From The Pueblo Chieftain (Chris Woodka):
Interim Executive Director Gary Barber will stay on until a new director is chosen, but told the Fountain Creek Watershed Flood Control and Greenway District board Friday that the district needs someone who can work full time on the district’s programs. “This is not a part-time job. It is a full-time job. You’ve got to have a full-time director,” Barber said. “You need a full-time person to focus on the land-use issues and to be an activist for Fountain Creek.”[…]
The board voted unanimously to begin a search immediately, but will not be able to have a new director in place until February at the soonest. Barber will remain with the district until the new person is hired.
Barber also presented the board with a plan to stretch district funding until 2016, when the Southern Delivery System is scheduled to be completed. The bulk of $50 million that Colorado Springs pledged to the district as a condition of Pueblo County’s 1041 permit won’t be paid until then. The district also has been considering asking voters for a mill levy in the 2012 election, but the current economic climate could make that prospect dim, Barber said…
Beginning in 2012, the member entities would be asked to contribute more than $5,000 each to the district. Pueblo County, Pueblo, the Lower Ark district, El Paso County, Colorado Springs, Fountain and four El Paso County cities would contribute…
The district is coordinating Fountain Creek projects in conjunction with other agencies, including a $1 million wetlands and sediment removal project in Pueblo, a project to complete trails from Fountain to Clear Springs Ranch and a $570,000 flood-control study co-funded by the U.S. Geological Survey and Colorado Springs. Barber offered to stay on as needed to help get the projects under way.
The board also approved a $344,000 budget Friday; $270,000 of that is restricted to the projects.