Town Nearing the 1,000-mark in Total Speeding Citations
Rick Langenberg
After years of speculation, Green Mountain Falls residents may finally get a chance to decide the fate of its town managerial form of government, even if the possible results won’t have an immediate impact.
In a workshop last week, aimed at finalizing their goals for 2026, the forthcoming general election took center stage as a key pending issue. Mayor Todd Dixon reminded his peers that four seats, including his mayoral spot, are up for grabs. “We have an election coming up. This is a big thing,” said Dixon.
Besides picking three trustee spots and a mayor, local voters may rein in on a possible ballot question that has eluded them for years: Does GMF need a town manager to function? Or should GMF operate with a strong mayoral form of government, similar to what now occurs in both Colorado Springs and Pueblo?
Veteran Trustee Sunde King believes that local leaders need to hear from the residents regarding the town manager question. Moreover, she expressed concern as to why this question didn’t reach the ballot stage in 2025. “We needed this last year,” said King.
Later in the discussion, she spoke even more directly on this issue. “We need feedback from the residents.” At the same time, the trustee indicated she is not trying to thwart the current role of GMF Town Manager Caleb Patterson, who has a contract with GMF extending through 2027. She noted that the results of this question will not endanger his services or current contract.
But King contends that now is the time to finally resolve this issue, which has confronted GMF for years with no real resolution.
Dixon cited election costs as the main reason this ballot question didn’t materialize in 2025. At the time, town leaders were mulling a variety of questions, mostly dealing with finances, and whether an additional sales tax was needed.
Other trustees also noted a that a change in personnel played a factor, especially with the finalization of a several-year contract with Patterson. The mayor said if the trustees took this direction with a ballot question, it needed to have more town hall meetings and citizen forums to discuss the options. Trustee Sean Ives, though, remained skeptical regarding this pursuit, noting that the town had explored this public comment stage before.
Most towns in the Ute Pass area currently run with a town managerial form of government. Oddly enough, this style of government has gotten the boot in larger cities in southern Colorado, such as Colorado Springs and Pueblo, which operate with a strong mayoral approach. In these cities, the mayor serves as the main top government manager.
In their first meeting in February, the trustees may outline a formal election calendar to provide deadlines for candidate submissions and information dealing with ballot issues. The election will occur in November, and will be coordinated by El Paso and Teller counties.
Trustees Silent on Planning Commission Future
The trustees at their Jan. 20 workshop outlined some key goals regarding citizen engagement and employee retention. But they remained silent on the topic of the GMF’s planning commission situation, which has commanded much attention on social media. A recent commission meeting in mid-January got quite volatile, according to several reports.
The mayor declined comment on the recent planning commission clashes. Some concerns have reportedly been voiced over the hiring of a new town planner and possible plans for selling large property parcels, adjoining the Thomas Trail.
Patterson did announce that two veteran members of the planning commission, Lisa Bonwell and /Shelly Scott-Nash, who are both involved in many community activities, are stepping down. But at the same time, the town manager reported that it has received an inquiry from another applicant. It still needs two more members to reach a capacity-level.
The role of the planning commission, and other citizen advisory committees, were included in last week’s goal-setting discussion. Trustee Brandy Moralez suggested that a code of conduct was needed for all local boards and committees, including the trustees. “All (committees and boards) would be held to the same standard,” said Moralez, under this plan.
In fact, several members commented last week that if a code of conduct was in place, some of the recent clashes at the planning commission level could have been avoided.
Another suggestion made at the workshop discussion involved the question of whether the town even needed a planning commission. Comments were mixed on this question.
Speeding Crackdown Nears the 1,000 Ticket Level
One issue that the trustees and GMF officials fully agree on deals with its new crackdown on speeding in the downtown area, with the use of automated, camera equipment. Instead of GMF law enforcement officials handing out tickets, citations are orchestrated through a Louisiana, third-party that owns and operates the equipment. The company does the footage and then submits it the marshal’s office for approval. Offenders are only given citations, if they exceed the posted speed limit by 10 miles-per-hour or more.
“It has gone very well,” said Marshal Sean Goings, regarding the anti-speeding program. Since the program was implemented, he said the town has given out more than 830 citations (as of Jan. 20), including a huge volume during the holiday periods. The marshal estimated the town is still averaging about 25 citations per day.
Goings stated that the response to the program has been mostly positive. Excessive speeding in the downtown area of GMF, and on the adjacent Hwy. 24 area, has become an issue of concern. Speed surveys further document the problem, with studies indicating that a third of the motorists were traveling well above the speed limit, with one motorist clocked at close to 100 miles-per-hour.
On the upside, the crackdown has not really impacted local residents, with the vast majority of offenders, consisting of those who live outside the Ute Pass area, according to Goings. He estimated that GMF residents were receiving maybe 3 percent of the citations.
As for revenue for the town, Goings said that figure is hard to project as it takes several months for this data to get tabulated. Offenders have the option of taking their speeding tickets to court, which often delays the revenue-collection process.
But realistically, the marshal expects the program to provide the town with an extra $5,000 to $10,000 per month.
