FoCo in 15 Minutes | Train Crash, Mountain Lion Alert, CSU Sign Bill & Fort Collins Growth Slows

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Man, how do you separate noise from important information and I'll give you an example is you know It's a it's an amazing thing to be able to have so many avenues of communication for schools, you know parents all that good stuff, but I will say we get a ton of emails and even text messages and some phone calls and I would say the phone calls obviously are pretty important. We'll get those in like yesterday Poudre School District started two hours late because of the cold and with the staggered bus schedule where You know There's essentially only half of the amount of bus drivers that we actually need to be on the schedule times. That would be Normal for all middle school elementary high schoolers, but because we're you know at half capacity they have to stagger those And you think about kids that are starting early and being outside and like negative degree weather when I went to the gym yesterday Morning, it was negative 10 degrees at 5 a.m. So definitely cold one make sure that everyone's safe But you know, I got a text today and I was like, all right, I'll open it It looks a little bit different and there was a bobcat sighting You know within Fort Collins and and so there was they're just letting parents know to be aware But I just I so many of the emails I cancel out So hopefully this news this weekly update this weekly live is a source of information. That's Relatively Informative quick hitting and in addition to that bobcat there was an additional mountain lion sighting now Earlier this year there was a You know very unfortunate mountain lion caused death with a hiker up in the Glenhaven area So definitely not something to joke around about or you know and something to seriously take seriously, but it was up at the horse tooth mountain Open space and not open space trailhead and You know, I would I mean obviously this is their territory One of the big things that people love here in northern Colorado is the outdoor living and hiking and man We've had a phenomenal January except for it. Finally has felt like winter these last, you know this last week or so We were on i-25 and not whiteout conditions, but blizzard II type conditions It's and now feels like winter We are in the dead of winter But the beautiful thing about you know, living in Colorado is you're able to go hiking during the winter months But definitely be careful out there You know stay aware Bass pro shops, it's it's interesting, you know Being a being as engaged as I am with like looking at the Colorado in you know North 40 news biz West all of the publications watching City Council I feel like I'm pretty like in the know of what's happening What's being built the activities around northern Colorado, but every once in a while you you forget that others aren't as kind of like Engaged and so like my grandparents said there's a bass pro shops opening up in Loveland. I'm like I Thought that everybody knew that and it's off crossroads Boulevard right by Budweiser event center. Well, excuse me blue arena and You know just south of Windsor the Windsor exit There's gonna be a hundred and eighty full and part-time employees There's a hiring event February 3rd and 4th 9 a.m. To 7 p.m At the Embassy Suites in Loveland, it looks like it should be opening up sometime in 2026 But I'm guessing if they're doing a hiring event February 3rd and 4th We're gonna see something sooner than later maybe end of February beginning of March time period which would be pretty exciting Now I did also kind of we laughed with my you know Grandma-grandpa about that because it's like well, they do have to kind of compete against shields. That's right there as well at u.s 34 and i-25 Which has an amazing outdoor gear recreation area, but bass Pro Definitely an exciting thing to northern Colorado, you know, it's kind of fun seeing those large name brands household name Conveniences come to northern Colorado, you know, obviously there's pros and cons of growth But one of the pros is you get these larger names come into your area That then you don't have to go down to Denver for and you get to stay up here in Fort Collins There's a little Fighting going on with CSU and Senator Kathy Kipp introduced a bill that would essentially Impact the new the 12 new billboard signs that CSU installed on Their grounds and on their campus now You know the the grounds that are on CSU are state-owned Fort Collins has a sign ordinance law that was essentially superseded by the state saying hey This is this is our ground. This is our turf We play by our rules now for many many years decades You know CSU and Fort Collins have had and has a great relationship But this was one of those things where the bill is suggesting like hey This is this is impacting It's unsightly for residents around the campus for communities residents Neighborhoods and we are going to put put a stop to this in some form or fashion And they're saying hey CSU is good with the noise ordinances but they're the sign ordinance that they're kind of ignored is a revenue grab which You know from my perspective. Yes, absolutely They're outward-facing billboards at CSU and You know can provide some good information are exciting to the campus But definitely an ad an ad revenue grab But I mean those things are built and up and I would I'm excited not excited. I'm interested to know where this goes There is a fun Article that gets posted in the Colorado called the dirt and essentially it keeps you up to date with Developments that are happening and kind of in and around Fort Collins in northern, Colorado And then this one was just an update of what was happening at the old lyric site So the old lyric was on this pizza slice of a building essentially on Mountain Avenue, you know between Walnut and Jefferson Avenue and this thing went for like two million plus Dollars and the Bohemian foundation bought it. It's going to be a commercial building Multi-story there's gonna be a green room office spaces but it's going to supply support to the armory which if you haven't went and watched a Music performance at the armory. I've only been to one but if you haven't been it's a beautiful facility state of the art very It's just definitely something worth going a bit. It's very intimate, but definitely worth going to DIA and this this this article came out and I was excited to read it cuz like oh There's got to be some really cool stops that are coming to the DIA Area, but DIA is adding seven New routes to Denver non-stop routes and those are Roswell, New Mexico Abilene, Texas Carlsbad, California now, I do have a friend who lives our works in the Carlsbad area I'm sure they would be pretty excited about that Santa Rosa, California, Destin Fort Walton Beach, Florida Don't can't say anything good or bad about that. Maybe it's a cool Destination spot Chattanooga, Tennessee Chattanooga, Tennessee I had a friend a family friend who invested in the Chattanooga, Tennessee area and was very excited about that So I don't know much about that area But finally the last one Bangor, Maine tell me what you think about when you think about Bangor, Maine I think about Mighty Ducks and the goalie from Bangor, Maine. That's that's the only thing I can think about from that but City Council had a work session they were on first reading agreeing to appropriate funds for our quarter-cent Community capital improvement tax they're kind of trying to change the branding of that to the quarter-cent capital tax But here are some of the projects that will be happening from this quarter-cent sales tax that will generate about 10 million dollars a year over the next decade Pedestrian sidewalk program 14 million dollars arterial intersection improvement and streetscape program 12 million dollars bicycle Infrastructure and overpass underpass program, you know think about that harmony underpass. It's being worked on right now I can't wait for that power trail to be completed To have the underpass to complete south and north of Harmony Road, I think that's just gonna be pretty awesome I was just actually out at a property to the east of the power trail and we were talking about You know the activity on the male Creek Trail and it's so funny It's like these are kind of like little highways and I would say power trail Mason trail Spring Creek Trail the pewter trail are little highways for people to maneuver on and There's a good amount of activity that happens on these but male Creek is kind of an offset side street so to speak but I will say you know that that underpass will be a big deal for the power trail to be able to Even be more so of a bicycle highway affordable housing capital fund ten million dollars mulberry pool recreation replacement Leveraging fund now, I don't think that is that is not to actually replace the mulberry pool It is to start to fund the replacement of the mulberry pool because I think it's like multi tens of millions of dollars I don't think it's just ten million dollars Poudre River North health access parks trails eight million composting infrastructure advancement There will be a composting plant sooner than later in and around Fort Collins seven million dollars downtown park shop 5.5 million dollars community bike park five million dollars that will be built seemingly in the next ten years They actually just appropriated $30,000 just this last Community City Council meeting to begin kind of on the design the outreach the really starting down that path So I would say man if I was a guessing I'd say five years but between five to ten years and then finally four $4,000,000 for outdoor pickleball complex and courts there will be 12 pickleball courts coming to you in Fort Collins a Complex in the next you know ten years, but I'm guessing the next two to three years From there they taught there was actually this really really interesting trends and demographics report And this was by us to have the name of who I don't have those who was by but man it gave a ton great information about what is happening in Fort Collins as far as population growth with the MSA versus Greeley MSA Northern Colorado Larimer versus Weld County where the jobs are who's commuting how who's working from home? It went deep I actually just had a blog post That I posted that really talked in depth about this, but it is a phenomenal informational report that the City Council gets I think one of the Largest Assets that the City Council has that is allow that is available to all of the citizens of Fort Collins Is all of these reports that they?

