FoCo in 15 Minutes | Wolves, School Enrollment Drops, In-N-Out Update & City Council Seat

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Now there are so many reasons why people love living in Fort Collins but one of them is it has a phenomenal school district. The Poudre School District, the one that I went to, grew up in and why I'm so intelligent, highly educated, well-spoken, you know all the above. Now I say that in jest but it was a great school and I'm proud to have gone there and I'm proud to be sending my kids there. But we have a changing demographic in Fort Collins. It's a little bit older population. While I was going through school our median age in Fort Collins was 29-ish but now it's a little bit higher in the 30s even like high 30s and that means and people are having less kids, more dual income no kids, dinks. We got a lot of those clients but that does put pressure on the infrastructure that we have built. One of the things that Fort Collins has done that has been amazing over its years has built phenomenally planned infrastructure. Utilities being underground, streets before they're you know needing to be used. Now I-25 has always been needed or has been needing to be a three lane for the last about 20 years and we'll finally get there in the next couple of years from Fort Collins to Denver but our infrastructure has always been top-notch. And that being said, there has been a significant reduction in students in Poudre School District. This year we've lost 513 but 493 overall when you include charter school students and now that's a three-year continuous decline that mirrors statewide enrollment. And when your funding is based on a per student enrollment, Fort Collins could potentially be on the hook to lose 10.2 million dollars not this year but next year and that puts pressure on the budget. Now my understanding is the Board of Education in Fort Collins and the Poudre School District has planned for this. They saw the writing on the wall, they've made their budgets accordingly. We did pass a mill levy that raised I think like either 49 million or 149 million, a lot of millions to help this funding gap to bridge when we had a lot of strife concern when the Poudre School District was considering shutting down like three or four schools based off of enrollment, redrawing boundaries, getting schools more full because you know what they want is you know I think it was four or five hundred kids in elementary schools, seven hundred kids in middle schools and those numbers just aren't there. Whether kids are being homeschooled more, going to charter schools, alternative education, whatever the reason is or fewer kids in the city and you know even places like Weld County and Greeley, they're seeing a significant population increase but even their enrollments are down so it's something that Fort Collins, surrounding school districts, the state of Colorado is going to have to deal with and probably in 2027 they are going to relook at consolidation of schools. So I would say get in touch with the Board of Educators, somebody who's in your district, make sure that they understand you know how valuable your school is and anyways it's a big deal so it's definitely something worth paying attention to.

Speaking of which, gosh you know it's front page news all the time which is just so distracting and maybe it's I always talk about how maybe I should have more of a heart, maybe I should realize how important it is to the ecosystem, I don't know but there was a million dollars in funding that was required by the state of Colorado to pay back ranchers because of this reintroduction of wolves. There's about 30 to 40 wolves there's that's what's crazy in Colorado. I thought there was like seven honestly but there's 30 to 40 wolves and I don't understand the math perfectly. I did a little bit of research and it looked like there was about fifteen thousand dollars per head that was to be reimbursed from a death but there was only 37 confirmed livestock depredations but it cost 1.03 million dollars so I don't know how all that works. I don't know if a depredation means like multiple deaths but regardless it's a strain on the budget and I feel like in a time where the state of Colorado's budgets getting tightened for city for columns budgets getting tightened this just seems like something that why are we doing this I just it is it is crazy to me but to each their own right all right there was there is an article in Colorado that talked about nine spots to snag a breakfast burrito and I'm gonna I'm gonna share my screen because I want you guys to kind of see where it is and what's going on. I'm a big burrito guy my wife makes fun of me you know if we go to a restaurant it's pretty much like what are you ordering and I'm getting a breakfast burrito. Consuelos Express absolutely it's a drive-through check it out green chili hot medium like mild type of green chili it's delicious and really honestly super affordable off of Riverside and LeMay. Coming down here to Almanistas I have this is one I think there's been two there's two on this list that I have not been to this I have not been to I think it's off of Shields and Drake kind of over in that Drake shopping center by Raintree Athletic Club but moving down big city burrito this is a staple in Fort Collins the gut buster for a lunch breakfast burritos are super solid doors lines out the door all the time now that's also because there's not really any room for a line but that's something that kind of claim to fame as far as you know lines out the door and that is a big deal a gut buster essentially that is a double wide burrito I was joking with a buddy of mine we were out to lunch yesterday and I was talking to him about I was like man I was there was one time in my life that I was unemployed for about three months and I played basketball like three days a week when I was like early 20s 22 to 23 and every day I would go and eat lunch at Obie's great great sandwich spot by the way in Fort Collins but it would I would have like the 16 inch long sandwich with cookie and Doritos can't do that much anymore but every once in a while I might have to go and enjoy myself a little bit of a gut buster Cafe Mexicali in my opinion the best tortillas in all of Fort Collins I'm getting the gosh what is that let's see if hers right here the inside out burrito there we go the inside out burrito but I'm getting with it with sweet pork and white sauce can't go wrong illegal Pete's yep solid downtown grab-and-go there's not a ton of grab-and-go downtown so illegal Pete's fills that void has a great rooftop bar by the way el Diablo went there one time with my all my kids or just maybe I was just my two boys but it was my first time ever ever having a Berea and it was delicious so on the southeast side of town by Walmart harmony and college definitely recommend checking that out this is the other one that I have not been to tortillas last for America's but I haven't told these tortillas are even better than Cafe Mexicali so oh maybe greenlight cafe have not been there either mugs solid grab-and-go I go there I