Indy - Oct. 11, 2023 Vol 31. No. 40

In November’s election, voters will be asked to weigh in on property taxes, police academy and more

Our mission is to deliver the truth, build community and engage citizens.

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Fran Zankowski

COVER DESIGN BY Zk Bradley

EDITORIAL

EXECUTIVE EDITOR Bryan Grossman

MANAGING EDITOR Helen Lewis

COPY EDITOR Mary Jo Meade

SENIOR REPORTER Pam Zubeck

CULTURE REPORTER Nick Raven

CONTRIBUTORS

Rob Brezsny, Bill Forman, Jim Hightower, Clay Jones, Mike Littwin, Matthew Schniper, Tom Tomorrow, Andrew “Shaggy” Warren

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Courtesy Robert Villena Photography

Courtesy RMWF

Pam Zubeck

STATUS QUO?

City shapes 2024 budget while predicting near-flat revenues

BY PAM ZUBECK | zubeck@csindy.com

SO

MUCH FOR PET PROJ -

ects. Mayor Yemi Mobolade’s 2024 budget proposal predicts “flat” sales tax revenue and a small rise in property tax revenue leading him to craft a 2024 general fund budget ask that’s a mere 1.7 percent higher than this year’s spending plan.

Next year’s budget proposal calls for spending $428.3 million from the mostly tax-supported general fund, which pays for basic services such as police, firefighters, roads and parks. That’s an increase of $7.2 million over the 2023 budget. The sales tax revenue outlook is so conservative, in fact, that Mobolade proposes spending $10 million next year from the city’s reserve account to make ends meet.

Council President Randy Helms says his top priority is public safety and he supports giving police officers a 4 percent raise, as well as pushing forward with hiring more officers and building a new police training academy. (The city is asking voters to allow retention of $4.75

million in revenue collected above the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights cap in the Nov. 7 election, to help fund a new academy.)

“My primary interest is public safety, both police and fire departments, the 911 center and the Office of Emergency Management,” Helms says in an interview.

He notes that while other departments would see budget cuts to the tune of 3.4 percent, police and fire will maintain their 2023 spending levels or see slight growth.

This year, the Colorado Springs Police Department’s budget, at $132.2 million, accounts for 31.4 percent of the $421.1 general fund budget. Next year its budget, proposed by the mayor at $133.7 million, would represent 31.2 percent of the general fund.

This year, the Fire Department and OEM budget, at $73.3 million, makes up 17.4 percent of the general fund budget, while the mayor proposes spending $76.6 million, or 17.9 percent, of the general fund on fire and OEM in 2024.

Helms says that the police budget will allow for about the same number

of sworn officers, (about 818), which has yet to be achieved. Helms says the city’s increasing recruit classes from one per year to three will help reach that number.

As the Indy previously reported, records show that even as the mayor and City Council have authorized more officers in recent years, CSPD has been losing them from 2020 through Aug. 9 of this year to retirements (114) and resignations (167). During those three-plus years, CSPD hired 276 officers for a net loss of five officers. The department remains about 80 short.

“The most important thing to me is giving them [police officers, firefighters and 911 call center workers] a 4 percent pay raise and increasing benefits across the board so we can maintain the standard market rate for our officers and demonstrate to them we care for them,” Helms says.

MOBOLADE’S BUDGET IS BUILT

on the possibility that there is no increase in sales tax revenue next year followed by a predicted 3 percent rise in 2025, a premise with which Helms agrees.

(The city’s total sales tax rate is 3.07 percent and breaks down this way: general fund, 2 percent; 2C roads tax, .57 percent; Public Safety Sales Tax, .40 percent;

Trails, Open Space and Parks tax, .10 percent.)

“This summer, we [issued] the least number of permits for single-family housing for the longest time,” Helms says. “If you stop building homes, you stop selling fridges, freezers, dishwashers — the big-ticket items.”

Helms believes Mobolade’s prediction will hold through the first half of 2024, but he thinks sales and use tax collections will increase thereafter in light of more than a half-dozen announcements this year about businesses moving to or expanding in Colorado Springs.

As for property tax collections, which would make up 6.5 percent of the general fund, Mobolade expects 27.7 million next year, compared to this year’s total of $26.1 million.

Helms says he favors reducing the city’s mill rate — about 4 mills — to avoid collecting more than TABOR allows.

Because property values increased by up to 40 percent — and even more in some areas — in the latest county assessor’s reappraisal, the city would be in line to collect more revenue than allowed.

Helms says the property tax collected by the city is “minuscule,” but he still wants to minimize those taxes “to demonstrate to citizens we’re doing what we can to roll back taxes.”

While Mobolade is proposing a $7.2 million increase in general fund spending next year, he’s more pessimistic about the city’s other funds.

The proposal shows $901.1 million in total revenue from all sources, a drastic reduction from this year’s $1.018 billion.

It’s worth noting that over time, the city’s total spending has increased subcontinued on p. 4 ➔

My primary interest is public safety....

— Randy Helms

City Council President Randy Helms: Public safety is the most important thing in considering the 2024 budget.

Mayor Yemi Mobolade

Courtesy city of Colorado Springs

Courtesy city of Colorado Springs

➔ continued from p. 3

All funds include:

• The general fund, which grew from $266.8 million in 2016 to $421.1 million this year.

• Grant funds, such as Community Development Block Grants, which grew from $52.3 million in 2016 to $171.9 million this year.

• Special revenue funds, such as taxes for TOPS, 2C road repairs, the Public Safety Sales Tax (PSST), and the Lodgers and Automobile Rental Tax. This category of funds grew from $125.4 million in 2016 to $198.2 million this year.

• Enterprise funds, which include Colorado Springs Airport, cemetery, development review, stormwater, Pikes Peak – America’s Mountain, Memorial Health System, the parking system and the city-owned golf courses. This group of funds swelled from $82.9 million in 2016 to $226.1 million this year.

WHEN

Mobolade’s budget shows a decrease of about $116.3 million in total funds spending.

A city spokesperson says the year-toyear decrease stems from a “larger than normal” 2023 airport grant for an infrastructure project; a one-time use of PSST reserve funds in 2023, and a one-time

1.47

expenditure for airport operating and development costs. Those account for $104.7 million.

Asked to comment about the city’s growing budget, Helms says, “I’m one of those people who believes in less government, so it’s a challenge for me. I understand completely when citizens say

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stantially, from about $527.7 million in 2016 — former Mayor John Suthers’ first full year in office — to $1.018 billion this year. Suthers left office in June. Some of that increase stems from voter-approved tax and fee increases, such as 2C — the road repairs sales tax approved in 2015 and renewed in 2019 for another five years — and adoption of stormwater fees in 2017.

zens to be safe. We want our roads to be better.”

IN A LETTER ACCOMPANYING HIS budget proposal to City Council, Mobolade says his spending plan focuses on “building support within government, building trust with our community, and addressing our most pressing and urgent issues in the areas of public safety, infrastructure, and park maintenance.

“This 2024 Budget,” his letter adds, “reflects the shared strategic goals and values between City Council, the Administration, and our community. Our City government is challenged by variable economic conditions and inflationary pressures.

During 2023, we’ve seen sales tax revenue flatten and in some months decline, and we expect that to continue into 2024, with only a small anticipated increase compared to 2023 forecasted sales tax.”

Despite the outlook, Mobolade wants to hire more employees and give city workers raises, as previously mentioned. A few highlights from the mayor’s 661-page budget:

tions to provide school programming at Rock Ledge Ranch, added patrols at Catamount Reservoir during its temporary closure, and additional seasonal staffing at Sertich Ice Center.

• $52,100 more for services and facility maintenance at Deerfield Hills and Hillside community centers.

• $1.3 million more to fund two positions for traffic signal maintenance and for six positions related to traffic control and rights-of-way work for telecommunications projects.

• $170,000 more for Mountain Metro Transit for higher contract costs, and $180,000 more for security at the Downtown terminal.

While Mobolade has ordered all departments to cut operational costs by 3.4 percent, he says he still needs to take $10 million from the city’s reserves. But even after that allocation, the city’s reserve fund will remain higher than the level recommended by the Government Finance Officers Association.

Mayor Yemi Mobolade

• $250,000 to add school zones near middle and high schools to increase pedestrian safety at all schools.

• $1.9 million of matched funding to leverage $15.4 million for critical infrastructure and transportation-related capital projects.

• $1 million more for Information Technology for updating backup technology at the Data Center and other upgrades.

• $230,000 more for Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services to fund 1.5 posi-

Helms says Council will take a deep dive into the budget in coming weeks. A public hearing is set for Oct. 23. Final approval is slated for Nov. 28.

“Every Council member has their own concerns,” he says. “Parks and Recreation may have some issues that are very important to Council members that may not get addressed [in the mayor’s budget].

“It is our job to look at the proposed budget and to determine whether we need to amend it in any way.”

See the mayor’s budget proposal at coloradosprings.gov/budget.

Our City government is challenged by variable economic conditions and inflationary pressures.

—

BY PAM ZUBECK | zubeck@csindy.com

VOTERS WILL DECIDE SOME HIGH stakes issues in the Nov. 7 election, ranging f rom the state’s property tax measure to school district financing and board elections to the city of Colorado Springs’ pitch to retain $4.75 million in excess funds that would go toward a new police training academy.

Here’s a rundown of ballot measures.

STATE MEASURES

Proposition HH stems from Senate Bill 23-303, which would reduce property taxes and change the amount of money the state would refund under the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights through 2032.

Referred to voters by the state Legislature, the measure stemmed from a surge in property values in the biennial reappraisal, based on values as of June 2022, conducted by county assessors across the state.

The measure would reduce property taxes for homeowners and business owners while also expanding the property tax exemption for seniors and backfilling the coffers of counties, water districts, fire districts, school districts and other jurisdictions by using a portion of the TABOR surplus.

According to a state analysis of Prop HH, the measure would lower the assessment rates for residential property and most nonresidential property and would subtract a set amount from most properties’ values before applying the new assessment rates.

For example, single-family and multi-family properties would see a reduction of up to $177 a year in taxes on $100,000 in value in 2023 and up to $223 in 2024. Starting in 2025, there would be a smaller reduction for non-primary residences and a larger reduction for qualifying seniors.

As for other types of properties, the measure would reduce property taxes by $847 for 2023 on lodging and commercial properties valued at $1 million or more, and up to $1,550 in 2024.

The measure also would allow seniors 65 years and older who previously qualified for the senior homestead exemption to receive the same property tax benefit in any home they purchase and live in as their primary residence, starting in 2025.

The measure also would restrict local governments that are not subject to local revenue limits from collecting property tax revenue above the amount they collected in the prior year, plus inflation.

If a local government would exceed this limit, it could waive the limit by annually notifying the public, holding a meeting for public comment, and adopting an ordinance or resolution. Otherwise, it must lower its tax rate (mill levy) for one year or refund to taxpayers any property tax revenue collected above the limit. School districts and home-rule jurisdictions would not be subject to this limit. Colorado Springs is a home-rule city.

Prop HH also would allow the state to retain an estimated $170 million in state budget year 2023-24 and $360 million in state budget year 2024-25 from the TABOR refund pool. The state would be empowered to retain increasing amounts through at least 2032, depending on revenue collections, up to 20 percent to reimburse eligible local governments for lost property tax revenue.

The measure’s passage would lower TABOR refunds. Those with adjusted gross incomes of $52,000 or less (35 percent of state taxpayers) would see a $31 reduction in their refund, from $357 to $326 in 2024. In 2025, the cut would be $67, from $336 down to $269. Those in higher income brackets would see larger declines.

Those retained funds would be spent on rental assistance — up to $20 million a year — with the remaining

Voters asked to weigh in on property taxes, police academy and more in Nov. 7 election

funds used to reimburse school districts for reduced property tax revenue as a result of the measure. Those funds would also be used for education-related programs — estimated at $125 million in state budget year 2024-25 and up to $2.16 billion in state budget year 2031-32.

Those supporting the measure argue it would moderate tax bills resulting from historic property value increases and create a more welcoming business environment. Supporters also argue Prop HH would allow seniors to downsize without sacrificing the homestead exemption. The measure also would benefit public schools, proponents say, by increasing the TABOR limit.

Opponents say Prop HH essentially would raise taxes by reducing or eliminating future TABOR refunds, which in turn would grow the state budget by up to $2.2 billion per year by 2032. The measure would also allow the state Legislature to extend the new revenue cap forever without asking voters.

Opponents also say the hailed property tax relief from Prop HH would come at the expense of TABOR refunds, and the loss to taxpayers from those refunds could exceed the property tax savings over time.

