Connexion started out strong in 2024 with financial numbers ahead of budget and forecast—reporting a 108% increase in income in Q1 2024 over Q1 2023. Q1 also saw Connexion reach a 39% residential take rate, plus 11% with its commercial customers—typically adding one new business customer per day. 

The buildout of multi-dwelling units (MDUs) continues with 36% of MDUs in city limits already connected. Connexion’s Digital Inclusion Program also reached 800 customers, helping bring high-speed internet to all parts of the community.

Follow Connexion’s growth

Northside Aztlan Community Center completed an extensive renovation on the childcare wing earlier this year, adding a secure entrance, ADA improvements and larger classroom spaces. With these upgrades, Recreation can now offer 240 additional slots for childcare this summer, along with expanded hours of operation for Universal PreK in fall.

Fort Collins Museum of Discovery opened their newest special exhibition, ¡Alebrijes! Mystical Beings, Fantastical Creatures, with a community celebration in April. Through traditional methods, Mexico City artists Óscar Becerra Mora and Rubén Mica lead the community in the design and creation of a massive Alebrije sculpture for Fort Collins. The exhibit will be on display through July 28, with many opportunities to explore the myth and magic of this Mexican artform.

In March, City Council adopted the 2024 Strategic Plan. The plan, which is reviewed and updated every two years, outlines the City’s short- and mid-term strategic objectives, influences the City’s budgeting process, and guides the implementation of City services. The plan reflects the diverse perspectives and contributions of community members, businesses, Councilmembers and City staff, and informs the City’s budget and workplans for the next several years. This year, City Council and staff simplified and streamlined the plan, choosing to focus on the specific outcomes that the City is working to achieve in the community, while leaving flexibility for specific operational decisions to adapt as needed in the coming years.

In partnership with local organizations and community leaders, the Equity and Inclusion Office and Cultural Community Programs hosted proclamations and celebrations for Black History Month in February and Asian American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Heritage Month in April. The celebrations highlighted local history, diverse traditions and culture, and the power of community connections. The City was also proud to sponsor a Day of Service in January in honor of Martin Luther King Jr., and we look forward to more community gatherings as we celebrate both Pride Month and Juneteenth in June.

More than 4,000 homes registered for Get FoCo, the City’s new online portal where income-qualified residents can access a variety of reduced-cost programs and services, such as Connexion broadband service, grocery rebates and Recreation programming.

Through Get FoCo, participants can submit one central application to access many reduced-rate services. Of registered users, 58% participated in more than one City program. 

Sign up for the Get FoCo platform

In Q1, the City received 12 grant awards, totaling $13,354,390. Most of that, $10.2 million, went to Connexion—in partnership with Larimer County under the Colorado Broadband Office’s Capital Projects Fund Broadband Infrastructure Grant program—to fund broadband infrastructure for unserved and undeserved locations. 

Another $1.8 million came from the federal and state Highway Safety Improvement Program funds to further the Timberline Road and Carpenter Road infrastructure project.

We’ve made some serious enhancements to our website—hopefully you’ve noticed already! After an extensive digital experience audit, we adjusted the main navigation at fcgov.com to focus on the journey of our customers. You’ll now see sections like “How Do I” and “Government,” which consolidate areas of the website for ease of use and based on how most users navigate it. These and other changes streamline options so you can pay your utility bill or check out Council’s next meeting agenda with reduced clicks and minimal head scratching. We believe government is here to make life easier, and we’re excited to better serve you online, and offline, thanks to these updates.

Traffic Operations recently launched a Vision Zero Dashboard, tracking crashes with serious injuries or fatalities in Fort Collins. Currently being piloted by City staff to support further implementation of the Vision Zero Action Plan, the dashboard is expected to be available for public access later this year. Along with our community’s participation in practicing safer traveling behavior—obeying speed limits, being more alert in areas of high pedestrian traffic, looking out for cyclists—this dashboard will be a critical tool for making our roads safer for all.

Despite national trends of lower police applicants, Fort Collins continues to recruit high-quality officers and professional staff. Fort Collins has 4%, 10, of its officer positions open; however, Fort Collins Police Services already offered 10 jobs to candidates who will start academy training in July. 

