News-Press DCCR 8.8.13
Castle Rock
Douglas County, Colorado • Volume 11, Issue 20
August 8, 2013
Free
A Colorado Community Media Publication
ourcastlerocknews.com
Spending plan calls for more officers Town has been frugal with money in recession By Virginia Grantier
vgrantier@ourcoloradonews.com
Retired airline pilot and software developer James Einolf spends his free time serving as a Castle Pines City Council member and making custom guitars meant to substantially replicate the circa-1926 Gibson L-0 that bluesman Robert Johnson used. Photos by Virginia Grantier
Getting down with the
blues
Castle Pines official renowned for making Robert Johnson guitars By Virginia Grantier
vgrantier@ourcoloradonews. com
I
f legendary Mississippi bluesman Robert Johnson, gone since 1938, somehow ended up in modern-day Castle Pines, there is a house containing something he knows intimately. It’s at Castle Pines City Councilmember James Einolf’s house — or rather, his basement. That’s where all the newold guitars are — Einolf’s guitars, which take him about 200 hours each to make and are meant to be reproductions of the guitar Johnson played — the 1926 Gibson L-O, known as the “Robert Johnson guitar.” Einolf made his first guitar at age 14, but had several different careers before he decided to get serious about guitar-making when he retired about six years ago. There is now a two-year waiting list for his guitars. He makes about a dozen a year and they’ve sold worldwide. But he keeps trying to get better. “I’m still not making what I think is a good product,” he said.
But that’s his opinion. The famous guitar maker Wayne Henderson — whose work is chronicled in the book “Clapton’s Guitar: Watching Wayne Henderson Build the Perfect Instrument,” about the making of a guitar for musician Eric Clapton — has had Einolf go to North Carolina with him to help teach a guitar-making class. And Einolf’s onetime teacher, guitar-maker Robbie O’Brien, who is based in Parker and attracts guitar-maker students from around the world, says Einolf has done what he set out to do. “He has reproduced the 1926 Gibson in all aspects — tone, sound quality, craftsmanship and finish,” said O’Brien, who studied guitar-making in Brazil. “He in essence has reproduced the 1926 Gibson. “He makes great guitars.” Einolf makes them in a full unfinished basement and takes all the space, big enough for a small family to live in — and his wife, a classical musician and master gardener, is supportive. It’s full of various types of supplies and equipment, some
While his guitars are meant to replicate the one used by Mississippi bluesman Robert Johnson, James Einolf adds his own touches, including his trademark pearl-inlaid dragon on the top of the neck. Einolf-made and some bought off of Craigslist — maple, spruce, mahogany and ebony woods, saws and molds, a contraption with spidery arms that holds a new guitar’s wooden supports in place to be glued at precise angle, a heat blanket that helps force the wood to change shape, and shelves and
drawers of endless tools. But it looks as orderly and clean as an operating room, as if his dad, an IBM engineer and designer, were the maintenance person. Einolf, raised on the East Coast and England, and whose first aspiration was astronaut, Blues continues on Page 16
Additional police officers and fire personnel, plus a 3 percent performancebased salary increase for town employees, are some of the things included in a draft of Castle Rock’s three-year financial plan and priorities, which town staff presented at the July 30 Castle Rock Town Council meeting. The three-year plan, 2014-16, has to be tweaked, to make sure priorities remain the same, before the council dives into creating a 2014 budget later this fall. Castle Rock Town Manager Mark Stevens told the council that regarding the town’s financial condition, simply put, “It’s strong,” he said. The council’s conservative approach to budgeting, not dipping into reserves even during the so-called “Great Recession” — and continuing to build reserves, putting away the equivalent of 25 percent of annual operating expenses — has resulted in the town “being in stronger condition than when (the recession) began,” Stevens said. Stevens also said because the town reduced expenses 15 percent during the recession, made other cuts to live within the town’s means, and cut and delayed a lot of capital projects, the town for a number of years “did very little.” And Stevens said the town can continue to put money in the bank, if the council decides to do so. But the proposed financial plan — which shows higher-than-projected sales tax revenues, with a 7.7 percent increase in 2012 and climbing, instead of the projected 5.3 percent, and higher housing starts, 534 in 2012 instead of the projected 425 — recommends some additional city personnel, projects and equipment needs to keep up with that growth. Some of the proposed expenses for 2014 include additional police personnel: a $260,000 additional annual cost for another detective, a traffic officer and a community policing officer, and $150,000 for three vehicles. Other proposed expenses would potentially be offset by reimbursements and grants: two additional officers for the school marshal program and a new e-ticketing system. The town also could add a fire safety inspector. The three-year plan, reflecting balanced budgets with no tax increases and adequate reserve funds, “supports core town council priorities for renewable water, public safety, the North Meadows Extension (new I-25 interchange), Phillip S. Miller Park and economic development,” according to a memo to council from Fritz Sprague, deputy town manager. The council voted to direct staff to finalize the plan and bring it back at a future meeting for possible adoption.