POSTAL ADDRESS Tribune the TRI-LAKES REGION, MONUMENT, PALMER LAKE, WOODMOOR, GLENEAGLE, BLACK FOREST and NORTHERN EL PASO COUNTY Volume 50 • Issue 51 • pikespeaknewspapers.com • trilakestribune.com December 23, 2015 | 75¢ TRI-LAKES TRIBUNE (USPS 418-960) Win a Free Pizza enter the Tribune Coloring Contest See Page 14 By Danny Summers [email protected]Sophomore Alianna Higgins is an “A” student and standout swimmer who competes both for Discovery Canyon and nationally, the past four years, for her club team. Sounds like a highly motivated and successful student-athlete. But Higgins is much more than that. She is living, as she describes it, “in be- tween two worlds.” She is a one-handed swimmer com- peting against able-bodied high school opponents. Her teammates and coaches admire her work ethic and praise her attitude. She has been swimming for six years and maintains a 4.0 GPA while taking honors algebra II, world history, lit- erature, chemistry and health at DCC, where she has attended since sixth grade. Then consider the 15-year-old has been competing in Paralympic na- tional events for four years, traveling all over the U.S. for swim meets. But despite what her teammates say, be careful if you start praising Higgins. And be really careful before you call her an “inspiration.” Especially if you are only inspired by the fact she was born without a left hand. “If I’m like standing in a supermarket or something and you come up to me, and I don’t know you, and you’re telling me I’m inspirational, that’s weird; don’t do that,” Higgins said. She is fully aware that she is physi- cally different from most of her peers. But she asks for no sympathy and she certainly doesn’t wish to be congratu- lated or praised for “courage” just be- cause she lives and breathes. “With the disabled community, peo- ple constantly look at us like ‘My life could be worse; I could be that girl,’” Higgins said. “I don’t know how to See Swin on Page 11 Higgins making waves on DCC swim team but be careful how you praise her Members of the Palmer Ridge High School cheerleading team hold the state champion- ship trophy after winning the title Dec. 12 at the Denver Coliseum. See Story on Page 12 /Photo courtesy of Palmer Ridge cheerleading Happy Holidays Money would fund amenities sought by residents By Bill Vogrin [email protected]A few weeks ago, The Tribune broke the news that the Colorado Depart- ment of Transportation had agreed to repay an $11.4 million debt to the Bap- tist Road Rural Transportation Author- ity. The money will repay the author- ity for a special 1 percent sales tax vot- ers here enacted in 2006 to accelerate construction of the Baptist Road inter- change at Interstate 25. Could that tax now pay for parks, trails and programs for seniors and teens? That’s an idea Monument Mayor Ra- fael Dominguez is considering. Rather than simply retire the tax, Dominguez said he is considering ask- ing voters if they would agree to extend the tax, or even expand it across the en- tire town. “We’d clearly delineate the uses for the money,” Dominguez said. “If they agreed, they’d know exactly how the money would be spent.” Some spending ideas have become obvious after a summer of public hear- ings. Residents have spoken repeatedly of the need to build a senior center and develop programs. Many want to improve area parks, perhaps build a splash ground or new ballfields. Others want additional hiking, biking and run- ning trails. Dominguez has heard them and hopes maybe the CDOT reimburse- ment is an opportunity to make some of the projects happen. He mentioned his idea in conversa- tion after the Dec. 17 Board of Trustees meeting, when the 2016 budget was approved. The budget contained little discre- tionary spending. And Town Manager Chris Lowe stressed that, despite all the growth in Monument, there is not much hope future budgets will contain spare change for non-essential items. “I’d love to build a splash park or new parks,” Lowe said in an interview. “That’s the fun stuff of government. But we just don’t have the money. We need to have an open conversation, as a community, about what they are will- ing to pay for.” Dominguez thinks the CDOT pay- ment may be the way to go because it wouldn’t be a new tax, and that’s im- portant. “We need money for parks, seniors See Sales Tax on Page 10 Mayor may ask voters to keep 1 percent sales tax ‘Go forth, listen and bring joy.’ On Saturday, Monument police Chief Jacob Shirk headed the annual Santa on Patrol car- avan, clad all in red with toys in tow. The patrol, made up of over a dozen first responder and civilian vehicles and dozens of volunteer helpers, visited a number of homes in the area, giving away donated toys, games and gift certificates – those last to help parents and grandparents provide a holiday meal or other assistance to this season. Shirk guided his helpers in the Santa Swearing-In, concluding their charge with: “Go forth, listen and bring joy.” That is certainly what they did. /Photo by Avalon A. Manly
Transcript
POSTAL ADDRESS
Tribunethe
TRI-LAKES REGION, MONUMENT, PALMER LAKE, WOODMOOR, GLENEAGLE, BLACK FOREST and NORTHERN EL PASO COUNTY
Sophomore Alianna Higgins is an “A” student and standout swimmer who competes both for Discovery Canyon and nationally, the past four years, for her club team.
Sounds like a highly motivated and successful student-athlete.
But Higgins is much more than that. She is living, as she describes it, “in be-tween two worlds.”
She is a one-handed swimmer com-peting against able-bodied high school opponents.
Her teammates and coaches admire her work ethic and praise her attitude. She has been swimming for six years and maintains a 4.0 GPA while taking honors algebra II, world history, lit-erature, chemistry and health at DCC, where she has attended since sixth grade.
Then consider the 15-year-old has
been competing in Paralympic na-tional events for four years, traveling all over the U.S. for swim meets.
But despite what her teammates say, be careful if you start praising Higgins. And be really careful before you call her an “inspiration.” Especially if you are only inspired by the fact she was born without a left hand.
“If I’m like standing in a supermarket or something and you come up to me, and I don’t know you, and you’re telling me I’m inspirational, that’s weird; don’t do that,” Higgins said.
She is fully aware that she is physi-cally different from most of her peers. But she asks for no sympathy and she certainly doesn’t wish to be congratu-lated or praised for “courage” just be-cause she lives and breathes.
“With the disabled community, peo-ple constantly look at us like ‘My life could be worse; I could be that girl,’” Higgins said. “I don’t know how to
See Swin on Page 11
Higgins making waves on DCC swim team but be careful how you praise her
Members of the Palmer Ridge High School cheerleading team hold the state champion-ship trophy after winning the title Dec. 12 at the Denver Coliseum. See Story on Page 12 /Photo courtesy of Palmer Ridge cheerleading
A few weeks ago, The Tribune broke the news that the Colorado Depart-ment of Transportation had agreed to repay an $11.4 million debt to the Bap-tist Road Rural Transportation Author-ity.
The money will repay the author-ity for a special 1 percent sales tax vot-ers here enacted in 2006 to accelerate construction of the Baptist Road inter-change at Interstate 25.
Could that tax now pay for parks, trails and programs for seniors and teens?
That’s an idea Monument Mayor Ra-fael Dominguez is considering.
Rather than simply retire the tax, Dominguez said he is considering ask-ing voters if they would agree to extend the tax, or even expand it across the en-tire town.
“We’d clearly delineate the uses for the money,” Dominguez said. “If they agreed, they’d know exactly how the money would be spent.”
Some spending ideas have become obvious after a summer of public hear-ings.
Residents have spoken repeatedly of the need to build a senior center and develop programs. Many want to improve area parks, perhaps build a splash ground or new ballfields. Others want additional hiking, biking and run-ning trails.
Dominguez has heard them and hopes maybe the CDOT reimburse-ment is an opportunity to make some of the projects happen.
He mentioned his idea in conversa-tion after the Dec. 17 Board of Trustees meeting, when the 2016 budget was approved.
The budget contained little discre-tionary spending. And Town Manager Chris Lowe stressed that, despite all the growth in Monument, there is not much hope future budgets will contain spare change for non-essential items.
“I’d love to build a splash park or new parks,” Lowe said in an interview. “That’s the fun stuff of government. But we just don’t have the money. We need to have an open conversation, as a community, about what they are will-ing to pay for.”
Dominguez thinks the CDOT pay-ment may be the way to go because it wouldn’t be a new tax, and that’s im-portant.
“We need money for parks, seniors See Sales Tax on Page 10
Mayor may ask voters to keep 1 percent sales tax
‘Go forth, listen and bring joy.’
On Saturday, Monument police Chief Jacob Shirk headed the annual Santa on Patrol car-avan, clad all in red with toys in tow. The patrol, made up of over a dozen first responder and civilian vehicles and dozens of volunteer helpers, visited a number of homes in the area, giving away donated toys, games and gift certificates – those last to help parents and grandparents provide a holiday meal or other assistance to this season.
