Manitou Springs neighbors angry about plan for new fire training center

MANITOU SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO)-- On Tuesday, Manitou Springs City Council approved a contract to begin building a new firefighter training facility next to the city's water treatment center.

However, neighboring residents say they were not kept up to date on the project's status and say roads cannot sustain the traffic the facility would bring.

"Our roads are truly falling apart," said Rick Barry, a former Manitou Springs City Councilman. He's one of the names on a petition trying to stop the city from building the new fire training center.

Barry says the roads in that area are already bad enough and extra traffic won't help.

"What they're looking at now is bringing two fire trucks, a tender, and a van hauling people-- so that's four more vehicles driving up these little narrow roads."

Also, Barry says the deep planning of the project was done behind neighbor's backs, without any community input.

"I think they knew the community was going to hate it, we've already spoken to that in the larger community," he adds. "We're such a small cohesive community up here and we're very active and we like each other up here. So I think if you could sneak it in without getting us involved, it just makes perfect sense."

City spokesman Alex Trefry, however, says that's not true.

"This community meeting was posted about on social media over 10 times, we had two community meetings, posted ads in our local paper, we even sent a letter to all residential addresses within 1000 feet of the proposed location. We placed a great deal of importance on transparency."

Many neighbors are skeptical, saying it's too late for the city to hear them out. Still, Barry is holding out hope.

"Council can pretty much do what they choose to do within the boundary of the law."

Trefry points out that the location was picked because it has a similar landscape to the rest of Manitou Springs.

Neighbors who live in the area also say the extra traffic could be dangerous for kids and people walking their dogs.