Folks up Ute Pass are toasting the memory of Frank Van Arsdale, who they knew as “Mr. Van” or Santa Claus or chief of the Green Mountain Falls Volunteer Fire Department.

 Here is a photo of him. Please send any other photos or memories of Mr. Van to bill.vogrin@gazette.com and I will post them, too.

Neighbors of Brian Scott on Sonora Circle are upset that he stopped work on a large addition to his house and has let the project sit for years. The house is near Montebello and Flintridge drives, near the intersection of Union and Academy boulevards.

Here is a view of the addition looking west from Miranda Road.

Scott, 53, said he got distracted after he started the project in 1998 by personal problems and his ongoing efforts to stop the Iraq war.

Here is Scott giving a tour of the addition. Some of the house has insulation and siding. A few windows have been installed.

Some is bare wood. The shingled siding at the bottom was something Scott added for his mother before she died. When completed, the addition will have a kitchen, bedroom, family room and prayer room.

Charles Kellogg is liquidating the inventory of his Jet-Way Liquors, at 1645 Jet Wing Drive, just two weeks after he shot to death a would-be robber.

Here is a photo by Gazette photographer Bryan Oller, of Kellogg’s store, which is in a strip mall on the corner of Jet Wing and Fountain Boulevard on Colorado Springs’ southeast side of town.

Below is a Gazette photo taken Nov. 27, the night of the robbery and shooting.

Jet-Way Liquors is in the corner of the strip mall, on the edge of the Wildflower neighborhood, just west of Powers Boulevard and the Colorado Springs Airport.

On the night of Nov. 27, Kellogg was confronted in his store by 21-year-old Gibran Gayton, who pulled a gun and demanded money. Kellogg responded by shooting Gayton in the chest, killing him. Police say Gayton robbed at least four other businesses in the week leading up to the shooting.

4th Judicial District Attorney John Newsome ruled that Kellogg was acting in self-defense when he shot Gibran and no charges will be criminal charges will be filed against the 74-year-old store owner in connection with the homicide.

High above Mountain Shadows, in the foothills north of the Garden of the Gods, is a Christmas tree that appears to float above the landscape. Here is a photo of the tree as viewed through a lighted forest about halfway up Lanagan.

The 23-foot-tall decoration actually sits atop a rock outcropping above the home of Tim and Rhonda Wittwer on Lanagan Street. Here is a closer view.

The tree is made of strands of energy-efficient LED lights with one larger LED at the top. The Wittwers plan to hang large ornaments on the tree to give it more color.

Here is a map, created from an image off www.FlashEarth.com, to the neighborhood to view the tree.

This view, from www.GoogleEearth.com, shows the approximate location of the tree looking west toward Pikes Peak.

Don Pinello just can’t quit his fight to reclaim a 25-foot strip of land between Cascade Avenue and Tejon Street that he says was unjustly taken from his family in 1955. So he spent Thanksgiving week building a fence around the disputed property.

It is just north of his home on the northeast corner of Cascade and Fillmore Street. Here is a map of the area.

Pinello sunk three fence posts and erected about 25 feet of fence along Cascade Avenue from the north end of his property. Then he laid railroad ties from Cascade to Tejon to mark the boundary of what he claims is his property. Here is a photo of his fence after the first day, with K-mart in the background.

Here are a couple other views of Pinello’s work.

On Monday, Pinello discovered his fence had been removed, along with the railroad ties. And he received this letter from Bruce Wright, an attorney representing the owner of the K-mart shopping center, Leonard Rosenberg of Houston.

Both Wright and Pinello are threatening to sic the district attorney on the other for trespassing. So far, the El Paso County DA’s office has not been notified, says spokeswoman Denise Minish.

     When a couple residents of Village Seven neighborhood decided things were starting to slide, they got involved with the homeowners association board of directors. Here is a map of the neighborhood, which has about 1,000 homes and five miles of greentbelt trails located in the geographic center of Colorado Springs near North Academy Boulevard and Austin Bluffs Parkway.

     But the new board members didn’t want to be known as “covenant Nazis” using Gestapo tactics to force residents to adhere to neighborhood rules. So they have volunteered their time to help neighbors fix fences, mow yards and pull weeds.

     They are especially proud of efforts to spruce up the greenbelt by replacing aging lights and playgrounds. A catalyst for the effort came when a resident suggested renovating a playground and dedicating it to the three Nicholls children killed by an arson fire. Here is a map, taken from the neighborhood’s web site at www.villageseven.org showing the greenbelt trails and playgrounds.

      Village Seven board members hope their volunteer “Neighbors Helping Neighbors” program will catch on and expand throughout the neighborhood. And they hope folks will start paying their dues without threats and that covenants will be respected so they can turn their attention to fun things such as free neighborhood concerts, barbecues and Easter egg hunts.