The house located on the grounds of the “Saint Rose Arveson Shrine” at 36th Street and West Pikes Peak Ave. was declared uninhabitable Monday, Jan. 28, 2013. Officers from the Humane Society of the Pikes Peak region including Sgt. Ryan McFadden, right, and Ben Schar wore hazard gear when going in the house. Photo by Carol Lawrence / The Gazette

Rose Arveson

On this day of love, happiness and bouquets of roses, there is none at the west side shrine once world famous for sending blessed miracle healing roses to the faithful.

Rather than the scent of roses, the over-powering stench of human waste and death permeates the “Saint Rose E. Arveson Shrine” at 36th Street and West Pikes Peak Avenue.

No longer do desperate people seeking cures wander the hillside shrine offering prayers at the statue of Christ or before the large etched mural of Rose Arveson, who died in August 1963, giving birth to a legend.

Her daughters, Dorothy and Pauline, claimed a miracle occurred after her funeral when six roses placed on her casket wilted, died and were resurrected. They said the roses bloomed 10 days later.

Then, they claimed, a petal from one of the roses cured a severely arthritic friend.

Dorothy and Pauline spent the rest of their lives erecting the shrine and campaigning for the Catholic Church to declare her a saint due to her healing powers.

The story of Rose was spread by tabloid newspapers, triggering pilgrimages from folks hoping to be healed of various diseases and afflictions.

This etching of Rose Arveson was a centerpiece of a shrine built by her daughters, Dorothy and Pauline, who spent their lives trying to win sainthood for their mother.

Over the years, the sisters claimed the spirit of “Little Saint Rose” had cured people of cancer, heart disease, AIDS and blindness.

For those who couldn’t make the trip to Colorado Springs, the sisters shipped out roses blessed in their mother’s name. Roses went out by the tens of thousands to people around the world.

But sainthood never came, officially, to Rose. Dorothy worked as an accountant from the modest family home she shared with Pauline.

And as the sisters aged, their efforts to promote their mother and the shrine faded.

The Shrine of Saint Rose E. Arveson was a mess on Feb. 13, 2013, and the stench was overwhelming near the house. Photo by Cary Leider Vogrin.

The shrine took on a spooky quality in recent years. Weeds grew unchecked. The statues decayed. The elderly sisters were seldom seen by neighbors who  grew concerned as a stranger appeared. It was a man no one recognized, and he moved in with the women.

Police were called to check the welfare of the women, but they were never allowed in the house. Same for Code Enforcement and Adult Protective Services.

Readers called me in 2010 and I tried to talk to the sisters and the man, but they wouldn’t open the door.

The Shrine of Saint Rose E. Arverson was not a welcoming place on Feb. 13, 2013. Beyond the “Beware of Dog” sign was a notice on the door declaring it unfit for human habitation. Photo by Cary Leider Vogrin.

When officials finally did get inside recently, they were shocked at what they found. The house had become a toxic waste site, according to Ken Lewis, code enforcement administrator.

His officers were with police Jan. 28 when, in response to neighbor complaints, they went to investigate horrible odors wafting from the house.

Lewis said officers decided the overwhelming smell of death gave them probable cause to enter the house. So they crawled in a window and were stunned.

“There were dead animals and human waste everywhere,” Lewis said. “The place was filthy. It’s one of the worst we’ve ever seen.”

Officers from The Humane Society of the Pikes Peak region and code enforcement officials wore hazard suits as they cleared dead animals from a house located on the property of the Saint Rose Arveson Shrine at 36th St. and West Pikes Peak Avenuen on Jan. 28, 2013. Photo by Carol Lawrence / The Gazette

Inside, they found 69-year-old William E. Schwartz, who appeared to be suffering a leg infection and had to be carried out, Lewis said.

Then officers of the Humane Society of the Pikes Peak Region went in, wearing hazard suits and facemasks, to rescue some cats living inside and clear out the carcasses of dead animals, Lewis said.

Turns out, Pauline Arveson died in April 2008 at age 82 and Dorothy died in March 2011 at age 81 leaving Schwartz alone in the house.

Statues on the grounds of the Shrine of Saint Rose E. Arveson are crumbling from neglect.

“We’d been trying for a long time to get in the house,” Lewis said. “Dorothy almost let us in one time but she said she didn’t want to anger (Schwartz).”

When Dorothy died, Lewis said, the first responders found her body on the porch because Schwartz didn’t want anyone in the house.

I wondered what would become of the house and shrine and Schwartz.

Lewis said his officers went back on Friday and condemned the place.

“It’s a health hazard,” he said. “We put it on the dilapidated building list.”

It’s so bad, he doesn’t believe the house can be saved.

“It would require a biohazard cleanup,” he said.

Lewis knows neighbors don’t want to be stuck with a rancid building, so he intends to start the process of asking the city attorney to go to court and ask for a receiver for the property, assuming there are no heirs to take control.

