By C. May
FORT COLLINS, Colo. — The Fort Collins City Council met on Tuesday evening to discuss the 2011-2012 budget. Three sections of the budget were discussed: Environmental Health, High Performing Government, and Economic Health.
Economic health, downtown beautification, and tourism were discussed at length.
Jim Clark, the executive director of the Fort Collins Convention and Visitors Bureau, spoke about the tourism industry in Fort Collins. He reported that numbers were high this past summer, but that people tended to limit their stays and shop around for the best rates.
At previous public hearings, citizens have suggested raising the lodging tax in Fort Collins. Council members discussed a raise in lodging tax and will discuss it further in the future.
Council members expressed concern about the appearance of alleys and sidewalks downtown. Kelly Ohlson, Mayor Pro Term, was adamant about the appearance of the city. He believes Fort Collins must put money into beautifying the downtown area.
Benefits, building maintenance, and other government programs were discussed in the ‘High Performing Government’ section of the budget.
Ken Mannon, Operation Services Director, reported on the state of the city’s buildings. According to Mannon, no major maintenance has been done on the buildings in six years. In the next five years, an estimated $7 million must be spent on maintenance.
The city’s “Homeward 2020” program, however, is doing very well. “It’s been a phenomenal effort,” City Manager Darin Atteberry said. The city will stop funding the Homeward 2020 program in the near future.
The council also briefly discussed the proposed sales tax increase in Fort Collins. In November, voters will decide whether or not to raise the city sales tax to 7.55%. This would be an increase of 0.85% and could potentially bring in an additional $18.5 million in revenue.
The Environmental Health part of the meeting focused mainly on renewable energy, the effectiveness of recycling programs, and water use.
Throughout September and October, the City Council has held a series of work sessions and public hearings to discuss the budget. In November, the finalized 2011-2012 budget will be adopted. A second public hearing will be held next Tuesday evening to discuss more of the budget.
This story was easy to follow and you made it so that the issues were presented to the audience in a simple way. I also like how you used various names of the council members that were there, because it gave credibility and flow to the story. The thing I was confused about myself in my story was which topics were the most important and, thus, should be put higher up in the story for the inverted pyramid style. It seemed like the "Homeward 2020" and sales tax were more important than the street cleaning, but I still liked how you organized the story.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed the organization of your article. It was easy to read and kept my attention. You also did a great job at making everything very clear; any information that could be questionable you provided a quick description. I wish there were more quotes throughout the article to give more insight on what the council was discussing.
ReplyDeleteOverall the story was composed well and straight to the point. I do think that it seemed like you were focusing more on economic health and environmental health was kind of tacked on at the end. Also it could have used more quotes for a little more voice to the story. All information was clear and easy to read, which is always good in this type of article.
ReplyDeleteOverall, you have good organization in your article. It was very easy to read, and I could clearly follow the topics. I thought that your facts were solid, however, more quotes would have been good too. I also thought that you could have expanded in the end about Envirnmental Health. Other than that, it was a good article!
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