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(-i 1-4(¸ !%,- Nh ' r-" !'
K." .?L tr4(.
:/
iiii!i.:
'Here it comes, Charlie Brown!'
UBIQUITOUS LUCY (aka Sunny Gold) rooting Charlie Brown. From left behind Lucy are Schroeder
on, Peanuts' beloved comic strip hero (Keith (Chad Weeth), Snoopy (Ashley MacWilliam), Patty
screws up his batter's-box concentration as (Maria Densley) and Linus (Ian Ileson). The produc-
continue this week for the Shelton High tion boasts a second, entirely separate, cast as well.
production of the musical You're a'Good Man, For the details, see story on Page 9.
" er high school among
sues on Tuesday's ballot
GREEN
in four school districts
County face ballot
during next Tuesday's
election. They include:
School District,
),000 bond issue.
M. Idght School Dis-
000 bond issue.
Canal School District, a
levy.
Mason School District,
levy.
School District is seek-
of a $16.1 million
spread over 20 years
a new high school, add
at the primary
and modernize and add
at the intermediate
school.
OFFICIALS es-
that the bond would add
$1,000 of assessed val-
In new taxes, but the $1.31
toes not reflect the whole
the high school over the
20-year bond. Superin-
Sirokman explained
for The Journal in re-
sponse to our question about
bond opponent John Diehl's con-
tention that the true costs weren't
being reflected in proponents' in-
formation.
Seattle Northwest Securities,
Pioneer's consultant in the mat-
ter, estimated that the bond's
costs could be covered with an ini-
tial tax of $1.31 per $1,000 until
the expiration of Pioneer's cur-
rent bond (used to build a new
primary school). To raise the rest
of the costs, the collection of ap-
proximately 90 cents per $1,000
going to the present bond would
continue instead of being
dropped, making the effective
rate for the high-school bond
about $2.21 at that time.
So the rate would rise in mid-
stream but Pioneer property own-
ers would not sense an increase
in tax bills at that time. These
figures also depend on an expect-
ed modest increase in the as-
sessed valuation of the district.
SIROKMAN ESTIMATED
that the payments on the two
bonds, plus the maintenance-and-
operations levy just approved,
would bring total taxes to be-
tween $3,90 and $4 per $1,000
next year. There has to be some
leeway in the figures because
they are based on estimates of as-
sessed valuation and interest
rates, which fluctuate, Sirokman
said.
The results will be watched
closely by Shelton School District
officials as well as those from
Pioneer. Currently, Pioneer sends
three busloads of students to an
already crowded Shelton High
School. Nearly 400 high-school
students live in the Pioneer dis-
trict and attend either SHS or
North Mason High School.
Some Pioneer students are
catching buses bound for SHS as
early as 6:11 a.m., said Sirokman.
And if Shelton School District de-
cides to build a second high school
before Pioneer has its own,
Pioneer residents would be ob-
liged to pay a portion of Shelton's
20-year bond issue.
IN ANOTHER bond measure
on the special-election ballot,
Mary M. Knight School District is
asking its voters to pass a 20-
traged Parsons skewers
nty over Skok problems
resident read a statement ex- county for this purpose for some-
Valley resident
demanded the res-
of the Mason County
Sioners when he ap-
the board at Tues-
meeting.
by his wife and
Bambi Farms Road
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIlUIIIIIIIIIIIII
the inside
..... 30
..... 26
Calendar ......... 7
, Dining. .... 24
14
30
..... 11
Letters ................. 4
................. 18
......... 23
UIIIIIIIIIIUl
pressing his family's outrage at
the way in which the board has
dealt with flooding in the Skoko.
mish Valley, especially since a
January 14 emergency declara-
tion.
He also demanded the dismis-
sals of Jerry Hauth, director of
public works, Rich Geiger, a
county hydraulics engineer, and
Gary Yando, director of commu-
nity development.
READING FROM a list of
claims included in his state-
ment, Parsons charged, "You
have refused to truly protect peo-
ple in the Skokomish Valley by
refusing to work honestly and
openly with all the agencies
involved."
