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SHELTON-
MASON COUNTY
Jq:)URNAL
Thursday, January 11, 2007 121st Year -- Number 2 4 Sections -- 40 Pages Published in Shelton, Washington 75 cents
Hospital district ready for split
By REBECCA WELLS
Boundary lines might be
headed south. Bright and early
Tuesday morning, January 9, the
commissioners of' Mason County
Public Hospital District 1 voted
unanimously to withdraw part
of the county's north end from its
territory. This would remove the
communities in Belfair proper,
Tahuya and Dewatto from the
hospital district.
Their vote followed on the heels
of a public hearing they conducted
the night before. As soon as they
finished taking public comment
and voting to approve the pro-
posal during their regular meet-
ing, the hospital commissioners
submitted their new resolution to
the Mason County Commission,
which was also meeting Tuesday
morning.
This issue has been brewing
since the summer, said Commis-
sioner Scott Hilburn of the hos-
pital board. He joined the panel
in July and has been involved in
discussions on the matter since
shortly after that, he said.
"SOME FOLKS may have
thought it was a quick, snap deci-
sion and it's not that way at all.
It's very well researched on our
part," Hilburn said.
The board has also been con-
sidering how general usage of
area hospitals, travel times and
demographics affect future plans,
(Please turn to page 11.)
ii
ke !
hoi
m Shelton, a young fellow shoveling
now. Trevor Petty, age 10, got to work
ednesday morning in front of Olympic
Insurance Agency on Mountain View.
A real snow job
.Here's a sight you don't see very often The snow followed a flurry of power fail-
ures and wind gusts that were an echo
of the windstorm that caused a massive
outage last month. There's more about
this on page 3.
[)eputy prosecutor says Southside
Case deserves exceptional sentence
gust 29, 2006.
Gustafson is accused of making
unauthorized cash withdrawals to-
taling $20,596.50 from an account
at Bank of America. She served as
treasurer for the nonprofit volun-
teer organization from January 1,
2005 to October 10, 2006.
Christina S. Andersen, booster
club president, reportedly discov-
ered the withdrawals when the
new treasurer, Nicole A. Cougher,
called her about a cash withdraw-
al. Andersen said there are no pro-
visions for any officer to make cash
withdrawals from the account.
Deputy Prosecutor Reinhold
Schuetz told The Journal he filed
the 16-count information under
guidelines for exceptional sen-
By MARy DUNCAN
• P he former treasurer of South-
mc School Booster Club has been
ch 'ged with 16 counts of theft
o auegedly stealing more than
00a from the nonprofit volun-
Ieer group during her tenure in of-
t tcq..
Michelle Lee Gustafson, 33, of
5371 SE Arcadia Road, Shelton,
was arraigned on Monday, Janu-
8, in Mason County Superior
urt. She entered not-guilty pleas
to four comets of theft in the first
degree and 12 counts of second-de-
gree theft. The criminal complaint
charges her with making monthly
cash withdrawals from the boost-
er club account beginning May 6,
2005 and continuing through Au-
tences because the alleged thefts
involved a significant amount of
money taken over a prolonged pe-
riod of time and represent a breach
of trust. He said if Gustafson is
convicted of the four first-degree
theft charges the standard sen-
tencing range would be from 43
to 57 months in prison. However,
the prosecutor's office can seek an
exceptional sentence of from 57 to
120 months, Schuetz said, since
each of the 16 counts has been filed
under the exceptional sentencing
guidelines.
Gustafson's future court dates
include an omnibus hearing on
February 26, a pretrial hearing on
March 12 and trial during the jury
term beginning March 27.
Local waters'
pollution hit
Two of the biggest employers
in the local shellfish industry
went public Tuesday with their
concerns about the possibility
that sewage and septage might
contaminate their shellfish beds.
Taylor Shellfish and the
Squaxin Island Tribe brought two
pollution problems to the atten-
tion of the Mason County Board
of Health. One has to do with a
sewage pumping station that
failed during the windstorm of
December 14-15, leaving human
waste to flow through a storm
drain and into North Bay. Official
reports of this took five days to
(Please turn to page 8.)
Bypass price tag
through the roof
By KEVAN MOORE
More than 300 people poured
into Belfair's Mary E. Theler Com-
munity Center on Tuesday to hear
the latest details about the state's
Belfair Bypass project.
What they all quickly realized is
that the project is going to be a very
expensive one.
Officials from the Washington
State Department of Transporta-
tion say that with only two lanes,
the roughly five-mile stretch of road
above and around Belfair could
cost anywhere from $65 million to
$100 million. With construction of
a four-lane bypass, which officials
said isn't likely, at least initially,
the project's price tag moves to any-
where from $90 million to $136 mil-
lion. The state is hoping to acquire
enough land to allow for additional
lanes at a later date.
