Letters - Tuesday

RETURN TRIP?

3rd HBCT’s morale high despite deployment rumor

I felt compelled to respond to The Gazette’s Thursday report, “Short home stay angers some GIs.” I don’t think the article adequately tells the story of the great soldiers of the 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team of the 4th Infantry Division.

First, let me comment on the likelihood of 3rd HBCT returning to Iraq next fall. As the brigade commander pointed out, that is a possibility and nothing more. So much can change in a year’s time; it is much too early to be definitive about future deployments. Regardless of what the future holds, it changes nothing for our plans in the months ahead.

This brigade will return to the Mountain Post sometime in November. We will take some time to reunite with our families; then, after some much deserved time off, we will return to refit and retrain our soldiers in preparation for future operations. This we would do regardless of possible deployments. In fact, we do this in preparation for possible deployments. Anything less would be an abandonment of our commitment to our soldiers and their families.

As for the issue of our soldiers’ morale, which the article suggested had hit “rock bottom” and included a quotation from one anonymous soldier that word of a potential deployment next year was “destroying morale.” That simply is not true. Let the numbers do the talking. We are on pace to exceed our re-enlistment goals this year (and this year’s goal is the highest we’ve ever received). We’ve already re-enlisted more than 530 soldiers and paid almost $6 million in re-enlistment bonuses. More than 100 of those soldiers have re-enlisted since the word came out in June that the brigade might return to Iraq next year. This is not the mark of a unit with morale problems.

The Army’s senior leadership understands the impact of returning a unit to the fight after a short refit. We are confident they will do everything they can before they ask this of our soldiers and their families. Regardless of what the future holds for the brigade, we will stay focused on the current fight and know that our families will continue to receive outstanding support from the Colorado Springs community.

Maj. Michael S. Humphreys

3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, Public Affairs

Baqubah, Iraq

THE BLAME GAME

Some on City Council more responsible than others

This is in response to The Gazette’s Aug. 17 report, “Council likely to tighten rules on land buys.” I appreciate Councilman Tom Gallagher and CEO of Colorado Springs Utilities Jerry Forte taking the high road and accepting responsibility for the 2003 land acquisitions for the Jimmy Camp Creek Reservoir.

The blame truly lies with now-retired utilities CEO, Phil Tollefson, and with the only two current members of City Council and the Utilities Board who remained after the new council was seated in April 2003, Mayor Lionel Rivera and Councilwoman Margaret Radford. Neither of these two accepted any personal responsibility for their failure to exercise the oversight we the citizens expect from them, although Rivera did acknowledge board responsibility after Gallagher made his case.

One should not hold the seven new members of council and the board and the new CEO of Utilities accountable for negotiations that took place prior to their participation.

Don Schley

Colorado Springs

ROAD TO RUIN

Prioritizing of projects a lesson in illogic

What is our planning process? One viaduct, on Cimarron Street, is in serious disrepair and will be required to carry substantial additional traffic when the Bijou Street overpass is closed for COSMIX, yet it will not be replaced until 2010. The Union Boulevard/Austin Bluffs Parkway overpass, which will do nothing but move the traffic bottlenecks to Union/Academy and Austin Bluffs/Academy, is proceeding to be built in the next year. The logic of these decisions escapes me.

Jan Van Hoosier

Colorado Springs

STAY OF FREXECUTION

Gazette’s short-sightedness ignores service’s benefits

Sunday’s editorial about the Front Range Express, and whether the city or the state should continue providing subsidies for FREX, demonstrates the utter ignorance of The Gazette’s editorial philosophy in this and other societal matters (“Stay of FREXecution?”). One thing is for sure: The Gazette is consistent in its seemingly well-meaning but narrow-minded view that public services need to be selfsufficient.

I have lived in other major cities, some highly advanced in their public transit systems, like the Chicago-metro. Ironically, the most valued real estate in that metro area hugs the corridors of government-subsidized light and heavy rail systems. The system actually serves the professional and white collar classes more than the poor. Public transportation provides a growing and vibrant city a better way to manage its ever-growing rush hours.

Auto transportation also needs government subsidies, but in a much bigger way. Just look at the cost of COSMIX or the proposed U.S. Highway 24 expansion, let alone the next desired urban expressway for the far east side. We are not talking about a couple of million dollars, but hundreds of millions, possibly billions of dollars in final capital costs.

I say nuts to The Gazette’s completely looney-toon reasoning. The better idea is to find the proper and reasonable funding, then expand FREX, rather than trying to choke it off once it is beginning to establish itself in this age of rapidly escalating fuel costs. A small investment in public transportation will have an enormous return on investment.

And by the way, I do ride the FREX, and so do many smart professional people who realize it is far better than paying for gasoline for the same ride in their lonely cars.

Robert Nemanich

Colorado Springs

GATHERING STORM

City needs enterprise to fix decaying infrastructure

The stormwater enterprise fee is not a tax, as The Gazette frequently says; it’s a fee. That opinion was upheld in court. The paper’s repeated suggestions to leave the stormwater fee up to the voters is also simple-minded. Anything that resembles a tax increase will fail in this town, regardless of the severity of the problem.

I agree there are management oversight issues. But the stormwater issue must be dealt with. I believe we are the last city in the state without a stormwater enterprise.

On a similar note, maybe if Douglas Bruce wasn’t such a pest, the city would find other avenues to fund such a need. The city has infrastructure problems that need to be addressed. Fees are a way to pay for these needs now. If city services were privatized (an entirely separate discussion), these same services would be feebased and very inequitable.

I hope the City Council delays the vote on the stormwater fee structure until April. If it doesn’t, mock bills go out right before the November election. This election will feature Bruce’s wacko measures. These measures will hurt property values in this town, just like water drainage from leaky infrastructure will hurt property values.

Brian Goodack

Colorado Springs

THEY HEAR, THEY HEAL

Caring staff at Memorial made bad news easier

Recently, I was admitted to Memorial Hospital for a few days for tests. When test results returned, I was told I have a cancer.

There were so many people involved — doctors, nurses, technicians etc. — who helped me through my stay in the hospital. I give extra thanks to the ward nurses who seemed to go out of their way for me.

I firmly believe the Memorial Hospital creed: “We hear, we heal, we care.”

Everett J. Williams

Colorado Springs