He continued, "You have al-
lowed illegal and substandard
diking and maintenance there-
of.
"You steadfastly refused to do
a dike reconnaissance and, in
fact, used the money given to the
thing else."
Parsons contended the board
allowed the illegal use of his
name and circumstance to enlist
assistance from a federal agen-
cy and also misused county
emergency services. In addi-
tion, he maintained, "You con-
tinually appoint people who voice
your own interest into positions
on advisory boards, therefore
rendering them biased."
HE ALSO STATED that Com-
missioner Mary Jo Cady used
her position as commissioner, "a
public servant, to unethically
threaten us and I quote, "vVe can
condemn your property and
throw you out.' " Cady was not
present Tuesday evening.
She was present when Parsons
had appeared in commission
chambers during afternoon
briefings January 19 to confront
the board about the potential
flooding and question actions
(Pleue turn to page 2.)
year, $8.4 million bond issue to to
build a new elementary school
and community resource center,
add to and modernize the high
school and build a new auxiliary
gym.
The tax rate for the bond issue
is expected to be $2.75 per $1,000
of assessed valuation, or $220 a
year for an $80,000 property.
Taxpayers are paying $1.68 per
$1,000 for the district's mainte-
nance-and-operations levy, and
the bond would be in addition to
that.
The present elementary school
was built in the early 60s. The
high school was built in the early
80s and has not had any major
upgrades. The district's program
needs have outgrown the facility,
MMK Superintendent Fred Yan-
cey says.
The bond proposal is the result
of a two-year effort of a communi-
ty committee, and the school
board has authorized the election.
"The community clearly sees
the need and uses our facilities a
lot," said Yancey. "On Saturday,
our gym opened at 9 a.m. and
closed shortly after midnight."
The election will be conducted
by mail.
HOOD CANAL School Dis-
trict, which suffered a double-levy
failure last year, returns with a
two-year maintenance-and-opera-
tions levy proposal that would
provide $380,000 in the year 2000
and a like amount in 2001.
The levy rate is estimated at
79 cents per $1,000 of assessed
valuation. That means for a home
with an assessed value of
$150,000, the owner would pay
$118.50 per year for two years.
The levy replaces an earlier
levy and is not added onto that
previous levy, Hood Canal School
Superintendent John Simpson
said.
NORTH MASON School Dis-
trict is proposing a $9.2 million
maintenance-and-operations levy
that would provide $2,300,000
each year from 2000 to 2003.
The levy rate is estimated at
$2.40 per $1,000 of assessed val-
uation.
Under provisions of a new
state law, the district is seeking
the funding on the basis of a four-
year levy. The district says the
levy will enable it to maintain
current educati0na programs and
ensure adequate stidt"levels.
Youth charged in
trapper's murder
By SEAN HANLON
One of two defendants in the
murder of a 70-year-eld trapper
from Olympia was arraigned in
Mason County Superior Court
last week.
James Wayne Anderson, 18, of
2241 East Agate Road, Shelton,
entered a not-guilty plea Thurs-
day to a first-degree murder
charge. Judge James Sawyer or-
dered him held on $500,000 bail.
Anderson is due back in court
for an omnibus hearing February
4 and a pretrial hearing February
24. He is to go to trial during the
jury term that begins March 8,
three days after Anderson's 19th
birthday.
ALSO CHARGED in the case
is his cousin, 14-year-old Nathan
Clay Hughes of 1030 South Tower
in Centralia. Hughes' arraign-
ment awaits disposition of a re-
quest by the state that he be re-
manded to the adult court. A
hearing on this has been sched-
uled for March 4.
Hughes and Anderson were ar-
rested in Port Townsend on Janu-
ary 6 after they were spotted ap-
proaching a 1988 Ford Ranger
registered to the victim, Ronald
Kerr. Kerr's body was found in
the woods behind Anderson's
home January 4.
Prosecutors say Kerr was trap-
ping beavers in a swamp behind
Anderson's-home when the two
youths invited him inside the
house, then beat him to death.
