Changes are Coming to Fort Collins

By K.M. Spence

FORT COLLINS, Colo.— The Fort Collins City Council met on, Tues, Oct 12. The meeting covered three different sections including, Economic Health, High Performing Government, and Environmental Health. Many members from around the city came to talk about these different issues including the Fort Collins Police, and other people who work with Fort Collins’ budget. Most topics that were discussed were focused on the city’s budget.

One topic that was discussed for the majority of the earlier part of the meeting discussed how Fort Collins can bring in more money or cut money. Different men came in to discuss how Fort Collins is doing for a tourist attraction compared to other cities in Colorado. It has come out that Fort Collins does have cheaper lodging rates than most, but the city still wants more money to come in.

Mike Freeman, Chief Financial Officer, discussed that the economic health comes mostly from the general city’s fund. Most of the core services are funded, but some other topics that are not funded that might have been if the economy was better.

The public relations part of the city brings in money by the help of advertising. Jim Clark, who is in charge of the public relations department, said how advertising revenues and brewery tours have helped the city. “We have had a great success in brewery tours with the help of New Belgium and Budweiser.”

The topic of the High Performing Government discussed how the city has had to cut the funding for the police department. Many jobs have been cut or given to officers that are not as highly ranked as they usually would be for that given job.

“We have had to propose to cut many departments’ resources. For example, the Crime Prevention specialist has had to be given to a retired officer and take on more responsibilities,” said, Captain Jim Szakmeister, Fort Collins Police Department.

The last topic that was discussed on the Environmental Health talked about the clean up cuts for downtown Fort Collins. The city wants to cut the power washing that helps to clear off debris. The downtown area will not be as clean and well kept if the budget is cut.

The meeting talked about many cuts that will have to be made in all three of these topics since the economy is still in recovery.

“It’s hard to see these different areas cut, but we have to do what is best for the city at this time,” said, Freeman.