used to go there every Wednesday my wife would say that I smell like food so we are changing locations there and then bat last place I recommend is I just went to the Taco Palace just opened up if it's off of Riverside and mulberry used to be Carl's jr. there's still the Carl's jr. stars in there recommend going and checking that out moving right along car is to restricting some snap purchases so snap are kind of like grocery store you know helper for low-income individuals and you know I sent this to my wife and I was like I you know tend to agree with this I mean now personally I've gotten off of energy drinks super sweet drinks I still am a sweets person through and through but you know it's saying hey we're not gonna allow the purchase of like sodas or Red Bulls or certain things and I'm like you know what I think there is a lot of different reasons for a lot of different things but one of them is like why is McDonald's cheaper than you know going and you know having a very healthy meal and then it just it's a it's a circulating issue of bad health strain on the health care system hurts your income and it just is it's there's so many more reasons for it but I'm like you know what it not to say that you know we live in a in a free world and caught in the United States but let's let's stop putting poison as much poison because I mean I'm still all about the sweets you know all about the sweets but let's stop putting as much poison in our system as we are. Fort Collins thrift store ARC is expanding to Joanne's space so that is off of college between Drake and Horsetooth I believe it is and you know a saw a little shopping center sad to see Joanne's go not a super big fan of having ARC just you know join spaces with that because you know I always like seeing new spaces come into Fort Collins but speaking about new spaces the development redevelopment of 160 West Mountain so if you've been to stakeout saloon or what is it called trailside across the street from sliced pizza you know it's been this kind of dilapidated building underused but a local developer has bought it it's about it's what what is it it is a I think it's like 14,000 square foot building but there's going to be a anchor restaurant that takes over that as well as other retail and office space the renderings of it let's see if I can pull that up yep I can pull it up let's pull it up so you guys can see it looks beautiful the renderings of it look gorgeous so I'll share my screen with you real quick so again stakeout saloon trailside right here but this is gonna be the new restaurants retail cafe I mean it's right along the max transit super excited about it and these are the type of projects you know you got on Linden Street you got a redevelopment about three spots there I mean downtown Fort Collins is just gonna continue to look more and more beautiful probably get more and more expense for tenants and all that kind of stuff above but regardless love seeing the investment in infrastructure and buildings and redevelopment of spaces like this in Fort Collins taking something that's in a great location old and making it you know new and beautiful today there is a City Council spot opened up in district six our new mayor Emily Francis was in district six so there is a vacated spot there are 15 people that are set to apply for this or that the did apply for it today they're gonna narrow it down to five and I think vote on it tomorrow within the City Council current members so I think there's six members those individuals are going to listen to public comment today and then have a special session tomorrow to vote on this and make it live you know there are it seems like there are some really solid candidates that have applied so we'll be interesting and excited to watch how that goes the city of Fort Collins also updated their website which you know I mean it's okay I've been on there maybe once I just maybe have to like play around with it but I do think that it's really important to watch to look to see how many people are using the website over 1.6 million active users and 443,000 returning visitors to the website last year 6 million views last year top source for information for the community I used it all the time to get a lot of information about city events things that are happening there but one thing that was crazy and this is one thing that I'm a little bit sad about there was 5,000 pages and 6,000 PDFs on the old website and I used it significantly to get city sales tax the market the meeting packet for the city council meetings there's 300 content editors on any given day working on a website now we've offloaded it I think we we paid for it so a professional company is managing it maintaining it so there's a search bar it should be pretty simple to use permits lots of easy use on this website so hopefully it is easy for you if that is something that you are interested in moving right along about things to do one last thing is Tabor refunds state of Colorado taxpayer bill of rights always refunded on any type of overages or surpluses and it's always been in the hundreds of dollars well this might be the last year you get one and it could be $19 to $59 for single filers or 38 to 100 118 for joint filers and next year doesn't look like there's gonna be any refund so if you rely on that for anything you know hey that's gonna pay my utility bill you know in the March April time period is not coming any more some things to do this week there are four games for the Colorado Eagles so if you haven't gone out and enjoyed yourself a Colorado Eagles game you know definitely worth it's a it's a very affordable family outing and there's four games this week otherwise there is a single social at Union Bar and soda fountain crafts for creatures benefit January 17th there is the third Sundays at 830 north there is the third Friday art walk or foodie walk excuse me on the third Friday downtown 5 to 8 p.m. this Friday and then let's see here that's kind of kind of it after the winter time period Christmas holiday season not too much going on in Fort Collins for the first couple of weeks holiday lights are only up until February 14th so if you haven't gotten downtown walked around downtown whether that be for a date night taking the kids going out yourself driving around downtown they're only here for one more month and we've had the warmest December average temperature of record it's like 50 degrees all this week get out there enjoy the pooter trails that's connecting 45 miles from Fort Collins to Greeley and all the trail systems all the activities that you can do outside go hiking get up in Red Feather it is a great winter season for us now a little dry we need to wait we need to pray for some snow up in the high country only at 62% of our median snowpack right now so we do need the water the moisture up in the high country this is live for Collins check out the podcast we're putting that on on a weekly basis we are working on our studio we should be done here soon with it in-person interviews and events starting soon so appreciate you guys watching and until next time have a great day