STORIES OF THE YEAR – WESTSIDE, 2018
WAAP work worth wait? Wheels its way to number 1

Backhoes shape the earth to create retaining walls below Pikes Peak Avenue and a pedestrian plaza as part of the Westside Avenue Action Plan near Ridge Road and Colorado Avenue. At far right is a hot dog shop that's stayed open. Westside Pioneer photo

On a sunny winter day in the Garden of the Gods, the broadened and rerouted Gateway Trail, with its new footbridge over Camp Creek, attracts various users. The trail connects the Visitor Center and the Central Garden. The reroute also moved the trail farther from Gateway Road. The work was part of a $440,000 Colorado Springs Parks project that included a reroute of the Foothills Trail paralleling 30th Street. In the background is the Garden's Kindergarten Rock. Westside Pioneer photo

The left-turn lane (coned off at left) for Highway 24 eastbound motorists at 31st Street was roughly tripled in length in a 2018 Colorado Department of Transportation project. Other work at the intersection, including new signal poles, continues into 2019. Westside Pioneer photo

Chestnut Street from Buena Ventura Street to Fillmore Street.
       2C is the name of the voter-approved city ballot measure that established a .62 percent sales tax to pay for road upgrades over a five-year span (2016-2020).
       Other major roadwork in 2018 resulted from the WAAP project (see Story #1) and two Colorado Department of Transporta-tion projects - one to eliminate left turns from Ridge Road onto Highway 24, the other to lengthen the left-turn lane and make safety/ drainage upgrades at 31st Street and Highway 24. (Note: The latter project is continuing, with light poles to be installed.)
       4. Hospital pullout. One of the most important Westside news developments in 2018 was something that didn't happen. For close to three years, Penrose-St. Francis Health Services had been pursuing plans for a major hospital complex at Centennial Boulevard and Fillmore Street, gaining city OK's to allow a 12-story hospital and two office towers of six stories each. But the plan's been abandoned. (See article, Page 5.)
       5. Bancroft Park. The city's reconstruction of the 1-acre Old Colorado City park could start in January. (See article, Page 6.)

The left-turn lane (coned off at left) for Highway 24 eastbound motorists at 31st Street was roughly tripled in length in a 2018 Colorado Department of Transportation project. Other work at the intersection, including new signal poles, continues into 2019. Westside Pioneer photo

       6. Land - construction.
       New bank coming - The demolition in December of a former car wash and office building in the 3000 block of West Colorado Avenue dramatized Ent Credit Union's plan to build a 5,290-square-foot bank facility on the 1.24 acres they used to sit on.
       Ent submitted a redevelopment proposal to Colorado Springs Planning in October for what used to be 3005 and 3009 W. Colorado. The not-for-profit financial cooperative hopes to start construction in 2019.
       Since 2000, Ent has leased a 1,700-square-foot space in the Red Rock shopping center off Colorado Avenue west of 31st Street, known as its “Westside Service Center.” The new building, about three times bigger with a drive-through component, will replace that.
       Chestnut/ Fillmore - Changes are in progress for two prominent commercial properties facing each other on Chestnut Street along the south side of Fillmore.
       At the southwest corner of the two streets (technically 2970-2990 N. Chestnut St.) will be a 4,200-square-foot strip center. Including a new Subway sandwich restaurant, it will be slightly bigger than the previous center from 1976, which was torn down last year.
       At the southeast corner (technically 755 W. Fillmore St.) will be a new, somewhat larger Waffle House restaurant, replacing the current building from 1974. This demolition/construction is expected in early 2019.
       Fillmore Apartments - After a few months of grading activities, framing started in mid-November on the project by this name.
       The 91 dwelling units will be distributed between two buildings, one with four stories, the other with three, at the southeast corner of West Fillmore Street and Grand Vista Circle.
       The developer, Goodwin-Knight (formerly Challenger Homes) expects readiness for occupancy in July or August.
       At neighborhood meetings on the project plans two years ago, concerns had emerged that the building height would be incompatible with the area, a several-square-mile expanse of the Westside known as “the Mesa.”
       Fillmore West - A Best Western Hotel opened and a Mexican-food restaurant was nearing completion at the end of 2018 at this 13-acre retail center north of Fillmore at Chestnut Street.
       The restaurant being built is the third Fuzzy's Taco Shop in Colorado Springs. It is straight across Chestnut Street from the 100-room Best Western, which has 58 hotel rooms and 42 “extended stay” types (kitchenettes).
       Gold Hill Mesa - Construction started on Filings 9 and 10 of Gold Hill Mesa, which has been in development since 2006 on 210 acres east of 21st Street and south of Highway 24. Known as “the rim,” the filings are at the top of what had been the tailings dam for the Golden Cycle gold mill 70-some years ago. Now the home sites there are known for their views.
       According to Gold Hill Mesa land manager Barry Brinton, the development has more than 430 occupied homes (45 of those in 2018), with roughly 650 anticipated at build-out.
       Walnut Street/Mesa Road - Redevelopment has begun for long-neglected, late 19th-century houses on properties totaling about 9 acres off Walnut and Mesa.
       The owner/redeveloper since 2016 has been Carl Bourgeois, a Denver-based business manager with childhood ties to the properties and their former owners.

