City of Goshen
April 3, 2013
The Brew to move off Main Street
Myron Bontrager is “selling the old farmhouse.” That’s how he describes his latest decision as owner of The Electric Brew, located in downtown Goshen. This summer, Bontrager will move The Brew one half block, from 136 South Main St. to 118 East Washington St., to the building in which Better World Books is currently located. Meanwhile, Better World Books will move to 215 South Main St., a building that Town and Country Appliance is vacating. Bontrager’s “farmhouse” has offered coffee, live music and a gathering space to the Goshen community for the last 17 years. During events like First Fridays,...
March 20, 2013
GC tutors lend helping hands to local kids
Wednesdays are the slower day for the Tutor and Mentors Community Club, a club that meets twice a week in NC17, where Goshen College students offer homework assistance to students of Goshen Middle School. On a typical Wednesday there are only about five tutees and tutors, but today the tutors are planning on just three students. Instead there are only two. “Where’s Oscar?” asks Gabby Nunes Maldonado, a GC first-year and one of the tutors. Fast dialogue ensues between Maldonado, Derek Johnson, a junior, and Solongo Gonchigsuren, also a first-year, as well as their two tutees, Jesus Padilla and Jordan...
March 7, 2013
Goshen College student killed Monday morning
On Monday morning in downtown Goshen, Eric Haitsma, 51, shot and killed Millicent Morros, 48, and then shot and killed himself. Morros, a Goshen College student, was killed by Haitsma, her ex-boyfriend, in the 100 block of North Fifth Street at approximately 7:45 a.m. Morros arrived at work and had a brief discussion with Haitsma, who then shot her. Police arrived and found the two bodies in a parking lot on the east side of North Fifth Street. The police immediately blocked Fifth Street between Clinton and Lincoln and paramedics were called to the scene. Morros, an estate paralegal at Yoder,...
January 30, 2013
Senior art major finds inspiration on 8th street
Have you ever looked at other people’s houses on Google Maps, zooming in to get a close-up view of the porch, the windows, the doors—every external detail? That is what Abbie Miller, a senior art major, did to create what she has named “The 8th Street Project.” After taking contemporary art history, an upper level art class, Miller started thinking about things she saw in her everyday life as inspiration for her work. She began by drawing the houses on 8th Street in Goshen, each house on one library catalogue card. Then she began looking at other 8th Streets across the country...
November 29, 2012
‘Hometown Holidays’ to bring warmth to downtown Goshen
Article contributed by cityonthego.org The holidays mean shopping, sharing and snow. While First Fridays can’t guarantee snow, it will offer plenty of options for shoppers in an atmosphere of warmth and generosity on Dec. 7. Participating downtown retailers will feature 30 gifts for under $30. Details to come online. Businesses will have some fun in the first Hometown Holiday Decoration Contest. During the month of December, select downtown businesses will compete for the People's Choice Award for the best holiday decorations in one of three categories: Best Exterior Storefront and Window Display; Best In-Store Holiday Décor; and Best Christmas Tree....
November 15, 2012
Anne McCue to return to Goshen at Ignition Music
Anne McCue describes her music, as “a bit dirty, a bit rockin’, a bit swampy and a bit bluesy, with a touch of mysteriousness to it.” What isn’t mysterious is McCue’s musical talent and range. She was voted the Roots Music Association’s Folk Artist of the Year in 2008, and was included in the Four Decades of Folk Rock box set alongside of Bob Dylan and Wilco. She has played in concert halls all over the world including the Sydney Opera House Americana icon Lucinda Williams had this to say: “Initially, her stunning voice hooked me in. Then I got...
March 28, 2012
Goshen resident’s disc golf passion goes the distance
Beaming, Jim Ingold reaches into his wallet and pulls out a faded brown pass to the Ox Bow Disc Golf Park located on County Road 45, five miles outside Goshen. In green handwritten letters, the small, one-of-a-kind stub reads “Good for LIFE.” If anyone deserves a lifetime disc golf pass, it’s Ingold. At 72 years old, Ingold has been playing the sport for over half a century and has frequented Ox Bow Park at least 500 times. His personal Frisbee collection includes over 900 discs, many of which are limited edition and signed by famous players from around the world....