Most agencies across the nation are at least 5% below officer staffing levels with several regional neighbors looking at 10-20% shortages. 

Fort Collins’ success stems from a passionate and small but diverse team conducting active recruitment at universities, military bases and job fairs.  

Look at careers with Fort Collins Police Services

In March, the City celebrated the opening of BirdWhistle Townhomes—the first for-sale affordable housing built as part of the City’s Land Bank Program.  

In May, Northfield Commons celebrated the grand opening of affordable rental apartments as a result of the City’s Metropolitan District Policy—which encourages including affordable housing in new residential neighborhoods. 

The City uses funding, facilitation and incentive programs to support the development and preservation of affordable housing in Fort Collins. 

Find out more about Fort Collins affordable housing work

In January, City staff began reaching out to the more than 40,000 households affected by the new and upcoming contracted program for citywide residential trash, recycling and yard waste hauling services. 

Mailers, in-person events at various community spaces and door-to-door visits from hauler staff helped share information and answer questions.  

This important program is designed to increase opportunities for composting and recycling, provide equitable, consistent pricing across the community, as well as increase safety and reduce emissions by reducing the number of trash trucks on residential streets.

Learn the about the timeline for the contracted trash and recycling program

Water conservation work in 2023 yielded amazing results with 130 million gallons saved—that’s 2% of the year's total treated water—and average water use down 42% since 2000. 
 
Fort Collins Utilities just released their annual Water Conservation report detailing those numbers and sharing 2023 conservation highlights such as work with mobile home park residents and free Certified Landscape and Irrigation Audit training. It also details focus areas for 2024, including updating the 2015 Water Efficiency Plan and proposing new xeriscape codes. 

Explore the Water Conservation Annual Report

Our Streets department is nearly finished with repaving and restriping Harmony between Timberline and I-25. Streets is repairing and replacing the road surface as a part of regular, critical maintenance for one of the City's most important—and busiest—east-west corridors. Motorists and cyclists are already riding on smoother, safer roads thanks to completed improvements; the remaining work will wrap up in June.

Learn More About Harmony Road Work

Busy season continues for our Streets department, whose upgrades and improvements along the Mason Street corridor from the CSU campus to Maple Street will also wrap up in June. The project repaired wear-and-tear issues from heavy buses and improved road conditions to allow for less frequent maintenance in the future, while also improving sidewalks, gutters and landscaping along the corridor.

Learn More About Mason Corridor Improvements

Our Engineering department is currently working on improving bridges, sidewalks and bicycle routes along Laporte from Fishback Ave. to N. Sunset St. Many parts of this stretch of Laporte lack sidewalks and curbs, which have caused safety issues in recent years. This project is paired with corridor improvements from the FC Moves department from Fishback to Wood St. on the east end of the project area—the added bike lanes to Laporte will solidify continuous infrastructure from downtown to west of Poudre High School for cyclists.

Learn More About Laporte Corridor Improvements

Fort Collins Utilities recently finished replacing a section of raw waterline that delivers water from the Poudre River to the Water Treatment Facility. The river’s erosion exposed the old pipeline and crews replaced about 500 feet of pipe, relocating it beneath the river during winter 2023-24. In April, construction successfully connected the replacement to the old waterline.

Learn More About Poudre River Raw Waterline Replacement at Gateway Natural Area

Did you know we have 13 dedicated staff members to field your Fort Collins Utilities questions over the phone? How responsive are we? In Q1, we took 21,576 calls to help you with starting or stopping service, general information, payment and emergencies. 

Although Connexion is a smaller team of five, customer service staff fielded 2,873 calls in Q1, with only a 3% abandon rate—that’s well below the industry average of 10%. 

Did you know the City has a Graffiti Hotline (970-416-2400)? How responsive are we? Staff removed 154 instances of graffiti in Q1 with an average response time of 1.3 days—below our 1.5 day target. 

Hold the phone—we’ve got another hotline for you to add to your speed dial: The Pothole Hotline (970-221-6614). In Q1, we filled 1,238 potholes in an average response time of 19 hours. 

Want to dig deeper into the numbers behind City operations? 

Visit the Community Dashboard