Property Tax Relief Now, the vote-yes committee, had $854,639 on hand as of its Oct. 3 campaign finance report, Colorado Secretary of State records show. Education Reform Now Advocacy Inc. gave $200,000.

Five committees have filed to oppose the measure, but the clear fundraising leader is NO on HH, which had $833,379 on hand as of its Oct. 3 report. The committee is run by Michael Fields, a registered lobbyist for the conservative Advance Colorado Action. He previously served as executive director of Colorado Rising Action and as state director of the conservative group Americans for Prosperity – Colorado.

The committee’s chief donors are dark money groups Advance Colorado Action, which has given $1 million, and Defend Colorado, which has pitched in $500,000. Dark money groups don’t have to report the source of their campaign donations.

Other committees have raised nominal or no funds, including one run by TABOR author Douglas Bruce.

Proposition II would allow the state to retain and spend revenues from taxes on cigarettes, tobacco and other nicotine products and maintain tax rates on those

products. The money would be spent to add $23,650,000 to Colorado’s free preschool program.

If the measure is defeated, the tax money at issue, already collected, would be refunded to wholesalers and distributors of tobacco products.

If passed, the tax on a pack of cigarettes would increase from 84 cents to $1.94 from January through June 2024, and from 84 cents to $2.24 per pack from July 2024 through June 2027. Thereafter, the tax would increase from 84 cents to $2.54 per pack under Prop II.

Those in favor argue tax increases were previously approved by voters and that the money collected shouldn’t be refunded to distributors. Proponents also maintain that higher tax rates deter smoking.

Opponents of the measure argue it unnecessarily expands government and that higher taxes on tobacco products put a financial burden on people with addiction, many of whom have lower incomes.

There are no registered committees campaigning for or against the measure, which was referred to voters by state lawmakers.

Find more information here on both Prop HH and Prop II: tinyurl.com/2023-CO-props.

CITY MEASURES

Colorado Springs — 2A. The measure was referred to the ballot by City Council, asking voters to let the city keep $4.75 million in excess TABOR revenue from 2022 to help fund a police training academy. The measure also would raise the TABOR cap, letting the city keep that amount annually forever.

(A state constitutional amendment adopted in 1992, TABOR was touted as a way to keep taxes low and government in check, but the nonpartisan Center on Budget and Policy Priorities notes that TABOR “limits the growth of state and local revenues to a highly restrictive formula ... insufficient to fund the ongoing cost of government” and creates a permanent revenue shortage that “has contributed to a significant decline in the state’s public services.”

(But TABOR supporters argue the measure allows for

government growth by enabling governments to collect additional tax revenue amounts based on new construction and other factors. Supporters also argue that the measure is needed to control the growth of government, which, if left unchecked, would claim more of people’s money. The TABOR amendment also allows governments to seek voter permission to retain excess money, as the city is doing in this instance.)

Mayor Yemi Mobolade argues that the city has no extra money for a training academy, which could cost up to $45 million, and that a new academy is a key element in building the police force. As of mid-August, the city was 80 officers short of its authorized strength of 821 officers.

He says the city needs more room to train recruits while also providing ongoing training to sworn officers.

During an Aug. 7 Council discussion, as the Indy previously reported, Councilor Nancy Henjum said, “I’m kind of speechless about the conditions our current police force are having to train in and wonder how the hell did we get here. We are a world-class Olympic city that is training our police force in horrific conditions.”

More officers would allow for quicker response times, Police Chief Adrian Vasquez has said. Top priority calls have an average response time of more than 13 minutes.

The Indy also has reported that even as the mayor and City Council have authorized more officers, CSPD has been losing them from 2020 through Aug. 9 of this year to retirements (114) and resignations (167). During those three-plus years, CSPD hired 276 officers for a net loss of five officers.

Proponents of the measure say that approving 2A would continued on p. 8 ➔

Property taxes could be reduced if voters approve Proposition HH, but the measure also would mean lower TABOR refunds in the future.

Would you pay $40+ million for an imaginary building?

Douglas Bruce

several grants to help with street repairs, some grants require matching funds, and the grants “aren’t enough to put a dent in the backlog.”

“For perspective, excluding police and fire, the entire city would have to shut down for nearly 7 years to realize the funding needed to work off this backlog,” the statement said, noting that residents of Fountain who shop in PPRTA member entities already pay the tax.

The statement also says that for every $1 paid in taxes by Fountain residents, Fountain will receive an estimated $1.30 back for street projects. “Over $2.5 million in street maintenance funds will be available to Fountain annually,” it says.

Friends of Fountain, a committee supporting the measure, is due to file its first campaign finance report on Oct. 17. No opposition committees have been formed.

The city received no statement opposing the measure.

SCHOOL DISTRICT MEASURES

Academy District 20 — 4A. The district proposes a mill levy override that would allow retention of up to $35 million in tax revenue per year.

continued from p. 7

allow more recruit classes to be held annually, which would “directly translate” to more officers on the streets.

“In a recent survey, 84 percent of our officers emphasized the need for ongoing education,” the statement said. “They are asking for more training in crucial areas such as deescalation, crisis intervention, and the appropriate use of force. Our officers are confronting ever evolving challenges on duty, and modern training is paramount.”

Approval of 2A, the statement said, “guarantees our officers receive updated training.”

The opposing statement, written by controversial anti-tax activist and TABOR author Bruce, says, “Would you pay $40+ million for an imaginary building? No blueprints? No location? No details? No final cost? No operating funds? Don’t be a sucker. Vote NO on 2A.”

Bruce also notes voters approved a .4 percent sales tax in 2001 for public safety, shortly after the 9/11 terrorist attacks took place, which has funneled $27 million a year into police and fire. The measure, he says, “claimed to add police and firemen. It promised lower response times (below eight minutes). They lied. 21 years and $567 million later ..., response times are now even HIGHER. Issue 2A will hire NO more police.”

City Councilor Dave Donelson, the only Council member to oppose referring the measure to voters, has noted the 2A measure will allow the city to retain $4.75 million forever, not just one year.

roads, stormwater, public safety and fire mitigation.

The “vote yes” committee, A Safer Colorado Springs, had raised $57,627 as of its Oct. 2 filing and spent $33. Donors who gave $10,000 each are Jim Johnson with GE Johnson Construction Company, Homebuilders Association of Colorado Springs, Colorado Springs Police Protective Association and Norwood Limited Inc. Susan and Tom Pattee, local philanthropists and developers, gave $5,000, and Classic Homes CEO Doug Stimple gave $5,208. The mayor gave $500. The committee is run by political consultant Anthony Carlson, who helped with Mobolade’s mayoral campaign. Carlson tells the Indy the committee hopes to raise up to $250,000 for the campaign.

Better Public Safety is a committee run by John Jarrell, who ran for an El Paso County commission seat last year but lost. He’s aligned with the Chinook Center, an activist hub, some members of whom have been critical of the ballot measure. The committee raised $2,410 in monetary and non-monetary contributions and spent $981, according to its Oct. 2 filing. Its largest donation came from the Democratic Socialists of America, which gave a non-monetary contribution of $2,175 for access to a voter activation network database.

Fountain — 2B. This measure, referred by City Council, would make the city of Fountain a member of the Pikes Peak Rural Transportation Authority.

PPRTA, voter approved in 2004, authorized a 1 percent sales tax for 10 years. The funds are divided among capital projects, 55 percent; maintenance, 35 percent; and transit, 10 percent.

— Statement in favor of measure 2B

Donelson also has noted that voters allowed the city to raise its TABOR cap by $35.5 million in 2021, with $20 million designated for a fire mitigation fund and the balance returned to voters in 2022. But in subsequent years, the city will retain the entire $35.5 million.

City voters tend to allow the city to retain TABOR funds, approving six such measures dating to 2010, for parks,

Members include the cities of Colorado Springs and Manitou Springs, unincorporated El Paso County, and the towns of Green Mountain Falls, Ramah and Calhan.

Fountain now wants to be a part of the agency, which makes money available for regional projects, as well those on the local level.

The tax has been extended by voters twice and now is due to expire in 2034.

The supporting statement notes that Fountain has an $80 million backlog of street projects. Despite landing

The money would be spent to increase teacher and support staff salaries, to improve and maintain facilities, to expand armed security officers to all elementary schools, and to fund D20 charter schools.

According to a statement provided by advocates of the measure, “To remain competitive, we must attract and retain talented teachers and support staff. We currently rank 3rd in teacher salaries in the Pikes Peak Region. At our current starting salary teachers cannot afford to live and work in Academy District 20.”

As an example, D20’s starting teacher salary is $48,800, which translates to monthly take-home pay of $3,069.

If adopted, the measure would increase property taxes for residential property at a rate of $2.28 per month per $100,000 of home value, D20’s website says.

Advocates also note the mill levy override fixes the increased amount at $35 million, “which will not increase as assessed valuation increases.”

No comments against the proposal were filed by the constitutional deadline.

Ellicott District No. 22 — 4B. The district is asking voters to increase taxes by up to $500,000 annually starting next year to fund capital needs. No “for” or “against” comments were filed.

El Paso County School District 49 — 4C. The district seeks a 7-mill property tax increase of $9.9 million starting next year to provide classroom teachers with raises of at least 7 percent annually for the next seven years to compete with adjacent districts where teacher pay is higher.

The increase would expire on Dec. 31, 2030, unless the district improves academic performance by 40 percent, as measured by the Colorado Department of Education performance framework.

If student performance doesn’t improve in seven years, the mill levy increase will expire, creating an incentive to meeting achievement commitments, proponents say.

No comments against the measure were received.

Joint School District No. 23JT (Peyton) — 5C. The district is asking voters to increase the district’s debt by $8 million for capital improvements to the elementary school and junior/senior high school. Work includes replacement and upgrade of the sewer system, roof, HVAC, and safety and security improvements. Taxes would increase not more than $600,000 a year to repay the debt.

“These schools are in dire need of upgrades and improvements of integral systems which allow the schools to safely operate, and ultimately stay open for our students,” the comments in favor said. “These replacements are long overdue and this needs to be taken care of

Academy School District 20 is asking voters to approve a measure to increase teacher salaries.

Over $2.5 million in street maintenance funds will be available to Fountain annually.

Courtesy Academy School District

now with a small financial impact to our tax payers.”

No comments against the measure were received.

Joint School District No. 23JT (Peyton) — 5D. The district seeks an increase in the mill levy from 30.469 mills to 40 mills to fund the bond debt sought in Issue 5C.

Donald Wescott Fire Protection District — 6A and 6B. The district seeks to increase taxes by $2,532,855 by increasing the property tax by 14.4 mills for some district areas. The increase, if adopted, would be exempt from TABOR caps.

The measures stem from the district’s multi-step merger plan with Tri-Lakes Monument Fire District.

“Currently, Wescott has a two-tiered property tax structure. The entire district assesses 7 mills of property tax,” the statement for the issue says. “A subdistrict called the Northern Subdistrict, which includes most of the district, its property owners, and residents, pays an additional 14.9 mills for a total of 21.9 [mills]. This is the highest mill levy for a fire district in El Paso County. If these proposals are approved, the new singular mill levy across the entire Wescott district will be 21.4. This will allow the third step in the final merger to reduce an additional 3 mills in property tax. The mill levy across the entire merged district will be 18.4 mills at full merger.”

Ballot issue 6B asks voters that if they adopt 6A, do they also approve of dissolving the Wescott Fire Protection District Northern Subdistrict.

No comments against the measures were filed.

Flying Horse Metropolitan District No. 2 — 6C and 6D.

Flying Horse Metropolitan District No. 3 — 6E and 6F.

These measures impact 1,743 and 225 homes, respectively, in northern Colorado Springs and deal with a rollback of debt authority, because the infrastructure required cost less than the original debt authority adopted by voters in 2004. Go to tinyurl.com/FlyingHorse-23 for more information.

No comments were filed against the measures.

Colorado’s voting system requires that all active, registered voters receive a ballot in the mail. Voters also have the option to vote in person at a Voter Service and Polling Center.

To receive a ballot in the mail, you must register to vote, or update your address/registration if necessary, within eight days of the election. The deadline for that for the Nov. 7 coordinated election is Oct. 30.

TO BE ELIGIBLE TO VOTE:

• You must be a U.S. citizen.

• You must be 18 years old on the date of an election to be eligible to vote.

• Citizens who are 16 and 17 years old may preregister to vote.

You must have lived in Colorado 22 days immediately before the election in which you intend to vote.

• No person while serving a sentence of detention or confinement in a correctional facility, jail or other location for a felony conviction is eligible to register to vote or to vote in any election.

