Category: krdo-local-news

Scott Harrison

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) — Shortly after his election two years ago, Mayor Yemi Mobolade said that he wanted more crews repairing potholes on city streets and roads.

He announced that he had achieved that goal on Thursday, at the annual State of the City address, held at The Broadmoor.

“I recently added 12 new crew members to our pothole response teams so that we can respond more quickly and effectively,” he told his audience.

Mobolade said the most common complaint he hears from citizens is to do a better job of filling potholes.

The city has eight dedicated, full-time pothole crews and can increase that number to 12 when necessary.

Still, the mayor emphasized that officials depend on the public to report potholes that repair crews may be unaware of.

“And we have made it easier for you to help,” Mobolade revealed. “Last month, we rolled out the new and improved GoCOS app — a one-stop shop where you can report potholes, graffiti, broken sidewalks, downed trees, park maintenance issues, and more than 90 other non-emergency concerns. Think of the GoCOS app as your pothole app. Be our eyes because your reports do make a difference.”

The mayor added that filling potholes is only a temporary solution, and that’s why he thanked voters for their continued support of the taxpayer-approved sales tax increase to fund expanded street repaving.

That 2C program, created by the previous mayor, John Suthers, was initially approved in 2015, renewed in 2020, and was renewed again — for ten years — last fall.

In the early years of 2C, officials said that it would take time to see a significant decline in pothole numbers because the city had fallen so far behind in street maintenance.

“This initiative will invest $820 million into our roads and extend their lifespan,” Mobolade said.

Many citizens were surprised at how high the number of pothole repairs was at the beginning of 2C — in some years approaching or surpassing 100,000.

After crews filled 60,000 potholes in 2022, the figure increased to 85,000 in 2023, and again last year, to 94,000; with three months remaining in this year, the number is 52,000.

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Scott Harrison

PUEBLO, Colo. (KRDO) — The timing was late Thursday morning for KRDO 13’s The Road Warrior, who was on Bonforte Boulevard to investigate when street repaving would start there.

A member of the paving team stated that work will commence on Friday and is expected to take up to two weeks to complete, weather permitting.

Crews have only finished milling (removal of old asphalt) within the past week, and the team member said that Bonforte has many potholes that must be filled while repaving proceeds.

Also being paved is MacNaughton Road, a circular street that connects to Bonforte at two intersections and is in a similarly rough shape.

The two streets are the first to officially kick off the 2025 paving season, which had been delayed for various reasons, including rainy weather, planned and emergency utility repairs, and the removal of trees in one neighborhood that had damaged the concrete and asphalt infrastructure.

That latter street, Saratoga Road, slightly east of Bonforte on the city’s northeast side, still needs the damage fixed before crews repave the crumbling neighborhood street.

“We’re getting the root balls pulled out, and the concrete is going back in right now,” said Chuck Roy, the city’s acting public works director. “We were just notified last week that there’s a little bit of a sanitary sewer line that needs to be fixed. So, we’re going to see if they can jump in there before we get the paving done.”

Paul Okins lives on Saratoga and shares the same mixed feelings as his neighbors, glad that the street will be repaved, but wishing that crews didn’t have to cut down more than 40 trees in the process.

But repairs should solve another concern there.

“The roots under the trees had cavities where cockroaches could swarm and whatnot,” he explained. We had lots of cockroaches in that area, under the sidewalk.”

Roy previously said that there is an effort to have trees donated to affected homeowners, who were surprised to learn that the removed trees were on city property and not theirs.

Okins went ahead and purchased two maple trees, one for the front yard and one for the back.

“They’ll provide shade as they grow,” he said. “The trees that were cut down, they provided lots of shade on a hot day, but they were huge. I wanted trees that are smaller and easier to maintain.”

On Thursday, crews were vacuuming dust and making final preparations for Friday on Bonforte.

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Paige Reynolds

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) – A Southern Colorado family with direct ties to Jeffrey Epstein survivor Virginia Giuffre is calling on Representative Jeff Crank to support a petition demanding the full release of the Epstein Files.

On Wednesday, Giuffre’s brother, Sky Roberts, and his wife, Amanda, stood outside Crank’s Colorado Springs office with signs calling for transparency. They urged the congressman to take action on behalf of survivors.