People demonstrating for safer parks and trails wave at passing cars from the 26th Street sidewalk in front of Vermijo Park last August. The rally was prompted by an incident a few days earlier in which several vagrants blocked a woman from the park's public restroom. Westside Pioneer photo

       7. Land - plans.
       67 acres on Mesa - Denver-area investors are putting together plans to build houses on undulating open terrain on the Mesa south of Fillmore Street and west of the Centennial extension.
       The site is significant because it is one of the last large, undeveloped Westside areas. Including an unnamed north-south stream and hills criss-crossed with motorbike trails, the land stretches from Fillmore Street near Centennial Boulevard south to the future Van Buren Street, just west of the new Olson Plumbing & Heating complex that's being built off the Centennial extension.
       The property even has "residents" already, in the form of 10 or so unauthorized, makeshift camps at different places along the stream.
       Slow developing - Remember Sentinel Ridge? More than a decade after the first major development proposal under that name (approved in 2009 for up to 88 lots), homebuilding on a smaller scale (11 lots) is getting close for an area of the Mesa off Fillmore Street between Coronado High and Holmes Middle School. Called Sentinel Springs, it could get into the ground by April, developer Mike Woelke said.
       A neighboring new church is also in the works. Needing more space, the First Evangelical Free Church intends to relocate from its current home at 30th and Fontanero streets to the southeast corner of Fillmore and Mesa, just north of Holmes, where it now owns about 15 acres. Concept plans have been prepared, but the church needs a $12 million fundraiser to get to the construction stage.
       Space Foundation - The nonprofit advocate for space research and exploration closed on a purchase that will nearly triple the room for its headquarters and Discovery Center museum/educational attraction in the 4400 block of Arrowswest Drive (off Garden of the Gods Road).
       The purchase (amount unrevealed) was funded through an agreement with the El Pomar Foundation in Colorado Springs, aided by a donation from Grapevine Investments, LLP.
       According to CEO Thomas Zelibor, the main benefit is to “expand and bring even more opportunity to the community and in particular our STEM [acronym for science, technology, engineering and mathematics] education mission.”
       Expansion seen - Front Range Barbeque now owns all three late 19th-century houses just west of the former Goodwill building in the 2300 block of Colorado Avenue, which will allow the restaurant to expand, according to owner Brian Fortinberry.
       One of the houses, the westernmost, was converted 19 years ago to start FRBBQ at 2330 W. Colorado Ave. The easternmost was being used as a “welcome center” for visitors by the Old Colorado City Associates before a change in policy last year. Fortinberry said he is thinking about ways to connect the houses, but plans are still in the concept stage.
       8. Vagrancy issue. 2018 was another year for conflicts between neighborhoods and businesses on the Westside and a relatively small segment of people who camp illegally - which has resulted in out-of-control fires, toxic waste and reports of theft and intimidation.
       Colorado Springs City Councilmember Richard Skorman said at a public meeting that “the Westside is the most heavily impacted” part of the city, and City Homelessness Prevention Coordinator Andy Phelps said he often hears that “people don't feel safe on trails and in parks.”
       On top of an existing city no-camping law, City Council passed an ordinance disallowing camps within 100 feet of waterways for safety reasons, but it's not clear how successful that has been.
       According to police, enforcement of such laws can get complicated because of manpower and not always knowing when campers are on private or public land. The city continues to address vagrancy issues in concert with the Continuum of Care - a group of nonprofit agencies that seek ways to help the homeless and other needy people.
       Creating affordable housing is a major city focus, but the city has said it is powerless to force illegal campers to move into such units.
       9. Centennial extension. Planned completion of the $13.5 million Centennial Boulevard extension project has been pushed back - from late 2020 (the date announced a year ago) to the summer of 2021.
       The four-lane extension will continue Centennial south from Fillmore Street about 1½ miles to the Fontanero/I-25 interchange. The northern half is built. A city contractor filled in the last part of the segment from Fillmore to Van Buren this spring (although sidewalks, signage and other amenities are still to come).
       The 47-acre MVS property, on which a group led by Ted Waterman hopes eventually to build more than 400 houses, straddles the extension right of way south of Van Buren.
       Under state law, MVS needs to restore a long-ago, unofficial dumping ground on the site. The process will be overseen through a state-approved process called a Voluntary Cleanup Plan (VCUP). MVS has formally agreed with local governments to complete the VCUP by summer 2019, which will allow extension construction to start.

