TLT_ Black Forest Fire Coverage

Tri Lakes 6-19-13

TribuneTri-Lakes ourtrilakesnews.com

June 19, 2013 75 centsA Colorado Community Media Publication

Tri-Lakes Region, Monument, Gleneagle, Black Forest and Northern El Paso County • Volume 48, Issue 25

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Steady progress on Black Forest Fire over weekend Sta� Report

El Paso County Sheriff’s Of-fi ce continues to do structure and damage assessments. According to Black Forest Fire’s Joint Informan-tion Center updated on Monday morning, June 17, the fi re was 65 percent contained.

The fi re had updated acrage fi g-ures at 14,198 acres, and over 1,100 fi refi ghters still working on the fi re.

Fire offi cials were hoping for containment by as early as Thurs-day, June 20.

Evacuations bans were lifted in certain areas and the new evacu-ation boundaries are as follows:

West Boundary is Hwy 83 (Hwy 83 is OPEN) from Burgess to Walker; East Boundary is Meridian Rd, from Burgess Rd to County Line Road. Meridian Road is CLOSED to the Public but OPEN to residents with proper I.D.; South Bound-ary is Burgess Rd. - Burgess Rd is CLOSED from HWY 83 to Meridian Road; North boundary is Walker Road from Black Forest Road to Meridian Road; Hodgen Forest Ranch or the area between.

Also open: Howells Rd. on the West; Milam Rd. on the East; Bur-gess Rd. on the South; and Crosslen Ln. and Ford Rd. on the North 83 is OPEN. Walker is CLOSED.

“Great Basin Team 2 assumed responsibility for initial attack (I.A.) support within a 30 mile ra-dius of the Black Forest Fire. The team is being shadowed by the Butler County, OH.

All Hazards Type 3 Incident Management team. Thunderstorm activity began to move in from the west and impacted the area. Thun-derstorms possessed erratic winds, lightning and moisture. A lightning strike fi re was reported in the Black Forest Fire area next to a residence was quickly extinguished by the homeowner,” according to the in-cident report Flames lick over a ridge top near Highway 83 and Northgate. Reports say that the fi re is less

than a quarter mile from Highway 83. Photo by Rob Carrigan

Residents voice frustrations at community meeting Publisher of Black Forest News loses her home but remains dedicated to keeping residents informed

By Lisa Collacott [email protected]

During a community meeting for Black Forest resident emotions ran high for those seeking information about assistance, the status of their homes and when they would be al-lowed re-entry.

Commissioner Darryl Glenn, whose district includes Black For-est, hosted the meeting to provide information on where residents can go for assistance with their needs. Many residents wanted informa-tion on the status of their homes and when they could go see their homes

but he reminded residents that par-ticular information would have to come from the sheriff.

Patty Baxter, head of the El Paso County Offi ce of Emergency Man-agement, told residents that Kathy Russell, also from emergency man-agement, would be taking the lead on the re-entry process for residents.

Evacuees Janet and Heather Humphrey eat breakfast in the front aisle of the auditorium at Palmer Ridge High School during a packed town hall meet-ing Saturday morning. Photos by Rob Carrigan

Black Forest resident Bonnie Kruse, during a briefi ng on the progress of the Black Forest Fire in Colorado Springs, Colo., Friday, June 14, 2013. Bonnie’s family lost fi ve homes to the Black Forest Fire.

> More coverage on Pages 8, 9, 10, 11

D-20 schools in Black Forest still standing Damage to grounds around school, still monitoring situation By Lisa Collacott lcol [email protected]

Black Forest is home to two Academy School Dis-trict 20 elementary schools and the morning after the fi re started the schools were still standing.

Edith Wolford Elemen-tary School and School in the Woods are still standing, according to D-20 Superin-tendent Dr. Mark Hatchell. Hatchell and D-20 Chief of Security Brian Grady were able to view the schools the day after the fi re.

In an email sent to par-ents Hatchell said there is some fi re damage on the grounds of Edith Wolford Elementary School as well as School in the Woods but the buildings appear to be fi ne. They are still closely monitoring what is happen-ing with the fi re.

Edith Wolford Elemen-tary School is one of D-20’s

original schools. The school was named for a teacher who taught at the original Black Forest Log School lo-cated on Shoup and Black Forest Roads. It is not known if the original school house, which was built in 1922, is still standing. The school closed in 1945 and is listed on the National Regis-ter of Historic Places.

Edith Wolford Elemen-tary School is located on Black Forest Road, north of Shoup Road and School in the Woods is located on Vollmer Road, east of Black Forest Road.

Hatchell said in the email that the district is concerned about the stu-dents and staff members of the district that live in Black Forest.

“We know that many students and staff members have lost their homes and a large number are currently being evacuated,” Hatchell said. “As we move forward and assess the impact of this natural disaster I know we will have many families and staff who need our help. We are working to come togeth-er as a district and put plans in place so that we can as-sist with those needs.”

Academy School District 20 School in the Woods as it appeared two years ago. The school is in Black Forest located on Vollmer Road, east of Black Forest Road. The school is still standing but the grounds around it have received fi re damage. Edith Wolford Elementary School is also still standing but has sustained fi re damage to its grounds as well. File photo by Lisa Collacott

Meeting continues on Page 10

The Tribune 9 June 19, 2013

9-Life-Color

Progression of Black Forest fire

Fire has burned 8,500 acresOther areas are under voluntary evacuationBy Lisa [email protected]

By Wednesday night, June 12, the Black Forest Fire has consumed near-ly 8,500 acres and burned nearly 100 buildings in just 24 hours.

During a 5 p.m. news briefing, El Paso County Sheriff Terry Maketa said that it was anticipated that another 3,000 acres will burn.

He said the possibility for the fire to spread was extreme. The fire moved northwest and northeast and was en-croaching on Elbert County. It doubled back to properties still standing and threatened Colo. 83 which is now closed.

The mandatory evacuation areas have extended north to Walker Road and east to Colo. 83. Up to 9,500 people

having been affected.The Flying Horse neighborhood is

under a voluntary evacuation notice. A voluntary evacuation order has also been issued for Northern Colorado Springs for areas west of Interstate 25 and north of Old Ranch Road within Colorado Springs city limits.

Maketa said they are looking at pre-liminary planning should an evacuation order need to be issued for neighbor-hoods east of Colo. 83.

Maketa said people should be in Ready! Set! Go! mode.

There were 487 firefighters from 28 fire districts assisting in the Black For-est Fire. The transition to the Type I In-cident Command team will take place tomorrow at 6 a.m.

Gov. John Hickenlooper has signed a disaster declaration for the Black Forest Fire.

The sheriff’s website has a list of homes that are a total loss or partially

damaged and can be found at http://www.epcsheriff.com/bff/Black%20For-est%20Fire%20-%20Residences.pdf.

The sheriff’s office will be updating the addresses frequently. So far at least 92 homes have been lost.

Borders of Black Forest Fire as of June 13 at 8 p.m. Map Courtesy of El Paso County Sheri�s

Photo from Hwy 83, just north of Northgate Road, 2 p.m., Wednesday, June 12. Photo by Rob Carrigan

Fire has grown to 15,000 acres, destroyed 360 homesHigh winds are fueling the �reBy Lisa [email protected]

The Black Forest Fire has destroyed 360 homes making it the worst wildfire in the Colorado history.

During a Thursday morning news briefing El Paso County Sheriff Terry Ma-keta said the fire has burned 15,000 acres and 38,000 people having been evacuated.During the night the mandatory evacua-tion had been extended up to County Line Road.

The fire was still at zero percent con-tainment Thursday morning and there are concerns that high winds will once again fuel the fire as it did yesterday.

“Wind is our number one threat,” Ma-keta said.

High winds caused the fire to double back yesterday to its original starting point which was in the vicinity of Peregrine Way and Darr Drive.

Maketa said the cause of the fire still has not been determined.

A pre-evacuation notice is still in effect for those neighborhoods west of Colo. 83 from Northgate Boulevard to Colo. 105.

Maketa said that the security is high in the evacuation areas with assistance from Monument and Palmer Lake Police De-partments, Colorado Springs Police De-partment and the National Guard.

There will be news brief at 5:00 p.m. in which Rich Harvey the incident com-mander for the Type I Incident Command team. Harvey was the incident command-er for the Waldo Canyon Fire.

�ursday Morning, June 13

Wednesday Evening, June 12

Bucket drops over the �re on Wednesday afternoon. Photo by Rob Carrigan

Reduce or limit activity during smoky conditions

10 The Tribune June 19, 2013

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Friday 5 p.m., June 14 Saturday Morning, June 15

Russell is a Black Forest resident who many residents know and a former lieutenant with the Black Forest Fire and Rescue.

Other residents were concerned about pets that were left behind and voiced loud and clear that the Black Forest Animal Sanctuary must be allowed access back in to rescue animals. The animal sanctu-ary had been going into the burn area to retrieve animals but was escorted out on Friday. Residents and volunteers with the rescue said the volunteers with the animal sanctuary needed to get credentials to be let back in.

Commissioner Peggy Littleton told resi-dents that several volunteer organizations would be available to help residents sift through the ash to retrieve any items that may have survived the fire.

“This community is here to help,” Little-ton said.

She also talked what to do if people need to evacuate and they should have a 72-hour kit ready however she was cut short when one person in the audience yelled, “We are already past that.”

Littleton was met with applause when she told residents that she told law enforce-ment to shoot on sight if they see any loot-ers.

“We’ve already gone through enough trauma and heartache,” she said.

There was a time for questions and an-swers and one resident asked if the next meetings could focus on those residents who don’t know where to go and who are scared and others asked if there could pos-sibly be a location, perhaps in Monument, where residents can go instead of having to go to the Citizen’s Service Center on the Garden of the Gods.

Some residents stood up and encour-aged other residents including Judy von Ahlefeldt, publisher of the Black Forest News. Ahlefeldt has been a resident of Black Forest for 43 and was one of the many who lost her home in the fire.

All the houses on her street burned down. She also lost one of her horses and the other was badly burned and receiving care.

When the fire first started Ahlefeldt didn’t immediately leave. She spent an hour

taking pictures of the fire for the newspa-per.

“I saw it crown,” von Ahlefeldt said.von Ahledeldt lives north of the slash/

mulch area, which is located on Shoup and Herring Roads. She said once the wind changed direction it headed straight to-wards her home.

She was able to save very little of her own belongings.

“I did save the newspaper archives,” von Ahlefeldt said.

She said she knew that one day this type of fire would happen in Black Forest and might not have been as bad if more people would have mitigated.

“It wasn’t a matter of if but when,” she added.

She said recently a lot of mitigating was done at La Foret Conference and Retreat Center and that’s what saved those build-ings.

Also untouched were the buildings at the corner of Shoup and Black Forest Roads in-cluding the historic Black Forest Log School and the Black Forest Community Center.

“That’s the heart of our community,” von Ahlefeldt said.

Saturday Morning, June 15

Continued from Page 1

Meeting

Two die in Black Forest FireSheri� said they were trying to evacuate their propertyBy Lisa [email protected]

Two people have died as a result of the Black Forest Fire.

El Paso County Sheriff Terry Maketa said the remains of two people have been found.

Maketa didn’t give the exact location but said the two individuals were found on a property in a heavily wooded area and it ap-pears that they were preparing to evacuate. He said they most likely died on Tuesday, the day the fire started.

Because of the two deaths there is now a criminal investigation underway.

Forty-eight hours after the fire started it has burned 15,700 acres and 38,000 peo-ple have been evacuated, affecting 13,000 homes.

The evacuation area has extended into Colorado Springs which includes the Fly-ing Horse and Highlands Ranch neighbor-hoods.

In unincorporated El Paso County the mandatory evacuation has extended to

the western edge of Fox Run Regional Park, Baptist Road to the north and Northgate Boulevard to the south.

The number of lost homes still stands at 360.

“I’m very hopeful that we didn’t lose any homes today. I’m optimistic. If we did we lost very few,” Maketa said.

Rich Harvey, the Type I Incident com-mander, said there are now 750 firefight-ers on the fire and today they focused on making sure the south end of the fire near Shoup Road was contained.

He said the fire is about five percent con-tained.

“It’s not much progress. We have a long way to go,” Harvey said.

El Paso County Commissioner Darryl Glenn said they are working on creating a Black Forest Re-entry Response Team.

Glenn also said he has personally seen The Pinery, School in the Woods and Black Forest Community Center and they are in good condition.

He pointed out that fire fighters from Security and Boulder fought hard to make sure the fire did not touch the School in the Woods. Edith Wolford Elementary School is also still standing.

Law enforcement meeting at Northgate Road and Highway 83 about 1:30 p.m. on Thursday afternoon just prior to mandatory evacuation order of Flying Horse area. Photo by Rob Carrigan

The Black Forest �re rages into a towering inferno the day after it started. The �re was at zero percent containment nearly 48 hours after it started. Courtesy photo

‘We’ve already gone through enough trauma and heartache.’

Commissioner Peggy Littleton


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Saturday Morning, June 15

Fire is holding, no new ground gainedStill at �ve percent containmentBy Lisa [email protected]

The Black Forest Fire is still at five per-cent containment but El Paso County Sher-iff Terry Maketa is very pleased that the fire-fighters haven’t lost any additional ground and there were no additional structures were lost on the second night of the fire.

“Yesterday we gained tremendous ground,” Maketa said.

Incident commander Rich Harvey said, “The corner is a long ways away but we are turning a corner.”

Harvey said there are a lot of hot spots they are concerned about particularly on the northern edge and just east of Colo. 83 and Shoup Road, but firefighters have a dozer line along Colo. 83 and will focus on those areas today.

