The Daily Sentinel from Grand Junction, Colorado • 9

THE DAILY Sentinel TELEVISION WESTLEFE SECTION THURSDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2000 Climb Time jX i w- Local radio format shift dismays fans New ownership, focus brings change to Christian station 1 -j-f rpr 'i. 1 I Lt 4 fTt -v 'it-a. rf 1 JM ve A ni -m fa Ji i lr-fc tv. 'i -rWa-A. Vv" r1- By GARY HARMON Die Daily SenM Listeners to the Western Slopes biggest radio station got a surprise last week when the ownership and format changed overnight.

KJOL-AM on Saturday went from a locally programmed station to a conduit for contemporary Christian music fed by satellite from a national network as the result of a sale. Colorado Christian University on Oct. 5 sold KJOL, KRDH in Glen-wood Springs and KWBI in Denver to the Educational Media Foundation in Sacramento, Calif. The foundation operates K-LOVE, a national radio ministry of Christian contemporary music. The changeover has been anything but good news to most KJOL listeners.

Colorado Christian University in Denver has been getting more calls from western Colorado than Denver and theyre very unhappy people, said Ken Andrews, general manager of KJOL. "It not a good mix of music, with the new station its all one style, said Jane Shephard of Intermountain Christian Bookstore, 2401 North Ave. KJOL was just so personal to everyone. We all knew the deejays, we saw them in church, there were many personal touches." Shephard did say that some young people did like the new programming, but pointed out that they arent the financial backbone of the listener-supported station. Andrews was passing out See RADIO, page 2B DARLYNE MERKELThe Daily Sentinel The scenery and challenge of the climb up Kokopellis Trail between Rabbit Valley and Westwater, Utah, is appreciated by Mary Pipkin of Longmont as she negotiates this stretch of the singletrack trail.

Rangely manager resigns after protests from residents Conflict between Looney, former police chief at issue 1998. Looney will also keep his town-supplied laptop computer, software and printer, valued at $4,500. He will also continue to receive health, dental and life insurance for six months. The town also agreed to provide Looney with a good recommendation. My stuff is packed up and Ill be out of here today," Looney said Wednesday See MANAGER, page 2B By MARIJA B.

VADER The Daily Sentinel RANGELY Rangely Town Manager Jeff Looney resigned Tuesday night during a closed meeting with the town council. His resignation was effective immediately. The resignation came after a heated controversy involving the towns police chief and residents calling for town officials to reconsider Looneys employment. Rangely Community Development Director Carol Ditmanson will serve as acting town manager until Looneys replacement is hired. Mayor Don Peach had few comments about the resignation, issuing only a prepared statement.

Personnel issues of this nature are never easy, the mayor said. All of us on town council wish Jeff well. Looney will leave town with at least $28,000 as part of his severance package. The money includes six months of his $56,014 annual salary. The town also agreed to give Looney the town's full contribution to his retirement, but a final dollar figure was not available Wednesday.

Regarding the retirement contribution, the town council did not follow its own policy that states employees may obtain the towns full contribution to their retirement only after theyve been employed five years. Looney became town manager in October Daniels to run unopposed for final term Election all about money in GarCo ELECTION Force a 14-member team of officers from several agencies with helping to curb the meth problem. Also during his term, Daniels 16-lawyer office has helped put high-profile killers in prison. In February, Daniels prosecuted a woman for shooting her husband during a 1995 hunting trip on the Un-compahgre Plateau. Janice Hall is now serving a life sentence for killing John Bruce Dodson.

Daniels hitched together a trainload of circumstantial evidence that was collected over a five-year span to get a conviction. Term limits make this his final term as the countys chief prosecutor. He wont say what hell do when his last term is over. Ill be thrown out on the street at the age of 56," he joked. ByZACKBARNEIT The Daily Sentinel Frank Daniels knew he wanted to be a prosecutor in the 1970s when he was driving to Telluride.

Daniels, 51, is unopposed in his bid to keep his job as the Mesa County District Attorney. He was passing through Montrose with a friend, on the way to the mountains, when he realized that he belonged in the courtroom. We drove by the courthouse and he said, They had 75 applications for a single deputy district attorney position, Daniels said. I started thinking then that being a deputy district attorney in western Colorado would be a good job. It felt right." The only thing he needed to make his epiphany a reality was a law degree.

