January 11, 2007 Shelton Mason County Journal | ![]() |
©
Shelton Mason County Journal. All rights reserved. Upgrade to access Premium Tools
PAGE 11 (11 of 42 available) PREVIOUS NEXT Jumbo Image Save To Scrapbook Set Notifiers PDF JPG
January 11, 2007 |
|
Website © 2025. All content copyrighted. Copyright Information Terms Of Use | Privacy Policy | Request Content Removal | About / FAQ | Get Acrobat Reader ![]() |
Gullible's Travails
One bird's resting place is another bird's can see in a parking lot off Wallace Knee-
landing strip as seagulls see what they land Boulevard.
Hospital boal d votes to downsize district
(Continued from page 1.)
he explained.
Hilburn said cutting the north-
ern extremities from the district
has two advantages: first, it would
allow the hospital district to con-
tinue its pursuit of core values;
second, since records show a large
number of residents in the area
m question receiving health care
from hospitals outside of Mason
County Public Hospital District
1, it would save these people tax
money.
"Under the current system,
they are paying maintenance
and operation taxes for, a hospi-
tal they have not used, Hilburn
explained. "It gives people in the
north an opportunity to form
their own hospital district and to
pay into the system that they're
Using.-
d MEANWHILE, THE hospital
istrict has committed to keeping
its clinic in the north end open,
fully staffed and funded for the
coming year. "It will continue to
evaluate the needs of folks up
t.aere and adjust health-care ser-
Vices as they best can meet those
needs - •
,: Hllburn said.
ile the final decision now
rests in the hands of the cotfiity
°mmissioners, Hilburn said,
taere is some urgency to have
ae resolution's final approval by
March 1 in order for the north-
end residents to be released from
paying 2008 maintenance and
operation taxes. However, they
would still have to pay offthe cur-
rent bond until 2010, though they
would not be obligated to pay for
any future bonds.
"Otherwise they are obligated
to pay' these taxes," he said. "So
the timetable is sort of impor-
tant if we're talking about saving
those citizens these taxes; that's
our agenda."
Despite losing taxpayers in this
process, Hi!burn said the hospital
board does not plan to raise main-
tenance and operation taxes for
the remaining residents.
"We have absolutely no plans at
this time to raise the taxes," he said.
Upon receiving this resolution,
the Mason County Commission-
ers decided to focus on this issue
at their next meeting in Belfair.
This will take place on Tuesday,
January 30.
Though the county commis-
sioners will not take any official
action at the meeting in Belfair,
they have invited public comment
on the proposal. They will conduct
at least one formal public hear-
ing on this matter before taking
a vote.
Reece's injured
in pickup crash
A 47-year-old Shelton woman
.aceSeriously injured in a one-ve-
crash last Thursday evening
aState Route 108 just over the
ason County line. inned in-
Eileen M. Reece waS2u p truck
side the 2006 Toyota p"
and had to be extricated by aid
personnel, according to the Wash-
mgton State Patrol.
She was traveling east on State
Route 108 and was about two
miles east of McCleary when she
lost control of the vehicle which
left the road to the right, rolled
and struck a tree. Reece sustained
multiple injuries and was trans-
Ported to Providence Saint Peter
Hospital in Olympia where she
Was listed in serious condition on
TUesday afternoon.
The collision memo indicates
the cause of the crash, reported at
7:16 P.m. on January 4, was speed
coo Iast for conditions.
County appoints
people to panels
on Th e Mason County Commission
. • uesday appointed the follow-
ltg " people to the 2007 Transpor-
tlon i m p. r o ve m;rnot a pr or:rmr
Citizen Adwsory F eth ' el Wil
artin, Norm Eve1
! Gale McGrath, Steve Van
Daniel Michener, Drew
Jack Nicklaus and Joe
Commissioners also
appointed Dennis Rohn to a va-
cant position on the Mason County
Civil Service Commission.
North weighs in
on hospital split
By LIZ CASE
Citizens attending Monday
night's hearing on amputating
North Mason from the county's
hospital district gave cautious
support to the proposal but were
concerned with the speed at which
it is progressing.
Officials of Mason County Public
Hospital District i are considering
a change of the district boundary
lines with a goal of better aligning
their services and facilities with
residents' needs, a change which
would remove a large portion of
the North Mason area from the
district.
