Lon Allan

Finally, there’s good news for Atascadero to report. Actually, I’m not breaking the story, only cheering for it. It seems we have our own little economic recovery program under way for downtown, which includes a new pharmacy, a franchise pizza restaurant, and a 10-screen theater and adjoining retail spaces, all coming to fruition next year with the completion of the gargantuan Highway 101/41 interchange improvements.

As President Barack Obama deals with the enormity of trying to bring about some sort of universal health care, I thought back to a simpler time here in Atascadero when everyone who worked for E.G. Lewis’ Colony Holding Corp. had a medical plan.

After almost seven months of a battered downtown, the work is finally finished, and it looks great. We have our streets back.

This week Atascadero residents celebrate the 96th anniversary of the founding of their city by Edward Gardner Lewis.

We’re starting to hear about Colony Days around town as the volunteer committee gears up for another celebration of the founding of Atascadero 96 years ago. A number of local businesses have the word “Colony” in them. Even the title of this column is “About the Colony.”

On the first day of school last week, I was sitting in an assembly over at Santa Rosa Academic Academy.

Monday was the last day to trade in your “clunker” for something better and get government help doing it.

I live close to Atascadero High School, so during the school year I see students driving and walking to and from the campus with a cell phone pushed against an ear or fingers fluttering across those miniature keyboards.

During World War II an unknown person hung a sign on the marble statue that graced the median between the city hall and high school hill that read: "Three wives fighting over an apartment."

Hackers crippled the city’s Web site Monday in what officials there called a destructive online attack. Traffic on www .atascadero.org halted about 3:30 p.m. after a gamers’ organization believed to have originated in Poland changed the design and logos on the site.