Northern El Paso County Coalition of Community Associations (NEPCO), Jan. 20 – Group hears from law enforcement officials

By Marlene Brown

The Northern El Paso County Coalition of Community Associations (NEPCO) held its bi-monthly meeting on Jan. 20. NEPCO’s purpose is to serve and be an area-wide point of contact for interaction with local government and agencies regarding land use matters that impact member associations and their residents. NEPCO’s area of interest is bordered on the north by the county line, on the east by Meridian Road, on the south along Northgate Boulevard to Highway 83, and west along the ridgeline of the Front Range.

NEPCO has over 50 members of homeowner associations (HOAs), which represents over 10,000 homes and over 20,000 registered voters. Cherry Creek Crossing is the newest member HOA to join NEPCO.

Board President Mike Aspenson announced that the Land Use Committee chair is open. Current Committee Chair Bob Mooney is retiring but is available for training anyone that is a member of an HOA. They will be able to run and update the spreadsheets and files that coordinate with the county Planning Commission using EDARP (epcdevplanreview.com), which is a database of current land development projects in the county that is available to the public and the Monument Planning Commission. For more information, interested parties should email president@nepco.org. No experience needed.

Beth Lonnquist, chairman of the Wildfire Preparedness Committee, Red Rocks Ranch Home Owners Association, explained that January is the time to begin planning wildfire mitigation. Contact the Tri-Lakes Monument Fire Protection District dba Monument Fire District (MFD) for a chipping date. The chipping is free for HOAs. MFD will send two firefighters and chipper truck. They will man the truck, and the homeowners need 10-12 volunteers to get small trees and brush ready for the chipping day and to feed the chipper. To sign up your HOA for chipping day, go to www.monumentfire.org.

Wildfire Neighborhood Ambassador training class is coming Feb. 21-March 27 online. This year’s six modules will be presented by Fire Adapted Colorado for free to residents of neighborhoods that already have established slash chipping programs and want to build more depth in their Firewise volunteer group. For information, call Lisa Hatfield 719-339-7831 before Feb. 14.

Guest speakers—law enforcement

Undersheriff Jeff Kramer spoke on behalf of the county (EPC) Sheriff’s Office. It is the largest sheriff’s office in the state, with 542 sworn personnel and 336 professional staff. EPC is the most populous county in Colorado. The office also runs the EPC Jail, which is like a small city. As of Jan. 20, there were 1,100 inmates in the jail. On any given day there are 100-200 inmates that must be transported to court in downtown Colorado Springs. The officers have mental health and crisis intervention training. There are 11 school resource officers working for the office that are contracted and are placed in county schools.

County areas are divided into districts. Northern District 1 is Woodmoor, Gleneagle, Monument and Palmer Lake. District 2 is Black Forest and eastward. District 1 has 11,200 houses with goals of call response times of 15 minutes for one car and 20 minutes for two cars depending on the call priority. Black Forest has a 20-minute response time and Falcon 20-25 minutes.

The Town of Monument’s new police chief as of May 9, Patrick Regan, is working to hire five more officers. The officers would include two to be hired this year, two more would be school officers and one would be a detective. Plus, more are needed as supervisors. Regan has over 23 years in leadership and training positions. He moved here from Arizona and mentioned the crime rate is very low in the Tri-Lakes area compared to what he is used to.

Woodmoor Chief of Police Kevin Nielsen spoke next. Woodmoor has eight sworn officers. They work in collaboration with Monument and Palmer Lake police and the Sheriff’s Office. They have a Missing Persons Officer, Kelly Fisher, and two resource officers at Monument Academy. Most of their calls are criminal trespass and vehicle break-ins, smash and grab, porch pirates, and mail theft. Nielsen said to be sure to lock up your cars and if there was no mail in your box you might be a victim of theft.

Be sure to sign up for Peak Alerts, and in event of an emergency messages can be sent via text, phone, email, or mobile app. See https://elpasoteller911.org/246/Peak-Alerts.

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NEPCO meets every other month, and the next meeting is scheduled for March 9, 10 a.m.-noon at the Woodmoor Barn, 1691 Woodmoor Dr., Monument. For more information regarding membership and future meetings, go to www.nepco.org

Marlene Brown can be reached at marlenebrown@ocn.me.

Guest speakers—law enforcement

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