Shirk guided his helpers in the Santa Swearing-In, concluding their charge with: “Go forth, listen and bring joy.” That is certainly what they did. /Photo by Avalon A. Manly
2 The Tribune December 23, 2015www.trilakestribune.com
Dec. 24What: Senior Lunch - pork chops and mashed potatoes - sponsored by Tri-Lakes Health Advocacy PartnershipWhere: Tri-Lakes Chamber of Commerce, 166 2nd St., MonumentWhen: 11:30 a.m., Thursday, Dec. 24Cost: $2 donationInfo: www.trilakeshap.org/seniormeals.php
Dec. 23-Jan 2What: “Oh My” exhibition - annual member & resident artists showWhen: Ongoing, Dec. 23-Jan. 2, Where: Tri-Lakes Center for the Arts, 304 hwy 105, Palmer Lake, 80133Info: trilakesarts.org or 481-0475
Dec. 28What: Senior Lunch - beef Burgundy and mashed potatoes - sponsored by Tri-Lakes Health Advocacy PartnershipWhere: Tri-Lakes Chamber of Commerce, 166 2nd St., MonumentWhen:11:30 a.m., Monday, Dec. 28Cost: $2 donationInfo: www.trilakeshap.org/seniormeals.php
20256 Hunting Downs WayMonument, CO 80132webpage: tlumc.orgPhone: 719-488-1365
Christmas Eve Services at:
Place an obiturary for
your loved one
719687-3006
The local offices of the Pikes Peak Courier and the Tribune are
now handling the local obituaries.
Please call or email kathyfleer
@yourpeaknews.comfor assistance
OBITUARY
Rosetta Trani Archer was born July 20, 1934 in Princeton, New Jersey to Rosalie (Balestrieri) and An-tonio Trani. Her mother widowed and married Antonio Pisani who was the father she knew. Rose passed away suddenly in her home in Monument, Colorado on De-cember 13, 2015 after returning home from surgery re-cuperation. Rosetta was known as Rose or Rosie and affectionately called by her nieces and nephews “Zizi.” Rose was preceded in death by her husband, Royal Macklin Archer, her parents, a brother Anthony “Red” Trani, and a sister Agnes Wolf.
Growing up in Princeton, Rose graduated from Princeton High School in 1952. After high school she attended business classes at Rider College in Trenton, NJ. Her career for over 30 years was at RCA David Sarnoff Research Center in Penn’s Neck, NJ. She worked in the Human Resources Department, Library, and ultimately managed the “Family Store” where she purchased and sold RCA products to include records, radios, and televisions to employees around the coun-try. Her real job there however was employee morale as she was always there to give advice and share stories.
At RCA, she met Royal Archer and they were mar-ried in Basil, Switzerland in 1962. They enjoyed many happy years travelling the world together. Interesting trinkets she collected along the way could be in a mu-seum—but each one held a cherished memory for her. Special places dear to her heart were in France, Swit-zerland, Germany and Austria.
Royal’s career in the aerospace industry took them to Cape Canaveral, Florida for several years. Upon retirement in 1994, Royal and Rose settled on a small ranch in Westcliffe, Colorado. They enjoyed their horse Skipper and their donkey Molly for many years. Rose especially loved the mule deer she called “muleys.” The deer would literally walk up on their porch, knock on the door and ask for horse treats. The folks in Westcliffe will remember Rose’s love of cooking. As a result of her
world travels, she became an amazing cook and would create the most wonderful international dishes to share with her family and friends. Her fried chicken recipe was frequently requested for picnics. Cuisine and entertain-ing were her passion.
Upon Royal’s death in 2013 and some health is-sues, Rose decided to move from Westcliffe to Monu-ment, CO to be closer to relatives. Downsizing from a ranch home to an apartment forced a moving sale that was the same week as the Black Forest Fire. Helping with the moving sale, her Black Forest family who were under evacuation orders were receiving messages from friends who had learned that their homes were lost. Rose’s generosity helped several families with donated household items and furniture. This act of kindness dis-plays how she lived her life. She “was good” to so many. Once in Monument, she enjoyed time by the pool with her great niece and nephew, decorating her apartment, reading her many food magazines and cook books, family dinners and picnics, watching her beloved Yan-kees never missing a game, cheering on her favorite NASCAR drivers, and shopping trips with special friends.
Rose is survived by her sister Amelia “Millie” (Jo-seph) Ratcliff of Black Forest, CO and many nieces and nephews as well as great nieces and nephews, and cousins. Her niece Kelly (Jim) Marchbank also of Black Forest helped her along the way.
A graveside service will be held next summer upon the internment of her ashes at the Princeton Cemetery in Princeton, NJ. She will be laid to rest with her late husband Royal. A mass celebration of her life will be held at St. Paul’s Church in Princeton. Information for that will be made available as soon as it is known.
Memorial contributions in her name can be made to Samaritan’s Purse, P. O. Box 300, Boone, NC 28607 where a memorial page has been set up as well at the following link: http://bit.ly/1maO7X6
Rosetta Trani Archer 1934 — 2015
This Christmas Eve, get the gift of improved dental health
For the TribuneOn Christmas Eve morning, from 8 a.m. to noon, Comfort Dental, at 556 W.
Highway 105, near Arby’s in Monument will be giving away free dental care. Anyone who needs a simple dental procedure – cleaning, a filling, a tooth
pulled – can visit Comfort Dental to receive treatment. There’s no need to prove need or income; it’s first-come, first-served, X-rays included.
Patients can have one procedure conducted during their visit, no fee re-quired.
Winter weather, complete with nearly a foot of snow in Palmer Lake, freezing tempera-tures and high winds made for Christmas-card vistas and holiday scenes all over the Tri-Lakes area. /Photo by Rob Carrigan
December 23, 2015 The Tribune 3 www.trilakestribune.com
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For The Tribune
The Monument Hill Church will host a living Nativity scene at 6 p.m., Thursday, Dec. 24, at 18725 Monu-ment Hill Road.
Pastor Tom Clemmons said the scene will be followed at 6:30 p.m. by Christmas Eve candlelight services.
This will be the second time Monu-ment Hill Church has hosted the living
Nativity. The fi rst was Dec. 5 as part of its annual Christmas dinner and Advent celebration.
Clemmons said the scene was cre-ated by the women’s and men’s minis-tries from the church, who teamed up with the youth and collegiate minis-tries to present the scene.
Clemmons said the public is invited to view the scene and join in the Christmas Eve service.
The Nativity scene actors, front row from left, are Katelyn Sage, Rachel Richmond and Anya Canady portraying shepherds. Front row, on far right portraying the wise men, are J.T. Decker, Peter Wright and Michael Canady. Back row portraying angels are Carolyn Sage, left, and far right, Hannah Richmond and Sharon Mayes. Back row, center, portraying Mary and Joseph, are Elizabeth Morris and Sam Wright. /Courtesy photo
Living Nativity Scene will precede Christmas Eve services
Colorado school students took a new, federally mandated standardized test last spring and the scores statewide were not particularly good, although Tri-Lakes area students fared above-average.
Students from third through 11th grade (barring those who who opted out; more on that later) took the PARCC test in English language arts and math, assessing their general knowledge and critical thinking skills, rather than rote memorization.
PARCC is the acronym for the Part-nership for Assessments in Readi-ness for College and Careers test, and it aligns with the Common Core State Standards, a federal curriculum to which D-38 has been no quiet objec-tor. Many in D-38 object to federal in-trusion on the district’s local control of education.
PARCC is considered more rigorous than the state standardized tests it re-placed.
Last spring, D-38, Academy School
District 20 and 178 other public schools in various districts across the state took the PARCC test, which is designed to measure students’ preparedness for college and career. It is part of Colo-rado’s overall assessment system for its students, called CMAS (Colorado Measures of Academic Success), which also tests students in science and social studies.
Generally, just 30 percent of tested students met or exceeded expecta-tions, which is PARCC’s way of identi-fying mastery of academic content at grade level.
D-38 and D-20 were among a small handful of districts to perform better than the state average. Math scores among D-38 students placed them in the top 5 districts across the state, where at least 100 students tested in each grade level. And their language arts scores placed them in the state’s top 10.
D-20 saw scores in the same realm, hovering mostly in the range of 50 to 60 percent of students meeting or exceed-ing expectations across the grade levels
The Tribune is a legal newspaper of general circulation in El Paso County, Colorado., The Tribune is published weekly on Wednesday by Pikes Peak Newspapers Inc., 1200 E. Highway 24, Woodland Park, CO 80863. PERIODICALS POSTAGE PAID AT MONUMENT, COLORADO and additional mailing offices.
