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A 15-year-old football player says the gunman who shot his coach to death last June pointed the gun at him first. Testimony began Friday in the first degree murder trial of 24-year-old Mark Becker who is accused of shooting Aplington-Parkersburg coach Ed Thomas to death.
Fifteen-year-old Brandon Simkins was standing next to the coach when Becker entered the football team’s weight room that morning and the teenager testified that Becker first pointed the gun at his head.
A group in Des Moines that’s working to save old buildings from the wrecking ball is celebrating a couple of successful projects. In 2003, the City of Des Moines declared an abandoned, century-old church “unsafe.” The Kingsway Cathedral in the Sherman Hill Neighborhood was about to be demolished when The Rehabbers Club featured the church on it’s first “Most Endangered Buildings” list in 2008.
Rehabbers Club founder Steve Wilke-Shapiro says the church is unique in a number of ways. “Masonry buildings in Des Moines are not very common, so to have a substantial building with this kind of character is extraordinary in and of itself,” Shapiro said. “The fact that it has survived for the past 100 years is a testament to the quality of construction and to its place in this historic neighborhood.”
Last summer, Kingsway Cathedral was sold to KLM Ministries in Ankeny. KLM Pastor Kenney Linhart credits the Rehabbers Club for his decision. “There are a lot of people who have a heart for restoration and preserving history,” Linhart said. “If it weren’t for that particular list and the people in Sherman Hill who worked so hard to keep this building from being torn down, it would’ve been a parking lot.”
Linhart is hoping to restore the church to the way it looked in 1902. A couple of miles away from the church, in Des Moines’ East Village neighborhood, residents raised $60,000 last year to purchase a service station that was built in 1931. The area where the service station once stood is now a parking lot. Linhart recently agreed to purchase that small building and hopes to move next to the Kingsway Cathedral. Wilke-Shapiro says he’s thrilled his Rehabbers Club had some role in saving the two buildings.
“We want to initiate discussion about what buildings are worth preserving, why they’re worth preserving and how do people go about organizing for preservation,” Shapiro said. The Rehabbers Club is taking nominations from the public for a third “Most Endangered Buildings” list to be released this summer.
Summer Baltzer
Summer is coming to Iowa this weekend. Summer Baltzer, that is. She’s the host of two interior design shows on cable TV and will be one of the featured speakers at a home show in Des Moines.
Baltzer says Iowans who want to spruce up a room without spending a lot of money should consider painting it, for starters. Don’t run out and buy several gallons though, Baltzer says — just pick up a small sample can of paint and a brush.
“Paint a block on your wall that’s maybe two feet by two feet and just sit with that for at least 24 hours so you can look at the color in the day and night light, because color definitely changes throughout the day,” Baltzer says. The color will also look different from wall to wall, so try it in different places as the shade may appear warmer based on window locations and other factors. Baltzer hosts “Design on a Dime” on HGTV and TLC’s “Unhinged.”
She says many people don’t even have $100 to spend on home remodeling, so instead of going to the store, go through your own home to find “forgotten” treasures.
“One of the first things I like to do is go through those closets and dig out some old accessories and essentially go shopping in my own house and see what I can find that I haven’t been looking at for a couple of years,” Baltzer says. “You bring it out and it kind of is new to you again.” She also suggests creating a different feel by putting artwork on a new wall or in a new room — or just rearranging the furniture. Also, Baltzer says you don’t have to spend hundreds on new light fixtures to change the look of a room.
“I like to swap out a lot of bulbs,” Baltzer says. “Sometimes I’ll go to a three-way bulb so you can control the intensity of the light, sometimes just changing the wattage, making it brighter or dimmer definitely changes the mood in a room.” Baltzer is appearing both today and tomorrow (Feb. 13 and 14) at the Home and Garden Show at the Iowa Events Center in Des Moines. .
While some college students are soaking up the sun during spring break, three groups of students from Buena Vista University in Storm Lake will be doing something more constructive. B-V-U director of community service Ashley Farmer-Hansen says they are on what’s called the AWOL program.
The AWOL or “Alternative Week of Offsite Learning” program is in its 11th year, with alternative spring breaks for students to work on service projects. Farmer-Hansen says this year’s trips are already planned.
This year, one group is going to Seattle to work with the homeless… another group will go a Tennessee Indian Reservation… and the third, an environmental project in the Florida Everglades. Last year during spring break, 14 students helped build a Habitat for Humanity house in Taos, New Mexico… eight spent the week at the Best Friends Animal Shelter in Utah… and 16 students went to Puerto Ricom, where they cleaned up a beach and helped renovate dorm rooms at the church camp where they stayed.
By Joel Hermann, KAYL Storm Lake
O.KayHenderson.com