The Cortez Journal received one first-place award, one second and one third in the 2000 Better Newspaper Contest sponsored by the Colorado Press Association. In addition, editorial assistant Katharhynn Heidelberg won the Shining Star award for an outstanding employee.

The Journal competes in Class 3, a category for weekly newspapers with circulations over 4,000.

The Journal’s ongoing coverage of the development of Canyons of the Ancients National Monument took first for Best Sustained Coverage. A number of staff reporters contributed to the effort.

Former staff writer David Grant Long captured a second-place award for Best News Story for an article about the discovery of the remains of Alan Pilon, one of three men believed responsible for the murder of a Cortez patrol officer on May 29, 1998.

Long, Gail Binkly and Jim Mimiaga took third place for Best Deadline Reporting for coverage of the shooting by police of William Baldwin, a Vietnam veteran who went on a shooting spree at a local trailer park, on Oct. 12, 1999.

In addition, Heidelberg received the Shining Star Award in Class 3 for her contributions to the Journal.

"Since Katharhynn came to our newspaper in April 1999, she has become an invaluable member of the staff," Journal managing editor Binkly wrote in a letter nominating Heidelberg.

"She is an extremely bright and knowledgeable young woman who has taken on a host of other duties, filling in many of the gaps in coverage that are a problem for a small newspaper. . . .In addition to all that, she proofs almost all of our pages in each issue, her grammar and spelling skills being impeccable.

"Nothing is too much to ask of Katharhynn. She is willing to work evenings and weekends, to write about any story, no matter how big or small, and to remain cheerful under the most intense deadline pressures.

"It is difficult for us now to remember how we got along without her. . . . She is an unsung hero who makes all of our jobs much easier."