Springs City Council Votes: FREX Stays
The Colorado springs City Council takes an unexpected vote on the future of FREX, but their vote may not have the impact many in the community expected.
Councilors are calling this vote a statement of their support of public transportation, and some, like President Scott Hente, said they are tired of cutting city services so repeatedly.
The vote was 6 to 3 to keep FREX until the end of the 2012 year. Council Members Angela Dougan, Tim Leigh, and Merv Bennett were against the proposal. They said FREX was agood program, but that it is not a sustainable form of transportation.
FREX transports people from EL PASO County to Denver and back. The hours long public forum showed the majority of people at the meeting want FREX to stay. The vast majority indicated that they lived in Colorado Springs, but had to got to work in Denver everyday.
Only former councilor, and representative for Americans for Prosperity Sean Paige said he and the group he representaed were against FREX, calling it unsustainable and a waste of taxpayer dollars..
It is important to point out that council’s vote does not mean the FREX service of the chopping block. Mayor Steve Bach asked council to get rid of FREX by August of 2012, and now that council has not done so, Bach has the authority to terminate a FREX contract that would end the service.