Cerberus Brewing Company is the gray building with red trim at left, at the northwest corner of Colorado and Seventh Street. At right, on the other side of Seventh, is the building with the lighthouse design that has housed the Colorado Springs Bike Shop for 45 years. The plan is for that business to close, with Cerberus remodeling the building into a second Cerberus operation on the northeast corner. Westside Pioneer photo

       10. Westside commerce.
       Bar replacing bike shop - Cerberus Brewing Company, which opened at 702 W. Colorado in 2016, has found a unique way to add space. According to Cerberus' application to Colorado Springs Planning, the current site of the Colorado Springs Bike Shop, on the opposite side of Seventh Street, is to be remodeled for a “tasting room (bar), banquet hall, office and storage space, with capacity for a 2,929-square-foot brewery.”
       The effect will be Cerberus still operating in its current location as well as that of the bike shop (which will have closed after 45 years in business).
       City approval will require variances on parking and a bar's proximity to residences, but indications from City Planning are that such won't be a problem.
       Smiling Toad - This five-year-old brewery relocated from the Cheyenne area to a a building that formerly housed a bar at South 21st Street and Sheldon Avenue. Having more than twice the space will allow a larger brewing operation, according to owner Biff Morehead.
       Bookstore survives - Desperate to avoid a major rent hike at its long-time home in the Red Rock shopping center, the Bookman searched the Westside for a new home before settling in at 631 W. Colorado Ave.
       Historic name for eatery - Templeton's Restaurant opened in a historic Old Colorado City building at 2 S. 25th St. It's named for the man who built it, prominent late-1800s resident Henry Templeton.
       Full circle for former bar - The opening of the Wobbly Olive at 2611 W. Colorado Ave. invokes the brick structure's historic origin in 1904 as Jacob Schmidt's beer hall.
       Departing - Closing in 2018 were two long-time Old Colorado City businesses: Old Town Propane Company and the Thunder Mountain Trading Company.
       11. OCC changes.
       New event - West Fest, a free June event in Bancroft Park that included live music, local brewers, and food trucks along Colbrunn Court, drew an estimated 600 people over seven hours. The Old Colorado City Foundation (OCCF), which raises money for the park and Old Town, plans a second annual West Fest June 23.
       Change of seasons - The OCCF moved another of its annual Bancroft fundraising events, Taste of OCC, to September. It had been scheduled in April its first five years, but rain was a constant nemesis. Unlike West Fest, people pay for admission to Taste, but get free food and drink samples.
       Sidewalk style - The sidewalk future for Old Colorado City appears to be colored concrete instead of the bricks that the city laid 40 years ago to support a historically themed revitalization effort in the late 1970s by Old Colorado City business leaders.
       A city official confirmed the new strategy in September, after a roughly 100-foot section on the south side of Colorado Avenue's 2400 block was repaved that way. Brick sidewalk repairs cost “approximately three times as much” as colored concrete, the official explained.
       New president - Franco Pisani, owner of the Paravicini's and Sopra's restaurants, took over as president of the Old Colorado City Associates (OCCA) from Julie Fabrizio, owner of the Holly Leaf store, who had led the business group since 2012.
