On this episode of The Maverick Observer podcast, we’re discussing two different topics we are passionate about. We’re discussing mixed issues – Strong Mayor (Tim) and Monument Water (Katie) and will end the podcast describing their favorite cocktail. Our host is Tim Hoiles from The Maverick Observer (blue) and Katie Spence from The Epoch Times (green).

Tim: Hello and welcome to The Maverick Observer podcast. I started a start-up news source and nonprofit in Colorado Springs in 2020. Created from deep roots and history in the media, I wanted to bring you news on politics and government shenanigans in the local area, but also a sprinkling of food, drinks, views, and books. I’m Tim Hoiles from The Maverick Observer and she’s Katie Spence from The Epoch Times.

Katie: Today we are focusing on local issues in Colorado Springs and Monument. Local issues can affect you quicker and more personally than federal issues. Tim will discuss the strong mayor concept and hot it’s going, and I will focus on water issues in Monument, and the impact of more developments on this diminishing resource. We will end the show debating our favorite adult beverages and maybe introduce you to a new libation.

Tim: Strong Mayor. I’ve got some really strong feelings about the strong mayor.

Katie: Do tell.

Tim: I think it’s not good for all of the citizens of Colorado Springs.

Katie: And, and what do you mean by the strong mayor?

Tim: We used to have a political system in the city of Colorado Springs that the mayor and the city council met together and the mayor was on the city council in sort of vice versa. So, there was a committee of people who would decide and be involved in most of the management that they didn’t give to city staff or bureaucrats in the city of Colorado Springs. Well, several years ago a development group decided they didn’t like that, so they put almost a million dollars into funding the vote on the strong mayor. So now the city council is limited to certain land use situations. But anything else goes through this strong mayor, so the developers have one person to go see, and maybe that person and the administrative assistant to him to get things done. They claimed it would make for a much easier way to get things done in Colorado Springs. I think they left out a couple and those words were for us. So, they get all these things that they can just go to the mayor. And a perfect example of it is that when Banning Lewis was bought, it was in bankruptcy. The developers sued that bankruptcy court and the bankruptcy court said no. All of the conditions of the original annexation agreement go with the property. Well, they renegotiated that with the city attorney, the mayor, and two people or three people from the developer, and it was all done in confidential renegotiations. And we don’t know totally what was thrown out or what wasn’t thrown out. We can compare the two documents, but the original Banning Lewis, and I should have looked up the date that it was done, was probably one of the best city documents I’ve ever read, cuz it’s thick and it is really well done because they really had a good city staff. But now we get more special districts and the developer wants this and wants that and wants this and pretty soon they’ve got whatever they want. And it doesn’t always benefit, in my opinion, all the citizens of Colorado Springs.

Katie: So you’re saying the developers have a lot more sway over the mayor because it’s just one point of contact?

Tim: They’ve always had a lot of sway over the mayor and certain city council members, because the developers, the home builders, and folks like that spend the most money on campaigns for these people. Follow the money and see who benefits the most. So usually at least six council members and the mayor had a majority of their money for campaigns funded by these people. It’s really easy to look it up. You can go on the websites. They have to divulge all this. The problem is, let’s talk about some things that aren’t going really well. Bicycle lines, how many do we need? In the non-functioning IT department, it is almost impossible to get service from their video of the meetings, which is a very good way to get people to come to them. Uh, fill-in development, the Olympic Museum fiasco, the cost of the bridge by the Museum, City Committee, makeups, et cetera. All those, in my opinion, are tied together. They are now being controlled in a much different way than I believe they were when we didn’t have a strong mayor.

Katie: So what do you think the solution to that is?

Tim: To go back to the way it was. Now the problem is, let’s take bicycle lanes. Most people in Colorado Springs think we have enough. Well, what we’re learning on the bicycle lanes is that there is federal money available. So, the more bicycle lanes we get, the more money. But you know, let’s talk about the use of bicycle lanes. It’s not more than 5% of the population.

Katie: Yeah. Most of the bicyclists I see are on the road.

