Notice: Undefined index: HTTP_REFERER in /home/stparch/public_html/headmid_temp_main.php on line 4394
Newspaper Archive of
Shelton Mason County Journal
Shelton, Washington
January 13, 2022     Shelton Mason County Journal
PAGE 8     (8 of 40 available)        PREVIOUS     NEXT      Jumbo Image    Save To Scrapbook    Set Notifiers    PDF    JPG
 
PAGE 8     (8 of 40 available)        PREVIOUS     NEXT      Jumbo Image    Save To Scrapbook    Set Notifiers    PDF    JPG
January 13, 2022
 
Newspaper Archive of Shelton Mason County Journal produced by SmallTownPapers, Inc.
Website © 2025. All content copyrighted. Copyright Information
Terms Of Use | Privacy Policy | Request Content Removal | About / FAQ | Get Acrobat Reader




Page A-8 Shelton-Mason County Journal — Thursday, Jan. 13, , BOUNTY County responds to tribe’s letter on water rights Mason County commissioners ap- proved a letter in response to the Squaxin Island Tribe’s letter about a Memorandum of Agreement on water rights between the county and tribe signed in February 2019. r The Squaxin Island Tribe wrote a letter to the commissioners Dec. 8 ad~ dressing the MOA. The tribe summa- rizes its letter by saying “the county has failed to complete many tasks under the MOA in a timely manner and appears likely to miss upcom- ing deadlines. Please understand that the tribe may need to invoke the MOA’s mediation provision.” The tribe states its hope and goal is to work with the county to avoid judi- ciaI action to enforce the MOA. Mason County’s letter in response states’the MOA only applies to Water Resource Inventory Area 14 and the county says they are committed to looking into projects such as beaver dam analogs, managed aquifer re- charge areas and water right acqui— sitions where it benefits both public and private partners. “Given the restrictions placed upon the county by the governor and secretary of Health and upholding its primary responsibility to the health and safety of its residents during this ongoing COVID crisis, the county has made great progress towards meeting ' the obligations of the MOA,” the let- ter states. “Several elements pulled plank You! for voting Noel Longan Best Mechanic '1 years in a row! &L a zofiflgfifilflflm 426-1467 from the WRIA 14 Draft Plan which address remaining tasks are included as attachments. If the ultimate goal is to improve water quantity and quality, the county believes enough data has been collected during the WRIA process. The county is ready to move forward with our partners and begin work on projects that will make a difference to aquifer recharge.” During the Jan. 10 meeting, Sha- ron Haensly from the Squaxin Island Tribe’s Natural Resources depart- ment provided testimony on the ac- tion item and had it removed for a separate vote. Haensly said the tribe commended the county on completing a number of the tasks in the MOA, .but the tribe respectfully disagrees with the county’s response. “There are a number of partially completed tasks or not completed tasks and we respectfully take issue with the county’s response on many of those,” Haensly said during her testimony. “We’re going to give them a very hard look. It may be that we ‘ agree on some but I can say that on ' a number of them, including some important ones to the tribe, I think there’s a disagreement.” Haensly said the completing of the tasks is important to the tribe for the long-term viability and exercise of its treaty fishing rights. She re- minded the commissioners that the tribe dismissed its lawsuit against the county over the county’s update to its comprehensive plan and devel- opment regulations because it didn’t do enough to protect streamflow and fisheries. In return, the county would live up to the tasks in the MOA. «__umg“32333:e w. um." Oyamy NAPA mm “The next step that’s envisioned under the MOU is to go to media— tion. We jointly choose a mediator and maybe, hopefully, we can try to resolve through mediation, many, if not all of the issues, so that we don’t need to go seek enforcement in court,” Haensly said. “I think what you should expect to see from the tribe is a detailed response on what the disputed issues are so that it makes mediation that much more effective and we can talk about who to choose and how to choose the mediator.” Sewer public hearing moved to Jan. 31 The public hearing for the Belfair Sewer extension has been pushed to A 6 pm. on Jan. 31 over Zoom. The hearing is to present informa- tion on the proposed Belfair Sewer extension and staff will present in- formation describing the proposed project, project funding options and the history of the Belfair sewer/water reclamation facility. The'URL to join the meeting will be posted on masoncountywagov. Questions and comments can be emailed ahead of time to msmith@ma- soncountywagov or it can be called in at 360-427-9670 ext. 230. Shutty selected as board chair Commissioner Kevin Shutty was selected as the Board of County Commissioners chairperson at the Jan. 10 meeting. Commissioner Randy Neatherlin nominated Shutty for the chair posi- tion and he was selected with a unani- mous vote. Shutty nominated commis- ‘ sioner Sharon Trask to be vice chair, , which was unanimously approved. Plastic film recycling pilot plan approved County commissioners approved an agreement with SC Johnson for a pilot program for curbside plastic film recycling. . According to the. information pack-. et, SC Johnson, the city of Shelton ’ and Mason County have agreed to the program. The pilot program is for six months, beginning Feb. 16. Materi- als collected through the program in— clude, but are not limited to, dry plas- tic grocery bags, Ziploc brand food storage bags, dry cleaning bags and other flexible plastic wrap. The City of Shelton is working with its hauler and SC Johnson to purchase, dis- tribute and collect up' to 90 21-gallon containers to collect the recyclables associated with this program. Mason County will purchase stor- age containers at its transfer facility to store the plastic film collected from the curbside and will transport the material up to two times. to the Laut-V enbach facility in Mount Vernon. SC Johnson will reimburse the c0unty up to $2,000 for costs during storage and transportation. I Compiled by reporter Matt Baide Part V WE LOAN TOOLS! WHEN YOU PURCHASE THE PARTS FROM US Some cars require special tools to do the repair. We'll loan those tools for 5 days with a deposit. ' . Check Your Antifreeze, ‘ Battery, Brakes, Belts and Tires! Come to VanderWaI’s and Be Prepared! 321 S. 2nd St, Shelton 0 (360) 426-8208 thc the p/{zcrfm-‘vyozz.’ We‘re BBB A Rated for Wars! Better EU'mne's