In 1983, a year after graduating from law school at the University of Colorado, Daniels was hired in Grand Junction. A decade later, Gov. Roy Romer appointed Daniels as the countys chief prosecutor when Steve Erkenbrack took a spot in the state attorney general's office. Daniels, a Democrat, is the fifth district attorney in the 35-year history of the 21st Judicial District. Hes the only one of the five who has been contested for the job.

In 1994, Daniels beat Jerry Cooper for the spot in a special election. In 1996, he ran unopposed. The people of Mesa County have one of the best DAs offices in Colorado, Daniels said. We have a crew of talented and experienced prosecutors. We can handle any case of any sort.

During his watch, methamphet-amine replaced cocaine as the countys drug of choice. A spree of violent meth-fueled crimes plagued the county in the mid-1990s. Daniels said he thinks the most ments of the countys drug culture bars. He credits the Grand Valley Joint By MARIJA B. VADER The Daily Sentinel RIFLE This election year, for the most part, its all about money in Garfield County.

Parachute schools want to issue $14.45 million in bonds to build a new high school. Proponents of the bond issue say the 60-year-old Grand Valley High School has outlived its usefulness and is dangerous. The bonds would also be used to expand classroom space at Bea Underwood Elementary School. Grand Valley High School lies on 4 acres in the heart of See GARCO, page 2B FRANK DANIELS violent ele-are behind Drug Task be reached via mail at Zack Barnett can zbarneWagjds.com. Incumbents Embarrassment Quotient may be weakness in race who has positioned himself as sophisticated, worldly and unflappable.

McCormicks unconscious appeal is that Baughman is none of those things. That's evident to people who deal frequently with the commissioners, but not to the world. What the world sees in Baughman is an earnest guy who works hard and answers his own phone. In the eyes of many that translates to responsive, good government. That forces McCormick either to tack away and draw murky distinctions or to attack Baughman directly as Jeff Fox worthy without the laugh track.

The fact is that Baughman has a high EQ Embarrassment Quotient for the cocktail set that bankrolls campaigns and frets about image. He is the county commissioner, after all, who harangued U.S. Rep. Scott Mclnnis, another Grand Junction Republican, about America's woeful abandonment of the Panama Canal and who invited barbs about Canadians massing at the border for invasion. Its a legitimate area of attack for McCormick but Pity those who are expending thought into trying to keep the Mesa County commissioner race straight.

Theyre probably the same ones who watched womens Olympic volleyball and are still trying to figure out whether the team in the dark outfits was the Chinese or the Bulgarians (No fair checking back hair). For the record, Alan Farina is running to unseat Doralyn Genova, not that its been easy to tell, what with Jim Baughman leaping in to defend his fellow Commissioner, Genova. Baughman, one might think, would have his hands full with a challenge from Bob McCormick, but McCormick just cant resist jabbing Farina. And that sums up McCormicks problem. Hes failed to communicate exactly why he wants to give up retirement for the inestimable joys of dealing with frustrated constituents, settling governmental turf wars and staying awake through some of Americas Most Enervating Meetings.

Its because Baughman has the job that McCormick faces a dual challenge persuade voters that would have to be handled deftly or not at all. That leaves McCormick few weapons. As a former Republican, he cant appeal to party, though he has an outreach to Democrats that Baughman lacks. Give Baughman points for party, incumbency and good times. McCormick gets them for money, networking and cross-party appeal.

Elections that close tend to turn on unlooked-for factors and this might be such a case. If Baughman wins, he might want to thank the backers of Amendment 25, the Women's Right to Know initiative. How so? Baughman, a Roman Catholic, has had strong pro-life backing in all of his campaigns. Combine the national race with its abortion undertones with the statewide initiative and the odds are that Baughman will outdistance McCormick because his voters arent the least bit confused about who wears which uniforms. Gary Harmon can be reached via mail at gharmoniagjds.com.

Baughman needs to be removed and that hes the right replacement. That might seem simple. After all, once a voter doubts Baughman, McCormick is the obvious answer to the next logical question. Voters, though, still have to balance the incumbents shortcomings with the challengers perceived advantages. Even wounded incumbents can win that internal conversation when constituents are working, taxes are be-ing paid and the DA isnt investigating.

That's pretty much McCormicks conundrum. In-cumlient and challenger agree on the big issues and where they dont, there's no bright line of differentiation. To draw a bright line would require McCormick to make a coarse appeal hardly fitting for a candidate.