You Are Invited to Review the Draft Santa Fe Open Space Master Plan!
El Paso County Parks invites you to download and review the draft Santa Fe Open Space Master Plan. The plan addresses conservation, trails, open space, recreation, and cultural services needs, so El Paso County Parks can continue to provide the facilities and services that citizens value. The Master Plan provides guidance for the next seven to ten years for capital improvements, construction of open space amenities, implementation of educational programs, and operations and maintenance. The draft Master Plan is available to download in Adobe PDF format at the following online locations:
Please send your comments to Ross Williams, El Paso County Community Services Park Planner via email at rosswilliams@elpasoco.com by Wednesday, February 17th. Thank you!
The scoping period begins for the Integrated Management of Target Shooting (open until Feb 21st). This project will affect recreational shooting on the Pikes Peak, South Platte, and South Park Ranger Districts. The Pike National Forest encompasses more than 1.1 million, and our little local Pikes Peak Ranger district covers 230,000 acres.
The existing rules for Target Shooting may have been fine on the USFS land when El Paso county population was small, but with the city/county exploding to 1 million people, this is no longer feasible. The inherent risks to public safety, wildfires, resource damage, and trash accumulation from Target Shooting are unfortunately no longer tolerable. We are not advocating anything extreme, only to have Target Shooting in designated areas and not on mixed-use trail areas that we use recreationally for hiking, running, biking, equestrian, etc. We can only bike or drive a motorized vehicle in designated areas/trails/roads, so why not the same for target shooting? The USFS needs to have a system-wide answer to the issue, not just the current band-aid closure methodology.
We have no issues with Target Shooting in specifically designated areas, just not on heavily trafficked trail areas.
FOMP is pleased to announce our November 2020 Board Meeting
Meeting Time: Tuesday, November 10th at 7:00 PM
NOTE:
Please RSVP to info@fomp.org – we are under COVID guidelines and must limit the meeting to 10 people, otherwise, an online session might be required. Mask and 6-foot distancing rules are mandatory.
Meeting location
Trinity Lutheran Church, 17750 Knollwood Monument refer to https://goo.gl/maps/pjVmV8dHSMv – behind the Kum and Go, park in the east parking lot and enter through the east doors (by the playground). Take the first right and walk north through the double doors to the first classroom on the right.
Board Member Updates
President and Vice President update.
Secretary and Treasurer update.
Topics
Reid Weicks will give an update on the Palmer Lake Reservoir Road situation
Review work accomplished in 2020
Current USFS situation
Should FOMP and the community petition the USFS to limit camping in the Fire Center’s acreage?
With the current USFS COVID-19 guidelines, FOMP is canceling our Oct 13th trail night.
We ask that you please do not perform any trail maintenance, alterations, and blocking (with branches/rocks) on the trail system in the Monument Fire Center without the express permission from FOMP or the USFS.
Thanks for your support and thoughts throughout the pandemic, and we look forward to seeing everyone again.
With the current USFS COVID-19 guidelines, FOMP is canceling our Sept 8th trail night.
We ask that you please do not perform any trail maintenance, alterations, and blocking (with branches/rocks) on the trail system in the Monument Fire Center without the express permission from FOMP or the USFS.
Thanks for your support and thoughts throughout the pandemic, and we look forward to seeing everyone again.
The Lewis-Palmer High School Class of 1975 celebrated their 45th Class Reunion this year. A big congratulations for making it to that milestone, which by coincidence, I have reached the same illustrious age!
As we are all aware during this year of 2020, the COVID-19 Pandemic has dramatically altered our lifestyles, with sheltering-in-place, masks, social distancing, and smaller gatherings being required for safety purposes. The LP 75 class pulled the plug on doing their Reunion for safety reasons. Still, in a perfect melding of circumstances, they decided it would be an excellent opportunity to honor their classmate and our beloved Tim Watkins by donating on his behalf to FOMP. Tim was extremely passionate about the Monument Preserve area and mapped, built, and maintained much of the trail systems within our complex that we have all grown to love.
Russ, Bonnie Watkins, and Randy
Randy Royal offered a perfect statement about the presentation and donation:
Classmates and Friends
Thank you all for your generous donations in honor of Tim Watkins and recognizing Randy Jones as well as all of our previous classmates that we have lost. Russ, Marlene and I were able to present to members of the Board of Directors of the Friends of the Monument Preserve a check totaling $2400. We also relayed to them that a couple of you had also donated directly to them online. So ultimately, we were in the $2500 range for our donation. Bonnie Watkins, Tim’s sister, was there as well, representing the family and wanted to share her thanks to all of you as well. The FOMP was very thankful and stated the funds would be used to continue the development and maintenance of the trails within the preserve, many of which Tim had a direct impact on formulating and perfecting. They couldn’t say enough about his work, his service, and his passion for helping others. Marlene took some pics and was going to get word to the local paper.
Happy 45h Reunion, and be proud of a successful event!!
Next one, we will hopefully meet face-to-face again!!
I knew Tim for over 30 years and considered him an incredible friend and an exceptional human being, and I can rightfully say we deeply miss him on this earth with us. The entire community knows how much Tim loved the Monument Preserve, the outdoors, Monument, Palmer Lake, Colorado, Utah, and especially bicycling.
We humbly appreciate the Lewis-Palmer Class of 1975 donation in Tim’s name, as he was an avid part of our FOMP organization and a massive part of the general community. This donation will allow us to continue our mission to protect and preserve the historical artifacts and recreational opportunities available at the USFS Fire Center in Monument, CO.
