The Daily Sentinel from Grand Junction, Colorado • 11

Section Thursday, September 24, 1992 Maml call ipetaamms IhdDinnie Corps report may delay AB power Gulf war vet says thanks to students Bryan Gallegos Daily Sentinel It all started as an exercise to get students at Chatfield Elementary School used to writing to real people. But it turned out to be an early Christmas for a lonely sailor at war. The 25 students in Dave Morton's class two years ago wrote letters to Lt. Andy Markley, who was aboard the U.SS. John F.

Kennedy, deployed in the Persian Gulf during Desert Shield and Desert Storm. Those letters kept Markley's hopes up during a time when he was lonely and away from his family for eight long months. Wednesday afternoon, in the Orchard Mesa Middle School library, the vacationing Markley personally thanked the students for their prayers and kind thoughts while he was in harms way. The easiest way to describe a letter for a man at sea is, it's like Christmas. We virtually live for what we call mail call.

If you got a letter, that made your day, Markley told his pen pals. Those letters meant so much to me. You became a very special to me. Its nice to know that somebody is thinking about you, said Markley, who grew up in nearby Olathe but now lives at Whidby Island, Washington. The class, most of whom are now seventh-graders at Mount Garfield Middle School, also sent Markley valentines, cookies and other treats.

Markley said he read each piece of mail so many times that he almost memorized them. And he answered every letter and card individually. However, he admitted that he didn't eat the cookies. The mail service was very slow and by the time they arrived on the John F. Kennedy, they looked like a science project" because of all the mold, Markley said.

Al GibesDaily Sentinel Lt. Andy Markley hugs Mount Garfield Middle School seventh-grader Kara Crabtree after a visit with students who wrote to him during the Persian Gulf war. tears and lots of hugs. "This is a real unique opportunity to comq home and meet the family Ive never met, Markley said. You guys are the best.

No, you're the best, said seventh-grader Steve Naviatil. We owe you a debt for what you did to protect us. Lateral Stacie Oulton Daily Sentinel MONTROSE The developers of the AB Lateral hydroelectric project on Wednesday said that the delay caused by a new Army Corps of Engineers report could force the project into finding a new buyer for the electricity. We ll just have to cross that bridge when we come to it, said Bill Fowler, project manager for the two developers, Montrose Partners and the Uncompahgre Valley Water Users. It certainly will delay things, and how much it will jeopardize things I cant say until I know how long the delay is, he said.

Every time something like this comes up, it is a risk. Montrose Partners and the Valley Water Users face a September 1994 deadline for delivering power to Public Service Co. of Colorado. Fowler said Public Service already granted the AB Lateral developers one extension on the delivery contract for power and an extension on when construction Meetings OM area Sentinel staff Orchard Mesa residents can lodge complaints or discuss hopes for area development as the planning commissions for Grand Junction and Mesa County begin a series of three meetings tonight to discuss growth in the area. Planners so far have developed several land-use categories affecting the future of Orchard Mesa.

The city and county have outlined what direction development on Orchard Mesa should take. The meeting for residents north ments, legislative conferences, employee development, and multiple government activities, said Mayer, who also serves on the Colorado Commission on Higher Education. Mayer said both commissions seek to one day link the entire K-12 and higher education programs through such a system. Mesa State College executive assistant Mike Nyikos said he was impressed with the commission's See Vide, page SB on the project had to begin. The corps report released Monday said that the developers previous studies on the amount of work needed to reinforce the banks of the Uncompahgre River was not sufficient.

The AB Lateral project proposes to divert water from the Gunnison River to produce the electricity and release it into the Uncompahgre, which would increase the flows in that river north of Montrose. Fowler said the corps report was disappointing, and that the developers engineers had thought they had done an extremely thorough job. This just seems to be a request to do even more, Fowler said. The developers have 30 days to respond to the corps new report. The chief of the corps Grand Junction office had previously said he hoped to have a decision on a federally required permit by now.

But that decision was delayed when the new study was requested from the corps Sacramento office. set for planning of U.S. Highway 50 and west of 30 Road begins at 7 tonight at Orchard Mesa Middle School, 2736 Road. The meeting for residents of the area north of U.S. Highway 50 between 30 and 33 roads begins at 7 p.m.

Sept. 29 at Mesa View Elementary School, 2967 Road. The meeting for residents south of S. Highway 50 and east of 27 Road begins at 7 p.m. Oct.