“Somebody has to take responsibility for the property and take the house down,” Lewis said.

It could take months, but Lewis said it will be a priority for his office because not much can happen until a receiver is appointed.

As for Schwartz, Lewis said he remains hospitalized. And once healthy, he is facing three counts of misdemeanor cruelty to animals, filed last week in El Paso County District Court, according to court documents.

Looks like it will take another miracle to save Little Saint Rose’s shrine.

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NO BOUQUETS OF ROSES AT ARVESON SHRINE is a post from: Side Streets

Ellen Ritt, left, and Aaron Johnson relaxed atop Little Giant Peak in September 2006. The couple dropped the camera down a steep gully and never expected to see it again or the nearly 90 photos on its memory card. But the power of social media reunited them with their photos.

Ellen Ritt thought she’d never see her camera again after it plunged down the side of Little Giant Peak near Silverton in September 2006.

After all, Ellen and her husband Aaron Johnson watched as it tumbled hundreds of feet down a scree-filled gully toward a crater near the abandoned Shenandoah Dives mine far below.

This photo of a crater showing mine subsidence was retrieved from the camera lost by Ellen Ritt and Aaron Johnson in September 2006 during a hike of Little Giant Peak near Silverton. Photo courtesy Ellen Ritt.

“My husband started to run down the gully and I was screaming: ‘You are going to kill yourself.’ It was very treacherous and very loose,” she said. “So we headed down the ridge and gave up on it.”

But Ellen, who works for Wells Fargo in Denver, didn’t count on state mine inspector Bruce Stover spotting the silver digital camera amid the talus in August 2012.

And she never dreamed the power of social media would deliver her photos back to her.

That’s what happened Tuesday after Marti Liebowitz, a certified hypnotist at Harmony Through Hypnosis in Colorado Springs, saw a photo I had posted on my Side Streets Facebook page. It was a picture of Ellen and Aaron atop the mountain taken from the memory card in their camera.

Waterfalls photographed by Ellen Ritt and Aaron Johnson in September 2006 during a hike of Little Giant Peak near Silverton. Photo courtesy Ellen Ritt.

“I saw the photo and I recognized Ellen’s face,” Marti told me. “It’s amazing. I was like: ‘I know that face.’ So I wrote her on Facebook. It was so funny.”

Funny and shocking, actually, how quickly the mystery was solved.

And it might have remained a mystery had Stover not been observant as he did his job.

“I found it as I was doing an inspection of an abandoned mine last August in the Dives Basin near Cunningham Gulch,” Stover said. “I was at about 12,800 feet in a very remote location when a little bit of metalic reflection caught my eye. It was buried in the rocks. Covered with scree. It was pretty bashed up.”

Unlike disposable cameras he has found in the past, Stover decided to take the digital camera back to his office to see if he could view any photos and identify the owners. He was able to see beautiful shots of mountains, lakes, waterfalls, abandoned mines and old mule trails.

And then there were a few frames showing two people he believed were seasoned hikers, based on their gear and appearance. But that’s all he could tell.

“The camera sat on my desk for months,” said Stover, who said he’s a mining geologist, not a detective.

Little Giant Peak is in the right center of this image from Google Earth.

That’s where the story might have ended. But recently Stover saw a report on KUSA 9News in Denver about hunters finding a camera and reuniting with its owners.

Stover sent the memory card to KUSA’s Dave Delozier, who posted it on his Facebook page, asking for help identifying the hikers.

One of my Side Streets Facebook friends, Susan Brown, was the missing link. She saw Delozier’s post on a friend’s page and shared it on her own page, where I saw it.

Stover was shocked Ellen was found so quickly.

“Isn’t that amazing?” he said laughing. “We’re all bees in the hive with our technology. As soon as one bee finds honey, every bee in the hive knows where the flower is. We’re all interconnected. Worldwide.”

Mostly, Stover was just happy.

“I’m just glad they got their camera back,” he said. “And their memories.

One of the photos retrieved from the camera lost by Ellen Ritt and Aaron Johnson in September 2006 during a hike of Little Giant Peak near Silverton. Courtesy Ellen Ritt.

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CAMERA LOST IN 2006 RETURNED BY FACEBOOK FRIENDS is a post from: Side Streets

Single-familiy homes on Whereabout Court are dwarfed by the Dublin Terrace Townhomes behind them. The townhomes were built contrary to approved plans with larger-than-permitted buildings because the developer was trying to provide unobstructed views to potential buyers.

Will the “Too Tall Townhomes” finally get knocked down to size?

Or just knocked down?

Or will they remain abandoned, inflicting financial and visual pain on the surrounding neighbors?

It’s been almost a year since questions over the size of three new buildings in the Dublin Terrace Townhomes complex erupted, even prompting Mayor Steve Bach to personally inspect the northeast Colorado Springs complex.