Pay tens of thousands of dollars sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars For that we get access to and view and as far as like a business owner and somebody who runs their business You know this helps me determine like Where should I place my money and investment or where in the area is growing concerns Opportunity like one of the things that they talked about that You know I'm gonna do some kind of pre-recorded videos here in the near future is the slow Slowing growth of Fort Collins we used to be like a percent to a percent and a half per year Net migration in to Fort Collins now Roughly around a thousand people a year into for Collins net migration or about a point five percent So our growth management area is still expected to grow out to about 255,000 people and it always was easy for me to remember because it's like 250,000 people by 2050 But with the slowing that was assuming a one to one and a half percent growth. That's not happening anymore So it's gonna be a much slower burn For Fort Collins it will ultimately get there That's not changing from two hundred five thousand people, but maybe it's instead of the next 25 years to get there maybe it's the next 30 to 40 years to get there and Clay Fricke the planning manager Suggested that that is actually it probably a good thing it won't put as much pressure on our infrastructure it'll give us time to get those resources, but there's some concerns because You know Cascadia Ladera Sentara South all of these pressures and growth of northern Colorado and commercial hubs Potentially could pull money and sales tax revenue away from Fort Collins and were based off of a sales tax revenue Basis aging population moves from like goods and products to services less sales tax revenue So there's a lot of considerations. It was just a really interesting report to hear I've read through it, but I got to go deep on it now Those are the two things that were going on as far as things to do in Fort Collins, Northern Colorado this week There is the animal afternoon. There is Therapeed animals at the Old Town Library February 1st 3 to 4 p.m The Colorado farm show starts today goes today tomorrow on the 29th 9 a.m. To 5 p.m. There are 350 AG exhibits and they're expecting 30,000 visitors to this Weld County event Ginger and Baker Valentine's market February 1st 9 a.m. To 2 p.m.

Hey, we only got a couple weeks left of holiday lights in downtown Fort Collins If you haven't gotten out visited downtown gone on a date night walked around Old Town during the evenings You've only got two weeks until you've got to wait till next November Winters farmers market every Saturday 10 a.m. To 2 p.m. And one thing we'll see my wife is She's gone out of town for a couple of days, but we'll be back by Saturday and there is the ultimate indoor garage sale on January 31st 9 a.m. To 5 p.m. At Blue Arena in Loveland where there will be 100 plus sellers of You know different things on my man. I think I would just be fun Maybe bring the kids there walk around see what goofy things are being sold maybe deals finds all that good stuff But that is January 31st 9 a.m. To 5 p.m. This is live in Fort Collins We come every week If you're watching this and you want to have any questions answered Feel free to leave a comment in the future times If you're watching this, you know, come come watch it live ask real-time questions, and I will make sure to get to you Otherwise, have a great rest of your day and take care