Specifically, the new boundary
line would remove the communi-
ties in Belfair proper, Tahuya and
Dewatto.
In a public hearing held Mon-
day evening at the Port of Allyn
building, about 50 members of the
community turned out to hear the
hospital district commissioners,
their legal counsel and Hospital
District Superintendent Bob Ap-
pel present an overview of the pro-
posal for public comment.
Comment was being solicited,
Appel noted, only in an advisory
capacity, with no debate on the is-
sue or questions posed to the com-
missioners. Based on the public
response, the commissioners could
opt to draft a resolution on bound-
ary changes for submission to the
county commissioners.
Approval of the county prior to
March would complete the bound-
ary changes, and property owners
in the area cut off from the hospi-
tal district would not be charged
for hospital district maintenance-
and-operation taxes in 2008.
According to Appel, the mo-
tivation for a recommendation
of a boundary-line adjustment
stemmed from studies made dur-
ing the district's year-long stra-
tegic planning process, studies
which showed that the majority
of north-end residents seek their
medical care in Kitsap County.
Appel noted that a line ad-
justment would in no way affect
any resident's present ability to
receive care at any facility they
choose, in the county or not, but
would "bring better alignment of
our services and facilities with the
health-care needs of those district
residents who depend on our core
services."
After giving an overview of the
history and purpose of hospital
districts, Appel opened the meet-
ing to comment.
Although the presentation met
with cautious support in concept,
it also met with considerable con-
cern about the speed with which
the change was to be accomplished,
the lack of hard data supporting
the proposed boundaries and some
suspicion about possible political
motivations behind the change.
Comment was near-unanimous
that the public wasn't being given
enough hard data and not enough
time to properly consider the im-
plications of the proposed change.
A more detailed account of the
meeting is planned for next week's
issue of The Belfair Herald.
Record for vehicle deaths sc00t
(Continued from page 1.)
Dugan and Sergeant Larry
Conley of the Shelton Detachment
of the WSP provided information
about 2006 fatalities this week.
The recent surge of deaths in Ma-
son County runs counter to other
indicators of the last several years,
with officials reporting that traffic
fatalities in the state and the coun-
try as a whole have been trending
down in recent years. "That's been
a trend we've seen for some time,"
Conley said.
A STUDY by the Washington
Traffic Safety Commission cover-
ing 1993-2005 found that the num-
ber of fatalities statewide peaked
at 643 in 1996 and dropped to
a recent low of 568 in 2001. The
number of people killed in drink-
ing-driver collisions also peaked
in 1996 at 353 and dropped to a
recent low of 243 in 2001. Using
a measuring stick that compares
fatalities to the miles driven by
all motorists in all 50 states, the
National Highway Traffic Safety
Commission ranked Washington
as the fifth best in safety in 2004
and 10th best in 2005.
While the 19 vehicular deaths
reported in Mason County for 2005
are a record in terms of raw num-
bers, the fatality rate was quite a
bit higher back in 1988. The 17 ve-
hicular fatalities recorded in that
year work out to a rate of 4.59 for
every 10,000 people in the county
while the 19 deaths recorded last
year translate into an approxi-
mate rate of 3.63. The lowest rate
in recent years was in 1997, when
seven deaths made for a rate of
1.48 per 10,000.
The majority of fatalities hap-
pen on the open road, and the
Washington State Patrol responds
to most of these. "We investigate
all collisions on state highways
and the interstate system, and in
Mason County we investigate a
large portion of collisions on coun-
ty roads," Conley said.
He credits the general decline
in the rate of vehicular deaths to
increased pressure from law-en-
forcement agencies all across the
state, as well as a public that is
better informed about hazardous
conditions on the road.
"I THINK OUR education sys-
tem has gotten much better," Con-
ley said.
DEATH NOTICE
PHILLIP EDGAR RODERICK, 69,
of Olympia, WA, formerly of Elma, died Saturday,
December 30, 2006 at Harborview Medical Center in
Seattle, WA from injuries received in an automobile
accident. Funeral arrangements are pending through
Whiteside Family Mortuary of Elma.
Paid Death Notice
He points to media reports and
public service announcements ad-
vising people to buckle up and not
drive drunk. "All of that stuff, I
think, helps to educate the public
and make them more aware. A lot
of it is awareness. We know that
people don't go out with the inten-
tion of getting intoxicated and kill-
ing somebody."
