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School
measure
results
are mixed
(Continued from pag e 1.)
MARY M. KNIGHT Schools
Sut)crintendcnt Fred Yancey was
downcast by the lopsided failure
(d his district's 20-year, $8.4 mil-
limi bond issue to build a new ele-
mentary school and community
resource (;enter. add to and mod-
ernnze the high school and build a
new auxiliary gym.
"They don't want to pay the
taxes - real simple," he said of
the voters. "And they think it's
very expensive. Of course it's ex-
pensive There's no denying to fix
the school properly is expensive."
The MMK School Board will meet
later this month to determine
what to do next, he said.
"I don't see we can scale back
the plan at all," he added. "I think
what we do is we continue limp-
ing along and fix problems as
they arise."
Yancey admitted he was disap-
pointed by Tuesday's vote. "I
think we had an opportunity to
really build a first-class district
that would solve long-standing
problems," he said. "And now
we?re done nothing to solve any of
the problems. "
Come hard to port, matey
A LOGGING TRUCK splashes through water running through the valley periodically during the day, elec-
over the Skokomish Valley Road late Tuesday morn- tion polls stayed open at the Skokomish Grange
ing. Despite heavy rains and high winds that swept Hall.
Elections officials mull impact, solutions:
i
Mail in ballots affect timely tally
Is the day coming when state
and local elections officials - be-
cause of the growing number of
absentee ballots - won't have
enough ballots to count on elec-
tion day to decide the outcome of
clrly races?
Washington Secretary of State
Ralph Munro thinks so.
Washington State's elections
system is no longer properly
structured to cope with the grow-
ing number of absentee (mail-in)
votes and the demand for speedi-
er tabulation and certification of
election results, according to a
statement tYom Munro's office.
The state has mad(.' absentee
wJting easier in the last few
years, with dramatic results,
Munro notes. Absentee voters ac-
counted ibr 60 percent of the
turnout in the 1998 primary and
47 percent in the general election.
Currently, a third of the state's
3.1 million registered voters are
signed up as permanent absentee
voters.
LAST FALL, THE outcome
of numerous races and issues re-
mained in doubt for days and
even weeks while local election of-
ficials processed and tabulated
hundreds of thousands of mail-in
ballots that arrived after the elec-
tion.
Unlike most other states,
Washington accepts mail-in bal-
lots if they are postmarked on
election day and received up to 15
days after a general election and
10 days after a primary election.
The problem is that more and
more absentee ballots are arriv-
ing after election day, and elec-
tion officials fear the day may be
coming when there are too few
ballots to count on lection night
to decide the outcome of any rac-
es.
The solution, Munro's office
says, is to require that all ballots
be received no later than 8 p.m.
Southside won't go
for an eighth grade
By a 3-2 split vote, Southside
School Board members this week
decided to drop consideration of
adding an eighth grade at the
school.
After a public hearing Monday
night, board members Mike Barn-
ard, Bill Sloane and Mel Kirpes
voted to discard the grade addi-
tion proposal, while John Halver
and Don Robbins voted in favor of
continued discussions,
Southside's current grade con-
figuration is from kindergarten
lent job of educating students and
said they would like to see the
students stay at the school for one
more year. Those opposed to the
change felt the students need the
one-year transition at Shelton
Middle School before attending
Shelton High School and partici-
pating in t£he greater diversity of
programs there.
Hazen, while not taking a posi-
tion on the matter, told the school
board that if an eighth grade
were added, it should be done
needed resources not provided.
It was also pointed out during
the discussion that Shelton was
moving toward a new grade con-
figuration that would include
eighth and ninth graders attend-
ing the same school, Hazen told
The Journal. If that occurs,
Southside's current configuration
would fit much better, the board
members opposed to the change
said.
on election day. But such a re-
quirement cannot be implement-
ed without significant changes to
the state's election timetable.
Mason County Auditor Al
Brotche agrees. "If they want
faster results, they will have to do
something," he said. Legislation
to change the timetable would re-
quire school and fire districts to
submit ballot measures 60 days
in advance of elections rather
that the cttrrent 45 days; Brotche'
added.
Brotche supports proposed leg-
islation (listed below) to make the
changes. Mason County's perma-
nent absentees total some 30 to
35 percent of the approximately
27,500 registered voters in the
county. "We're in excess of 8,000
now," he said. There's normally a
90 percent return rate by those
permanent absentees, which
means that in an election where
60 percent of Mason County's vot-
ers cast ballots, absentees make
up some 44 percent of the total
number of ballots cast.