Register to vote at GoVoteColorado.gov

If you register to vote online at least eight days before an election, you will be MAILED a ballot. After the eighth day before an election, you must visit a Voter Service and Polling Center or your county’s Clerk & Recorder’s Office to register and receive a ballot in person.

If you register to vote through a voter registration drive, your application must be submitted no later than 22 days before an election.

See tinyurl.com/EPCO-register for more information, and go to tinyurl.com/EPCO-votehere for locations of Voter Service and Polling Centers and drop boxes.

— Source: El Paso County Clerk & Recorder’s Office

NO CAP

Rocky Mountain Women’s Film Festival grows into its 36th year

BY NICK RAVEN | nick@csindy.com

THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN

Women’s Film Festival — whose mission is to build “community around film by elevating the stories of women and others who are often unheard or unseen” — returns to Colorado College this year with “connection” as its theme.

“I think that theme really emerged from our desire to communicate why it’s important to come to a festival, as opposed to everyone separately watching films at home,” says Linda Broker, artistic director at Rocky Mountain Women’s Film. “I always feel like if we can get people to the festival, they’re hooked.”

But another theme that seems to have emerged unofficially this year is “growth.”

As the longest-running women’s film

festival in the Western Hemisphere prepares for its 37th year, RMWF sought to create a second full-time position to support its mission.

Serving as a festival volunteer since 1994 and RMWF’s executive director and sole full-time employee since 2001, Broker managed not just the annual festival each fall, but a schedule of events throughout the year. In August, RMWF recognized their growing needs and hired Nicole Nicoletta as the new executive director, cleaving the creative duties away from the operations and creating Broker’s new fulltime role as artistic director.

One of 96 applicants for the executive director position, Nicoletta is a Colorado Springs native who grew up on the U.S. Air Force Academy. While she didn’t cross paths with Broker early on, she attended the festival in the early ’90s with a high school friend and her mother, Madelyn Osur. (Osur — who had served on the festival’s board and committees in numerous capacities before succumbing to breast cancer in 2005 — became the namesake of the institute’s

film library and the festival’s Madelyn’s Choice Award.) Nicoletta would earn her master’s degree in sociology from UCCS before a career of nonprofit and education work, and serving as mayor of Manitou Springs.

“When I was offered the position, I was over the moon,” Nicoletta says.

Even though she’s been in the role for less than two months, Nicoletta and Broker agree that splitting the work provides Broker a lot of relief.

“Nicole is a really, really quick study and immediately stepped in, recognized that festival preparations were well underway, and just said, ‘Where can I be helpful? What can I do,’” Broker says. “It’s been a massive lift off of my shoulders.”

But fans may also notice that the festival’s growth has forced it to abandon its traditional November calendar slot

after 35 years. Colorado College asked them to shift the large festival forward a month to when students were on break to avoid overburdening their facilities staff.

The move to October produced unique challenges, including shifting due dates for submissions as well as getting filmmakers to attend their festival during a particularly busy month for film festivals. Broker says that through persistence, they were able to get 20 filmmakers to come to the festival.

“It’s really fun when you show a [documentary] to have the subjects of the film in attendance as well,” says Broker. “I think the biggest challenge was for all of us — mentally — to reset our

I always feel like if we can get people to the festival, they’re hooked.

Colorado College, Oct. 20-22 (virtual Oct. 26-29); visit rmwfilm.org for schedule, tickets, venues and more.

Courtesy Rocky Mountain Women’s Film

own calendars in terms of preparation. We’ve done this for so many years, we know exactly what should be happening in September and what should be happening in October and we had to shift everything to August and September.”

The festival offers a variety of passes for newcomers and returning fans alike, including a flexible option that lets you attend any five screening blocks across Saturday and Sunday.

“I would certainly encourage you to start on Saturday morning,” says Broker. “Because if you start Sunday afternoon, and you realize that this is the greatest thing in the world, you’ve missed your opportunity.”

RMWF celebrates the drive, spirit and diversity of women with a schedule dominated by documentaries ranging from lighthearted to heavy-hitting, driving the theme of connection deeper than simply trading the solitary comforts of home viewing for a packed theater, according to Broker.

“I think when you watch something that’s really thought-provoking or a little challenging, there’s a sense of community support for you as well, since everyone is experiencing the same thing,” says Broker. “As you’re walking out of the theater, you have someone to talk to about it, whether you’ve met that person before or not.”

FESTIVAL HIGHLIGHTS

MAESTRA

Maestra, which opens the festival on Friday night, follows five competitors in the Paris Philharmonic’s La Maestra competition, described as “the only competition in the world for female conductors” in a male-dominated occupation.

HOW WE GET FREE

How We Get Free is the story of Denverbased Colorado Freedom Fund founder Elisabeth Epps and the lengths she goes to in her campaign to end cash bail in Colorado. Epps will attend the festival.

26.2 TO LIFE

26.2 to Life is a documentary about the San Quentin Prison Marathon, a 105-lap, 26.2-mile run for the incarcerated.

“It is about running, but the running is really the backdrop to telling the stories of the people that are portrayed in the film,” says Broker. “A film like that shows you how brutal it is to train for a marathon when all you’re doing is running in circles in a prison yard. It also really humanizes people that are otherwise lumped into the same group.”

A GOOD NEIGHBOR

Brought to life by Boulder filmmakers Maggie Hartmans and Brittany Zampella, A Good Neighbor documents the struggles of Lucy Molina, a Latina single mother in Commerce City, in her fight “against racism and climate change as she campaigns for city council in one of the nation’s most polluted [ZIP] codes.” The filmmakers and Molina will attend the festival.

Photos courtesy RMWF

PLAYING AROUND

in which the disenfranchised finally get to turn the cameras on their overseers.

If all that sounds like a utopian pipe dream, which it admittedly does, consider the Nobel Man of Peace award winner’s track record, which extends from the global reach of his Real World Studios and WOMAD festivals to the WITNESS project, an international humanrights organization that Gabriel founded the year after George Holliday taped the police beating of Rodney King, to give citizen activists the tools and training necessary to “make the truth visible.”

So we’ll see how all that goes. In the meantime, Gabriel and his band — which includes longtime co-conspirators Tony Levin, David Rhodes and Manu Katché — have a world tour to attend to.

IN HIS 1975 BOOK DISCIPLINE and Punish, the French social theorist

Michel Foucault used the term panopticon, which is derived from the Greek word for “all-seeing,” as a metaphor for surveillance technologies and their impact on those who, as he put it, “are seen but do not see.”

So when Peter Gabriel released “Panopticom,” the first in a series of newsong-every-full-moon singles that will compose his first proper album in more than 20 years, he clearly had the French philosopher in mind.

But, as is often the case with the former Genesis frontman — the one

responsible for epic art-rock excursions like “Selling England by the Pound” and “The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway” — Gabriel has something more interesting, and potentially more useful, up his sleeve than the weary condemnations of technocracy we dutifully repost on our Facebook pages.

“Panopticom” dovetails with Gabriel’s latest activist initiative, The Universally Accessible Data Globe, a satellite-fed platform that would allow people to upload and monitor social, economic and political data so that “the world can see much more of itself.” Think of it as a kinder and, perhaps, gentler about-face,

Over the course of two hours, the elaborately staged shows have been divided into two sets, the first one largely devoted to richly layered, synth-heavy performances of the new material, the second to more familiar fare like “Don’t Give Up,” “Red Rain,” “Big Time,” “Sledgehammer,” “Solsbury Hill” and “In Your Eyes.”

As in tours past, the shows close with a second-encore rendition of “Biko,” the singer’s tribute to the South African anti-apartheid activist who was beaten to death while in police custody. “As always,” Gabriel said before leaving the stage at a recent show, “what happens next is up to you.” — Bill Forman

Oct. 16, 8 p.m., Ball Arena, 1000 Chopper Circle, Denver, $55 and up, ballarena.com, listen — tinyurl.com/Panopticom-23

Peter

WEDNESDAY 10/11

Dropkick Murphys, Celtic punk , with The Interrupters, Jesse Ahern; 7 p.m., World Arena, broadmoorworldarena. com/events/detail/dropkickmurphys.

Open Mic Night with Black Rose Acoustic Society ; 6 p.m., Buffalo Lodge, bicycleresort.com.

The Springstown Shakers, blues; 6:30 p.m., Front Range Barbeque, frbbq. com/events.

THURSDAY 10/12

Acoustic Night, local musicians; 6 p.m., Buffalo Lodge, bicycleresort.com.

Billy Bronsted, Americana , with Pony Hunt, John Hewitt; 8 p.m., Lulu’s, lulusdownstairs.com.

Tommy Castro & The Painkillers, Garth Brooks tribute, with Deanna Bogart; 7 p.m., Stargazers Theatre, stargazerstheatre.com.

Frog & Fiddle, Americana/jam; 7 p.m., Armadillo Ranch, manitouarmadilloranch.com.

Cory McDaniel Duo, Americana trio; 7:30 p.m., Millibo Art Theatre, themat.org.

New Vintage Jazz; 7:30 p.m., Summa, dizzycharlies.com.

David Rosales, Americana; 7 p.m., Vultures, vulturesrocks.com.

Tribe, New Orleans R&B/blues/jazz/island; 6 p.m., Jack Quinn’s, facebook. com/jackquinns.

FRIDAY 10/13

Dalonious Funk, funk jam; 7 p.m., Summa, dizzycharlies.com.

Double Wide, ’90s country ; 6 p.m., Whiskey Baron Dance Hall & Saloon, tinyurl.com/whisk-dh.

Florissant , emo/pop-punk/hardcore , with The Sum Beaches, Crunk Witch, Hiatus, Earsiq; 7 p.m., Vultures second anniversary show, vulturesrocks.com.

Tyler Halverson, “Western Amerijuana,” with Kylie Frey; 7 p.m., Boot Barn Hall, bootbarnhallco.com.

John Hewitt, singer-songwriter ; 7 p.m., Black Forest Community Center, blackroseacoustic.org/comingsoon.

Austin Johnson, acoustic blues ; 7:30 p.m., Jack Quinn’s, facebook.com/jackquinns.

Kid Astronaut, R&B/hip-hop; 8 p.m., Lulu’s, lulusdownstairs.com.

The Last Revel, Americana; 8 p.m., Lulu’s, lulusdownstairs.com.

Mr. Specific, covers/jam; 8 p.m., Armadillo Ranch, manitouarmadilloranch. com.

Music Ensembles Showcase, CC student performers; 4 p.m., Packard Hall/

Gabriel, Monday,

The Last Revel bring their “front porch Americana” to Lulu’s on Oct. 13.

CC, tinyurl.com/CC-bands-23. Red NOT Chili Peppers, rock ; 7 p.m., Brues Alehouse, Pueblo, bruesalehouse.com.

Sacrosanto: An Evening with Santos and Song, traditional Nuevomexicano liturgical music by Dr. Theresa J. Córdova and William Córdova; 6 p.m., Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, fac. coloradocollege.edu.

John Spengler, singer-songwriter ; 6 p.m., Buffalo Lodge, bicycleresort.com.

Spinphony, electric string quartet ; 7 p.m., Stargazers Theatre, stargazerstheatre.com.

Taylor Swift Night, (ages 18-plus); 8 p.m., The Black Sheep, blacksheeprocks.com.

SATURDAY 10/14

A Carpenter’s Daughter, multigenre/ mountain; 8 p.m., Armadillo Ranch, manitouarmadilloranch.com.

Celestial Dialogues, Chamber Orchestra of the Springs; 7 p.m., Broadmoor Community Church, chamberorchestraofthesprings.org/celestial-dialogues.

Cheap Perfume, femcore/punk & rawk/ colorado , with Total Cult, Cosmic Cream, Corsicana, Tiny Tomboy, SswestT; 5 p.m., Vultures second-anniversary show, vulturesrocks.com.

The Expendables, reggae/punk-rock, surf-rock , with Claire Wright; 8 p.m., The Black Sheep, blacksheeprocks. com.

Grapefruit Moon, acoustic; 6 p.m., Buffalo Lodge, bicycleresort.com.

Last Men on Earth, classic rock dance party ; 7 p.m., Stargazers Theatre, stargazerstheatre.com.

Livewire and High ’n’ Dry, AC/DC and Def Leppard tributes; 7 p.m., Boot Barn Hall, bootbarnhallco.com.

Locksmith, rap, with J. Lately, Leon The God, Knomatic & Buddy Wireless, Activate BPM, Stoney Bertz, KD Davis; 7 p.m., Oskar Blues, coloradosprings.oskarbluesfooderies.com.

Manitou Strings, acoustic Americana; 7:30 p.m., Jack Quinn’s, facebook.com/ jackquinns.

