The Daily Sentinel from Grand Junction, Colorado • 9

THE if DAILY Sentinel Wednesday, November 30, 1994 Television Crossword Landers Obituaries Section EfeaMi group freezes rates for next year When East meets West at East Middle School, 7th-graders learn the art of Japanese writing laroinmram Average annual increase sines 1988 Rocky Mountain HMO 10.3 Health-maintenance Industry 11.6 Fee-for service insurers 13.4 Ginger Rice Daily Sentinel Members of Rocky Mountain Health Maintenance Organization wont see a rate increase in 1995, the first time since 1984 the group has not hiked its rates. Directors of the Grand Junction-based health-maintenance organization voted to freeze the base rate charged employers at the 1994 level. They also will hold rates for individual coverage and two Medicare plans at the same level. This rate freeze will allow us to maintain a competitive position and encourage aggressive cost-containment measures in areas that wjll not affect the quality of care our members receive, said Bob Wilson, acting executive director. Rocky Mountain HMO rates climbed 6.5 percent in 1994 and averaged 10.3 percent annually since 1988.

That compares with annual increases averaging 11.6 percent for the health-maintenance industry and 13.4 percent for fee-for-service insurers. New medical technology, an aging population, epidemics such as AIDS and other factors will continue to push up the cost of health care, experts say. But Bruce Wilson, Rocky Mountains medical director, said that with the organization and health-care providers working together, there are still areas where we can save. Money can be saved, for example, by identifying opportunities in which information and services can be shared, rather than duplicated, he said. The absence of revenues that a rate increase would have provided will be a major incentive for health-care providers to carry out new efficiencies, he said, adding that their commitment to such an effort was a major factor in the board's decision to freeze rates.

During 1995, the HMO will reassess the method it uses to factor rates, marketing director Marilyn Green said. Rocky Mountain HMO was founded in Mesa County in 1974. It serves more, than 66,000 members in 14 countiefe in western Colorado and six Front Range counties. Dana Nunn Daily Sentinel The young Japanese woman stood at the front of the East Middle School classroom, showing seventh-graders how to hold the bamboo-handled brush before allowing the students to dip their brushes into cups of permanent ink. Tomoko Hirata said she would teach them a little calligraphy, how to write the Japanese symbols for the numbers I and 2.

Thirteen-year-old Bryan Johnson got it right away. It didn't take long before he'd moved on to scrawling the motto of many seventh-graders NO FEAR, taken from the popular T-shirts. Johnson and the rest of the seventh-graders got a taste of Japanese culture Tuesday morning when 11 Japanese students from the Colorado International Education and Training Institute, Grand Junction, paid a visit. In addition to a little exposure to calligraphy, the students also got a martial-arts demonstration, an introduction to the Japanese tea ceremony, some origami and information about life in Japan. Noriko Hirao explained that while Japan has about the same amount of land as California, 124 million people about half the population of the United States live in Japan.

John Holley, 12, said the high cost of living in Japan was the most surprising thing he learned during the visit. He was taken aback at the prospect of paying $65 for a pair of blue jeans. But it was the introductions to calligraphy and judo that really captured Holleys interest because both involved students in a very hands-on way. Its a lot easier when they come and show you. Its a lot better than reading about it in books, he said.

Many of the Japanese students who visited East on Tuesday also are interns for School District 51. Hirao, for example, works at Columbine Elementary School. Hizuru Nakagawa, who introduced the middle school students to the Japanese tea ceremony, is an intern at Orchard Avenue, Elementary School. to introduce my culture to American kids, she said. Arsonist torches backcountry hut Heather McGregor Daily Sentinel LAKE CITY Hinsdale County authorities believe an arsonist took advantage of the public focus on the funeral of Sheriff Roger Coursey on Nov.

21 and burned down a new backcountry hut near Capitol City. The arsonist is believed to have skied eight miles up Henson Creek to reach the cabin. Terry Finn built the log cabin, and another a few miles away, this summer on mining claims he had purchased. He envisioned building a few more cabins to create a network of backcountry cabins for skiers, hikers and others seeking solitude. Apparently somebody didn't like the idea," said Lynn Lampert, chief of Hinsdale County Search and Rescue.

