New safety changes coming to Garden of the Gods

Drinking, smoking, fighting, and racing at Garden of the Gods — those are just a few of the problems we brought you in our exclusive report Thursday. City officials are trying to make the park safer for visitors and prevent those committing the crimes from entering the park after it closes.

Kurt Schroeder is the manager of maintenance and operations for Garden of the Gods. He says Parks and Recreation are well aware of the problems at the park, “quite honestly we have seen a slight uptick in that at Garden of the Gods especially at the high point area.”

Schroeder says they are trying to implement two changes to Garden of the Gods. The first is adding in more gates. Right now there are three, but the main entrance to Garden of the Gods is open 24 hours; letting people in at all times during the night who are not supposed to be.

The other measure is adding their own security to patrol the park. “We are going to implement a program similar to what we do at Palmer Park,” Schroeder says. “We close the gate, we have a security service that comes in to move everybody out of the park.”

However, Schroeder says they need to install the gates first before getting the security team. They hope to have these changes happen soon to make locals and visitors feel more at ease while enjoying the breathtaking sights of the park.