The city says the developer of the Dublin Terrace Townhomes raised the grade and built structures not approved for the site, contrary to the development plan.

The controversy eventually resulted in the bankruptcy of the developer Todays Homes and its parent company, Unity Builders Group of Calgary, Canada. And it threw into limbo 10 units — seven in two buildings that are finished and furnished and ready for sale and three units in one building with no roof.

In January, city planners rejected a request from the court-appointed receiver to allow the buildings to remain, as-is, with additional landscaping to buffer the neighbors’ view.

Planner Rick O’Connor’s rejection set up a showdown on Feb. 21 when an appeal is to be heard before the Colorado Springs Planning Commission.

Seven townhomes in two buildings are finished and furnished and ready for sale. But three units in a third building are in the early stage of construction. The building doesn’t even have a roof and weather is rotting the wood.

An attorney for the receiver, Andrew Checkley of MLP Receiverships in St. Louis, responded in documents that moving the buildings or demolishing them are not viable options for Pittsburgh-based PNC Bank, one of the nation’s largest banks, which owns the loans and is facing claims exceeding $1 million, including mechanic liens.

In the documents, the receiver continued a year-long debate over the height issue, arguing the city has wrongly assessed the height. The receiver insists the buildings are just four feet higher than allowed, not upwards of 11 feet as the city claims.

And Checkley raises the possibility that PNC might simply walk away, leaving the buildings to rot, unless the city agrees to let them stay.

“(PNC) has no obligation to foreclose or to take ownership of the property,” Checkley wrote. “This is the worst-case scenario for all parties involved. Unfortunately, given the finances of the project . . . and the competing demands of the interested parties, it may be the most likely scenario.”

Checkley warns that vacant and abandoned buildings erode property values, reduce the city tax base, anger neighbors and “may attract irresponsible social activity.”

Quite a scare tactic. It’s one voiced months ago by Todays Homes and now by Checkley and it has the attention of neighbors who are angry at the suggestion and fear being steamrolled by bureaucrats who don’t care about the neighbors.

“They don’t care about anybody but the bank,” said Bill Sheridan, whose single-family home on Whereabout Court, just across the fence, is dwarfed by the Too Talls.

Bill Sheridan, left, and Tom Fendon survey the Too Tall Townhomes in this September 2012 photo. They and dozens of other neighbors stand to lose thousands in equity in their homes as the buildings rot in bankruptcy.

Similar frustration is felt by Tom Fendon, who lives in a Dublin Terrace Townhome in one of the 56 units in about 15 completed and occupied buildings in the complex.

“It doesn’t get any better,” Fendon said. “It doesn’t look good as far as getting this taken care of. Meanwhile, all the people here are losing money as far as property values go.”

Of course, their positions reflect how hard this problem is to fix.

Sheridan is adamant the Too Talls must come down, insisting property values of the homes on his street all suffered when the behemoths went up.

Fendon, however, said its his neighbors in the other townhomes who are suffering the most.

“Most of us are under water,” he said. “This affects 51 townhome owners. We can’t sell because everything has stopped. There are only eight or nine homes across the fence affected by this.”

Deciding what happens next isn’t the only question Fendon wants answered. He still wants someone held accountable at City Hall.

“I walk through the community and ask myself the same question,” Fendon said. “Why was this allowed?

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SHOWDOWN FOR TOO TALL TOWNHOMES is a post from: Side Streets

The front page of The Gazette on Oct. 2, 1991, told of a newborn found in a trash can behind a Stratton Meadows home.

In December, news broke of a newborn found abandoned near a trash bin at a north side apartment complex.

It turned out the 17-year-old mother had concocted the story. The child was never abandoned.

It reminded me of another baby found in the trash in the Stratton Meadows neighborhood south of downtown Colorado Springs in 1991.

That baby would be 21 now. I wondered what happened to the child and set out to find her.

At first, it seemed the story had a happy ending.

But then it took a sad, ugly twist.

For a time, I never thought I’d find the young woman who started life in a trash can behind her family’s home. The Gazette never identified the child, her 15-year-old mother, her 19-year-old father or anyone else.

I located an attorney, now retired, who represented the mother in a fight for custody after the child was taken by social service workers. But he couldn’t remember much.

Finally, I put out a call on social media. Within minutes I heard from retired firefighter Tim Casey who was the medic on the truck that responded to a call for help the morning of Oct. 1, 1991.

Casey vividly recalled the day. First came the call that a female student was hemorrhaging at Harrison High School. The responding firefighters discovered the girl had given birth that morning. Another truck — Casey’s rig — was sent to her home with orders to look in the trash can for the baby.

“It was a beautiful day,” Casey said. “As a couple of guys chased off the dogs in the yard, I went over and opened the trash can.

“Inside was a neatly rolled plastic trash bag. I picked the bag up, got it to my shoulder height and the baby cried inside the bag.”