At Anderson's identification,
Mason County Prosecutor Gary
Burleson said they killed the
trapper because they wanted to
steal his truck.
ACCORDING TO court pa-
pers, they then drove the Ford
Ranger to Port Townsend where
they visited a relative, 20-year.
old Michael Cox. Cox and three
teenage girls were arrested on in-
vestigation of rendering criminal
assistance. The girls allegedly
helped the suspects get rid of
clothing bloodied during the beat-
ing of Mr. Kerr.
Prosecutor Gary Burleson said
that sheriff's deputies have taken
statements in which the two sus-
pects admit their roles in the
crime.
Thursday, January 28, 1999
113th Year - Number 4
4 Sections - 36 Pages
5O Cents
Developing SMS fields
will cost pretty penny
By JEFF GREEN
When it comes to completing
development of the athletic field
at Shelton Middle School, the
message boils down to this: If you
want kids to play, you've got to
pay.
Shelton School Board members
Tuesday night were rocked by the
preliminary cost estimates for fin-
ishing a five-acre field at the mid-
dle school. Those estimates
ranged from $105,000 for hydro-
seeding the field to $197,000 for
adding sod. The numbers include
an estimated subtotal of $95,000
for field preparation, which in-
volves adding a layer of sand 12
to 18 inches deep, and reflect the
additional costs of irrigation,
drainage and engineering.
Don Szolomayer, the district's
director of maintenance, said
those figures do not include the
cost of labor. Much of the labor
could be done "in-house" by dis-
trict grounds and maintenance
staff members, he noted, adding
that it would be beneficial to hire
some temporary staff to help with
the work. Szolomayer also wrote,
in a memo to Shelton Schools
Superintendent Bill Hundley,
that staff would need support in
engineering and grading the field,
"but may be able to obtain some
from the city."
ON TUESDAY, Szolomayer
told the board that adding the
sand as a growing medium for the
grass will be the biggest expense.
The preliminary estimate for
sand of the right type and size is
$70,000. Without the proper
growing medium, the grass field
won't last very long, he said.
Board chairman Jim Smith ex-
pressed frustration, saying the
district seems to be unable to
move ahead on any project be-
cause it doesn't have the money.
There is no way the board will go
for a field costing some $200,000,
he said.
"We need to find a way to do
this," Smith said. It's time to find
out how the district can save
money and get on with finishing
the middle school field, he added.
"I was quite disappointed when
I saw this," board member An-
nette McGee said of the cost esti-
mates.
Mike Moore, the district's busi-
ness manager, said South Kitsap
High Sghool added a football field
and used local pit-run soil to save
money. Now the field is a "mud
pit," and water drains to a certain
depth, then stops. Moore said the
answer to that problem is to take
out the local soil and put in the
type of soil that should have been
installed in the first place.
"THIS IS NOT like putting in
your front lawn," Szolomayer told
The Journal. The sand has to be
of the right kind for proper drain-
age. The district has to insure
what gets done is done for the
long-term, he said.
Local resident Don Gardner
suggested the district form an ad
hoc committee of community
members to work with Szolomay-
er to try and reduce costs. Hund-
ley promised he would do some
follow-up work on that idea.
Szolomayer, meanwhile, will
try to learn from the contractor
who built the middle school where
the sand came from that was
used in the adjacent six-acre ath-
letic field developed when the
school was built.
He said there were no records
at the district of what the devel-
oped middle school field cost. The
field and landscaping at the
school were bid as one total proj-
ect without cost breakouts.
Once the undeveloped five-acre
field is graded and seeded, it will
take a whole year for it to "grow"
before it's suitable to be played
on, he wrote. When it's finished,
the five-acre field will mirror the
already developed field next to it.
Szolomayer said it will be a "bare
bones" field, but will be large
enough for a couple of soccer
fields, a football field or baseball
field.
Proposal to move CHOICE
to SHS campus draws fire
A proposal to move CHOICE
High School to the Shelton High
School campus has raised con-
cerns among some parents and
others familiar with the alterna-
tive school.
