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Comment Archives: stories: News

Re: “Parkside residents get handed the bill for repairs

It defies logic to leave such valuable property uninsured. If you own a home, you know that appropriate insurance is a necessity...in the event of a rare catastrophe. Why should property that an HOA owns be any different? The board of this HOA should have used prudent judgement and insured the common areas, in the best interests of the homeowners that it represents. Now, the D and O policy should be claimed to cover the mistakes of the board. An insurance agent that represents the HOA cannot be objectively heard, because his/her interests lie in protecting the policy against claims. The comments by the board stating the curbs and drives were "fine" after the fire carries no weight. Residents' private driveways and foundations were exposed to 1600 degrees, and so were the drives and curbs, so how can they be "fine". Also, there lacks data from an engineering crew to certify the damage. Thats alot of heat...meaning at the very least the drives were significantly stressed, and therefore more likely to crumble easier, enter damages from construction equipment.
The board provides no basis for their numbers at the two meetings to justify the assessment amount, only numbers that may work. Thus, there is likely more assessments to come. This is frowned upon by mortgage lenders, and will make resale difficult. Also, lets not forget about the 1500 refundable fee that builders (passed down to owners) need to pay, and the driveways that are shared...pay another special fee.
Parkside owners should hold board members accountable for their actions. We all want to return to the beautiful neighborhood we had, that is for sure. This scenario needs to be intelligently handled, therefore HOA board decisions should be critically examined, by the community as a whole.

7 likes, 3 dislikes
Posted by Parkside Homeowner on 05/15/2013 at 9:54 PM

Re: “Colorado Springs joins the Waldorf-charter wave

We are so proud to be part of this new school and are grateful our family has a different choice for our children's education. We are also extremely grateful that we have found a community of like minded individuals. Well done Neah!

3 likes, 2 dislikes
Posted by Kristi Nowakowski Hayes on 05/15/2013 at 8:49 PM

Re: “Colorado Springs joins the Waldorf-charter wave

As a parent of a child who will be entering kindergarten next year, I've done my fair share of homework on Waldorf education methods, as well and the Anthroposophical approach that some of the private Waldorf Schools use. I found that Rudolf Steiner, the founder of the first Waldorf school, was also a philosopher. Some PRIVATE Waldorf schools very much incorporate his philosophical viewpoints into their curriculum. As a public Waldorf school, this will absolutely not happen. There was actually a case in California where a parent was convinced separation of church and state was not being upheld at his local Waldorf Charter school, and he filed a lawsuit and created a group called PLANS. He lost his suit. This man argued that witchcraft was being taught to his child, and Christian literature was being passed around the school. More on that here: http://www.waldorfanswers.com/Lawsuit.html

It is true that many Waldorf schools use stories from the Old Testament, the Koran, and Buddhist teachings in some of their History lessons, but do not present the stories as fact, rather as a point of understanding people from different times. The courts recognized this.

If you are looking for a school where gardening and wellness are a main focus, your child's teacher will genuinely care about their emotional well-being, and that music, storytelling, art, movement, and cooking are integrated into Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic to give a richer and more full understanding of subjects, this is the school for you. Subjects are presented in a way that anyone can get excited about, and are presented in a variety of ways so children with different learning styles are all given a chance to learn in their own way. I, for one, will be sending both of my children to Mountain Song. I think a Waldorf School in Colorado Springs has been a long time coming, and I cannot wait to get my children started on this new adventure in learning!

For more info on what Waldorf is REALLY all about, check this out: http://youtu.be/tZmAX5adCl0

5 likes, 2 dislikes
Posted by laurielalalulu on 05/15/2013 at 8:34 PM

Re: “Parkside residents get handed the bill for repairs

Good letter(s) Barb. Give 'em hell. If you frequent the Indy, you already know that the columnists only care about furthering their political agendas and will slant what they write to that end. (I know, they all do it. However, the Indy is particularly partisan.)
As to the majority of folks that comment on these pages, I certainly wouldn't take any of them seriously. (Any except me that is.)

3 likes, 7 dislikes
Posted by siggie on 05/15/2013 at 3:12 PM

Re: “Colorado Springs joins the Waldorf-charter wave

A former French Waldorf student/Waldorf teacher named Gregoire Perra has written two articles that are a damning expose of how the Anthroposophy cult uses worldwide Waldorf schools to indoctrinate children without their parents' knowledge (I'm a parent of former Waldorf students). It is a subtle but insidious process. The first article, “The Anthroposophical Indoctrination of Students in Steiner-Waldorf Schools” can be found at http://petekaraiskos.blogspot.com/, and the second article “Nearly Undetectable Influence and Indoctrination” can be found at https://sites.google.com/site/waldorfwatch…. Any parent considering Waldorf education for their children should read these two articles first.

4 likes, 4 dislikes
Posted by Margaret Sachs on 05/15/2013 at 2:32 PM

Re: “Parkside residents get handed the bill for repairs

Indy didn't publish my first comment.... I live in one of the few homes in Parkside that didn't burn thanks to the brave firefighters. I'm really disturbed that the unpaid, hardworking board members are now catching flack from a 'journalist' that hasn't done her homework. I have been privy to a lot of the discussions and the numbers are open for the community to see. Our insurance agent told us NO HOA that he insures has insurance on the underground components of any system. We could have gotten insurance and paid more in premiums over the last 25 years than it will take to replace the system. The drainage was destroyed by the demolition and debris removal. Curbs, street and gutters were damaged by homeowner's contractors in rebuild and the ass'n is looking to recapture those costs from each individual lot owner. But at the moment it behooves us to get on with life as rapidly as possible . It is not constructive of you few that don't like what's going on to be so negative....we are trying our very best in a terrible painful situation to put our lives back together. If you wish to add constructive input feel free to join our bi-monthly meetings or attend Board meetings. They are open to everyone in the community.