March 21, 2012
Revisiting a “Sundown Town”: Race & Culture in Goshen
A special report from Reporting for the Public Good (Comm 350)
January 26, 2012
Graber Millers join downtown Goshen’s “cultural Renaissance”
Warm weather isn’t the only thing to be excited about in Goshen as the summer months roll around this year. In six months Graber Designs Gallery, owned by Ann Graber Miller and her husband, Keith Graber Miller, a Goshen College Bible and religion professor, will reopen as Found. The Graber Millers opened Graber Designs Gallery in 2000 to sell artwork by Ann and other Graber family artists alongside international pieces that they had acquired visiting friends and family across the globe, as well as during their time as Study-Service Term leaders and while on other miscellaneous travels. But the new name, meant to make the...
January 19, 2012
Music to the ears: The Globe to open downtown location
On the corner of Washington Street, next door to Better World Books, there is a brown-papered storefront that has all of downtown Goshen abuzz. The windows may be covered now, but by the next First Friday event the paper will be torn down to unveil Ignition Music. Within that space, 91.1 The Globe is setting up shop. Steve Martin, a local businessman, GC graduate and lifelong music lover, is the brains behind Ignition Music. Martin started volunteering at The Globe through a friendship with general manager Jason Samuel and began to think of possibilities for bringing sound to the masses....
November 16, 2011
Tacos Auténticos: Goshen’s Carnicería San Jose
Upon entering Carnicería San Jose, a small taco joint located at 214 North Main Street in downtown Goshen, Indiana, diners may think they’ve stumbled into the wrong place. From the front door, San Jose appears to be nothing more than a typical Mexican supermercado: visitors are greeted with aisles of dried beans, spices, and poblano peppers. It takes a stroll to the store’s rear section to reveal the mouth-watering truth: Carnicería San Jose is the home of some of the best, most authentic tacos Goshen has to offer. What makes a taco truly great? If you’re a fan of Mexican-style...
November 16, 2011
Working for women in Uganda, bit by bit
With a smile, she unzips her brown khaki bag and pulls out color. String after string, she floods the table with beads that gently clink as they fall on the wood. Yellow, pink, blue, purple, circular, oval, long and short—from one bag she’s unearthed every color and shape. “I don’t usually buy jewelry,” she explains, “but once I found beautiful jewelry made by women in Uganda—that could turn their lives around—that’s initially what attracted me to it.” As she talks, the first snow of a new winter swirls outside the front windows of the coffee shop, chilling Goshen’s sleepy Main Street. Just...
November 9, 2011
Kauffman re-elected Mayor of Goshen
Allan Kauffman, the Democratic incumbent, defeated the Republican challenger, Don Riegsecker, in a race for an unprecedented fourth term as mayor of Goshen. Kauffman pledged to serve the four-year term and then retire. Kauffman received 3,700 votes, compared with 2,523 for Riegsecker. For City Council, the Republican Party maintained a 4-3 majority. Republicans Jim McKee won District 1; Edward A. Ahlersmeyer II, District II; Dixie A. Robinson, District 3; and Brett F. Weddell, District 5. Democratic incumbent Julia Gautsche led the race for District 4 and Everett Thomas took District 5. At 6 a.m. on Tuesday morning, the Goshen community...
November 2, 2011
Republican political ad targets the college
A controversial ad in The Goshen News funded by the Goshen Republican Party has become the most recent issue of the 2011 Goshen elections. The ad, printed on Monday, was critical of the Democratic candidates affiliated with Goshen College, listing their “spooky” connections ranging from being a Goshen College graduate to working for the school. Over 40 community members gathered at the city council meeting on Tuesday night to participate in an open discussion about the elections—mainly focused on the Republican’s recent blows to their opponents. Goshen city council candidate, Daniel Grimes, who has had three children attend Goshen College,...
October 5, 2011
Mayoral candidates speak to students Monday
Current Goshen mayor Allan Kauffman and Republican opponent Donald Riegsecker appeared at two different public forums on Goshen campus on Monday. The first, an extended convocation at the College chapel, focused on the candidates' views on servant leadership. The second was a more formal debate regarding policy held in Sauder Concert Hall as a part of the Yoder Lecture Series. Both candidates stood at the Church-Chapel podium during Monday’s convocation. The regular crowd of students was joined by a large number of interested community members. The discussion was led by President James E. Brenneman, who asked a series of questions...