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City gets grants to help injured service members, vets

March 8th, 2012, 10:39 am by

The city’s Therapeutic Recreation Program has received $31,000 “to continue programming for injured service members and veterans in Colorado Springs,” the city said Thursday.

The grant funds came from two sources.

The U.S. Olympic Committee’s U.S. Paralympics division contributed $11,000 through funding from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

The National Recreation and Park Association’s Parks: Return & Restore program, a partnership between U.S. Paralympics and NRPA, contributed $20,000.

“The TR Program has been fortunate to be recipients of these grants,” Diane Ridderhoff, program supervisor, said in a statement.

“Over the years we have been thrilled to witness changes in physical activity and self-confidence through participation in program activities of biathlon, adaptive cycling, and adaptive sports. We look forward to continuing to grow our programming to benefit disabled service members in our community by implementing additional activities of archery, “Healthy Minds Healthy Bodies”, and more adaptive sports.  We’ve seen firsthand the transformation of injured service members that can happen through sport and physical activity, from overall improved health, to adjustment to disability and maximizing individuals’ abilities,  to transitioning back into the local community,” she said.

The funding will allow the program “to offer adaptive sports and physical training opportunities for injured service members and expand opportunities for injured veterans in the Colorado Springs community,” the city said.

The city also said the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has awarded more than $4.4 million in grants ranging from $2,500 to $500,000 to 95 community organizations around the country this year.

Those grants “were provided to increase the number and quality of opportunities for physically or visually impaired Veterans to participate in physical activity within their home communities and in more advanced Paralympic sport programs at the regional and national levels,” the city said.

“This funding is already having a tremendous impact on disabled veterans and disabled members of the Armed Forces,” USOC CEO Scott Blackmun said in a statement.

“Through the USOC/Veterans Affairs partnership many community programs have been able to expand their programming and provide increased opportunities for Veterans to participate.”

 

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El Pomar gives up naming rights in revamped USOC deal

October 11th, 2011, 6:30 am by

Colorado Springs taxpayers will be off the hook for nearly $1.2 million of $3 million owed to the U.S. Olympic Committee this year for improvements to the Olympic Training Center under a revised agreement the City Council will consider today.

In exchange, El Pomar Foundation, which had OTC-related naming rights under an earlier agreement with the city and the USOC, is giving up “all naming rights” for USOC properties, according to city documents.

The USOC proposed the new agreement because revised renovation plans for the OTC “would require additional fundraising beyond the $16 million being provided by the city of Colorado Springs,” according to the minutes from the June 28 meeting of the USOC board.

“In order to enable the USOC to more effectively run its capital campaign, (USOC CEO Scott) Blackmun is recommending that the USOC forgive certain obligations under the existing agreements in exchange for the return of all OTC-related naming rights,” the minutes state.

The USOC board unanimously approved the plan, “including undertaking a capital campaign to support the budget,” according to the minutes.

The minutes don’t specify the new budget for the OTC improvements, but Blackmun told the board that “fundraising would be attainable without cannibalizing existing USOC resources or fundraising activities.”

The prestigious sports organization plans to add “several million dollars” to the project on top of what the city pledged “to make the visitor center a truly world-class facility and experience,” USOC spokesman Mark Jones said.

“We’re going to try and really boost the visitors’ experience and hopefully it becomes another thing that people come to Colorado Springs for,” he said. “We’re really excited about that.”

Mayor Steve Bach and Bill Hybl, chairman and CEO of El Pomar, signed off on the new agreement with the USOC last month, according to city documents.

El Pomar “hereby agrees to release all naming rights for the USOC properties and the USOC agrees to provide a credit of $500,000 to the City against the $3,000,000 provided in the EDA, leaving a balance for the City to provide of $2,500,000,” states a letter of agreement signed by Bach, Hybl and Blackmun.

“The USOC will give a further credit of up to $668,865 to the City based upon donations received ($330,000), obligations of the USOC on the NGB Building ($18,865), the City traffic signal (expected to be $300,000) and the Regional Building Department donation (expected to be $20,000),” the agreement states.

In 2009, the city and the USOC signed an economic development agreement in which the city agreed to build the USOC a new headquarters downtown, among other provisions, in exchange for the USOC agreeing to stay in Colorado Springs for 30 years.

In addition to that agreement, the city, the USOC and El Pomar signed an agreement to provide funding for certain improvements at the Olympic Training Center

The council will consider a resolution amending that three-party agreement today. The council meets on the third floor of City Hall, 107 N. Nevada Ave. The meeting starts at 1 p.m.

Posted in: Budget • City Administration • City Council • Meetings • • • • • • | 4 Comments »

Olympic brand ‘invaluable’ to the Springs, mayor says

April 6th, 2010, 9:31 am by

No doubt about it, a quarter of a million dollars is a lot of dough.

But critics of the $250,000 grant from the U.S. Olympic Committee and several national governing bodies to fund various youth sports and recreation programs say it’s a drop in the bucket compared to the city’s $42.3 million incentives package.

What would Mayor Lionel Rivera tell those naysayers?

“I believe this is a renewal of a partnership, a much stronger partnership than we’ve had in the past,” Rivera said when asked the question after yesterday’s news conference.

“And you heard CEO Scott Blackmun say that he’s going to do everything he can to help promote economic development and bring more businesses here to Colorado Springs and be part of the community in doing that. We’ve never had a CEO that did that before,” the mayor said.

“Scott was part of the 6035 task force that looked at, ‘What do we need to bring more businesses to Colorado Springs?’ I think he’s going to use his position as CEO of the USOC to help us do that, to help bring more businesses here, and using the Olympic brand to do that, I think, is going to be a huge positive,” he said.

“The other thing you have to look at is what we gain from the USOC in terms of jobs and all the national governing bodies, all the sports-related tourism. The numbers we looked at show us that that generates about $3.4 million a year in sales tax and property tax revenue. This is an investment in our future. We know that Chicago, San Diego, other communities were trying to take the USOC headquarters from Colorado Springs. A loss of that could potentially mean the loss of several thousand jobs, over $3 million in revenues.”

The mayor noted that it cost the city $1.65 million this year for the certificates of participation, which the city issued to pay for the USOC’s new headquarters at 27 S. Tejon St. and other expenses.

The city will have to continue to pay off the COPs into the future.

“I think it’s a good investment,” Rivera said. “You invest $1.65 million. You get back $3.4 million in tax revenue. That’s just looking at the numbers. But in terms of the (Olympic) brand and what it means to our community, that’s invaluable, and that’s something that I think we’re going to leverage to bring more businesses here to our community. And I think (the USOC and national governing bodies are) going to be a much, much bigger player than they have been in the past.”

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