MOUNTAIN SHADOWS NEIGHBORHOOD BLOG6/8/2010 - Reminder annual Mountain Shadows Garage Sale is this weekend. Also, I have heard good thinkgs about the company managing the Wislon Ranch Pool; lots of lifeguards and they offer season passes! Enjoy the heat...it was 100 degrees on my car thermometer yesterday!!!
5/18/2010 - Summer is upon us! It is hard to believe our neighborhood schools (Chipeta Elementary, Trailblazer Elementary, Holmes Middle School and Coronado High School) will be ending the school year on Friday. As you may or may not know, our neighborhood pool Wilson Ranch WILL be open this summer. It is being managed by Colorado Springs Swim School (www.csswimclub.com).
Also, the annual Mountain Shadows Neighborhood Gagrage Sale will take place in June 12. Keep an eye out for more details.
5/15/2010 - Congrats to Coronado High School science teacher Matt Brickell for being named the Gazette's Best Of Coach. Matt was recognized for coaching the wrestling team to 2nd in State last year. He has coached both the wrestling and men's soccer teams at Coronado for voer 20 years now. I am expecting a state title in wrestling next year and at least a 2nd Round appearance in the State Tourney for soccer. Go Cougars!
3/5/2010 - Hosting an Open House at 2470 Stoneridge on Saturday Noon-2pm. This is a great value at $250,000 (per bank approval) for this neighborhood. Hope you can stop by.
2/22/2010 - Way to go Coronado High School Wrestling...2nd place in the state for 5A (largest schools in Colorado). What a great feat when you consider Coronado is on the verge of being a 4A school and the fact that one of their top ranked wrestlers broke his elbow 2 weeks ago and did not compete.
Also, beautiful outside today with 6 inches of new snow!
2/15/2010 - Mountain Shadows Community Association (MSCA) is considering picking up the cost of having trash removal from our neighborhood park. It is a point of discussion at the next MSCA Board Meeting (2/24).
1/24/2010 - They won!
1/23/2010 - Excited to take my sons to go see Mountain Shadows neighborhood high school, Coronado High School compete in the Metro Wrestling Championships tonight. Currently they are ranked #1 in the state and they will be competing against the #3 ranked team from Pine Creek. Go Cougars!
1/22/2010 - Just heard the City is taking away most of the trash cans in the neighborhood parks. That includes Mountain Shadows Park. I understand there is a budget crunch but doing away with trash cans in the parks is crazy. Please contact City Council to voice your disapproval for this.
1/15/2010 - Mountain Lions have been seen in the area. No need to be freaked out, but be smart.
12/28/2009 - The 8-point buck returned today. I had my dog in the backyard, when I noticed him huddled next to the back door. I went out to see what was up and found a big buck back there feasting on our bushes. I was shocked the buck was brave enough to jump our fence knowing our dog was back there. At least our dog was smart enough to remember what happened last time and went running for safety. How funny.
12/22/2009 - My wife went intot he backyard today to chase away an 8-point buck today. The boys open the door after she went out and our 85 lbs black lab ran out and went right at the buck. The buck pushed our dog over a wall with his rack and our dog knew he was in over his head!
11/11/2009 - A heart-felt thank you to our Veterans, those currently fighting for our freedom, and to the military spouses and families. The foundation of our great country is a direct result of your hardwork and sacrifice.
11/9/2009 - The celebration for Chipeta Elementary's Blue Ribbon School Award will be November 13, 2009. It will begin with an Open House at 12:30 where you can visit any & all of the classrooms. At 1:45pm there will be an Assembly. Hope you can make this exciting event.
11/2/2009 - Chipeta Elementary has won the Blue Ribbon School from the National Board of Education. Less than 1% of schools win this award which is based on many factors including student achievement. We are lucky to have such a wonderful school in our neighborhood and special thanks to the adminstrative team, the faculty team , the volunteers, the parents and Colorado Springs School District 11.
10/15/2009 - Coronado soccer is having a good year and should make the playoffs. This team is loaded with young talent, mostly sophomores & freshmen. Although it would be nice to see them progress through the first round of the State Playoffs, th enext 2 years they should be very strong. Not to mention Coronado Soccer will be 4A next year rather then 5A.
9/17/2009 - Bear sighting! My wife went out to get the paper this morning and heard a commotion down the street. She looked and saw a big bear ravaging through our neighbor's trash can. Needless to say, I may be the one in charge of getting the paper frm here on out!
9/9/2009 - Chipeta Elementary is looking for a volunteer to act as the Community Liaison on the Building Advisory Accountability Committee (BAAC). The Community Liaison should not have a child at the school. Call me at 719-339-3765 if you are interested.
8/18/2009 - Back to school for D11. Slow down in those school zones.