“Everyone who has been an enabler and a participant should be exposed. And then we need to see further investigation,” said Amanda Roberts.

The Roberts family lives in El Paso County. Sky is the brother of Virginia Giuffre, one of the most prominent voices to speak out against Epstein and his associates. Giuffre’s story was featured in a “60 Minutes” documentary, and her family says Colorado was meant to be her second home.

“Virginia, she was a firecracker. She had an unspeakable amount of joy, even after everything that she had gone through in her life. And Colorado was meant to be her second home,” said Amanda Roberts.

Giuffre died by suicide in April after a long struggle with personal and health challenges.

“She would have been here. She would have been right here speaking with you guys on a local level because that was her dream. She wanted this to come forward. She wanted these monsters to be put where they belong, which is behind bars for the rest of the life,” said Sky Roberts.

The Roberts family says they met with Crank’s district office earlier this month, but never received a response from the congressman himself.

“They said to give them around 48 hours to respond, and it’s been well over a week. We’ve tried to reach out. There has been no response,” Sky Roberts said.

In response to KRDO13’s request for comment, Crank’s office provided the following statement on Wednesday night:

“I have supported transparency and accountability regarding the business dealings, investigation, and prosecution of Jeffrey Epstein. The American people deserve transparency into Epstein’s dealings, and I support the release of all documents that shed light on what occurred, while protecting the identity of the victims.”

The Roberts family says they will continue pressing Crank until he signs onto the petition. While Crank says he supports transparency, he has not yet committed to the specific measure.

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Josh Helmuth

EL PASO COUNTY, Colo. (KRDO) – A former Little League treasurer from Colorado Springs was sentenced to jail time, probation, and community service on Tuesday, Sept. 23.

Michele Gorr pleaded guilty earlier this year to theft charges after stealing over $100,000 from the Academy Little League, where she was a long-time volunteer treasurer. According to arrest documents, she used the money on lavish shopping sprees and travel. She was also charged with money laundering and additional theft charges, both of which were dropped as part of her plea agreement.

As part of her agreement with the court, Gorr will spend 14 days in jail (with one day credit for time served), 200 hours of community service, and four years of probation.

Gorr was featured in a KRDO13 Investigates story, “Little League’s Big Problem,” earlier this year, which highlighted a systemic issue of widespread theft and missing money within Colorado Little League baseball.

A warrant was issued for Gorr’s arrest when she failed to show for her plea hearing last March. That no-show led to a split with her then attorney, Patricia Perello, who noted she was “shocked” by the absence.

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Bradley Davis

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) – The Daniels Fund and Project Play Colorado announced that its Youth Giving Day raised over $ 5.2 million, supporting Colorado nonprofits.

A relatively new initiative in its second year, the money is helping Southern Colorado families, like those involved with Girls Rugby Colorado Springs.

The Daniels Fund and Project Play Colorado said the money comes from over 3,600 donors and will benefit over 240 nonprofits.

Project Play Colorado said it is an initiative to increase youth sports participation rates to 63%. Its research team said 63% is the ideal watermark to fully reap the health and wellness benefits of youth sports in Colorado and across the country. Project Play stated that Colorado is currently at approximately 54.5%.

Cable television billionaire Bill Daniels built the framework for The Daniels Fund to carry out his charitable work after his death in 2000. The non-profit said it uses the investment gains from Daniels’ assets to support different causes, including in youth sports.

Watch above as KRDO13’s Bradley Davis on Good Morning Colorado, speaks with a couple of the young athletes on the girls’ rugby team benefiting from the giving initiative.

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Scott Harrison

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) — For many drivers, the recent stripping of old, rubbery pavement on Woodmen Road was a major accomplishment.

However, the best may be yet to come.

On Sunday night, crews began repaving Woodmen from just east of the Academy Boulevard interchange, west across the Woodmen/Academy overpass, under the bridge above Interstate 25, to the Woodmen/Rockrimmon Boulevard intersection.

So far, workers are paving westbound lanes from the Sam’s Club to slightly east of Academy.

Rain on Monday and Tuesday nights slowed paving progress.

