition for PSD.

Introducing fresh produce in lieu of canned, home-cooked meal recipes instead of “ready to assemble” and increased nutrition education, awareness and training for those whose hands create the food and mouths consume it, means dipping into wallets that are already thin to begin with.

Thomas Balchak, PSD Board of Education director and president, said the school district is serving more low income children than ever before. According to Schneider, 60 percent of PSD's school meals are consumed by students on free and reduced lunch meal plans, meaning cost burdens fall entirely on those who don't qualify.

“And for those families who sit just above the threshold to qualify, they are the ones who are going to incur the cost increase,” said PSD board director Patrick Albright. “What if they can't afford lunch anymore? Some students, mainly in middle schools, are coming to school without meals already.”

Not only did many cafeteria workers, parents and teachers in the room feel as though schools could not sustain escalating food prices for healthier options, they simply didn't see a need for them.

“My kids have more of a choice at their school than they do at our home,” said Patty Dale, a cafeteria employee within the district. “I just can't afford all the vegetables they offer; I don't think we have a problem. We do a fantastic job.”

But according to obesity prevention supervisor at Poudre Valley Health System Virginia Clark, if PSD strives to exceed benchmarks set in academic areas, health and nutrition goals shouldn't be out of the question.

“Colorado is ranked 29^th for child obesity,” Clark said during her presentation detailing her and partnered School Nutrition Action Committee's (SNAC) concerns about the food currently being offered in school. “Kids receive a significant value of nutrition from their school; they're the models for what's okay. If pizza is being offered everyday, we need to ask how often we should allow kids to eat certain foods.”

The Comprehensive Food Assessment, advocated for by Clark, would aim to provide a clear snapshot of what's happening in school cafeterias now, work with health professionals and the community to find ways to improve it and develop a review system to gauge students' reactions and the changes' success.

While some board members seemed hesitant about the reform possibly squelching food options and enacting too tightly monitored policies, SNAC pushed the issue into the meeting room and are passionate about seeing it through.

“My daughter got home from school and I found 60 dumdum wrappers accumulated in her backpack,” said Mary Van Buren, SNAC member and PSD parent. “It's an ironic treat schools are giving our kids. It's like throwing treats to the dogs.”