He said they are working closely with the Westcott Fire Protection District, Black For-est Fire and Rescue and Tri-Lakes Monu-ment Fire Protection District in those areas.

Maketa said on June 13 that the fire had burned 15,700 acres but at the June 14 morning news brief he said they now think it is between 13,000 and 15,000 acres. The number of homes lost now stands at 379.

Maketa said they are still surveying 7,000 homes to see what the damage is. The list of homes can be found at http://www.epcsheriff.com/bff/Black%20Forest%20Fire%20-%20Residences.pdf. The sheriff’s office is continually updating the list.

Maketa said that investigators are nar-rowing down a point of origin for where the fire started. He requested that anyone with information or pictures that may be help-ful to the investigation call 719-444-8393 or

email [email protected] number of people evacuated still re-

mained at 38,000 by the afternoon of June 14. The National Guard set up a road block

at the corner of Voyager Parkway and North-gate Boulevard to block anyone from trying to get into the Flying Horse neighborhood where Discover Canyon Campus is located.

There was also one at the entrance to the Northgate Highlands neighborhood.

Maketa said the sheriff’s office has not received any reports of looting.

County and �re o�cials were considerably more upbeat with cool weather and some rain as they announced 30 percent containment �gures and down-graded evacuation status in areas west of Highway 83. Photo by Rob Carrigan

WANT MORE NEWS?For breaking stories, more photos and other coverage of the community, visit our web-

site at www.ourTrilakesnews.com the online home of the Tri-Lakes Tribune.

Smoke from the Black Forest Fire could be seen in Castle Rock on June 11. Photo by Virginia Grantier

Police o�cers were going door-to-door Thursday afternoon when evacuation orders for the Flying Horse area were is-sued. Photo by Rob Carrigan

This is all that remains of trees and street signs at the intersection of Black Forest Road and Brentwood Drive. The Black Forest Fire has burned 15,000 acres and at least 360 homes and more evacuations have been ordered. Courtesy photo

BLACK FOREST FIRE AT A GLANCE

Tri Lakes 6-26-13


June 26, 2013 75 centsA Colorado Community Media Publication





Black Forest residents return to properties Fire at 100 percent containment a� er little over a week By Lisa Collacott [email protected]

Just a little over a week after the most destructive fi re in Colorado history started, the fi re is now 95 percent contained and some residents have been allowed to go home.

As of June 20, the fi re, which started on June 11, burned 14,280 acres and destroyed 509 homes.

As of the morning of June 20, the fi re was 95 percent contained and Rich Harvey, in-cident commander, was hoping for 100 per-cent containment by the evening.

Harvey and his Type I incident command

team were get-ting ready to leave and move on to another fi re and the Type 3 man-agement team was scheduled to take over on June 21.

“The fi re is not a done deal. The fi re will not be left

unattended,” Harvey said.The fi re also tragically took two lives. The

El Paso County Sheriff’s Offi ce has identi-fi ed the victims as 52-year-old Marc Herk-lotz and his wife 50-year-old Robin Herk-lotz of 6720 Jicarillo Drive.

El Paso County Sheriff Terry Maketa has

said the couple were found in their garage and appeared to be getting ready to evacu-ate.

During a news briefi ng when Maketa fi rst announced two victims had been found Maketa said that someone who had spoken with the couple the afternoon of the fi re said the two had said there was a glow to the west and they were preparing to leave.

During a second conversation with the couple popping and cracking could be heard in the background.

Marc Herklotz was a civilian contractor and Robin Herklotz was an Air Force con-tractor, according to a press release issued from Air Force Space Command.

“The men and women of Air Force Space Command are saddened by the loss of these two members of our AFSPC family,”

A homeowner works hard Friday morning to evaluate damage in the Vessey area. Photo by Rob Carrigan

Police o� cers assist in Black Forest Fire Stepped in to help immediately, assisted with evacuations and patrols By Lisa Collacott [email protected]

Firefi ghters haven’t been the only heroes during the massive Black Forest Fire.

Police offi cers have been assist-ing with evacuations and protecting homes still standing.

Not long after the fi re started the Monument and Palmer Lake Police Departments were assisting the El

Paso County Sheriff’s Offi ce in any they could.

“We responded before they even asked,” Lt. Jason Vanderpool from the Palmer Lake Police Department said.

Monument Police Department responded about 4 p.m. with fi ve of-fi cers on June 11, the day the Black Forest Fire started. They sent seven offi cers on June 12, 10 on June 13, nine on June 14, seven on June 15 and fi ve on June 16.

“The police will continue to pa-trol over there until they are not needed any longer by El Paso Coun-ty,” Pam Smith, Monument town manager, said.

Vanderpool said Palmer Lake sent at least two offi cers per night.

Offi cers assisted with evacu-ations, escorts, check points and helped patrol the evacuated areas from looters. Offi cers worked 12-hour shifts and many came in on their vacation and gave up days off to help.

“They’ve been working around the clock and working very hard with El Paso County and other forces over there to make sure those areas are safe and people’s homes don’t get burglarized while continuing to do our own patrols,” Smith said.

During a news brief Sheriff Terry Maketa said there has been a tre-mendous amount of support from law enforcement. Colorado Springs Police Department and Fountain Police Department also assisted.

Police offi cers were going door-to-door Thursday afternoon when evacuation orders for the Flying Horse area were issued. Photo by Rob Carrigan

Students, sta� lose homes Many students who attend D-38 and D-20 schools live in Black Forest area By Lisa Collacott [email protected]

Many students and staff members in both Academy School District 20 and Lewis-Palmer School District 38 were affected by the Black Forest Fire in some way or another.

Three D-20 schools — Edith Wol-ford Elementary School, School in the Woods and Discovery Canyon Cam-pus — were in the evacuation zones as well as Ray E. Kilmer in D-38.

The fi re came dangerously close to Wolford and School in the Woods but didn’t cause any damage to the build-ings.

DCC is located on Northgate Bou-levard in Flying Horse and Kilmer is on Walker Road.

Two D-38 schools, Lewis-Palmer High School and Bear Creek Elemen-tary School, were in the pre-evacua-tion zone.

Approximately 41,000 people were evacuated at one point and more than 500 homes are considered a total loss.

D-20 is still confi rming which stu-dents and staff lost their homes but as of June 17, 161 students living in 91 houses had their homes either de-stroyed or partially damaged. Twen-ty-two staff members have lost their homes.

Two D-38 families lost their homes which impacted three students and fi ve staff members also lost their homes. One staff member had their property damaged.

In an email sent to parents of D-20 students Superintendent Dr. Mark Hatchell said, “The founda-tion of Academy District 20 is strong and the people even stronger. We will rise to meet the challenges before us. Our school district has been commit-ted to our students, staff and com-munity for more than 50 years. That

Damage continues on Page 5 School continues on Page 5

BY THE NUMBERS

9 Days

41,000 Evacuated

14,280 Acres burned

511 Homes destroyed

2 Lives lost


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15910 Jackson Creek Parkway, #100, Monument CO(Monument Marketplace, next to Kohl’s)

719-488-4687www.CarlosMiguels.com

What are Dedication, Sacrifice, Commitment and Pillars of a Community? These are what our first responders and volunteers demonstrated in fighting and controlling the

Black Forest Fires.

People who willingly put their lives on the line to keep us safe. People who have families of their own, but without

hesitation are the first to protect our families.

These people, these heroes, walk among us every day. Sometimes in uniform, however, many times in civilian

clothing blending in with us all.

Take the time to walk over and shake their hands and say, “Thank you for your service. You are truly appreciated”.

They ALL deserve our thanks.

To all of you Police Officers, Sherriff Deputies, EMTs, Fire-fighters, Military Personnel, Health Professionals

and Volunteers ...

“THANK YOU FOR KEEPING US SAFE!” We appreciate you more than you will ever know.

- From the entire Carlos Miguel’s of Monument Family

And a special thank you to Michael Muzi, a firefighter and member of our family.

July 4th 2013 Pancake Breakfast!7:00-10:00 a.m. (free coffee from 6:30 on)

at St. Peter Church & School in Monument CO. Breakfast includes: pancakes, sausage, scrambled eggs, juice, & coffee.

Come join us for a delicious Independence Day breakfast!

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Pricing for our guests at the St. Peter Pancake Breakfast is:

Adults $7 • Children (under 12) $4 • Families $20 Military and First Responders in uniform - free

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Color you can see from the air 1968 Ford Galaxie survives the Black Forest Fire By Rob carrigan [email protected]

Out there among the charred tree trunks, wreckage, incinerated dreams, ash-strewn memories, dust, and heartbreaking despair — I noticed some color.

Bright orange red color.Ben Robinett, with his green jeans stained black, from days sifting around in the ash of what used be his home, the owner of that color had been looking for his car keys. He waved us over when we noticed the bright spot, during a media tour Friday, June 21.

Black everywhere, but here, more than little bit of bright orange red.Robinett, a Fort Carson fi refi ghter by

trade, says it is color he has been told that you can see from the air.

The color takes the form of a 1968 Ford Galaxie.“I have had it for about a year and a half. worked on it constantly. My dad was an auto mechanic, and I love to work on it for old times sake. Painted it (even inside the engine compartment, ) shined it up. It was about three quar-ters done. I know all about it. I was the fourth owner.”

And that bright orange red was for a reason.

“We called it ‘Birdy.’ I am a big St. Louis Cardinals fan.”Robinett was off shift when he learned the fi re was burning and he and his family needed to evacuate.

“Needed to get my six-year-old out of here. I had a trailer right over there and thought I might need it for a place to stay, and my 16-year-old drove her car out.”

So, it was bye-bye Birdy, he thought.He had to leave it in the forest, in the minimal protection of the little hut.

He expected to loose ev-erything he had left behind.But today he is talking with the tow company, and despite looking through what are now the ashes of his house, he hasn’t found his car keys.

It melted the gun safes, everything.The cover of the building is gone. And there is a little blistering of the paint on the passenger-side fl ank of the Gal-axie.

The fi ve-gallon buckets nearby, are melted through. All-in-all however, good shape.

The paint is burnt off the li-cense plate in back, but hard-ly any damage to the car itself.What a wonderful spot of col-or she is? Bright Orange Red.Cardinal Color. A bright spot, among the shades of gray and black.

Birdy and Ben Robinett just before the tow truck arrived. Note the darkened license plate. Photo by Rob Carrigan

School in the Woods seminar to be o� ered Focus will be on lessons learned from Creating a Nature Based School Special to Tribune

A special seminar, titled School in the Woods: Les-sons Learned from Creat-ing a Nature Based School seminar will be offered,

Tuesday, July 2, 2013, 8 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. at the Florissant Fossil Beds National Monu-ment.

Description: The two teachers who created Acad-emy School District No. 20’s School in Woods will share learning experiences inspired by nature which teachers can implement in their classrooms, on their school grounds, or on fi eld trips.

Activities will be inte-grated with state standards

in Science, Reading, Writ-ing, and Social Studies. Teachers should come pre-pared to spend an active day outdoors.

Please wear appropriate outdoor clothing (no san-dals).

This seminar is open to the public. Teachers may receive credit through Ad-ams State College and/or BOCES.

Fees and reservations apply, call (719) 748-3253 ext. 109 for details.

For more information, please visit http://www.nps.gov/flfo/forteachers/professionaldevelopment.htm.

Directions:To reach Florissant Fos-

sil Beds National Monu-ment, travel 35 miles west on Highway 24 from Colo-rado Springs. At the town of Florissant, turn left onto Teller County Road No. 1 and travel 2 miles to the Visitor Center entra


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Woodmoor FireWise Community Day set Special to The Tribune

There will be a FireWise Community Day from 9:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. June 29 at the Woodmoor Barn.

There will be demon-strations and exhibits on:

• El Paso County Office of Emergency Prepared-ness

• Lessons learned from the Black Forest fire

• Tri-Lakes Monument Fire Protection District Crew and Engine

• How to “harden” homes against burning embers — Home Depot

• Replacing decks with fire resistant materials — Home Depot

• Videos and advice from Woodmoor firewise volun-teers about removing fuels

around the home to create defensible space

• Fire resistant plant information from Green-branch Garden Services and Home Depot

• TLMFPD Sparky the Fire Dog and the U.S. For-est Service Smokey Bear will make an appearance

• Snacks and games for kids

The event is sponsored by the Woodmoor FireWise Committee.

For more information call the WIA office at 719-488-2693. This is event is open to the entire Tri-Lakes community.

The Woodmoor Barn is located at 1691 Woodmoor Drive, across the street from Lewis-Palmer Middle School.

Heartbreaking tour through burn areaCounty transitions to on call status for assistanceBy Rob [email protected]

After the Friday, June 21, media tour of the burn area of the Black Forest Fire, the El Paso County Joint Information Center for the Black Forest Fire transitioned to on-call status at 5 p.m. and the fire itself was termed 100 percent contained.

Officials asked that anyone that needed to be in the burn area, please be aware of utility crews and others working to restore services.

Those needing assistance, please call the following numbers:

• El Paso County Sheriff’s Office emergencies at 911, non-emergen-cies at 390-5555 (24 hrs)

• Disaster Assistance Center at 444-8301 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

• Humane Society for animal con-cerns at 473-1741 ex1

• Public Health for general con-

cerns at 578-3199 or www.elpaso-countyhealth.org

• Public Services Division for roads and culverts at 520-6460 (24

hrs)• Pikes Peak United Way for relief

and recovery questions at 2-1-1 or from a cell phone 719-955-0742

What is left of an ATV is in the foreground of this image in the Ravine area. Photos by Rob Carrigan

Heartbreaking images in the Black Forest Fire burn area Friday morning, June 21. Rob Carrigan

Fund set up for D-20 students, sta�Special to The Tribune

To support Academy School District 20 students and staff members who are victims of the Black Forest Fire, the Acad-emy School District 20 Education Foun-dation has established the Black Forest Fire Support Fund.