       Welcome Center sold - In 2014, the OCCA had bought a house in the 2300 block of Colorado Avenue for a “welcome center.” Deciding it wasn't working out as hoped, the group sold it to Front Range BBQ (see Story #7).
       Assessment - Forty years after a revitalization that reinvigorated Old Colorado City, leaders of the main groups with a stake in the historic shopping district's future began meeting last fall in hopes of solving looming mutual problems stemming from aging infrastructure, traffic issues, promotional obstacles, changing times and lack of funds. They're working with a hired consultant, Downtown Colorado Inc. (DCI), on what's been titled the “Old Colorado City Corridor Assessment.”
       After two get-togethers in 2018, no specific goals or projects had been agreed upon, but the leaders plan to meet again in mid-January.

A crew from Alpine Archaeological Consultants works on a dig area in the Garden of the Gods Nov. 15, while in the background a press conference explains the search for artifacts in trash that was dumped beside Camp Creek from the Glen Eyrie of the past. Westside Pioneer photo

       12. Camp Creek. This waterway through the Garden of the Gods, Rock Ledge Ranch and the Pleasant Valley neighborhood is scheduled for upgrades in two locations in 2019. One will improve the creek's channel for several hundred feet north of Pleasant Valley, from Chambers Way into the Rock Ledge Ranch Historic Site.
       The other project will build a detention/sediment collection pond and a 28-foot-high dam in front of it on 17 acres at the north end of the Garden of the Gods city park.
       The pond, seen as needed to slow water and hold back sediment in a major flood, had previously been scheduled for construction in 2016.
       However, an earlier creek-stabilization contractor discovered what turned out to be two trash dumps exclusive to Glen Eyrie of General William Palmer's time. So the pond work was delayed to let a separate contractor study the find and to set up a since-completed archeological dig on the site last fall.
       Also in 2018… A city-led public open house revealed that Colorado Springs Engineering wants to build a roundabout at 31st and Fontanero streets, as an offshoot of the Pleasant Valley element of the 2013-14 Camp Creek study. Although not drainage-related, this construction will “improve public safety,” the newsletter states.
       13. Emphasis on art. During the monthly, three-hour-long First Friday ArtWalks from April to December, a free, passenger shuttle bus was made available on the half-hour to carry art-lovers between the downtown, Old Colorado City and Manitou Springs.
       This coincided with Colorado Springs City Council recognizing that stretch of Colorado/ Manitou Avenue as a “creative corridor.”
       The shuttle will be offered again in 2019, according to Jonathan Toman of the Cultural Office of the Pikes Peak Region. He described the shuttle service as an “important first step to developing a strong brand for the creative corridor.”
       Adding to the art experience in 2019 will be the new Art on the Avenue, in which juried sculptures by local artists will be placed on pedestals at four OCC locations in late May and stay up for about a year.
       Call to entry applications became available to artists in early January. The initiative is organized by local art advocates through the Old Colorado City Associates (OCCA) business group.