The Music of Carlton Gamer, “celebrating the life and compositions of Professor Emeritus Carlton Gamer”; 3 p.m., Packard Hall/CC, tinyurl.com/ Gamer-CC.

NOT.GREENDAY, Green Day tribute, with One of These Nights; 7 p.m., Brues Alehouse, Pueblo, bruesalehouse.com.

Strings Attached with Lenore Raphael, jazz ; 7 p.m., City Auditorium, tinyurl. com/LRaphael-23.

The Tonganoxie Split, acoustic roots/ blues/Americana, with Grant Sabin; 8 p.m., Lulu’s, lulusdownstairs.com.

SUNDAY 10/15

Celestial Dialogues, Chamber Orchestra of the Springs ; 2:30 p.m., First Christian Church, chamberorchestraofthesprings.org/celestial-dialogues. Scott “Shack” Hackler, blues; 1-4 p.m., Armadillo Ranch, manitouarmadilloranch.com.

Traditional Irish music ; 3 p.m., Jack Quinn’s, facebook.com/jackquinns.

Aurelio Voltaire, gothic/steampunk/ dark cabaret, with WitchHands , DJs Noizekatt, Rev, Dollbox; 7 p.m., Fritzy’s, tinyurl.com/Fritzys-goth.

MONDAY 10/16

Jazz jam with bassist Jason Crowe; 5:30 p.m., Armadillo Ranch, manitouarmadilloranch.com.

Sunfish , rock , with Social Cinema, The Crooked Rugs, Jesus Christ Taxi Driver; 7 p.m., Vultures second-anniversary show, vulturesrocks.com.

TUESDAY 10/17

St. Olaf Orchestra, collegiate musicians ; 7 p.m., First United Methodist Church, tinyurl.com/StOlaf-23.

WEDNESDAY 10/18

Acoustic Night, local musicians; 6 p.m., Buffalo Lodge, bicycleresort.com.

Cal Scruby, rap; 8 p.m., The Black Sheep, blacksheeprocks.com.

Tim Costello, American jam session music; 3 p.m., Jack Quinn’s, facebook. com/jackquinns.

The Marshall Tucker Band, Southern rock ; 7 p.m., Pikes Peak Center, pikespeakcenter.com.

Countywyde, bluegrass; 6:30 p.m., Front Range Barbeque, frbbq.com/events.

THURSDAY 10/19

PLAYING AROUND BIG GIGS

Brendan Abernathy, singer-songwriter; 8 p.m., Lulu’s, lulusdownstairs.com.

Blackthorn, traditional Celtic ; 7 p.m., Jack Quinn’s, facebook.com/jackquinns.

Alice Cooper, shock rock ; 8 p.m., Pikes Peak Center, pikespeakcenter.com.

The Lost Junction Band, “a couple of high schoolers with a dream”; 7 p.m., Armadillo Ranch, manitouarmadilloranch.com.

OverTime x Crucifix, country/rock/rap/ hip-hop, with Sean P East, Big Murph, Grim; 7 p.m., The Black Sheep, blacksheeprocks.com.

Shadow Work , “dark, indie pyschrock,” with Tiny Tomboy; 7 p.m., Vultures second-anniversary show, vulturesrocks.com.

Wirewood Station, Americana; 6 p.m., Creekwalk Amphitheater, creekwalkcos.com.

An Evening of Music & Magic

The Dropkick Murphys, Broadmoor World Arena, Oct. 11

Polaris, Summit, Denver, Oct. 11

You Me At Six, Gothic Theatre, Englewood, Oct. 11

Scowl, Marquis Theater, Denver, Oct. 11

The Zombies, Boulder Theater, Boulder, Oct. 11

Bad Religion, Mission Ballroom, Denver, Oct. 12

Tommy Castro & The Painkillers, Stargazers, Oct. 12

Christian Nodal, Bellco Theatre, Denver, Oct. 12

Zac Brown Band, Fiddler’s Green Amphitheatre, Greenwood Village, Oct. 12-13

Mikaela Davis, Fox Theatre, Boulder, Oct. 13

Kid Astronaut, Lulu’s, Manitou Springs, Oct. 13

Upcoming music events

7:30 pm

THU-FRI

OCT 12-13

Enjoy this unique blend of music and magic. Tap your toes as the 3-piece Cory McDaniel Duo weaves original music in & around sleight-of-hand Ace Magician Byron Grey There’ll be magic in the air! SPECIAL

Alison Wonderland, Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Morrison, Oct. 13

The Mountain Goats, Fox Theatre, Boulder, Oct. 13

Spinphony, Stargazers, Oct. 13

Wax Motif, Mission Ballroom, Denver, Oct. 13

Carrie Newcomer, First Plymouth Congregational Church, Denver, Oct. 14

The Expendables, Black Sheep, Oct. 14

The Happy Fits, Fox Theatre, Boulder, Oct. 14

Midland, Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Morrison, Oct. 14

The Mountain Goats, Gothic Theatre, Englewood, Oct. 14

Tennis with Sam Evian, Boulder Theater, Boulder, Oct. 14

G Jones, Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Morrison, Oct. 15 Continued at csindy.com

7:30 pm

FRI-SAT

OCT 20-21

Two performances of Circus, Song, and Comedy will raise funds for the work of locally based charity Ukraine Power and its continuing aid for the people of Ukraine.

Award Winning Jessica Robblee delves into the mystery of one of the world’s great poets, Emily Dickinsonwho defied convention and society’s mores in order to find freedom - through her pen.

7:30PM

NOV 2-12

Scott Bradlee will bring his time-traveling Postmodern Jukebox to the Pikes Peak Center on Feb. 18.

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Fall Arts issue, we took a look at “The art of the plate” via roughly a dozen local chefs and their perspectives on what makes for beautiful presentation. It was a lead-in to Arts Month, the regional event — celebrating its 10th anniversary this year — organized by the Cultural Office of the Pikes Peak Region (COPPeR, artsoctober.com, culturaloffice.org).

As this issue of the Indy hits newspaper racks, we’re in Week Two of Arts Month, which in particular honors theater and film — Week One having highlighted visual and culinary arts. As just one part of its monthlong programming, COPPeR invited a few culinary-related busi nesses to collaborate on specialrelease products, which will be available through October:

1) Sasquatch Cookies (sasquatchcookies.com) is serving a newly created peanut butter chocolate cookie with peanut butter and chocolate frosting and a peanut butter drizzle.

PB and chocolate cookie

2) Local Relic Artisan Ales (localrelic.com) at The Carter Payne is releasing a weekly beer to represent each category of the different Art Month themes. Each custom bottle label features an artist related to the theme. Week One brought a Liebfraumilch Oeno Saison, a Belgian-style saison brewed with riesling and silvaner wine grapes. This week they dropped a wet hop saison, a Belgian-style saison brewed with hops grown as part of the Local Relic Hop Cropping program. Week Three’s release (poetry, prose and comedy) will be a Schwarzbier, a German-style black pseudo lager brewed on Norwegian Kveik yeast. And finally in Week Four (music and dance) comes the Cascadian Raspberry Sour, a dark sour ale brewed with raspberry fermented on a house-mixed culture.

3) Josh & John’s (joshandjohns.com) has concocted a totally new ice cream flavor named Rocky Mountain Red Rocks; it’s red velvet cake (made with cake batter) with chocolate chips. (More on that one on the next page.)

Dylan Craddock, whose title at COPPeR is “Program Manager, Creative Economy,” says Arts Month (and especially this 10-year milestone) is all about showcasing the breadth of our local arts community. “One way to bring that to life is through food and drink, so we have beers, ice cream and cookies.”

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Craddock says COPPeR articulated their campaign goals and allowed each participant to get creative as they saw fit. “For me it’s important to include small businesses,” she says. “Places like these have been engaged in the community and showing their own creativity with their flavor creations. This is a holistic view of what the creative

STORY AND PHOTOS BY MATTHEW

Sasquatch’s

Courtesy Sasquatch Cookies

economy is. Small businesses are the backbone of it, just like arts groups and nonprofits.”

Also of note, each participating business will donate a portion of sales proceeds from these special items back to COPPeR in support of Arts Month. Visit the Peak Radar calendar and Arts Month pages for full event programming.

AND NOW BACK TO JOSH & JOHN’S: I GOT TO go behind the scenes and visit the beloved local company’s “Churn Barn” in mid-September with some folks from COPPeR as they were finalizing plans with the J&J’s team for the red velvet cake ice cream release. We were lucky to be the first tasters as it came out of the churns. (Yes, I do still feel special, it’s true.) The Churn Barn supplies for our three area locations as well as J&J’s expansions in Loveland and Fort Collins.

J&J’s launched in 1986 for anyone new to town and unaware. And back in the day, you had to look no farther than the front window at the former Pikes Peak Avenue location (next to iconic Kimball’s Peak Three Theater) to see how it was made.

But in February 2020, owner John Krakauer created the Churn Barn (not open to the public), off Garden of the Gods Road in a nondescript office park building. It’s allowed J&J’s to consolidate production and set up a distribution system.

Churn Barn supervisor Mark Breeding and his team show us through the 6,000-square-foot space, which includes 700 square feet of freezers. The deep freezers, stacked with flats of pints and multi-gallon tubs, run at -25 degrees, inspiring us to walk quickly through them. Amidst eight churns are both fast and slow models, each ideal for different flavors. The fast (15- to 20-minute

batches) are sufficient for base chocolate and vanilla flavors for example, while the slow (45-minute batches) are better for flavors like the oatmeal cookie, which benefit from more time to infuse the added ingredient taste into the base. As mechanized as the whole operation is, there’s definitely a human element to inputting and extracting everything and running basic quality checks throughout.

Meadow Gold Dairy, located a stone’s throw away, provides the base, a customized dairy mix. I ask about the ingredients, and Breeding fetches a giant plastic bladder

continued on p. 16 ➔

Behind the scenes at the Churn Barn

Josh & John’s production manager Scot McCoy

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from the cooler. Sure, there’s expected high sugar content (it’s ice cream — duh), but I’m glad to see all natural sweeteners (sure, we could debate about a little corn syrup) and binders and no BS synthetics or preservatives. That makes me feel better about my own sweet-toothed jaunts to J&J’s to satisfy post-dinner itches. (All in moderation, my friends.)

What did I think of the new flavor?

I’d say it’s distinguishable from their popular yellow cake flavor yet still evokes the red velvet cake crumb we expect, and the dark chocolate chips definitely tickle the happy receptors in my brain. (Though I’m still stuck on my Mocha Java Jolt and/or Purple Mountain Majesty go-to’s, so this monthly special will be a fleeting habit-breaker for me.)

“It’s always fun to do specials and try new stuff,” Breeding tells me, noting that they keep three specials going at all times in addition to three vegan ice creams and 14 flagships. Recent special flavors include a rumchata, Olathe sweet corn, amaretto cherry cheesecake, peach, Golden Oreo, Mexican Chocolate and lavender-blueberry.

BITES AND BITS

• Side Dish with Schniper has been co-presenting and co-judging an ongoing Bar Battle series monthly at Tipperary Cocktail Parlor inside Folklore Irish Pub (folkloreirishpub.com/thetipperary) sponsored by — and featuring competition hooches by — Suntory and Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits. In Round Three, on Sept. 18, 503W bartenders Elias Alayon and Zach Sherwood bested Tipperary bartenders Zach Long and Jacob Pfund (on their own turf… ouch). But hey, remember this is all a friendly competition to spotlight bartender talent across the area. (Make cocktails, not war, man!) That’s what Tipperary co-owner Sean Fitzgerald speechifies about elegantly to kick off each battle as a co-presenter and industry champion.

Bar Battle Round Four will take place Monday, Oct. 16, from 6 to 8 p.m. at Tipperary, though they’ll be sitting out this round as winners 503W compete against District Elleven. In December, after The Archives joins the fray, Tipperary will have another chance for victory in a winners’ round, as they won a round back in August.

• Check out the October Schnip’s Pick — a Callicrate chuck roast Beef Carbonnade recipe made in part with Pikes Peak Brewing Co.’s Gold Belgian-style golden strong ale — as part of my ongoing collaboration with Gather Food Studio and Ranch Foods Direct. Find the recipe (perfect for approaching cool weather) at sidedishschnip.substack.com. Then gather most of the necessary supplies at Ranch Foods Direct’s retail markets, and visit pikespeakbrewing.com/find-our-beer to locate that necessary ingredient.

Matthew Schniper is the former Food & Drink editor and critic at the Indy. You can find expanded food and drink news and reviews at sidedishschnip.substack.com.

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Your guide to events in the Pikes Peak region CALENDAR

ART EVENTS

October is Arts Month, when we’re all invited to gorge ourselves on this year’s 31day buffet of cultural events in the Pikes Peak region. Go to artsoctober.com/ events and mark your calendar (be sure to enter this year’s sweepstakes to win the “ultimate Arts prize package,” tinyurl.com/Artssweep).

