Author: Bill Vogrin
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Side Streets: No peace in Red Rock Valley as neighbors shoot high-powered rifles at their homes
More than a year ago, Wayne Hughes and his neighbors were startled by the sound of high-powered rifles being fired repeatedly in the residential neighborhood of Red Rock Valley, about 14 miles southwest of downtown Colorado Springs along Highway 115. This wasn’t the sound of training from nearby Fort Carson. Nor was it from hunters…
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Side Streets: Colorado Springs pioneer home gets historic grant after column reveals threat
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Last August, members of the McAllister House Museum Committee shed tears when they learned they had been denied a grant to restore the crumbling brick-and-stone exterior of the landmark pioneer home. “We all cried,” said Terry Thatcher, co-chair of the nonprofit that oversees the house built in 1873 by Civil War Maj. Henry McAllister, one…
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Side Streets: Colorado Springs trash truck driver forges unique friendship with 10-year-old girl
As a toddler, Xiao Jonas loved it when the big, red Bestway Disposal garbage truck pulled up in front of her Stetson Hills home each Friday morning. She’d wave and wave until truck driver Denny Scheiler and his partner saw her and waved back. Before long, she persuaded her mother, Joann, to take her to…
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Side Streets: Wagon Man goes from hero to defendant for pulling wagons in Colorado Springs streets
A week ago, Phillip Cargile, aka Wagon Man, was praised as a hero for saving a man being bludgeoned with a hammer outside a west Colorado Springs motel. On Wednesday, the 57-year-old Cargile was a defendant in Colorado Springs Municipal Court for the second time in two weeks, facing another ticket for obstructing traffic. The…
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Side Streets: Roswell neighbors underwhelmed by vague plan for former Lincoln Elementary
Losing a school can devastate a neighborhood or be the catalyst to re-energize an entire area. Consider how the rebirth of Ivywild Elementary School as a brewery and home to assorted small businesses has re-energized the area south of downtown. Then consider the panic among Cragmor residents as Bates Elementary is targeted for demolition to…
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Side Streets: Stratmoor Hills residents enraged by talk of changing beloved neighborhood sign
In a vacant lot along Cheyenne Meadows Road, far back from Venetucci Boulevard across from The Broadmoor World Arena, is a tall, six-sided stone monument with the words “Stratmoor Hills.” The weathered monument stands exactly where it was built in 1955 by Fred Abrahamson, who used it to advertise his new Stratmoor Hills, where he…
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Side Streets: Colorado Springs man offers no defense for accumulated junk cars, quickly convicted at trial
A five-year battle that pitted one man against his neighborhood and city code enforcement officers over unlicensed and junk vehicles and debris he collected at his Pulpit Rock home ended with a whimper Wednesday. A year after being issued four summons for his junk cars and debris, Greg Heskin finally faced a judge in Colorado…
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Side Streets: Goose Lady of Green Mountain Falls already busy tending flock, hopeful she won’t be punished
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It’s only April, and already the Goose Lady of Green Mountain Falls has rescued two orphaned baby ducks dumped in the small scenic lake in the mountain village west of Colorado Springs. “They were domestic ducks somebody bought around Easter,” Ann Pinell said. “They wouldn’t have had a chance at the lake on their own.…
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Side Streets: Flagpole a mini United Nation as Colorado Springs man airs flag collection daily
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It was Friday, so of course a Canadian flag was flying over John King’s east-side Colorado Springs house. That’s because Friday was Constitution Day in the land of the maple leafs. Actually, King had to choose between Canada and Cambodia when carrying out his morning ritual of raising a flag. On April 17, 1975, Cambodia’s…
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Side Streets: Wagon Man convicted of obstructing traffic in bizarre trial in Colorado Springs
Justice was patient, tolerant, a little frustrated and ultimately swift in finding Phillip Cargile, aka the Wagon Man, guilty Wednesday of obstructing traffic. Cargile, 57 – wearing his signature striped poncho, “Be Positive” sign and patchwork overalls – appeared confused, defiant and emotional, even weeping as he declared in Colorado Springs Municipal Court that he…