Author: Bill Radford

GE Johnson Construction Co. opened for business on Jan. 3, 1967; its first job, according to a history written to celebrate the company’s 50th anniversary this year, came when the general manager of the Antlers Hotel called to have a screen door replaced that had been lost in a windstorm on New Year’s Day. But…

If you were around a century ago, you might have spotted A.E. Olson – aka “Olson the Plumber” – going from job to job on his three-wheeled motorcycle. That was the start of Olson Plumbing & Heating, which has grown from a one-man business in 1917 to one of the largest residential and commercial plumbing,…

Manitou Incline enthusiasts celebrated the official reopening of the trail Friday after a third and final round of repairs – and Timberline Landscaping celebrated the successful completion of a job like no other. “Every job has its own complexity, but nothing quite compared to that one there,” says Timberline owner Tim Emick. With every job,…

After roughly 35 years of operating his practice out of a historic building on the eastern edge of downtown Colorado Springs, Dr. John Christiansen is getting the boot. And he couldn’t be happier. “One door closes, another one opens,” Christiansen said. “Everything works out.” Christiansen, an ophthalmologist, earned his medical degree from Harvard Medical School…

A decade in practice has given Dr. Julia Rohleder, aka The Downtown Dentist, the opportunity to improve countless smiles – and given her plenty to smile about as well. The Kentucky native moved around a lot as the member of an Air Force family; she was 15 when they settled in Colorado Springs. She is…

Pioneer Sand, a company with nearly 50-year-old roots in Colorado Springs, has a new name and a new focus. Gary Schnurr founded Pioneer Sand in the Springs in 1968. He and wife Judi, looking to retire, sold the business to JLL Partners Inc., a New York-based private equity investment firm, at the end of 2014;…

Colorado Springs startup FoodMaven is getting a boost – financially and otherwise – from a big name in the food industry. Walter Robb, former co-CEO of Whole Foods Market, has joined the board of directors of FoodMaven, a business based on “oversupplied” food. Robb is also investing in the company; Patrick Bultema, FoodMaven CEO and…

The Niswongers want you to know: They’re back at Patsy’s. The history of Patsy’s Candies reaches back more than 100 years. For 60 of those years, the business had been in the hands of the Niswonger family. But in early 2016, they sold it. And after 19 months, the business became theirs again. “We’re really…

The mighty Thor battles his green-skinned “friend from work,” the Hulk, in “Thor: Ragnarok,” arriving in theaters Friday. Two weeks later, “Justice League” lands on the big screen with Batman, Wonder Woman and more. On TV, Barry Allen chases down bad guys on “The Flash,” a young Bruce Wayne forges his destiny in “Gotham” and…

It’s a time to celebrate failure – and the lessons learned from it. The third annual Business Wake, organized by Peak Startup and Epicentral Coworking, is Wednesday evening at Epicentral in downtown Colorado Springs. It’s a chance to “connect with and inspire those who may have, may be, and may eventually face failure,” states a…