Eye On Englewood

Link: http://www.eyeonenglewood.com

The latest full house at City Council meeting turned up when Council member, Linda Olsen, complained about seeing recreational vehicles, trailers and caravans on the streets and in driveways of her neighborhood. She requested that her friends on council implement laws to address the problem. Arapahoe Acres is an upscale Englewood neighborhood where each address has a unique piece of art in the front yard.

Political opponent, Matthew Crabtree, and some Concerned Englewood Citizens stirred the pot. He says, "For clarification, this was this was NOT a discussion about parking on the street - this is a debate on how you can use your own driveway." The house was packed when people turned up to represent themselves. That would be their right to freely and openly express a pursuit of fun in life. Mayor Woodward refused to let so many people speak, and Olsen herself apologized, --not for her attitude,-- but for so many people feeling compelled to come out and represent on “such a non-issue.” Then, the tempers flared. To an outsider, it seemed a bit like July 4th celebrations.

Afterwards, Crabtree, approached Olsen to encourage her once again to make these kinds of decisions public so that there is a fair fight and the people are heard. But Olsen leaned in to quietly lecture Crabtree, “Do you realize that I now fear for my life?” She hissed. “I need a police escort just to get out to my car after this meeting!”

A criminal case is being served this week against the City Council by Douglas Cohn against the Mayor of Englewood, Jim Woodward, and the City Manager, Gary Sears for various violations of the Tabor Act, the most recent being the green solar panels. A more efficient manner of erecting green building standards in Colorado would be to enact a building code utilizing solar attic fans and 2”x 6” exterior framing, costing taxpayers nothing. Or, erecting windmills in open areas to generate energy.

Last year, a couple running a boarding house for seminary students and missionaries, the Bartnicks, filed for a special recall election on several of City Council, then decided instead to put their efforts towards a lawsuit against certain Council members and staff for acting outside their scope of legal authority and for illegal lawmaking, including retrospective laws, a bill of attainder and the City’s triple religious discriminatory prosecutions. An unwarranted search and seizure escalated by Englewood’s top judge, Mr. Atencio, was included by the District Judge, and the City is compelled to Answer charges this month.

Another case was filed by an Englewood Developer on Ogden Street for the City’s intermeddling in a land deal, which ended up costing the developer months and money, which the City paid back in restitution to the tune of approximately $60,000.

Again, in the case where an Englewood industrial developer over shot his lot survey, and developed on a neighboring property, all approved by Englewood’s Building Department, the City is again defending its reckless disregard for your money at work.

This is the same government that asked for their two terms to be enlarged to three, and won the vote in November, 2009. This is the City Manager whose salary is $165,000, with added travel and vacation packages, and who just slashed your benefits across the board from street maintenance, snow removal and paving, to parks and staffing.

Bloomberg reported this week: “Hundreds of residents of one of the poorest municipalities in Los Angeles County shouted in protest last night as tensions rose over a report that the city’s manager earns an annual salary of almost $800,000.

“An overflow crowd packed a City Council meeting in Bell, a mostly Hispanic city of 38,000 about 10 miles (16 kilometers) southeast of Los Angeles, to call for the resignation of Mayor Oscar Hernandez and other city officials. Residents left standing outside the chamber banged on the doors and shouted “fuera,” or “get out” in Spanish.”

“The Los Angeles Times reported July 15 that Chief Administrative Officer Robert Rizzo earns $787,637 -- with annual 12 percent raises -- and that Bell pays its police chief $457,000, more than Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck makes in a city of 3.8 million people. Bell council members earn almost $100,000 for part-time work.”

Yes, when citizens turn up and turn out their government, is when they see the shenanigans going on and figure out how the system works to correct the funny business.

Link: http://www.EyeOnEnglewood.com

The latest buzz is that America's insecticides are killing valuable sources of pollinators for most of the foods that are harvested. Wasps, characterized as omnivores because they eat tomato cut worms and other garden parasites, are sometimes hard to defend to hysterical children and allergic people. But wasps are like bees and only attack humans in self defense. This explains, however, why they love summer barbecues as well as the company we invite. Wasps can be annoying. But what about bumble bees, and other small bees, like honey bees?

Doug Cohn initiated a "bee friendly city" policy at the February City Council meeting in Englewood, which was well received. His suggestion is to have a list of people who choose to allow wild flowers throughout all the growing seasons to appear in their yards. Especially in back yards. This would mean a change to some of Englewood's codes. It would also mean a change to many people's perspective of beauty and bees.

Theoretically, the people on these bee registries would not be cited by code enforcement for growing certain weeds in their yards. Wild flowers include: dandelions, milk weed, asters, goldenrod, sunflowers, thistles, clover as well as the more popular Russian Sage, Butterfly Bush and Linden Tree.

