About 35 people attended Rep. Marsha Looper’s town hall meeting in May in Calhan. Looper opened the meeting with information about the influence of lobbyists. She said there are four lobbyists for every legislator. “If you don’t show up at the Capitol, the legislators only hear from the lobbyists,” Looper said. She has refused the lobbyists who have asked her to run legislation, she said.Long before she was a representative, Looper led efforts in support of residents concerned about the Prairie Falcon Parkway Express toll road. She has continued her activism by introducing legislation.Looper’s original bill attempted to remove encumbrances from the title of properties located within the toll road’s 3-mile-wide corridor, limit the length of time a toll road company could claim a right to property within a toll road corridor, set milestones that a toll road company must meet in order to demonstrate it is making progress toward actually building a toll road and prevent the Colorado Department of Transportation from using the power of eminent domain, until 80 percent of the land required for the toll road is acquired by the toll road company.The bill failed. It was too comprehensive, Looper said. “The toll road statutes are 100 years old,” she said. “They don’t belong on the books. The transportation committee doesn’t want to remove the law unless there is something to replace it.” Looper said she provided the committee with model language used by other states. “We have to convince the transportation committee and 33 legislators,” she said.”CDOT is all for the toll road, and they lobbied against my bill. We only have one vote on the transportation committee [for stopping the toll road].”Looper said the proposed Banning Lewis Parkway toll road, also known as the Lindsay Case toll road, that crosses Woodmen Road between Marksheffel Road and Falcon Meadows Boulevard could be used to persuade county commissioners to vote against the Prairie Falcon Parkway Express. The Banning Lewis toll road would take care of the need for alternate routes to avoid the congestion on Interstate 25 through Colorado Springs.Looper said she plans to introduce a bill in January that would clear the titles of properties within the Prairie Falcon Parkway Express corridor. In exchange for clearing the titles, the bill would give county clerks immunity for any clouded titles. Some county clerks mistakenly record notices on titles because the current law is unclear. “It is confusing because it says ‘file’ and ‘record,’ while the intent of the law was merely to file a map at the county clerk offices, not record notices on individual titles,” Looper said. “The law needs to be corrected.” She is organizing a toll road workshop for this summer.Looper also reviewed her efforts to re-route a 500 kilovolt transmission line near Yoder, planned by the Tri-State Generation & Transmission Association and the Western Area Power Association. The two associations were threatening to use eminent domain. However, with Looper’s assistance and after property owners organized and marched carrying pitchforks at the Legislature, the associations moved the line to state-owned property.Water rights came up at the meeting as well. Looper said she amended House Bill 1036 to include a provision to prevent state and political subdivisions from exercising the power of eminent domain to acquire water rights. The bill passed in the House but failed in the Senate. “Denver, Parker, and Douglas counties need water,” she said. “Douglas County will run out of water in 20 years. The Denver Basin is down by 150 to 200 feet. They are eyeballing our water.””The Upper Black Squirrel Groundwater Management District is excellent,” Looper said, but she said she plans to work with the district to further tighten their rules.The practice of developers severing water rights from their land and selling to municipalities is of concern to Looper. “If the alluvial wells fail, the homeowners will be unable to drill new wells,” she said.Looper said she plans to introduce a bill in January to evaluate water quality. The last testing done by Colorado State University only tested for bacterium. Looper said she wants a more comprehensive test. “There are over 750,000 wells in Colorado and 22,000 septic systems,” she said. “Our alluviums are being contaminated.”The remainder of the meeting focused on the Calhan school district’s decision to dismiss a teacher and to not renew another teacher’s contract. Several people in the audience said the school board had treated the teachers unfairly and had not given people who attended a school board meeting enough time to express their support for the teachers.Mike Stahl, executive director of Pikes Peak Education Association, said the Calhan school district “has problems on a grandiose scale, particularly at the high school.” He said there is a hostile work environment, with incidents of physical abuse and assault. “Teachers are afraid to speak out without fear of losing their jobs,” Stahl said.”Colorado law does not require school boards to provide their reasons for dismissing a teacher or not renewing a contract,” Looper said. If citizens feel strongly about this issue, she advised them to organize and run candidates for the two school board positions open this fall. They can also organize a recall campaign for a third seat, if necessary. She offered to hold a workshop this summer on how to organize opposition to the current school board.