POSTMASTER: Send address change to: P.O. Box 2148 Monument, CO 80132
4 The Tribune December 23, 2015www.trilakestribune.com
OFFICE: 153 Washington Street, Suite 106 Monument, CO 80132
PHONE: 719-686-6448
Mailing address: PO Box 340 Woodland Park, CO 80866
Forgive me. I must confess that I’ve had trouble getting in the spirit of the holiday this year.
Typically, I love the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Not because I was raised a Catholic and steeped in the traditions surrounding the birth of Christ.
As a child, my joy stemmed from the anticipa-tion of gifts bestowed on me for no particular reason than my very existence.
As an adult, I came to appreci-ate the notion that much of the world paused, if only for a day, or a few weeks at best, to reflect on the meaning of life, to help the less fortunate and to tell those closest to them they loved them.
And the commercialism of the season doesn’t bother me. People want to express their feelings by giving gifts. So people are going to sell. If you don’t like the commercial nature of Christmas, blame the three wise men. They started it.
Anyway, I’ve always believed the world needs Christmas. It’s like a reboot for humanity.
But the past few weeks have been a tough prelude to the holiday. Mass killings tend to take the fun out of things.
I even toyed with skipping the usual Christmas lights and decora-tions.
However, I reconsidered and, in fact, I’ve been turning on the trees in our backyard each night that still bear strings of lights from when they lived in our family room in recent Christmas seasons before being planted where they now stand.
I decided I don’t want to give up hope. That’s what those trees and the holiday means to me. It’s hope that mankind isn’t as doomed as it sometimes seems when headlines scream of the latest atrocities both in our cities and abroad perpetrated by Hitleresque groups that are unbelievably warped and evil.
Whew. I’m sinking just thinking about it.Back to my trees. In recent years, our family has
bought live trees, decorated them and then planted them a couple days after Christmas.
Nothing is as hopeful as planting a tree. To me, a tree is a gift to the future. And it’s an act of hope that you might live long enough to see it grow and maybe even shade the house, someday.
I’ve seen that happen a few times in my life. As a boy, I rescued an elm sapling that was growing next to our porch. I planted it in our backyard, drove a
steel stake next to it and tied it up, along a stone path that led to the alley where we burned our trash each night in an old furnace. (That’s a whole differ-ent story.)
Anyway, by the time I graduated from college, that sapling had become a strong, mature tree that tow-ered over our old two-story family home in Kansas City, Kan.
Whenever I visit the city, I drive up the alley to check out my tree. It became so big it pushed aside the stepping stones. One of the families that owned the house after my family hung a rope and cre-ated a tire swing in my tree.
Someday, I hope to see my little Christmas trees towering over our current home. And I hope my boys will want to track their progress, since they helped plant them, nutured them and kept them watered.
So I snapped out of my funk and I’m observing the holiday with renewed optimism. After all, giving up hope is playing into the hands of those who seek to destroy us.
We need Christmas. Regardless of your religion or belief system. It doesn’t matter.
We need to stop, if only once a year, and think about the world and our place in it and how we can help others.
We need to throw change in the kettle, and write checks to nonprofits
doing good for strangers, and buy gifts and tell our families and friends we love them.
We need to have hope. To plant trees. And deco-rate them. And trust that they will grow strong and tall and beautiful and provide shelter to everything around them. As we hope the same for our children.
So whether you are a Christian, Jew, Muslim, athe-ist, druid or whatever, I wish you peace, the happiest of holidays and, perhaps most of all, hope in the new year.
In keeping with the season, my Christmas wish for the world
“I really can’t stay (Baby, it’s cold outside)I’ve got to go way (Baby, it’s cold outside)
The evening has been(I’ve been hoping’ that you’d drop in)
So very nice(I’ll hold your hand, they’re just like ice).”
Those, of course, are the opening lines of the
smash hit “Baby it’s Cold Outside,” written by Frank Loesser in 1944. It is a call and response duet made famous by the likes of Dinah Shore and Buddy Clark and Louie Armstrong and Velma Middleton.
And baby it’s going to get cold in Teller County this winter. With a historic El Nino in the making, it’s likely Ute Pass residents are in for a snowy and blustery winter.
According to the weather website www.intellicast.com, the average highs and lows for Woodland Park in January are 38 and 3 degrees with a historic low of minus 28 degrees in 2007. February isn’t much better with averages of 42 and 6 degrees and a historic low of minus 32 degrees in 1989.
While the Old Wives’ Tale that cold weather makes you sick has been characterized as the No. 1 health myth, cold weather can be hazardous to your health in a number of ways.
The National Health Service (England) lists 10
winter illnesses from annoying dry skin to a poten-tially deadly heart attack.
The common cold ranks No. 1 on the winter malady hit list. You can prevent colds by washing your hands regularly, keeping your hands off away from your eyes, ears and mouth and using dispos-able tissues, instead of handkerchiefs.
Sore throats are common in the winter and are almost always caused by viral infections. There’s some evidence that changes in temperatures, such as going from a warm indoor environment to the icy outdoors, can affect the throat.
A quick and easy remedy for the sore throat is to gargle with salty water. It won’t heal the infection but it will provide some temporary relief.
Cold air is a major trigger for the asthma symp-toms of wheezing and shortness of breath. If you’re
going outside on cold windy days, wear a scarf or neck gaiter over your nose and mouth.
Painful joints, cold hands and the mountain curse of dry and cracking skin are other hallmarks of Colo-rado winters.
Many with arthritis say that their joints are more painful in the winter. Regular exercise is one of the first lines of defense for arthritis.
Cold hands may be an expression of Reynaud’s phenomenon, which is a common condition that makes your fingers and toes change color and become very painful in cold weather. The tip for this disorder is to not smoke or drink caffeine both of which exasperate the condition and wear gloves when outside.
And finally, be aware that heart attacks are more common in cold weather as the cold results in an increase in blood pressure that can put more strain on your heart. Stay warm in your home and bundle up with you venture outside in frigid weather.
Cord Prettyman is a certified master personal train-er and owner of Absolute Workout Fitness and Post-Re-hab Studio in Woodland Park. He can be reached at 687-7437, by email at [email protected] or through his website at cordprettyman.com.
Baby it’s cold out and that can be dangerous
GUEST COLUMNISTCord Prettyman
December 23, 2015 The Tribune 5 www.trilakestribune.com
I have learned the answer to my Monument ques-tion.
If you recall, in November I asked you readers about an old photo I came across. It was one I’d never seen before and it spiked my interest. The photo showed the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad’s station in Monument.
Now the Rio Grande station sat between 1st and 2nd streets, by Limbach Park. It was located next to the southbound, main track. It also had two siding tracks on the building’s back, or east, side.
But this photo did not show the station in that location. It was dated from 1956 and the station had been moved. The building was sitting on an unfin-ished foundation, still showing where the mover had his beams.
In the background, the little bit of land you can see was relatively flat, but there were trees in the distance.
The building was a tall one, at least two stories. It even had a tower at one time. The building in the photo looks as if it had been trimmed, maybe to get under power lines.
I thought the D&RG station building had been torn down, like the Santa Fe station.
But, often, old railroad stations were moved or converted to new uses. Up in Larkspur, the Rio Grande station was converted into a house. Down in Fountain that happened too, in about 1960.
So I asked Tribune readers for help locating the D&RG station.
One of my readers told me that in about 1949, the building was sold to a private party and moved from its original location to where the Monument Conoco Plaza is today.
After sitting there for a while, I’m told it was oper-ated as a restaurant (The Lamp Lighter) which lasted for a few years. Eventually, the building was torn down in the late ‘50s when they started rebuilding US 85-87 into Interstate 25.
The original southbound exit was right at this spot and the building was in the way. Of course, the spot is now a dead-end. Over the years, the Monu-ment exit changed and this exit closed.
I want to thank the readers who sent me informa-tion. There are not many people in this area that go back to the 1950’s, much less remember what was where!
I feared the building was probably gone, but there was a chance it was still standing somewhere.
Railroad stations are interesting buildings, and their later use as commercial buildings or residents sometimes changes them completely.
There is one in Florence, Colo., that even the trained eye sometimes misses. But the old brick depot in Victor still looks pretty much as it did a hundred years ago!
I am in the group of people working to restore the station in Divide, which has seen some changes, but still looks a lot like it did a hundred years ago.
Over the years I have seen these buildings at gas stations. I’ve eaten at restaurants that were once stations. Even spent the night in a few. Now I know where Monument’s D&RG depot went. Thanks.
Tribune readers answer question about Monument railroad station
CABOOSE COBWEBSMel McFarland
If you were stuck whiling away the hours almost alone at the top of Pikes Peak for days that stretched in months that stretched into years, chances are you would make up a few stories as well.
Such was the case with Sgt. John O’Keefe of the U.S. Signal Corps in the winter of 1876.
