Author: KRDO

Bradley Davis

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) – The StoryMode Independent Short Films Awards (SISFA) hosts its annual event this weekend in Colorado, featuring filmmakers from across the country and right here in Southern Colorado.

The festival is in its 15th year and is part of a growing movement to expand filmmaking in Colorado. The weekend-long event is hosted at the Louisa Performing Arts Center. You can find a full schedule here.

For decades, budding Colorado filmmakers have left the state for LA and even neighboring New Mexico to pursue opportunities.

SISFA festival director Brian Salay said more and more submitted filmmakers are choosing to shoot in Colorado.

It’s part of a larger movement, headlined by the Sundance Film Festival relocating to Boulder this Winter.

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Scott Harrison

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) — Drivers will notice new traffic changes at the Galley Road/Wooten Road intersection as a $2 million drainage project enters its second and final phase.

A week ago, Wooten on the south side of the intersection closed, and Galley traffic shared the westbound lanes.

When the project began two months ago, the north side of the intersection closed, and Galley traffic shared the eastbound lanes.

Crews are upgrading a wide culvert under the intersection and are digging into the pavement to access it.

As part of the project, crews removed the traffic signals at the intersection — turning it into a three-way stop.

On a recent visit to the site, KRDO13’s The Road Warrior saw several near-crashes as some drivers rolled through the stop signs.

That change, along with the tight squeeze on Galley, requires extra caution by drivers.

The project should be finished before the end of the year.

Stay up to date with the latest local news, sports, and investigations by downloading the KRDO13 app. Click here to download it from the Apple App Store. Android users can download it from Google Play here.

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Rob Namnoum

The Lewis Palmer football team is special because they can’t run fast enough to play football, “You can bottle up their excitement and their enthusiasm for the game and be excited to finally get on the field and be that guy that you can sell $1 billion dollars,” says Lewis Palmer head coach Dustin Tupper.

From the sounds of it no amount of money can replace playing for Lewis Palmer, “I noticed I missed it after last season, like, you know, more so than ever. I really felt it, that I missed the game. The preseason stuff, I realized, like, how much it really did mean to me,” says Gavin Head.

Jacob Stadjuhar adds, “Going into, like, the winter season last year and stuff, you know, it just felt like, empty.” Something he cherishes, “I’m just unbelievably grateful for everything I have. You know, it’s not like, man, this is my last time doing this. Like, hey, I got to do this for four years.”

The seniors say in the year’s top come that will be at one another’s most important moments of their lives, “The guys I get to do this with will be at my wedding someday. You know, this is the best time I’ve ever had,” says Stadjuhar. He explained why, “These guys, like, they’ve been to my house, you know, they’ve met my parents. I do everything with them. It’s just we got that close knit relationship.”

On this close knit team everyone pulls their weight, “I really think about it like parenting. But I want to make not be not need us anything on their own. On their own. I’d rather have 12 guys that really, really love it and 30 that are happy, you know what I’m saying? So I just really enjoy the fact that they’re all in,” says Tupper

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Scott Harrison

EL PASO COUNTY, Colo. (KRDO) — Earlier this week, we saw in Harrison District 2 how hectic it can be to prepare and maintain a school bus fleet as the new school year begins.

But that’s not a problem at a charter school that doesn’t have buses.

The James Madison Charter Academy in Widefield District 3 hasn’t used buses during its 20 years of operation.

“It’s fairly common among charter schools, but some use it more than others,” said Jeff Kacena, the school’s principal. “It’s more expensive to operate and maintain buses, and as a nonprofit charter school, we devote most of our resources to education.”

The academy transports students to and from school by using a carpool system involving parents and adult guardians.

The system has a strict protocol for how, when, and where the carpools line up; when the students can leave the building; and when they can get into their vehicles.

Kacena said that for parents who have to be at work early or get off late, the school allows affected students to arrive as early as 7 a.m. and stay as late as 6 p.m.

A nice aspect of the carpool system is that some students help their classmates enter their vehicles at dismissal.

“It’s a very safe system,” Kacena explained. “It limits the amount of time that children are outside the school. Our students don’t have to cross roads, crosswalks, or things like that. They literally come right out of the school and into their car.”