WHEN THE STATE'S elec-
tions system was designed dec-
ades ago, no one ever thought half
the voters or more would be cast-
ing their ballots by mail. Sched-
uled on the third Tuesday in Sep-
tember, Washington's primary is
one of the latest in the nation.
And the state has an extremely
compressed election schedule that
was never built to deal with huge
I I
volumes of mail-in ballots.
through seventh grade and has
been that way for many years,
There were comments from the
audience on both sides of the is-
sue, Superintendent Harvey tia-
zen said.
Those tbr adding the grade con-
tended Southside does an excel-
right, which would require many
upgrades to the school and would
take facilities, staffing and mate-
rials not currently available.
He added that he was con-
cerned about maintaining a good
climate at the school if all neces-
sary changes were not made and
CAM-BELT REPLACEMENT
Car owners should take the time to familiarize themselves with the
replacement schedule of their cars' camshaft belts (if they have them).
Failure to replace a cam belt within the prescribed time can lead to a
broken cam belt that will cause massive internal engine damage. The
cam belt's job is to maintain a fixed relationship between the position
of the crankshaft and the camshaft (which opens the engine's intake
and exhaust valves). If the cam belt stretches, it can "'uml P" on the cam
sprocket, altering the relationship between the camshaft and the crank-
shaft. This can lead to loss of engine power. Car owners should not
wait to experience this symptom before having the cam belt replaced.
The way to make sure your car lives and long and happy life is to
take care of it along the way. That means that you don't need to keep
up on all the ins and outs of how you car works as long as you take it to
a shop which does. At CARTS TIRE & REPAIR, family-run since 1961,
we are easy to deal with and we work hard to be helpful which makes
the whole process of having your car repaired a lot more pleasant. We
speak English, not "mechanics" so you'll always find us easy to talk to
about what's been done on your car. We're at 202 South First St. (426-
9762).
HINT: Vehicles with cam chains do not need to follow the cam-belt
replacement prescription.
Page 2 - Shelton-Mason County Journal - Thursday, February 4, 1999
.Edw. ard Jones
invites you to attend
a live broadcast on
Financial Stocks Puzzle: Putting
The Pieces Together
Featuring Wells Fargo CEO Dick Kovacevich
Highlights of this program include:
! Picking financial-service stock winners
I How shareholders can benefit when banks consolidate
I Live question/answer session with the CEO of one
of the 10 largest U.S. bank-holding companies
Date: Wednesday, February I 0, 1999
Time: 3 p.m.
Place: 821 West Railroad Avenue
The broadcast is free, but seating is limited.
Call or stop by today for reservations.
Armin Baumgartel
Investment Representative
821 West Railroad Avenue, Suite A,
Shelt0n
426-0982 • 1-800-441-0982
www.edward jones.eom
Member
Edward Jones.
Servi Individual hveors Since s87
II III I
TaxAide ready
to lend a hand
TaxAide volunteers completed training last week
will be ready next week to assist folks who need help
preparing their 1998 income-tax returns.
"We will begin operations the week of February 8,"
John Davis, one of the trainers in the program.
particularly designed for senior citizens and
families, but information is available to other taxpayers as
well.
TaxAide volunteer sites and hours in Mason County
the coming tax season, Davis says, include the following:
* William G. Reed Library, Seventh and Alder
Shelton: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 6 to 9 p.m. Tuesdays,
10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays.
* Olympic College Shelton campus, North 13th
and Alpine Way: 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays. Electronic
ing is available from OCS as is regular return
Davis notes.
e Mason County Senior Activities Center, Ninth
Railroad, Shelton: 8:15 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Wednesdays
appointment only.
* Timberland North Mason Library, Highway 3,
1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Thursdays.
• Hoodsport Timberland Library, Schoolhouse
Hoodsport, 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Thursdays.
Tax-Aide is a program of the U.S. Internal Revenue
vice and the American Association of Retired Persons.
The problem is further compli-
cated by federal law, which re-
quires that all states allow suffi-
cient "transit time" for the mail-
ing and return of absentee ballots
used by out-of-state and overseas
voters, particularly those in the
military. States that have failed
to provide sufficient transit time
have been sued consistently and
successfully by the U.S. Depart-
ment of Defehse.