6/6/2009 - Wow, more wildlife sightings. When I let my dog out during my lunch break on June 5th, he went bonkers running all around the yard sniffing and marking his territiry like I have never seen hm do. During the garage sale, one of my neighbors asked did you see the bear in your yard?! I must've just missed him, but sounds like it was a young bear, climbing over fences and crossing the street looking for easy food. How fun! And by the way I did make a few $$$ during the neighborhood yard sale.
5/27/2009 - One of our neighbors told me today they saw 2 mountain lions in Ute Valley Park! We live amongst the wildlife in our neighborhood, but if you take the proper precautions it is likely both you and the wildlife will thrive.
2/10/2009 - If you are a fan of high school sports, this weekend is a great weekend as Regionals are being held for Wrestling and the State Tourney for Girls Swimming. Our very own Corondao High School should show well at the wrestling tournamant with several wrestlers ranked in the State including Mountain Shadows very own Gabe Burak and Carter McElhany. Go to www.coronadocougars.com for more info.
1/14/2009 - Happy New Year! Many people I know have said they are glad 2008 is over and they hope 2009 is better. My response is do more than hope. We are living in interesting times, and those that get invovled and decide to make changes for the better will be propserous. I have said it before and I wil say it again, it is a privilege to live in the Mountain Shadows neighborhood; we have excellent schools, beautiful landscapes and a central location for access to the city or to the mountains. 2008 was a rough year for many neighborhoods across Colorado Springs. Some saw home values decrease by 10% or more, our neighborhood has only seen a slight decrease in values. Why? Becasue so many of our neighbors do a great job of being involved. They keep their yards attractive, they volunteer at the schools or for the MSCA. With the discussion at School District 11 about how to structure the next 10 years, now is the time to be involved to help insure our neighborhood maintains its attractiveness and value.
12/5/2008 - Lots of things going on that can affect home values in our neighborhood. Probably the most significant is the school utilization study Colorado Springs School District 11 is doing. It is highly unlikely that any of our neighborhood schools will be considered for closing as they are all newer facilites and have excellent student performance. But if you read the notes from the meetings you can see things like "Close Trailblazer, it is too close to Chipeta", make Trailblazer to a K-8 school, adjust school boundaries, etc... As you can imagine some of these items could have a real impact on your life as well as your home's value. Get involved, go to the meetings, make your voice heard. Now is the time to get involved, not after the decisions have been made.
8/22/208 - A few things regarding our neighborhood...First, bears are about. No reason to be scared, just be smart and alert. A bear visited a neighbor near the Renaissance Academy a few times last week, killed some fish in their pond and damaged the pond. Be sure to store your trash in a covered trash can in your garage or storage shed. Also, if you have a dog, do not leave extra food out in a dog bowl overnight. For more tips, go to the DOW website. 2nd, we are lucky to live in such a beautiful and wonderful neighborhood. The quality of life we experience does not come by accident, it takes effort by all of us. By volunteering in our community you are actually building value which in turn adds value to what your home is worth. There are so many ways to get involved right in Mountain Shadows including volunteering at the schools (PTA, BAAC, classes, reading, coaching, etc...), HOA (board, covenants, beautification, etc...) parks and the list goes on. Getting involved doesn't just feel good, it also adds to the value of your home.
7/10/2008 - Although the local real estate market continues to slowly recover, our Mountain Shadows neighborhood has not seen depreciation during this downturn. Across the city we are seeing positive signs that the market is improving slightly (home values have seen modest declines and inventory levels are decreasing). Additionally, Colorado Springs entered this downturn before most of the country (almost 3 years ago!) and leading up to it we had seen healthy appreciation of around 5% as opposed to unhealthy appreciation levels of 20% and more that many metro areas had in 2005. With all of this said, our current local real estate market is bursting with opportunities we have not seen in at least a generation; home values are excellent, inventory is high, and rental rates are soaring. These facts make the current market a great opportunity to pay for your child's school or your retirement. If you would like more information on investing or would like to speak with a qualified & reputable lender, give me a call at 719.576.3600.
5/2/2008 - The annual MSCA meeting was very good. There was excellent info on the FireWise program managed by the Colorado Springs Fire Department, as well as detailed crime data from the Colorado Springs Police Department. Living in Mountain Shadows at the foot of the mountains we obviously have some risk for wildfires. The FireWise program is a free program to help homeowners mitigate the risk of wildfire on their property. As a free service, there simply is no reason not to contact CSFD to have your property assessed for fire danger. As we all know, Mountain Shadows enjoys a very low crime rate. One of our neighbors is currently the Commander at the Falcon Substation and he presented updated crime data as well as offered tips on how we can ensure our low crime rates stay low. The #1 thing each of us can do is close our garage doors. Another very powerful program is a Neighborhood Watch program. For more information on how you can proactively keep crime out of our neighborhood contact the Colorado Springs Police Department and ask for the Neighborhood Watch departement.