All funds collected will be used for education-related expenses.

Public health convenience center opens for residents Special to The Tribune

As residents begin to re-enter evacua-tion areas affected by the Black Forest Fire, El Paso County Public Health will open a Public Health Convenience Center for resi-dents to get free water testing kits, tetanus vaccinations and distribute public health information.

The Public Health Convenience Center will open June 20 at The Classical Acade-my’s East Campus, 12201 Cross Peak View, in Colorado Springs, located just west of the Pikes Peak Community College Ram-part Range campus and east of New Life Church.

Hours of operation will be 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursday and Friday, with hours to be announced based on availability of sup-

AspenPointe to o�er counseling for those a�ected by �reSpecial to The Tribune

AspenPointe is offer-ing counseling services to those who have been af-fected by the Black Forest Fire.

The AspenPoints call center, 719-572-6100, is open seven days a week from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Callers who need assis-tance between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m. can call the crisis hot-line at 719-635-7000.

Kevin Porter, vice presi-dent of marketing said, “AspenPointe has staff at

El Paso County’s Disaster Assistance Center at 1675 Garden of the Gods Road and is exploring placing personnel in facilities clos-er to the burn area in the coming days.

“Once finalized, that information will be placed on the AspenPointe web site.”

Those in need of behav-ioral healthcare can learn more about AspenPointe’s services by visiting www.AspenPointe.org or down-load a free app at the Apple and Google app market-places.

Tri-Lakes Cares o�ers assistance Special to The Tribune

Tri-Lakes Cares is offer-ing immediate assistance for fire victims with food, clothing and gasoline.

Further relief can be ob-tained by appointment to secure household goods, prescriptions, pet food, child/senior care, rent as-sistance and other services.

Tri-Lakes Cares is in need of heavy-duty flash-lights and batteries, bug

repellent for the firefight-ers, hygiene items such as toothbrushes, toothpaste, baby wipes, deodorant and disposable razors, financial contributions and volun-teers who can help fill shifts of volunteers who have been evacuated.

Visit Tri-Lakes Cares at 235 Jefferson Street in Mon-ument for assistance or to donate.

For further information call 719-481-4864.

SEND US YOUR NEWS

Colorado Community Media welcomes event listings and other submissions.

Please note our submissions emails.

Events and club [email protected] notes [email protected] [email protected] press releasesSubmit through our [email protected] to the [email protected] [email protected]

Fax information to 719-687-3009Mail to P.O. Box 340, Woodland Park, CO 80866


5

Fund set up for D-20 students, sta�Special to The Tribune

To support Academy School District 20 students and staff members who are victims of the Black Forest Fire, the Acad-emy School District 20 Education Foun-dation has established the Black Forest Fire Support Fund.

All funds collected will be used for education-related expenses.

In addition, the foundation has al-ready pledged all proceeds from its an-nual golf tournament to this cause.

Those who would like to donate can make checks payable to: Black Forest Fire Support Fund and mailed to Acad-emy School District 20 Education Foun-dation, c/o Air Academy Federal Credit Union, P.O. Box 62910, Colorado Springs, CO 80962-2910, attn: Deborah Haas-Henry.

The Ravine Drive area experienced particularly devastating damage. Photo by Rob Carrigan

commitment will not waiver. Through ad-versity we will rise to even greater heights.”

Staff and administrators from D-38 were able to get critical equipment and school records out of Kilmer before the fire moved in the school’s direction. There was no op-portunity to retrieve any items from Wol-ford or School in the Woods.

When DCC was still in pre-evacuation

status there were students at the school at-tending sports camps and students were sent home but there were no items re-moved from the school because the focus was on the students.

“We’ll be providing any resources avail-able to our student families and staff mem-bers,” D-38 Superintendent John Borman said. “What I love about our community is people are really quick to reach out to make sure everyone is all right. I’m really proud of this community. The key is to continue to reach out.”

It is not known how many students were affected in Falcon District 49.

Public health convenience center opens for residents Special to The Tribune

As residents begin to re-enter evacua-tion areas affected by the Black Forest Fire, El Paso County Public Health will open a Public Health Convenience Center for resi-dents to get free water testing kits, tetanus vaccinations and distribute public health information.

The Public Health Convenience Center will open June 20 at The Classical Acade-my’s East Campus, 12201 Cross Peak View, in Colorado Springs, located just west of the Pikes Peak Community College Ram-part Range campus and east of New Life Church.

Hours of operation will be 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursday and Friday, with hours to be announced based on availability of sup-

plies.Public Health will offer the following

services while supplies last:• Water testing kits. Test kits can be

picked up and dropped off at the Public Health Convenience Center no later than 1 p.m. or at the El Paso County Public Health Laboratory, 1675 W. Garden of the Gods Road, second floor, no later than 4 p.m. Return your sample the same day you col-lect it. Water testing fees will be waived for Black Forest residents who live in evacu-ated areas.

• Vaccine clinics: Free tetanus (TDAP) vaccination or booster (TD) will be provid-ed. Tetanus is a preventable disease that, if contracted, affects the body’s central nervous system. The bacteria that cause tetanus are usually found in soil, dust and

manure and enter the body through cuts or puncture wounds caused by contami-nated objects, such as nails and splinters.

Water wells in areas with no evidence of active burn damage are likely safe.

However, Public Health will provide water testing kits and instructions for resi-dents who would like their water tested. The center will be staffed by Public Health professionals and volunteers, with appre-ciation to The Classical Academy for use of the school building.

“Water testing is not required,” said Public Health Director Jill Law.

“However, for anyone who has concerns about the safety of their water we are offer-ing basic water testing. We want to provide people with the peace of mind that comes with knowing their water is safe.”

Results are available within 72 hours af-ter receipt of the sample in the lab. Results can be mailed, emailed or faxed. Those with a positive result will receive a call within 24 hours.

For more information, call 719-578-3199.

The water will be tested for presence of coliform and E.coli bacteria. A positive sample should be considered an indica-tion of possible contamination.

If a coliform bacterium is detected, chlorination, repairs or modifications of the water system may be required and drinking bottled water is advised.

Water testing instructions and informa-tion, as well as tetanus vaccine FAQs, are available on El Paso County Public Health’s website at www.elpasocountyhealth.org.

AspenPointe to o�er counseling for those a�ected by �re

El Paso County’s Disaster Assistance Center at 1675 Garden of the Gods Road and is exploring placing personnel in facilities clos-er to the burn area in the coming days.

“Once finalized, that information will be placed on the AspenPointe web site.”

Those in need of behav-ioral healthcare can learn more about AspenPointe’s services by visiting www.AspenPointe.org or down-load a free app at the Apple and Google app market-places.

said Gen. William L. Shelton, AFSPC com-mander, in a statement. “I extend my deepest condolences to the family and friends of Marc and Robin during this very difficult time. Our thoughts and prayers are with you.”

Most areas of Black Forest re-opened at 10 a.m. June 20 for residents to go back home or to their properties except for Darr Circle, Peregrine Way, Falcon Drive, 12715 Milam Road and 4150 and 4350 Shoup Road.

These areas are still closed due to an active crime scene investigation.

Residents with Black Forest Fire Re-

Entry Information Packets and red plac-ards were allowed open entry to the burn areas.

Access was allowed for residents at all road closure points and without restrict-ed hours.

The National Guard and law enforce-ment agencies that have been assisting El Paso County Sheriff’s Office will no longer be needed to secure check points after 8 a.m. June 22 when roads will be open ex-cept those around the crime scene.

Maketa thanked the law enforcement agencies that have assisted them and said there are many stories of heroic acts from law enforcement and firefighters.

He also said there were seven burglar-ies in the evacuation areas and they are being investigated.

The June 20 press briefing was the last formal press conference.


Damage


Schools

HAVE A STORY IDEA? Email your ideas to Tri-Lakes Community Editor Lisa Col-

lacott at [email protected] or call her at 719-686-6447.

12-Sports

Tri-LakesSPORTS12 The TribuneJune 26, 2013

Air Force volleyball coach loses home in Black Forest FireBy Danny Summers

COLORADO SPRINGS - Air Force Acad-emy volleyball coach Matt McShane lost his home in the massive Black Forest Fire two weeks ago that destroyed more than 509 homes and burned nearly 15,000 acres.

McShane and his wife, Dana, were coaching a volleyball camp at the Academy on June 11 when an athletic trainer first told him of the fire.

The couple raced to their home - which sat about half a mile east down Wildridge Road from Edith Wolford Elementary School - and spent several hours packing, as well as gathering their two Labradoodles, before fleeing.

McShane, who took over as Air Force’s coach in January 2010, learned that his home was destroyed the next day. He also saw video of the horrible destruction from an overhead television shot.

McShane and his wife finally returned to their home about a week later. They were not allowed back into the area until receiv-ing tetanus shots.

PRCA LEND HELPING HAND TO FIRE VICTIMSIn the aftermath of the Black Forest Fire -

the most destructive in Colorado history - a joint effort by the Professional Rodeo Cow-boys Association and the National Intercol-legiate Rodeo Association (NIRA) produced several trailer loads of hay for the animals displaced by the blaze, which destroyed nearly 500 homes in the northern Colorado Springs area June 11-14.

PRCA Industry Outreach manager Julie Jutten brought back a trailer load of hay from the College National Finals Rodeo in Casper, Wyo., on June 14 and subsequent donations were delivered to Penrose Arena in Colorado Springs by Mesalands Com-munity College coach C.J. Aragon and New Mexico State coach Jim Dewey Brown. The CNFR donations came from trailers with Alabama, Texas, Wyoming and California license plates.00 Despite the disruptions caused by the Black Forest Fire, the com-mittee for the Pikes Peak or Bust Rodeo decided to go ahead with its annual Street Breakfast on June 19. The Range Riders col-lected money for the fire victims as part of this year’s downtown event.

HILL CLIMB TAKES PLACE SUNDAYThe 91st running of the famed Pikes Peak

International Hill Climb takes place this Sunday on “American’s Mountain.”

About 160 cars and motorcycles are ex-pected to be showcased in what is America’s second oldest motor race behind the India-napolis 500. In keeping with the race’s grow-ing international reputation, entries have been received from drivers and racers from the United States, Japan, Latvia, France, Sweden, Canada, Brazil, Great Britain, Hun-gary, the Czech Republic, Italy, Switzerland, Scotland, Poland, Korea and New Zealand.

Motorsport journalists, broadcasters and website specialists will be covering the race from 20 nations - USA, China, Rus-sia, Italy, France, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain, Germany, Latvia, Portugal, Austria, Japan, Belgium, Mexico, Switzerland, Brazil, Croatia and the Czech Republic.

The popular downtown Fan Fest is Fri-day from 5 to 10 p.m. in downtown Colo-rado Springs. More than 30,000 fans are expected to attend. This event is free and features a large Budweiser beer garden,

Firefighter chili cook-off for the fans and more fun for race fans and families.

Top race qualifiers will display their ve-hicles (cars, quads, motorcycles, etc.), give driver demos and be present for autograph sessions. In addition, the PPIHC mobile museum will be on-site and exclusive PPI-HC merchandise will be available for pur-chase. Tickets to the 91st running will also be on sale.

Hill Climb tickets are $40.00, but jump to $50 on race day. Tickets may be purchased on the PPIHC official website www.ppihc.com.

WANG ENJOYS ANOTHER SUCCESSFUL SEASONKiersetn Wang, a 2011, Palmer Ridge

High School graduate, completed her soph-omore gymnastics season for the University of Florida. Wang set her collegiate floor ex-ercise best of 9.90 at the Southeastern Con-ference Championships. Her season was highlighted by receiving the Scholar Athlete honor at the team’s annual awards banquet. She was also a member of the SEC Academ-ic Honor Roll.

Wang is majoring in civil engineering.

Calhoun comes back to home after Black Forest FireAir Force football coach was on vacation with his family when his neighborhood was evacuated during the Black Forest FireBy Danny Summers

COLORADO SPRINGS - As the buffet line passed behind him, Air Force Academy football coach Troy Calhoun fielded ques-tions about the upcoming season. at last week’s College Football Luncheon at the Cheyenne Mountain Resort.

But before he addressed his quarterback situation and tough schedule, he paused to reflect on the devastating Black Forest Fire, which caused the evacuation of his Flying Horse neighborhood.

“We were out town a few days and just sort of monitored it from afar,” Calhoun said. “It was eerie. There’s just no other way to describe it.”

Knowing there was little that could be done from a distance, Calhoun asked a neighbor to retrieve a pair of photos from his home, one of his daughter and one his son.

“That was it,” Calhoun said.Several of Calhoun’s friends lost their

homes in the fire. At last count, 509 homes were destroyed and nearly 14,500 acres burned.

As Calhoun witnessed the devastation from afar via television and the internet, it became even more real when returned home and saw the carnage first hand. It also reminded him of last year’s Waldo Canyon Fire that destroyed 347 homes in the Moun-tain Shadows area of town and burned nearly 20,000 acres.

“This tells you an awful lot about our community,” Calhoun said. “We come to-gether in a resounding way. The people in Colorado Springs have been amazing, as well as the first responders.”

While Calhoun’s home was unscathed, it brought to mind another fire that his family endured 14 years ago.

That was when his mother lost her home and all of the family’s belongings in a single home blaze.

“My mom had pretty much everything we had growing up in it,” Calhoun said. “I remember she said, `I’m going to give all of this to the grandkids, the letterman jackets and scrapbooks and those things.’ When someone sifted through it they said, `Joan, you’ve lost everything.’ She said, `No, I haven’t. We have our family, we have our friends. We lost every one of our things.’ It’s still in the eyes of the beholder. For each person that’s involved it’s a little bit differ-ent.