During the current legislative
session, Munro will request legis-
lation to provide for timely pro-
cessing, tabulation and certifica-
tion of elections results. That will
include the following:
• Moving back the candidate
filing period and the primary by
at least three to four weeks.
• Requiring that all absentee
and mail-in ballots be received by
the county election department
no later than 8 p.m. (when polls
close) on election day.
• Requiring that all permanent
absentee ballots received up to
the day of the election and other
absentee ballots issued prior to
the printing of the poll books be
counted with the votes from the
polls on election night.
• Requiring all other absentee
ballots be counted no later than
three days after the primary or
general election (the Friday fol-
lowing the election).
'55 Alive'
class set to start
American Association of Re-
tired Persons will offer "55 Alive,"
its class for senior drivers, on
Monday and Tuesday, February
22 and 23, in the Ellinor Room of
Mason General Hospital.
Donald Payne will be instruc-
tor for the course.
The class, he said, will help
seniors deal with age-related
changes which affect driving
skills. Participants will also ex-
plore defensive-driving tech-
niques and receive information on
recent changes in traffic laws.
The eight-hour course runs
from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. both days,
and attendance is required at
both days to receive a certificate
person, and preregistration
quired. There are 12 op
available in the class,
emphasized, so it's
serve a place. The phone
for preregistering is
General information about
class is available from
426-0590.
PUD 3 not
meeting on'
February
The Mason Count'
of completion. The class is avail- Commission has ca
able to drivers aged 50 and older:' ular meeting scheduled for'
Membership in AARP is not re-
quired, Payne noted.
"Those completing the course
may be eligible for a reduction in
their insurance premiums," he
commented.
Tuition for the class is $8 per
day, February 9.
The next regular
the commission will be held
a.m. Tuesday, February 16,
commission room in the
headquarters at Third and
streets in Shelton.
Chevron C.C. Cole & Sons,
D.B.A.
24 HOUR
DIESEL
FUELING
STATION
From &
Grove
streets
Evergreen Fuel
Full Line Petroleum
• Tanks • Lubricants
• Furnaces & Equipment
661 East Pine
Shelton
Serving Mason County 426-44 I
since 1935 4;
Your community needs your
HELP
The City of Shelton is forming an advisory board
to asssist officials on land use planning issues.
Citizen involvement in government
is the cornerstone of a strong
Community
The Planning Advisory Board (PAB) will advise the City Commission
on all decisions that effect the ways in which our community will
GROW
The PAB will be a balanced group with membership drawn from nm
business districts, and key civic organizations.
For more information call Paul Rogerson, Planning Director at 426-9731
• Apply by February 15TH.
"Building A Stronger Community TOGETHER"
School
measure
results
are mixed
(Continued from pag e 1.)
MARY M. KNIGHT Schools
Sut)crintendcnt Fred Yancey was
downcast by the lopsided failure
(d his district's 20-year, $8.4 mil-
limi bond issue to build a new ele-
mentary school and community
resource (;enter. add to and mod-
ernnze the high school and build a
new auxiliary gym.
"They don't want to pay the
taxes - real simple," he said of
the voters. "And they think it's
very expensive. Of course it's ex-
pensive There's no denying to fix
the school properly is expensive."
The MMK School Board will meet
later this month to determine
what to do next, he said.
"I don't see we can scale back
the plan at all," he added. "I think
what we do is we continue limp-
ing along and fix problems as
they arise."
Yancey admitted he was disap-
pointed by Tuesday's vote. "I
think we had an opportunity to
really build a first-class district
that would solve long-standing
problems," he said. "And now
we?re done nothing to solve any of
the problems. "
Come hard to port, matey
A LOGGING TRUCK splashes through water running through the valley periodically during the day, elec-
over the Skokomish Valley Road late Tuesday morn- tion polls stayed open at the Skokomish Grange
ing. Despite heavy rains and high winds that swept Hall.
Elections officials mull impact, solutions:
i
Mail in ballots affect timely tally
Is the day coming when state
and local elections officials - be-
cause of the growing number of
absentee ballots - won't have
enough ballots to count on elec-
tion day to decide the outcome of
clrly races?
Washington Secretary of State
Ralph Munro thinks so.
Washington State's elections
system is no longer properly
structured to cope with the grow-
ing number of absentee (mail-in)
votes and the demand for speedi-
er tabulation and certification of
election results, according to a
statement tYom Munro's office.