Now housed inside the aging
Angle Education Center,
CHOICE would be forced to find a
new home under one of several
recommendations for modernizing
Shelton School District facilities
that were proposed earlier this
month by Shelton Schools Super-
intendent Bill Hundley.
But those recommendations
hinge on two things: ultimate ap-
proval by the Shelton School
Board and the successful passage
of a future bond issue, targeted
for February 8, 2000.
Hundley has recommended re-
placing Evergreen Elementary
School and moving the school
across the street into a new build-
ing at the site of the Angle Educa-
tion Center. Operations now
housed inside the education cen-
ter - namely CHOICE, school dis-
trict offices and community offices
such as the Mason County Net-
work and Mason County Literacy
- would be moved elsewhere.
Hundley proposes moving
CHOICE to the SHS campus to
(Please turn to page 12.)
Bomb threat closes MMK
A telephoned bomb threat last
Thursday afternoon caused the
evacuation of students and early
closure at Mary M. Knight School
District in Matlock.
A male caller of undetermined
age using a gruff voice phoned in
the bomb threat at about 1:10
p.m., said Mary M. Knight
Schools Superintendent Fred
Yancey. The caller said there was
a bomb in the school and that it
would go off in 20 minutes, then
hung up, Yancey said.
School officials immediately
evacuated the campus, sending
students to playground shelters.
By 1:45 p.m., school buses arrived
to transport the students home
early.
As the buses were leaving, four
Mason County sheriff's deputies
came to the schools and searched
the buildings and grounds, but
found no bomb, Yancey reported.
"Hats off to the bus drivers,
staff, students and deputies. They
all conducted themselves well,"
the superintendent said. Last
week's bomb threat was the sec-
ond at the Matlock school district
in the past six years.
School was back in session Fri-
day morning. "Everything was
back to normal," Yancey said.
Finding conclusive proof of who
made the bogus threat is difficult,
Yancey admitted, but the school
district will seek to prosecute any
suspects identified by deputies.
The school district has ar-
ranged to have its phone system
refuse to accept calls that block
the identification and number of
where the call is coming from, he
said.
(-i 1-4(¸ !%,- Nh ' r-" !'
K." .?L tr4(.
:/
iiii!i.:
'Here it comes, Charlie Brown!'
UBIQUITOUS LUCY (aka Sunny Gold) rooting Charlie Brown. From left behind Lucy are Schroeder
on, Peanuts' beloved comic strip hero (Keith (Chad Weeth), Snoopy (Ashley MacWilliam), Patty
screws up his batter's-box concentration as (Maria Densley) and Linus (Ian Ileson). The produc-
continue this week for the Shelton High tion boasts a second, entirely separate, cast as well.
production of the musical You're a'Good Man, For the details, see story on Page 9.
" er high school among
sues on Tuesday's ballot
GREEN
in four school districts
County face ballot
during next Tuesday's
election. They include:
School District,
),000 bond issue.
M. Idght School Dis-
000 bond issue.
Canal School District, a
levy.
Mason School District,
levy.
School District is seek-
of a $16.1 million
spread over 20 years
a new high school, add
at the primary
and modernize and add
at the intermediate
school.
OFFICIALS es-
that the bond would add
$1,000 of assessed val-
In new taxes, but the $1.31
toes not reflect the whole
the high school over the
20-year bond. Superin-
Sirokman explained
for The Journal in re-
sponse to our question about
bond opponent John Diehl's con-
tention that the true costs weren't
being reflected in proponents' in-
formation.
Seattle Northwest Securities,
Pioneer's consultant in the mat-
ter, estimated that the bond's
costs could be covered with an ini-
tial tax of $1.31 per $1,000 until
the expiration of Pioneer's cur-
rent bond (used to build a new
primary school). To raise the rest
of the costs, the collection of ap-
proximately 90 cents per $1,000
going to the present bond would
continue instead of being
dropped, making the effective
rate for the high-school bond
about $2.21 at that time.
So the rate would rise in mid-
stream but Pioneer property own-
ers would not sense an increase
in tax bills at that time. These
figures also depend on an expect-
ed modest increase in the as-
sessed valuation of the district.