IN ADDITION, the state out-
lined the projected costs for two
connection roads from downtown
Belfair to the proposed bypass. A
Romance Hill connection would
cost roughly $9 million and a con-
nection to State Route 300 would
cost roughly $34 million. Officials
pointed out that neither of these
connections are ideal, due to the
topography involved, and that both
would probably end up being county
projects utilizing county funds.
Michele Britton, the project's
engineer, explained to the crowds
some of the reasons for the in-
creased costs of the project since
the state, and not the county, is
now in charge. The total right-of-
way increases from 136 feet to 220
feet, critical areas ordinances are
more stringent, wetland buffers
are larger, a higher design speed
is needed and the radius of curves
has to increase, all playing factors
in adding to costs.
Britton also explained that, with
the exception of about three catego-
ries, portions of an environmental
assessment done by Mason Count)"
in 2001 will need to be amended or
replaced entirely. Some sections of
the assessment, such as floodplain
evaluations, will have to be started
from scratch.
BRITTON AND her team dis-
cussed tbur alternative intersec-
tions at each end of the bypass•
These involved the possible use of
roundabouts, T-style intersections
and various reconfigurations of the
existing State Route 3 and State
Route 302, or Victor Cutoff Road.
Officials also said land would
likely be set aside at the north
end of the bypass near Lake Flora
Road for an eventual "diamond
intersection," one which would
utilize some type of overpass and
ramping. The state's goal in all
of this is to make the new bypass
the primary north-south route for
drivers and to alleviate as much
Belfair congestion as possible.
School board seats
Marty Crow
winning election to the Mason
County Commission. Crow will
finish out Gallagher's term,
which run s through November of
this year.
Births .................................... 9
Classifieds ........................... 30
Community Calendar ....... 20
Crossword ........................... 36
Entertainment, Dining ..... 29
lealth Journal ................. 18
Journal of Record ............. 26
Obituaries ........................... 10
OPinions, Letters ................. 4
SPorts ................................... 21
Tides ..................................... 19
Weather ................................ 27
IIIIIIIIlllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll
i111!1!11!1!1!111!1!!1!1!111[100
The City of Shelton is in the
market for a new city attorney
as Annaliese Harksen is stepping
down from her $76,000-a-year job
effective February 2, city commis-
sioners were told this week.
Harksen began working for the
city as special projects manager in
June 2002. She was named city at-
torney effective January 1, 2004.
City Administrator Dave
O'Leary, who announced Hark-
sen's resignation at the city com-
mission's meeting Monday, gave
no reason. Neither did Harksen,
who told the commission it had
been a real honor serving them.
Mayor John Tarrant said he re-
gretted her resignation, adding he
knows there are times when peo-
ple have to move on. He told her
she has been very helpful and very
professional.
O'Leary said'the next step is to
begin the process of selecting a re-
placement. He told the commission
he'll return within two weeks with
more details about that process.
City attorney quitting
rn the ]lTS]dP, Effective next month:
and a man who died when a tree
fell on his vehicle off Shelton-Mat-
lock Road.
"The tree fell on his truck, right
dead center of the cab," said Dep-
uty Duain Dugan of the Mason
County Sheriffs Office.
(Please turn tO page 11.)
i a ,Officers of the
Washington
ta,te Patrol and the Mason Coun
S
ty heriffs Office investigated 19
+lt: (,o tnty last year
t aOtor-vehicle fatalities in Mason
hat s one more than was re-
lak 'P '
corded in 2005 and sets a new
all-time record for Mason County.
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIlIUlIU UlIIIIIIIIIIIIIUlIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIUl
Fifteen died in road and highway
crashes investigated by the WSP
and four more in three incidents
investigated by deputies: an elder-
ly couple who crashed into a tree
off their driveway; a youth who
was killed while motoring in the
wilderness on his off-road vehicle;
appointed to the Shelton School
Board to replace Ross Gallagher.
Crow is a graduate of Shelton
High School and works as direc-
tor of operations in the Engineer-
ing and Water Department for
Peninsula• Light Company. He
has worked for several medium
and large corporations with re-
sponsibilities ranging from fiscal
duties to engineering and opera-
tions.
He earned a bachelor's degree
in business administration from
Saint Martin's University in
1989.
His volunteer work includes
involvement with Kristmastown
Kiwanis, Shelton Drag Strip As-
sociation, OysterFest and Fan-
tasy Forest. He has also served
on the Oakland Bay Junior High
School Washington, D.C., Travel-
ers Committee and the Oakland
Bay Junior High Vice Principal
Selection Committee.
Crow and his wife, Michele,
have also been involved in their
children's schools during the past
several years.
