memorial 3a
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beat reportingTRANSCRIPT
correctionsThe Gazette corrects errors of fact in this space. If you find mistakes, please call 636-0266 during business hours.
A Page A3 story Saturday should have said that co-payments for subsidized spay and neuter services at the Humane Society of the Pikes Peak Region range from $25 to $130, depending on the size of the animal. For further details on pricing, call 473-1741, ext. 195, or go to www.hsppr.org.
BAcK PAGesJan. 25, 1911 To see how the municipality’s officers work and how the city is run, about 20 boys and girls of the seventh grade of the Steele school, in charge of their teacher, Mrs. Lorena C. Hodges, spent several hours in the city hall. The class is studying the government of the city and county, and last week spent a few hours at the court house.Jan. 25, 1936 Failure of the federal govern-ment to supply capping timbers is holding up completion of about 20 bridges in El Paso county started since the region was visited by flood waters Memorial day, last year. Seven-teen bridges built by the county with its own funds have been completed and are in use.Jan. 25, 1961 Carl Veith Hanson, 17, son of Mr. and Mrs. Carl E. Hanson, 205 Alsace Way, a senior at the Cheyenne Mountain High School, has made the honor awards list of 399 talented high school se-niors as “most promising young scientists” by the Westinghouse Electric Corp. The subject with which Hanson made the list is “Determining the Possibilities of Supplementing Visual or Auditory Senses with the Tactile Sense.” Hanson thinks he wants to become a physicist.COLORADO SPRINGS PIONEERS MUSEUM
todAy in historyIn 1890, reporter Nellie Bly (Elizabeth Cochrane) of the New York World completed a round-the-world journey in 72 days, 6 hours and 11 minutes.In 1961, President John F. Ken-nedy held the first presidential news conference to be carried live on radio and TV.thE ASSOCIAtED PRESS
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amount of debt is simply not viable,” McEvoy said.
Rivera said he believed the PERA liability would be in the $25 million to $50 mil-lion range, based on a pro-posal he received two years ago from a company inter-ested in buying Memorial.
PERA’s estimate isn’t the final word on the matter, McEvoy said. The hospital has ordered its own actu-arial analysis and the im-proving economy might strengthen the PERA sys-tem and reduce Memorial’s share, he said, adding that Memorial will also study other options such as find-ing a way to keep employees inside the system even if the hospital leaves it, or paying the tab over time.
“I can’t say that the tim-ing is good,” McEvoy said. “I wish we had this informa-tion a year ago.”
Bill Murray, a member of the Memorial citizens com-mission that spent nine months last year weighing potential options for Memo-rial before recommending it
become a nonprofit, said he was upset to learn the size of the PERA liability only a day before the City Coun-cil planned to vote to place the nonprofit option on the April ballot.
“With a PERA number of this magnitude, the ques-tion is, ‘Why didn’t you know?’” said Murray, who is now running for City Coun-cil. “This is really, really not good. It does a disservice to everybody.”
McEvoy said that the hos-pital waited until the com-mission presented its report to the City Council in No-vember before requesting the analysis and that it took until last week for PERA to finish. Asking PERA to give a buyout number for Me-morial before the commis-sion finished its work would have been putting the cart before the horse, he argued.
Despite his frustration, Murray said that mak-ing Memorial an indepen-dent nonprofit remains the best option for the city — if there’s a way to make the numbers work. Rivera echoed that sentiment.
“I still believe the best model for Memorial in the long run is a standalone 501(c)3 nonprofit,” Rivera said.
Councilman Sean Paige, who has said the process to get the proposal on April’s ballot was far too rushed, said he was glad the com-munity will have more time to debate the issue and that the city should solicit pro-posals to sell or lease Memo-rial. It also, he said, under-scores the financial burden PERA places on the city.
“What we’re finding out is that PERA is a trap,” Paige said. “It’s the Hotel Califor-nia — you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.”
If the PERA estimate upset plans to turn the hospital into an independent non-profit, it also complicates matters for proponents of selling Memorial to a large hospital system, since the city would likely have little to show for the sale after paying off PERA and other debt and liabilities, Rivera said. The citizens commis-sion estimated Memorial would bring in about $400
million if it were sold.Kevin Walker, the local
spokesman for the Denver hospital company HCA-HealthOne, which has ex-pressed interest in buying Memorial, applauded the council’s decision to de-lay the vote. He wouldn’t say how the PERA number might affect a potential of-fer for the city-owned hos-pital.
“Throughout the past couple months, people and businesses have asked only that the City of Colorado Springs and its voters take more time to study and con-sider all options and rami-fications of a change — and evaluate real proposals — before making a decision,” Walker said in a statement.
Even with a nonprofit pro-posal off the April ballot, the mayor’s task force decided to finish its work on ballot language and a memoran-dum of understanding on how the nonprofit would be set up so that the next City Council and voters will have a firm proposal to debate.
“Their work has not been for naught,” Rivera said of the citizens commission.
memorial: PERA estimate would also complicate any plans to sell the facility to a large hospital system
from page 1—
it happening early in the morning, before most com-muter traffic, and he hopes to borrow the chairs from businesses and homes in Manitou. He also hopes to enlist an army of volun-teers.
“There will be lots of peo-ple involved in chair wran-gling,” he said.
The actual installation would last only three hours. Artists and photographers would capture the event.
What’s the point of a line of chairs snaking down Manitou Avenue?
O’Meallie says that some will equate empty chairs with loss, others with po-tential. But there’s more to it beyond the chairs.
“What I think is intrigu-ing about this is idea is that it can change the way peo-ple think about Manitou,” O’Meallie said.
He’d like to see the town’s image shift from rubber tomahawk tourist place to thriving artist colony.
chairs: Wants to use those of localsfrom page 1—
Toymaker and sculptor Sean O’Meallie with some of his work in the new studio behind his house last month.
The gazeTTe file phOTO
online > in depthCandidate for philharmonic conductor has speed and
rhythm. “Colorado Springs Arts Blog” at gazette.com
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January 20–February 13
A Non-Stop Comedy
S P O N S O R E D B Y :
A2 ❘ the gazette ❘ tuesday, January 25, 2011