SIROKMAN ESTIMATED
that the payments on the two
bonds, plus the maintenance-and-
operations levy just approved,
would bring total taxes to be-
tween $3,90 and $4 per $1,000
next year. There has to be some
leeway in the figures because
they are based on estimates of as-
sessed valuation and interest
rates, which fluctuate, Sirokman
said.
The results will be watched
closely by Shelton School District
officials as well as those from
Pioneer. Currently, Pioneer sends
three busloads of students to an
already crowded Shelton High
School. Nearly 400 high-school
students live in the Pioneer dis-
trict and attend either SHS or
North Mason High School.
Some Pioneer students are
catching buses bound for SHS as
early as 6:11 a.m., said Sirokman.
And if Shelton School District de-
cides to build a second high school
before Pioneer has its own,
Pioneer residents would be ob-
liged to pay a portion of Shelton's
20-year bond issue.
IN ANOTHER bond measure
on the special-election ballot,
Mary M. Knight School District is
asking its voters to pass a 20-
traged Parsons skewers
nty over Skok problems
resident read a statement ex- county for this purpose for some-
Valley resident
demanded the res-
of the Mason County
Sioners when he ap-
the board at Tues-
meeting.
by his wife and
Bambi Farms Road
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIlUIIIIIIIIIIIII
the inside
..... 30
..... 26
Calendar ......... 7
, Dining. .... 24
14
30
..... 11
Letters ................. 4
................. 18
......... 23
UIIIIIIIIIIUl
pressing his family's outrage at
the way in which the board has
dealt with flooding in the Skoko.
mish Valley, especially since a
January 14 emergency declara-
tion.
He also demanded the dismis-
sals of Jerry Hauth, director of
public works, Rich Geiger, a
county hydraulics engineer, and
Gary Yando, director of commu-
nity development.
READING FROM a list of
claims included in his state-
ment, Parsons charged, "You
have refused to truly protect peo-
ple in the Skokomish Valley by
refusing to work honestly and
openly with all the agencies
involved."
He continued, "You have al-
lowed illegal and substandard
diking and maintenance there-
of.
"You steadfastly refused to do
a dike reconnaissance and, in
fact, used the money given to the
thing else."
Parsons contended the board
allowed the illegal use of his
name and circumstance to enlist
assistance from a federal agen-
cy and also misused county
emergency services. In addi-
tion, he maintained, "You con-
tinually appoint people who voice
your own interest into positions
on advisory boards, therefore
rendering them biased."
HE ALSO STATED that Com-
missioner Mary Jo Cady used
her position as commissioner, "a
public servant, to unethically
threaten us and I quote, "vVe can
condemn your property and
throw you out.' " Cady was not
present Tuesday evening.
She was present when Parsons
had appeared in commission
chambers during afternoon
briefings January 19 to confront
the board about the potential
flooding and question actions
(Pleue turn to page 2.)
year, $8.4 million bond issue to to
build a new elementary school
and community resource center,
add to and modernize the high
school and build a new auxiliary
gym.
The tax rate for the bond issue
is expected to be $2.75 per $1,000
of assessed valuation, or $220 a
year for an $80,000 property.
Taxpayers are paying $1.68 per
$1,000 for the district's mainte-
nance-and-operations levy, and
the bond would be in addition to
that.
The present elementary school
was built in the early 60s. The
high school was built in the early
80s and has not had any major
upgrades. The district's program
needs have outgrown the facility,
MMK Superintendent Fred Yan-
cey says.
The bond proposal is the result
of a two-year effort of a communi-
ty committee, and the school
board has authorized the election.
"The community clearly sees
the need and uses our facilities a
lot," said Yancey. "On Saturday,
our gym opened at 9 a.m. and
closed shortly after midnight."
The election will be conducted
by mail.
HOOD CANAL School Dis-
trict, which suffered a double-levy
failure last year, returns with a
two-year maintenance-and-opera-
tions levy proposal that would
provide $380,000 in the year 2000
and a like amount in 2001.
