Educational projects throughout Colorado dominated a list of 34 finalists announced yesterday for a $4.7 million state telecommunications funding pool.

Health and library organizations also made the cut for projects intended to transport Colorado citizens along the much-hyped information highway.

"This is wonderful that we're one of the finalists," said Wendy Oxman, assistant director of the telecommunications division at Pikes Peak Community College in Colorado Springs, which submitted a request for $194,500. "We're providing distance education, trying to reach rural areas such as southern Colorado and the eastern plains."

Educational projects throughout Colorado dominated a list of 34 finalists announced yesterday for a $4.7 million state telecommunications funding pool.

Health and library organizations also made the cut for projects intended to transport Colorado citizens along the much-hyped information highway.

The projects range in scope from $800,575 sought by the High Plains Rural Network for a link between rural and urban hospitals to $1,330 sought by the Eaton Public Library to replace a data circuit.

It is unknown how many finalists will get money, since their requests total $7.6 million, a good deal more than the $4.7 million available. The funding comes from fines for poor service, paid by US West, the state and regional phone monopoly.

Nonetheless, the finalists were pleased, while those knocked out were disappointed.

"This is wonderful that we're one of the finalists," said Wendy Oxman, assistant director of the telecommunications division at Pikes Peak Community College in Colorado Springs, which submitted a request for $194,500. "We're providing distance education, trying to reach rural areas such as southern Colorado and the eastern plains."

Teachers of French and Spanish, for example, instruct high school students many miles away through one-way video and two-way audio connected to classrooms in towns such as Simla, Calhan, Ellicott, Elbert, Payton, Kiowa and Rush in southeast Colorado.

A five-member advisory board whittled down the original list of 214 applications, and must further reduce it by early September.

"It was very difficult to draw the line between those that made the cut and those that didn't," said Bruce Smith, director of the Public Utilities Commission and chairman of the independent advisory board. "I wish we would have had money to fund them all."

So do the members of 10 applicant organizations who attended yesterday's meeting at PUC headquarters in Denver. None was picked for the final round.

"Oh, well, that's the way it goes," said Richard Finkelstein, a professor at the University of Colorado of Boulder who works with a Littleton group named Arts Communications.

The group had applied for a $201,850 grant to create a statewide network between artists, art organizations, educators and the public.

Criteria for selection included technical feasibility of the proposed project, geographical area served and potential for public use.

Applications by governmental agencies fared poorly, with few of the two dozen selected, in part because many have access to other sources of funding, said Smith. However, he said, the finalist list was determined by the merits of project proposals.

The 15 educational finalists are: Colorado Mountain College, Colorado State University, Creede Consolidated School District, Fort Lewis College, Lafayette Elementary School, Mesa County Valley School District, Mesa State College, Northern Colorado Board of Cooperative Educational Services, Northglenn High School, Peck Elementary School, Pikes Peak Community College, Sargent High School and Trinidad State Junior College (two projects) and Whitman Elementary School in Denver.

The seven library finalists are: Arapahoe Library District, Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, Denver Public Library, Eaton Public Library, Pikes Peak Library District (two projects) and Three Rivers Regional Library Service System.

The six medical finalists are: High Plains Rural Health Network, Montezuma County Hospital District, Rocky Mountain Adventist Healthcare, Rocky Mountain Poison Center, St. Mary's Hospital and the Western Rockies Regional Health Information Network Inc.

The other six finalists are: Carbondale Community Access Radio, Colorado Domestic Violence Coalition, Elizabeth Police Department, Five Points Media Center Corp. in Denver, Freemont County Department of Social Services and San Luis Valley Development Resources Group.