The sound shocked Casey, who nearly dropped the child. He was expecting to find just a body, not a living, breathing, crying infant.

“There was a beautiful little blonde girl inside the bag,” he said. “I opened my shirt, shoved her inside to get her warm and ran to the truck.”

An ambulance delivered the child to a hospital and Casey was called to sign her birth certificate as the first professional to make contact with the baby.

Later he learned the mother was a scared teen who hid her pregnancy from her family and friends then disposed of the baby believing she was stillborn.

“She thought the baby was dead,” Casey said. “And nobody had any idea she was pregnant.”

The incident was so unusual in Casey’s career that he later wrote about in a Jan. 30, 2012, entry in his blog.

An odd coincidence further tied Casey to the child: The driver on the fire truck that day was the uncle of the teen mother. Through the uncle, Casey learned the mother eventually married the father. They’d had a couple more children together and were able to regain custody of their first child. They even bought a house around the corner from her parents.

Then, in 2009, Casey received an email from the uncle.

“It had a photo of a beautiful girl in her cap and gown,” Casey said. “The email asked if I recognized the girl.

“The next sentence said: You pulled her out of a trash can 18 years ago.”

It would have been the perfect ending to a story that started as a near tragedy.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t the end of the story.

About the same time as the graduation, the girl’s father surfaced in The Gazette in a “Crime Stoppers” feature.

There was his mugshot and a description of why authorities were offering $1,000 for information leading to his arrest. His alleged crime: suspicion of sexual assault on a child.

Yes, that child.

In fact, the father pleaded guilty to sexual battery on his daughter.

I spoke to the mother, who is heartbroken. She’d like the world to know she never meant to harm her newborn daughter. And she said she would have done anything to protect her from the father, if she’d known.

“We’ve had our ups and downs,” she said in a quiet voice, declining to reveal any more about her daughter.

Casey, now an author and lecturer, was shocked and saddened when I told him what I learned. He said he almost wishes he didn’t know the rest of the story.

“It’s just horrid,” he said. “I guess there aren’t always happy endings in life.”

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SOMETIMES LIVES START BADLY AND THERE IS NO HAPPY ENDING is a post from: Side Streets

Wildlife officials tranquilized a large buck that had been living on a ledge of a retaining wall along Vindicator Drive in Rockrimmon and removed it on Friday, Jan. 18, 2013. It was given a medical exam, treated with antibiotics for an infected injury to its leg, clipped of its antlers and relocated south of Colorado Springs. Courtesy Colorado Division of Parks and Wildlife.

Readers this week were reporting the Rockrimmon buck with the mangled antlers, swollen leg and drooping ears was missing from his ledge at Vindicator Drive and Rockrimmon Boulevard.

The buck first appeared before Christmas, obviously injured and suffering. It seemed to be trying to hide behind bushes on the ledge of a retaining wall beneath an apartment complex.

In this Jan. 13, 2013, photo by Rockrimmon resident Sue Giesbrecht, a large buck with injuries including broken antlers, a swollen leg and drooping ears lived several weeks on a ledge of a retaining wall along Vindicator Drive in Rockrimmon. It is seen in this Jan. 13 photo. Parks and Wildlife officers tranquilized the deer and removed it on Friday, Jan. 18, 2013, relocating it south of Colorado Springs.

Its magnificent, oddly twisting antlers made it impossible to hide.

Passersby easily spotted it at the busy intersection, prompting worried folks to feed it and call for action on its behalf.

In the following weeks, I watched as crowds of onlookers gathered daily at the Safeway shopping center across the street. And I received regular updates from people who saw it wandering in nearby neighborhoods.

Some even lashed out at me, declaring that by writing about the buck,  it’s blood would be on my hands if it died for some reason!

Anyway, after the buck went missing over the weekend, I called Michael Seraphin at the state Division of Parks and Wildlife to see if  anyone had filed a “Missing John Doe” report. Or, in this case, John Deer.

I was surprised at what I learned.

The deer wasn’t missing, Seraphin said. It was captured by wildlife officers and removed Friday night.

It seems as the deer napped on his ledge, it was deer-napped by wildlife officers who tranquilized it for safe transport.

They took the deer to the agency’s regional office on Sinton Road where it was examined, treated for an infected wound to its leg, clipped of its antlers and put in a heated garage for the night.

The Rockrimmon buck, in a Jan. 15, 2013, photo by Rockrimmon resident Sue Giesbrecht.

“They gave him a good medical exam and determined he didn’t seem to have any broken bones,” Seraphin said. “He did have an injury to his leg that had a mild infection. So we gave him antibiotics.”

Though the deer’s impressive antlers would have fallen off naturally in a few weeks, officers chose to cut them off to take the bull’s eye off the animal, allowing him to further heal in peace.

“We removed the antlers so he doesn’t keep getting in fights with other deer,” he said.