As first reported by KRDO 13’s The Road Warrior in early August, crews are replacing traditional asphalt with an experimental material called stone matrix asphalt (SMA).

“This is a specialized asphalt that is typically utilized on highways and interstates,” said Corey Farkas, the city’s manager of public works operations and maintenance. “It gives a lot more durability, and it is rut-resistant to a lot of vehicles. So, we’re going to give that a shot here on Woodmen. It’s very sticky and not as easy for the contractors to work with.”

The SMA appears to have larger particles that bind to create a thicker pavement.

“CDOT (the Colorado Department of Transportation) uses it quite a bit on highways,” Farkas explained. “There have been some other municipalities up in Denver that have used it on highly-traveled roadways. We’ve gone up there and seen the product, and it looks really good from what we know. It performs really well.”

One crew member told The Road Warrior that SMA was previously used on a stretch of Academy, north of Woodmen, that was repaved last summer.

Because SMA is more expensive than traditional asphalt, the city won’t use it to replace asphalt entirely, but may use it on selected projects if it works well enough to reduce maintenance costs.

Meanwhile, repairs to the Woodmen bridge over Academy — which started last month — continue.

“We’re going to be replacing the joints and updating the concrete that’s been damaged,” said Gayle Sturdivant, the city’s deputy public works director. One of the major things we’re doing is changing the wearing surface over the bridge. It has just degraded quicker than expected, similar to the asphalt that’s been put down. We’re working with products that have demonstrated, in other locations around the state, to be better performing.”

Most of the work on both projects is happening at night, and the city expects to complete both before the end of the year.

The $2.7 million cost of the bridge project is financed by sales tax revenue from the Pikes Peak Rural Transportation Authority.

The overpass was built in 2011, and a casualty of it was the closing of a Boston Market restaurant in an adjacent shopping center.

A manager at the time said that the restaurant closed because the height of the bridge blocked the view of the eatery to passing drivers.

“Our business dried up after that,” the manager said.

The repaving is financed by revenue from the city’s 2C expanded paving program, through a voter-approved sales tax increase.

Farkas said that last year, crews applied a skim (thin) layer of asphalt on Woodmen to stabilize the pavement until the current work could begin.

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Michael Logerwell

FOUNTAIN, Colo. (KRDO) – The Rocky Mountain chapter of the NAACP is saying it was a “manufactured scandal” that forced Detra Duncan from her post on the Fountain City Council.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Fountain City Councilor charged with felony theft, alleged she stole $37k from gov. programs

One week after Detra Duncan formally announced her resignation, the Rocky Mountain NAACP is calling Duncan a victim of political lynching.

In a statement sent to KRDO13 Investigates via email, the Rocky Mountain NAACP wrote that the news about Duncan’s charges is part of a bigger agenda.

“This is not an isolated incident. Whether through fabricated ethics violations, distorted media narratives, or threats of investigations, Black women leaders in Colorado and across the nation are being targeted. These attacks are calculated to keep black leaders out of decision-making roles and deny our communities the representation we deserve. We will not stand by while this continues on our watch, nor will we let these salacious attacks jeopardize the safety of her family.”

KRDO13 Investigates sat down with Portia Prescott, President of the Rocky Mountain NAACP State Conference, who wrote the press release, which at the end made three key demands:

A formal apology from Fountain Mayor Sharon Thompson for failing to protect Councilwoman Duncan from this public lynching.

A full and immediate retraction of the Gazette’s false reporting, including the blatant lie that Councilwoman Duncan’s mother passed away in 1998, when she is in fact alive. They must be held accountable for publishing falsified information that fueled misinformation and defamation from a litany of other news outlets.

An official investigation into all parties who participated in the fabrication of evidence and witnesses used against Councilwoman Duncan.

“We are not going to let her sit alone and let them lynch her image and let them take her out and not understand what she means to us and what she means to our community,” Prescott said during a Zoom interview on Tuesday.

KRDO13 Invesigates asked what she meant by calling this a political lynching, and inquired if Prescott and the Rocky Mountain NAACP thought the two felony fraud charges Duncan was facing were false.