“It puts in perspective what really mat-ters,” Calhoun added. “Your family and friends. And make sure you have good in-surance.”

As far as his football team is concerned, Calhoun is taking sort of a wait-and-see ap-proach until the start of fall practice.

“We have nine returning starters, which means we have an awful lot of new spots, new positions to fill,” Calhoun said. “We haven’t had a single person prove that he deserves to be a part of the 2013 Air Force Falcon football team. We’ve had guys do good work academically, but the things that they have to do this summer with their mili-tary and leadership responsibilities has had an impact on what they can do on the foot-ball field. We’ll find out in August.”

Calhoun is the only Falcons coach in the 100-plus year history of service academy

football to lead teams to at least seven wins and a bowl game in each of his first five sea-sons.

Calhoun is 47-31 in six seasons after tak-ing over a program that had posted three straight losing seasons before his arrival. He has posted wins at Notre Dame and Utah, and led the Falcons to a school-record six straight bowl games. Last season the Fal-cons competed in the Armed Forces Bowl and finished the season with a 6-7 overall mark.

“For us, it’s always a new base line every single year,” Calhoun said. “You’d love to have 17 to 18 starters back. We have nine. You’d love to have redshirts. We have none. There’s always an awful lot of discovery that has to occur in spring ball and especially in August.”

While there are no Colorado kids on this

year’s Falcons’ roster, Calhoun does under-stand the importance of home-grown tal-ent.

“Whenever we’ve had really good foot-ball teams at the Academy that have been bowl teams, we’ve always had Colorado kids,” he said.

“I think we’ve seen high school football in this state continues to improve. And I think you can see that with the number of Division I signees every year.”

Air Force opens its season Aug. 31 against Colgate at Falcon Stadium. The Fal-cons host Notre Dame on Oct. 26.

Calhoun was joined at the banquet by new Colorado coach Mike MacIntrye, Colo-rado State coach Jim McElwain, CSU-Pueb-lo coach John Wristen and Northern Colo-rado coach Earnest Collins, Jr.

Air Force Academy football coach Troy Calhoun talked about his football team and his experience as an evacuee of the Black Forrest Fire during a luncheon on June 19 at the Chey-enne Mountain Resort in Colorado Springs. Photo by Danny Summers

Tri Lakes 7-3-13


July 3, 2013 75 centsA Colorado Community Media Publication





Human remains identi� ed as Dylan Redwine Special to the Tribune

La Plata County Sheriff’s Offi ce received a report from the Colorado Bureau of In-vestigation (CBI) June 27 stating that items sent to them for tests had been identifi ed as human remains and that they were identi-fi ed as Dylan Redwine, according to police reports. The family has been notifi ed.

A variety of items including bones were collected during a 5-day search of Middle Mountain Road, according to the La Plata County Sheriff’s Offi ce. Middle Mountain is located north and within sight of Vallecito Lake.

The searched area ranges in alltitude from 8,000 feet to 11,000 feet, and consists of deep canyons and dense forest.

About 45 personnel from law enforce-ment and search and rescue deployed and worked over 1,600 man hours during the 5-day search which conclud-ed Wednesday afternoon. Groups taking part includ-ed: La Plata County Sher-iff’s Offi ce; Durango Police Department; Bayfi eld Mar-shal’s Offi ce; Dept of Home-land Security; U.S.Forest Service; La Plata Search & Rescue; La Plata Mounted Patrol; AZSTAR K-9 teams (Arizona); members of the Southwest Drug Task Force; Necro Search; Upper Pine Fire Protection District; Durango Fire and Res-cue Tactical Team; anthropologists and ar-

chaeologists from Fort Lewis College; FBI.Search teams negotiated steep drainages

with extensive ground cover as they looked for clues. Sectors were treated as possible crime scenes. At times the searchers were almost shoulder to shoulder as they moved up and down the diffi cult terrain.

The searches began last Saturday and ended Wednesday afternoon. The searches were not based on any recent tips nor new information, according to the Sheriff’s re-lease. They were part of a series of follow-up searches conducted in the Vallecito area since snows melted this Spring, according to autorities.

Dylan Redwine arrived at Durango-La Plata County airport on November 18th and was picked up by his father, Mark Red-

wine for a court ordered Thanksgiving holi-day visit, according to previous reports.

Elaine Redwine, Dylan’s mother report-ed him missing to La Plata County Sheriff’s Offi ce the following day.

Anyone with information related to Dylan Redwine’s disappearance are asked to contact La Plata County Sheriff’s Offi ce Investigators Dan Patterson (970-382-7015) or Tom Cowing (970-382-7045).

There is a local tip line (970-382-7511) where tips can be left on an answering ma-chine that is regularly checked by Investiga-tors. Persons can call the local Crime Stop-pers at 970-247-1112. Persons can also call the hotline for the National Center for Miss-ing and Exploited Children at 1-800-THE LOST (1-800-843-5678).

Redwine

Natural start ruled out Investigation is ongoing By Rob Carrigan rc a r r i g a n @ o u rc o l o ra -donews.com

Investigtators have ruled out natural casues for the start of the Black Forest Fire.

“With a high degree of certainty, we have ruled out any natural cause for the fi re, such as lightning. Through the use of a CBI canine trained to detect ac-celerants, as well as special-ized equipment and other investigative efforts, we have discovered no obvi-ous signs of an accelerant, although it cannot be ruled out completely. Investiga-tors are considering any number of intentional or accidental causes to the fi re such as mechanical sources like sparks from machinery

or hot components on mo-tors and exhaust systems,” according to Lieutenant Jeff Kramer, Public Informa-tion Offi cer, El Paso County Sheriff’s Offi ce.

“Since the start of the Black Forest Fire on June 11, 2013, investigators from the El Paso County Sher-iff’s Offi ce have led the ef-fort to determine where the fi re started and its cause. They have been assisted by the U.S. Forest Service, the Colorado Bureau of Investi-gation (CBI), the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Fire-arms (ATF), and the Aurora Fire Department. Although the cause of the fi re has not yet been determined, inves-tigators have identifi ed the area of origin in a wooded area; the specifi c location cannot be revealed at this time,” Kramer said.

Authorities have only determined that the Black Forest Fire was not caused by a natural start. Courtesy photo of Joint Information Center.

A family’s story from the Black Forest Fire � e MacDonalds are trying to make the best of di� cult situation By Danny Summers

Kellen MacDonald was at Sports-men’s Warehouse near the Citadel Mall on June 11 when he received a text from his mother, Lainie, inform-ing him that she was fl eeing the fam-ily home.

The reason, Lainie wrote, was that a huge dark cloud of smoke was building over the tree line surround-ing their six acres of Black Forest property.

“I didn’t believe her at fi rst,” said MacDonald, 18, who graduated from The Classical Academy in May. “I

looked toward Black Forest, but I couldn’t see anything. Then we went around a corner and I saw this huge plume of smoke. It was surreal.”

MacDonald never made it back home that day. That night he and the rest of the family took up temporary residence at the home of Rich Griffi th - just south of the fi re in Briargate.

On June 13, MacDonald was in-formed that his family’s home at 12845 Holmes Road had been de-stroyed.

It was one of 511 homes consumed by the raging fi re - the most destruc-tive in Colorado history.

Like so many people who lost their homes, MacDonald wished he could have gathered some special belong-ings.

His mom grabbed his 13-year-old brother, Quinn, and ran out of

the house as fast as she could as the smoke and fl ames began to build. All she was able to take with her was the strong box holding the family’s important documents, a lap top and their two 100-pound Bernese moun-tain dogs.

“I lost all my awards from the past four years,” said MacDonald, who was the ace pitcher on the TCA baseball team.

“All the special things I had from when I was playing. All my recruiting stuff. It was all gone.”

Among the treasured documents MacDonald lost in the fi re was his ac-ceptance letter to Colorado School of Mines. Last winter, he signed a schol-arship to play baseball for the presti-gious school.

“Before all this I was ready to head

A sign marks the site of where the MacDonalds home once stood in Black Forest. Their home was destroyed on June 11 -- Day 1 of the massive Black Forest Fire. Photos by Photo by Kellen MacDonald

Cause continues on Page 9

MacDonald continues on Page 9

off to college, but now I feel an obligation to stay here and help,” MacDonald said. “I still want to go. I’m just not that excited right now.”

MacDonald’s story, though tragic, is cer-tainly not unique in this situation. The fi re swept through the area so quickly and with so much force that there seemed to be little that fi refi ghters could do.

“The outpouring of love and support is more overwhelming than everything we owned,” Lainie said. “Even in this moment God has been faithful to us.”

The day the fi re broke out, Lainie was home enjoying the afternoon. About 2:45 she received a text from her friend, who was on vacation in Florida, informing her that she had seen video footage of a fi re near the area around the MacDonald home.

Lainie was caught off guard and didn’t believe her friend. Five minutes later she was in her car headed for safety. Prior to leaving, she texted her husband, Tim - who was at work - and informed him of the dire situation.

“I probably could have taken time to take some more stuff, but it was worth it not to have my son endure the mental trauma that goes along with something like this,” Lainie said. “I wanted to keep his mental health intact.”

Tim attempted to get back to the family’s home, but emergency personal would not allow him access. Chaos was everywhere. Thousands of people were evacuating as soon as possible. The smoke was so thick it was not healthy to be within the vicinity of the fi re. About a week after their home burned to the ground, the MacDonalds

returned to scope out the area and see if they could salvage anything. Kellen found a sportsmanship award pin he received from Triple Crown and a rusty Swiss Army knife he was given only weeks before as a gradu-ation gift. His mom found a few pieces of charred jewelry, as well as some broken pieces of China.

On July 3, the family moved from a local hotel into temporary residence - at least for the next year - at a house in Flying Horse. Meanwhile, they are patiently working with the insurance company on how to make the best of a terrible situation.

“We used to have six acres of Ponderosa Pines,” Lainie said with a smile. “Now we have six Ponderosa Pines on 5 ½ acres of charred burnt sticks. We’re going to call it Black Forest Meadows.”

The Tribune 9 July 3, 2013

9

SUNDAYWorship: 8am, 9:30am, 10:45am

Education: 9:30amCrossroads 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

20450 Beacon Lite Road • 488-9613Sunday Bible Classes … 9:30 a.m.

Morning Worship … 10:30 a.m.Evening Worship … 5:00 p.m.

Wednesday Night Classes … 7:00 p.m.www.trilakeschurch.org

Maranatha Bible FellowshipA Home Church Spirtual Growth

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A New Testament early churchformat that is changing lives

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Traditional Worship ServiceSunday 10a.m.-Nursery available

18125 Furrow RoadMonument 80132

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SUNDAYS 10 AM

Connecting Peopleto God and Others

Bear Creek Elem School1330 Creekside Dr.

487-7700www.forestridgechurch.org

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

Sunday Worship: 8:30, 9:45& 11:00 am

Sunday School: 9:45 am

To advertise your place of worship in this section, call 303-566-4091 or email [email protected]

Lutheran Church 675 W. Baptist Road

Colorado Springs, CO 719.481.2255

Family of Christ

Lutheran ChurchMissouri Synod

Pastor David Dyer

8:00 AM – Classic Worship9:30 AM – Modern Worship and Sunday

School for all ages10:45 AM – Modern Worship and

Children’s Church5:00 – 7:00 PM – Programs for all ages

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

OurColoradoNews.com 303-566-4100

Local Focus. More News.23 newspapers & websites. Connecting YOU to your LOCAL community.

This is the site of Kellen MacDonald’s room after the Black Forest Fire destroyed his family’s home on June 11. Photo Kellen MacDonald


MacDonald

“Investigators have made great progress and have gathered many items of evidence and other valuable pieces of information. Much of the information and evidence has been obtained through numerous inter-views, processing the area of origin, and the execution of multiple search warrants. Search warrants can be valuable in propel-ling a case forward, but are equally helpful in ruling out properties or people within the scope of an investigation as well. Any inves-tigative activities seen at a single home does

not mean it is a home or area of stronger in-terest than any other,” Kramer said.

As the case moves forward, investiga-tors will be busy analyzing the information available to them to determine the cause of the fi re.

“In the interest of the integrity of the in-vestigation, specifi c details about evidence and search warrants cannot be shared but Sheriff Terry Maketa is pleased with the cur-rent progress and will release additional details when it’s prudent to do so,” Kramer said.

Anyone with information about the cause of the fi re is encouraged to call the tip line at 719-444-8393 or email blackforest-fi [email protected].


Cause

Tri Lakes 7.10.13







Fire marshals stress importance of mitigation Homeowners help the � re� ghters when they reduce fuels around the outside of the home By Lisa Collacott [email protected]

By now everyone living in the Pikes Peak region has seen the de-struction from the Waldo Canyon Fire and Black Forest Fire.

For years local fi re depart-ments have been stressing the importance of mitigation because as they have said repeatedly about wildfi res “it’s not if but when.”

Margo Humes, fi re marshal for Westcott Fire Protection District, said the department has received

two grants recently to do fi re miti-gation in Pleasant View Estates and Shamrock Ranch. A lot of mit-igation was done along Colo. 83 to create a shaded fuel break and she said the Black Forest Fire did not cross over the shaded fuel break.

“It made a difference,” Humes said.

Humes and John Vincent, fi re marshal for the Tri-Lakes Monu-ment Fire Protection District, stress the importance of home-owners doing their part in saving their homes and that’s by fi re miti-gation.

“As I’ve told the HOA’s when I’m briefi ng them, I am not going to die to protect your home. None of the fi reman are,” Vincent said.

