Gazette, The (Colorado Springs): Letters

FILLING CITY COFFERS Police seem more interested in fines than crimes

These days when I leave my home I notice many more motorcycle policemen hiding in bushes, behind cars, in alleys or any place they can be concealed. Either that or they are busy writing tickets.

I certainly don't want folks breaking the traffic laws, but I am bothered by the sudden surge in officers more interested in traffic offenses than in violent crimes.

Our city, it appears, has found a way to replenish its empty coffers - with hefty traffic fines. But I predict that when word spreads that Colorado Springs has become the speed trap capital of Colorado, and perhaps the nation, tourists will stay away in droves. What about our coffers then?

Jan Zeis, Colorado Springs

HELPING OTHERS Driver provided aid for woman with flat tire

Recently, I was driving a group of children back from a school field trip to the fossil beds in Florissant. As I was coming down the last steep hill on Highway 24, I noticed a man in a red pickup truck who seemed upset with me. I was in the left lane and assumed he wanted to pass, so I got into the right lane. Just after I moved over, my van started shaking and I realized something was wrong.

As I stopped and got out of my van, I could smell burning rubber. All that was left of my right rear tire was the tread wrapped around the rim.

I was upset because I needed to get the children back to school and I also had to pick up my other children when school ended. The man in the red pickup truck also stopped, and as I was trying to find the spare tire, I saw him walking toward me. He found the jack and the spare, and changed the tire. I was in a daze and trying to calm the children - they wanted to get out of the van and join the "fun."

Thanks to this wonderful person who helped me.

Sandra Graham, Colorado Springs

COUNTY COURTHOUSE Online document can show level of objection

Are you opposed to the construction of a new El Paso County courthouse? Are you opposed to the way it is being financed without a vote of the people? Are you worried about the view obstruction? If so, go to www.PetitionOnline.com/elpaso/petition. html and vote your feelings. Maybe if enough of us register our complaints, the county commissioners will listen to the silent majority that is out there.

This petition is not binding but has the potential to show the amount of objection there is to the construction and financing of this multi-million-dollar structure.

If you do not have an e-mail account, use a friend's. Please share the address with others and encourage as many folks as you can to vote.

Stephen M. Marsh, Colorado Springs

TELLING THE TRUTH Extreme group wants to keep most people out of forests

I believe it is time the public knows the truth about Robert Fowler's group and its agenda ("Keep private interest out of the woods," Letters, Sept. 26). It is an extreme environmental group that distorts the truth and ties up the courts whenever our Forest Service tries to clean up the forests before we have fires like the Hayman fire. The environmental groups that stopped the cleanup before the fire started should be held accountable for the loss of human life (as well as forest life) and should be accountable to every homeowner in that area.

It's amusing how Fowler calls everyone else a special interest group but thinks his is not. He states that our forests are for everyone to enjoy, but what his group really wants is to have it for themselves by turning everything into wilderness areas. They are in the process right now of trying to claim thousands more acres of everyone's national forest land as a hiker's-only domain. If they want to talk about greed, they should talk to themselves.

Loren Schroeder, Colorado Springs

AFA MOTTO Air Force should draw on its past to inspire the future

When an organization such as the Air Force Academy seeks a motto, a good starting point is to look to its own past. Our Air Force has a short yet distinguished history to draw from beginning with the purchase of a Wright Flyer for aerial reconnaissance and courier service for Blackjack Pershing's forces in Mexico to service today. Early in its history, the Air Force drew its academy-trained officers from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and continued to do so until the Air Force Academy was created. From that history comes a theme that is hard to ignore.

Shortly before his death, Gen. Douglas MacArthur gave a farewell address to the cadets at West Point. The theme of this speech is or should be a motto common to all of our military services. No finer motto could one select to greet those young warriors-in-training as they walk up the ramp to the Terrazzo: duty, honor, country.

George Hufford, Monument

IN RESPONSE Philharmonic is on track for success

Tuck Aiken questioned whether the Colorado Springs Philharmonic has simply adopted old, discredited policies, or whether it has replaced them with a cultural mission to provide the highest affordable quality of live symphonic music to Colorado Springs with a part-time orchestra ("Does symphony need a 'culture' change?" Business, Sept. 28). This is a legitimate question and, as president of the Colorado Springs Philharmonic board of directors, I feel it appropriate that I respond.

When I took this job I did so with no previous experience with the Colorado Springs Symphony. That was both a blessing and a curse; a blessing because I wasn't part of all of the fights and recriminations of the past and a curse because it took me a while to get up to speed.

My philosophy has always been to take nothing for granted and try to challenge all preconceptions. Nothing is sacred, particularly not budgets.

In putting this organization together, there were several pragmatic considerations:

The orchestra as an entity had to be able to maintain its artistic standards.

The music director, Lawrence Leighton Smith, a conductor with an outstanding national reputation and respect, had to be retained.

The old budgetary guidelines needed to be challenged if the philharmonic was to have any chance of survival.

Last year's symphony budget was cut 50 percent, classical performances went from three nights to two, pops went from six concerts presented twice to four concerts presented once. Medical insurance coverage for musicians and staff was eliminated. Overhead and staff expenses, which includes compensation, was reduced 40 percent. Lastly, the musicians saw their compensation reduced by 30 percent, with the average musician now earning between $6,100 and $8,400 per season.

Most importantly, this needed to be accomplished expeditiously and in a collaborative fashion, without the animosity and recriminations of the past. We were operating within a very small window of opportunity - we needed to schedule a season this year to retain Smith and our best musicians. That meant we had to hit the ground running.

The musicians, and by extension their union, had to be a major part of the solution and they are.

In short, we have the musical talent, a fit and trim budget and an unprecedented level of cooperation and trust, both in the organization and the community. We are, symphonically speaking, ready to sound the "A".

I would say we are optimistic about providing the highest affordable quality of live symphonic music to Colorado Springs. Have you bought your season tickets yet? There aren't many left.

Thomas R. Cross, President, Colorado Springs Philharmonic