O’Keefe was sent to Pikes Peak to collect data on weather at the summit. That information on wind velocity, temperature and precipitation, was trans-mitted by telegraph to Colorado Springs and local newspapers carried the reports.
But those reports were just a little too dry for O’Keefe and he decided to spice them up a bit.
“Fourteeners: Attitude & Altitude” a publication produced by the Pikes Peak Library District, notes O’Keefe warnings of giant man-eating rats that co-inhabited the summit area.
“One evening, O’Keefe heard his wife screaming for help. She rushed into the room screaming: ‘The rats! The rats!’ O’Keefe wrapped his wife in a sheet of zinc-plated steel to protect her. After putting stove-pipes over his own legs, he then bravely ventured out to battle the attacking rats. He beat some of the attacking rodents off with a club as they entered a kitchen window. But the hordes were advancing too quickly. They ate a quarter of beef in fewer than five minutes, and with a heightened taste for blood, the rats advanced on Mrs. O’Keefe. Climbing over each other, some managed to scale the steel wrap, leaving deep lacerations on her face and neck.
“In panic, Mrs. O’Keefe grabbed a coiled wire hanging from the telegraph
battery. She tossed this to her husband, leaving spirals across the floor. As the rats surged forward, the live coils electrocuted them. The squeals of rats in the throes of death drove the remaining rats into the night.”
Tragically, according to his story, O’Keefe’s infant
daughter Erin was eaten. He went so far as to stage an elaborate funeral.
In Kenneth Jessen’s 1985 book “Eccentric Colo-rado,” Jessen says most O’Keefe’s wild tales were fabrications used to pass the time of day during the long winters.
Jessen writes that O’Keefe resigned from the Signal Corps just before Christmas in 1881. Before leaving the area he was given a banquet in Colorado Springs and toasted with the following:
“O’Keefe, one of the greatest prevaricators, equaled by few, excelled by none. True to his record, may his life be a romance, and in his final resting place, may he lie easily.”
Giant rats on Pikes Peak? Wild tales from Signal Corps
The Palmer Lake Christmas Star will again shine as it has since 1934 thanks to the Centennial-Bi-Cen-tennial restorations project. If you wish to contribute to the project, send to the Palmer Lake Centennial-Bi-Centennial committee, Carl Duffner, chairman.
Kiwanis Clubs of the Rocky Mountain District want to raise minimum of $10,000 during 1976 to combat world hunger. The project will be known as Operation KASH (K-Family Against Starvation and Hunger). One of the major objectives is to “sustain life by confronting the problem of world hunger.” Each club is asked to raise $100.
The Colorado Springs Social Security office will move to 25 North Spruce.
Lewis-Palmer Youth Center is open six days a week and “resounds with the whack of ping pong, the click of pool balls, the beat of music and happy noise of youth.” There are now 80 paid members and between 20-50 youth attend each day. There is a full scale operating soda fountain. There have been no hassles with the kids. Thank you to those members
of the community who contributed money, materi-als, time and labor.
Russell E. Higginson of Palmer Lake won a porta-ble color TV in a drawing at the 1975 Colorado Farm Bureau convention. He has been a member of the Farm Bureau for 22 years.
“Watch Night” service will be held Dec. 31 at 11:15 p.m. at the Barn Community Center.
College students will speak at Vesper services Dec. 25 at The Church at Woodmoor. The theme is “Dimensions of Christmas.” Speakers will be Jea-nette A Barnes, sophomore at Colorado College, Kevin C. Maquire, freshman at Colorado State Uni-versity and David S. Campbell, senior at Georgetown University.
The family of Eva J. Slabaugh wishes to thank all who offered prayers and sympathy at the time of trial and bereavement on her passing. Words cannot express our thoughts at this time. The Slabaugh and Saulnier families.
“We guarantee more beautiful, youthful-looking skin in 21 days or your money back with Natural Women.” Get it at Frank’s Town and Country Hair Design.
Tri-Lakes’ new family restaurant is located at the Woodmoor Inn. Complete dinners are under $3.50.
Christmas pastry specials are available at the Woodmoor Bakery and Sandwich Shoppe.
Compiled by Linda Case
40 Years Ago
6 The Tribune December 23, 2015www.trilakestribune.com
We wish you and your family a blessed Christmas and
Forest services considers road closuresDENVER (AP) _ The U.S. Forest Service has agreed to consider closing 500 miles of roads
for motorized vehicles in the Pike-San Isabel National Forest under a settlement with envi-ronmental groups.
The Denver Post reports (http://dpo.st/1Og9QGp ) the settlement accepted Monday requires forest offi cials to also consult with state wildlife experts to determine whether changes must be made to protect deer and elk.
The settlement is the result of a lawsuit fi led by environmental groups, which challenged roads that land managers had improperly allowed in mountains near Front Range cities.
Some of the roads up for debate, near Leadville and Pikes Peak, cut across streams where banks are eroding habitat for lynx, spotted owls and other wildlife.
Forest offi cials say they'll produce a plan detailing where motorized vehicles can travel without harming the environment.
Check out a paper copy of this week’s Courier to read stories from the Associated Press.
pikespeakcourier.com • pikespeaknewspapers.com
December 23, 2015 The Tribune 7 www.trilakestribune.com
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and content areas. D-20 was among the top performing districts in the state for its size in ELA, but fell slightly in math.
In Denver Public Schools, about 92 percent of students took the test, but only about 30 percent of students met or exceeded expectations, which is much closer to the state average than area districts performed.
High schools across the state tend-ed to perform worse than elementary and middle schools, due in part to the much higher numbers of students who opted out from the 9th through 11th grade tests. Refusal rates varied greatly from school to school across the state, from just a handful of students to stag-gering 99 percentiles.
In the year leading up to the PARCC test, parents and students across Colo-rado started opting-out of the assess-ment and raising concerns about Com-mon Core, student data privacy and standardized testing in general.
Such was the uproar about a new standardized test that in November, the U.S. Department of Education ap-proved a waiver for the Colorado De-partment of Education that would not penalize districts that didn’t meet the government’s 95 percent participation mandate.
The state’s overall participation in PARCC was 82 percent, and all-time low for Colorado where standardized testing is concerned. With previous standardized tests like the CSAP and TCAP, the 95 percent mandated par-ticipation rate hadn’t been an issue, but some schools had as little as one percent participation in the PARCC this spring.
Changes in education legislation, the bipartisan congressional overturn of the controversial No Child Left Be-hind Act, and his promise to regulate standardized testing to 2 percent of classtime or less, will affect the future of the PARCC in American schools. This year, though, the opt-out rates mean that schools are sifting through data that might be from a statistically insig-nifi cant subset of students.
And that’s the problem with this year’s data set: so many students opted out of the test that those at the forefront of the battle for educational reform,
from legislators to teachers, are con-cerned that the scores don’t accurately refl ect students’ achievement levels or capabilities. With federal funding tied in part to PARCC scores, this has school administrators and parents worried.
“Keep in mind that these scores can-not be compared to old test scores,” wrote Lori Benton, D-38’s director of assessment, in a letter to parents re-garding students’ individual scores, which were mailed last week.
“The new tests measure different things, such as a student’s ability to think critically and problem solve – skills that are critical to success in col-lege and career in the 21st Century,” she wrote. “Scores from the new tests should be considered a baseline for measuring student success.”
Because this is the fi rst year of PARCC being used to assess students in local schools, growth data – or measur-ing how much a student improves from one year to the next – won’t be available until this time next year. Time will tell how well students and teachers accli-mate to PARCC and Common Core in the meantime.
The letter went on to assure parents that, even though “your child’s test scores may be lower than what you saw before,” it is “likely that scores will start rising” as students and teachers accli-mate to the demands of Common Core and PARCC and that the district is still striving to serve students’ best inter-ests.
“...remember that these tests were given at the end of the previous school year. They represent a single point in time and are just one of many factors that can be used to provide a complete picture of your student’s progress.
“Lewis-Palmer School District con-tinues to ensure that our students are among the top performing students in Colorado and across the nation. We strive to ensure that all of our students are truly prepared for college and ca-reer when they graduate from high school,” the letter stated.
The graphs that accompany this ar-ticle provide a breakdown of district-wide PARCC scores for D38, from stu-dents who tested from third to 11th grade in ELA and math. Some data sets for math, including eighth grade, alge-bra I and geometry, were incomplete or had lower participation rates.
PARCC
8 The Tribune December 23, 2015www.trilakestribune.com
1012 W. Baptist Rd. • 719-481-1212
Military MondaysA c t i v e a n d R e t i r e d M i l i t a r y
3 0 % o f f o u r m o s t e x p e n s i v e p i z z aJ u s t s h o w y o u r m i l i t a r y I D
By Joseph HopfeContributing writer
When sisters Lilly and Joy Zhuo opened their Fusion Ja-pan restaurant in Woodland Park in 2012, they found them-selves frequently driving down Ute Pass to pick up fresh fish.
