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County opts not to partner with BWD
By ARLA SHEPHARD
In an unusual move last
week, the Mason County Board
of Commissioners chose not to
get into business with the Bel-
fair Water District over a grant
proposal -- a move that could
end up costing hundreds for
North Mason residents.
At a public hearing last Tues-
day, the county commission-
ers heard presentations from
Mason County Public Utilities
and the Belfair Water District,
which were both pursuing sepa-
rate $750,000 community block
grants from the federal govern-
ment.
While the commission-
ers gave the go ahead for the
county to apply for a grant that
would help Belfair residents
pay for side sewer connections,
the commissioners decided that
helping the water district pay
for its waterline replacement
project would be risky.
"I just have some grave con-
cerns that the project would
run into federal hurdles," said
Commissioner Tim Sheldon, af-
ter the hearing. "There are al-
legations of how [Belfair Water]
meetings have been run."
Sheldon cited controversies
like the water district's failure
to annex in the Clifton Ridge
neighborhood that receives wa-
ter service, but is unable to vote
in elections, and the discord
between the utility districtand
lVrason County Fire District 2,
"Ws not that I'm
not willing to
work with the
water district in
the future, even
for this project,
but it would
have to be with a
different sense of
which intensified last summer
when the water district locked
50 of its water hydrants in Bel-
fair.
The commissioners also
brought up concerns over how
the district handled a pipe fail-
ure last month, when a storm
flooded a ditch near the inter-
tie behind McDonald's, expos-
ing 400 feet of pipe.
Some citizens at the public
hearing, and the county com-
missioners themselves, felt
that the water district did not
alert the fire district promptly
that they were turning off the
water to fix the problem.
"I want to work well with
the water district, but working
well is a two-way street," said
Commissioner Lynda Ring Er-
ickson. "It's about establishing
a consistent and professional
relationship ... I have some
concerns that if the fire district
were unable to fight a fire be-
cause of a lack of water [and]
we had flow through of money
between the county and water
district, that we could, at some
point, be liable."
The unanimous vote not to
pursue the grant application,
which is due January 20, with
Belfair Water was atypical,
said engineer Pat McCullough,
Who works as a consultant for
both the county and the water
district and had prepared the
water district's presentation to
the commissioners.
McCullough has been work-
ing with the water district to
find funding to move the dis-
trict's waterline under State
Route 3, which is necessary
because the Washington State
Department of Transportation
(WSDOT) plans to widen the
highway in the coming years.
"I was surprised," said Mc-
Cullough, of the commission-
ers' decision. "I think that's the
first time in my career I've ever
seen that happen, which is 47
years."
McCullough feels that the
commissioners' points were
valid, but "whether they were
relevant is a matter of opinion,"
he said.
Community block grants
have a 33 percent chance of be-
ing funded, and to deny that
chance will mean the water dis-
trict has to scramble harder to
See BWD on page A-7
Water district served lawsuits, commissioner
receives 'vote of no confidence'
By ARLA SHEPHARD
Even before Tuesday afternoon's
regular meeting of the Belfair Water
District had begun, the ground had
already been laid for more turmoil
within the district and between the
district and its ratepayers.
Last Friday, all five employees of
the Belfair Water District voted in
support of a symbolic "vote of no con-
fidence" in Commissioner Mike Pope,
according to water district Manager
Dave Tipton.
Tipton, who has threatened Pope
with lawsuits in the past, placed the
ballots in a sealed envelope and "in a
safe place," he said.
At Tuesday's meeting, Pope asked
to face the employees and hear their
reasoning behind the vote.
"On what grounds and on what
issues did they take a no confidence
vote?" he asked. "It should hasten my
decision to resign or continue as com-
missioner ... I would like to face my
accusers."
Commission Chair John Phillips
said that the employees did not want
to be intimidated or bullied by Pope,
but Pope said he believed that the
vote originated from Tipton and no
one else.
Pope brought up an e-mail that he
had received from Tipton on Decem-
ber 15 that had been sent from the
manager's e-mail address to Phillips
and Pope during business hours.
In reference to Pope and Pope's
wife Bonnie, Tipton wrote: "I am truly
sorry about the baboonish behavior
by the loud mouthed moron and his
equally stupid wife, but at least it is
only once a month."
Pope called the comment "totally
inappropriate."
"So, I take that vote of no confi-
dence with a grain of salt," he said.
Also at the start of the meeting,
ratepayer Ken VanBuskirk served the
water district with a lawsuit alleging
violations of the Public Records Act.