I wonder what a dandelion garden would look like? Thankfully, all flowering vegetables and flowering fruits also help bees to survive. Because Englewood is an older city, one may readily see apple, apricot, peach, plum, and cherry trees, and raspberry bushes. Because of Englewood's weather, watermelon, tomatoes, cantaloupe and gourds also grow well.

Some people resist the whole idea. They would like to include certain flowers but nix the dandelions for instance. But Paul Hendricks, a bee keeper lobbyist, who lives in Englewood has experienced the extinction of most of his hives. He warns that bees need to eat throughout the growing season, so keeping the flowers and weeds that bloom in a domino effect are important throughout the growing season.

In the winter of 2006 the honey bee population began to die out. Since then, as much as 70% of some bee populations have died as a result of Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). But try to imagine life without fruit, vegetables and even grains. Bees are required to pollinate these kinds of food.

When asked, Doug Cohn stated that he believes turning Englewood into a Bee Friendly City encourages the green agenda by eliminating many people's use of poisons over every inch of their property. These poisons are killing bees that are badly needed to pollinate many foods. The poisons also seep into the drinking water.

City Council encouraged Doug Cohn to present his ideas to Keep Englewood Beautiful in order to investigate and implement a working program.

It may be pleasant to have blocks of manicured lawns, but interspersing gardens and keeping brights spots in the yards means healthy pollination for foods for everyone. Roof top gardens are an important feature in many countries. Colorful roof top gardens would do more for green initiatives and the health of those maintaining them, than the expensive experimental solar panels on the City buildings' roof tops.

Link: http://www.EyeOnEnglewood.com

As we move into the solar energy age,the City of Englewood is faced with many choices, some of which are being watched closely by the City of Lakewood. Unfortunately, the Englewood City Council has narrowed all this down to just one choice: Should they or shouldn't they accept an offer from a company named AMERESCO for a 25 year commitment to solar panels.

A company named AMERESCO has offered to do an energy audit of the municipal buildings if the City will commit to a 25 year contract for solar panels.

The City rents the main building known as 1000 Englewood Parkway. The Service Center is surrounded by tall trees that would require being chopped down in order to use the panels and the Recreation Center already has windows surrounding the South facing direction for optimum heat absorption between the prime sunshine hours between 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 pm, four hours per day.

How do the citizens of Englewood know that they will receive the latest, best equipment from AMERESCO? Is it last year's technology? Will it be outdated next year, and taxes be locked in to supporting the equipment for another 25 years?

I remember when health clubs would "hard sell" a 10 year membership to young men and women. Unsuspecting people rarely realized how their lives and movements would change, or how health technology and the companies would change or evaporate into thin air in a mere ten years. Then, think about solar and wind energy being on the move today!

The City is committed by Charter to offer competitive bidding. Belmar Green is a vested developer of green energy and Englewood would do well to pay attention to the choices they are making. One contractor, (anonymous) who often works with the City of Englewood is surprised to learn that there are no public offerings on the table so that he could make a bid himself on helping the City into the green age. An obvious competitor might be Namaste Solar.

Why not turn the tables and offer Englewood to AMERESCO or another company as a green study in exchange for free technology? Certainly, the early technology would warrant this kind of offer from a city the size of Englewood.

What will it cost Englewood in the end to repair the roof damage or to maintain the holes in the roof or to take down the obsolete equipment?

Solar energy is not simply used for heating and lighting, but in the case of Englewood, also for air conditioning.

Energy employees at the City of Denver were asked by a source named, "Mitch" how they keep the Capitol cool in the summer without air conditioning. They stated that ventilation is a key often overlooked by consumers. They also suggested the City buildings turn off the hot water during the summer months since bathing is not an issue in commercial buildings.

On the other side of the coin, how would solar panels impact the heating bills? AMERESCO proposes a 10,000 watt or 1% decrease in the monthly bills. This is nowhere near what wind energy could provide or geothermal energy.

Certainly, an updated generator grid would be an option for Englewood since it is the flow of the distributive power being generated that actually effects costs. Until the flow of energy is changed to disburse the energy from its source to its destination, it doesn't matter if every business in America has solar. It is the shortest route that brings the costs of energy down.

Concerned Citizens in Englewood (ECOG) assert that the City can save more money by changing the light bulbs in the building to energy efficient ones, and upgrading insulation or even triple paning the windows before trying out solar panels on a 25 year locked in commitment to AMERESCO.

Jimany Christmas, Batman! It's the Joker offering the Mayor a City deal of the century! Then again, its the Mayor who had his own home recently fitted with energy panels. And, after all, it's not his own money he's committing for 25 years.