Construction underway on new outdoor classroom at North Cheyenne Cañon Park
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — The Starsmore Visitor and Nature Center, which sits at the base of North Cheyenne Cañon, will soon be home to a new outdoor classroom thanks to a more than $600,000 city construction project.
The project will also include renovated parking and restrooms at North Cheyenne Cañon, a city park, and upgraded pedestrian walkways to meet ADA standards.
“We have used our parking lot as an educational space in the past,” said Cathy Railton, a parks operation administrator at North Cheyenne Cañon Park. Railton also creates and helps lead education programs for K-12 students at the park. Railton and her fellow park educators, Renee Keel and Lisa Houda, have wanted to add an outdoor classroom space to the visitor center for years.
Railton said the park sees nearly 5,000 preschool and K-6 students every year for more than 10 programs that include instruction on subjects like nature, wildlife and Ute heritage. The outdoor classroom will make it easier to welcome students, host small group activities and debrief after programs are conducted in the nature surrounding Starsmore, she said.
“Being outdoors is definitely good for your mind and your soul,” Keele said. “A lot of kids are inside too much, you know, and I think it's important and therapeutic for kids to be outside.”
Funding for the construction came from taxpayer money, grants and donations, but the project was ultimately made possible because the park finally obtained money from the city's Lodgers and Automobile Rental Tax, or LART. Railton said it was difficult to acquire LART funding because it is highly competitive with other tourism-based businesses. The park applied for years before finally securing money from the pool, she said. The city park had to prove that it attracts tourists, which required the difficult task of tracking the license plates of visitors, she said.
Receiving LART funding is only getting more difficult. The city recently reported that the tourism tax brought in nearly $300,000 less than the city was expecting this year, causing some concern for other tourism-led businesses hoping to apply for the funding.
Jacob Butterfield, the city’s construction project specialist, said the project faces some challenges in making sure it meets ADA standards and stays within budget.
Because North Cheyenne Cañon is a hilly area, his crew needed to make changes to the parking lot in addition to creating a slope for wheelchair access, which resulted in more materials used, Butterfield said.
The project is expected to be completed at the end of May, the city said, with an anticipated ribbon cutting in mid-June.
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