“It should never be sacrifi cing life to save a property,” Humes added. “Homes are important to

us. We don’t want anybody’s home to burn. That’s what we’re trying to avoid but people have to help themselves to. We can’t do it all.”

“We are not callous,” Vincent said, adding that fi re departments have minimal resources to fi ght a fi re. “If we spent the amount of money we spend on fi ghting a for-est fi re in pre-mitigation efforts we would spend less.”

Vincent and Humes have been working to get the message of mit-igation out and have even been approached by other towns and municipalities to give presenta-tions.

“John and I have really, re-ally tried to get the message out to people. We continue to do so. We’ve had homeowner

Members of the Westcott Fire Protection District put tree branches in a chipper during a community clean-up day for Pleasant View Estates in May. The community has a bi-annual fi re mitigation day. Local fi re departments have stressed the importance of fi re mitigating to protect homes from wild land fi res. Photo by File photo by Lisa Collacott

Disaster relief team lends hand to � re victims Volunteers will remain in the area through the end of the month By Danny Summers

Volunteer teams repre-senting Southern Baptist Convention Disaster Relief will remain in the Black For-est area until at least the end of July.

That word came from Fritz Wilson, national ex-ecutive director for disaster

relief, who has been in the area overseeing teams and projects.

“Things are going really well,” Wilson said. “We’ve had volunteers in from Cali-fornia, Arizona, Missouri, Georgia, Oklahoma and Washington. People from all around the country are coming here to help and lend a hand.

“Many of our volunteers came from Moore, Oklaho-ma, where they were help-ing clean up after the vio-lent tornado.”

The relief workers are

doing everything from op-erating heavy equipment and cutting down charred trees, to cleaning up ash to helping homeowners sift through soot trying to fi nd valuables. Chaplains are also brought in to help resi-dents deal with the emo-tional and spiritual trauma in their lives.

“Every disaster is unique,” Wilson said. “Whether its fi re, fl ood hur-ricane or tornado. For the people in Black Forest, this is their Katrina.

“I try not to make too

many comparisons, but this is a big event.”

The volunteers fi rst ar-rived shortly after the fi re erupted on June 11. As many as 125 folks are on location each week. Most of them are being housed at the First Baptist Church of Black Forest (10865 Black Forest Road). The over fl ow are staying at Vista Grande Baptist Church (5680 Stet-son Hills Blvd.).

“This is just another opportunity for us to do

The Southern Baptist Convention Disaster Relief team will remain in the Black Forest area through the end of July. Volunteers from around the United States are helping victims of the recent fi re. Pictured from left to right are Wes Johnson (incident commander), John Wells (senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Black Forest) and Fritz Wilson (national executive director for disaster relief). Photo by Danny Summers

Mitigation continues on Page 10

Family looks for justice for Dylan Redwine Sheri� ’s o� ce has not named any suspects, active investigation By Lisa Collacott lcollacottourcoloradone-ws.com

The bracelets read “Hope for Dylan Redwine” and for seven months his family and friends held on to hope that he would come home.

On June 27 the fam-ily was notifi ed that the teen had been found but it wasn’t the ending they were hoping for.

After investigators con-ducted a search of Middle Mountain Road near Val-lecito Lake the La Plata County Sheriff’s Offi ce received news back from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation that human remains found during that search were that of Dylan.

Now instead of search-ing for him investigators are now focusing on what happened to him.

“We have no new breaks in the case. We have not labeled anyone as a sus-pect,” Dan Bender, public information offi cer for the La Plata County Sheriff’s Offi ce, said.

Dylan Redwine went missing Nov. 19, the day after arriving in Vallecito to spend Thanksgiving with his father during a court ordered visit. Dylan was 13-years-old at the time and was an eighth grader at Lewis-Palmer Middle School. Dylan and his mom had moved to the

Monument area from Bay-fi eld a few months before. Dylan’s father, Mark Red-wine, said he left his home to run errands that morn-ing and when he returned Dylan was gone.

During an interview with The Tribune in Feb-ruary Elaine Redwine, Dylan’s mom, said she had “hope that Dylan will come home safe.” Her thoughts were consumed

with bring-ing Dylan home safe and won-dering what h a p p e n e d to him. Elaine Red-wine had to eventu-

ally return to her job but made the six hour drive to Durango every weekend to search for her son.

The search of Middle Mountain Road was not based on any recent tips or new information.

“The search of Middle Mountain Road was one of a series of searches since the snow melted. It’s an area we have searched in the past and we always in-tended to go back there,” Bender said.

The La Plata County Sheriff’s Offi ce along with several other agencies had been searching the area around Vallecito Lake since Dylan disappeared and had to wait for the snow to melt to go back into some areas.

According to the Durango Herald Mark

Redwine

Redwine continues on Page 10Relief continues on Page 10

10 The Tribune July 10, 2013

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association call us and ask us to do presen-tations,” Humes said.

The areas in Black Forest and Mountain Shadows that have already burned are now safe from a wild land fi re but its other areas like the remainder of Black Forest, Monu-ment, Woodmoor, Palmer Lake, Gleneagle, Rockrimmon and the Broadmoor that are in danger of a wild land fi re. Vincent said other areas like Summit County and Grand County, where the beetles have killed the trees, are in danger of a wildfi re as well.

“This state is going to be impacted so horribly along Interstate 70, Summit County (and) Eagle County all up in there, because if you’ve driven up there recently you’ll see almost all the trees are brown and dead from beetle kill,” Humes said.

“The town of Vail, the fi re marshal up there (said) it’s going to be horrifi c. It will impact this state because I-70 will shut down. It’s not just going to impact this state it will impact California, Utah, Arizona because they are going to shut that (I-70) down. You won’t be able to get through there because of the fi re.”

Wild� res are a part of natureVincent said fi res are a natural occurring

element on the earth such as hurricanes and volcanoes. People have impacted the ecosystem by moving into these areas and

they haven’t had a chance to burn. There are too many trees per acre that

haven’t been thinned out by fi re so the beetles are thinning out the trees by killing them.

The U.S. Forest Service ideal model is 50 trees per acre but Humes said there are thousands of trees on an acre now.

“What we tell people is if you can’t look up and see the sky you have too much can-opy,” Vincent said. “If the trees are touching each other they’re too close,” Humes added.

Vincent and Humes said people also shouldn’t put mulch or grass up against their houses but instead use rock. People are concentrating on making homes harder to burn but they should concentrate on the fuels close to the house.

“If you get the fuels pushed back and thin them out how hard does your home have to be” Vincent said. “Don’t make the house harder to burn make your yard hard-er to get the fi re in there.”

Humes said there is nothing wrong with people living in the forest and that they moved here for a reason but they need to mitigate to protect their homes.

”We live in an area that is prone to this (fi re) and we’ve been in denial of where we live and mother nature is trying to correct it,” Vincent said.

Westcott and Tri-Lakes, as well as Black Forest Fire Protection District and Palmer Lake Volunteer Fire Department, will go to a home in their district and give the home-owner a free assessment of the home and property and what to do to reduce the risk of losing their home in a wildfi re.


Mitigation

something,” said Wes Johnson, who came from Oklahoma and was the team’s incident commander from June 27 through July 5.

The Black Forest Fire was the most de-structive in Colorado history, consuming 511 homes and killing two people. More than 14,000 acres were burned in the heavily wooded area in the northeast part of Colo-rado Springs.

“These folks have been phenomenal,” said John Wells, senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Black Forest. “God has used them to reach out and help people. Disaster Relief is the arm that has done it.”

Dennis Velz, director of the Colorado di-saster relief team, fi rst arrived on site within 24 hours after the fi re started. He put to-

gether an incident command team. Velz also worked the massive Waldo Canyon Fire in 2012 that destroyed nearly 350 homes and killed two people, while burning more than 18,000 acres. More than 32,000 residents were evacuated.

The Southern Baptist Convention Disas-ter Relief was formed in 1967 after Hurricane Beulah struck the Rio Grande Valley along the Texas Coast. Today, the organization has about 90,000 volunteers.

All Southern Baptist Convention workers go through rigorous background checks and extensive disaster training. The organiza-tion has opened up partnerships with relief agencies such as the American Red Cross and the Salvation Army.

“Hopefully, come the end of July we’ll be on the back end of this and not the front end,” Wilson said.

For more information or to donate, go to http://www.namb.net/dr/.

Redwine met with investigators and was taken up to Middle Mountain Road where Dylan’s remains were found.

“It was horrifi c. It was unimaginable. No parent should go up there in a situation like this,” Mark Redwine told the reporter.

In that February interview with The Tri-bune Elaine Redwine said she believed that her ex-husband knew more than he was telling.

The two appeared together on the Dr. Phil show in February and accused each other of having something to do with Dylan’s disap-pearance.

Since it is an ongoing investigation the

La Plata County Sheriff’s Offi ce won’t release any more details in the case.

Now that the search is over the family will now concentrate on bringing whoever is re-sponsible to justice.

In a separate interview with the Durango Herald, Dylan’s older brother Cory Redwine said, “It’s sad to hear he’s no longer with us, but it’s better than not knowing, wondering every single second of every single day. It’s nice to have closure. We found Dylan. That doesn’t really mean all that much if we can’t fi nd justice and bring peace for him.”

The Tribune attempted to contact Elaine Redwine for this story but did not hear back by the time of deadline.

A candlelight vigil took place on July 27 in Bayfi eld. Hundreds turned out for the memorial. No word on whether or not there will be one held in Monument.


Relief


Redwine

EDITOR’S NOTE: To add or update your club listing, e-mail [email protected], attn: Tribune.

PROFESSIONAL

FRONT RANGE Business Group meets from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on the first and third Tuesdays of every month at Bella Panini in Palmer Lake.

TRI-LAKES BUSINESS Networking International meets from 8-9:30 a.m. every Wednesday at the Mozaic Inn in Palmer Lake. Call Elizabeth Bryson at 719-481-0600 or e-mail [email protected].

TRI-LAKES CHAMBER Business After Hours meets at 5:30 p.m. on the third Tuesday of each month at various locations. Free to members; $10 for non-members. Call 719 481-3282 or go to www.trilakeschamber.com.

TRI-LAKES CHAMBER Business Networking Group meets at 7:30 a.m. the first and third Thursday at Willow Tree Cafe, 140 2nd St., Monument. New members welcome. If District 38 is delayed or cancelled, their will be no meeting. Yearly membership dues are $20. Call 719 481-3282 or go to www.trilakeschamber.com.

TRI-LAKES NETWORKING Team meets for dinner at 6:30 p.m. the second Tuesday of each month at the Inn at Palmer Divide. TNT is business women building relationships in a social setting. Visit www.trilakesnet-workingteam.com or call Janine Robertson at 719-266-0246 or e-mail [email protected].

WISDOM AND Wealth Master Mind Group Lifting Spirits meets from 7-9 p.m. the second and fourth Tuesday from June to September at 755 High-way 105, Unit C, Palmer Lake. RSVP to Meredith at 630-618-9400. Visit www.MeredithBroomfield.com.

WOODMOOR BUSINESS Group Meeting is the second Monday of every month from 6:30-8 p.m. at the Woodmoor Barn, 1691 Woodmoor Dr. We are Woodmoor residents offering products and services to the community. New members welcome. For more information, call Bobbi Doyle at 719-331-3003 or go to www.woodmoorbusinessgroup.com.

RECREATION

AMATEUR RADIO Operators, W0TLM (Tri-Lakes Monument Fire Radio Association), meets the third Monday of each month at 6:30 p.m. at the Tri-Lakes Monutemnt Fire Protection District Station 1, 18650 Hwy 105. All Amateur Radio Operators are welcome. Call Joyce Witte at 488-0859 for more information.

ADULT RECREATIONAL and intermediate pick up volleyball is at Lewis-Palmer Middle School every Monday from 7-9 p.m. Call Claudia at 719-313-6662 for details.

BINGO BY the Tri-Lakes American Legion Post 9-11 is conducted from 7 to 9 p.m. every Saturday at the Post home, Depot Restaurant in Palmer lake. Proceeds are dedicated to Scholarship and community support activities of the Post. At least 70 percent of the game sales are awarded in prizes, and free food drawings are conducted. Doors open at 6 p.m. and all are invited for the fun, food, and prizes. See www.americanlegion-trilakespost911.com/bingo.htm for more information.

BIG RED Saturday Market. Fresh vegetables and fruit, bakery items, local honey, crafts, jewelry, pet stuff and more are for sale from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. every Saturday at the Big Red Saturday market at Second and Jefferson streets in Monument. The money benefits Lewis-Palmer com-munity schools.

FRIENDS OF Monument Preserve is a nonprofit organization that works to keep trails rideable and hikeable in the Monument Preserve Area. Meetings are at 7 p.m. every third Wednesday at the Monument Fire Center. Trail work is done at 6 p.m. the second Tuesday in the summer months. Contact [email protected] or


7-Color

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Private PartyContact: Viola [email protected]

Funeral HomesVisit: www.memoriams.com

Forgery, cattle the� , possible murder of where Osborn’s body was lying.’ He said he would leave an envelope, sealed and not to be opened until Monday, giving the location so the accuracy of the message could be proved after the search,” according to Mathew’s account.

That following Sunday, a procession of about 70 cars that included Sollo and four sisters of Osborn, was taken to a spot five miles east of the Cahill ranch, but the ‘student of psychic phenomena’ claimed they were taken to the wrong spot. And while they were, the body was being removed.

According to a message left at the Gazette and Telegraph office later, “the body was in a well five miles east of the Cahill place; Sollo also claimed that he had received information giving the actual location, and that Osborn had been shot with a revolver and beaten to death.”

