For the rest of this year, bus service to the City of Fountain will continue, this news announced last week after the Pikes peak Area Council of Governments board agreed to give Fountain $47,000 to continue the service through 2008.
PPACG also pledged $90,000 for $2009, but, City of Fountain must come up with $268,000 in matching funds to ensure service next year.
Bus service to Fountain was in danger of being stopped next month.
Regarding the situation, Mayor Jeri C. Howells said she would be meeting with the City councilmembers and working with city leaders to look into all avenues, in hopes of raising the required funds for 2009 service.
“We will do everything within our power to give this matter serious consideration and explore all opportunities,” she said.
Call to Action – Food Shortage Can Only Be Fixed With YOUR Help
By Jennie Keller
Hard times have hit everyone in the Fountain Valley area. However, the Walt Fortman Center has been hit especially hard. Their pantry is practically empty. On the shelves of donated items are some canned vegetables, soup, 3 packages of diapers, and 6 rolls of toilet paper. They are desperately in need of food, baby, and beauty items in order to help residents in need.
According to Center Coordinator Jackie Meehan, the average cost to feed a family of four is $39.50 more per month then it was a year ago. The cost of food basics has risen 7.3 percent making it hard for some families to make ends meet.
The donated food at Walt Fortman Center is used to help families in emergency situations. It is not a means of food for long sustaining periods. The Center will help those who qualify with food, clothing, employment resources, and even utility and housing payments for dire situations.
“We are really in need of help. Our shelves are getting really low,” reported Meehan. She hopes that area schools and groups might be able to coordinate food drives in order to replenish the shelves to help out Fountain Valley residents in need.
Canned and boxed foods, baby supplies, beauty products such as shampoo and deodorant, and school supply donations can be dropped off at the Walt Fortman Center located at 501 East Iowa in Fountain.
Janet Huntington joins News staff
Editor’s Note: The management and staff of this newspaper is pleased to welcome Jan Huntingon, our newest staff member, who is also quite an accomplished and talented artist. Jan will be serving as a feature/human interest reporter, columnist and will be focusing part of her time on the local equestrian community. Following is her self-introduction.
When a new door opens...
Hello! My name is Janet Huntington and I am looking forward to working in the Fountain Valley community.
I am always ready to explore the doors that open in my life. The latest and most exciting door to open is the opportunity to write for this paper.
A Colorado resident since I was in the seventh grade, I majored in graphic design, and minored in creative writing at Colorado State University in Fort Collins.
I have always had a passion for the written word, and have maintained a steady art career in illustration. I had the privilege of illustrating 18 children’s books for Colorado resident Beverly Lewis. The Cul De Sac Kids became the number one selling Christian chapter book series in the country. I also illustrated greeting cards for Walter Drake Inc. in Colorado Springs until the business closed its doors in 2004.
I have been a horse trainer for many years in El Paso County, working in Green Mountain Falls, Black Forest, Mark Reynor Stables in Colorado Springs, and most recently in the Calhan area. Some of you may remember me, and my daughter, Clare, showing our horses at the Fountain Riding and Roping Club arena at Metcalfe Park in Fountain.
I began by giving riding instruction to children, showing all around for a buckskin breeder, and graduated to training and showing reined cowhorses for the Wilson Ranch in Calhan.
It’s been a wonderful and exciting run, but old bones and past injuries have made it clear that I need to slow down.
Believe me, trying to figure out what to do with myself had me in a bit of a tizzy. How does an aging, cranky horse trainer who has spent the last 15 years wearing nothing but faded jeans and ratty old T-shirts find a new career?
Call it fate, karma, whatever you want, but this family-owned newspaper came into my life right when I needed it most. My old friend, Karen Johnson, (Office Manager of this paper) called, and wanted to bring me one of her mother’s horses to train. My life began to change gears.
Karen and I grew up riding together. Her mother, Kathryn (“Katty”) Wiese-Moore (owner of this paper) was my “show mom”, giving me rides to horse shows, and cheering me on with enthusiasm and support. Patty St. Louis (Executive Editor of this paper) was Karen’s tag along kid sister. Together, they now run the newspaper.
While I was training one of Katty’s horses, I also had been busy writing a story for the Your Hub website at the local daily paper. My friend Sharion, a former Fountain resident, had been injured in a riding accident. The story turned into a series.
After reading it, Karen and Patty sent me wonderful comments about the story series, and the next thing you know, here I am writing for this wonderful community newspaper.
Thank goodness Patty is of a forgiving nature, or maybe her long term memory is getting a little fuzzy, but she hasn’t brought up the rotten things Karen and I did to her back in the day. As editor, she’s certainly in a position to take sweet revenge any times she feels the need.
I’ll be covering human interest stories, and there’s talk of a horse page, with stories, event coverage, and a horse training advice column.
I can’t wait to get going, this is going to be great. Having such wonderful friends come back into my life, and the opportunity to make new ones in this beautiful community, is a door I couldn’t help but run through.
Fiery skies…
Cotton-ball like clouds caught the warm colors of a recent sunset as they seemed to float over Fountain’s City Hall plaza one evening last week.
news photo by LEZLEY WOOLF
- - Also in the Headlines - -
Fall Festival registration deadline nears. Parade route changed.
The Fountain Valley Chamber of Commerce is busy making plans for its 39th Annual Fall Festival, themed “Memories of the 1940s” which will take place Labor Day weekend. Co-sponsoring the fall festival is Black Hills Energy (formerly known as Aquila).
The deadline for parade entries and for booth entries at Metcalfe Park is Friday August 15. Applications are available at the Chamber office and the News office, 120 E. Ohio Ave., Fountain.
The Fall Festival weekend will begin at Fountain Fire Station No. 1 on Sunday evening, August 31, where they will host a barbecue dinner/dance from 5-10 p.m.
Activities the next morning (Labor Day- Monday, September 1st) kick off with the annual pancake breakfast benefitting Dollars for Scholars (which awards scholarships to Fountain Valley area- graduates each spring.) Breakfast will be served from 7-9 a.m. at the Fountain Middle School cafeteria (corner of S. Santa Fe and Alabama).
Parade line up begins at 9 a.m. at the area of the intersection of Iris and Lyckman. The parade begins at 10 a.m., proceeding south on Santa Fe. An addition to this year’s parade will be units from the Al Kaly Shriners. Note: The parade route, originally intended to travel south to Illinois and then east to Main has been changed after the city expressed safety concerns. The new route will take the parade south to Ohio Ave., where it will turn east and travel to Main Street, where it will turn north. This year’s honored Parade Marshals are Harold and Elva Orcutt, long-time local residents and civic leaders. They will be introduced at 1 p.m. which is also when the parade awards will be presented at Metcalfe Park.
Activities at Metcalfe Park following the parade begin at 11 a.m. including the Rock Mountain Tractor pull in the southwest corner of the park. There will be food, crafts, booths and more through the afternoon including entertainment in the H. Kay Larson Memorial Gazebo. The Dwight Shaw Band begins at 11 a.m. playing big band sounds from the 1940s. Also planned are performances by the Fountain Arts Center Dancers and at 2:30 p.m. Gentle Rain will entertain featuring music from the 70's and 80's.
Hard times have hit everyone in the Fountain Valley area. However, the Walt Fortman Center has been hit especially hard. Their pantry is practically empty. On the shelves of donated items are some canned vegetables, soup, 3 packages of diapers, and 6 rolls of toilet paper. They are desperately in need of food, baby, and beauty items in order to help residents in need. 
When a new door opens...