At dawn Saturday, the deer was re-assessed for any after-effects of the tranquilizer. Once it was deemed hang-over free, officers took it to an undisclosed open space south of Colorado Springs and released back into the wild.

Actually, it’s in a far more wild environment than it had experienced on its Rockrimmon ledge.

There, people were plying the deer with apples, cranberries, lettuce, grapes and tubs of water.

“There was concern it was not getting the proper diet and becoming wholly dependent on people,” Seraphin told me. “For example, someone put hay up there on its ledge and other foods that aren’t normally part of its diet like grapes and lettuce. Deer can’t digest hay well.”

In addition, folks were walking up to the animal — some with babies in their arms — to get a closer look at it.

Wildlife officials were concerned that folks were putting themselves at risk of a close encounter with its antlers should the deer, estimated at 200 pounds and at six to eight years old, had  spooked for any reason.

The Rockrimmon buck, in a Jan. 13, 2013, photo by Rockrimmon resident Sue Giesbrecht.

The prospect of the buck bolting into traffic or whacking a child walking to school or even dying on the ledge in front of a crowd was especially troubling to officials.

In the end, its growing celebrity status doomed its stay in Rockrimmon and led officials to risk tranquilizing it and removing the buck.

“Everything went fine,” Seraphin said. “You never know how they’ll handle being tranquilized. It can be a difficult process. They can die from it.”

Not this tough old buck. It woke up Saturday and was healthy enough for release.

“We didn’t want to keep him too long,” Seraphin said. “We checked him at first light. He seemed alert. So we took him out and released him. The operation went smoothly.”

So you folks who live and hike southeast of town, keep an eye out next fall for an old buck with a magnificent rack. It may have antlers twisting in all directions, even under its chin. I’ll be interested to hear how he’s doing!

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MANGLED ANTLERS ARE ALL THAT REMAIN OF BUCK is a post from: Side Streets

Robert Savage in 2005 showing Cub Scouts how to tie a rope knot at Camp Alexander in Lake George.

When I heard the Boy Scouts were honoring volunteer Robert Savage for 55 years of dedicated service, I called “Mr. Scout” Keith Grove to find out more.

Grove, after all, should know. He’s been a Boy Scout for 72 years.

Imagine that. Between them, they have devoted 127 years to teaching boys values such as being trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent.

Actually, Savage traces his scouting roots about as far back as Grove. But he took a few years off before rejoining scouting as an adult volunteer in 1952.

In fact, both men share similar life stories that mirror the Scout oath of doing “my best . . . to God and my country.”

Savage, 82, joined scouting as a boy in Virginia, where his dad worked at a YMCA. Scouting was a natural after a childhood at the Y, Savage said, because the two organizations shared similar values.

He made it to star scout, a couple levels below eagle, before dropping out during World War II.

“We didn’t do much advancement because most of the scout masters had left to join the Army or Navy and fighting the war,” Savage said. “The guys left behind didn’t know much more than me. Eventually I dropped out.”

He joined the Air Force in 1951, got married a year later and was stationed in Denison, Texas, where they were raising three young children. He was asked to work with the local Boy Scout troop as he was leaving church one Sunday in 1957.

“Two months later, the scout master had a heart attack and I took over,” Savage said. “I’ve been with it ever since.”

That includes stints in Germany and various Air Force bases around the country where Savage was stationed during his 26-year career. After he retired as a senior master sergeant in 1977, Savage deepened his commitment, working primarily as an adult trainer.

“If you work with the type of people who share your values, you know you’re not going to end up with a bunch of drunks or something like that,” he said. “They are the best of the best.”

When he and his wife relocated to Colorado Springs in 1998, one of his first acts was to contact the Pikes Peak Council and get signed up.

Grove, who turned 83 on Friday, echoed Savage’s sentiments and reasons for his long association with scouts.

Like Savage, Grove joined as a boy in Nebraska and worked his way up to second-class scout. But he never advanced due to a simple reason.

“I never learned to swim,” he said, noting that he served three years in the Navy without being able to swim. Still can’t.

But Grove never quit scouting. He kept re-registering throughout his high school years in Colorado Springs and after his graduation in 1948, even though he could not achieve eagle status.

His interest stayed with him as he served in the Navy and then during a 27-year career in the Air Force where he achieved chief master sergeant.

“My whole life, my moral values, religious values, civic values, all came from my being in scouting,” Grove said. “I managed to make it through 27 years in the military and never used profanity, never smoked, never drank.”

I think he took that Scout law to heart.

Robert Savage in 1970

Grove is proud to have helped restart scouting in Germany after World War II. And in his retirement, he has devoted much effort to spreading the Boy Scout message around the world, including a trip to Russia in 1992 to restart scouting there.