From that time on, after the dry psychic hole, the Osborn case was overshadowed by news of the war, and in effect, moved to the back burners of local investigation.At their cattle rustling trial in February, the state Brand Inspector Earl Brown, testified that one of men selling the cattle, filled out paperwork that the car they were driving belonged to Alf Coulsen, a former Teller County Com-missioner, and that the driver was “Earl Osborn,” a brother of Sumner Osborn, who had been been dead for a year or more at the times the crimes were com-mitted.

The case went to jury, and the Cahills were sentenced to terms of eight and 10 years. Betts, only involved in the horse theft, received probation. The Cahills served their terms at the Colorado State Penitentiary, and were later released.

Sumner Alfred Osborn’s body was never found.

Black Forest wood has long been popular

Wood?We do not often think that our major

product might be wood.The fi rst buildings in Denver were from

the Pike’s Peak Region. Not only that, but it came from an area that has been in the news a lot lately, Black Forest.

Early ranchers knew their fortune was in the trees. Long before the discovery of gold near Denver, they were cutting trees for lumber in Black Forest. J.A. Weir and Carl Husted were the primary saw mills in the forest, both doing business starting in the 1860’s.

We know Mr. Husted because in his later years he chose to live in Colorado City. That is his house on 30th, and we un-derstand a lot of that wood used was local.

Once the railroads were built they did bring in hardwoods from the east.

The timber dealers in Chicago not only bought pine and fi r from us, they sold us oak and maple.

The pine they sold us came mainly from Michigan and locally it was called Chicago pine.

In 1878 Dr. Bell starts his saw mill up in Manitou Park. Much of that lumber was used by General Palmer’s Rio Grande railroad, but also for houses in Manitou, Colorado City and Colorado Springs.

There was competition with lumber coming from the forests in Southern Colo-rado and New Mexico one the railroads reached there. A hundred years ago we started getting lumber from the Pacifi c Northwest, and still do.

Cripple Creek caused a huge demand for lumber and mills west of Pike’s Peak

prospered. The area west of Divide saw dozens of saw mills. This wood was really good for mine beams and railroad ties, but also boards too.

Some of these mills lasted until about fi fty years ago. Many of the old doors and windows used here were made from Cali-fornia White pine.

Hickory, poplar and gum was from Ten-nessee. At one time box car loads of ready-made doors and windows arrived every day, but there were problems.

The woods and wood products like doors, brought into this area were quickly used.

After a month or so they started to crack. Our dry climate was the problem. Letting the “foreign” wood dry out before it was used helped. Local door and window manufacturers had known that.

Over the years lumber mills died out, but there are still a few around. Much of the damaged wood from the Hayman fi re was cut for various uses.

The demand for Waldo Canyon wood may not fare so well thanks to the diffi culty of building access roads, but Black Forest wood has always been popular.

Number of homes destroyed in Black Forest Fire revised Assessor’s count goes from 511 to 486 By Lisa Collacott [email protected]

The El Paso County Assessor’s Offi ce has revised the number of homes that were de-stroyed in the Black Forest Fire.

It was originally reported that 511 homes were destroyed but in a new report released to the board of county commissioners that number has been revised to 486. That num-ber includes 25 mobile homes.

There were 30 detached garages de-stroyed and 37 homes were damaged.

The total value of homes destroyed is

$85,444,052.The residential assessment is complete

however the assessor’s offi ce is still assess-ing out-buildings, commercial buildings and land and trees. They hope to have the assessment complete by July 19 or 20.

County Assessor Mark Lowderman told commissioners in the report that fi ve resi-dential properties could not be assessed at the time of the initial assessment because of locked gates or debris.

He said his assessors have appointments to assess those properties.

The Black Forest Fire started on June 11 and within 24 hours the sheriff’s offi ce had a list on their website of homes that had been destroyed or damaged. The list grew over the next several days.

The El Paso County Assessor’s O� ce has revised the number of homes that were destroyed in the Black Forest Fire. It was originally reported that 511 homes were destroyed but in a new report released to the board of county commis-sioners that number has been revised to 486. Photo by Rob Carrigan

of the mountain and line up and see who is the fastest.”

Ilgen developed the idea years ago as he ran laps on the summit in preparation for the Pikes Peak Ascent.

“I always had this thought that we could have a race at the summit,” Ilgen said. “It keeps with the tradition of Pikes Peak go-ing back to 1936 when they fi rst ran a race up the mountain. Those runners were pio-neers. Now here we are almost 80 years lat-er with the opportunity to explore this new frontier. How hard can we push ourselves in challenging environments?”

The racing will begin with the women’s heat at 9 a.m., followed by the men at about 9:30 a.m.

Encircled by a ribbon of gravel road, the mostly fl at and broad summit of Pikes Peak is roughly the size of four football

fi elds. The course will be laid out by Scott Simmons, coach of the American Distance Project training group. The race will be chip timed with splits recorded.

The Pikes Peak High-Altitude Mile kicks off the Pikes Peak Marathon and Ascent week, with the race expo beginning in Man-itou Springs on Friday (Aug. 16) followed by the Pikes Peak Ascent on Saturday (Aug. 17) and the Marathon on Sunday.

The Pikes Peak Marathon is the third-oldest marathon in the United States. Top runners from around the world annually come to the region to compete in the race, which begins at about 6,300 feet elevation in downtown Manitou Springs. Runners wind their way to the top of 14,110-feet Pikes Peak and back to down to the fi nish line in Manitou Springs.

Ascent competitors fi nish at the top of Pikes Peak.

“There are very few marathons in the world that even come close to this,” Ilgen said. “It’s the only one I know where the el-evation goes to 14,000 feet.”


Mile

Bronc Day to be held Aug. 3. By Pat Hill [email protected]

The 75th annual Bronc Day festival in Green Mountain Falls begins at 7 a.m. Aug. 3 with a pancake breakfast at the fi re station on Ute Pass Avenue.

The main attraction, however, is the parade which begins at 10 a.m. This year’s Grand Marshals are John and Modenia Kramer. Modenia is a mainstay every year in the parade. Dressed in Victorian ele-gance, she is regal as she marches amid the horses, the bicycles and the antique cars.

As some march in simulated drunken stupor, Modenia leads the temperance la-dies who frown upon such public inebria-tion.

The parade features the Sister Nations Color Guard composed of Native American women army veterans representing various tribal nations.

Also in the parade are the Al Kaly Pipe and Drum Corps, fi re engines, fl oats, clown cowboys and gunfi ghters.

After the parade, the festivities continue with a rubber-duckie race and a radio-con-trolled model boat race on Gazebo Lake. There will also be a 26-foot high air slide and Disney Bouncer.

Entertainment includes Buck Goucher, renowned country and western artist, Indi-ans performing tribal dances and the Rocky Mountain Gunfi ghters show.

Multiple arts and crafts and food booths line the lake shore. For information, visit www.broncdayco.org.

LETTERS POLICYThe editor welcomes signed letters on most any subject. Please limit letters to 300 words. We reserve the right to edit for legal-ity, clarity, civility and the paper’s capacity. Only submissions with name, address and telephone number will run.

MAIL, E-MAIL OR FAX TO:Colorado Community Newspapers,P.O. Box 340, Woodland Park, CO [email protected], Fax: 719-687-3009

Tri Lakes 7.24.13







Tourism looking healthy in Tri-Lakes region Summer numbers still coming in for many businesses and attractions By Danny Summers [email protected]

The massive Black Forest Fire that de-stroyed almost 500 homes and burned more 14,000 acres in June seems to have had only a slight affect - either way - on summer tourism in the Tri-Lakes area.

Offi cials at the area’s top two tourist destinations - Air Force Academy Visitors Center and Chapel, and the Western Mu-seum of Mining and Industry - had vary-ing accounts of guests at their facilities.

“We were affected (in 2012) from the Waldo Canyon Fire, just like everyone else was,” said Dave Futey, manager of the Western Mining Museum. “And even

though we were closed for three days this year because of the Black Forest Fire, in general, we’re on par with what we were two years ago.”

The Black Forest Fire caused many businesses in the immediate area to close down for a time, or shorten their hours. The Mining Museum was on pre evacu-ation the third day of the fi re (June 13).

“Even when we were closed we had people show up a couple of days,” Futey said. “I guess they weren’t aware of the se-verity of what was going on.”

Futey did not have exact numbers on summer tourism at the Mining Museum, but he did note that the museum experi-ences its busiest tourist season from late may to early August.

“We usually see it pick up again after Labor Day and we see a bump for about a month,” he said.

Futey added that school group volume is heaviest in April and May, and then

again from September through early No-vember.

The Air Force Academy also was not able to provide exact fi gures on the num-ber of tourists or guests that have passed through its gates. But John Van Winkle, the AFAs’ deputy chief, media relations, said that 156,000 people made their way into the visitor’s center from January through June of this year. During the time period in 2012, 184,000 had been count-ed.

“There’s always going to be some fl uc-tuation over the years,” said Van Winkle, who noted that 441,000 passed through visitor’s center all of last year. “The fi res don’t help with tourism.

“We might have better numbers with people who go to the visitor’s center than the gift shop or chapel. It’s hard to say.”

The Tri-Lakes Chamber of Commerce reported a steady fl ow of visitors this year.

“It’s about the same as it’s been in pre-vious years,” said offi ce manager Kelli Rose. “During the summer months we get a lot more people that come in here. The two biggest things that they want to know about are Pikes Peak and Garden of the Gods.”

Rose added that folks wanting to ex-plore the immediate Tri-Lakes area show interest in fi shing and hiking its many trails.

“They want to get back to nature, she said.

Many attractions in the Pikes Peak re-gion have reported increases in numbers of patrons.

“We’ve been pretty consistent all sum-mer,” said Jeff Wolin, a park ranger at Flo-rissant Fossil Beds in Teller County. “We thought we might see a drop off with the

The chapel at the Air Force Academy is frequented by more than 400,000 visitors annually. Photos courtesy of the Air Force Academy

The Air Force Academy Visitor’s Center is the most frequented man-made attraction in the Pikes Peak region. Courtesy of the Air Force Academy

Black Forest churches help meet needs Provide food, clothing, furniture and other items to those a� ected by � re By Lisa Collacott [email protected]

The Bible says to love one another and to look out for the interests of others and that is exactly what Black Forest Churches are doing in the wake of the Black Forest Fire.

Since the fi re the churches in Black Forest have stepped up to help their com-munity and those in their own congrega-tions as many of them have lost their own homes.

The churches have been providing ev-erything from monetary needs, clothing and furniture, clean-up of their properties and people that will help sift through the ash to fi nd some memory or keepsake that might have survived the fi re.

“We have been giving money to those that have immediate needs,” Rev. Burl Kreps from Black Forest Community Church said.

Kreps said the church is affi liated with the United Church of Christ and church-es across the country affi liated with UCC have been sending in donations to help. A church in Fort Collins sent $2,000 and one in Maine sent $1,000.

Black Forest Community Church has also given prayer shawls to those who have lost their homes.

“We’ve received a lot of positive feed-back on that,” Kreps said.

Jan Duncan, director of ministries at Black Forest Lutheran Church, said they have provided food, clothes and house-hold items to anyone that needs them.

“We have teams of people going out to help with cutting down trees,” Duncan said.

Duncan said 20 families in their congre-gation have lost their homes and they have really been assisting them.

But many others have come into the church needing items. One woman came in specifi cally looking for patio chairs and Duncan helped her locate some.

The First Baptist Church of Black For-est recently had a clothes distribution and provided clothing to over 200 families.

They don’t have room to store any fur-niture but they are acting as the middle-man for those that need furniture and those that have furniture to donate.

“On Aug. 25 the church is inviting the 486 families that lost their homes to their Great Tailgate Round-up, an annual fall kick-off. They will provide dinner and an outdoor movie and will give away prizes. There will be another clothes distribution at the event and the North American Mis-sion Board has sent bibles that will also be available at the event for the many people that lost their bibles in the fi re.

“We just want to love on them and let them know we are here. We are not about religion. We just want to help,” John Wells, worship pastor at First Baptist Church of Black Forest, said.

Tourism continues on Page 12 Churches continues on Page 13


3

Sheri� focusing on his current o� ce him I may change my mind at some point but that I didn’t see that happening. It’s ac-tually pretty upsetting that I am claimed to have made that announcement when I never made an announcement I was inter-ested in running for a higher offi ce,” Ma-keta wrote on his Facebook page.

“I still am very invested in fulfi lling my responsibilities in the current offi ce I hold.”

The Tribune attempted to contact Ma-keta for an interview but was told by the public information offi cer that he has chosen not to interview on this topic right now. The Tribune was referred to his Face-book page.

Black Forest Fire insurance claims nearing 4,000 � e � re is the second most destrucive in Colorado history By Danny Summers [email protected]

Reports in June indicated that the Black Forest Fire would likely make history as the most destructive in Colorado annals. But that might not be the case after all.

Through July 15, the Black Forest Fire generated 3,630 claims, accounting for nearly $300 million, according to informa-tion released by the Rocky Mountain Insur-ance Information Association last week.

Those numbers lag behind the 6,648 claims costing $453.7 million, from the 2012 Waldo Canyon fi re - the most destruc-tive in Colorado history.

The Black Forest Fire destroyed 488 homes (that fi gure continues to be updat-

ed) and burned more 14,000 acres. Original reports had 511 homes de-

stroyed, but that number was revised ear-lier this month. The fi re began on June 11 and was fi nally out on June 20.

The Waldo Canyon Fire consumed 347 homes and burned more than 18,000 acres.

“Insured losses have so much to do with where a fi re occurred and what type of properties were in that area,” said Carole Walker, executive director of the RMIIA, in a statement.

Walker added that the Black Forest fi re hit a more rural area containing a wide range of homes. They ranged from homes worth millions to dilapidated cabins and trailers.