Tim: Yeah. And in the winter, how many people ride their bikes? But the mayor and certain function people want more bicycle lanes, so we can have a gold rating, not a silver rating with the group that does the ratings. It’s just, it’s gotten outta hand. It’s gotten outta hand. We’re, we’re doing fill-in development. We’re not looking at all the traffic flow issues with all the development because Colorado Springs, as we know, is subject to fires. This development and traffic flow have to be coordinated between the people that have to deal with the fires and the rest of the city. The problem is, if you study one intersection, you don’t really know what traffic flow is gonna be except at that intersection. Well, some of the exits for fires are going to take miles. Not just a half mile away from the business. So I think there are a lot of issues with the strong mayor. My concern is that the tails wagging the dog and at the expense of a lot of people in Colorado Springs who are paying more taxes. They’ll claim they’re not. But special districts do do that to people and all things, like the IT department, they totally redid the city council chambers. Everything was supposed to be wonderful and good. And Angela at the office can speak much more to this than I can, but it’s been a disaster.

Katie: Yeah. Well, that’s really unfortunate. And how do you feel like a strong mayor has pushed development in Colorado Springs, do you feel like it’s been a boom for developers, or do you feel like this is something that we can rein in because we have massive development going on?

Tim: Well, you know, I was talking to a developer from a different area that moved here and lived in Boulder, and developed up there and did some things. And the bottom line is he says, you know, he, he got carried away about architects. He says, look at the buildings in Colorado Springs. Colorado Springs has no parameters on how buildings are designed. And he’s the believer that, you know, they should put so many parameters on some of those. It’s gonna make it more expensive, but instead of looking like every other city, it’s like when they built the Olympic Museum, did they build a box? No, they hired a really fancy architect and did all this stuff and put a fancy bridge to it. I personally don’t like that style of architecture, but I wasn’t on any of those committees. So they can do what they want, but we need some more character in Colorado Springs. We were founded by, you know, the Palmer guy who said, I want Cascade and Nevada wide enough so that you don’t have to back up a four-horse buggy or carriage or wagon. You can just go around because he didn’t want people to have to wait for that four-horse to back up and go forward and go back. So we’ve got a lot of history of being unique and we’re losing that uniqueness.

Katie: Yeah, that’s unfortunate. I honestly don’t know a lot about the strong mayor, but I feel like you’ve given a very good overview of what it is and why it’s a problem and I’m, I’m kind of wondering how that ties in or it, it ties into what’s going on with our water in Colorado. Do you know much about this?

Tim: I know a little bit about it and I learned it a little bit more this week again but the, the challenge being we’re gonna go to your Monument water situation. Any time you develop it changes water usage. And with that, talk to us about Monument.

Katie: Yeah, so I mean, Monument has been kind of on the forefront of this just because we have so many people here that are on wells and that’s not city water. So people here get more quickly affected. And when something happens to cause the well to not produce as much water, that’s a concern. So, I started looking at what’s going on with Monument’s water, and what I found is that there was a study and the study was done by the Associate Director of Hydrologic Studies at USGA, and it was looking at the Denver Basin Aquifer System. Do you know anything about that?

Tim: Let’s stop for a second…

Katie: Should I explain it?

Tim: Yes, you need to explain USGS. Go back before that and explain how you know your well isn’t putting out as much water. What do you, do you have a gauge on it or something?

Katie: Yeah, it has like a certain amount that’s coming out and you can, if you don’t have enough water flow in the house, you’re like – What’s going on? Sometimes you have to change the filter, but sometimes we have not had this problem personally because our well is new. But like people in Palmer Lake, their water output is slowed down and they’re wondering what’s going on. So the United States Geological study that I’m talking about actually looked at the Denver Basin Aquifer system. And for those who don’t know, the Denver Basin Aquifer System is a huge water pool underneath the front range. It goes from the mountains all the way up to Wyoming and Nebraska, all the way out to Kansas, and then down almost to Pueblo. And that is where pretty much all of the wells get tapped from. And they will. We have a well that’s in the Dawson Aquifer, but the Dawson Aquifer is on top of the Denver Basin. So all of these aquifers are fed from the Denver Basin Aquifer.

Tim: We’re gonna have a link at the bottom, like aren’t we? We’re gonna have a link with this. So that people can get a better picture, map-like thing.

Katie: Yes

Tim: Super

Katie: So it’s like there’s layers in the earth and in different layers there’s different aquifer systems, but at the bottom is the Denver Basin Aquifer System, and all of the aquifers on top of are eventually fed through this Denver Basin Aquifer System. And so they study that was done about 20 years ago. And what they were looking at was what is tapping into the Denver Basin Aquifer doing, and is that a problem. And what they found is, yes, this is a problem because water that is pulled out of the Dever Basic Aquifer, or any aquifer for that matter, that water will eventually trickle back down. So the idea is you have a well, you have a septic system and that water goes to the surface, and then it kind of slowly leaches back down into the earth. But the problem is, that doesn’t happen in our lifetime.