Gallagher resigned from the
school boal last month after
Record road fatahtles in '06 new member Crow
i: Marty Crow this week was
SHELTON-
MASON COUNTY
Jq:)URNAL
Thursday, January 11, 2007 121st Year -- Number 2 4 Sections -- 40 Pages Published in Shelton, Washington 75 cents
Hospital district ready for split
By REBECCA WELLS
Boundary lines might be
headed south. Bright and early
Tuesday morning, January 9, the
commissioners of' Mason County
Public Hospital District 1 voted
unanimously to withdraw part
of the county's north end from its
territory. This would remove the
communities in Belfair proper,
Tahuya and Dewatto from the
hospital district.
Their vote followed on the heels
of a public hearing they conducted
the night before. As soon as they
finished taking public comment
and voting to approve the pro-
posal during their regular meet-
ing, the hospital commissioners
submitted their new resolution to
the Mason County Commission,
which was also meeting Tuesday
morning.
This issue has been brewing
since the summer, said Commis-
sioner Scott Hilburn of the hos-
pital board. He joined the panel
in July and has been involved in
discussions on the matter since
shortly after that, he said.
"SOME FOLKS may have
thought it was a quick, snap deci-
sion and it's not that way at all.
It's very well researched on our
part," Hilburn said.
The board has also been con-
sidering how general usage of
area hospitals, travel times and
demographics affect future plans,
(Please turn to page 11.)
ii
ke !
hoi
m Shelton, a young fellow shoveling
now. Trevor Petty, age 10, got to work
ednesday morning in front of Olympic
Insurance Agency on Mountain View.
A real snow job
.Here's a sight you don't see very often The snow followed a flurry of power fail-
ures and wind gusts that were an echo
of the windstorm that caused a massive
outage last month. There's more about
this on page 3.
[)eputy prosecutor says Southside
Case deserves exceptional sentence
gust 29, 2006.
Gustafson is accused of making
unauthorized cash withdrawals to-
taling $20,596.50 from an account
at Bank of America. She served as
treasurer for the nonprofit volun-
teer organization from January 1,
2005 to October 10, 2006.
Christina S. Andersen, booster
club president, reportedly discov-
ered the withdrawals when the
new treasurer, Nicole A. Cougher,
called her about a cash withdraw-
al. Andersen said there are no pro-
visions for any officer to make cash
withdrawals from the account.
Deputy Prosecutor Reinhold
Schuetz told The Journal he filed
the 16-count information under
guidelines for exceptional sen-
By MARy DUNCAN
• P he former treasurer of South-
mc School Booster Club has been
ch 'ged with 16 counts of theft
o auegedly stealing more than
00a from the nonprofit volun-
I eer group during her tenure in of-
t tcq..
Michelle Lee Gustafson, 33, of
5371 SE Arcadia Road, Shelton,
was arraigned on Monday, Janu-
8, in Mason County Superior
urt. She entered not-guilty pleas
to four comets of theft in the first
degree and 12 counts of second-de-
gree theft. The criminal complaint
charges her with making monthly
cash withdrawals from the boost-
er club account beginning May 6,
2005 and continuing through Au-
tences because the alleged thefts
involved a significant amount of
money taken over a prolonged pe-
riod of time and represent a breach
of trust. He said if Gustafson is
convicted of the four first-degree
theft charges the standard sen-
tencing range would be from 43
to 57 months in prison. However,
the prosecutor's office can seek an
exceptional sentence of from 57 to
120 months, Schuetz said, since
each of the 16 counts has been filed
under the exceptional sentencing
guidelines.
Gustafson's future court dates
include an omnibus hearing on
February 26, a pretrial hearing on
March 12 and trial during the jury
term beginning March 27.
Local waters'
pollution hit
Two of the biggest employers
in the local shellfish industry
went public Tuesday with their
concerns about the possibility
that sewage and septage might
contaminate their shellfish beds.
Taylor Shellfish and the
Squaxin Island Tribe brought two
pollution problems to the atten-
tion of the Mason County Board
of Health. One has to do with a
sewage pumping station that
failed during the windstorm of
December 14-15, leaving human
waste to flow through a storm
drain and into North Bay. Official
reports of this took five days to
(Please turn to page 8.)
Bypass price tag
through the roof
By KEVAN MOORE
More than 300 people poured
into Belfair's Mary E. Theler Com-
munity Center on Tuesday to hear
the latest details about the state's
Belfair Bypass project.
What they all quickly realized is
that the project is going to be a very
expensive one.
Officials from the Washington
State Department of Transporta-
tion say that with only two lanes,
the roughly five-mile stretch of road
above and around Belfair could
cost anywhere from $65 million to
$100 million. With construction of
a four-lane bypass, which officials
said isn't likely, at least initially,
the project's price tag moves to any-
where from $90 million to $136 mil-
lion. The state is hoping to acquire
enough land to allow for additional
lanes at a later date.