Breaking Ground: New Projects in the Arts: “Learn about four bold visions coming to life right now in our local art scene — all at various stages, from groundbreaking to grand opening — and how to support them as they become a reality.” A COPPeR virtual gathering Wednesday, Oct. 18, noon; catch it at tinyurl.com/ArtsMonthNew.

Grand opening celebration for Shutter and Strum, which will offer “creative programs for at-risk and underserved youth[s] in Colorado Springs, including film/darkroom photography, art gallery curation and management, songwriting, music performance and therapy, and studio recording.” Saturday, Oct. 14, 4-8 p.m.; 2217 E. Platte Ave.; shutterandstrum.org.

Gothic Arts, an Arts Month/spooky season discussion of “Gothic architecture, macabre paintings of the Middle Ages, even hauntingly Gothic characteristics carried over to contemporary times.” Presented by the Non Book Club Book Club, Sunday, Oct. 15, 7 p.m. (“bring examples and treats to share!”); Kreuser Gallery, 125 E. Boulder St.; tinyurl.com/Gothic-arts-23.

ART EXHIBITS

45º Gallery, 2528 W. Colorado Ave., Suite B, 719-434-1214, 45degreegallery.com.

Acrylic paintings by Carlos Salazar Arenas and hand-blown glass by Danielle Park.

Academy Art & Frame Company, 7560 N. Academy Blvd., 719-265-6694, academyframesco.com. East and West: Classic and New Perspectives, works by faculty and students at Sheppard Arts Institute Open through Oct. 30; reception Friday, Oct. 20, 4-7 p.m.

Anita Marie Fine Art, 109 S. Corona St., 719-493-5623, anitamariefineart.com. Storied Places, oil paintings that share the intimate emotional relationship between artist and place. Artists include Chuck Mardosz, Richard Dahlquist and Joanne Lavender. Paintings on display refreshed regularly through Nov. 9.

The Bridge Gallery, 218 W. Colorado Ave., #104, 719-629-7055, thebridgeartgallery.com. Liz McCombs’ Desert Dreams “highlights the remarkable resilience and tenacity of life in arid landscapes .” Through Oct. 28.

Buffalo Lodge Bicycle Resort, 2 El Paso Blvd., 719-634-2851, bicycleresort.com. Works by Chris Reiss, including originals, prints, cards and stickers. Through October.

KIDS & FAMILY

For info on Saturday’s annular solar eclipse, check out NASA’s Where & When page at tinyurl.com/annular-2023. You can watch it at tinyurl.com/eclipse-at-home or celebrate the celestial event at these gatherings...

• Great American Solar Eclipses, “the historical and modern cultural context of the solar eclipse in society, what solar eclipses are” and how to observe them safely using common household objects. Thursday, Oct. 12, 5:30 p.m.; Cheyenne Mountain Library, 1785 S. Eighth St.; tinyurl.com/ppld-eclipse.

• Lights Out: Experiencing a Solar Eclipse, solar viewing with the Colorado Springs Astronomical Society, DIY solar viewer workshop and guest speaker Dr. Steve Ruskin, who will talk

Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College, 30 W. Dale St., 719-6345581, fac.coloradocollege.edu. Mi Gente: Manifestations of Community in the Southwest, with works from the FAC collection; through Feb. 3. “Sacrosanto: An Evening with Santos and Song,” with Nuevomexicano liturgical music by Dr. Theresa J. Córdova and William Córdova; then “we will move to the Agents of Care space to hear an excerpt from the newly acquired Padre Jaramillo Archive and listen to an artist talk by Vicente Telles, a contemporary Santero.” Friday, Oct. 13, 6 p.m. FAC museum free days: Oct. 14 and 20.

Commonwheel Artists Co-op, 102 Cañon Ave., Manitou Springs, 719-685-1008, commonwheel.com. From Earth to the Sky, with three artists — Jean Pierre DeBernay (paintings), Hedy DuCharme (paintings) and Steve Shugart (photography) — sharing their personal interpretations of Colorado. Through Oct. 30.

stock.adobe.com

about the Great Solar Eclipse of 1878. Saturday, Oct. 14, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Space Foundation Discovery Center, 4425 Arrowswest Drive, tinyurl.com/SFDC-eclipse.

• Solar Eclipse Viewing Party, with games, activities, light refreshments and a limited number of eclipse viewing glasses to give away. Saturday, Oct. 14, 9:30 a.m. to noon; George Fellows Park, East Library, 5550 N. Union Blvd.; tinyurl.com/East-viewing.

• Celestial Dialogues, “a musical exploration of the cosmos on the weekend of the solar eclipse” by Chamber Orchestra of the Springs. Saturday-Sunday, Oct. 14 (7 p.m.) and 15 (2:30 p.m.); Broadmoor Community Church, 315 Lake Ave.; chamberorchestraofthesprings.org/celestial-dialogues.

Cottonwood Center for the Arts, 427 E. Colorado Ave., 719-520-1899, cottonwoodcenterforthearts.com. Ghosts (And Other Manifestations of Grief) by Aaron Graves — “...Ghosts are an absence and a void that isn’t easy to fill, or even come to terms with. But recognition of them can be key in understanding how humans grieve and how we can begin to go through that process….” Through Oct. 28.

Courage, works by Filipino American artist Elaine Antonio Bordeaux — paintings, bronze sculpture, ceramics and prints — in celebration of Filipino American History Month. Friday, Oct. 6, 5:30-8 p.m.; The Asian Heritage Center, 1819 W. Cheyenne Road; goldenlotusfoundation.org.

Disruptor Gallery, 2217 E. Platte Ave., shutterandstrum.org. Not One or the Other by Maria Fetterhoff, who works mostly in acrylics and whose work is filtered through her Mexican heritage.

G44 Gallery, 121 E. Boulder St., 720-9510573, g44gallery.com. Lori DiPasquale’s You Are The Sky — “Our experiences, emotions, and external situations are like passing weather patterns. They may bring turbulence or tranquility, joy or sorrow, uncertainty and challenges.” Marisa S White’s Above/Below — “Each organism, no matter how small or insignificant, plays a vital role in maintaining the balance of ecosystems. ... I explore these patterns and connections in an attempt to gain a deeper understanding of the world around us and our place within it.” Artist talk Thursday, Oct. 19, 5:30 p.m.

Gallery 113, 125½ N. Tejon St., 719-6345299, gallery113cos.com. Paintings by Gayle Gross and Karen Standridge inspired by the changing seasons and the shifting mountain light of October.

GOCA (Galleries of Contemporary Art,

continued on p. 18 ➔

LOOKING TO QUIT SMOKING?

UCCS), Marie Walsh Sharpe Gallery, Ent Center for the Arts, 5225 N. Nevada Ave., gocadigital.org. Martha Russo’s Caesura

“her sculptural investigations appear at once fragile and potentially dangerous, cautioning one away while hypnotically drawing one in — ever closer — for intimate examination.” Through Dec. 2.

Hunter-Wolff Gallery, 2510 W. Colorado Ave., 719-520-9494, hunterwolffgallery. com. October’s featured artist: Ed McKay, who works in oils and acrylics — landscape, wildlife, still life.

Kreuser Gallery, 125 E. Boulder St., 719464-5880, kreusergallery.com. Photographer Matt Chmielarczyk’s PAIROSCOPES

— During COVID, he says, “Pairoscopes are the things we often overlook. Things that exist in our world to amaze those who make the time to observe and absorb.”

Also by Chmielarczyk — Dia de Muertos, “A visual journey through Oaxaca’s sacred conversation with death.” Home, by Valerie Lloyd, “A half-empty mug, a curated shelf, a carefully arranged vase of flowers, a forgotten pile of laundry, an unmade bed: all of these small moments are markers of the people who last interacted with them.” Through Oct. 27; artist talk Oct. 18, 5:30 p.m.

LightSpeed Curations, 306 S. 25th St., 719-308-8389, lightspeedart.art. Welcome to Your Nightmares — “a gallery showing of the dark arts” — with works by Nat Feather, Boogiavelli, Sherri Gibson,

Lawson Barney, Daphna Wilker, Cat Everington, Jay Newskool, Sean Harvey, Noah Segura, Senor Trash and Valerie Bradley.

The Look Up Gallery, 11 E. Bijou St. (inside Yobel), thelookupgallery.com. An October Arts Month Collaboraton with works by artists from the gallery’s first year of solo shows: Leila Davis, Jes Moran, Isaac “Focus” Cisneros, Rachel Espenlaub, Becca Day, Shannon Mello, Jon Francis, Nathan Travis, Nichole Montanez, Clay Ross, Rachel Dinda and Brian Tryon.

Manitou Art Center, 513/515 Manitou Ave., Manitou Springs, 719-685-1861, manitouartcenter.org. Manitou: The Art of the Great Spirit, “art celebrating artists who work, create and Live in Manitou Springs.” Through Oct. 28. MAC’s annual fundraiser, the Big Loud Silent Auction, runs through Oct. 13 — to bid, register at new.biddingowl.com/2023BLSA. The closing party is Friday, Oct. 14, 5:30-7:30 p.m.

Pikes Peak State College Faculty Exhibition will be up through Oct. 20. Gallery at Studio West, 22 N. Sierra Madre St.; see tinyurl.com/PPSC-fac for gallery hours.

Platte Collections, 2331 E. Platte Place, 719-980-2715, plattecollections.myshopify.com. Featured artist Elizabeth Morisette “brings upcycled art with texture, imagination and a touch of nostalgia.”

Surface Gallery, 2752 W. Colorado Ave., 719-359-6966, surfacegallerycos.com. The Space Between, a curated photography group exhibit. “Ten art photographers captured their own interpretations of this phrase” Nate Cuccaro, Allison Daniel, Robert Gray, Abigail Kreuser, Heather Oelklaus, Karen Scheffe, Richard Seldomridge, Denny Welker, Nancy Welker and Marisa White. Through Oct. 27; artist talk Tuesday, Oct. 17, 5:30 p.m.

True North Art Gallery, 31 E. Bijou St., 719-471-3809, truenorthartgallery.com — “fresh art from 20 local creatives.”

UCCS Downtown, 102 S. Tejon St. #105-a. An art show collaboration presented by UCCS Downtown, Pikes Peak Arts Council and Colorado Springs School District 11.

By William Goldman

ART

Bosky Studio, 17B E. Bijou St., boskystudio.com. The Jane Doe Project: Studies and Sketches by Lindsay Hand, whose “deeply researched work — focused on power structures and the human spiritual experience — is frequently presented in partnership with institutes and entities outside of the traditional gallery experience.” Through Nov. 17.

ZoneFIVE, 1902 E. Boulder St., zonefivecs. com. Daydreams and Night Lights, a juried photography exhibition presented by a Radiant Aberration and ZoneFIVE that “explores the creative imagination. What oddity or mirage do you picture during the day? Have you captured apparitions or things that go bump in the night?”

DANCE

Derek Hough: Symphony of Dance, the three-time Emmy-winning choreographer and six-time Dancing with the Stars champion and his dancers are bringing bright lights, and fast-paced action to the Pikes Peak Center. Thursday, Oct. 12, 7 p.m., 190 S. Cascade Ave.; tinyurl.com/Hough-dance.

Gaspard & Dancers, modern dance choreographer Gaspard Louis and his company are performing two of Louis’ new works, Noula and Sodo/Waterfall, and older works from their repertoire, 27 and L’esprit Presented by Dance Alliance of the Pikes

“Skeletal Torso” by Lindsay Hand

Peak Region. Friday, Oct. 13, 7 p.m.; Ent Center for the Arts, 5225 N. Nevada Ave.; tinyurl.com/Gaspard-dance.

FILM

Rocky Mountain Women’s Film Festival, the longest-running women’s film festival in the Western Hemisphere, returns to Colorado College for its 36th year with a slate of new films by, for or about women. Friday-Sunday, Oct. 20-22; Cornerstone Arts Center/CC, 825 N. Cascade Ave.; see rmwfilm.org for tickets and info on the many festival events. See p. 10 for more info.

Sunday Night Frights at the Museum: The Phantom Creeps, a classic Bela Lugosi flick from 1939. Sunday, Oct. 15, 6 p.m.; free but register at tinyurl.com/Manitoueeek; Manitou Springs Heritage Center, 517 Manitou Ave.

LAUGH OUT LOUD

Jon Stringer, Friday, Oct. 13, 7:30 and 9:45 p.m.; Loonees Comedy Corner, 1305 N. Academy Blvd., looneescc.com.

