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Thursday, January 26, 2012
Week 4 -- The Voice of Mason County since 1886-- Published for Mason County and Matt and Carol Lettich of Shelton -- $1
Despite power outages,
no 'inordinate" amount
of damage done
By NATALIE JOHNSON
natalie@masoncoun~y,com
Mason County was subjected to a
brutal showing of winter weather last
week, amounting to numerous power
outages, service calls to fire and police
departments and downed trees.
Snow fell sporadically from Satur-
day, Jan. 14. through the following
Monday, with little-to-no accumula-
tion. Many areas of the county woke
up to an inch or two of snow the morn-
ing of Tuesday, Jan. 15.
However, Wednesday morning
much of the county was covered in up
to one and a half feet of snow leading
to many complications, said Marty
Best. Mason County director of emer-
gency management.
"Right now what we're doing is tak-
ing a lot of phone calls." Best said.
Despite a number of power outages,
Best said Mason County has not seen
an inordinate amount of damage from
the storm.
"We have a lot of trees down and a
lot of power outages," he said. "Noth-
ing major like we've seen in the past."
Best said this may have been the
worst ice storm Mason County has
seen for 15 years.
See Snow on page A-5
A downed
tree blocks
State Route
3 just north
of Deer
Creek on
Wednesday,
Jan. 18.
Courtesy PhOtO
,I
,Va~ ..
Courtesy pno~o
Staff and students from first through third grade gathered in front of Pioneer School recently to thank the community for building their school.
Voters overwhelmingly approved $5.3 million construction bond in February 1992 that was completely paid off in December.
Commissioners approve Public
nse Administrator
Photo courtesy of Cooper Studios
Forrest Cooper won the Citizen of the Year Award at the Shelton Mason
County Chamber of Commerce Annual Award Gala.
Chamber celebrates 9o years at gala
By NATALIE JOHNSON
natalie@masoncounty.com
The Shelton Mason
County Chamber of Com-
merce celebrated 90 years of
existence on Friday during
its most successful Annual
Awards Gala yet.
Despite last week's snow
and ice storms, 176 people
turned out for the event
held at 6 p.m. on Friday,
Jan, 20, at Little Creek Ca-
sino. This bested last year's
record of 104 people, cham-
ber Executive Director Hei-
di McCutcheon said.
"I think it went really
well," she said. "We were a
81111!!!1J!11!!1!!1!11112
little bit worried about the
weather."
More than a foot of snow
fell throughout much of Ma-
son County last Wednesday
and freezing rain, falling
trees and power outages
persisted through the week-
end.
However, five people who
planned on attending the
gala stayed home, McCutch-
eon said.
"It worked out in our fa-
vor," she said. "Everyone
had cabin fever and wanted
to get out ... and the casino
had power."
The record event speaks
well about the future of the
chamber, McCutcheon said.
"It's both a fun event and
we're moving the chamber
forward" she said.
The chamber handed out
three awards during the
annual gala. Those awards
were for business of the
year, citizen of the year and
volunteer of the year.
Nominees for business of
the year included the Alder-
brook Golf and Yacht Club,
Awnarol] Painting, Bakala
State Farm Insurance, Coo-
per Studios. Newman Chi-
ropractic Center, Shelton
Chiropractic Center, Shel-
ton Life and Windermere
Real Estate.
Shelton Life, a weekly
publication of the Kitsap
Sun, won the business of
the year award.
Nominees for citizen of
the year included Cheryl
Stewart of Our Commu-
nity Credit Union, Dave
O'Connell, former gener-
al manager of the Mason
Transit Authority, Forrest
Cooper of Cooper Studios,
See Chamber on page A-5
By NATALIE JOHNSON
nata/ie@mas°nc°unt y'c°m
The Mason County Board of Com-
missioners voted Tuesday to create a
Public Defense Administrator pota-
tion.
The 2012 Mason County budget in-
cluded a new Indigent Defense office.
The Public Defense Administrator
would head this office.
According to a briefing provided to
the county commlsmon, "The Mason
County Public Defense Administrator
serves as a focal point for the overall
administration and management of
the delivery of public defender servic-
es for the county."
Right now, the Mason County Supe-
rior Court contracts with two defense
attorneys for public defense, with
funds coming from the county's indi-
gent defense fund, the general fund,
and a fund from the Washington State
Department of Public Defense, but the
system is not perfect, said Superior
Court Judge Toni Sheldon.
"No one really supervises it right
now ... It's very uncomfortable for a
judge to have to supervise the defense
attorney and we never really had to do
that unless we saw there was a prob-
lem," she said. "I can't as a judge say
to a defense attorney, 'Did you go out
and investigate this case?' "
In January 2010, the State Su-
preme Court issued a decision in the
case of Washington v. A.N.J. Per that
decision, courts have to do more to en-
sure that court-appointed council does
an adequate job.
Because she has to remain impar-
tial as a judge, Sheldon said it is dif-
ficult to do that without a separate
administrator.
The administration position is de-
signed to manage the indigent defense
office's finances, resources and compli-
ance with state law. and will advise
the county on public defense policy,
litigation and the negotiation of con-
tracts with public defenders.
The new administrator would be
paid on the same scale as the county
prosecutor.
The administrator would also take
on the duties of a public defender as
needed in cases in both District and
Superior Court.
One of the administrator's main
duties, according to the briefing, will
be to ensure compliance with Revised
Code of Washington (RCW) 10.101.
RCW 10.101 states that counties
and cities must have standards to
govern their public defense services.
These standards, the RCW states,
must include things like caseload lim-
its for public defenders, compensation
and duties of council, among many
other requirements.
In essence, the public defense ad-
ministrator will make sure the Indi-
gent Defense Office runs smoothly.
According to the briefing, the ad-
ministrator, "Designs the internal op-
eration and administrative controls
necessary for the orderly disposition of
cases in the public defender system."
The administrator will also review
and screen all of the cases, assign
them and monitor their progress.
The administrator will also be re-
sponsible for investigating complaints
regarding public defense, or the "qual-
ity of service."
Also, the administrator will be re-
quired to serve on the Mason County
Criminal Justice Working Team.
The county is looking for an appli-
cant with a minimum of eight years
of practice as an attorney, with at
least three years of experience in
criminal law, experience in jury tri-
als and a minimum of three yea~rtk
supervisory or senior management
experience.