Two examples of more pressure
from law enforcement are: the
Night of a Thousand Stars, a joint
effort in which troopers work with
city, county and tribal authorities
through the state to put a thou-
sand officers on the road at the
start of the holiday season; and
Drive Hammered, Get Nailed, a
follow-up program that has patrol
officers on the lookout for people
driving drunk during the party
times that begin with Thanksgiv-
ing and continue through New
Year's Eve.
"We'll put additional patrols
on the road and will do additional
patrols above and beyond what
would normally be out on the road,
and the focus on that is normally
DUIs," Conley said.
DUI IS TROOPER talk for
"driving under the influence," a
phrase that describes motorists
on alcohol or drugs or both. The
"emphasis patrols" like the Night
of a Thousand Stars are launched
with a certain amount of hoopla as
a way of putting people on notice
that the heat is on. "I would say
that the awareness is much bet-
ter and so the educational piece is
there," Conley said. "We probably
reach a lot more people that we
would not have, and so that would
equate to fewer collisions."
If the past is any guide, the
next major effort will be made on
the weekend of Memorial Day.
The Fourth of July and Labor Day
also find officers putting some ex,
tra pressure on problem drivers,
and these days they are assisted
by all those law-abiding motorists
who are going cellular. Emergency
dispatchers are getting more and
more calls from drivers who have
a cell phone when they spot some-
thing amiss.
Driver okay after rolling his car
No serious injuries were re-
ported Wednesday morning af-
ter a one-car rollover accident on
Highway 101 near Potlatch State
Park.
A Honda driven by David
Lowry, 38, was northbound on
Highway 101 around 7:10 a.m.
when he started to move his car
to the right to give an approach-
ing southbound snow plow more
room, said Sergeant Larry Conley
of the Washington State Patrol.
The car slid on the ice, went
into a ditch, went over an em-
bankment and came to rest on its
top on the beach near a creek by
the Skokomish Indian Tribe's En-
etai Hatchery south of the state
park. Lowry, who was alone in
the car, suffered minor injuries,
Conley said.
Eva Faye Samples
Eva Faye Samples, 87, beloved wife of
Gerald Samples (deceased)passed away
on January 4, 2007. She is survived by her
daughter Christie Samples, her son Roger
Samples, three grandsons, Craig Johnston,
Gary Samples, Eric Samples, nephew, Joe
Simpson and three great-grand children.
A memorial service will be held at
Mukilteo Presbyterian Church, 4514 - 84th
Street SW, Mukilteo, WA, on January 13th
at 2:00 p.m.
The family requests in lieu
of flowers that donations be
made to Providence Hospice ,
& Home Care of Snohomish
County- Hospice House Fund,
2731 Wetmore Avenue, Suite
500, Everett, WA 98201.
Paid Obituary,
"Cell phones are a good thing
because, in essence, what it does it
puts a lot more eyes out there. We
can't he everywhere," Conley said.
This is not to say the troopers
want calls from people who are di-
aling 911 while driving, since that
presents something of a hazard in
itself. "The best thing that you can
do is pull to the shoulder of the
road and talk on the phone from
there, n he said.
by Bill & Leslee McComb
SEEING TO THE
DETAILS
All matters, great and small,
are a collection of details. When it
comes to your funeral service and
burial ( or cremation), the funeral
director assumes all responsibility
for seeing to it that the details are
handled precisely in accordance
with your wishes, with the utmost
sensitivity and professionalism.
With this in mind, you may want
to ask about a satisfaction guar-
antee. A.funeral home with an
established reputation possesses
the experience necessary to at-
tend to all your needs. Ask about
personalizing your service with
memory tables, tribute videos,
symbols that honor military ser-
vice, and other ways that contrib-
ute to lasting memory. If a funeral
is one of life's major events, it
should be handled by people you
can trust.
At McCOMB FUNERAL
HOME, no detail is too large or
too small for us to handle. Our
professional staff is dedicated to
serving you with professionalism
and compassion. We have been
successfully serving your commu-
nity for many years, and we have
earned a superior reputation.
Reach us at 426-4803. We will
arrange an initial, confidential
meeting. Let us discuss the nu-
merous options available to com-
memorate the passing of a loved
one. We are conveniently located
at 703 Railroad Avenue.
