The Daily Sentinel from Grand Junction, Colorado • 3

Ww4tr, Msrtk ft. im Tin Dilhf tswtlnei, Grind JsnirtlM, Colord6 Pgt 3 cotoracJ A news digest Sentinel wire services i u. 4 i Crews fail to plug leak at gas field GARDNER (AP) A Houston-based trouble-shooting company tried to plug a carbon dioxide leak that has plagued an Atlantic Richfield Co. natural gas field near here tor nearly a week, but the effort failed, officials said. i ARCO officials said another attempt will be made this week to plug the leak, which Coots, the trouble-shooting firm, nearly achieved Sunday.

The C02 initially broke to the surface in three places on March 21 at the Sheep Mountain site near this Huerfano County community in southern Colorado, and two unsuccessful attempts were made before Sunday to stem the leaking gas. On Sunday morning, ARCO officials said, crews forced a day-and-water mixture Into the one remaining spot from which the gas is leaking, hoping it would seal the holq. The mixture plugged the hole for a few minutes, but the gas spewed forth once again with terrifie velocity, said John Calder, ARCO regional environmental coordinator. They came so close to killing it, but they couldnt bring the velocity down enough for the mud to get y) Ni -J Plumes of carbon dioxide stream from Gardner blowout used to force more oil from wells ture of drilling mud was placed in the hole when it was drilled. ARCO plans to drill more than 30 formed an organization that calls itself the Huerfano Valley Citizens Alliance to express their concern JOHNSON DECISION LINKED fO FUNDS Former Republican congressman James Johnson expects to announce late this week whether he will run for governor, and that decision will be based on the level of financial support he has.

Supporters of Johnson currently are scrambling for financial commitments in hopes of persuading the 51-year-old Fort Collins lawyer to enter the race. Johnson believes it will take between (100,000 and $200,000 to fund the first stage of his campaign. Cash contributions so far aren't close to that, but Johnson's finance chairman, William Griffith, said no one should be greatly I worried about it. Griffith conceded that unseating Democratic incumbent Gov. Richard Lamm will not be an easy task, but he cited harsh criticism of Lamm last week by Sen.

James Kadlecek, D-Greeley, as an indication that the governor isn't invulnerable. NEBRASKA SKIER DIES AFTER HITTING TREE A 12-year-old Nebraska boy is dead after skiing into a tree at the Keystone Ski Area, a resort spokeswoman says. Brian Bet-tenhausen of Lincoln, was skiing Saturday on Frenchman Run, an advanced intermediate slope, when he lost control, slammed into a tree and sustained a serious skull fracture, spokeswoman Lillian Ross said. Witnesses reported the youth was skiing at a high rate of speed at the time of the accident, she Mid. The victim was transported by St.

Anthony Flight for Life helicopter to St. Anthony Hospital in Denver, where he died sev- eral hours later. ELDER HINCKLEY RAPS DELAYS IN SON'S CASE Denver oilman John "Jack" Hinckley whose son has pleaded innocent by reason of insanity to the shootings of President Reagan and three other persons, lays he is distressed that the younger Hinckley has yet to go to trial. "John is truly ill, and we're anxious to get that across in court. His rights to a speedy trial have been denied him," Hinckley said.

Last March 30, John Hinckley, then 25, was arrested and charged with shooting Reagan, presidential press secretary James Brady, a Secret Service agent and a District of Columbia policeman outside a Washington hotel. "The Justice Department is dragging its feet," said Hinckley who resides in Evergreen. CU DECLARES WAR ON PRAIRIE DOG COLONY Saying they have become more than just a nuisance. University of Colorado officials have declared war on prairie dogs living on -JOacres at the CU east campus. "It will be all right if we can just thin the population," Mid Azmi Imad, director of CU's Environmental Health and Safety Department.

"There could be as many as 2,000 next we don't do something." There are an estimated 250 prairie dogs now living in a dozen large colonies at the site, officials My. last week, CU maintenance employees began to fumigate the area with carbon dioxide gas cartridges, and oats baited with toxic zinc phosphide were left near the prairie dog dwellings. FIRED BOULDER FIREFIGHTERS PLAN APPEAL Appeals will be filed this week by three Boulder Fire Department officials fired by the city for their role in a Jan. 26 training fire that resulted in the deaths of two firefighters, the fire officials say. Dismissed from the Fire Department were Lt.

Cyrus Pinkerton, Assistant Fire Chief Larry Stem and Battalion Chief James Fyffe. Opt. Paul Steele, the shift captain on the day of the fatal blaze, had a letter of reprimand placed in his file, but was not fired. Fire Chief Chuck Boyes Mid the disciplinary actions were taken against the four for their "overall failure of proper planning and supervision of the training exercise." Killed in the fire were firefighters Scott Smith and William Duran. about the gas potential effect on livestock and groundwater.

