After January 1, the City of Pueblo/Pueblo MPO will be opening and advertising for one professional position specializing in travel demand modeling at the level of Sr. Transportation Planner. This position will be located in the Department of Planning and Community Development of the City of Pueblo and will be a classifed Civil Service position with a beginning salary in the $40,000 - $45,000 range (with excellent benefits) depending on individual qualifications. The Pueblo Area Council of Governments sub-delegates and contracts with the City for all the regional transportation planning functions in both the urban and rural areas. Although the primary emphasis will be on maintaining and updating the MPO transportation model (currently in TransCAD), the position will also entail some general transportation planning for sub-areas and neighborhoods. These will be used along with the model (which will incorporate both CTPP information and the results of an O-D survey planned for 2003) to update the current Long Range Plan to the 2025-2030 time horizon by 2005. The person selected will be responsible for incorporating mode-split and transit planning capabilities within the TransCAD platform, and possibly working with other GIS tools such as ArcView, AutoCAD, etc. The city of Pueblo is located at I-25 and US50 on the Arkansas River, approximately 105 miles south of Denver and 40 miles south of Colorado Springs. Based on 2000 Census figures, the population of the City is 101,121; the County population is 141,472; and the new "3C" area population will be in the 130-135,000 range. The City owns the Pueblo Transit system (bus-only at present), and rural transit is provided by a number of local non-profit organizations. Pueblo County covers a land area of more than 2,400 square miles and contains Lake Pueblo State Park -- one of the largest lakes in Colorado. For additional information visit the websites at www.ci.pueblo.co.us, www.co.pueblo.co.us, or www.chieftain.com. And for my fellow economists out there, the ACCRA Cost of Living Index (2nd quarter, 2001) for Pueblo is 92.7 which ranks it 38th lowest among 301 urban areas in the US, and the lowest in Colorado. For comparison, Denver is 109.5, Los Angeles-LongBeach CA is 140.0, Manhattan NYC is 232.5, and even my old hometown of Austin, TX is 106.1. The Housing cost index in the Pueblo area is only 80.3 compared to Denver at 121.0. The current unemployment rate is 6.2% (up from 4.3% a year ago). I will send along the formal job description with qualifications and application procedures as soon as it becomes available from our Human Resources Department and Civil Service Commission. Meanwhile, if you think you might be interested in the position, please feel free to get in touch with me by phone, fax, mail or e-mail. HAPPY NEW YEAR, Y'ALL!!!! Bill Moore, M.ITE, Senior Transportation Planner Pueblo MPO - City of Pueblo Dept. of Planning and Community Development 211 E. D Street, P.O. Box 1427 Pueblo, CO 81003 Phone: (719) 583-4485 FAX: (719) 543-0572 E-mail: bmoore(a)ci.pueblo.co.us