Seems suppliers didn’t want to deliver from Denver or Colorado Springs to a little restaurant near the intersection of U.S. Highway 24 and Colorado 67.
As Lilly and Joy established their restaurant and business grew, suppliers became more agreeable to making the drive.
“Now, everyone sees that Fusion Japan is doing business,” Lilly said. “They all want to deliver for me now.”
And that has allowed them to concentrate on preparing the fresh vegetables, meats and fish that go into their sushi and other traditional Asian dishes.
But now Lilly finds herself back on the road — this time by choice as she oversees a second restaurant she has opened with a new partner on Bass Pro Drive, south of Monument.
Called Mikado, the new restaurant has been open one month now. Located near Bass Pro Shops, you can’t miss the neon pink, blue, and green trees out front.
Upon entering you’ll see a dragon made of real crystal beads overhead. Lilly and her co-owner Jerry Zhan made it by hand.
“We’ve got to make sure the quality is 100 percent,” Zhan said. “We are using high quality [fish] for sushi and sashimi.”
They order fish based on where they come freshest — whether that is from Japan, Hawaii, Los Angeles or Boston — and the fish arrive every single day. The co-owners boast of
Sisters Lilly and Joy Zhuo co-own Fusion Japan in Woodland Park and work behind the sushi bar.
Success in Woodland Park inspiresnew northern El Paso area restaurant
Co-owners of the new Mikado restaurant on Bass Pro Drive, from left, Jerry Zhan and Lilly Zhuo, pose with their main chef, Eason Lin, far right. Eason previously worked at a 4-star restaurant in Manhattan, N.Y. /Photos by Joseph Hopfe / The Tribune
serving bluefin tuna, real crab and even live scallops, which are seasonal.
But they aren’t forgetting about Fusion or Woodland Park. It took lots of work to make it success.
The sisters, originally from Fujian, a southeastern prov-ince of China, came to Woodland Park about 10 years ago. In Fusion’s early stages, they worked around the clock.
When the restaurant was open, they were serving food and training employees. When the restaurant was closed, they’d prepare for the next day. Rather than preparing a week’s worth of vegetables all at once, they worked day-to-day. They refused to take shortcuts if it meant that they’d serve anything that wasn’t super fresh.
“We stayed at the restaurant cutting the meat, peeling the shrimps, [and cutting the] vegetables until the morning,” Lilly said.
She recalls how she and Joy would wave goodnight to City Market employees and then wave good morning hours later.
Now, the sisters are not content to simply run Fusion. They plan to make it bigger and add extra seating because the restaurant often is so full that customers have to order to go.
“I want everybody to be able to enjoy,” said Lilly. “Fusion Japan is just like a neighborhood family restaurant.”
December 23, 2015 The Tribune 9 www.trilakestribune.com
Everyone makes New Year’s resolutions. To lose weight, to spend more time exercising, to eat bet-ter, to quit a bad habit or to spend more time with family.
My main resolution for 2016 is to learn more about new forms of art that I’m not familiar with and to discover more of the hidden creative talents in our area.
And a new website I’ve developed will help any-one with similar aspirations.
Across the Tri-Lakes Region, there are clubs, guilds and organizations dedicated to community networking in almost every fi eld of creative expres-sion.
I have collected information on these talented people in one location so all will have access to them. The new website, www.trilakesartists.com, already has over four dozen talented people in the directory, with more added daily.
If you are an artist, I urge you to send your name and pertinent contact information to [email protected].
If you represent a creative guild or club, there is a spot for you in this directory. The listings are free, with a one-time charge of $5 for an additional photo.
The new website will benefi t anyone who wants to join me in my resolution to expand my artistic horizons.
For example, I know quite a bit about glass, ceramics and many forms of needlework.In the last fi ve years, I have reaped the rewards of learning from and sharing knowledge in woodworking, quilting, metalsmithing and welding from many of the artists in the Front Range Open Studios.
Still, I have much to learn about those mediums, as well as all forms of painting, all forms and materi-als in sculpture and so many more.
How is marquetry done? What is involved in converting animal fi bers, such as alpaca wool, into fi nished garments? What wood is good for wood turning and what is better suited to furniture mak-
ing? Do oil painters have more time to manipulate their palette than watercolorists? What happened to the art of bookbinding and map making?
So many questions!Fortunately the answers to many of these ques-
tions are available in the studios and workshops of our local residents. And now they will be in one spot on the website for easy access.
This is a resource that can be used by all of us to educate the next generation of creative souls, to fi nd assistance in making our homes and businesses re-fl ect our personal taste and to generate more inter-est in the arts.
Businesses in Downtown Monument will have a handy resource for choosing artists for Art Hop and newcomers to our area will immediately fi nd kin-dred spirits in their respective art forms.
So join with me in making this year’s resolution to learn more about art, contribute more to art and to embrace our artistic community!
Upcoming art events:Wisdom Tea House- through January 16 - “The
Language of Arts”- paintings by Marie Simpson, Kathleen Nalley and Carol Groesbeck
Tri-Lakes Center for the Arts - “ Oh My”- The an-nual member and resident art show.
In Palmer Lake, residents use the phrase “almost heaven” to describe their idyllic village and the pas-sion they have for it. It’s even written on the sign as you drive into town.
Kathy Aldworth shares that passion and uses the same phrase to describe her little independent fi lm company Almost Heaven TV, which she uses to cre-ate videos commemorating the people and events in the town at the base of Sundance Mountain.
“It’s the epitome of small town happiness,” said Kathy Aldworth of the events and people she tapes.
Almost Heaven TV isn’t a full time job; it’s some-thing she does on the side. In her other life, she’s a mother of two and a landlord. It doesn’t bring in much money, but Almost Heaven TV is a labor of love.
“Some projects pay,” Aldworth said. “It’s not super lucrative.”
But, she says, the money has never been what held her attention as a videographer and editor.
“I like to interview people in town, just for fun,” she said. “My interest is is interviewing people all over the Tri-Lakes area.”
And when there’s a need for publicity or posterity, she says, she’s happy to meet it. Recently, she fi lmed the .5K and annual Yule Log hunt in Palmer Lake, and released those videos on her YouTube channel for free.
“(Those events) were really entertaining. (I do) little projects for Palmer Lake because they need it,” she said. “There’s a need there. I go home and edit it and get it up as fast as I can so it’s fresh.”
Indeed, this year’s yule log video debuted within hours of the event, featuring the hundreds of attend-ees and shots of the winner sawing the log in twain.
Aldworth has a background in broadcasting. With degrees in radio, TV and fi lm editing, she has worked for Comcast, DirecTV and PBS in the past. But it never felt like she could call many of the creative shots, she says.
“When you’re in the corporate world,” Aldworth said, “you’re only doing the projects they want you to do. So now that I’m free from all that, I can do what-ever I want with my own equipment.”
And what she wanted to do was collect stories. Five years ago, when Almost Heaven TV was born, Aldworth put out a call to local artists and creators to have their endeavours immortalized on fi lm. People seemed to like her work, she said, and subjects started to roll in.
Some cooking shows (which are a favorite, Al-dworth says, because she gets to sample the work when it’s complete) and documentaries later, Almost Heaven TV is a staple of the creative enterprises of Palmer Lake. Most of her videos are between one
and fi ve minutes long, but some exceed the 30-min-ute mark.
She’s even assisting Jim Sawatzki in his work on the upcoming documentary on the Palmer Lake Star.
“We got to go up in the fi re truck to see the star turned on (this year),” Aldworth said of her daugh-ters and herself. “The girls are proud to see me do stuff like that; that’s a reward.”
Her videos may not bring in large paychecks, but Aldworth loves having the chance to hear the stories and passions of the people of Palmer Lake, either y capturing the zeitgeist of small town events like the Yule Log Hunt or through one-on-one inter-views.
“I like social gatherings where people in town just come and are working for a certain cause,” she said. “It’s the hallmark atmosphere of some of the events.”
When there’s not an event to be fi lmed, Aldworth fi nds a muse in the residents of her town.
“A lot of times, I’ll just talk to somebody about making a video and just do it as I get inspired. I mostly fi lm people I know,” she said, explaining how she has connected with a few subjects over Face-book or through mutual acquaintances.
With a new year of projects on the horizon, Aldworth is interested in interviewing more people throughout Palmer Lake and the surrounding re-gion.
“I like the history of the town,” she said. “There’s a lot of older people who knew everybody back in the day, and who have such great stories.”
