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| Nancy Lewis wants everyone to cherish Colorado Springs' parks | |||
| Wednesday, December 07, 2011 10:36 |
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BY R. SCOTT RAPPOLD When snowstorms and thunderstorms build over Pikes Peak and the Front Range, “You can’t get a better view than this.” Her second-favorite spot: Nancy Lewis Park (Templeton Gap Road at North Logan Avenue). At 72, Lewis has devoted much of her life to quiet, scenic and natural places in Colorado Springs, spending nearly 30 years in the city’s parks department, the last six as director. And she’s not happy about what’s happening to them. The past three years have seen some of the most drastic cuts Colorado Springs parks have ever experienced. Declining sales-tax revenue compelled the city to cut the parks budget by 84 percent. A third of the staff has been lost. Pools and swimming areas have been closed, restrooms have been locked, grass has gone unwatered and trash has gone uncollected. Lewis mourns the demise of the public areas she helped develop and oversee for decades. So she did the only thing she could think of, something that had been in the back of her mind for years: She wrote a book. “It became more important as years passed and I watched the struggles the department was having and watching them have to close restrooms, pools,” she said. “Some of these things concerned me enough to say, ‘The time is now to put into writing what people need to know about what we have.’” “The Parks of Colorado Springs — Building Community, Preserving a Legacy” came out this week, written by Lewis and Deborah Odell. It’s a painstaking history of the city’s park system, from the creation of Acacia Park when the city was platted in 1871 to today’s fiscal crisis. At a time when the community is debating the importance and future of parks, she hopes it will be a reminder of the 140 years of work that have created one of the nation’s best municipal park systems. Said Lewis, “I want to preserve — and I want to see the city preserve for future generations — the things that are important.” Many of Colorado Springs’ best-known parks, including North Cheyenne Cañon, Palmer and Monument Valley, were donated by city founder Gen. William Jackson Palmer “solely for outdoor recreation enjoyment and use of the people of Colorado Springs.” The parks could not be built on or sold, nor could alcohol ever be permitted, or the property would revert to his heirs. He urged Charles E. Perkins to make Garden of the Gods a park, which Perkins did, with the restriction that it never be built on and fees never be charged. Similarly, W.K. Jewett donated 300 acres for a golf course to be named for his wife. These stories are well-known and take up the opening pages of Lewis’ book. The rest covers the efforts to maintain what was given and to create new parks on pace with the expanding city. The common theme throughout is the struggle for funding in a fiscally conservative city. For example, Palmer had been dead just over a year when, in 1910, the city was poised to buy Seven Falls. But residents rejected a bond proposal by a vote of 1,1011-236. Today you can see privately owned Seven Falls for $9.25. The parks at that time were governed by a Parks Commission, which spent tax money on parks, but did not answer to City Council. Palmer intended the commission to be free from “partisan and political strife.” Voters killed it in 1947.
Ensuing decades saw Colorado Springs’ population boom, from 70,194 in 1960 to 232,000 in 1980. Using newspaper archives and official records, Lewis details the city’s struggles to build parks in the new suburbs, until a 1973 ordinance required developers to build their own parks. Lewis details the ups and downs. With a funding system dependent on sales-tax revenue, each time the economy struggled, so did parks. During the recession in 1987 the city caused a stir by advertising for a company to build a lavish visitor center next to Gateway Rocks. In 1997, when the economy was good, voters approved the first tax increase in 20 years, approving the Trails, Open Space and Parks sales tax. No detail is too minute — master plans often garner 2-3 pages — but Lewis’ love for the parks comes through, and the book is illustrated with many never-before-published, historical park photos. Written at the close of 2010, the narrative does not have a happy ending: “The parks of Colorado Springs were in crisis. Whether community leaders and city residents could and would make the decisions that would lead to the preservation of an exceptional and enduring public park system remained to be seen.” For the final chapter, Lewis convened a panel of former city officials to brainstorm ideas to help the beleaguered parks system. They suggest a “reimagined parks department,” possibly merged with other local governments, possibly independent of city government. They urge more business involvement in parks, more natural, low-water vegetation in parks and putting acquisition of land through TOPS on hold until a new funding structure is in place. Lewis, who retired as parks director in 1994, was careful to keep herself and her opinions out of the book. “This is not a story about me. This is a story about all the people who made a difference since General Palmer gave us what we have,” she said. “This is not a critical book in saying the city should have handled it differently. You have to look at the health, welfare and safety of people first, and I understand that. I know fire and police have the lion’s share of the budget.” Lewis won’t get rich off the book. Proceeds go to improve Garden of the Gods. “All I wanted to do was tell a story. I wanted to tell a story and lay out the history in a way I don’t think it had been presented before,” she said. She hopes readers take away from the book how important parks have always been to the city, a key part of our identity for 140 years. “The founders had a dream. General Palmer had a dream. He wanted the perfect city, with open places,” she said. “People today care as well, but when you line (parks) up with other things, it doesn’t always seem like the most important thing.” Our advice: Find a park to read it in.
BOOK SIGNING AND RECEPTION —
Contact R. Scott Rappold: 476-1605 |