The group has asked for an independent monitoring study. ARCO officials said the gas leak, considered a rarity in gas fields, wss caused by human errors." For one thing, they said, too light a mix- down," be said. One of the engineers told me they should have it capped the next time they try. That should take place in a couple of days." ARCO officials say the gas poses no safety hazard unless it collects in pockets, and Calder said that winds that regularly buffet the area so far have kept it from collecting. Area residents, however, have gas wells in the area.

Company officials said the gas will be transported more than 400 miles through a pipeline to oilfields near Seminole, Texas. The $500 million production and pipeline project is expected to be completed' by this fall, officials said. 1 Tells CSU president to simplify sentences Computer analyzes basic composition analyze the prose of 140 students enrolled in the schools basic composition course. The program the first of its kind searches out errors in grammar, spelling, syntax and punctuation. Charles Smith, one of two faculty members usi ing the mschine, Mid the computer is needed to keep up with the decline in students' writing ability.

With each passing year, students come to us knowing less and leu about those niceties of grammar, punctuation and diction, said Smith. More and more of us are spending time in the mind-numbing labor" of correcting errors that should have been caught in high school, he said. Smith Mid the computer frees him to teach tlje more difficult writing skills. The computer does not Issue grades or eval uate the substance of what students write. But it is the sworn enemy of bombast, and it wasn't pleased with the following 57-word sentence in Christoffersons speech: We intend frilly to seize these opportunities and not let institutional inertia, intellectual myopia or ivory-tower isolation prevent us from applying perhaps the state's most valuable intellectual resources to the problems and opportunities of the state, while at the same time developing a level of excellence in our programs and personnel that will be recognized by Commented the computer You should consider shortening your average sentence length.

Your average is 30 words, which is very high. A good average would be 16 to 22 words." FORT COLLINS (AP) Ralph Christo-ffersons inaugural address last fall as Colorado State University's new president earned generally acceptable marks in a computer analysis, but Christofferson also was Jutioned to stop using 37-word sentences and use more concrete expressions. According to the analysis, Christoffersons prose is too thick for the average person to un- derstand. A person would need 18 years of education the equivalent of the masters degree to understand it, the computer said. la fact, said the computer, the percentage of abstract words in Chnslofferson's speech is higher than in Plato's Symposium.

-CSU using the computer, with a program de-. sighed by Bell Laboratories of New Jersey, to liUll Comity and Fdv Commossooneii's SAMPLE BALLOT WHY FIVE? SPECIAL ELECTION MESA COUNTY, COLORADO TUESDAY, MARCH 30. 1 882 DISTRICT REPRESENTATION: Mesa County needs FIVE districts with each commissioner elected by, and accountable to, the voters in his or her district n. NUMBER OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS (vote for no more then one) There shall be three (3) members on the Meea County Board of Commissioners There shsl be fhre (5) members on the Mesa County Bosrd of County Commissionsrs PREPARING FOR GROWTH: Mesa County is expected to have 128,000 residents within three yean thals an Increase of 501 We need adequate representation. BETTER CHOICE OF CANDIDATES: With the -election of commissioners by district, the cost of campaigning win be reduced and provide for a wider choice of candidates.

With county -wide elections as Is now, onfy the wealthy can run for office. RESIDENCY REQUIREMENT FOR COMMISSIONERS (vote for no mors than one) thers art five (5) Commissionsrs, thrse shall be residents of the districts from which they 3 run end two shell run et large there are five (5) Commissioners, sK five shall be residents of the districts from which they run CHECKS AND BALANCES: Dodsons would be made by more than one or two individuals thereby providing more depth and tfvers.ty along with more representation. METHOD OF ELECTION OF COMWSSiONERS (vote for no mors then one) there are five (5) Commissioners. Commissionsrs running from districts ahaS be sleeted by voters j-ot the whole County 1 0 there we five (5) Commissioners, Commissioners running from districts shea be elected onfy by those voters In the district from which the Commissioner runt rrpr COSTS INVOLVED: The added cost per commissioner Is about 40 per person per year In three years with the added g'owth, this would be about 27c.For better representation and coountabxbty, that's a real bargain. 0 vL END OF BALLOT ABOUT THE CODLDTTEE FOR FIVE: The Conrvttee for Frve Comm.ssone's for Mesa County is a CDuoty-wde.

non-ports a-t cozens goup seeking be. meve rppresetatve axf accountable government for the county. It is cp-eo to tJ who fc-eJ thai th-s is a responsive goal. committee for five commissioners for mesa county P.O. 78, Grand Junction, CO 815C2 Csd tor tnionrurucn Lnsna Lex Lraris buuer it cf Ken hull it kAWbus cars.