Almost Heaven TV is also available to businesses or organizations who wish to commission commer-cials, announcements, or other video productions they might need.
Contact Aldworth at [email protected] or 719-338-6486 with a tip or for more information.
Local videographer documents small town life, happiness of Palmer Lake
10 The Tribune December 23, 2015www.trilakestribune.com
719.522.0748 • 3020 N. Stone Avenue, Colorado Springs, CO 80907 • PlanetGranite.us
Give Your Home the Gift of a NEW Kitchen or Bath This Holiday.
This Holiday Season!
“Every piece of the universe,even the tiniest
little snow crystal, matters somehow. I have a place in the pattern, and so do you.
Thinking of you this holiday season!” - T.A. Barron
Locally, as we struggle with shopping lists, invitations, commitments, and chores, compounded by December’s bad weather, it is good to be reminded that there are people in our lives who are worth this aggravation, and people to whom we are worth the same. Happy Holidays!
From the Folks who believe community mattersat the Courier, Tribune and Extra
little snow crystal, matters somehow.
L to R Back: Danny Summers, David Lowe, Kathy Fleer, Sonia Oliver, Ken MatthewsCenter: Avalon Manly, Laura Meyers, Suzane Core
Front: Rob Carrigan, Pat Hill, Bill Vogrin
Continumed from Page 1and teens,” Dominguez said. “The needs are obvious. It’s all about the money.”
The CDOT payment should become offi cial in January. About the same time, Lowe is scheduling a retreat for the Board of Trustees as an exercise to get them to envision Monument in 20 years.
Lowe wants them to dream big and set forth their vision. Extending the tax might provide the money to make some of those dreams come true.
“That’s a board decision,” Lowe said of possibly putting a question on the November 2016 election ballot. “Certainly, as staff, we would help them do that. My fi rst reaction is why limit it to Baptist Road? If we’re going for 1 percent sales tax, why just limit to one part of town, go after it for the full town. I’m sure it will be something we talk about during the retreat.”
In suggesting expanding the tax, Lowe was refer-encing how the Baptist Road Rural Transportation Authority was created in 1997 to provide a funding mechanism for the design and construction of im-provements to Baptist Road. It applies only to busi-nesses along the Baptist Road and Jackson Creek Parkway corridors.
Initially, the authority paid for a Baptist Road/Hodgen connection, fi nished in 2007.
It also funded the widening of Baptist from I-25 to Tari Drive, along with the Struthers Road-Jackson Creek Parkway extension from Baptist to Falcon’s Nest fi nished in 2008.
In May 2006, the authority launched a campaign to win passage of a 1 percent sales tax to generate $1.5 million a year to fi nance a $19 million reconstruction of the Baptist Road interchange with I-25. The price included construction, debt service reserve, capital-ized interest and cost of issuing bonds.
The tax was approved by the 1,800 voters in the district in the November 2006 election.
At the time, cars routinely backed up on I-25 at the exit ramps as residential and retail construction boomed in the Baptist Road corridor.
The Baptist Road authority stepped in when CDOT said it wouldn’t have the money for many years to re-build the interchange.
Sales Tax
Check out a paper copy of this week’s Courier to read stories from the Associated Press.
pikespeakcourier.com • pikespeaknewspapers.com
December 23, 2015 The Tribune 11 www.trilakestribune.com
Randy Campbell is stoked for his college bowl game, the Texas Bowl on Dec. 29 between Texas Tech and Louisiana State.
Like some monster defensive lineman, Campbell expects to be in the backfield of the offense all day.
Except Campbell, who lives in the Fox Run neigh-borhood, isn’t a lineman. Or linebacker.
Fact is, he doesn’t play for the Texas Tech Red Raiders or the LSU Tigers. He plays center judge for the third team on the field . . . the officials.
Campbell will be in Houston working his 11th bowl game.
“Bowl games are always a lot of fun,” said Camp-bell. “We’re treated well.”
In some ways, the officials will prepare for the game much like the athletes. Campbell and his col-leagues will study game film.
Of course, they won’t be studying the teams. They study themselves.
“We watch our performance as a crew,” he said. “We usually do 10 hours of film review each week before we go onto our next game. You try to worry about the things you do control, not the things you can’t control.”
And they take tests and have fitness requirements, similar to the student-athletes.
Campbell and his fellow mates have to pass a rules test and physical fitness test every year. They are evaluated throughout each season and have to maintain good ratings to have their year-to-year contract renewed, or to work a bowl game.
“I could stand to lose 5 or 10 pounds,” Campbell said with a smile.
Campbell, 57, began his officiating career in 1980, working games at the high school level and it be-came his passion. He has turned that passion into a distinguished career that has him in rare company. You see, he is also a Division I women’s basketball official.
“For about eight months, this is pretty much a full-time job for me,” Campbell said. “Throw in sum-mer camps and some of the other things I have to do with officiating, and I keep pretty busy.”
Campbell works the Pac 12 Conference in foot-ball, and is a basketball official in five conferences – Conference USA, Missouri Valley, Big West, Sum-mit and WAC. He is also the coordinator of women’s basketball officials for the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC).
As coordinator, Campbell was in Pueblo on Dec. 18 watching his officials work a game between Colo-rado State University-Pueblo and Adams State. The following night, Campbell headed to Laramie, Wyo., where he officiated a game between the Cowboys and Montana State.
Campbell gets about week off before heading to Houston on Dec. 27 for the Texas Bowl. He flies back to Colorado to work a women’s basketball game at Denver University on Dec. 30, and then flies to Se-attle to work a New Year’s Eve women’s game.
With so many basketball games every week, his suitcase is always packed and he accumulates more frequent flyer miles than a presidential candidate.
“I love what I do,” Campbell said. “I don’t see my-self stopping anytime soon.”
Campbell is fully aware that officials at all levels are under the microscope more than ever before.
“Your first game, you’re supposed to be perfect, and every game after that you’re supposed to get better,” Campbell said with a smile. “Officiating is easy. The problem is the players move.”
Campbell has professional relationships with hundreds of football and basketball officials from all levels. The list includes Sarah Thomas and Bill Ken-nedy.
Thomas is the first female NFL official. She is a line judge, Campbell’s former position. Kennedy, one of the most respected NBA officials, recently an-nounced he is gay.
“Bill is a great guy and probably one of the best officials in the world,” Campbell said. “Sarah is doing a great job. I see her at a lot of camps and she defi-nitely deserves to be where she is.”
Campbell maintains that the two basic principles of officiating remain the same: safety of the play-ers, and making sure that one team doesn’t gain an advantage over the other team.
“There’s a saying in our business: ‘I don’t make the snow balls, I just throw ‘em,’” Campbell said. “I think the biggest thing that has affected us is the technol-ogy. Replay has changed the way people view the games.
“When I worked the BCS National Championship game two years ago, there were 32 cameras. Every play was looked at from different angles. We prepare for scrutiny and we expect it.”
Contrary to what some people believe, Campbell said officials don’t have a vested interest in the out-come of games.
“We want the owners and players and coaches and officials to agree on what the rules are,” Camp-bell said. “I think healthy discussion is good. It helps to make the games better.”
As for the Texas Bowl, I’ll be watching with extra interest.
And I’ll try not to second-guess, too much, espe-cially if there’s a flag thrown in the backfield against a monster lineman trying to sack the quarterback.
If Campbell says it’s holding, or roughing the quarterback, or a facemask penalty, I’ll know he’s done his homework and is calling it the way he sees it.
Continued from Page 1respond to that.”
Higgins would prefer to be viewed as inspirational due to her confidence, in-telligence and strength. Not due to an accident of birth.
But whether she likes it or not, she is an inspiration to her teammates and coaches.
She recently returned from an event in Bismarck, N.D. She was accompa-nied by DCC swim coach Deborah Woody, who also is Higgins’ club coach with the Rocky Mountain Rapids.
“It was my first experience at a para-meet and it was mind-blowing,” Woody said. “The athletes are all very happy and they swim from their heart.
“Sometimes when we are able-bod-ied, we forget what (competition) is all about. These para-athletes understand that a lot more than we do.”
Higgins specializes in back stroke and freestyle events.
Her times are slower – for obvious reasons – than that of her Rapids or DCC teammates, but that does not de-ter her from going through all of the same preparation and workouts as the able-bodied swimmers on her teams.
“She’s really an inspiration for me,” said DCC junior Erin McGill, a return-ing state qualifier. “Especially with her paralympic abilities. I could not imag-ine swimming without a hand.
“It’s crazy that she can do that. It’s really awesome for her to do that and continue pursuing what she loves.”
McGill and Higgins are “spirit bud-dies.” Each swimmer on the DCC team is assigned a “spirit buddy.”