“I’m not saying that. No, that’s not what I’m saying at all. I’m saying the fact that people are embellishing a story,” Duncan said. “They’re saying her mother is dead, and they’re implying that she had some malicious intent to fraud the system or she’s some type of criminal person, or they’re implying this, negative intent.”

The probable cause affidavit obtained by KRDO13 Investigates clearly says that Jefferson County Investigators found the pay stubs from the City of Fountain that Duncan submitted were altered. Her job title, “City Councilor,” was marked out.

The affidavit also says that it was those same Jefferson County Investigators who found that Duncan’s mother, Earlie Mae Johnson, and uncle, Ervin Jeffery Johnson, were deceased when letters with their signatures saying that Detra Duncan and her son were taking care of them in a Fountain residence were submitted to the state.

KRDO13 Investigates asked Prescott about what the Jefferson County Investigators found, as detailed in the probable cause affidavit, and what she meant by calling the reporting of details from the probable cause affidavit as a smear campaign.

“What I’m referring to is I want to stay away from the Jefferson County. I’m not talking about the actual Jefferson County,” Prescott said. “If you see the timing of our statement, this investigation has been going on for months. So this wasn’t about the investigation. We’re looking at an article that came out from the Gazette that specifically said it gave a date, that when her mother died, it’s 1998, and her mother did not die in 1998.”

KRDO13 Investigates followed up and asked if Prescott could provide proof that Earlie Mae Johnson was still alive.

“When this situation is all said and done, I’m sure, you can get that information from her attorneys,” Prescott replied.

What’s next for the Fountain City Council?

Voters will not get to decide who fills Detra Duncan’s seat in the upcoming city election. At Tuesday night’s Fountain City Council Meeting, city officials said that because the ballot has already been finalized, Duncan’s newly open spot on the city council can’t retroactively be put on the ballot.

A special election also isn’t possible, according to Fountain City bylaws; a special election can only be called when two or more positions are vacant.

This means Duncan’s replacement will have to be appointed, but due to the upcoming election, multiple councilors were hesitant about picking a timeframe to make an appointment.

Document from the Sept. 23 city council meeting describing the process to replace Duncan.

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Scott Harrison

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) — Residents in unincorporated areas of El Paso County may see faster snow removal on their roads and highways for the first time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

On Tuesday, the county’s transportation department told KRDO 13’s The Road Warrior that it has virtually erased a worker shortage that had affected operations during the outbreak.

“We’ve got 140 total that will go on a full call-out, and we are probably around that 135 mark right now,” Scott Hall, a training manager, revealed. “We’re very close again.”

As he prepared to lead the 50 newest employees on a three-day training session for snowplow operations, he elaborated on why the pandemic caused the worker shortage that was also experienced by other local governments in the Pikes Peak region.

“When you put people in close vehicles and have people together, we were all told to get away from each other,” Hall explained. “We can’t do that here. So, it was hard. No one knew what to do. We’ve moved past it and now we know how to play the game.”

The lack of employees led county officials to take several measures that have solved the problem.

Officials dropped the high school diploma requirement, while offering to help new hires earn their equivalency diploma (GED) if they sought to earn it.

In an effort to save applicants time and expense, the county also dropped the requirement to have a commercial driver’s license (CDL) — and now provides in-house training to receive it.

Finally, county commissioners approved increasing worker pay and benefits to be more competitive with other employers.

“Most of our employees are staying and not leaving,” Hall said.

Another factor in the turnaround is that the county now leans on high school students as an underutilized labor force.

The county holds career day events at the transportation complex on Akers Drive, and also sends transportation representatives to local schools — exposing them to the possibilities of a career in public works.

Students can enroll in paid internships during the school year and even be hired after they graduate.

“Not every kid is going to college or joining the military,” Hall said. “This is an opportunity for us and for them. I was exposed to all of this when I was a kid, but how are kids exposed to it now?”

One of thse kids, Angel Bustamante, was hired after graduating from Sand Creek High School.

“I was going to do concrete work,” he said. “Then, I met (Scott Hall) at his job fair. I got hired full-time after I worked a few hours a week in the program. I learned how to drive a snowplow and it was easy. I like working here. I’m here because of the people. We have fun.”