7 likes, 9 dislikes
Posted by Barbara Franke Bamberger on 05/15/2013 at 2:02 PM

Re: “Parkside residents get handed the bill for repairs

I'm only quoting the Gazette and other journalists. I didn't personally witness or research the Cripple Creek fire, but thanks for the heads up.

4 likes, 1 dislike
Posted by Barbara Franke Bamberger on 05/15/2013 at 1:52 PM

Re: “Parkside residents get handed the bill for repairs

"Most catastrophic fire in Colorado history." WTF?? Do some research on the Cripple Creek fire of 1896. Compare the cost of buildings back then to those of today. Waldo Canyon was nothing, comparatively speaking.

1 like, 7 dislikes
Posted by Rhino2 on 05/15/2013 at 1:50 PM

Re: “Parkside residents get handed the bill for repairs

as a homeowner in an HOA controlled community, this is a good reminder to me that we need to ensure our HOA is carrying out their role. Thanks for a good update, Pam. You've done a service to all of us with this article.

10 likes, 2 dislikes
Posted by Big Cat on 05/15/2013 at 1:31 PM

Re: “Colorado Springs joins the Waldorf-charter wave

how VERY awesome for parents in this community to have another choice for their children! Kudos to this group of parents and educators for coming together and I wish them the best of luck!

5 likes, 4 dislikes
Posted by Big Cat on 05/15/2013 at 1:29 PM

Re: “New laws lay out the path for Amendment 64's implementation

i don't see warrants for suspected weed-DUIs being granted all that easily.

Posted by Matt McLaughlin on 05/15/2013 at 9:44 AM

Re: “Parkside residents get handed the bill for repairs

The already very low assessment of $113 per month only covers operating expenses and a small portion, $8.35, is set aside for reserve funds (to replace things as they wear out, not get burned down in the most catastrophic fire in Colorado history). The monies collected pay for management services, weekly trash service, snow removal, landscape maintenance and community water for our formerly gorgeous neighborhood. When we tell people how much we pay for all those services most people think it's a bargain! We agree. We love our neighborhood and would love to get back to living our lives. The Indy isn't helping, really. Journalism this is NOT!

4 likes, 9 dislikes
Posted by Barbara Franke Bamberger on 05/15/2013 at 8:04 AM

Re: “Colorado Springs joins the Waldorf-charter wave

Please read the comments on the previous article. Waldorf schools are not what they claim to be. Critical thinking? Seriously? I suspect the author of these articles is connected to these schools in some way... nobody just closes their eyes to bad performance. Read hundreds of parent complaints about Waldorf schools and Waldorf charter schools here: http://thewaldorfreview.blogspot.com/

6 likes, 4 dislikes
Posted by Pete K on 05/15/2013 at 7:06 AM

Re: “Broadmoor boosts campaign of Keith King

I hope they clean Simone's misbehavior here up....it is like a hostile takeover of the Indy to p[ost something of no interest on every discussion page. I am offended and await her apology.

Posted by TejonTech on 05/14/2013 at 9:32 AM

Re: “Broadmoor boosts campaign of Keith King

Looks like spam to me, Farley. How many times did you post this, nimrod?

Posted by siggie on 05/14/2013 at 6:39 AM

Re: “Viewing civil unions from the pulpit

Ben Broadbent has still failed to engage or respond...not impressed with Ben from this or anything I have heard from his congregation about him. I think all go to hear the gays men's chorus that performs there...I hear they are really good.

Posted by TejonTech on 05/12/2013 at 6:42 PM

Re: “HB 1081, the sex-ed bill, awaits Hickenlooper's signature

Schools need to teach our young people how to be personally responsible and self-sustaining...sex without consequences and responsibility is not a helpful contribution to that end.

Perhaps this money ought to be spent training parents how to parent, how to have a positively formational home, and boys that they must take responsibility for their actions.

This is just more of the gay/abortion lobby's agenda driven education and is destructive of society and the lives of our children.

I would not send my children to public schools in the new liberal Hickenlooper Colorado. The guy is the worst thing to happen to our state in all the decades I have lived here.

4 likes, 6 dislikes
Posted by TejonTech on 05/10/2013 at 8:37 AM

Re: “Rejected by title board, Springs' anti-frackers strategize

Take the city to court. It's the only way to fight these people.

1 like, 0 dislikes
Posted by staunchliberal on 05/09/2013 at 8:06 AM

Re: “Broadmoor boosts campaign of Keith King

Just follow the money. What a joke.

1 like, 0 dislikes
Posted by staunchliberal on 05/09/2013 at 8:04 AM

Re: “Viewing civil unions from the pulpit

Sorry to try to help, but I'm not a fkn mind reader. You may want to check with references with the Jewish Historian Josephus who recorded what happened during that period of time. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josephus

Posted by gurudori on 05/08/2013 at 7:35 PM

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