Both Savage and Grove are proud to note that while neither reached eagle scout, both produced sons who are proud eagle scouts. Savage’s son, Don, earned his eagle. Savage’s two daughters were Girl Scouts, as well. And Grove’s three sons and two grandsons achieved eagle status.

I asked Barb Sweat, a member of the board of the Pikes Peak Council, what it means to have men like Savage and Grove devote their lives to scouting.

“It means hundreds of boys have a value system in place, thanks to their work,” Sweat said. “They’ve impacted hundreds of boys and even more adult leaders.”

Two lives devoted to serving their country and instilling values in young people. I’d say they have upheld the oath.

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HONORING A LIFETIME OF SHAPING YOUNG LIVES is a post from: Side Streets

Richard and Alisha Cuevas bought this home new in 2005. They may lose it in foreclosure after a dispute with the Northgate Highlands Homeowners Association left them facing $15,000 legal bill and $10,000 in unpaid dues, fines and other fees.

For the third straight Christmas season, Richard and Alisha Cuevas are living away from their Colorado Springs home.

Even worse, because Richard has had to chase jobs around the country, they live apart. He’s in Texas while she and their three kids are anchored in New Mexico.

Meanwhile, their home sits empty in the Northgate Highlands neighborhood on the far north end of Colorado Springs. They say it’s uninhabitable due to construction defects that caused a mold infestation. They are suing the builder, Lennar Colorado, to fix it.

But the main reason the family is gone is because they lost a war with the homeowners association and were hit with fines so steep that Richard Cuevas, 49, had to come out of retirement as an airplane mechanic and find work to cover the bills.

Cuevas said he and his wife intended to raise their children and spend the rest of their lives in the home, which was new when they bought it in 2005. But it hasn’t worked out that way.

His story is a warning to anyone thinking covenants aren’t binding or those threats of daily fines and attorneys fees can’t be enforced and collected.

Richard Cuevas alleges construction defects are causing his house and others to sink. He said windows leak and mold has made the house uninhabitable. He is suing builder Lennar Colorado, which denies the claims but declined comment due to the litigation.

After Cuevas missed an October 2006 deadline to complete the landscaping, the HOA got its attorney involved. The situation escalated and got personal. Besides his alleged construction defects, Cuevas was enduring drainage issues due to natural contours of the neighborhood compounded by the way neighbors graded their yards.

By 2009, Cuevas’ yard remained the only one in the neighborhood with unfinished landscaping as Cuevas tried to force the HOA to intervene with the builder and against his neighbors.

He wanted new windows installed like other neighbors had received. He wanted mold removed from the walls. He insisted the house is sinking and needs its foundation reinforced. Again, he is convinced several neighbors had similar repairs done for free by the builder.

And because he blamed the HOA for not taking up his cause with Lennar, he still refused to complete the landscaping.

“My builder has repaired many homes in the neighborhood but will not do mine,” Cuevas said. “They take care of the HOA board members, but not me.”

Cuevas alleges selective enforcement of covenants by the HOA. He alleges conspiracies. He sees racism by white HOA officials against him, due to his Mexican heritage.

Richard Cuevas alleges poor design and changes to the natural contours made by neighbors grading their yards led to chronic flooding in his yard. He wanted the Northgate Highlands Homeowners Association to intervene and refused to complete his landscaping until his issues were resolved.

The HOA president did not return my calls seeking comment. But I pushed Cuevas to explain why he refused to finish the landscaping, incurring the wrath of the HOA.

Aren’t construction defects an issue between him and Lennar, not the HOA, I asked? The association only polices landscaping and parking and paint colors, right? It’s not a consumer affairs agency, I suggested.

“If everyone in the neighborhood is experiencing the same problems, why won’t the HOA help them out?” he said. “Isn’t that what the HOA is for?”

So years of angry email exchanges and confrontations led Northgate Highlands HOA to sue. And it won an injunction against Cuevas in 2010 and was awarded $15,000 in attorneys fees.

This is a recent statement from the Northgate Highlands Homeowners Association to Richard and Alisha Cuevas detailed the dues, late fees and interested owed on top of the $15,000 in attorneys fees the HOA won in a court case against the family.

The family was given another year to finish the landscaping but it never happened. The HOA put a lien on his house and garnished his wages, collecting about $9,000 to date.

But he still owes thousands more — plus another $10,000 in delinquent HOA dues, daily fines and interest.

And the family is facing foreclosure on the home.

All because Cuevas decided to defy the HOA over the landscaping issue.

The family had a brief reunion last week as their lawsuit against Lennar was argued in a four-day trial in district court. Cuevas brought in experts who testified the house lacked proper flashing and caulking and other defects they said caused mold that was making the family sick.

Lennar brought in its own experts and denied any construction defects.

The case is in the hands of a judge and it could be weeks before a ruling is issued. But that won’t settle the case. I fully expect appeals by either side that loses.