The Waldo Canyon Fire, on the other hand, hit the denser Mountain Shadows subdivision of northwest Colorado Springs where the majority of homes ranged any-where from $300,000 $400,000, or more.

The value of claims from the Waldo Can-yon fi re rose nearly 29 percent from the preliminary estimate to a year after the fi re, according to the RMIIA.

Property owners have a year to fi le claims against their policies. Claims from the Black Forest fi re are expected to rise in coming months.

“Insurers think they have heard from those customers facing a total loss in Black Forest by now,” Walker said.

Walker estimated that if the Black Forest fi re could generate claims that would come in around $377 million.

That would rank it as the second most destructive wildfi re in state history in dol-lar terms.

Walker and the RMIIA believes that due to the increase in wildfi res in recent years, both homeowners and insurers seem to be better prepared to handle catastrophic losses.

In related stories, bomb squads from the Colorado Springs Police Department and the El Paso County Sheriff’s Offi ce used ex-plosives last week to blow up trees that were burned by the Black Forest Fire, bypassing the typical way fi refi ghters cut down the trees with chainsaws.

Using explosives, the departments said, allows the trees to be removed from a safe distance.

Crews tried the new technique on a handful of trees on private property located along Coachman Drive.

All told, $29 million worth of trees were incinerated by the fi re.

That number was released by the El Paso County Assessor’s Offi ce last week. It was based upon decreased property values.

The Assessor’s offi ce also said that the fi re brought $116,308,348 of market value loss to area that was mostly dependent upon trees for its appeal.

July 8A sergeant responded

to the intersection of Colo. 105 and Jackson Creek Parkway for a non-injury traffi c crash.

An offi cer conducted a patrol check in the 16000 block of Jackson Creek Parkway. One adult male was arrested.

An offi cer responded to the Monument Police Department front lobby in regards to a criminal trespass auto report that occurred in the 600 block of Colo. 105.

An offi cer was dis-patched to the area of Mitchell Avenue and Sec-ond Street for a report of harassment.

An offi cer of the Monu-ment Police Department conducted a traffi c stop on a vehicle leaving the area of a prowler call in the 17000 block of Quarry Way. Upon contact it was found the ve-hicle was unrelated but the party possessed marijuana and drug paraphernalia in the vehicle.

July 9An offi cer was dis-

patched to the 200 block of Colo. 105 in reference to a cold theft. An offi cer was dispatched to the area of Villa Grove in reference to an abandoned vehicle. The vehicle was found to be reported stolen.

An offi cer was dis-patched to an address on Windy Creek Drive in reference to a report of an unlawful use of a fi nancial transaction device.

July 10An offi cer was dis-

patched to the 800 block of

Beacon Lite Road on report of a cold criminal trespass.

An offi cer responded to the Monument Police Department to take a com-plaint regarding a stolen license plate.

Offi cers responded to the 800 block of Beacon Lite Road in reference to a domestic violence (harass-ment). After their investiga-tion offi cers determined the harassment was unfounded.

Offi cers responded to the intersection of Jackson Creek Parkway and Leather Chaps Drive in reference a traffi c accident. Offi cers issued a summons to one adult female.

An offi cer was advised of a verbal harassment that had just occurred at Monu-ment Lake. Case is under investigation.

July 11An offi cer responded to

a report of a menacing in the 15000 block of Struthers Road. An offi cer responded to the report of a fraud in the 16000 block of Elk Val-ley Trail.

July 13An offi cer was advised

that two women were at-tempting to shoplift from a business located in the 16200 block of Jackson Creek Parkway. One suspect was contacted and issued a summons the other suspect fl ed the scene.

July 14Offi cers responded to

Mt. Herman in reference to a report of menacing. Of-fi cers contacted the suspect vehicle in the 3600 block of Mt. Herman, the driver was suspected of driv-

ing under the infl uence. El Paso County Deputies issued a summons to one adult male. An offi cer re-sponded to the 16200 block of Jackson Creek Parkway on the report of a theft that occurred on 5/16/2013.

An offi cer responded to the 16200 block of Jack-son Creek Parkway on the report of a theft that occurred.

July 15An offi cer responded to

the report of found prop-erty at Monument Police Department’s lobby. The property was fi rst found in the 100 block of Jefferson Street and brought to the MPD lobby.

An offi cer of the Monu-ment Police Department was dispatched to an as-sault at the 15200 block of Struthers Road.

July 16An offi cer made a traffi c

stop of a vehicle around Colo. 105 and Knollwood Drive. The driver was arrested on charges for suspicion of driving under the infl uence of alcohol.

Offi cers took a report of a traffi c accident which occurred in the 700 block of Baptist Road. Offi cers also investigated a harassment incident related to the traf-fi c accident. Offi cers issued a summons to one adult male.

A sergeant found a black wallet in the parking lot of Wal-Mart.

July 17Offi cers conducted a

traffi c stop in the 16200 block of Old Denver High-way. Offi cers arrested one adult male for an outstand-ing warrant.

EL PASO COUNTY ARRESTSContinued from Page 2

I-25 expansion project update: Lane realignments at Woodmen Road rescheduled

Special to The Tribune Lane realignments between Woodmen

Road & North Academy Boulevard have been rescheduled for July 23-25. Drivers will see lane realignments in the segment of Interstate 25 between Woodmen Road (Exit 149) and North Academy Boulevard (Exit 150) July 23 through July 25. The fi rst traf-fi c shift, occurring July 24 at 5:30 a.m., will be in the northbound lanes of I-25. Traffi c will shift to the right (east) to accommodate work in the highway median.

The second traffi c shift will impact southbound interstate traffi c. That shift is scheduled to occur July 25 at 5:30 a.m. Again, traffi c will shift to the right (west) as work shifts to the median. Daytime speed limits will remain at 55 mph after the lane

shifts but may be reduced during nighttime work. These previously announced lane realignments were rescheduled because of weather impacts. All work is subject to weather and equipment conditions.

Project Construction Impacts Week of July 22

Below is listed the activity area, time and dates activity is scheduled to begin and end and potential impacts such as traffi c, clo-sures, utilities, access, etc.

Northbound and southbound I-25, vari-ous locations between Woodmen Road and Baptist Road from 7 a.m. - 5 p.m. July 21-27. Right and left shoulder closures.

Woodmen Road on ramp to northbound I-25 from 8:30 p.m. - 5:30 a.m. July 23-24. On ramp closed for restriping.

Southbound North Academy Boulevard on ramp to southbound I-25 from 8:30

p.m. - 5:30 a.m. July 23-24 and July 24-25. Onramp closed for grading. Detour: North Academy Boulevard south to Woodmen Road; Woodmen Road west to I-25.

Interquest Parkway onramp to south-bound I-25 from 9 p.m. - 5:30 a.m. July 24-25 and July 25-26. Onramp closed for grading. Detour: Interquest Parkway east to Voyager Parkway; Voyager Parkway south to Briargate Parkway; Briargate Parkway west to I-25.

Detour established for wide-load ve-hicles

Vehicles exceeding 13-feet in width are required to use a Colorado Department of Transportation approved detour to avoid the I-25 expansion work zone. The detour is necessary because lane widths have been reduced in several areas between Monu-ment and Woodmen Road in Colorado

Springs.For northbound vehicles, the detour

is: US 24 Bypass (Mile Marker 139) east to Powers Boulevard; north on Powers Boule-vard to Colo. 83; north on Colo. 83 to I-225; west on I-225 to northbound I-25.

For southbound vehicles, the detour is: I-225 east to Colo. 83; south on Colo. 83 to Powers Boulevard; south on Powers Boule-vard to US 24 Bypass; US 24 Bypass west to southbound I-25.

To receive all future updates you must register through the CDOT website. Visit www.coloradodot.info and click on the bright green telephone in the upper right corner of the home page. A project web-site will be available in the next two weeks: www.southi25expansion.com.

A telephone hotline is also available at 719-247-8339.

GET SOCIAL WITH USThe Tri-Lakes Tribune wants to share the news. Check out and like our page on facebook. Search for Tri-Lakes Tribune. While you are there search for Colorado Community Media's page too.


5

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

20450 Beacon Lite Road • 488-9613Sunday Bible Classes … 9:30 a.m.

Morning Worship … 10:30 a.m.Evening Worship … 5:00 p.m.

Wednesday Night Classes … 7:00 p.m.www.trilakeschurch.org

Maranatha Bible FellowshipA Home Church Spirtual Growth

Meaningful Relationships Solid Biblical Teaching

A New Testament early churchformat that is changing lives

495-7527

The Churchat

Woodmoor

488-3200

A church for all of God's people

Traditional Worship ServiceSunday 10a.m.-Nursery available

18125 Furrow RoadMonument 80132

www.thechurchatwoodmoor.org

SUNDAYS 10 AM

Connecting Peopleto God and Others

Bear Creek Elem School1330 Creekside Dr.

487-7700www.forestridgechurch.org

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

Sunday Worship: 8:30, 9:45& 11:00 am

Sunday School: 9:45 am

To advertise your place of worship in this section, call 303-566-4091 or email [email protected]

Lutheran Church 675 W. Baptist Road

Colorado Springs, CO 719.481.2255

Family of Christ

Lutheran ChurchMissouri Synod

Pastor David Dyer

8:00 AM – Classic Worship9:30 AM – Modern Worship and Sunday

School for all ages10:45 AM – Modern Worship and

Children’s Church5:00 – 7:00 PM – Programs for all ages

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

Black Forest residents urged to purchase � ood insurance is a standard 30 day waiting period for NFIP fl ood insurance to take effect.

Through special legislation enacted after the Waldo Canyon Fire, the 30 day waiting period was extended but only for specifi c fi res originating of federally owned land. At this time no waver of the 30 day waiting period is expected for the Black Forest Fire.

Specifi c NFIP information concerning homeowners and renter’s coverage, agents and fl ood data is available at: http://www.fema.gov/national-flood-insurance-pro-gram/information-homeowners-renters.

County re-opens parking, restroom facilities at Section 16 trailhead

itself and the trail is not yet open. El Paso County Parks is hoping to com-

plete the necessary trail repairs and open again as soon as possible.

Black Forest Section 16 is a 640 acre open space site and is leased from the State Land Board under the operations of El Paso County Parks.

The Section 16 Trailhead is located at 8498 Burgess Road just west of the intersec-tion of Burgess Road and Vollmer Road.

CSPD needs help identifying recovered property Special to The Tribune

The Colorado Springs Police Department is asking for your help to identify the rightful own-ers of property that was recov-ered during a recent burglary in-vestigation.

The majority of the prop-erty was stolen during residen-

tial burglaries within Colorado Springs and El Paso County in 2012 and 2013. Photographs of the recovered property can be viewed on the Colorado Springs city website at Springsgov.com.

Click on the HOT TOPICS tab in the center of the page and open the link to Recovered Prop-erty. If you fi nd property that you believe is yours, follow the direc-

tions on the webpage to contact the Colorado Springs Police De-partment.

If anyone has information about this case please call 719-444-7000; or you may call Pikes Peak Area Crime Stoppers at 719-634-STOP (7867).

You do not have to give your name and could earn a cash re-ward.

Black Forest AARP rises from the ashes delivered.

The recipients were grateful, some to tears, at the thought that their local friends and state AARP offi ce in Denver really cared enough to think of them at this time. They also have been humbled at the outreach of compassion that the community and relief organizations have shown them.

In the immediate aftermath of the fi re many of the victims wanted and needed to talk. They recounted their painful experi-ences and many showed pictures of their burnt homes, pointing out things in the ashes that were once cherished items and now gone forever.

At present those with losses are in the throes of dealing with insurance adjusters. It is a painful task to try to remember each and every item lost and its value. The sub-sequent clean-up also brings back stressing details of their personal losses. Some fami-lies have vowed to rebuild, some are unde-cided or are resigned to a future of apart-ment life in the city away from the solitude of the trees.

For now, and until everything is settled legally and they can move ahead, most are staying with friends or relatives who have gladly taken them in.

The Black Forest AARP Chapter was scheduled to meet on the day of the fi re but didn’t. The church where the chapter meets survived the fi re but the members did not know that for several days.

The July chapter meeting was to be the annual picnic at the Black Forest Regional Park. Since the heavily treed park was burnt as well, the chapter felt that even if they could use the park the visible damage could bring back bad fi re memories to many members.

The chapter leadership therefore decid-ed, and made arrangements, to meet at a local buffet restaurant for the July meeting. The chapter board reallocated the budgeted picnic funds toward buying lunch for the membership at that meeting.

At this moment no one knows exactly how things will evolve.

The Black Forest AARP Chapter is de-termined, as a group, to rise like a Phoenix, from the devastation and ashes of the Black Forest fi re. They know they are not alone!

Many more are treading a similar uncer-tain yet renewed path toward the future. A Phoenix is rising.

Summer reading at library ends with party Celebration for all kids who participated in the program By Lisa Collacott [email protected]

As the summer reading pro-gram comes to an end on July 31 the Pikes Peak Library District will celebrate with a party.

The Palmer Lake library will host one of three parties on the Village Green next to the library at 10:00 a.m. on July 30.

The celebration will be com-plete with games, an infl atable obstacle course, face painting

and crafts. The Western Museum of Min-

ing and Industry will bring a portable gold panning trough for kids to pan for gold and the Palmer Lake Volunteer Fire De-partment will have their fi re en-gines on hand.

The kids will also be in for a special treat when 21 doves are released, compliments of Mari-lyn Burlage of Plumes of Colo-rado, to kick-off the party.

The summer reading program started on June 1 and is an annu-al program. Kids don’t have to be done with their reading in order to take part in the party.