“We give each other gifts and moti-vational notes and stuff to lift each oth-er up,” McGill said. “She’s really happy and outgoing and she always goes out
of her way to talk to people and lift each other up.”
Clearly, Higgins is conflicted by any extra attention she receives and by the jarring differences between her high school experience and that of her paralymic competition.
“Paralympic swimming is so sepa-rated from high school, club and all those things,” said Higgins, who hopes
to swim in college. “In a lot of other countries, paralympic swimming is a lot more integrated with abled swim-ming than the U.S. I wish they were integrated. It gives kids a lot more op-portunity.”
Actually, the paralympic world was a revelation to her.
“I wasn’t aware of it until two years into my swimming career,” Higgins said. “I wasn’t aware that there was any-thing available out there for people like me. It’s a really weird sort of divide.”
Higgins is getting close to “emerging cuts,” which would allow her to begin training with the paralympics swim-mers at the U.S. Olympic Training Cen-ter in Colorado Springs.
Jake Harrington is Higgins’s dry land coach for the Rapids.
“Alianna is one of the hardest work-ers we have and she’s done a ton to get where she is,” Harrington said. “But I don’t think it’s her disability that makes her unique. She has so many other qual-ities that make her the person she is.
“She just brings that extra flavor and diversity and work ethic and drive that a lot of the other kids need to push them as well. She’s sure of herself, and it’s not really what she’s overcome, it’s the inspiration that she is and her char-acter quality that goes along with it.”
Now that’s a compliment Higgins can live with.
Above: Fox Run area resident Randy Campbell is a long-time Division I NCAA football and women’s basketball official./Photo by Danny SummersLeft: Official Randy Campbell will be working the Texas Bowl Dec. 29 in Houston. /Photo courtesy of Randy Campbell
Starting at center in Texas Bowl . . . Fox Run’s Randy Campbell
Discovery Canyon sophomore Alianna Higgins was born without a left hand. She is a nation-al-level Paralympic swimmer and also swims club for the Rocky Mountain Rapids.Photo by Danny Summers
Swim
12 The Tribune December 23, 2015www.trilakestribune.com
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Christmas Eve at the Pinecrest Join us at 4:00 and 6:00 PM 106 Pinecrest Way in Palmer Lake
The Palmer Ridge High School cheerleading team has a lot to cheer about these days.
These Bears are state champions.The team of 24 girls captured the
Class 4A cheerleading championship Dec. 12 at the Denver Coliseum after two exhaustive days of competition against thousands of girls from around the state.
“We have a team of girls who had proven experience and we put it all out there on the mat,” said Palmer Ridge se-nior captain Lydia Mehl. “We knocked out our choreography for state in late July and we came a long way.”
The state championship is the fourth in Palmer Ridge history. The boys’ track and fi eld team won titles in 2014 and 2015, and the boys cross country team won the 2014 championship.
Palmer Ridge offi cials will honor the cheerleading team with an all-school assembly in January, when students re-turn from Christmas break.
Palmer Ridge competed against 38 other 4A teams, comprised of up to 25 girls per team.
The Bears performed their fi nals routine at about 6 p.m. on Dec. 12. They learned they were state champs at about 10 p.m.
“I was watching our video and I knew we had it in the bag,” Mehl said with a smile.
The Bears’ team consists of: seniors Lydia Mehl (base), Keira Strickling (base), Maren Thompson (fl yer), Sarah Benedict (sign girl); juniors Chandler
Weida (base), Mackenzie Wolfe (fl yer/back spot), Alexis Miller (fl yer/back spot), Sophie Hamilton-Smith (fl yer), Taylor Jackson (back spot), Cydney Rivas (back spot); sophomores Sierra Werling (base/back spot), Maddie Mills (back spot), Olivia Hiser (fl yer), Jade Romero (base), Kilie Dempsey (base), Ariel Preble (base); and fresh-men Kaylee Potter (fl yer/base), Hayden Lloyd (base), Maddie Nugent (base), Morgan Berner (fl yer), Danielle Miller (backspot), Sunshine Goldman (base) and Melissa Mikolaitis (sign girl).
Palmer Ridge’s won the title with a fi nals score of 81.45. Pueblo West was second (79.95) followed by defending state champion Ponderosa (78.225).
Palmer Ridge was among eight
teams to advance to the fi nals after the Dec. 11 preliminaries. The Bears scored an 80 in prelims, which was second to Pueblo West’s 82.65.
Palmer Ridge spent Friday night at a hotel in downtown Denver. The girls had breakfast together the next day and then went shopping in downtown Denver before heading back to the Col-iseum that afternoon to prepare for the fi nals.
“We’re very close as a team and we care so much about each other,” said Palmer Ridge junior captain Chandler Weida. “I think that is a big reason why we performed as well as we did.”
Interestingly, Palmer Ridge actually set its expectations a little lower this season, based on what happened at
the 2014 state event when the team fi n-ished in sixth place.
“We went into state last year with a lot of confi dence and didn’t perform as well as we could have,’ said sophomore Sierra Werling. “Even this season, we hadn’t been performing as well as we could have.”
The Bears performed a two minute, 30 second routine to a mix of country songs. Some of the artists included Tay-lor Swift’s “I Knew You Were Trouble,” Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Ala-bama” and Shania Twain’s “Man! I Feel Like a Woman.”
Between songs, they performed a cheer routine in which they spelled out “B-E-A-R-S” and used pom poms for effect.
“I’m still a bit in shock,” Palmer Ridge freshman Hayden Lloyd said with a smile. “We didn’t go in planning to win state, so when we did, it felt bet-ter. It was pretty crazy. It was kind of a cool feeling.”
Palmer Ridge is coached by Jess Maynard, who is a graduate of cross-town rival Lewis-Palmer and her alma mater’s former coach. Maynard moved over to Palmer Ridge two years ago.
“This was a pretty phenomenal year,” Maynard said with a grin. “These girls are killing it. They are so good.
“We spent nearly a year preparing for this. We had tryouts in April and be-gan practicing in June. We’ll cheer for basketball this winter and then start all over again.”
Lewis-Palmer fi nished ninth at state, while Discovery Canyon was 12th. Only the top eight teams advanced to the fi -nals.
Gimme a ‘B - E - A - R - S’What’s that spell? State champions!
The Palmer Ridge High School cheerleading team celebrates after fi nding out it won the Class 4A state championship Dec. 12 in Denver. /Photo courtesy of Palmer Ridge cheerleading
Being the greatest offensive player in the history of Palmer Ridge High School football is paying off for Isaiah Sanders.
The Bears’ senior quarterback was named the Class 4A Pikes Peak Conference Offensive Backs MVP.
Teammate Greyson Matalus was named the con-ference’s MVP Specialist (Best Special Teams Player). Matalus handled the punting and kicking chores for the Bears.
Sanders was also named to the fi rst team. His of-fensive explosion this season resulted in nearly 4,000
passing and rushing yards, combined, and 47 touch-downs.
Also making the fi rst team from Palmer Ridge were: Zac Alwais (defensive line), Bailey Rosenstrauch (de-fensive back), Chase Dukes (linebacker), George Sil-vanic (defensive line) and Trevor Grob (wide receiv-er).
Making the second team from Palmer Ridge were: Peyton Bower (defensive back), Sam Wells (running back), Preston Seabloom (linebacker), Zach Hester (defensive line), Robert Martinez offensive tackle) and JR Hart (offensive tackle).
Making the honorable mention team for the Bears were: Chase Walkes (offensive guard), Cory McLellan (defensive back), Greyson Matalus (defensive back), Connor Seymour (offensive guard), Collin Ambrose, (running back) and Ben Busath (defensive back).
Sanders and Matalus earn All-Pikes Peak League football honors
Palmer Ridge junior Greyson Matalus was named Special Teams MVP of the Class 4A Pikes Peak League. /Photo cour-tesy of Jay Huey
December 23, 2015 The Tribune 13 www.trilakestribune.com
Lewis-Palmer Middle School eighth grader among the best in airguns
Carson Saabye, an eighth-grader at Lewis-Palmer Middle School, fi nished 10th in Women’s Pistol at the Winter Airgun Championships and Olympic Trials, Dec. 4-5, at the U.S. Olympic Training Complex in Colorado Springs.
By fi nishing in the top 10, Saabye advanced to the fi nal stage of the Olympic Airgun Team Trials next June. And it gives her a shot at making the 2016 Olym-pic team.
Saabye medaled in the Juniors Division at the Tri-als, taking home the bronze.
Already, Saabye is the youngest National Team member in the history of USA Shooting, and the
youngest person ever to qualify for the USA Shooting National Team.
She set two records at last summer’s USA Shooting Championships in Fort Benning, Ga., by earning two medals in Women’s Air Pistol and one in Sport Pistol.
