MONUMENT — The Town of Monument is considering annexing Gleneagle. Gleneagle is an unincorporated community in northern El Paso County. Baptist Road is the dividing line between houses in Monument and homes in Gleneagle.
According to Monument town manager, Mike Foreman some people have expressed interest in a potential annexation of Gleneagle to the town of Monument.
A meeting was held on Tuesday night to hear public comments to see if the people who live in Gleneagle would want to become a part of the Monument.
Over one hundred people watched on the live stream and many people voiced their opinion in person to the Monument mayor, Mitch LaKind.
During the public meeting, on Tuesday night, the majority of people voiced their concern and dislike about the annexation.
One woman asked the audience to stand up if they disagreed with the annexation of Gleneagle; almost everyone in attendance at the meeting stood up.
People complained the town of Monument did not properly communicate the meeting was happening.
The Town of Monument responded saying it was posted on their website and Facebook page.
Monument cannot annex Gleneagle without the residents of Gleneagle voting and approving it. The majority of feedback at Tuesday's meeting was against the annex.
Another issue people were concerned with was how this was going to affect taxes for residents in Gleneagle. Currently, they do not have to pay any city taxes.
Foreman said residents in Gleneagle pay county, school district, and Monument Fire District taxes.
Foreman said, that if Gleneagle became a part of Monument, residents would have to pay city taxes for police and road maintenance.
“My main thing is, I would like to live just in the county. Again it is all about the taxes. Because I feel like once I have to move to Monument, how much more is the taxes going to be, it is already crazy as it is,” Ferris said.
Margy Ferris has lived in Gleneagle since 1995. She said she loves Monument but does not think Gleneagle needs to become a part of it.
“I mean there are a lot of positive things in Monument, but I would rather just be Gleneagle and be our separate people that we have always been,” Ferris said.
Ferris said she wants the community to remain unincorporated mainly because she does not want to pay city taxes.
Ferris' neighbors, Brooks DeMio and Robin DeMio have lived in the same house in Gleneagle for over 20 years.
“I'm not really into paying more taxes, who is,” Robin DeMio said.
Robin DeMio said she found out about the meeting on the app Nextdoor. She said she does not like the idea of annexing because she does not want to pay more taxes and because she does not want her address to change. Even though she lives in Gleneagle, Robin DeMio said her address is still Colorado Springs even though she is not within the city limits.
“I don’t like that idea, I live in Colorado Springs because I want to live in Colorado Springs, we would have moved across Baptist Road if we wanted to be in Monument,” Robin DeMio said.
Robin’s husband, Brooks DeMio said he is not for annexing Gleneagle if property tax were to increase.
“I am not thrilled about it, if property tax increases, so if this is going to really affect those taxes I would not be too thrilled with that,” Brooks DeMio said.
Because Gleneagle is a part of El Paso County, the county sheriff is dispatched and responds to that area first. The annexation would change that. Monument police would then be in charge of the Gleneagle neighborhood.
Brooks DeMio said Monument police could be a plus.
"Monument police are gonna be quicker to respond because they are closer so that is a plus I think,” Brooks DeMio said
Robin DeMio said the county sheriff sometimes takes a while but is not concerned with emergency response times.
“When we have to call the police, which is very rare, it takes longer because it's the county sheriff. You know and they're busy and have lots of things to do, but I think every police force is with the amount of people they have to serve, but that is not a really big deal to me,” Robin DeMio said.
According to Robin DeMio, the district fire department has a station in the Gleneagle neighborhood and is fairly close to her house.
“Unfortunately I had to have the ambulance come last year and they were there in just a few minutes, so that's not a problem here,” Robin DeMio said.
At the end of Tuesday night's meeting, Forman said it is now up to the residents of Gleneagle if they would like to move forward with annexing. He expressed tonight's meeting was just to hear public comment and that no vote or plan would be made.
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