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(T~)9_oJl) - fc\tqrN EWESTERNE Romer letter may endanger I FR~;RI~GE I Platte River wildlife plan' COLORADO SPRINGS . NEW COURTHOUSE OK'd - Colorado Sprinl!;s will knock down its old downtown pollee headquarters and build a courthouse in Its place. re- lieving crowding at the exist. ing court building haIr a block away. The city COlmcll gave the green light Monday for a $7.5 million municipal courthouse to be completed in 1996. It will have 54,000 square feet for courtrooms, offices and jury rooms - mOC"c than double the size of the city's prescnt courthouse, which the cily plan!l to remodel into of- fices and e~pand in future )'cars. All told. the city plans to spend $15 million during the nexl decade to create court. roorh and offiec space total- iog 102,000 square [('('to . ARENA TO GET FUNDS - The elty ('(luncil voted 7-2 yesterday to give the Colora- do Spring~ World Arena $1.7$ million toward construction of roads and a parking lot for two ice rinks that later will be connected to a propooed..$42 _ ~"""ll9rts..ar""'-'-' r.- - "48.. Denver Post S\8.1f IInd Wire Rllports KEARNEY, Neb. - Gov. Ben Nelson says a letter from Colora- do's governor to Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt could jeopardize any agret>ment on a three-state plan to proted wildlife habitat in the Platte Ri....er basin. In a June 10 letter to Babbitt, Gov. Roy Romer wrote that the plan "does not imply any obliga- Uon. requirement or agreement on the part of Colorado to deliver any more water at the Colorado-Ne- braska state line than is provided by interstate compact." In a June 22 letter to Babbitt., Nel~on wrote that if it's Colorado's position that any water required to improve critical habitat along the Platte in central Nebraska must come only from Nebraska and Wy- oming, there can bc no consensus for agreement on a basin recovery program. THE DENVER POST ~ M... Copies of both letters were re- leased Monday by Nebraska De- partment of Water Resources Di- rector Mike Jess. Jim Lochhead, director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources and Romer's water-law expert in the cabinet, said he was "quite a bit surprised" by Nelson's reacHon, noting that both sides ef- fectively agreed in earlier discus' sions "that the compact was not on the table for discllssion or renego- tiation." Further, Colorado officia1.~ car' lier "advised Gov. Nelson's office that we're going to write a clarify- ing letter" to Babbitt as a follow- up to "at least one" Nelson letter to the interior secretary "putting his (Nelson's) spin on the agree- ment. Jess said the interstate compact Romer mentioned was approved by the Nebraska and Colorado leg- islaturcs and the U.S. Congress in 1923. It settled a dispute about South Platte River water. flOWing from Colorado to Nebra~ka. Jes.~ said that compact says Col- orado will regulate certain water users downstream from Fort Mor- gan and provided a set amount of water to benpfit the Western Canal in southwestern Nebraska. Ne- braska conceded all the rest of the water to Colorado. "We looked at the Jetter with some alarm," Jess said. If Nebras- ka officials had known about it when Nel~on signed the memoran- dum, "some of us would have been advising the governor not to sign." Since the memorandum has been signed, Nelson will have to negoti- ate Nebraska's interests in upcom- ing discussions about the plan. Jennifer Gavin of The Denver Post Capitol Bureau contributoo to this rcport. 1 ht o o c ", c.' . .... ByThllDe "Cvrl' God." s chine 111 telephot Cyrw: Cat. Cyru~ Iier thi! lorts to quittin, full-tin signs al tersecti reward. Post 0 the nrll day's r was pr came hI "I WI soon. g\ my bike leys," s, the Uni\ TRA Fe ...~'