Don Ellis

       14. In memoriam. Colorado Springs native Don Ellis, an engineer, historian, life-long outdoors lover and a leader in saving the Red Rock Canyon and White Acres open space areas, died Nov. 9 of cancer. He was 78.
       An active volunteer, Don wrote frequent articles for the OCCHS newsletter (West Word), and had served as its editor for the previous 10 years.
       Don is survived by his wife, Merle (Landberg) Ellis. They had been married since May 21, 1977. He was born in Colorado Springs Aug. 10, 1940. His parents were William and Lucille Ellis.
       Don attended Midland Elementary, West Junior and Colorado Springs (Palmer) High School before earning a B.S. degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Colorado.
       From 1987 on, Don worked as an “inventor for hire” in his own business, Spiderwort Design. From the late 1990s into the 2000s, Don was a key advocacy figure with the volunteer Red Rock Canyon Committee (later the Friends of Red Rock Canyon) and in 2010 co-authored a book, “Geologic Folio: Red Rock Canyon Open Space, Colorado Springs, Colorado,” which provided historical and technical details about the property.
       15. Bear Creek Nature Center - new exhibits. Owned by El Paso County, the center at 245 Bear Creek Road unveiled new and refurbished exhibits in January. Other than various nature programs for which fees are charged, the center in Bear Creek Regional Park is free and open to the public. An article about the exhibits starts on Page 1.

As seen from Fillmore Street, three cranes work on Colorado Springs Utilities' water treatment plant reconstruction in early January. Westside Pioneer photo

       16. Mesa water plant. A $37 million reconstruction started in 2018 and is scheduled to continue into late 2020 on Colorado Springs Utilities' water treatment plant on the Mesa, at the northeast corner of Fillmore Street and Mesa Road.
       The Utilities website defines the project scope as a “reconfiguration of the solids drying beds; and construction of a new main pretreatment building, two small auxiliary buildings and a new raw water vault.”
       Water is piped to the plant from different sources. One of these is snowmelt from Pikes Peak, captured at a diversion on Fountain Creek at 33rd Street.
       No project traffic impacts are expected, although motorists can often see tall cranes at work on the site.
       Also in 2018, the Mesa plant was renamed after Phil Tollefson, who was the first CEO of Utilities after it changed in 1993 from a city department to a city-owned enterprise. He served in that capacity until his retirement in 2005.
       17. 30th Street. As announced at a public meeting in June, a 2020 construction start date is planned for a major rebuild of this roadway between Fontanero Street and Mesa Road; however, issues have arisen in terms of accelerated federal/state environmental review and project cost (the previous budget was $8.6 million).
       According to project manager Robin Allen, the current level of design is 30 percent - “we will have a better idea of real cost once we hit 60 percent plans, which should be completed in March of 2019.”
       As planned, the project will cut into the hillside to widen the two-lane roadway, but not for extra traffic lanes. They will be paved shoulders for cars to pull over or bicycles to use. Another major element is revamped intersections, including 30th at Gateway Road (the main entrance to the Garden of the Gods), which will become a roundabout.
       18. Rock Ledge greenhouse. Fundraising to build a greenhouse like the one used by the Chambers family in the late 1800s is continuing in earnest at the Rock Ledge Ranch Historic Site. After four years in which Folk Art Festival organizer Kathy Read earmarked profits from her annual event for that purpose, a letter went out to ranch supporters in December, asking for tax-deductible donations to help fulfill the goal. According to the letter, from Ranch Manager Andy Morris and Living History Association President Ron Wright, “the reconstruction of the historic greenhouse (built in 1876) is the final piece needed to fully illustrate the Chambers' story at Rock Ledge Ranch.”
       Steam-heated and estimated to cost about $290,000, the building will let the city-owned working ranch off North 30th Street grow “heirloom plants” for the vegetable garden; develop 19th century flower varieties; and offer classes, workshops and demonstrations, the letter states.
       19. Westside Community Center changes. Colorado Springs Parks decided in 2018 to start implementing a nine-year-old master plan for the center this spring - plus goats and chickens. The original approval was in 2010, several months before the Woodmen Valley Chapel took over operation of the city-owned facility on the former site of Buena Vista Elementary. Budgeted at $300,000, the work will focus on parking area changes and new landscaping (including several trees), along with interior curbs, gutters and sidewalks, according to Kim King, the Parks administration manager.
       The master-plan effort will also incorporate a new strategy for the community garden, one in which a private group (working with Parks staff) is running the garden as a cooperative, instead of the traditional method of people renting individual plots. According to plans, sheds and yard space for the animals will be developed next to the garden.
       Also in 2018… Stu Davis, previously the community liaison for the Springs Rescue Mission, was hired in late 2018 as Community Center director. He replaced Ken Norwood, who had started in 2017 and stepped down midway through 2018.
       A fundraiser has started to buy new equipment for the center's fitness room.

