Category: krdo-local-news

Abby Smith

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) — Colorado Springs Utilities (CSU) alerts drivers to upcoming traffic impacts along a mile of Austin Bluffs Parkway as work continues on the Central Bluffs Substation project.

CSU says starting at 6 a.m. on Friday, Sept. 25, through Monday, Sept. 28, at 6 p.m., all westbound lanes of Austin Bluffs Parkway between Meadowland Boulevard and Union Boulevard will be closed.

Courtesy of Colorado Springs Utilities

Lee Pelton, CSU’s project manager, says the four-day closure is necessary because of challenges crews face while installing underground infrastructure for the new substation.

“Power lines and fiber optic cables,” he explained. “Because of sandy soil and vibrations from constant heavy traffic, some of the trenches for that infrastructure are collapsing before we can install the lines and cables. The contractor has to dig them over and over again.”

Pelton says the easiest and safest solution is to temporarily close the entire affected parkway segment, rather than lane by lane, as has happened with most closures during construction.

Officials say that eastbound traffic will remain open throughout the closure, and all lanes are expected to reopen Monday evening.

However, Pelton also says that similar work is also happening on the east side of the parkway in that area, with the right lane closed there.

The only business that stands to be directly affected is a storage rental business; the property manager said that she wasn’t aware of the closure, and worries about the impact on customers.

CSU advises the following detour route:

Turn right onto Meadowland Boulevard, left onto North Academy Boulevard, left onto North Union Boulevard, then right onto Austin Bluffs Parkway.

The substation project will combine two existing substations and a switch station into one modern facility, improving the electric grid. For more information, click here.

CSU expects to finish most of the substation construction by the end of the year, but some traffic impacts will continue into next year.

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Rob Namnoum

The Classical Academy girls flag football team remains undefeated as they beat Palmer Ridge on Tuesday night 34-12.

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Rob Namnoum

KRDO-13 Sports Director Rob Namnoum goes one on one with Air Force quarterback Liam Szarka.

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Rob Namnoum

Mesa Ridge High School was our week one winner of the South Colorado Motors Friday Night Blitz Spirit Award. The Mesa Ridge cheer squad received the South Colorado Motors Friday Night Blitz Spirit Award plaque.

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Bradley Davis

ALASKA (KRDO) – Every year, the National Park Service celebrates the fall with a public vote for the fattest bear in Alaska’s Katmai National Park before hibernation.

Here in Colorado, thousands of residents have gotten a view much closer for comfort than the popular Alaskan livestream.

According to Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW), bear encounters over doubled in August from the same time last year, eclipsing 8600 reported incidents. Bear relocations tripled. Bear euthanizations had the biggest jump, rising over 350%.

Data from Colorado Parks and Wildlife

Environmental factors like low snowpack, droughts and wildfires have reduced the bears’ food supply and habitats. CPW said they are becoming increasingly comfortable around humans because residents are not scaring them off.

CPW said people should get big, make loud noises and use noisemakers to scare bears away when they come near civilization. It said bears have good memories and will keep coming back to trash cans and bird feeders they feel provide an easy meal.

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Scott Harrison

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) — Winter weather that brings snow and ice doesn’t just come in the winter; we’ve seen it come in mid-fall and in early spring.

So, El Paso County public works crews must prepare for snow removal and related tasks ahead of time, in good weather — whether crews are new or experienced.

That’s the purpose of the annual “snow school” training event.

It helps crews learn and refresh their skills, including how to plow snow properly, put snow chains on their tires, and other duties.

You may not realize how large the county is: Hundreds, if not thousands, of roads, many of them unpaved, and as far as 40 miles from the Colorado Springs city limits.

It takes an appropriately large staff to cover that much territory.

Supervisors say that a full call-out for a winter storm event is 140 people, and last season, the county was close to being fully staffed, with 135 drivers.

The height of the COVID-19 pandemic reduced those numbers significantly.

In response, the county eliminated some job requirements, such as having a high school diploma, and raised pay and benefits to attract new employees and retain existing workers.

The county has also found success in outreach programs that have continued since the pandemic.