QUOTE: "The thought of our
past years in me doth breed Per-
petual benediction."
William Wordsworth
Thursday, January 11, 2007 - Shelton-Mason County Journal - Page 11
Gullible's Travails
One bird's resting place is another bird's can see in a parking lot off Wallace Knee-
landing strip as seagulls see what they land Boulevard.
Hospital boal d votes to downsize district
(Continued from page 1.)
he explained.
Hilburn said cutting the north-
ern extremities from the district
has two advantages: first, it would
allow the hospital district to con-
tinue its pursuit of core values;
second, since records show a large
number of residents in the area
m question receiving health care
from hospitals outside of Mason
County Public Hospital District
1, it would save these people tax
money.
"Under the current system,
they are paying maintenance
and operation taxes for, a hospi-
tal they have not used, Hilburn
explained. "It gives people in the
north an opportunity to form
their own hospital district and to
pay into the system that they're
Using.-
d MEANWHILE, THE hospital
istrict has committed to keeping
its clinic in the north end open,
fully staffed and funded for the
coming year. "It will continue to
evaluate the needs of folks up
t.aere and adjust health-care ser-
Vices as they best can meet those
needs - •
,: Hllburn said.
ile the final decision now
rests in the hands of the cotfiity
°mmissioners, Hilburn said,
taere is some urgency to have
ae resolution's final approval by
March 1 in order for the north-
end residents to be released from
paying 2008 maintenance and
operation taxes. However, they
would still have to pay offthe cur-
rent bond until 2010, though they
would not be obligated to pay for
any future bonds.
"Otherwise they are obligated
to pay' these taxes," he said. "So
the timetable is sort of impor-
tant if we're talking about saving
those citizens these taxes; that's
our agenda."
Despite losing taxpayers in this
process, Hi!burn said the hospital
board does not plan to raise main-
tenance and operation taxes for
the remaining residents.
"We have absolutely no plans at
this time to raise the taxes," he said.
Upon receiving this resolution,
the Mason County Commission-
ers decided to focus on this issue
at their next meeting in Belfair.
This will take place on Tuesday,
January 30.
Though the county commis-
sioners will not take any official
action at the meeting in Belfair,
they have invited public comment
on the proposal. They will conduct
at least one formal public hear-
ing on this matter before taking
a vote.
Reece's injured
in pickup crash
A 47-year-old Shelton woman
.aceSeriously injured in a one-ve-
crash last Thursday evening
aState Route 108 just over the
ason County line. inned in-
Eileen M. Reece waS2u p truck
side the 2006 Toyota p"
and had to be extricated by aid
personnel, according to the Wash-
mgton State Patrol.
She was traveling east on State
Route 108 and was about two
miles east of McCleary when she
lost control of the vehicle which
left the road to the right, rolled
and struck a tree. Reece sustained
multiple injuries and was trans-
Ported to Providence Saint Peter
Hospital in Olympia where she
Was listed in serious condition on
TUesday afternoon.
The collision memo indicates
the cause of the crash, reported at
7:16 P.m. on January 4, was speed
coo Iast for conditions.
County appoints
people to panels
on Th e Mason County Commission
. • uesday appointed the follow-
ltg " people to the 2007 Transpor-
tlon i mp. r o ve m;rnot a pr or:rmr
Citizen Adwsory F eth ' el Wil
artin, Norm Eve1
! Gale McGrath, Steve Van
Daniel Michener, Drew
Jack Nicklaus and Joe
Commissioners also
appointed Dennis Rohn to a va-
cant position on the Mason County
Civil Service Commission.
North weighs in
on hospital split
By LIZ CASE
Citizens attending Monday
night's hearing on amputating
North Mason from the county's
hospital district gave cautious
support to the proposal but were
concerned with the speed at which
it is progressing.
Officials of Mason County Public
Hospital District i are considering
a change of the district boundary
lines with a goal of better aligning
their services and facilities with
residents' needs, a change which
would remove a large portion of
the North Mason area from the
district.
Specifically, the new boundary
line would remove the communi-
ties in Belfair proper, Tahuya and
Dewatto.
