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Or just read the article here:
12/3/04
GOCO won't fund Glenwood kayak park
By David Frey/Aspen Daily News Correspondent
Great Outdoors Colorado won't fund a proposed whitewater park in Glenwood Springs that sparked controversy when Hot Springs Pool officials warned the project could damage the pool's hot water supply.
GOCO spokeswoman Chris Leding said the rejection wasn't a result of the pool's opposition. Leding said GOCO staffers had already recommended denying the project before the pool wrote to GOCO officials decrying the plan.
"It did not have bearing on that project not getting funded," Leding said.
GOCO announced its grants Wednesday.
The city asked GOCO to help fund the park, which supporters said would be a tourist draw. Leding said staffers worried matching funds were inadequate and there was not enough support from community organizations, businesses and surrounding communities.
"That recommendation was already done before we heard anything from the Hot Springs people," she said.
Glenwood City Councilman Bruce Christensen said he was dubious.
"It seems like kind of a smokescreen," he said, "but I think the bigger thing we need to look at doing is to figure out how to get the pool to support this, because it's very obvious we're not going to get a grant before the pool drops its opposition."
Glenwood proposed a whitewater park in the Colorado River downstream near the confluence with the Roaring Fork, filled with features for kayakers to play in.
Hot Springs Pool officials said they worried digging and scouring on the riverbed could break the rock cap over the hot spring aquifer, just barely underground in spots, and would cause the pool to lose its water supply.
They threatened a lawsuit, and wrote damaging letters to state and federal officials who could have a hand in the project. Leding said they also met with GOCO officials and sat in on a committee meeting.
Since then, city officials have met with the Hot Springs Pool to work out their differences, and the Chamber wrote a letter urging both sides to come together.
"All we can say is, we're disappointed about the way that whole thing was handled and we certainly hope that a future application will get better consideration," said Jeff Houpt, a member of the city's River Commission that backed the whitewater park.
"We're hoping to work through things with the pool in the meantime," he said, "and get them to a point where they support the next application that goes in there."
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Damn, that'll slow down the project. Hopefully the town and all the park's supporters don't give up.
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"One thing they don't tell you about doing experimental physics is that sometimes you must work under adverse conditions ... like a state of sheer terror." -- W. K. Hartmann
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