Supervisors occasionally host students at the transportation complex and make presentations at schools, exposing students to a possible career in public works.

Scott Hall, the county’s training supervisor for public works, said that around a third of the employees are new, and the overall retention rate is around 10%.

“We’ll be a little under what we were last year,” he said. “Maybe a dozen or so short of being fully staffed. “We’re close. We’re still doing a lot of training, and we have a whole new group of people coming in — new hires next week. So, it’s always a process.”

One of the newer employees is Dalton Hopkins, who’s in his second year with the county after a similar job with Fort Carson.

“I haven’t really decided (whether to stay long-term),” he said. “But I know it’s a good group of people. I think for a lot of people, (the county) just might not be the place for them.” 

Hall agrees.

“This is not a burger-flipping job. This is a work job.”

He hopes that a new career progression program will convince more departing employees to stay.

“You can actually see your future build,” Hall explained. “You know what you’re going to work towards in your first year, your second year, whatever those years are, plus the money that goes with it. And it has helped immensely.”

Finally, Hall added that the weather isn’t the biggest challenge for crews; it’s drivers who get too close to the plows or otherwise hinder them.

“For their safety and yours, please give the plows plenty of space,” he urged.

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Scott Harrison

FOUNTAIN, Colo. (KRDO) — The first of two street closures begins Monday on Mesa Road between Fountain Mesa Road and Healy Drive.

On Wednesday, a partial closure of Cross Creek Avenue—east of Fountain Mesa—begins.

The closures are scheduled to last for two weeks so that the Widefield Water and Sanitation District (WWSD) can install a new wastewater line from the district’s property on Highway 85/87 to a location east of Fountain.

That means taking the line through a busy part of town behind the new King Soopers shopping center and across busy Fountain Mesa.

However, Fountain will benefit from this project.

Because part of the installation will be on Cross Creek, where the pavement is in poor condition and Fountain hasn’t had the budget to repave it, Widefield and Fountain will split the repaving cost to improve the street sooner than it otherwise would.

KRDO13’s The Road Warrior is trying to learn the cost of the repaving there.

Fountain officials hope for more similar partnerships in the future because its paving needs far exceed available funding.

Stay up to date with the latest local news, sports, and investigations by downloading the KRDO13 app. Click here to download it from the Apple App Store. Android users can download it from Google Play here.

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Steve Roldan

Tonight we will see partly cloudy skies with a slight chance of a shower or thunderstorm. IT will be on the breezy side with winds out of the northeast at around 10 to 15 mph. Overnight lows will be cool, dropping down into the lower 50s.

Monday will bring us cooler weather with highs in the lower 70s. We do have a slight chance of an afternoon shower or thunstorm.

We do have a slight chance of a shower or thunderstorm each day this week, with highs in the 70s.

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Heather Skold

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) — After five years of being at the ‘bottom,’ Lance Gillenwater knew he needed help. 

His years as a medic in the Air Force brought on debilitating post-traumatic stress disorder, a 100% diagnosis he received ten years ago. He isn’t alone: just shy of a quarter of military service members struggle with PTSD at some point, according to the Armed Forces Benefit Association (AFBA). 

But then, a commander recommended yoga and breathing as a way to cope. 

“I had only taken one yoga class before,” said Gillenwater. “I was actually a runner and a swimmer.  But slowing down is one of the most beneficial things you can do for your nervous system. Yoga is a subtractive process. You take things out. You slough off the things that are getting in the way of getting in tune with yourself.”

The slowing down helped Gillenwater be able to function and succeed.  

He eventually became a trauma-informed yoga instructor, now teaching with Comeback Yoga, where classes are offered twice weekly at the Mt. Carmel Veterans Service Center.

Here, those struggling can put their bodies through stressors, but teach the nervous system how to respond calmly. 

“Breathing is the actual point of the class. The nervous system doesn’t know the difference between the stressors in here and the stressors out there. We’re teaching ourselves that we can do hard things,” said Gillenwater.

Stay up to date with the latest local news, sports, and investigations by downloading the KRDO13 app. Click here to download it from the Apple App Store. Android users can download it from Google Play here.

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