IN ADDITION, the state out-
lined the projected costs for two
connection roads from downtown
Belfair to the proposed bypass. A
Romance Hill connection would
cost roughly $9 million and a con-
nection to State Route 300 would
cost roughly $34 million. Officials
pointed out that neither of these
connections are ideal, due to the
topography involved, and that both
would probably end up being county
projects utilizing county funds.
Michele Britton, the project's
engineer, explained to the crowds
some of the reasons for the in-
creased costs of the project since
the state, and not the county, is
now in charge. The total right-of-
way increases from 136 feet to 220
feet, critical areas ordinances are
more stringent, wetland buffers
are larger, a higher design speed
is needed and the radius of curves
has to increase, all playing factors
in adding to costs.
Britton also explained that, with
the exception of about three catego-
ries, portions of an environmental
assessment done by Mason Count)"
in 2001 will need to be amended or
replaced entirely. Some sections of
the assessment, such as floodplain
evaluations, will have to be started
from scratch.
BRITTON AND her team dis-
cussed tbur alternative intersec-
tions at each end of the bypass•
These involved the possible use of
roundabouts, T-style intersections
and various reconfigurations of the
existing State Route 3 and State
Route 302, or Victor Cutoff Road.
Officials also said land would
likely be set aside at the north
end of the bypass near Lake Flora
Road for an eventual "diamond
intersection," one which would
utilize some type of overpass and
ramping. The state's goal in all
of this is to make the new bypass
the primary north-south route for
drivers and to alleviate as much
Belfair congestion as possible.
School board seats
Marty Crow
winning election to the Mason
County Commission. Crow will
finish out Gallagher's term,
which run s through November of
this year.
Births .................................... 9
Classifieds ........................... 30
Community Calendar ....... 20
Crossword ........................... 36
Entertainment, Dining ..... 29
lealth Journal ................. 18
Journal of Record ............. 26
Obituaries ........................... 10
OPinions, Letters ................. 4
SPorts ................................... 21
Tides ..................................... 19
Weather ................................ 27
IIIIIIIIlllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll
i111!1!11!1!1!111!1!!1!1!111[100
The City of Shelton is in the
market for a new city attorney
as Annaliese Harksen is stepping
down from her $76,000-a-year job
effective February 2, city commis-
sioners were told this week.
Harksen began working for the
city as special projects manager in
June 2002. She was named city at-
torney effective January 1, 2004.
City Administrator Dave
O'Leary, who announced Hark-
sen's resignation at the city com-
mission's meeting Monday, gave
no reason. Neither did Harksen,
who told the commission it had
been a real honor serving them.
Mayor John Tarrant said he re-
gretted her resignation, adding he
knows there are times when peo-
ple have to move on. He told her
she has been very helpful and very
professional.
O'Leary said'the next step is to
begin the process of selecting a re-
placement. He told the commission
he'll return within two weeks with
more details about that process.
City attorney quitting
rn the ]lTS]dP, Effective next month:
and a man who died when a tree
fell on his vehicle off Shelton-Mat-
lock Road.
"The tree fell on his truck, right
dead center of the cab," said Dep-
uty Duain Dugan of the Mason
County Sheriffs Office.
(Please turn tO page 11.)
i a ,Officers of the
Washington
ta,te Patrol and the Mason Coun
S
ty heriffs Office investigated 19
+lt: (,o tnty last year
t aOtor-vehicle fatalities in Mason
hat s one more than was re-
lak 'P '
corded in 2005 and sets a new
all-time record for Mason County.
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIlIUlIU UlIIIIIIIIIIIIIUlIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIUl
Fifteen died in road and highway
crashes investigated by the WSP
and four more in three incidents
investigated by deputies: an elder-
ly couple who crashed into a tree
off their driveway; a youth who
was killed while motoring in the
wilderness on his off-road vehicle;
appointed to the Shelton School
Board to replace Ross Gallagher.
Crow is a graduate of Shelton
High School and works as direc-
tor of operations in the Engineer-
ing and Water Department for
Peninsula• Light Company. He
has worked for several medium
and large corporations with re-
sponsibilities ranging from fiscal
duties to engineering and opera-
tions.
He earned a bachelor's degree
in business administration from
Saint Martin's University in
1989.
His volunteer work includes
involvement with Kristmastown
Kiwanis, Shelton Drag Strip As-
sociation, OysterFest and Fan-
tasy Forest. He has also served
on the Oakland Bay Junior High
School Washington, D.C., Travel-
ers Committee and the Oakland
Bay Junior High Vice Principal
Selection Committee.
Crow and his wife, Michele,
have also been involved in their
children's schools during the past
several years.
Gallagher resigned from the
school boal last month after
Record road fatahtles in '06 new member Crow
i: Marty Crow this week was