2/16/2008 - Springtime in the Rockies! Well maybe not quite yet, but this winter has been a chilly one. This past week has been typical Colorado weather with 50+ degree days and chilly snowy days. Yesterday was the 3rd day this week with a temp in the 50's, now this morning it became a winter wonderland again. The forecast for the week is temps in the 60's once this snowstorm exits later this morning.
2/5/2008 - January was not a very good month for sellers in Colorado Springs. For stats on the entire metro area look at my Stat Pack. In our area, the Northwest part of town there were 166 single family homes on the market, with a median list price of $349,950 compared to 2007 when there was 142 homes on the market with a median price of $397,000. 23 single family homes sold with a median price of $335,605 and on average took 113 days to sell compared to 2007 when 21 homes with a median price of $299,000 and taking on average just 74 days to sell. In Mountain Shadows specifically, 5 homes sold in January 2008 after 133 average days on market compared to 4 in 2007 with 125 average days on market. Median price for Mountain Shadows went up, but that is because only 4 sold in 2007 in lower price ranges, not due to appreciation.
1/1/2008 - Happy New Year! Over the next couple of weeks I will be preparing the End of the Year Stat Pack to give you an up to date analysis of the current real estate market as well as a look into what I believe 2008 holds. I will also add to the Blog a look at Moutain Shadows specifically, stay tuned.
12/13/2007 - Brrrrr! It's been mighty chilly the last week or so. The great news is the sledding has been very good. My 3 & 4 year old's can't get enough of the hill at 30th & Water Street (next to Howbert Elementary). Last week when it was nearly 70 degrees, I was bragging to a client who lives in Florida. When I call her this week I think I will have to "spin" how much her grandkids are going to love sledding!
11/19/2007 - CC (Colorado College) Tiger Hockey is on a great roll. This past weekend CC swept Wisconsin after already having swept Minnesota and splitting with North Dakota. Another giant hurdle looms this weekend with the home & home series against DU (Denver University). I predict the winner of the CC/DU series this season will win the WCHA and host a first round of the NCAA Division 1 Hockey Tourney. Go CC!
10/21/2007 - The first snow of the season hit today and it packed a solid punch. At our house in Mountain Shadows we received about 8 inches of snow. My two young sons enjoyed the snow with my wife and I. It was a wet snow, perfect for snowmen and snowballs AND there was enough to even do some sledding!
10/16/2007 - The Coronado Boys Soccer Team has qualified for the State Tournament! Our victory over Rampart today placed us 3rd in our Conference behind Palmer, Lewis-Palmer and ahead of Rampart and Pine Creek. Wish us look in the Tourney.
8/13/2007 - I am assisting the Coronado Boys Varsity Soccer Team this year. Practice starts today and I am excited about getting to know the kids and the strategies and style of the head coach. I think I have much to offer in terms of coaching the kids and getting the most out of them. I have much to learn and plan to spend most of this season learning the style & strategies of the coach. It will also help me understand how much time is needed so I can decide if I really want to pursue being a head coach at some time.
7/5/2007 - The Mountain Shadows Concert in the park on June 24th was a good time. The band played a nice variety of tunes, the weather cooperated and the set-up allowed for kids to run wild at the playground and adults wanting some peace to lay on their blanket on the grass. This was my first opportunity to attend oneof the concerts and I was pleasantly surprised. I hope more neighbors make plans to attend the next concert, it is a great way to build community.
6/7/2007 - Is this Florida? The winds last evening through Mountain Shadows were incredible, the worst I have felt I believe ever. I slept until about midnight before the wind kept me up the entire evening. Between thinking the house might blow over, or the trees outside might blow through the house, it was a rough night. When my wife went out to see if there was any damage we found in our yard 2 trees blown over and 4 others in question. We ended up cutting down 4 of them and may have to brng down the other 2 in the near future. Pretty much everyone in the immediate neighborhood lost at least 1 tree. The silver lining in this cloud was we had the opportunity to get to know our neighbors much better through assisting each other with tree removals and feel a much greater sense of community.
5/2/2007 - Wow! As I was driving my wife and kids home from my son's soccer practice this evening we saw a bobcat! Yes a BOBCAT!!! It was incredible. We were driving south on Flying W where Lanagan intersects and right in fromt of us this bobcat slowly walked across the street into a neighbors backyard on the east side of Flying W. It was only about 20lbs and I doubt it would cause any harm to a human, but cats and rabbits beware! A friedn of mine who lives at the top of Lanagan has seen 2 bobcats in their backyard, I will see if they have a photo, if so I will post!
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