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Shelton Mason County Journal
Shelton, Washington
January 11, 2007     Shelton Mason County Journal
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January 11, 2007
 
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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