Howbert Elementary Principal Bryan Relich hands a bucket with mulch to a student during a 2018 community service project in the Catamount Institute's "Outdoor School" on the Ridge Trail in the Garden of the Gods. Westside Pioneer photo

       20. Kids get outdoors. A program to get students outdoors in an academic way is in its second year at Howbert Elementary.
       The Pleasant Valley neighborhood K-5 school is working with the Westside-based Catamount Institute and its “Outdoor School.”
       Built into the curriculum with spread-out dates and times, the program's school-year commitment includes trail work and nature projects that make use of the nearby Garden of the Gods.
       Catamount, a non-profit environmental educational organization, has been headquartered at the Beidleman Center in Sondermann Park since 2004.
       Howbert Principal Bryan Relich said he is pleased with how the Catamount arrangement is opening up the outdoors to students. With Howbert so close to the Garden of the Gods and Rock Ledge Ranch, “we need to take advantage of that,” he said.
       As one proof of the program's popularity with students, “our attendance is almost perfect” on the Catamount days, Relich cheerfully pointed out.
       Honorable mention. The Sacred Heart Catholic Church at Colorado Avenue and 21st Street unveiled its renovation/ restoration at a dedication ceremony in late May. The roughly $2.5 million project upgraded most of the 96-year-old structure's interior and restuccoed/ repainted its exterior...
       Sandy Hancock, who grew up in Pleasant Valley, was hired as the manager of the Old Colorado City Library in September...
       Don Stratton, who survived the maelstrom of Pearl Harbor and re-enlisted later in the war despite the burns he'd suffered, was honored by having the Fillmore/I-25 bridge named after him. The local resident has published a book about his war experiences, titled “All the Gallant Men”...
       For the fourth straight year and seventh time in the event's 14 years, Marc Sawtelle won the Old Colorado City Giant Pumpkin Weigh-off. His all-time record? 1,338 pounds...
       Yann Ulrich became principal at Holmes Middle School in October, midway through the first semester of the 2018-19 school year. A 20-year School District 11 veteran, he replaced Rob Utter, who had been principal for the last 11 years. D-11 officials provided no reason for Utter's departure...
       There's been an annual car show in Old Colorado City for 27 years, but never one with as many vehicle entries as the 535 in 2018.
       The Old Colorado City Customs & Classics Car Show had actually been shooting for 600, according to organizer Ace Cosley...
       The Garden of the Gods Trading Post announced it will give $100,000 each year to its namesake city park starting in 2019, for a gift totaling $1 million.
       Started in 1929, the Trading Post is located at 324 Beckers Lane, a Manitou Springs address that's just outside the Garden...
       Marco Antonio Garcia-Bravo is scheduled to face trial in June regarding his part in the kidnapping and shooting deaths of two Coronado High School students in 2017.
       According to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Mexican national is a “documented gang member” who was in the United States illegally when the crime occurred.

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