And, meanwhile, Cuevas is back in Texas and his family in New Mexico. He often flies to visit them but hates the living arrangements.

I asked Cuevas if the fight was worth it. Does he wish he’d simply completed the landscaping and focused on his complaint with the builder?

“I did the right thing,” he said. “I pulled my family out. They were all getting sick.”

How it all ends depends on how the lawsuit with Lennar ends. If it ever ends.

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HOA LANDSCAPE DISPUTE COULD COST FAMILY ITS HOME is a post from: Side Streets

"A City Beautiful Dream - The 1912 Vision for Colorado Springs" is the latest in a series of regional history books published by the Pikes Peak Library District

As Colorado Springs studies loosening the reins on developers by expediting the process for getting their plans approved, I thought I’d look at how the planning process evolved.

Funny thing. The planning department overhaul comes  on the 100th anniversary of the City Council’s adoption of its first formal plan for the future development.

In fact, the Pikes Peak Library District has published a book: “A City Beautiful Dream – The 1912 Vision for Colorado Springs.”

It’s the 10th book in the library’s fascinating regional history series. (It’s $14.95 and available at the library, the Pioneers Museum and ClausenBooks.com.)

The project started — doesn’t every government effort — with a consultant hired by the City Council in late 1911 for $2,000 to evaluate the city’s design.

Charles Mulford Robinson, photo courtesy Pikes Peak Library District

At the time, Charles Mulford Robinson had established a reputation for designing modern cities. So he got the job.

Tim Scanlon, a former Springs city planner who now consults with Shooks Run Research, described  Robinson as being ahead of his peers in envisioning how cities might be built.

“Robinson advanced the practice of comprehensive planning . . . that continues today,” Scanlon wrote in an introduction to the book.

Though Robinson plan never was fully implemented, several of his recommendations are evident today, said Tim Blevins, the library’s special collections manager who coordinated publication of the book.

This 1904 map of Colorado Springs shows the downtown grid consultant Charles Mulford Robinson detested as well as the railroad lines he blamed for polluting the air and inhibiting movement due to their poor location and at-grade street crossings.

“We use the plan quite a bit in special collections to answer reference questions,” Blevins said.

Robinson observed the strengths and weaknesses of Colorado Springs, based on research he conducted 1905-1911 for two separate reports that were the basis of his 1912 report: “A General Plan for the Improvement of Colorado Springs.”

Issued three years after the death of founder Gen. William Jackson Palmer, Robinson’s plan was critical of some of Palmer’s key design features: the wide streets and downtown grid.

Robinson said the Springs should design its streets to enhance its railroad stations, hotels and parks as its three obvious “focal points in the life and activity of the community.”

But he said Palmer’s “tiresome” grid did nothing to enhance community, calling it “as commonplace as Philadelphia’s or Chicago’s.”

He advocated disrupting the unimaginative grid by varying the widths of streets.

Wide roads would be thoroughfares while more narrow roads would discourage horses and buggies and become quiet residential streets.

His plan forcefully advocated building parks and playground and ridding the city of air pollution by imagining electric trains instead of smoky steam engines.

Consultant Charles Mulford Robinson urged the City Council to rid Monument Creek of those "wretched shacks" as seen in this photo looking south from the Bijou Street bridge. Photo courtesy the Pikes Peak Library District.

He advocated a height limit on buildings downtown and ridding the city of at-grade railroad crossings.

Wonder what he’d think of the city today and efforts to muzzle city planners? Hmm.

Eliminating the Sante Fe Station, top, on East Pikes Peak Avenue, was one of consultant Charles Mulford Robinson's recommendations. It took a route through the east side of Colorado Springs, spreading smoke and causing too many transportation delays with its numerous at-grade street crossings. Robinson urged turning the Denver & Rio Grande station, bottom, into a "union station" and consolidating all train travel in it.

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EVEN IN 1912 CITY PLANNING WAS IMPORTANT is a post from: Side Streets

The many faces of Lon Chaney, silent movie star and Colorado Springs native

How do we inspire our children to dream, to work hard to overcome adversity and achieve greatness?

One way is to hold up as inspiration those who grew up down the street and went on to win acclaim. We erect statues and put their names on parks, boulevards and buildings.

It’s time Colorado Springs so honors Lon Chaney, one of the greatest stars of the silent movie era and a pioneer in the use of makeup.

Sure, the tiny theater in the City Auditorium was named for Chaney in 1986. But he deserves much more.

Lon Chaney is a hero to Michael Blake, an actor and award-winning makeup artist, who has written several biographies of Chaney.

A persuasive case is made by Michael Blake, a Hollywood actor, makeup artist and author of several biographies on Chaney.

Chaney’s parents, Frank and Emma, were deaf and mute and quite poor.

Blake’s research identified nine rental houses where the family lived before Chaney left to pursue acting.