“The program is to encour-age children and teens to read over the summer to maintain

profi ciency. They win prizes after certain reading goals are met,” Linda Fuqua-Jones, Palmer Lake Library supervisor, said.

The Palmer Lake library is lo-cated at 66 Lower Glenway.

If kids can’t make this party there are two other parties within the Pikes Peak Library District. The East Library will host a party at 10:00 a.m. on July 26 at George Fellows Park located behind the library.

The East Library is located at 5550 North Union Boulevard. Another party will take place at the Fountain Library at 10:00 a.m. on Aug. 2.

The Fountain Library is lo-cated at 230 South Main Street in Fountain.

Bookstore collects books for Black Forest students Covered Treasures is collecting books for Wolford student’s a� ected by � re for their own personal libraries

By Lisa Collacott [email protected]

Edith Wolford Elementary School stu-dents will have the opportunity to add to their own personal libraries when school starts.

Many students at the school lost every-thing they owned in the Black Forest Fire including any books they may have owned but thanks to Covered Treasures Bookstore

in historic downtown Monument students will soon be able to build up their own per-sonal collections.

Covered Treasures has put together a book fundraiser and the books collected will be available for students to choose from during the ice cream social after school starts this fall.

Paula Primavera, employee at Covered Treasures, said the books are available for all students not just those who lost their homes in the fi re.

“Even the children that didn’t lose their homes, they still had trauma. Their friends have lost their homes,” Primavera said.

Primavera said they are collecting new and gently used books specifi cally for kids age 4-11. They have had people drop-off board books for infants and toddlers so some students can pick a book for a young-er sibling.

“People have been so generous,” Prima-vera said. “There’s been an outpouring of love for this community.”

Primavera said an author came to the bookstore and when she found out about the book drive she came back the next day with 50 books.

Students from Bear Creek Elementary School also stepped up to help and went around their neighborhood and collected 100 books and brought them in to the book-store.

The bookstore’s goal originally was to collect 600 books but they have well ex-ceeded that.

Primavera said they would like to have the same amount of books for each grade level and with monetary donations they will purchase books to meet that.

New and used books in good condition will be accepted until July 31 at Covered Treasures bookstore located at 105 Second Street.

THINGS TO DO JULY 24, JULY 31

FREE CONCERTS. Historic Downtown Monument presents its 2013 concerts in the park summer music series from 7-9 p.m. Wednesdays at Limbach Park. Blue Pepper Trio performs July 10. Inman Brothers perform July 17. Skean Dubh performs July 24. Jody Adams and the String Dudes performs July 31. Admis-sion is free. Visit www.monumentmerchants.com.

JULY 26

LIVE MUSIC. Bobby Jackson performs from 5:30-9:30 p.m. July 26 at MoZaic Restaurant. A solo pianist, Jackson will perform all original music. Check out his web site at http://bobbyjacksonrevival.webs.com/ . Call 719-481-1800 to make reservations.

AUG. 2-4

CHAUTAUQUA. THE Town of Palmer Lake was the home of the � rst Rocky Mountain Chautauqua Assembly in 1887 and continued holding Chautauqua activities until 1910. The Chautauqua movement spread across the Nation from 1874 to 1930 and was the � rst mass educational and cultural movement in the Nation’s history. Educators, speakers, artists, and musicians brought educational, cultural, and recreational programs to ordinary people in the rural areas of the country. From Aug. 2-4, the Palmer Lake Historical Society will again help sponsor some of the events and activities that might have been experienced by these early Chautauqua-goers. Events include a movie and contest for best period costume at 7 p.m. Aug. 2 at Palmer Lake Town Hall; an ice cream social and walking tour of Old Town Palmer Lake at 1 p.m. Aug. 3 on Village Green; walking tours of Glen Park, Chautauqua Grounds and historic cot-

tages at 8 a.m. Aug. 4, and Chautauqua service at the Little Log Chuch at 10 a.m. Aug. 4. All events are free. Period costumes are encouraged at all events. Call 719-481-3963 with questions.

AUG. 4, 25, SEPT. 15

CONCERT SERIES. Awake the Lake is a group chartered to restore, preserve and enhance the natural landmark Palmer Lake and the beauty of its surrounding park land. The group presents a concert series from noon to 6 p.m. Sundays, Aug. 4, 25 and Sept. 15. All money the committee receives goes directly to project costs. Tickets available at The Villa, O’Malley’s, La Rosa, The Rock House, The Depot, moZaic, Palmer Lake Town Hall, The Speed Trap, Bella Panini, and The Chamber of Commerce. T-Shirts are also sold at various locations. All other inquires can be answered at www.awakepalmerlake.com.

AUG. 15

WINE DINNER. Chateauneuf and Beyond wine dinner is at 7 p.m. Aug. 15. Join us for a taste of some Rhone-style wines from around the world. The cost is $50/person plus tax plus gratuity for a four course gourmet meal paired with wine. Menu details to follow. Call 719-481-1800 to reserve your seat.

AUG. 24

TASTE OF Palmer Lake. Check out food from Bella Panini, The Depot, MoZaic, O’Malley’s Pub, Rock House Ice Cream, Parked Pierogi, Simply Delicious Catering, Speedtrap, The Wine Seller and The Villa at the Taste of Palmer Lake from 1-4 p.m. Aug. 24. Tickets will be on sale at all Palmer Lake restaurants. It’s $15, or $18 day of the event. This is a fundraiser for Lakeside Improve-ments. Call 719-481-1800 for more details.

Tri Lakes 7.31.13







D-38 seeks a mill levy override in November District has made $11 million in cuts over past few years By Lisa Collacott [email protected]

The Lewis-Palmer School District 38 Board of Education voted unanimously to seek a mill levy override in the upcom-ing November election.

During discussion at a special meet-ing on July 26 board of education mem-bers said the district has been dealing with budget cuts for the past fi ve years and it has come to the point where the district needs to take some action.

The district has cut approximately $11 million from its budget over the past fi ve years. An MLO is something that the dis-trict has talked about for years and with fees going up, the implementation of a bus fee and cuts to many programs the time to ask for an MLO has come.

The district is one of the top in the state having been named to the Ad-vanced Placement Honor Roll three years in a row, is Accredited with Distinction and more than 85 percent of students go on to post-secondary education. But with cuts to programs and teachers and class size going up there is concern that students will not be afforded what for-mer students have had.

D-38 Superintendent John Borman and the board of education have spent the past year sharing their story with the community and Borman often shares a story of a student who struggled in his early educational years and was on an Individualized Education Program.

But because of the programs D-38 of-fered and the exceptional teaching staff he graduated valedictorian and is now in medical school.

“In order to do right by our kids we need help from our community,” Bor-man said.

D-38 board member Mark Pfoff said that the district has tried their best to maintain their budget and still provide the level of education to the students that the district is known for.

“We’re not known for providing an education. We’re known for providing an exceptional education to our kids,” D-38 board member Mark Pfoff said.

“At this point, in going through this, we feel because of these cuts that we’ve made over the last few years, not be-cause we thought it would be to make it better but because we had to, we can tell by looking at the trends and looking at the numbers and the data that’s com-ing to us and talking with students and parents and community members we know that the educational experience at

Mill Levy continues on Page 7

Woodcarved animals welcome students back Animals carved from burnt trees bring new life to forest around school By Lisa Collacott [email protected]

Students at Edith Wolford Elementary School in Black Forest have had a traumatic summer and when they go back to school in the fall there will be some sense of normalcy.

There will probably be some burnt trees around the school as the fi re came within feet of the building but waiting to greet them will be some friendly little critters. These critters aren’t of the furry kind but rather the wooden kind.

Chainsaw artist Bill Fee of Nature of Things Chain Saw Art in Manitou Springs and his team went out to the school, at the request of Academy School District 20, and carved woodland creatures into some of the burnt trees.

“We’re going to give them a second life,” Fee said.Fee has been a chainsaw artist for 18 years and has turned

burnt trees in the Hayman and Waldo Canyon burn areas into works of art.

At Wolford he has carved two squirrels, which is the school mascot, and two other trees measuring eight-feet high will have multiple animals carved on them such as eagles, raccoons and owls.

“This will get the students talking about nature in their sci-ence classes and I hope to provide some inspiration to the art students,” Fee said.

Fee said he doesn’t touch trees that may come back and aren’t dead.

“These are black and burnt trees. There’s no doubt they are dead. Our hope is some of the growth comes back in the other trees,” Fee added.

Fee said after a fi re many people just want to cut all the trees down but some people are really attached to their trees and having a tree carved helps preserve it. Polyurethane is applied to the woodcarving so it does not decompose. He hopes that residents will drive by the school and see the carved woodland

animals and get the idea to do the same with some of the trees on their property.

“We’re really hoping that this catches on with Black Forest,” Fee said.

Master carver Sheldon Roberts carves an eagle out of a burnt tree at Edith Wolford Elementary School in Black Forest. Bill Fee, owner of Nature of Things Chain Saw Art in Manitou Springs, and his team were asked by Academy School District 20 to make some carvings of woodland creatures out of a few of the burnt trees in the playground to greet students when they come back to school in the fall. Photos by Lisa Collacott

A squirrel, which happens to be the mascot of Edith Wolford Elementary School, awaits the students when they come back to school. Four carvings were made by Bill Fee, a chain saw artist and his team.

Tri-Lakes 8-21-2013


August 21, 2013 75 centsA Colorado Community Media Publication





Group says voters need to decide on pot sales Group wants to overturn Town Council’s ban By Danny Summers [email protected]

Some Palmer Lake residents are not happy by the Town Council vote earlier this month to ban sales of marijuana for recre-ational use, and they plan to do something about it.

According to Jim Adams, on Aug. 12, a group of Palmer Lake citizens fi led a letter of intent to repeal the ordinance. The town clerk, Tara Berreth, received the letter that seeks to circulate a petition to overturn the council’s 4-1 vote on Aug. 8.

“I’m just a normal citizen,” Adams said. “I want to be treated the same as anyone else who buys Budweiser. Men and women like me just want to go to the corner store and buy our 1/8 ounce of marijuana and go back to our house and smoke our pot. We don’t want to be bothered and we don’t want to bother anyone.”

Amendment 64 was passed by Colorado voters in last November’s general election. It was a ballot measure to amend the state constitution, outlining a statewide drug policy for cannabis.

The amendment makes the personal use, possession and limited home growing of marijuana legal for adults 21and older. It establishes a system in which marijuana is regulated and taxed similarly to alcohol.

While El Paso County as a whole voted against the amendment, Palmer Lake resi-dents passed the vote by about 55 to 45 percent margin, according to statistics kept by the El Paso County Clerk and Recorder Offi ce.

Some Palmer Lake council members who voted to ban the sales said they didn’t want their family-friendly town to become the Amsterdam of El Paso County.

On July 2, town attorney Larry Gad-dis and Berreth said the town must opt in

Black Forest Fesitval sees record crowds By Rob Carrigan [email protected]

The weather and a spirit of renewal and support contributed to record tunouts at the Black Forest Festival this weekend.

“It was bigger than ever,” said Sherrie Lidderdale Sat-urday, a volunteer with Black Forest Community Club working at the pancake breakfast sponsored by Centu-ryLink. “I have helped with it every year for at least the last 10 years. We counted 870 served this year. That’s 200 more than we have ever done before,” she said.

“We helped serve a lot of people,” Troop 70 Scoutmas-ter Nate Dowden said.

Troop 70 is chartered by the Black Forest Community Club and regularly meets in the club house.

There was also volunteer help from the Wonderful Waldo Women from Colorado Springs.

Troop 70 and other volunteers served more than 870 at the annual breakfast, this year sponsored by Century Link. That is nearly 200 more than any recent year according to Sherrie Lidderdale, a volunteer with Black Forest Community Club.

Boy Scout Troop 70, chartered by the Black Forest Community Club, helped out serving the annual breakfast at this year’s festival. Photos by Rob Carrigan

Investigators search home of Mark Redwine La Plata County Sheri� ’s O� ces: It’s part of ongoing investigation, third time father’s house searched By Lisa Collacott

Authorities have searched the Vallecito home of Dylan Redwine’s father, Mark Red-wine, nearly two months after the remains of the teen were found in rugged terrain nearby.

Dan Bender, public information offi -

cer for the La Plata County Sheriff’s Offi ce, said the search was part of an on-going investigation. In a statement sent to the me-dia, Bender said he was only authorized to say that the La Plata County Sher-iff’s Offi ce along with as-sistance from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation and the Federal Bureau of Investigation served a search warrant on Mark Redwine’s home on Aug. 14.

“La Plata County Sheriff’s Offi ce has no

comment and will have no comment re-garding what was taken during the execu-tion of the search warrant nor regarding the nature of yesterday’s search,” Bender add-ed. “As we have stated in the past, we have not labeled anyone as a suspect in this case. Due to the active nature of this criminal in-vestigation we have no further comments.”

According to KUSA Channel 9 in Denver, Mark Redwine told reporters that investi-gators searched his home for three hours and removed sections of carpet and wood fl ooring and took a fi replace poker, clothing and a cell phone. Redwine also said inves-tigators dug a hole in his yard underneath

an outdoor staircase. Redwine’s home has been searched before.

Dylan Redwine went missing from his father’s Vallecito home on Nov. 19, the day after arriving for a court ordered Thanks-giving visit. Mark Redwine said he had left home that morning to run some errands and when he returned, Dylan was gone. Dylan Redwine was 13 at the time and had recently moved to Monument with his mother. After months of searching for him, investigators found remains on Middle Mountain Road near Vallecito Lake and positively identifi ed them on June 27 as Dylan’s.

Redwine

A spirit of renewalAFTER LOSS

Pot continues on Page 2Festival continues on Page 2

TLT_ Black Forest Fire Coverage

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