Tim: So lemme get this straight. Right now you’re talking about a 20-year-old study. Have there been any updates on it?

Katie: No, not that I’ve seen. And I’ve been looking at it, trying to figure out if there’s any more studies. Um. and the reason that I point this out is because they found this to be a problem 20 years ago. And saying “Hey, the development that’s in, what’s happening in Colorado, we’re pulling water out of this basis in an unsustainable manner and it’s eventually gonna run dry.” And a lot of the models show the basin going dry in 50 years, depending on growth and pumping. So this is a 20-year-old study and we didn’t have the type of growth we’re seeing now 20 years ago. From 2010 to 2020, our population grew by 14.8%. That’s compared to the national average of 7.4%. So Colorado has had a huge population increase. We see developments coming in lake Banning Lewis Ranch and where are they just getting their water? Basin, that’s all of the aquifers are fed from that.

Tim: Well, I think we gotta tell our listeners right here that we’re in the process of talking to water attorneys and we’re trying to get a handle on what that’s gonna cause, because everybody’s gonna say, “oh no, this is a 20-year-old study.” Well, what they don’t understand is that what you said is accurate. It can be a 20-year-old study, but it said, okay, it’s gonna run out in 50 years. That means we only have 30 years. We probably don’t have 30 years if we keep going like we have, but we will be talking to these people and seeing if there are any new studies. The other thing that people need to understand is that water issues in Colorado are extremely unique to Colorado. I don’t believe there’s any other state in the union that has some of the water regulations we do. We’re getting verification on that from those water attorneys. But the Monument problem, I only have one other. I’ve got a question for you and then you need to get back to it. What’s the depth of your well, right now?

Katie: I don’t know. I have no idea. It’s not too deep. It’s not deep at all.

Tim: The only I bring that up is we’ve got a friend that is a little north of you and they just dug a new well at 400 feet and it’s dry. So now they’re going to a different type of driller because the deeper you go, the different type of machine it takes. And their next attempt is gonna be at 1000 feet. Their existing well was at 400 feet where they’d drilled this new one dry. So now they’re gonna go down deeper. So, I’ll keep in touch with him to see if he’s going to be able to or they’re going to be able to find water or more water for their large piece of property, just a little bit north of you.

Katie: Yeah, I mean it’s a huge problem, especially for farmers and anyone who need to tap into these resources for agricultural purposes. If you don’t have enough water output, you can’t use your equipment for watering your crops cause there’s just not enough pressure.

Tim: So how many neighbors do you have that have a problem getting water?

Katie: In my immediate area, we haven’t had anyone who’s had a problem getting water pumped. I’m in an area where we have five acres. My neighbor has five acres, and then around us, people have 40 acres, but it’s horse property. So, we’re not watering fields. We’re not looking to grow hay or corn or anything else like that. And so for a household, it’s been okay. But that is again, where I’m at. If you go to Palmer Lake a few years ago, we had some friends who have a well there and they couldn’t even flush their toilets. So, it was like they, they just didn’t have any pressure.

Tim: And by pressure you mean not enough to flush, but also not enough to take a shower?

Katie: The well is what supplies your water. And if it’s not coming up fast enough, if you’re not getting the water up, then you don’t have any water pressure in the house to do things like flush the toilet, take a shower. It kind of just comes out at a trickle. The best example I can give is if someone has a filter and it gets really clogged. Uh, your water slows down. So if you’re in the city and you’re on a filter and you have to have it changed every once in a while, that’s kind of what’s happening to the well.

Tim: Do you have any marijuana grows in your area up there?

Katie: Um, there’s some out in Ebert.

Tim: One of the things people need to know, so Colorado was one of the first states to, you know, say, let’s have legal marijuana. I don’t know that everybody understands how thirsty those plants rea. If you do the research on how much water it takes to grow marijuana, it’s another problem. So, in addition to, all the population coming in, you are talking a farming issue. Well, you farm marijuana, and it takes a ton of water.

Katie: Yeah. I think the big overarching theme from all of what we’re talking about is that water in Colorado is a finite resource, and we need to be better stewards of it and figure out how we can maybe rein in the developers who are putting in things like Banning Lewis Ranch, where they have a tone of homes in an area where there’s no water, they’re actually bring in water from other, lake the Dawson Aquifer you have to ship it in, which is unsustainable like I said.

