Relatively Local

by Nick Kittle

Local, independently-owned businesses are an incredibly powerful driver for a healthy and successful economy, but supporting local is not without its challenges. 

According to “The 3/50 Project”, for every $100 you spend with a local, independent retailer, you return $68 of that back to the community.  If you use a chain store, its only $43.  And if you use the internet?  Nada.

But sometimes, there’s no choice.

When the City of Colorado Springs recently issued its redesign competition for the Cascade Avenue median, it was all but certain that some spunky and enterprising local design firm would swoop in with an inspiring low-water median design and steal the competition and its $1,000 prize. 

But at the close, there was only one submission. . .  

And it was from Utah.

Project FEVER

by Gail Conners

“Everybody's got the fever

That is somethin' you all know

Fever isn't such a new thing

Fever started long time ago…”

Fever lyrics by William Edgar John and sung by Peggy Lee, 1965

The fever and passion for cars started long ago and while it’s debated who actually created the first electric vehicle (EV), most historian’s credit either Scotsman Robert Anderson, or American Thomas Davenport, as the inventor of the electric automobile in the mid-1830s.

Today, a statewide coalition of partners are participating in Project FEVER (Fostering Electric Vehicle Expansion in the Rockies), whose goal is to create a readiness and implementation plan that will move Colorado from second tier to the first tier EV market in order to increase EVs and electric vehicle supply equipment across Colorado.

District 11 Offers a Clean Ride to School

by Heather L. Kelly

Colorado Springs School District 11 (D-11) is dabbling with alternative fuels.  D-11 has entered into a lease-to-buy program with Colorado West, a distributor of Blue Bird Corporation, for a 2013 Blue-Bird Propane-Powered Vision school bus. District 11 is the only school district in the Pikes Peak region with a propane bus as part of their fleet.