“This has given me a chance to see how all my hard work has paid off,” Saabye told the Tribune on July 1.
Saabye, who has only been shooting for three years, overshadowed a strong Air Pistol fi eld by post-ing a score of 381 out of 400 during the second day of shooting on June 28 in Georgia. A score of 380 is considered Olympic caliber. Her score broke her own national record, which she set last December, eclips-ing a mark that had stood since 1996.
Lewis-Palmer High School senior setter Mariah Evans and junior out-side hitter Lydia Bartalo were recently named fi rst team All-State volleyball by
the Colorado High School Activities As-sociation.
Evans, who has signed a letter of in-tent to attend the University of North Carolina, recorded 768 assists this sea-son while helping the Rangers to a run-ner-up fi nish in Class 4A.
Bartalo led the Rangers in kills with 272.
Both Evans and Bartalo, who has committed to Den-ver University, were the main reasons why Lewis-Palmer posted a 25-4 record this season. They were key contribu-tors on Lewis-Palmer’s back-to-back state championship teams in 2013 and 2014.
The Classical Acad-emy’s Emma Porter made second team All-State. The senior had a whopping 360 kills while leading the Titans to an 18-6 record and a trip to the regional play-offs.
Evans, Bartalo make � rst team All-State in volleyball
Carson Saabye, an eighth grader at Lewis-Palmer Middle School, recently advanced to the fi nals of the Olympic Air-gun Team Trials. The event will be held next June at the Olympic Training Complex in Colorado Springs and deter-mine who advances to the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Summer Olympic Games./Photo courtesy of USA Shooting
Five Tri-Lakes area players named to All-State soccer teams
Junior Titus Grant, star forward for The Classical Academy soccer team, missed this year’s state championship game because of a suspension.
But that didn’t stop the scoring ma-chine from being named Colorado High School Activities Association Player of the Year.
Grant scored 29 and goals and had 14 assists in 19 games while leading the Titans to the Class 4A state champion-ship game for a second-consecutive year.
But Grant was not eligible to play in this year’s fi nals after he received a red card ejection in TCA’s semifi nals vic-tory over Standley Lake.
Without its leading scorer, TCA lost the championship game to Evergreen, 1-0, and fi nished with an 18-2 record.
Joining Grant on fi rst team All-state was TCA junior forward Jaden Borja (22
goals, 13 assists).Making second team All-State from
TCA were junior midfi elder Anders Carlson and senior midfi elder Noah Klaus.
Palmer Ridge senior Garrett Ober-meyer earned honorable mention rec-ognition. Obermeyer led the Bears in goals (6) and assists (6).
HELP WANTEDElizabethElizabeth
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Your Opinion Counts!In the next few weeks, you may receive a call asking you to participate in the 2015 National Survey on the Cooperative Difference. The survey will be conducted by Bellomy Research. Caller ID may show Opinion Counts or a 336 area code.
Responses from the survey will help us to make key decisions impacting the electric industry and better understand member expectations.
Monument Community Presbyterian ChurchRev. Dr. David Jordan-Irwin, Pastor
238 Third Street, Monument, CO 80132(719) 481-3902 www.mcpcusa.org
Thursday, December 24 — 7:00 p.m.Christmas Eve Candlelight Service(6:30 p.m. — Pre-Service Music)
Thursday, December 24 — 7:00 p.m.Christmas Eve Candlelight Service(6:30 p.m. — Pre-Service Music)
Grant named CHSAA Player of the Year in soccer
The Classical Academy junior Titus Grant was recently named Colorado High School Activities Association (CHSAA) Class 4A Soc-cer Player of the Year./Photo courtesy of Ali-son Henry
Lewis-Palmer High School senior Mariah Evans, No. 9, and ju-nior Lydia Bartalo, No. 4, were named to the First Team All-State volleyball team by the Colorado High School Activities Associa-tion./Photo courtesy of Lisa Reich
14 The Tribune December 23, 2015www.trilakestribune.com
719-481-1950 • www.monumentacademy.net
Monument Academy A free public school of choice
Parents of over 900 students have chosen Monument Academy over their local school.
Preschool • ElementaryMiddle School
By Tribune staff
Young readers can show o� their artistic abilities and the six best entries will win a Papa Murphy’s Take ‘N’ Bake Pizza for their e� orts.
Transform this sledding bird into a bright, colorful harbinger of the holidays.
Turn your page in by noon, Dec. 28, at the Tribune o� ce, 153 Wash-ington St., suite 106, or mail it to P.O.
Box 2148, Monument, 80132.Winners will be selected in the age
groups: 4 & under, 5-8 and 9 & over.Tribune sta� will judge the entries
and winners announced Jan. 6.Now, get coloring!
NameAgePhone #
Sledding bird newest coloring contest
December 23, 2015 The Tribune 15 www.trilakestribune.com
Tri-Lakes CLASSIFIEDSHelp Wanted
Family of Christ CDC now hiring afternoon Pre-K/Childcare teacher.
M-F 29 hours a week . Call 481-0796 for more details.
Christmas Tree Recycling
Boy Scouts of America Troop 8 in Monument
1. Drop off clean trees to US Tae-kwondo Center Parking Lot (16328 Jackson Creek Pkwy) between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. on December 27 and Jan 2 2. Donations to Troop 8 not required but greatly appreciated and tax deductible.
All ages. Learn from an Award Winning guitarist, with over 40 years
teaching experience. Any style. Any genre.
Any questions? Call Joe 719/ 487- 8826
Guitar lessons To Advertise
in the Classifeds
Contact Kathy at
kathyfleer@ yourpeaknews.
com
Sunday Worship: 8:30, 9:45& 11:00 am
Sunday School: 9:45 am
The Churchat
Woodmoor
488-3200
A church for all of God's people
Sunday 8:15a - Daybreak ServiceSunday 10a - Traditional Service
18125 Furrow RoadMonument 80132
www.thechurchatwoodmoor.com
Crossroads Chapel, SBC
840 North Gate Blvd.
Bible Study 9am
10:15am Celebrating HIM in Worship
6pm evening Adult Bible Study
Wednesday AWANA 6:15pm
495-3200
Pastor: Dr. D. L. Mitchell
Child care provided
True Direction from God’s WordWorship Service at 9:30 a.m.
Lewis Palmer High SchoolHigby Road & Jackson Creek Parkway
www.northword.org 481-0141
Maranatha Bible FellowshipA Home Church Spirtual Growth
Meaningful Relationships Solid Biblical Teaching
A New Testament early churchformat that is changing lives
495-7527
Monument Hill Church, SBC
18725 Monument Hill Rd.481-2156
www.monumenthillchurch.orgSunday: Bible Classes 9:15amWorship Service 10:30am
Pastor Tom Clemmons USAFA ‘86, SWBTS ‘94
Preaching for the Glory of GodGod-centered, Christ-exalting
worshipWed: AWANA 6:30pm
The “New” MHC - Where Grace and Truth Abound
Service TimeSWoodmoor Campus
8:15, 9:30 and 11:00 a.m1750 Deer creek rd., monument, cO
Northgate Campus9:30 a.m.
975 Stout Dr., colo Spgs, cOChurch Office
1750 Deer creek rd.monument, cO 80132
(719) 481‐3600www.TheAscentChurch.com
8:00 AM – Classic Worship9:30 & 11:00 AM – Modern Worship9:30 & 11:00 AM – Children and Student Programs5:00 – 7:00 PM – Programs for all ages2:00, 4:00 & 6:00 PM – Christmas Eve Candlelight Service
To advertise your place of worship in this section, call 719-687-3006 or email kathyfl [email protected]
(Corner of Beacon Lite & County Line Road) www.trilakeschurch.org
Sudoku PuzzleThe objective of a sudoku puzzle is to place the numbers 1 through 9 in each row, column and 3-by-3 block. The numbers in a single row, colum or block will never repeat.
16 The Tribune December 23, 2015www.trilakestribune.com
If a product is not on a showroom fl oor it will be available to order at the advertised price while supplies last. Despite our best efforts, typographical and numerical errors in an ad will sometimes occur. We appreciate your understanding that we cannot be held liable for such errors and regret any inconvenience this causes our valued customers. *Offer available on approved single or combined store purchases totaling $699 or more of qualifying merchandise made between 12/26/15 and 12/31/15 on an open and current Furniture Row card issued by Capital One, N.A. Subject to credit approval; based on your credit worthiness. The purchase amount is divided into 72 monthly payments. Minimum payments will never be less than $25, but may increase due to failure to make required payments or if late fees are assessed. No Interest Charges for 72 months. Standard APR 24.9%. Penalty APR 28.9%. Minimum Interest Charge $2.
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