On Thanksgiving Day, three Lake City snowmobilers found the cabin burned to the ground, said Finn, who owns Wilderness Journeys Inc. Two fire investigators have visited the scene and both say the fire was caused by arson, Lampert said. Finn is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the arsonist. Christopher TomlinsonDaily Sentinel Tomoko Hirata helps 12-year-old Duane Storey, a seventh-grader at East Middle School, with his calligraphy. The students also got a martial-arts demonstration, an introduction to the Japanese tea ceremony, some origami and information about life in Japan.

Timmiimg tine tables Romero wasnt the only person in the courtroom playing a role reversal Eric Cook, 43, sat at his table watching Deputy District Attorney Winona Schwartz explain why he had been arrested on suspicion of trespassing and disorderly conduct at a North Avenue motel in August. When it became time for Cooks attorney to talk. Cook took on the task himself. Wearing jail clothing. Cook told the jury he couldnt have been trespassing because he had paid rent for a room at the motel.

Cook, wearing chains around his waist and ankles, told the jury he was upset on the day in question, but added he didn't recall getting so out of hand that the disorderly See Court system, page 4B Greg Grant Daily Sentinel A Grand Junction man acquitted of murder in 1993 got to see the legal system at work from a different angle Tuesday. Jason Romero sat in a Mesa County courtroom as a juror, listening to evidence in a trespassing and disorderly conduct trial. It was the first time Romero had played an active role in a courtroom since July 2, 1993, when a jury found him not guilty of the 1989 murder of his former girlfriend, Pamela Christine Thornton. Two GJ men get new perspective on court system Romero, 22, said he felt strange sitting in the courtroom of County Judge Tom Deister, formerly the assistant district attorney who assisted in Romero's murder case. Despite the awkward feeling, Romero said he never doubted he could handle the job.

A lot of people probably dont believe me, Romero said. But I never held a grudge against the district attorneys office. I knew they were just doing their job. So that really didnt affect me at all today. Police seek help to find missing man Sn final staff A Montrose man who told his wife he was going on a late October hunting trip still hasnt called home, and police are looking for leads on his whereabouts.

Tracy Bastion, 33, was to go on a hunting trip with friends Oct. 23, but he never showed up and never called to say he wasn't going on the hunt, Montrose Detective Tom Chinn said. His wife reported him missing Oct. 24. when Bastion didn't return home as expected.

Bastion was last seen Oct. 21 getting out bf an older cream or white pickup truck in front of a Montrose Army surplus store on Townsend Avenue with a man with blond hair, Chinn said. Bastion is described as white, 5 feet 10 inches tall, and 150 pounds with hazel eyes and long brown hair. He was last wearing a black and red flannel shirt and jeans. He wears wire frame glasses, and has worn a mustache.

He has an unfinished tattoo on his inner, lower left arm and a faded tattoo of a woman on his upper left shoulder. Crime Stoppers will pay $1,000 for information about Bastion. Call 249-8500. District 51 standards under debate Unda qamaDaity Sentinel standards while closely monitoring those being developed at the state level, said Kathy Kain, District 51 director of instructional support. The purpose of the meetings is to tell you about HB 1313 and content standards or standards-based education, Kain told an audience of seven people at Grand Junction High School on Tuesday evening.

It's also to tell you what were doing in District 51 and to get your input, she said. The state law requires that all districts have standards in the six subjects in place by January 1997 It also requires that districts develop ways of determining whether students have met the standards. In District 51, methods of assessing whether standards have been met will include the kinds of tests most adults remember from their own school years. See Standards, page 4B Dana Nunn Daily Sentinel School District 51 officials are trying to find out what locals think students should know and be able to do before they graduate from high school, and what evidence is needed to prove that students know and are able to do those things. As part of that effort, the district Tuesday hosted the first of four public forums to discuss the requirements of House Bill 1313, a state law passed in June 1993 that requires all school districts to set academic standards that meet or exceed state standards.

The state standards are still being developed. The third, version of proposed state standards in reading, writing, math, history, geography and science is supposed to be released this week. In the meantime. District 51 is developing its own Christmas cut Erica Crist clears away the snow from the Christmas tree shes picked out on Glade Park so her father, Eric Crist, and unde, Scott Crist, can chop it down. The Bureau of Land Management is selling permits for the Christmas trees at bureau offices, 2815 Road or at the Glade Park Store.

For more information, call 244000..