The academy has an enrollment of 70 students, serving grades K-8.

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Bradley Davis

SECURITY-WIDEFIELD, Colo. (KRDO) – KRDO13’s Bradley Davis joins us live with the class and staff at James Madison Charter Academy. Tune in to see their fun shenanigans as class goes back in session!

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Julia Donovan

This week’s Restaurant Roundup is all about pizza, wings and some notable health inspection scores across Colorado Springs and the surrounding area.

Basil & Barley racks up 10 violations, quickly turns things around

Basil & Barley in the Briargate area failed a recent routine health inspection after inspectors found 10 violations.

Among the concerns were food being held at unsafe temperatures, food items that were not properly dated and improper cooling methods that can allow bacteria to grow.

The restaurant was quickly reinspected, however, and made significant changes.

“One cooler was not reading up at temperature, which hit like 15 different items,” the owner said.

According to the owner, the cooler has since been repaired. Employees are now dating food properly, and the restaurant has stopped placing plastic wrap over hot food.

The improvements paid off: Basil & Barley had just one violation on its re-inspection.

A perfect score for Chipotle in Fountain

There was also a perfect score to celebrate this week.

The Chipotle in Fountain earned top marks during its routine health inspection.

Three other restaurants also received high scores:

Stellina on East Willamette Avenue

The Famous Steakhouse on North Tejon Street

Wing Force at Interquest and Voyager

Wing Force takes flight

Wing Force is one of the newer restaurants to join the local dining scene, opening just a few months ago near Interquest and Voyager.

And with a name like Wing Force, the location seems fitting so close to the U.S. Air Force Academy.

“Three guys came together, three Colorado natives, for the love of wings we decided to venture off,” co-owner Kevin Than said.

Than credits the restaurant’s strong start in part to its general manager, who has more than 20 years of kitchen experience.

“The restaurant industry is a very difficult industry, so you’ve got to have someone with a lot of experience who can lead the way,” Than said.

The restaurant makes its food from scratch in-house — including the boneless tenders and fries!

Keep an eye out for the Restaurant Roundup award

If you see a KRDO13 Restaurant Roundup award at your favorite restaurant, it’s a sign that the kitchen has earned recognition for its cleanliness.

All high and low scores featured in the Restaurant Roundup are based on routine health inspections conducted by the El Paso County Health Department.

Click here for a look at all the most recent health inspection scores.

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Bradley Davis

WIDEFIELD, Colo. (KRDO) – District 3 returned to the classroom this week, and Widefield High School showed off its range Thursday morning with KRDO13.

Like having so much hype with everybody and doing all the fun things and especially the bus rides after competitions are so much fun. First year for you, but 150th for Widefield High School

The band, cheerleaders, Junior ROTC, Student 2 Student group and more gathered to show off their Gladiator pride ahead of the district’s 150th school year.

“Class of 2027, what a bragging right to be in this 150 years of celebration in our school district, and I’m just super proud of our school district,” said Widefield’s first female superintendent, Steffanie Howell.

Watch KRDO13’s Bradley Davis speak with the excited students as they rep their respective groups.

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Scott Harrison

EL PASO COUNTY, Colo. (KRDO) — Nearly a dozen schools in Widefield District 3 are seeing the benefits of a pedestrian safety program funded by county commissioners in February 2024.

It was one of our first Road Warrior reports.

Commissioners allocated $11 million to improve safety at crossings near schools after a spike in serious accidents where pedestrians are supposed to be safe.

District 3 began receiving some of the safety upgrades over the summer, with new crosswalks and other features designed to slow traffic down, reduce crossing distances, and make it easier for pedestrians, disabloed citizens and drivers to see each other.

“About two years ago, we had some engineers start reaching out to principals, and we sat down and had some conversations with those engineers about some ideas for making the front of our buildings– or nearby our buildings — safer,” said Dave Gish, the district’s chief operations officer.

Some of the crossing improvements aren’t completely finished but the district deemed them appropriate for use.

Among the variety of designs is a raised center median in front of Pinello Elementary School.

Sunrise Elementary is building two crosswalks.

Webster Elementary removed one of its two crosswalks but upgraded the remaining version.

