Money for a new Helen Hunt Falls visitor center, but nobody to staff it

This could be the house that beer built.

At Helen Hunt Falls in North Cheyenne Cañon Park, the visitor center is in a leaky, rotting, mouse-infested 1916 squat log bunker that everyone agrees should be demolished. The Friends of Cheyenne Cañon and Bristol Brewing Co., after three years of fund-raising, have $50,000 for a new center, most of it raised through the sale of Bristol’s Cheyenne Cañon Ale.

But with city parks bearing much of the brunt of recent budget cuts, nobody is sure if the popular location will have a new visitor center – or an empty lot.

“Gosh if they can raise some money and have it installed, that would be great,” said Paul Butcher, director of the city’s Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services Department.

The caveat: The city doesn’t have the money to staff it.

Brewery owner Mike Bristol decided to dedicate a brew to the park for the simple reason he loves to hike and bike there, and so do a lot of people.

“I’ve had three (homes) since coming to Colorado Springs. Each one gets a little closer to the cañon,” Bristol said.

“You’re 15 minutes from downtown and you’re in the wilderness. You can feel like you’re in the mountains,” said Lee Wolf, president of the Friends of Cheyenne Cañon. “You tell people this is a city park and people don’t believe it.”

The falls, a short hike up from the road, may be the most popular part of the park. According to the parks department, this year has seen 64,787 visitors to the falls, 35,290 of whom went into the visitors center.

Supporters see the center not only as a place for visitors to get a drink and buy a postcard or trinket, but an employee in the park to report fires or tourists who slip on the rocks, a phone line in a place where most cell phones don’t work.

Until the recent budget crisis, plans were well along for a new center, one that would keep the log cabin-style look with none of the problems of the old building, which was an out-building to the Bruin Inn, a hotel that burned in 1957.

But, with the failure of a proposed tax hike at the polls this month, the city parks department lost its funding for the staff member who manages the Helen Hunt Falls Visitor Center and Starsmore Discovery Center at the park and the summer temporary employees to work the counters.

Both are closed for the winter, but typically open in the spring. The city council has pledged $27,000 to keep them open three months of 2010 if the community can come up with money to keep them open the rest of their season, Butcher said.

If the money doesn’t materialize, the city might tear down the Helen Hunt Falls building, Butcher said.

“I would anticipate, if we go into a long-term budget situation where we are now, it is in such poor condition that it might be in the best interest of the public and safety purposes just to take that facility out,” Butcher said.

The Friends of Cheyenne Cañon has increased its fund-raising goal to $100,000, in hopes of helping the city staff the park and staying on track for a new building. But, in a recession, they know it’s a lofty goal, and building plans may have to be put off.

“If we get to the point where we realize a visitors center is not going to happen next year, so be it,” Bristol said. “We need to know we would be able to have enough money to staff it.”

HOW TO HELP
Visit the Friends of Cheyenne Cañon Web site, or pick up a bottle of Cheyenne Cañon Ale, a nut brown ale that recently won a silver medal at the Great American Beer Festival in Denver, for sale at some liquor stores and the brewery.