OWN to scale back town meetings; group sends letter to Guardian Angels

       Hoping that less will mean more - at least in terms of public response - the Organization of Westside Neighbors (OWN) board agreed at its Feb. 24 meeting to halve the number of town meetings it will hold this year.
       In recent years, the Westside advocacy group has offered such meetings on the second Thursday of every month. The new plan calls for bi-monthly town meetings. After the meeting Thursday, March 10, the group won't town-meet again until May. In July will be the annual OWN/West Center Picnic, which will serve as that month's town meeting. The next will be in September, and the last of the year will be a potluck dinner/meeting in Novem-ber.
       Town meetings typically have been used by OWN to bring in one or more speakers, such as police officers or City Utilities representatives, to talk about issues of interest to Westsiders.
       But attendance has been spotty. “It's been too hard to get people to come to town meetings once a month,” board member Bob Kliewer said.
       The March 10 OWN town meeting will feature representatives from Colorado Springs Utilities. They will discuss the ongoing streetlight installation in Old Colorado City and answer questions about having streetlights installed in neighborhoods, according to OWN President Jim Fenimore. The meeting will begin at 7 p.m. at the West Intergenerational Center, 25 N. 20th St.
      
       Guardian Angels letter
      
       The OWN board voted at the Feb. 24 meeting to send a letter to the Colorado Springs chapter of the Guardian Angels, letting them know that OWN will support any neighborhoods interested in working with the Angels by providing information.
       The wording was intended to stop short of endorsing the group - which some board members feared would cause OWN a liability problem.
       The Guardian Angels are a national organization that works on the premise that when unarmed, trained volunteers patrol areas with crime problems, those problems diminish.
       The Angels' Colorado Springs chapter has begun occasional patrols this year of the Red Rock shopping center and the area around 29th Street and Colorado Avenue.
      
       Pioneer takes on 'Story'
      
       The Westside Pioneer staff will design and edit the next issue of OWN's quarterly publication, the Westside Story. The OWN board agreed on a contract with the Pioneer at the Feb. 24 meeting.
       The publication, appearing in a newsletter format in recent years, will be four pages and have a newspaper look, including color photos, in its next issue coming out in late March, according to OWN President Jim Fenimore. He said the goal is to have a publication that people will feel like they want to read.
       The Westside Story is direct-mailed to more than 8,200 homes and businesses in the Community Development Block Grant Program (CDBG) strategy area that is bordered by King and Uintah streets on the north, I-25 on the east, Rio Grande and Lower Gold Camp Road on the south and city limits (except for Pleasant Valley) on the west.
       The cost of printing and mailing the Westside Story is paid with CDBG money. The paper has been coming out for 27 years, with the main goal of informing people about area concerns, as well as city actions affecting the strategy area.

Westside Pioneer article