In a public hearing held Mon-
day evening at the Port of Allyn
building, about 50 members of the
community turned out to hear the
hospital district commissioners,
their legal counsel and Hospital
District Superintendent Bob Ap-
pel present an overview of the pro-
posal for public comment.
Comment was being solicited,
Appel noted, only in an advisory
capacity, with no debate on the is-
sue or questions posed to the com-
missioners. Based on the public
response, the commissioners could
opt to draft a resolution on bound-
ary changes for submission to the
county commissioners.
Approval of the county prior to
March would complete the bound-
ary changes, and property owners
in the area cut off from the hospi-
tal district would not be charged
for hospital district maintenance-
and-operation taxes in 2008.
According to Appel, the mo-
tivation for a recommendation
of a boundary-line adjustment
stemmed from studies made dur-
ing the district's year-long stra-
tegic planning process, studies
which showed that the majority
of north-end residents seek their
medical care in Kitsap County.
Appel noted that a line ad-
justment would in no way affect
any resident's present ability to
receive care at any facility they
choose, in the county or not, but
would "bring better alignment of
our services and facilities with the
health-care needs of those district
residents who depend on our core
services."
After giving an overview of the
history and purpose of hospital
districts, Appel opened the meet-
ing to comment.
Although the presentation met
with cautious support in concept,
it also met with considerable con-
cern about the speed with which
the change was to be accomplished,
the lack of hard data supporting
the proposed boundaries and some
suspicion about possible political
motivations behind the change.
Comment was near-unanimous
that the public wasn't being given
enough hard data and not enough
time to properly consider the im-
plications of the proposed change.
A more detailed account of the
meeting is planned for next week's
issue of The Belfair Herald.
Record for vehicle deaths sc00t
(Continued from page 1.)
Dugan and Sergeant Larry
Conley of the Shelton Detachment
of the WSP provided information
about 2006 fatalities this week.
The recent surge of deaths in Ma-
son County runs counter to other
indicators of the last several years,
with officials reporting that traffic
fatalities in the state and the coun-
try as a whole have been trending
down in recent years. "That's been
a trend we've seen for some time,"
Conley said.
A STUDY by the Washington
Traffic Safety Commission cover-
ing 1993-2005 found that the num-
ber of fatalities statewide peaked
at 643 in 1996 and dropped to
a recent low of 568 in 2001. The
number of people killed in drink-
ing-driver collisions also peaked
in 1996 at 353 and dropped to a
recent low of 243 in 2001. Using
a measuring stick that compares
fatalities to the miles driven by
all motorists in all 50 states, the
National Highway Traffic Safety
Commission ranked Washington
as the fifth best in safety in 2004
and 10th best in 2005.
While the 19 vehicular deaths
reported in Mason County for 2005
are a record in terms of raw num-
bers, the fatality rate was quite a
bit higher back in 1988. The 17 ve-
hicular fatalities recorded in that
year work out to a rate of 4.59 for
every 10,000 people in the county
while the 19 deaths recorded last
year translate into an approxi-
mate rate of 3.63. The lowest rate
in recent years was in 1997, when
seven deaths made for a rate of
1.48 per 10,000.
The majority of fatalities hap-
pen on the open road, and the
Washington State Patrol responds
to most of these. "We investigate
all collisions on state highways
and the interstate system, and in
Mason County we investigate a
large portion of collisions on coun-
ty roads," Conley said.
He credits the general decline
in the rate of vehicular deaths to
increased pressure from law-en-
forcement agencies all across the
state, as well as a public that is
better informed about hazardous
conditions on the road.
"I THINK OUR education sys-
tem has gotten much better," Con-
ley said.
DEATH NOTICE
PHILLIP EDGAR RODERICK, 69,
of Olympia, WA, formerly of Elma, died Saturday,
December 30, 2006 at Harborview Medical Center in
Seattle, WA from injuries received in an automobile
accident. Funeral arrangements are pending through
Whiteside Family Mortuary of Elma.
Paid Death Notice
He points to media reports and
public service announcements ad-
vising people to buckle up and not
drive drunk. "All of that stuff, I
think, helps to educate the public
and make them more aware. A lot
of it is awareness. We know that
people don't go out with the inten-
tion of getting intoxicated and kill-
ing somebody."
