David Hughes is a West Point graduate and retired U.S. Army colonel who served in both Korea and Vietnam. He is a third-generation Colorado native and is a resident of Colorado Springs.

One offshoot of the controversial CDOT US24 planning exercise, (the proposed, improbable $250 million 'upgrade and expansion of the 5 miles US24 Midland Expressway stretch between I-25 and Manitou Springs) is a subproject called, loosely, the "Greenway" Project. The Greenway is the name CDOT has given to plans for what the Fountain Creek corridor on both sides of US24 could be like in the future.

I agreed to be the OWN Board representative on the collaborative effort over several months - where, together with a number of stakeholders from the city, parks, county, Manitou Springs, Trails and Open Space Coalition, Friends of Red Rock Canyon, OWN, OCCA - and Westsiders - to formulate what that area could look like and how it could serve other than car bound travelers between I-25 and Manitou.

Now I am very skeptical about the whole costly CDOT planning exercise for both the Highway and the Greenway Project. However, I am willing to suspend disbelief and go through the independent Greenway planning process itself for one overarching reason. If US24 is upgraded and altered- under any of the schemes being debated, sooner or later there must be an accompanying plan carried out for how to handle the myriad issues - the 100 year flood plain for example - before anything can change drastically.

One thing I don't want to see, is a plan implemented without public imagination and input, by engineers whose preoccupation is to do things the most efficient, not necessarily the most community-serving, much less soul satisfying, way. Few Westsider knew they dodged a bullet in 1973 when the city, reflecting only a technical solution made a plan for handling Fountain Creek and its flooding problems that would have constructed one big ugly concrete ditch all the way from Manitou to Monument Creek, passing by and ignoring the Westside. Somewhat like the Camp Creek ditch through Pleasant Valley. Functional but unappealing. Fortunately it was never built.

But we still have a Fountain Creek full of tires and beer bottles, grassless medians, and the remains of Colorado City's unappetizing, if historic, industrial past. One of the ugliest approaches to Colorado Springs from the mountains, or from I-25 to the mountains I can imagine for 'beautiful' cities at the base of Pikes Peak.

I tried to get some 'beautification' of that corridor through OWN some 20 years ago. Some things were done and the first "Midland Plan" was drafted. But there is no comprehensive vision. And little was done.

The Greenway meetings so far have produced three broad alternative citizen generated themes - Restoration, Gateway, or Creek Walk. Or combinations of these in different stretches and sides of that 5 mile long corridor. Greenway planning is somewhat independent of the US24 highway planning itself. Parts of the Greenway, funded by very different entities, public or private may be implemented before, during, or after the highway is modified. Some of it already has been - such as the Midland Trail along the old D&RG railroad right away.

In all cases Fountain Creek has to be dealt with, for its flooding and water quality potential. But how it is done can turn some of it into wooded walkways, even fishing ponds, wetlands, uncontaminated water, or in confined areas, a creekwalk - all accessible by Westsiders either walking, biking, driving to and from it. As others from the outside can drive to it from off the highway with people stopping at rest stops, and interpretive signs, even with solar powered short range Wi-Fi broadcast stations that can, web illustrated, 'Tell the story' of the great Golden Cycle and other gold Mills, the legendary Midland Railroad, the Czechoslovakian green-Glass Factory in the Midland area, and the Hassell Decorative Iron Works.

I insisted from the first meetings that the ugly 'Industrial' corridor can, with public art, imaginative treatment of necessary metal work or cement walls, celebrate and highlight, rather than just hide or try to ignore the unique Industrial history of Colorado City and the Westside. Everything does not have to be 'green' or present bald concrete or covered ditches.

Besides ball fields, even the idea of a small amphitheater has been discussed. Certainly signage will be important, which also invites those on the highway to turn off, park, picnic, and sample the business heart of Old Colorado City and its lodgings. It just takes vision and will.

Meanwhile, Westsiders, dream a little and offer your own suggestions.

You can see graphically some of the three broad options - Restoration, Gateway, Creek Walk at http://www.us24west.com/. Select the 'Greenway Advisory Committee'

Dave Hughes