David Spade, Friday, Oct. 13, 8 p.m.; Tom Papa, Saturday, Oct. 14, 7 p.m.; Pikes Peak Center, 190 S. Cascade Ave.; pikespeakcenter.com.

Jon Rudnitsky, Friday-Saturday, Oct. 1314, 7 and 9:30 p.m.; 3E’s Comedy Club; 1 S. Nevada Ave., facebook.com/3EsComedy.

POETRY & PROSE

Friends of the Pikes Peak Library District book sale, Friday-Sunday, Oct. 13-15 (see tinyurl.com/ppld-sale for times); East Library, 5550 N. Union Blvd.

Poetry 719 Festival, through October: Keep Colorado Springs Queer, queer open mic featuring Irina Amouzou; Wednesday, Oct. 11, doors open at 6:30 p.m.; ICONS, 3 E. Bijou St.; tinyurl.com/ p719-Amouzou. See full events list at tinyurl.com/p719-festival23.

SPECIAL EVENTS

Venetucci Farm’s Pumpkin Fest, includes the pumpkin patch, hayrides, games and pick-your-own flowers. Friday-Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. through October 29, with a craft fair and farm animal visits Saturdays and Sundays.

Night at the Library, the inaugural Pikes Peak Library District Foundation fundraiser, with after-hours access to Library 21c, a cocktail reception and scavenger hunt, followed by a multi-course seated dinner and program. Saturday, Oct. 21, 5:30 p.m.; 1175 Chapel Hills Drive; ppld. org/night-at-the-library.

Hispanic Heritage Festival, a first for Pikes Peak State College, with music by La Illucion Norteña Oficial, traditional dance performance by Grupo Folklorico Del Pueblo and free lunch. “Learn how PPSC can help students and families further their education regardless of your residence status.” Friday, Oct. 13, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.; PPSC’s Centennial Campus; 5675 S. Academy Blvd; pikespeak.edu.

SOUNDS WEIRD; I’M IN

Through a Glass Darkly Symposium

— “O tempora! O mores!”: Mediaeval Apocalypticism and Beyond. Humankind’s fascination with the apocalyptic worldview is “a subject that spans cultures, religions, time, and space, and one that resists easy categorical definition.”

Friday, Oct. 13, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; free; Heller Center for Arts and Humanities; 1250 N. Campus Heights Drive; humanities.uccs. edu/events/looking-glass.

THEATER

Misery, based on the Stephen King novel, “follows successful romance novelist Paul Sheldon, who is rescued from a car crash

by his ‘Number One fan,’ Annie Wilkes, and wakes up captive in her secluded home.” Oct. 12-29; Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, 30 W. Dale St.; fac.coloradocollege.edu/ theatre/#currentseason.

Gilgamesh, presented by Counterweight Theatre Lab — “King Gilgamesh discovers joy and loss which send him on a journey outside of the world itself to find the answer to the ultimate question: Why do we die?” Oct. 12-22; True North Gallery, 31 E. Bijou St.; tinyurl.com/counterweight-g. For the Record by Lightbulb Theatre Co.: Friends and family have gathered to honor the late Hugh Montague and discover a magical record that reveals his true killer. Friday-Sunday, Oct. 13-15; Ute Pass Cultural Center; 210 E. Midland Ave., Woodland Park; lightbulbtheatre.co.

Midge and the Butcher, “Midge, a recently out trans teen, has been having some troubles with a former-friend-turnedbully. With school about to start and no clear allies, Midge does the only thing she can think of to make sure she has protection: she summons a demon from Hell.” Through Oct. 15; The Fifty-Niner, 2409 W. Colorado Ave.; facebook.com/springsensembletheatre.

Steel Magnolias, You’re invited “into the intimate world of a Black beauty shop in small-town Louisiana and the lives of the women who keep both the shop and the

county running.” Through Oct. 15; Dusty Loo Bon Vivant Theater, Ent Center for the Arts, 5225 N. Nevada Ave.; entcenterforthearts.org.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, presented by Funky Little Theater Co., tells Washington Irving’s classic tale of superstitious schoolmaster Ichabod Crane and his encounter with the Headless Horseman. Oct. 13-15 at Palmer Lake Town Hall, 42 Valley Crescent St., Palmer Lake; Oct. 20-28 at Westside Community Center, 1628 W. Bijou St.; and Nov. 3-4 at Ute Pass Cultural Center, 210 E. Midland Ave., Woodland Park; tickets, tinyurl.com/Funky-Ichabod.

Ghost Stories of Old Manitou, walking tours by THEATREdART “tell the stories of real people from Manitou Springs’ history.” Through Oct. 27; tickets and more info at tinyurl.com/Ghosts-Manitou.

Wikimedia Commons

FAIR AND UNBALANCED

By Mike Littwin Courtesy The Colorado Sun

ANYONE ELSE SEE CHAOS COMING?

IF YOU MISSED ANY OF THE GOP’s streaming reality-TV show that ended last week with Speakerfor-then Kevin McCarthy’s head rolling (figuratively, of course) on the House floor, don’t worry.

The main event is yet to come.

The chaos party in the House — which bounced its speaker for the first time in, well, forever — is promising to become the CHAOS PARTY now that all-caps Donald Trump has entered the fray.

Some House members — including, naturally, Marjorie Taylor Greene — had actually been suggesting that Trump could serve as a short-term speaker, maybe for as long as 90 days. Sadly, that idea fell to the wayside when it was revealed that, according to House GOP rules, you can’t operate as a member of party leadership if you’ve been indicted for a serious felony.

And as it happens, Trump, in this case, more than qualifies. They could have changed the rules for Trump, of course, but wouldn’t that be like rigging the election?

And so, having lost his shot at a gavel, Trump decided to ENDORSE his MAGA buddy, Rep. Jim Jordan, the hard-right GOP bomb thrower — or as former Speaker John Boehner once called him, “legislative terrorist” — to succeed McCarthy, saying, “He will be a GREAT Speaker of the House, & has my Complete & Total Endorsement!”

As of Oct. 9, Trump had reportedly planned to come to Washington on Oct. 10 — taking time from his busy campaign/courthouse/classified-secretsleaking schedule to make this bombshell endorsement. But the news got out — what, you were expecting something different? — and Trump had to settle for a Truth Social post.

However Trump made his endorsement, it would still almost certainly lead to another bloody, drawn-out fight for the speaker’s job. You may remember it took McCarthy 15 humiliating rounds to finally cash in. I’m putting the overunder on this one at 25.

JORDAN’S MAIN RIVAL IS HOUSE

Majority Leader Steve Scalise, who once reportedly described himself as “like David Duke without the baggage.” Scalise, also a hard-right conservative, is considered the more moderate choice, which

tells you something about the makeup of the Republican conference. As a key player in the leadership team, Scalise might be the logical person to succeed McCarthy, if, that is, McCarthy hadn’t just been tossed from his leadership post. There are a few other possibilities, including the bow-tied acting speaker, Patrick McHenry, who made a great noise with his angry gavel-pounding ending to the session that upended McCarthy. And then, in his first move as acting speaker, he made even more noise by evicting Nancy Pelosi from her so-called bonus workspace in the Capitol. I guess McHenry assumes pettiness is a pathway to making the speaker job permanent. Give me liberty or give me Pelosi’s office?

McHenry, it is being said, could be a compromise candidate, but that would

suggest that compromise is a possibility in the Republican House conference.

It’s not just Trump who has endorsed Jordan, by the way. Scalise may be the favorite, but Jordan has significant support, including from several of the eight Republicans who toppled McCarthy.

Jordan also received the not-at-all-surprising endorsement of Colorado’s own Lauren Boebert, who did surprise many of us by not joining Matt Gaetz and the others when they were taking down McCarthy, but instead voted to keep him as speaker.

Boebert, you’ll recall, was a leader in the fight to deny McCarthy the speaker’s job, and she had been a far-right McCarthy irritant ever since.

And, on the motion to vacate — meaning to kick McCarthy out — Boebert

memorably voted “No, for now.” (OK, it’s not her most memorable recent act. And if you need a reminder, just tune in to any of the post-writers-strike, late-night talk shows, where all the hosts are still playing catch-up on Beetlejuice.)

What no-for-now meant, I guess, was that if McCarthy were knocked out, Boebert would be free to eventually get her own punches in. One guess as to why she voted for McCarthy is that she might need the Republican establishment on her side to defend her 3rd Congressional District seat in 2024, the one she nearly lost in 2022.

As for supporting Jordan, Boebert has gone so far as to say that she would be willing to give up the House rule that a single member can call for a motion to vacate, saying it’s not needed since “Jim

Ohio’s “legislative terrorist” and House speaker hopeful Rep. Jim Jordan

Gage Skidmore|Flickr

Jordan is absolutely trustworthy.” The one-member rule was, of course, the one that Boebert had pressed for and the one Gaetz used to, uh, vacate McCarthy.

GAETZ, MEANWHILE, HAS praised Jordan as his “mentor,” which should give anyone pause, but says he’d be happy with either Jordan or Scalise as speaker. I’m guessing Scalise wishes Gaetz had just endorsed Jordan and been done with it.

Anyone who follows Republican politics knows about Jordan. He was an original founder of the right-wing Freedom Caucus. He is among the far right’s leading performers, always prepared to offer up a rage-filled sound bite.

Lately, in his role as House Judiciary chair, he has been in the forefront of pushing to impeach

President Joe Biden despite the clear lack of evidence. He has also been busily trying to prove — without any success — that the Justice Department has been “weaponized” against Trump. It’s not only Hunter Biden he’s chasing, he also, uh, is investigating prosecutors who bring cases against Trump.

And we won’t even get into the Ohio State accusations, when he was assistant wrestling coach there.

Former Rep. Liz Cheney, who served on the House committee that investigated the attack on the Capitol in 2021, said Jordan knew more about Trump’s plan for Jan. 6 than anyone in the House. And that if he were elected speaker — which she said she doubts he will — “there would no longer be any possible way to

argue that a group of elected Republicans could be counted on to defend the Constitution.”

Scalise has been diagnosed with a rare form of blood cancer, but has returned to work in the House. It probably won’t be an issue. And, of course, he was seriously wounded in 2017 when a gunman began firing at members of a Republican congressional baseball team. So he does have a history of overcoming actual, rather than just political, adversity. He also has on his résumé the fact that he, along with Jordan and McCarthy and Boebert and 143 other Republicans, voted to refuse to certify rightful electors on Jan. 6, 2021.

But can he get the 217 votes needed to become speaker? Could Jordan? Could anyone? And if no one can get the votes in the House where compromise goes to die, what happens next?

Since Democrats will all vote for Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries for speaker — in a vote that is scheduled for Wednesday — that would mean that the winning GOP candidate could afford to lose no more than four party votes.

It could happen. But will it happen in time to stave off a possible government shutdown in six weeks? I don’t know. But I’m guessing — and the TV news guys are hoping — that, with chaos on the big screen, you won’t be able to turn away.

Mike Littwin’s column was produced for The Colorado Sun, a reader-supported news organization committed to covering the people, places and policies of Colorado. Learn more at coloradosun.com.

I’m putting the over-under on this one at 25.

You’ll love...

Sunday Service 9:30 am 5075 Flintridge Drive www.CSLCS.org 719-596-6894

LOWDOWN

By Jim Hightower jimhightower.com

Who’s behind the ‘NO LABELS’ PARTY?

IN THE MID-1800S, A NEW political party flared up in American politics, posing as an alternative to both the Democratic and Republican parties.

Xenophobic and nativist, it was extremely secretive with outsiders about its specific structure, motive and agenda. Indeed, members were instructed to say “I know nothing” when asked about details — thus it was quickly dubbed the Know-Nothing Party. In 1856, it nominated Millard Fillmore as its presidential nominee, but he was reticent to talk about the party — even refraining from running as an avowed party member. He lost, and the Know-Nothings soon withered.

Yet, here comes another oddly secretive party. Labeling themselves “No Labels,” this reincarnation ought to be named the Nothing Party, for it offers nothing of substance to voters. Its socalled “Common Sense Agenda” is fluffier than cotton candy, yet it’s trying to run a third party candidate in next year’s presidential race.

LIBRARY

Saturday, October 21 | 5:30 p.m.

Why? Follow the money! That’s not easy to do, though, for this gaggle of conservative corporatists slyly incorporated as a nonprofit “social welfare” outfit — a deceit that lets it hide the names of its political funders from the public. The New Republic, however, got records revealing that No Labels is a fat cat front, with Texas billionaire Republican Harlan Crow leading the way (tinyurl.com/NR-NoLabels).

to the ongoing saga of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas peddling his position and prestige to right-wing corporate titans for… what? Free rides on their jets, golf outings and assorted baubles. He’s supposed to be an impartial justice, but he consistently supports rich interests who’re picking up his tabs. We taxpayers provide $274,000 a year in salary to Thomas — why wouldn’t he buy his own baubles and protect a smidgen of his judicial integrity?