The levy rate is estimated at
79 cents per $1,000 of assessed
valuation. That means for a home
with an assessed value of
$150,000, the owner would pay
$118.50 per year for two years.
The levy replaces an earlier
levy and is not added onto that
previous levy, Hood Canal School
Superintendent John Simpson
said.
NORTH MASON School Dis-
trict is proposing a $9.2 million
maintenance-and-operations levy
that would provide $2,300,000
each year from 2000 to 2003.
The levy rate is estimated at
$2.40 per $1,000 of assessed val-
uation.
Under provisions of a new
state law, the district is seeking
the funding on the basis of a four-
year levy. The district says the
levy will enable it to maintain
current educati0na programs and
ensure adequate stidt"levels.
Youth charged in
trapper's murder
By SEAN HANLON
One of two defendants in the
murder of a 70-year-eld trapper
from Olympia was arraigned in
Mason County Superior Court
last week.
James Wayne Anderson, 18, of
2241 East Agate Road, Shelton,
entered a not-guilty plea Thurs-
day to a first-degree murder
charge. Judge James Sawyer or-
dered him held on $500,000 bail.
Anderson is due back in court
for an omnibus hearing February
4 and a pretrial hearing February
24. He is to go to trial during the
jury term that begins March 8,
three days after Anderson's 19th
birthday.
ALSO CHARGED in the case
is his cousin, 14-year-old Nathan
Clay Hughes of 1030 South Tower
in Centralia. Hughes' arraign-
ment awaits disposition of a re-
quest by the state that he be re-
manded to the adult court. A
hearing on this has been sched-
uled for March 4.
Hughes and Anderson were ar-
rested in Port Townsend on Janu-
ary 6 after they were spotted ap-
proaching a 1988 Ford Ranger
registered to the victim, Ronald
Kerr. Kerr's body was found in
the woods behind Anderson's
home January 4.
Prosecutors say Kerr was trap-
ping beavers in a swamp behind
Anderson's-home when the two
youths invited him inside the
house, then beat him to death.
At Anderson's identification,
Mason County Prosecutor Gary
Burleson said they killed the
trapper because they wanted to
steal his truck.
ACCORDING TO court pa-
pers, they then drove the Ford
Ranger to Port Townsend where
they visited a relative, 20-year.
old Michael Cox. Cox and three
teenage girls were arrested on in-
vestigation of rendering criminal
assistance. The girls allegedly
helped the suspects get rid of
clothing bloodied during the beat-
ing of Mr. Kerr.
Prosecutor Gary Burleson said
that sheriff's deputies have taken
statements in which the two sus-
pects admit their roles in the
crime.
Thursday, January 28, 1999
113th Year - Number 4
4 Sections - 36 Pages
5O Cents
Developing SMS fields
will cost pretty penny
By JEFF GREEN
When it comes to completing
development of the athletic field
at Shelton Middle School, the
message boils down to this: If you
want kids to play, you've got to
pay.
Shelton School Board members
Tuesday night were rocked by the
preliminary cost estimates for fin-
ishing a five-acre field at the mid-
dle school. Those estimates
ranged from $105,000 for hydro-
seeding the field to $197,000 for
adding sod. The numbers include
an estimated subtotal of $95,000
for field preparation, which in-
volves adding a layer of sand 12
to 18 inches deep, and reflect the
additional costs of irrigation,
drainage and engineering.
Don Szolomayer, the district's
director of maintenance, said
those figures do not include the
cost of labor. Much of the labor
could be done "in-house" by dis-
trict grounds and maintenance
staff members, he noted, adding
that it would be beneficial to hire
some temporary staff to help with
the work. Szolomayer also wrote,
in a memo to Shelton Schools
Superintendent Bill Hundley,
that staff would need support in
engineering and grading the field,
"but may be able to obtain some
from the city."
ON TUESDAY, Szolomayer
told the board that adding the
sand as a growing medium for the
grass will be the biggest expense.
The preliminary estimate for
sand of the right type and size is
$70,000. Without the proper
growing medium, the grass field
won't last very long, he said.
