The Pueblo Chieftain: Petals, pride and persistence
Talk about growing where you’re planted. For the last 25 years, brothers Jim and Joe Koncilja have been making the section of Downtown near where B Street and Union Avenue intersect a nicer place to work, shop and play.
They do this in many ways, such as using a collection of electric signs to create Neon Alley, one of the city’s more offbeat attractions. They do this by sponsoring events, such as the Oktoberfest celebration at the Union Depot and the Scorpion Festival in Neon Alley. (Yeah, we know the Scorpion Festival was on hiatus last year, but we’re hoping it’ll make a comeback.) And they also do this by planting flowers – lots and lots of flowers – in the area around their law office.
“When we did B Street, Neon Alley and Victoria (Street), we were really trying to build a blueprint for the rest of the city to see, that there is no reason that all of Pueblo can’t look like that,” Jim Koncilja said. “It doesn’t really require that much resources. It just kind of needs someone to be a shepherd.”