Frank Chaney was known as “Dummy the Barber,” Blake said. It was an affectionate nickname, he said, given him by his millionaire clients who included Springs founder Gen. William Jackson Palmer and gold miner/philanthropist Winfield Scott Stratton.

Emma was a teacher at the School for the Deaf and the Blind, which her father Jonathan Kennedy founded.

She suffered from inflammatory rheumatism, Blake said, forcing Chaney to drop out of school in fourth grade to care for her.

“She was basically a shut-in,” Blake said. “She couldn’t hear or speak. Lon was her eyes to the outside world.”

The Colorado Springs Opera House as it appeared in 1885. Courtesy the Pikes Peak Library District Special Collections.

While growing up, Chaney worked many jobs, including as a carpet-layer, wallpaper hanger, tour guide on Pikes Peak and prop boy at the Colorado Springs Opera House, where his brother was the manager.

He made his acting debut there in 1902 and soon joined a touring company. He eventually settled in California and went on to star in 80 silent films. But he returned many times to visit family and friends.

“This guy was a big movie star,” Blake said. “He deserves a statue, a park, a big theater, a film festival.”

I agree. We need to give our kids inspirational role models. We need to show them they can achieve great things in whatever career they choose, whether it’s public service, science, education, sports or the arts.

Lon Chaney shows them they can be the poor son of “Dummy the Barber,” a dropout caretaker for their invalid mother, and still become a huge star.

And they can be from Colorado Springs!

Heck, we all ought to be celebrating Chaney. He’s at least as worthy as Hank the Cowboy, for crying out loud!

I vote for a life-size bronze outside the Chaney Performing Arts Center.

Maybe folks who agree should bombard the City Asset Naming Board.

Can’t afford the outrageous $50 nominating fee? Launch a social media campaign. What do you say, Mayor Bach? City Council?

#LetsHonorLon.

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Here’s some links to other good stories about Chaney in Colorado Springs:

On Thursday, June 21, 2012, I wrote about Lon Chaney and the need to recognize him.

In 1999, The Gazette wrote about Michael Blake and his efforts to honor Chaney. Click here to read it.

Follow this link to read another 1999 story that describes him as a generous family man.

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Three houses where Lon Chaney lived as a child still exist. They are 509 W. Bijou St., 738 N. Spruce St. and 802 N. Walnut St. Here is a map:

Three houses where Lon Chaney lived during his childhood in Colorado Springs.

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LON CHANEY’S INSPIRING LIFE STORY DESERVES RECOGNITION is a post from: Side Streets

Some are two story with panel doors and wood windows. One is solar-powered. Another is adobe. Several are split level. Virtually all are fenced.

And all of them are open for visitors this weekend if you want to take a peek!

It’s not a springtime Parade of Homes. It’s the third-annual 2012 Take a Peak Chicken Coop Tour.

This weekend, about 20 coops from Black Forest to Manitou Springs to downtown Colorado Springs will be open for viewing.

Anyone interested in raising chickens is invited to take the free, self-guided tour and learn how to start your own coop.

The tour was the idea of “chickenman” John Conner.

“A couple ladies I worked with got interested in keeping chickens and came over and saw my coop,” John said. “Then they said they’d like to see more.”

So he arranged for a dozen or so folks with chickens to allow folks to see their coops. That was 2010.

“The first year, we had 80 people show,” he said. “Last year, I lost count after 120.”

And that was with mininal advertising.

This year John’s not sure what to expect. He hopes people will learn how easy it is to raise chickens.

“They are pets that give you breakfast,” John said with a laugh.

He started raising them about five years ago and now has five birds. He said they are quiet and no more work than a big dog.

“You have to clean up after them and feed them,” he said. “But they don’t go outside and start barking. They may cluck, but you won’t hear them.”

John created a CoopTourDirectory_2012_draft_2 for tour. It’s 22 pages of photos and tips about raising chickens.

I was intrigued at elaborate coops some build.

John’s coop, at his Shooks Run neighborhood home, is solar-powered with panels on the roof.

Another fellow made his coop out of “cob.”

“Basically, it’s mud and straw,” John said. “And tree limbs and things.”

Then there’s a coop in Black Forest on wheels.

Coops on the tour range from basic plywood to elaborate structures disguised as small cottages or playhouses.

There are a few rules for tour-goers. Don’t bring pets. Don’t scare the chickens. And some coops will only be open for limited times during the weekend.

John also provides information on Colorado Springs codes. For example, residents can have 10 chickens but no roosters in the city. And chicken coop poop must be picked up every few days and kept in a sealed container.

Basic stuff.

Follow this link if you want a  CoopTourMaps_2012, of print one off at John’s website. Or just drop by his house 712 N. Cedar Street east of downtown.

A pet that gives you breakfast, huh? My dog won’t even get me the morning paper!

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GET A LOOK AT A PET THAT BRINGS YOU BREAKFAST is a post from: Side Streets