Board chairman Jim Smith ex-
pressed frustration, saying the
district seems to be unable to
move ahead on any project be-
cause it doesn't have the money.
There is no way the board will go
for a field costing some $200,000,
he said.
"We need to find a way to do
this," Smith said. It's time to find
out how the district can save
money and get on with finishing
the middle school field, he added.
"I was quite disappointed when
I saw this," board member An-
nette McGee said of the cost esti-
mates.
Mike Moore, the district's busi-
ness manager, said South Kitsap
High Sghool added a football field
and used local pit-run soil to save
money. Now the field is a "mud
pit," and water drains to a certain
depth, then stops. Moore said the
answer to that problem is to take
out the local soil and put in the
type of soil that should have been
installed in the first place.
"THIS IS NOT like putting in
your front lawn," Szolomayer told
The Journal. The sand has to be
of the right kind for proper drain-
age. The district has to insure
what gets done is done for the
long-term, he said.
Local resident Don Gardner
suggested the district form an ad
hoc committee of community
members to work with Szolomay-
er to try and reduce costs. Hund-
ley promised he would do some
follow-up work on that idea.
Szolomayer, meanwhile, will
try to learn from the contractor
who built the middle school where
the sand came from that was
used in the adjacent six-acre ath-
letic field developed when the
school was built.
He said there were no records
at the district of what the devel-
oped middle school field cost. The
field and landscaping at the
school were bid as one total proj-
ect without cost breakouts.
Once the undeveloped five-acre
field is graded and seeded, it will
take a whole year for it to "grow"
before it's suitable to be played
on, he wrote. When it's finished,
the five-acre field will mirror the
already developed field next to it.
Szolomayer said it will be a "bare
bones" field, but will be large
enough for a couple of soccer
fields, a football field or baseball
field.
Proposal to move CHOICE
to SHS campus draws fire
A proposal to move CHOICE
High School to the Shelton High
School campus has raised con-
cerns among some parents and
others familiar with the alterna-
tive school.
Now housed inside the aging
Angle Education Center,
CHOICE would be forced to find a
new home under one of several
recommendations for modernizing
Shelton School District facilities
that were proposed earlier this
month by Shelton Schools Super-
intendent Bill Hundley.
But those recommendations
hinge on two things: ultimate ap-
proval by the Shelton School
Board and the successful passage
of a future bond issue, targeted
for February 8, 2000.
Hundley has recommended re-
placing Evergreen Elementary
School and moving the school
across the street into a new build-
ing at the site of the Angle Educa-
tion Center. Operations now
housed inside the education cen-
ter - namely CHOICE, school dis-
trict offices and community offices
such as the Mason County Net-
work and Mason County Literacy
- would be moved elsewhere.
Hundley proposes moving
CHOICE to the SHS campus to
(Please turn to page 12.)
Bomb threat closes MMK
A telephoned bomb threat last
Thursday afternoon caused the
evacuation of students and early
closure at Mary M. Knight School
District in Matlock.
A male caller of undetermined
age using a gruff voice phoned in
the bomb threat at about 1:10
p.m., said Mary M. Knight
Schools Superintendent Fred
Yancey. The caller said there was
a bomb in the school and that it
would go off in 20 minutes, then
hung up, Yancey said.
School officials immediately
evacuated the campus, sending
students to playground shelters.
By 1:45 p.m., school buses arrived
to transport the students home
early.
As the buses were leaving, four
Mason County sheriff's deputies
came to the schools and searched
the buildings and grounds, but
found no bomb, Yancey reported.
"Hats off to the bus drivers,
staff, students and deputies. They
all conducted themselves well,"
the superintendent said. Last
week's bomb threat was the sec-
ond at the Matlock school district
in the past six years.
School was back in session Fri-
day morning. "Everything was
back to normal," Yancey said.
Finding conclusive proof of who
made the bogus threat is difficult,
Yancey admitted, but the school
district will seek to prosecute any
suspects identified by deputies.
The school district has ar-
ranged to have its phone system
refuse to accept calls that block
the identification and number of
where the call is coming from, he
said.