Now comes New Jersey’s Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who has been oddly insistent on giving U.S. weaponry and financial aid to Egypt’s repressive military dictatorship. Why? Because Menendez has sunk buttdeep into influence peddling, using his position to advance Egyptian interests.

Pikes Peak Library District | Library 21c ppld.org/night-at-the-library

LIBATIONS scavenger hunt multi-course dinner

LIBATIONS scavenger hunt multi-course dinner

Buy tickets now at:

Pikes Peak Library District | Library 21c ppld.org/night-at-the-library

Who? Crow is the political patron who has secretly been lavishing luxury gifts and cash on Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who in turn has embraced Crow’s plutocratic positions in court cases.

That same plutocratic agenda appears to be fueling the No Labels third-party presidential push, for these rich politicos know that a milquetoast spoiler candidate would mostly draw independent moderates from Joe Biden, giving Crow & Company another GOP corporate presidency. It’s a cynical game… but that’s how they play it.

MEANWHILE... WHAT AMAZES

me about outbreaks of bribery among high government officials is not just the level of greed involved, but that the take is often so cheesy.

For example, there seems to be no end

In exchange, Egyptian agents have blessed him with huge wads of cash, gold bullion, a Mercedes-Benz convertible, and a no-show “job” for his wife. Oh… they also delivered an air purifier for his home.

Seriously. An air purifier. That’s a mighty cheap sell-out! Yet, what a priceless symbol of the whole stinky deal.

Meanwhile, Menendez says that the donations are unrelated to his honest concerns about our Middle East foreign policy. He proudly asserts that his senatorial assistance is just “the normal work of a congressional office.”

Sadly, he’s right! Most Senate offices today routinely do official favors for moneyed interests in exchange for millions of dollars in bribes. But that’s such an ugly word — so they call the Big Money payments “campaign contributions.” Then they get indignant when we call the system corrupt. But that’s what it is.

A milquetoast spoiler candidate would mostly draw independent moderates from Joe Biden.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Libran philosopher and writer Michel Foucault aspired to open up his readers’ minds with novel ideas. He said his task was to make windows where there had been walls. I’d like to borrow his approach for your use in the coming weeks. It might be the most fun to demolish the walls that are subdividing your world and preventing free and easy interchange. But I suspect that’s unrealistic. What’s more likely is partial success: creating windows in the walls.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): More and more older people are transitioning to different genders. An article in The Guardian (tinyurl. com/GenderMeaning) describes how Bethan Henshaw, a warehouse worker, transitioned to female at age 57. Ramses Underhill-Smith became a man in his 40s. With this as your starting point, I invite you to reevaluate your personal meanings of gender. Please note I’m not implying you should change your designation. Astrological omens simply suggest that you will benefit from expanding your ideas. Here’s Scorpio singer Sophie B. Hawkins, a mother who says she is omnisexual: “My sexuality stems from an emotional connection to someone’s soul. You don’t have to make a gender choice and stick with it.”

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Sagittarian author Mark Twain said that in urgent or trying circumstances, uttering profanities “furnishes a relief denied even to prayer.” I will add that these magic words can be downright catalytic and healing — especially for you right now. Here are situations in which swearing could be therapeutic in the coming weeks: 1) when people take themselves too seriously; 2) when you need to escape feelings of powerlessness; 3) when know-it-alls are trying to limit the range of what can be said; 4) when people seem frozen or stunned and don’t know what to do next. In all these cases, well-placed expletives could provide necessary jolts to shift the stuck energy. (PS: Have fun using other surprises, ploys and twists to shake things up for a good cause.)

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): In Roman mythology, Venus was goddess of love, desire and beauty. Yet modern science tells us the planet Venus is blanketed with sulfuric acid clouds, has a surface temperature of 867 degrees Fahrenheit, and is covered with 85,000 volcanoes. Why are the two Venuses out of sync? Here’s a clue, courtesy of occultist Dion Fortune. She said the goddess Venus is often a disturbing influence in the world, diverting us from life’s serious business. I can personally attest to the ways that my affinity for love, desire and beauty have distracted me from becoming a hard-driving billionaire tech entrepreneur. But I wouldn’t have it any other way. How about you, Capricorn? I predict that the goddess version of Venus will be extra active in your life during the coming months.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Thousands of heirloom food species are privately owned and hoarded. They once belonged to Indigenous people but haven’t been grown for decades. Descendants of their original owners are trying to get them back and grow them again — a process they call rematriation — but they meet resistance from companies and governmental agencies that commandeered the seeds. There has been some progress, though. The Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin has recovered some of its ancestral corn, beans and squash. Now would be a good time for you Aquarians to launch your own version of rematriation: reclaiming what was originally yours and that truly belongs to you.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): I like Piscean poet Jane Hirshfield’s understanding of what “lies at the core of ritual.” She says it’s “the entrance into a mystery that can be touched but not possessed.” My wish for you right now, Pisces, is that you will experience mysteries that can be touched but not possessed. To do so will give you direct access to prime riddles at the heart of your destiny. You will commune with

sublime conundrums that rouse deep feelings and rich insights, none of which are fully explicable by your logical mind. Please consider performing a homemade sacred ritual or two.

ARIES (March 21-April 19): The Indigenous Semai people of Malaysia have an unusual taboo. They try hard not to cause unhappiness in others. This makes them reluctant to impose their wishes on anyone. Even parents hesitate to force their children to do things. I recommend you experiment with this practice. Now is an excellent time to refine your effect on people to be as benevolent and welcoming as possible. Don’t worry — you won’t have to be this kind and sweet forever. But doing so temporarily could generate timely enhancements in your relationship life.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Taurus author Shakespeare reshaped the English language. He coined hundreds of words and revised the meanings of hundreds more. Idioms like “green-eyed monster” and “milk of human kindness” originated with him. But the Bard also created some innovations that didn’t last. “Recover the wind” appeared in Hamlet but never came into wide use. Other failures include, “Would you take eggs for money?” and “from smoke to smother.” Still, Shakespeare’s final tally of enduring neologisms is impressive. With this vignette, I’m inviting you to celebrate the many more successes than flops you have had. The time is right for realistic self-praise.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): I hope beauty will be your priority in the coming weeks. I hope you will seek out beauty, celebrate it and commune with it adoringly. To assist your efforts, I offer five gems: 1) Whatever you love is beautiful; love comes first, beauty follows. The greater your capacity for love, the more beauty you find in the world. — Jane Smiley. 2) The world is incomprehensibly beautiful — an endless prospect of magic and wonder. — Ansel Adams. 3) A beautiful thing is never perfect. — Egyptian proverb. 4) You can make the world beautiful just by refusing to lie about it. — Iain S. Thomas. 5) Beauty isn’t a special inserted sort of thing. It is just life, pure life, life nascent, running clear and strong. — H.G. Wells

CANCER (June 21-July 22): I read a review that described a certain movie as having “a soft, tenuous incandescence — like fog lit by the glow of fireflies.” That sounds like who you are these days, Cancerian. You’re mysterious yet luminous; hard to decipher but overflowing with life energy; fuzzy around the edges but radiating warmth and well-being. I encourage you to remain faithful to this assignment for now. It’s not a state you will inhabit forever, but it’s what’s needed and true for the foreseeable future.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): The published work of Leo author Thomas de Quincey fills 14 volumes. He inspired superstar writers like Edgar Allan Poe, Charles Baudelaire, Nikolai Gogol and Jorge Luis Borges. Yet he also ingested opium for 54 years and was often addicted. Cultural historian Mike Jay says de Quincey was not self-medicating or escaping reality, but rather keen on “exploring the hidden recesses of his mind.” He used it to dwell in states of awareness that were otherwise unattainable. I don’t encourage you to take drugs or follow de Quincey’s path, Leo. But I believe the time is right to explore the hidden recesses of your mind via other means. Like what? Working with your nightly dreams? Meditating your ass off? Having soul-altering sex with someone who wants to explore hidden recesses, too? Any others?

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Virgo journalist H.L. Mencken said, “The average person doesn’t want to be free. He wants to be safe.” There’s some truth in that, but I believe it will be irrelevant for you in the coming months. According to my analysis, you can be both safer and freer than you’ve been in a long time. I hope you take full advantage! Brainstorm about unexpected feats you might be able to accomplish during this state of grace.

CROSSWORD PUZZLE

Edited by David Steinberg | Themeless Sunday 55 by Nancy Serrano-Wu

News of the WEIRD

BY THE EDITORS AT ANDREWS MCMEEL

99 bottles of rum

Calling Capt. Jack Sparrow, and all other rum-loving scallywags: If you ever give up on a life at sea, this might be the place for you. MSN reported that Cathy and Roy Aukamp were still settling into their newly purchased New Jersey house when a massive rainstorm hit, flooding the finished basement. When the couple began removing the damaged Sheetrock, another flood began: this time, of empty Captain Morgan rum bottles. In a viral video of the discovery, Roy scoops up dozens of the bottles while Cathy is heard laughing and saying, “Thirsty? It’s 5 o’clock somewhere!” Interestingly, the previous homeowner saw the clip and got in touch with the Aukamps. “The person who did it ... said there are hundreds more” bottles in the walls, Cathy said. “But also that he is now three years sober.”

Help wanted

What would you do if you tried to check in at a hotel and no employees were to be found? A trio of friends found themselves in such a predicament at a Nashville La Quinta Inn & Suites after a night out, so they just... managed the hotel for several hours on their own. They greeted customers, took phone calls and even served breakfast to guests. “So, instantly we’re like manager mode. We run businesses back home,” one of the friends explained. “Manager mode kicks in, alright, let’s see what we can do.” A manager eventually arrived and gave the trio a room key so they could finally check in, but upon

Crossword

entering the room, they found it occupied by a woman in the buff. Exasperated, they reached out to a different hotel and were awarded three suites and a free breakfast.

Made you look

Attention, ghost hunters! WCVB-5 in Boston reports that a Millsbury, Massachusetts, funeral home recently went up for sale, with a yard sign reading “Probably Haunted.” Real estate agent Erika Kristal Eucker added the warning (or is it a selling point?) to the property’s “For Sale” sign and pointed to the building’s age — it was built sometime around 1850, or nearly 175 years ago — as justification. “Not sure if it truly is haunted, but given the age, I suppose it’s a possibility,” Eucker said. Built in the Greek Revival style, the funeral home was originally a residence before being converted to its more morbid purpose. Last sold in 2001 for a mere $100, the property’s value stands at $514,000 today.

Sign of the times

An electronic construction sign in the Montrose neighborhood of Houston, Texas, offered the opposite of helpful advice to passersby when it was hacked on Sept. 25, reported KTRK-TV. “Due to weather,” the first message, was harmless enough, but it was followed immediately by “Go ---yourself.” A city inspector was able to turn the sign off; representatives for Houston Public Works said their department does not operate the sign, and city officials have been unable to find the sign’s owner.

SOMETIMES HUMANS CONSUME SPECIAL BROWNIES. AND apparently, sometimes sheep consume special grass. NPR reported that a herd of sheep seeking refuge from recent storms in Magnesia, Greece, found shelter in a greenhouse and, naturally, began munching on the grass they encountered there. Unfortunately, the “grass” turned out to be almost 600 pounds’ worth of medical marijuana. Farm owner Yannis Bourounis told a local radio producer that the sheep were “jumping higher than goats,” which apparently “never happens.”

Photo illustration assets from stock.adobe.com

Focus Retail Fingers crossed Retailers hopeful heading into holidays

BY AMANDA MILLER LUCIANO AND HELEN LEWIS

Will it be candy? Will it be coal? Across the nation, retailers aren’t sure what to expect from customers this holiday season. Inflation has cooled, some supply issues have eased and the economy’s expanding — but consumers are still hurting from recent rollercoaster years, and that spells uncertainty for the all-important spending season ahead.

Colorado Springs retailers are also wishing for a clearer picture. While some are cautiously optimistic, they’re also tailoring their inventory to tighter budgets and looking for creative ways to differentiate themselves and attract customers amid a decline in local retail spending.

Colorado Springs sales tax revenue was down 3.26 percent year over year in August (the most recent numbers as of press time) and fell year over year six out of the seven prior months. While some of that decline can be attributed to fewer construction materials sales as building permits declined, a portion is also the result of a drop in consumer spending.

