The last week has seen a passionate response from Longmont residents over the fate of the prairie dog colony currently residing on the southwest corner of Third Avenue and Great Western Drive.

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The last week has seen a passionate response from Longmont residents over the fate of the prairie dog colony currently residing on the southwest corner of Third Avenue and Great Western Drive. The site is about to undergo development to become what is being called the Great Western Flex Building.

The council meeting on Tuesday, June 6th again heard from residents keen to push for the relocation of the prairie dogs instead of euthanization. The campaign for relocation is being headed by the group Prairie Protection Colorado (PPC) who have encouraged their members and community residents to email both the council and the developers in support of the relocation before starting any building works. Longmont Observer spoke to one councilor who said he had received over 100 emails on the subject in the past week.

The project is being carried out by the developers HSW and its contractor, Sun Construction and Facility Services Inc. but the building will become home to the Longmont-based company, Creative Learning Systems who develops STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) and digital media programs for elementary, middle and high schools. Longmont Observer spoke to Matt Dickstein, the CEO of Creative Learning Systems to find out the companies history and the reason behind their relocation.

"We moved our operations and corporate headquarters from California to our present location in Longmont in 2005. Longmont offered the perfect location for our company - it's affordable, has exceptional infrastructure, and its location allows us to recruit employee talent from all along the northern front range. When we learned that our present building would be demolished as part of the St. Vrain flood prevention efforts we worked hard to find an alternative location in Longmont. Unfortunately, there were no existing buildings that met our needs. We entered into discussions with HSW Land and Sun Construction to build the planned Great Western project earlier this year as a last-ditch effort to keep our company in Longmont. If this new building is not completed on the proposed timeline, we'd have to look for an alternative location outside of the City. Creative Learning Systems is a growing, successful local company. Our business has doubled in the last two years and, as we continue to grow, we'll be expanding our employment base, bringing new jobs to Longmont."

Longmont Observer also spoke to Jessica Erickson, president of the Longmont Area Economic Partnership who's organization has been working with the company to find a suitable new home. She expressed her organization's concern over keeping Creative Learning Systems in Longmont and the need for construction to start as soon as possible to follow the timeline. Jessica and her team have also been working closely with Andy Welch, president of Sun Construction and a minority stakeholder in HSW. She explained how everyone has been working hard to keep the business in Longmont.

"The site and this building, thanks to Andy's (Welch) willingness to work with the company and helping it make sense for them financially, is really our last option to keep them here in Longmont. Because of the nature of their business cycle and because of when they have to be out of the facility that they're currently in, they need to be in the new building by January /February time next year."

Jessica went on to say she had spoken to Andy Welch on Tuesday, June 6th, who is currently out of the country on a church mission. She explained the developers are open minded about the prairie dog issue but are also under time pressures.

"They are very interested in doing whatever they need to prove good faith efforts and they're open to all alternatives that don't impact the timeline. They are being very thoughtful about it but they also understand that timing is an issue."

Deanna Meyers, executive director of Prairie Protection Colorado spoke to Longmont Observer to explain how their organization is trying to work with the developers to come up with a solution that fits around the timeline. They believe they are also close to securing a new home for the prairie dogs at the federal Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge that once was the home of the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons facility.

"PPC understands that they are fast-tracking this development and that is why we presented to them an option of a passive relocation. This way all of the prairie dogs in harm's way can be moved onto the remaining 8 acres and they can begin their construction until we can finalize the receiving site for the prairie dogs. PPC is confident that we can secure this site and relocate all the prairie dogs off of the 12-acre plot sometime between August and November. We have received confirmation from Rocky Flats that they are working towards this goal. This really is a win-win situation. The current problem is that the developers do not feel they should have to pay for the passive or active relocation."

The developers HSW Lands LLC sent an offer to PPC in which they laid out the costings they would cover and the amount they would require PPC to cover in order to carry out firstly passive relocation (moving the prairie dogs onto another part of the site not yet planned to be built on), and then full relocation to another site. HSW said they would initially need PPC to cover the cost of the passive relocation at around $25,000 and then to supply a further $48,000 towards the full relocation with HSW adding the final $12,000.

PPC believe the developers should be responsible for paying for the majority of costs to relocate the prairie dogs. The legal alternatives to relocation are euthanizing the animals and donating them to a raptor program as food for the birds or simply eradicating them by the use of a poisonous substance. HSW have been quoted as expressing an interest in pursuing the raptor program route.

If HSW is unable to fund the relocation with or without the help of the PPC and choose to euthanize the prairie dogs, they will need to demonstrate their "good faith efforts" for relocation options to the city as laid out in the municipal code.

Longmont Observer spoke to Joni Marsh, Director of Planning and Development Services for Longmont to discover how the decision of whether the company had done enough would be made. Joni also gave an update as to where they are with documentation.

"The decision maker is outlined in the code and administrative decisions like this fall to the Planning Director or designee. The site plan and plat are also administrative as it is a permitted use so there is not public hearing required before the Planning and Zoning Commission. Ava -the project planner - did receive the developer's information on Wednesday. Staff also received the passive relocation information from Prairie Protection Colorado on Tuesday. We will be working to get that information to a 3rd party, of which I do not have a confirmation on who that will be as of today but likely early next week we will have confirmation."

All organizations involved will now await the decision from the city around whether the good faith efforts have been met.