Tim: Well, I mean, it’s interesting because out in California they wanted to put in a billion-dollar desalination plant that Gavin Newsome, the governor, was in favor of it. It did not get passed in the vote, but they take a lot of water from the Colorado River. So, you know, folks, we need to start looking at how we use water and how we’re gonna replenish it. Do you have anything else to add?

Katie: I think this quote that I have is really telling, and this is from the manager of the Woodmore Water and Sanitation District. And you said “We have one well, that was producing initially around a hundred gallons a month a minute. We’re lucky to get 40 gallons a minute out of it right now,” said Jesse Schaeffer, who manages the Woodmore Water and Sanitation District in the northern part of the country. “It’s really a diminishing return when you get on Denver Basin groundwater these days. Every well you drill, you get less and less yield out of it, and it takes more and more wells just to maintain your current level of water supply that you need to have insufficient level to serve your community. Which means more money, more capital improvement projects, and more cost and higher water rates.” Again that was Jesse Schaeffer.

Tim: That’s a quote that we should put on the website. Anything else?

Katie: No, that’s it.

Tim: Okay. That’s our first two issues today. Here we go. We’re gonna talk about drinks. Alcohol. Yay. Alcohol. Alcohol and alcohol.

Katie: Favorite topic.

Tim: So by the way we came up with the, my kicker title was the good, the bad, and the ugly of Lorie’s, my wife’s Manhattan recipe search. Now, what do I mean by all that? Well, she and a couple of her female friends have a Bourbon Babes thing, and they get together regularly and they all like Manhattans. So Lorie over a two-year period has been coming up with what she calls Lorie’s recipe, which is good. And we’ll have it on the bottom here. But briefly, it’s what she feels is not the perfect Manhattan. But Lorie has a problem. Lorie likes to fiddle with things – food and drink. So I asked for Lorie’s Manhattan recipe for a drink one night before dinner and she made it and I didn’t think anything because I said, “I want Lorie’s Manhattan recipe.” I took one sip and said, “What did you do? It is not what you’ve been making!” And so the bottom line is she loves to play with the drink recipes and she keeps trying different things. I mean, you gotta understand folks from a drink recipe you never know where you’re gonna read something or see another friend, and you’re gonna get an idea for a different brand of bitters that goes into this Manhattan. So basically it’s a bourbon drink, but it’s got a few other things. I don’t want her to play with it. So after that very shocking taste, I said, “Okay, we’ve gotta have a deal. If I use your name for the name of the drink, I want the recipe you now have, don’t change it.” Now, since then, we’ve had times when I’ve asked her and she said, “No I want to try something different.” So we now have about five recipes floating around. It works for her. It doesn’t work for me. I am somewhat of a name snob. When you do it, and this is where I get it from. If somebody tells me we’re gonna have a Caesar salad, I expect a traditional Caesar salad. I expect Lorie’s Manhattan. When somebody puts arugula in the place of the good lettuce in a Caesar salad and calls it a Caesar salad. In my humble opinion, it’s not a Caesar salad. So anyhow. My ending quote is, “I know what Manhattan I like. Please don’t mess with it unless you tell me.” Now, what’s your drink?

Katie: Okay. So I can admit that I do like to try Manhattans. My husband is a huge fan, huge, huge fan of Manhattans, so I feel like I need to get this recipe from you. But my personal choice of drink is gonna be anything with vodka. Seriously, vodka is like my best friend. I love vodka, especially if you get it with like citrus. The pairing of a citrus vodka with something like cranberry juice or Cointreau, that is my happy place. So I have invented my own favorite drink because I really like Cosmos, but they’re not enough citrus in them. So, my drink is a traditional Cosmos that’s been sniggled, you don’t like people sniggling with drinks,

Tim: But you said you’re gonna give us the name of it, right?

Katie: Yes. So it’s called the Katie Cosmos.

Tim: See, it’s got your name, name on it.

Katie: My Cosmos.

Tim: So I could ask for it, Cosmos, and I know I’d be getting something more citrusy.

Katie: You would get the same thing every time. And I have written this down and I am trying to memorize it. Unfortunately, you can’t really memorize an alcoholic beverage. You’ve got a few. Um, yeah.

Tim: And we imbibe how many of these?

Katie: Well, you know, sometimes it’s stressful. Are you okay? So weekends are a nice time to drink.

Tim: I gotcha.

Katie: Of one or two, and then you’re done.

Tim: So anyhow, go through it. Go through your recipe.