The county also will upgrade two intersections: Main Street at Norman Drive, near Widefield High School; and Security/Willis Boulevards , near Venetucci Elementary.

District 3 said that crews will improve traffic signals and crosswalks at those intersections.

“It’s different,” said Angela Plambeck, commenting on the Widefield Elementary crosswalk while picking up her third-grade daughter, Cheyenne, on Thursday.”At first, I was kinda confused. I wasn’t really sure what these were, or what the lines meant. So, I mean, it’s all right.”

Yet Angela said she welcomes any safety improvements near schools — especially after being involved in a minor crash outside the old crosswalk last year.

“A lady was backing out, and she backed into us, then just left,” she recalled.

Cheyenne said that she was the first to see the coming impact because her mom was on the phone.

“I yelled in the car, and I said, MOM!” she said.

During morning arrival at the school, there was a two-vehicle crash down the street from the new crosswalk; no injuries but it’s good reminder to drive carefully around schools.

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Scott Harrison

MONUMENT, Colo. (KRDO) — Drivers arriving on the first day back to school at Lewis-Palmer High School in District 38 will notice some changes Tuesday, including a roundabout, a newly repaved road, and a new main entrance into the school.

Crews started a project in late March to rebuild two miles of Higby Road in front of the school, between Jackson Creek Parkway and Harness Road.

The $12.6 million project includes new sidewalks and curbs, improved drainage, and upgrades at the Higby/Jackson Creek intersection.

“It required some redesign of the parking lot, as well,” said Mitch Cassels, the project manager. “Speeding was an issue. You know, there were a lot of backups and traffic concerns going in and out of the school parking lot, as well. Traffic usually would back up on the old road down to Jackson Creek.”

That happened briefly on Tuesday, but Cassels explained that the first day back to school always has the heaviest traffic impacts, and the congestion should decrease as everyone gets used to the new protocol.

The Triview Metropolitan District planned and financed the project through developer contributions and the sale of bonds.

James McGrady, manager of the metro district, said that the area south of the school is growing, with a housing boom underway.

“In the event of a wildfire, this road becomes a very important exit point,” he explained. “And we wanted to make sure it could handle the influx of traffic.”

To meet District 38’s deadline of completing construction outside the school before Tuesday, the contractor called in extra crews and shortened the project timetable by more than half.

Work should be finished in October.

For more information about new drop-off and pickup guidelines at the school, click here.

Stay up to date with the latest local news, sports, and investigations by downloading the KRDO13 app. Click here to download it from the Apple App Store. Android users can download it from Google Play here.

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Rob Namnoum

PUEBLO WEST, Colo. (KRDO) — This season, P Dub plans to get it. “My goal is to win state every year,” says Pueblo West quarterback Chase Harrison.

The Cyclones’ goal is to win a state championship. A goal that Chase Harrison has put down on paper: “I wrote it down on a notebook. And, you know, I have it in my room. I look at it every morning when I wake up. But then I made it my lock screen on my phone, actually. So I see it every day. So every time you go on your phone checking out social media or whatever text messages, it’s staring you in the face. Yes, sir. I look, I, I read it before I open up my phone every time I’m on my phone. So just a daily reminder. 

A daily reminder to cherish every day on the field: “I’m starting to realize that, you know, like, this isn’t forever, and I, I just I do cherish the moments I get with my teammates and my friends,” says Pueblo West linebacker Chance Chamberlain.

They aren’t just teammates; they are also friends.

“We went to the reservoir a lot. We like to go swim. Got on the boat. We do some fishing here and there. Oh, I have a dirt bike. Some other guys have dirt bikes. We go ride them around,” says Chamberlain. Harrison adds, “I mean, chemistry is the most important thing, I think.”

They believe that being this tight makes it easier to do the difficult things. “It’s way easier to block for somebody when you truly care about them and spend time with them off the field,” says Harrison.

The way they care for one another stands out: “We’re blessed with great kids and great families. And, they’re they’re just good kids. And…the families raise them right. And, and we try to reinforce those things, but yeah, they’re, they’re just good kids and good people,” says Pueblo West head coach, Clint Buderus.

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