Molly Fish, who owns Urbane Collective, a clothing and gift boutique with a location in the Patty Jewett neighborhood and another on the Eastside at Marksheffel Road and Dublin Boulevard, says sales have slowed this year — a factor to consider when she began buying inventory in September for the holiday season.

“It’s always tough to know,” Fish says. “You don’t want to buy too much or too little, and you’re hoping people shop local. I’m being a little bit cautious because of the economy. I know finances are tighter for a lot of people.”

Richard Skorman, who left his City Council seat at the end of 2021 to focus on

his Downtown businesses, co-owns Poor Richard’s restaurant and Little Richard’s Toy Store. He says he’s hopeful this holiday shopping season, though he suspects it might not be as strong as 2022 was.

“Everyone is paying more this year for gas, utilities, property taxes,” Skorman says. “We hope. We don’t know. But we’re not going to understock.”

The holiday shopping season is a huge part of most local retailers’ businesses. Skorman estimates that a third of sales in the book and gift sections come during the fourth quarter of the year. As for toys, he estimates it’s closer to 60 or 65 percent of the sales.

Fish says the fourth quarter accounts for at least a third of her annual sales.

At Eclectic CO., a co-op boutique with locations Downtown and in Old Colorado City, co-owner Analisa Barrington estimates fourth quarter sales make up 30 to 40 percent of annual revenue.

“It’s amazing how much it jumps even from the summer months, which is our second-busiest season,” Barrington says.

Eclectic’s business model involves renting space in the storefronts to local makers and small vendors. The shops are carefully curated with the owners and managers tracking everything and providing sales data and forecasts to vendors.

Barrington says the year started strong, but sales began to fall off in early spring. The businesses are still trending ahead of 2022, but those growth margins have slowed.

“We’re paying attention to what’s going,” she says. “It seems like people are scaling back in their spending a little.”

To balance that, she says her team is encouraging the vendors to focus on providing a wide variety of price points.

“If a candle-maker wants to sell a $25 to $30 candle,” Barrington says, “we’re suggesting they consider adding more costeffective versions at $10 to $15.”

While the owners of Eclectic CO. are carefully monitoring the market, they’re also optimistic about small business support in Colorado Springs —and they’ve co-founded a new concept with new partner Erica Dunford. Circa Vintage opened in Old Colorado City in August and sales are already on par with the other Eclectic

CO. stores.

“It’s amazing,” Barrington says. “It took time to build a following at the Eclectic CO. locations.”

Dunford attributes the quick success of the new store, which specializes in carefully curated and high-quality vintage clothing, records, jewelry and décor, to a growing market and demand for vintage goods.

“If you look at media, record sales are up 20 percent,” Dunford says. “It’s the only form of media with increasing sales. CDs, downloads, DVDs — those are all down.”

There’s a similar craving among consum-

Circa Vintage, an Eclectic CO. spin-off, opened in Old Colorado City in August.

It seems like people are scaling back in their spending a little.

— Analisa Barrington

Courtesy Circa Vintage

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ers for other vintage items, she says.

“We have enough stuff on the planet already,” she says.

Many people are looking to buy sustainably, which means they are drawn to buying something that hasn’t been recently massproduced.

“There is a quality in vintage,” Dunford says. “And most trends are recycled, so they come back into style.”

But probably one of the biggest draws for Circa is that customers can find something unique that they can’t find somewhere else, Dunford says.

That is the kind of draw that most local retailers aim to achieve.

“In our buying, we really focus on finding the unique and unusual,” says Patricia Seator, co-owner of Poor Richard’s. “We have a lot of Colorado-themed items and try to feature a lot of local artists.”

Poor Richard’s sells a lot of greeting and holiday cards, and works hard to provide a line of interesting and one-of-a-kind items, Seator says.

“We really like to bring in things that will make people laugh,” she says.

Providing a unique offering is also a focus of Poor Richard’s toy store, Little Richard’s.

“We buy from smaller companies with specialty lines and toys you can’t get at Target,” Seator says. “There are a lot of educational toys. Mattel and those big brands, those are for the big box stores. They’re not for us.”

Fish says one reason people shop at local stores like her Urbane Collective is because they want something they won’t find on Amazon.

“They’re looking for an original piece of clothing,” Fish says. “When I go to market, I’m looking for unique, high-quality items.”

She’s also being careful to maintain an attainable price point.

Marketing during the holidays, and all

year, is heavily focused on events, Fish says.

“I want to create a sense of community,” she says, adding she’s hosting an in-store event every weekend in October.

Other local retailers also rely on events to attract customers.

Eve’s Revolution and Delilah’s Fashion Truck & Boutique, located between Downtown and Old Colorado City, host regular events, including summer garden parties and a week of “Holiday Magic” during the last week before Christmas.

“It’s an experience, more than just shopping for clothes,” says Amie Bennight, coowner of Delilah’s who recently purchased the 23-year-old Eve’s Revolution from founder Eve Carlson. “We’re sharing with our community and creating an environment where people want to come back. And people love it. We have shopping partners who come down every year from Denver or Boulder.”

Carlson says the events have been an organic part of developing and growing her business over the years. She doesn’t see the holidays as make-or-break time for the business, which thrives on buzz from regular events year-round.

“They’re a lot of work,” Carlson says. “But it’s worth it when you feel the energy and you see how well-received they are.

“I really want that great energy,” she says. “I want great sales, of course, also. But it’s really about that energy.”

Other operators are also trying to capture that energy — and sales — in events.

“They’re just a lot of fun and great for building community,” Dunford says of the many events held at Circa Vintage so far, and others planned in the near future. “The day of our last party, it started at 4 p.m. and we were at $300 in sales for the day. We closed over $2,000. I don’t think we would have gotten there if we had just stayed on pace. There is a bump that comes with creating community events.” n CSBJ

➔ continued from p. 25

Eve’s Revolution is heading into the holiday season under new ownership.

Pay from where you play.

5 Questions: Marissa Wigglesworth

BY KATHERINE ATHERTON

Starting in 1998 at The Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, Marissa Wigglesworth has more than 20 years of experience in strategic operations, project planning and philanthropic fundraising in the museum and attraction industries.

Now her focus shifts to the United States Olympic & Paralympic Museum, as its new CEO.

“We are part of the fabric of Colorado Springs,” she says, “and we want to do an even better job of becoming present and relevant for more Colorado Springs residents.”

How has your career path uniquely prepared you for this role?

I remember specifically as I was preparing to apply to graduate schools, one of my career goals was about bringing the enjoyment and the excitement and the energy and the uplift of

sport to people. My career took me in all these different places, ultimately working for museums and visitor-serving attractions for decades — so when I got notice of this particular job, it really appeared to be this great intertwining of what I knew I’d always wanted to do. This job is interesting; it’s such an interesting organization because we are a museum, but we are a sport-focused organization. We are built around the stories of athletes and people, and I feel like my own experience has also evolved in a way that positions me well to represent this organization.

Is the museum already gearing up for the 2024 Olympics?

We are absolutely gearing up for the 2024 Olympics. Paris! We celebrated a full year out, and that was during my first week. We’ll be adding an array of special programs and events lead-

Katherine Atherton

ing up to the 2024 Olympics and then we will be in festival mode during the games. Through the whole run of the Olympics and the Paralympics we’ll have special activities, we’ll have athlete meet and greets.

I am hopeful we will have a lot of watch parties where we invite the community to come and be with us and watch some of the iconic events. We are really looking forward to positioning ourselves as the central entertainment and communication hub during those games.

Looking ahead three years, what does success look like?

I think that in three years, this organization will be much more on par when we think about the major Halls of Fame in our country. A lot of people think about Cooperstown for the Baseball Hall of Fame; I think a lot of people know about Cleveland and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. These are really iconic visitor destinations.

In three years, we will be among those top iconic halls of fame in the country. People all over, if you’re a sports fan, if you’re an Olympic or Paralympic fan, you’ll know

that Colorado Springs is somewhere on your bucket list because you want to go to the Olympic and Paralympic Hall of Fame.

What are some of your favorite exhibits — and what should people look forward to when they visit?

The Opening Ceremony exhibit is one of my favorites. I think seeing the array of medals — the most complete array of Olympic medals that are on loan from the wonderful Crawford Family Foundation — that’s striking. It tells a story across history, and time. The other thing people should look forward to is talking to our guest services team. Our frontline staff who engage with visitors are a wealth of knowledge about Olympic facts, Olympic stories, and Olympic trivia. I will certainly encourage any visitors who come in to take the opportunity and ask some questions of the staff because you’re going to learn something beyond what you can read in all of the exhibits.

What’s your favorite Olympic sport?

My favorite Olympic sport — and I’m going to cheat a little bit — is track and field, or athletics as it’s sometimes referred to. So that’s cheating a little bit because there are so many different sports and different kinds of sports, team sports and individual sports and sprints and endurance events, all within that very broad answer.

I’m not an athlete, but in my youth I was a distance runner, and so there’s some sort of sense of alignment there. … And I like to cheer out loud. I think a lot of times the races give you better context and cadence for cheering out loud than perhaps some of the other sports that are more discrete in their activity.

The museum launched just as the COVID pandemic took hold — what’s been the long-term impact on visitor numbers, and what’s your strategy going forward?

To talk about the long-term impact on visitor numbers, I think we don’t know — because we didn’t have a ‘before’ COVID. We didn’t have a baseline or a benchmark. We opened during COVID and we are learning every season since then.

I think what we are learning is visitor numbers are impacted by the cycle of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, which

is not surprising. When there’s so much media and attention around Team USA athletes competing right now, then there’s a greater inclination for the visitor to use their limited leisure time and dollars to want to come here. We’re beginning to see that in the trend.

As we think about where are we going from here on, I think there’s really great opportunity at both ends of what I see as a spectrum. First, there’s great opportunity by continuing to elevate the presence of this organization nationally. We are the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Museum: There is only one and we’re here in Colorado Springs. At the same time, we are part of the fabric of Colorado Springs, and we want to do an even better job of becoming present and relevant for more Colorado Springs residents. So how are we helping folks right here in our own community know of all the things we have to offer and all the ways that we’re accessible?

One quick example: We’ve just launched a new program through which anybody with a Colorado Springs resident ID is invited to visit on Saturday afternoons for a fee of just $5. We’re trying to find ways to be more accessible and really be more part of the community here in Colorado Springs. n CSBJ

We will be among those top iconic halls of fame.

Transitions and translations: Deciphering the military

that translates into a lucrative position in a high-demand field — but employers wouldn’t know that if the veteran just put the military skill in his résumé.

Other military skills are harder to translate well. Someone who spent time as an 11-Bravo (that’s the infantry), they might think there’s no civilian correlation. That’s not true. Those service members have organizational skills, management skills, discipline. They’d be well-suited to manage a store or start a business.

I had a client come in who was in the infantry — and he was convinced he had no real skills for the civilian world. But I asked him: When you get ready to go on patrol, what do you do? And the answers range from making sure everyone is ready, has the right gear, is prepared for the mission. And that easily translates into real skills — leadership, management, organization.

The translation is vital to success after military life. And it’s not just job skills that need translating. For business owners and employers outside the defense realm, the dizzying array of acronyms can be difficult to really understand who they are hiring.

What does it mean if someone graduated from the First Sergeant Academy? It’s a senior leader development course. What’s an Admin NCO? That’s the administrative officer,

And sometimes the veteran needs more help. People who enter the military at 17 or 18 may have never been to a job interview. They might not know what to wear, how to behave or what questions to ask. In a county with about 100,000 veterans out of 750,000 people, employers have a vested interest in helping this population develop the right skills to land jobs.

network, network, network.

So, Hire Heroes USA brings together about 30 executives from local companies to perform mock job interviews for local veterans, offering them advice on everything from what to wear to how to translate the skills and abilities gained through military service.

And they provide knowledge about how those hard-totranslate skills become assets to find exactly the right job. And right now, it’s easy to find work; nearly every field is hiring. We have clients from landscapers and mechanics to program managers and IT professionals. There’s no sector that isn’t trying to hire. And that’s good news for our veterans — but only if they have the right skills listed in the right way.

But service members don’t have to wait until they leave military service; they can work toward certifications in their chosen post-military career field while they’re still

network, network, network. It’s important to get out there, let people know you are job hunting and how to take an introduction to a meeting to a job. It can be daunting, but we have a network training event from 4 to 6 p.m. Oct. 12 at Blackhat Distillery. Veterans can come by and give networking a try in a safe space.

Jon Dix is a peer navigator for Mt. Carmel Veterans Service Center. His role is to help veterans develop the skills and tools to transition from military service into the civilian workforce. He is a certified federal job search trainer and certified federal career coach.

The Front is a collaboration between the Colorado Springs Business Journal , Mt. Carmel Veterans Service Center and its partners.

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