Two examples of more pressure
from law enforcement are: the
Night of a Thousand Stars, a joint
effort in which troopers work with
city, county and tribal authorities
through the state to put a thou-
sand officers on the road at the
start of the holiday season; and
Drive Hammered, Get Nailed, a
follow-up program that has patrol
officers on the lookout for people
driving drunk during the party
times that begin with Thanksgiv-
ing and continue through New
Year's Eve.
"We'll put additional patrols
on the road and will do additional
patrols above and beyond what
would normally be out on the road,
and the focus on that is normally
DUIs," Conley said.
DUI IS TROOPER talk for
"driving under the influence," a
phrase that describes motorists
on alcohol or drugs or both. The
"emphasis patrols" like the Night
of a Thousand Stars are launched
with a certain amount of hoopla as
a way of putting people on notice
that the heat is on. "I would say
that the awareness is much bet-
ter and so the educational piece is
there," Conley said. "We probably
reach a lot more people that we
would not have, and so that would
equate to fewer collisions."
If the past is any guide, the
next major effort will be made on
the weekend of Memorial Day.
The Fourth of July and Labor Day
also find officers putting some ex,
tra pressure on problem drivers,
and these days they are assisted
by all those law-abiding motorists
who are going cellular. Emergency
dispatchers are getting more and
more calls from drivers who have
a cell phone when they spot some-
thing amiss.
Driver okay after rolling his car
No serious injuries were re-
ported Wednesday morning af-
ter a one-car rollover accident on
Highway 101 near Potlatch State
Park.
A Honda driven by David
Lowry, 38, was northbound on
Highway 101 around 7:10 a.m.
when he started to move his car
to the right to give an approach-
ing southbound snow plow more
room, said Sergeant Larry Conley
of the Washington State Patrol.
The car slid on the ice, went
into a ditch, went over an em-
bankment and came to rest on its
top on the beach near a creek by
the Skokomish Indian Tribe's En-
etai Hatchery south of the state
park. Lowry, who was alone in
the car, suffered minor injuries,
Conley said.
Eva Faye Samples
Eva Faye Samples, 87, beloved wife of
Gerald Samples (deceased)passed away
on January 4, 2007. She is survived by her
daughter Christie Samples, her son Roger
Samples, three grandsons, Craig Johnston,
Gary Samples, Eric Samples, nephew, Joe
Simpson and three great-grand children.
A memorial service will be held at
Mukilteo Presbyterian Church, 4514 - 84th
Street SW, Mukilteo, WA, on January 13th
at 2:00 p.m.
The family requests in lieu
of flowers that donations be
made to Providence Hospice ,
& Home Care of Snohomish
County- Hospice House Fund,
2731 Wetmore Avenue, Suite
500, Everett, WA 98201.
Paid Obituary,
"Cell phones are a good thing
because, in essence, what it does it
puts a lot more eyes out there. We
can't he everywhere," Conley said.
This is not to say the troopers
want calls from people who are di-
aling 911 while driving, since that
presents something of a hazard in
itself. "The best thing that you can
do is pull to the shoulder of the
road and talk on the phone from
there, n he said.
by Bill & Leslee McComb
SEEING TO THE
DETAILS
All matters, great and small,
are a collection of details. When it
comes to your funeral service and
burial ( or cremation), the funeral
director assumes all responsibility
for seeing to it that the details are
handled precisely in accordance
with your wishes, with the utmost
sensitivity and professionalism.
With this in mind, you may want
to ask about a satisfaction guar-
antee. A.funeral home with an
established reputation possesses
the experience necessary to at-
tend to all your needs. Ask about
personalizing your service with
memory tables, tribute videos,
symbols that honor military ser-
vice, and other ways that contrib-
ute to lasting memory. If a funeral
is one of life's major events, it
should be handled by people you
can trust.
At McCOMB FUNERAL
HOME, no detail is too large or
too small for us to handle. Our
professional staff is dedicated to
serving you with professionalism
and compassion. We have been
successfully serving your commu-
nity for many years, and we have
earned a superior reputation.
Reach us at 426-4803. We will
arrange an initial, confidential
meeting. Let us discuss the nu-
merous options available to com-
memorate the passing of a loved
one. We are conveniently located
at 703 Railroad Avenue.
QUOTE: "The thought of our
past years in me doth breed Per-
petual benediction."
William Wordsworth
Thursday, January 11, 2007 - Shelton-Mason County Journal - Page 11