The suit, filed by Bonnie Pope and
Gregory Waggett, details the water
district's failure to respond to a num-
ber of public records requests over
the last two years, including requests
made in 2009 regarding the district's
insurance policies and requests made
in 2010 asking for copies of the dis-
trict manager's current contract.
"[Belfair Water District] has denied
Waggett access to records in their en-
tirety and has violated the [Public Re-
cords Act] as a result," the plaintiffs'
attorneys state in the 15-page com-
plaint filed in Mason County Superior
Court on January 18.
The water district did not claim an
exemption or otherwise justify why it
withheld those records, the claim al-
leges.
The commissioners and Tipton did
not address the lawsuit during the
See Vote on page A-7
Port of Allyn looks to balan00 :e, commissioner districts
Discussion over communication turns heated
By ARLA SHEPHARD
At a special meeting of the Port
of Allyn last Friday, the commis-
sioners convened to discuss bound-
ary lines between the three districts
and also turned their attention to-
ward communication between the
commissioners and the Port Execu-
tive Director, Bonnie Knight.
In the first discussion, the com-
missioners sought to balance the
number of registered voters in each
of the commissioner's districts,
which right now varies between
2,761 in Commissioner Jean Farm-
er's Port District 2, and 1,903 in
Commissioner Randy Neatherlin's
District 3.
%Ve want to endeavor to make
them equal, so it can be more bal-
anced for voting," Neatherlin said.
District 2 includes election dis-
tricts Allyn, Lakeland, Victor and
Belfair 5, which is a chunk of Bel-
fair south of the intersection of
State Route 3 and 303, and District
3 includes Belfair 1 and 2, consist-
ing of parts of the north and south
shores of Hood Canal.
In the proposed district changes,
which will not be finalized until the
most current census figures come
out this spring, Neatherlin would
gain election districts Belfair 5 and
6, from Farmer and Commissioner
Judy Scott, respectively, and lose
Belfair 2 to Scott.
The change would give each com-
missioner approximately 2,300 vot-
ers.
Since Farmer is up for election
this November, and one of her elec-
tion districts may go to Neatherlin,
the Port wants to avoid the appear-
ance of gerrymandering (changing
her district so that someone could
not run against her), by announcing
the boundaries sooner than later.
In the latter discussion, the com-
missioners aired grievances with
one another that had come about
after the Port authorized digging
along its waterline off Wade Street
last Tuesday, to install water qual-
ity testing devices.
Farmer expressed frustration
that she had not been aware that
the digging would occur on that
day, stressing the importance of
keeping informed of issues in that
area, which had been a center of
controversy after the Port suspected
its waterline had been accidentally
connected to property owner Jeff
Carey's water system.
Though engineers and further
testing cleared the Port and Carey
of any wrongdoing last year, the
area is a sensitive subject in the
community, Farmer said.
"If it's something within Our
district that's been a hot point, I
would want to know and speak in-
telligently about what's going on,"
she said.
Neatherlin and Scott pointed out
that the had be brought
up at the ,Pz£'alast meethng, the
Monday prior to the digging, and
Knight said that she herself wasn't
aware when exactly the digging
would occur, because it was subject
to weather conditions.
After Farmer found out about
the digging, she sent an e-mail to
Knight, which was then forwarded
to Scott and Neatherlin, wanting to
know more about the issue.
Neatherlin and Scott took issue
with how the e-mail was written,
and Neatherlin felt Farmer super-
ceded her authority.
"I don't think a commissioner by
themselves has the authority to tell
an employee what to do," Neather-
lin said. "We act as a commission...
You didn't ask for information, so
much as demand."
Neatherhn made a case for the
Port to adopt a policy wherein no
commissioner could give a Port em-
ployee a directive, but Farmer ar-
gued that Scott and Neatherlin had
misinterpreted her tone.
"If anything, what you read in
that e-mail wasn't so much demand
as it was a frustration," she said.
"People don't understand a lot of
emotion in an e-mail ... I think it
goes without saying that we act as
one."
Scott and Neatherlin agreed
that Farmer had the right to be in-
formed, but that she had to make
some of the effort to stay informed
and be specific about her requests,
since they would not have thought
that the date of the digging would
be so important.
Scott said she would look into
communication policies and bring
them up at the next regular meet-
ing in February.
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Shelton-Mason County Journal-Thursday, Jan. 20, 2011 - Page A-3
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