Author: Bill Mckeown
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Professional instruction is best way to get kids into skiing
So, you’re thinking, how hard can it be to teach a child to ski? Pick up some sticks, load the kids up with hot chocolate and Gummi bears and plop them on the bunny slope, where you can give them a tight-lipped lecture about how they are going to have fun, dang it, while trying…
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Student calls on all senses when creating works of beauty
Chu Scott holds a fern close to eyes the color of a smoky sky, rips off a shoot and delicately slides it into a water-soaked sponge. So begins what Chu would later call “finally, my masterpiece.” Chu, who has a quiet, thoughtful presence that belies his 13 years, may not have been kidding. Chu is…
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Jobs impact of state’s stimulus spending unknown
Colorado has distributed more than $1.2 billion of the $5.7 billion it expects to receive in federal stimulus money, Gov. Bill Ritter’s office said Tuesday. But the number-crunchers are struggling to quantify the $787 billion bill’s success in achieving its main goal: creating and retaining jobs. In a briefing Tuesday, Myung Kim, who is tracking…
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As her 104th birthday nears, Sister Richardis Durant has no regrets about the life she chose
Sister Richardis Durant celebrates her 104th birthday on Monday. When her fellow sisters of the Mount St. Francis convent present her a cake, it’s unlikely the diminutive nun — whose body is stooped but whose mind is clear and sharp — will make a wish to the birthday cake fairy. She reckons that her wish…
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Stringing together success
Think the lummoxes on Wall Street have taken all the fun out of capitalism? There might be a better role model out there: Jenna Bethany, owner of the Monument-based business Jazzies by Jenna. Jenna has a smart, evolving business plan. She’s grown her revenue, found new markets and expanded her product line. She’s committed to…
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Rampart Range shooting range could reopen, with conditions, Forest Service says
The South Rampart Range Shooting Range, closed after a fatal shooting in July, could be reopened if the U.S. Forest Service finds partners to make substantial improvements to the popular shooting area. Pike National Forest Supervisor Bob Leaverton said today he would consider reopening the range, on Rampart Range Road above Garden of the Gods,…
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In a steak trimming contest, everyone makes the cut
Who said meat is a man thing? Not Andrea Estrada, who went mano-o-mano against 10 other Texas Roadhouse restaurant meat cutters Monday, all of them male. The competition, held on the ice in the frigid Colorado Sports Center in Monument, would see two cutters advance to semi-finals in January. The top six semi-finalists from about…
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Readers offer help for Sprinkles the ice cream shop
The saga of Sprinkles may not be over, thanks to some civic-minded readers of The Gazette. The little ice cream shop, housed in a metal shed in an industrial area in central Colorado Springs, is in danger of being closed because it violates city zoning rules. The owner of Sprinkles, Rick Johnson of Johnson Heating…
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Hope for little ice cream shop melting with impending zoning deadline
By the end of the day Wednesday, Rick Johnson’s sweet little dream of putting teens to work dishing out ice cream to workers in an industrial area in central Colorado Springs may have melted into a sticky goo. “Poor little Sprinkles …,” said Johnson, a tall, gregarious guy and owner of Johnson Heating and Plumbing.Sprinkles…
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Friendship spawns growing nonprofit care business
Kathy McGee and Pam Logli don’t share the same blood, but they sure act like sisters. They talk over each other. They finish each other’s thoughts. They acknowledge each other’s strengths in offhanded compliments. They say they’re so tied at the hip they’ve been called Dumb and Dumber. Don’t think that for one minute. The…