1, at the Intermountain Veterans Memorial Park, Building 2798 Road. For more information, call 244-1636 or 244-1430. Candidate: Let casinos build jail Heather McGregor Daily Sentinel RIFLE Gambling interests in Parachute ought to put $1 million toward building a new county jail, Garfield County commissioner candidate Randy Corry said. Corry also suggested the jail be built at the Garfield County Airport industrial park, south of Rifle, rather than the proposed downtown Glenwood Springs site. Corry, a Glenwood Springs businessman and Democrat who lives in Silt, is running against one-term Commissioner Arnold Mackley, a Republican Corry said the $1 million could be raised through parking fees, food and lodging tax or in a lump sum paid by casinos In theory, it sounds good, said Mackley.

In actuality, wed have very little ability to gain funds from gaming since it will be within the town of Parachute. Mackley said that state law already sets aside 12 percent of tax revenues for the county, which he said keeps you from going to those people on your hands and knees, begging Parachute Mayor Dave Reasley, an advocate of gambling in Parachute, said the countys share of gambling tax revenues will be enough to cover the impact He called Corrys $1 million request a figure taken out of the air. Corry noted that in 1990, taxpayers turned down a 0 75 percent county tax proposal to build a new jail in downtown Glenwood Springs, a spot that proved controrersiaj Evaluation ordered for president stalker It didn't matter that he didn't eat the cookies or that he fed them to the fish, though. The class just wanted him to know that he would not be forgotten. Emotions pent up for two years finally erupted Wednesday.

The students and the sailor shared miles of smiles, a few and did not speak. Butler, who allegedly said she admired would-be presidential assassin Sarah Jane Moore as a role model, is accused of stalking the president Sept. 15, when Bush spoke at an outdoor rally in a southeast Denver business park. About 7,000 people attended the event. In a diary found in her car by FBI agents, Butler wrote that she decided to shoot the president to draw attention to herself and her need for help, according to the arrest affidavit.

The diary also allegedly showed Butler planned to kill Bush during a planned Denver trip in August that was cancelled after Hurricane Andrew hit Florida. She was arrested at West Pines Psychiatric Hospital in Wheat Ridge and has been held without bond in the Denver County Jail. Diary entries indicated Butler admired Moore, who tried to kill President Gerald Ford in San Franciso in September 1975, and See Stalking, page 6B commission members while she was in the Grand Junction state building at 222 S. Sixth St. That meeting last week marked a first for state officials, but it certainly won't be the last The videoaudio system could have a permanent home here by the end of next year, said Bob Tol-man, director of the Colorado Telecommunications Division.

Many private businesses already offer the same electronic hookups. Associated Press DENVER A federal magistrate on Wednesday ordered a psychiatric evaluation for a 33-year-old woman who allegedly stalked President Bush with a loaded pistol during his campaign visit to suburban Denver last week. U.S. Magistrate B.D. Pringle turned over custody of Deborah Butler, a legal secretary from Arvada, to the U.S.

attorney generals office, which has 30 days to have an evaluation of the woman done to determine her mental competency. Pringle did not set bond for Butler, nor did he schedule a future hearing date during the brief court appearance. Butler was arrested Monday and is charged with one count of threatening the president, which carries a maximum five-year sentence, and one count of attempted assassination, for which she could receive a life sentence. She appeared in court in handcuffs, clad in a khaki jail uniform The letter exchange began when Markley wrote to his niece, Jamie Phillips, then a member of the class. Jamie, who has since moved with her family to Elko, told Morton about her uncle in the Persian Gulf.

They decided to make it a class project. state account for West. It also works on computers, fax machines, and VCRs. Tolman will ask the Legislature this winter for $500,000 to install teleconference stations in six Colorado communities, including Grand Junction. Users, such as government agencies or individu als, would pay the monthly operate ing costs of $35,000.

I believe the video conference is one way technology can support distance learning, court arraign This bee hasnt let the official end of summer deter it from gathering pollen from a late-blooming cosmos plant in a backyard Grand Junction garden. There are still a few blossoms available for the bee's co-workers. could link state end to end Video conferences Eventually, state representatives could hold conferences with constituents without leaving their offices in Denver, he said. For 11 days during the past two weeks Tolman set up the video conference system for the first time in Grand Junction. West officials helped the state set up its microwave system to have such meetings.

This equipment is multimedia, not just video and audio, said John Carroll, who handles the Patrick Cleary Oaily Sentinel Members of the Colorado Telecommunications Advisory Commission met face to face in Denver Recently, but commission member Deedee Mayer of Grand Junction stayed home. She didn't miss the meeting, though. Mayer plugged into, a statewide microwave system that allowed her to see and speak with other.