Katie: So it is one shot of Deep Eddy Grapefruit Vodka and you need Deep Eddys. If you go to anything else, Kettle One, no this does not work. You need the Deep Eddys. There’s something about that Austin, Texas vodka, and then with the grapefruit, it’s perfect. Then you have to add one-half of Chambord, one-half shot of orange liqueur, I think Cointreau is the best way to go. You can go something else. You can go cheaper if you want. It is not gonna be the same flavor. Cointreau really will give you the best flavor. One shot of cranberry juice, one-half shot of lime juice, and one-half shot of grapefruit juice. And that needs to be fresh grapefruit juice. Like get a grapefruit, cut it in half, get the little thing and like squeeze it out. And then the last is on shot of simple syrup and if you wanted a little sweeter, you can do a sugar rim. I have stopped doing the sugar rim since I wrote down the recipe cause it’s gotten a little bit. But that Cosmos and it’s perfect. My favorite.

Tim: See, you and my wife would get along because you gotta get specific. People don’t understand that. You know, people that do this for a living are not bartenders anymore. They’re mixologists. And the difference is, you know, the bartender would slosh it together and serve it. The mixologists usually take that little straw and they mix it and they’ll put that straw and they’ll take a little taste to make sure it’s where they want it to be. Plus, the ingredients have gotten much more sophisticated than they were 50 years ago, but you know, I can’t remember. I think the twenties and forties were the premier of the cocktail. Well, it’s coming back and as you can see, we, each have our own cocktail. And you are specific. And you listed all that. You even listed the vodka by name, and that’s what it takes folks to have fun. We’re not trying to be snobby. We’re not trying to be snooty. We don’t pick the most expensive booze all the time. But if we say this booze is better than this booze for our palates, we mean it. Don’t you think?

Katie: On yeah. Absolutely. I mean, I have had friends try this and tell me it is their favorite martini that they’ve ever had. And I’m telling you, you have to go with Deep Eddy. That makes all the difference. It’s not snotty, it’s just delicious.

Tim: Well, thanks for sharing that with us, and you’ll find these recipes on The Maverick Observer website, both of them. It’s Lorie’s Manhattan and it’s.

Katie: Katie’s Cosmos.

Tim: Super. Thanks. Thank you for listening to The Maverick Observer podcast. If you’re interested in more great local articles, please visit our website or social media. You can find all the links below. If you like what you are hearing, please remember to hit the subscribe button so you never miss a conversation. Until the next time, remember OPEN, ACCOUNTABLE, RESPONSIBLE – it is what our government and businesses should be.

Sources for Podcast Episode #3 – Mixed Issues and Mixed Drinks:

• Colorado Springs Silver Rating with League of American Bicyclists – https://bikeleague.org/sites/default/files/bfareportcards/BFC_Spring_2021_ReportCard_Colorado_Springs_CO.pdf
• Denver Basin Aquifer System – https://www.usgs.gov/mission-areas/water-resources/science/denver-basin-aquifer-system
• The Associate Director of Hydrologic Studies at the USGS Colorado Water Science Center, Suzanne Paschke conducted a large-scale multidisciplinary study of groundwater availability in the Denver Basin Aquifer System. The study found, “Bedrock groundwater storage is being depleted in the Denver Basin. While the length of time over which this resource may be available is uncertain, the conclusions of this and other studies indicate that pumping from the Denver Basin bedrock aquifers is not indefinitely sustainable and that renewable water supplies will be needed in the future.” Some models showed the basin going dry in 50 years depending on growth and pumping. 
• Groundwater Availability of the Denver Basin Aquifer System, Colorado – https://pubs.usgs.gov/pp/1770/
• Article by Shanna Lewis, KRCC, dated Jan. 19, 2022 – https://www.cpr.org/2022/01/19/Colorado-springs-water-denver-basin/
• “We had one well that was producing initially around a hundred gallons a minute. We’re lucky to get 40 gallons a minute out of it right now,” said Jessie Shaffer, who manages the Woodmoor Water and Sanitation District in the northern part of the county.  “It’s really a diminishing return that you get on Denver Basin groundwater these days,” Shaffer said. “Every well you drill, you get less and less yield out of, and it takes more and more wells just to maintain your current level of water supply that you need to have an insufficient level to serve your community, which means more money, more capital improvement projects, and more costs, higher water rates.” — Colorado Public Radio
• Lorie’s Manhattan – https://themaverickobserver.com/manhattan-lories-manhattan-woodford-reserve-luxardo/
• Katie’s Cosmos – https://themaverickobserver.com/deep-eddy-grapefruit-cosmos-katies-cosmos/