The annual training covers lasts ten hours daily for three days; trainees will learn snowplow driving, maintenance and tire chain installation.

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Josh Helmuth

MONUMENT, Colo. (KRDO) – High schoolers in Monument will certainly have a leg up on the competition when entering the workforce, thanks to a new center focused on innovative careers.

Lewis-Palmer School District 38 recently cut the ribbon on its new Career and Innovation Center. It’s already open to students from both district high schools who hope to learn valuable skills and gain certificates in trades such as advanced manufacturing, welding, homebuilding, electronics, and aerospace engineering. There’s even a Transitions program for 18 to 21-year-olds with special needs, who are taught life skills that set them up for a successful career.

Amy Sienkowski oversees the CIC. She says the program gets students “work-ready,” upon graduation.

The CIC will also soon offer programs in computer science and healthcare.

Is there something or someone remarkable at your school? Email us! SchoolBuzz@KRDO.com.

 

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Michael Logerwell

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) – KRDO13 Investigates was contacted by several residents at the Soaring Eagles townhomes who said they were in danger of losing their homes if they couldn’t afford an up to $20,000 reassessment from their HOA to pay for hail damage.

Letter sent to Soaring Eagles HOA members.

Heather McBroom says she was shocked when she got this letter from the legal team representing the Soaring Eagle HOA, saying that she would have to pay thousands out of pocket to cover hail damage from August 2024.

“My first reaction was shock. This was the first time I’d heard anything about [the hail damage], and it’d been a year.” KRDO13 Investigates spoke to McBroom and a dozen other residents protesting this assessment on their street on Monday morning.

“Our current declarations state we cannot be passed on an assessment of more than $10,000,” McBroom added.

McBroom said many people in the group of 50 units against this assessment have coverage up to $10,000. But this assessment is for $20,752.12, which would require even those with coverage to pay a little more than $10,000 out of pocket.

An excerpt from section 7.3 of the Soaring Eagles HOA Rules.

McBroom and 49 other households say the $20k assessment itself is not allowed due to rules and regulations outlined in the ‘Declaration of Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions of the Soaring Eagles Townhomes.’ In that document, it says that the HOA will subscribe to any insurance policy “greater than the lesser of $10,000 or one percent of the face amount of the policy.”

“Most people feel very confused. There wasn’t a lot of transparency during this process. They don’t know what their rights are. So we have all decided to rally together, and hire an attorney, and try to fight any fines or penalties,” McBroom said.

KRDO13 Investigates brought these concerns to the Soaring Eagles HOA attorney, Anthony Smith. Smith said he agreed that the rules governing the community clearly go against assessing a deductible this big, but says it’s impossible to find this kind of coverage for this price in Colorado.

One of the letters sent to homeowners about their HO6 Insurance.

Smith also says the HOA and the management company, RowCal, have sent out numerous notifications to members about updating their HO6 insurance policy to cover more.

This letter to your right is one example, Smith said, of a notification sent out to homeowners.

He said the letter says homeowners should have HO6 coverage for loss assessment of $30,000. Smith says this letter was given to every member of the Soaring Eagles HOA, and it’s just one example of notifications sent out.

Smith also identified the group fighting back against this assessment as a vocal minority and said that the majority of the HOA members had the right amount of insurance coverage.

KRDO13 Investigates asked why the HOA provision locking the amount hadn’t been updated in almost 20 years; the document was written in 2006. Smith said that it takes 2/3 of homeowners to amend the master document. In the Soaring Eagles community, there are 150 units, meaning it would take 101 units to agree.

In email communication, Smith wrote that the HOA board did not make this decision lightly and said this is not a unique problem in Colorado or the rest of the country.

“This problem is not unique to Soaring Eagles. Rather, it is a statewide problem that affects HOAs across Colorado. The insurance industry continues to increase the cost of property insurance for HOAs while simultaneously increasing the deductibles under those policies. In other words, HOAs are paying more money for less coverage.”

Smith urged people to reach out to their state representatives and ask them to cap wind/hail deductibles for HOA policies, require HO-6 policies with loss assessment coverage for HOA members, and hold insurance companies accountable for offering fair and accessible coverage.

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