The state has mad(.' absentee
wJting easier in the last few
years, with dramatic results,
Munro notes. Absentee voters ac-
counted ibr 60 percent of the
turnout in the 1998 primary and
47 percent in the general election.
Currently, a third of the state's
3.1 million registered voters are
signed up as permanent absentee
voters.
LAST FALL, THE outcome
of numerous races and issues re-
mained in doubt for days and
even weeks while local election of-
ficials processed and tabulated
hundreds of thousands of mail-in
ballots that arrived after the elec-
tion.
Unlike most other states,
Washington accepts mail-in bal-
lots if they are postmarked on
election day and received up to 15
days after a general election and
10 days after a primary election.
The problem is that more and
more absentee ballots are arriv-
ing after election day, and elec-
tion officials fear the day may be
coming when there are too few
ballots to count on lection night
to decide the outcome of any rac-
es.
The solution, Munro's office
says, is to require that all ballots
be received no later than 8 p.m.
Southside won't go
for an eighth grade
By a 3-2 split vote, Southside
School Board members this week
decided to drop consideration of
adding an eighth grade at the
school.
After a public hearing Monday
night, board members Mike Barn-
ard, Bill Sloane and Mel Kirpes
voted to discard the grade addi-
tion proposal, while John Halver
and Don Robbins voted in favor of
continued discussions,
Southside's current grade con-
figuration is from kindergarten
lent job of educating students and
said they would like to see the
students stay at the school for one
more year. Those opposed to the
change felt the students need the
one-year transition at Shelton
Middle School before attending
Shelton High School and partici-
pating in t£he greater diversity of
programs there.
Hazen, while not taking a posi-
tion on the matter, told the school
board that if an eighth grade
were added, it should be done
needed resources not provided.
It was also pointed out during
the discussion that Shelton was
moving toward a new grade con-
figuration that would include
eighth and ninth graders attend-
ing the same school, Hazen told
The Journal. If that occurs,
Southside's current configuration
would fit much better, the board
members opposed to the change
said.
on election day. But such a re-
quirement cannot be implement-
ed without significant changes to
the state's election timetable.
Mason County Auditor Al
Brotche agrees. "If they want
faster results, they will have to do
something," he said. Legislation
to change the timetable would re-
quire school and fire districts to
submit ballot measures 60 days
in advance of elections rather
that the cttrrent 45 days; Brotche'
added.
Brotche supports proposed leg-
islation (listed below) to make the
changes. Mason County's perma-
nent absentees total some 30 to
35 percent of the approximately
27,500 registered voters in the
county. "We're in excess of 8,000
now," he said. There's normally a
90 percent return rate by those
permanent absentees, which
means that in an election where
60 percent of Mason County's vot-
ers cast ballots, absentees make
up some 44 percent of the total
number of ballots cast.
WHEN THE STATE'S elec-
tions system was designed dec-
ades ago, no one ever thought half
the voters or more would be cast-
ing their ballots by mail. Sched-
uled on the third Tuesday in Sep-
tember, Washington's primary is
one of the latest in the nation.
And the state has an extremely
compressed election schedule that
was never built to deal with huge
I I
volumes of mail-in ballots.
through seventh grade and has
been that way for many years,
There were comments from the
audience on both sides of the is-
sue, Superintendent Harvey tia-
zen said.
Those tbr adding the grade con-
tended Southside does an excel-
right, which would require many
upgrades to the school and would
take facilities, staffing and mate-
rials not currently available.
He added that he was con-
cerned about maintaining a good
climate at the school if all neces-
sary changes were not made and
CAM-BELT REPLACEMENT
Car owners should take the time to familiarize themselves with the
replacement schedule of their cars' camshaft belts (if they have them).
Failure to replace a cam belt within the prescribed time can lead to a
broken cam belt that will cause massive internal engine damage. The
cam belt's job is to maintain a fixed relationship between the position
of the crankshaft and the camshaft (which opens the engine's intake
and exhaust valves). If the cam belt stretches, it can "'uml P" on the cam
sprocket, altering the relationship between the camshaft and the crank-
shaft. This can lead to loss of engine power. Car owners should not
wait to experience this symptom before having the cam belt replaced.
The way to make sure your car lives and long and happy life is to
take care of it along the way. That means that you don't need to keep
up on all the ins and outs of how you car works as long as you take it to
a shop which does. At CARTS TIRE & REPAIR, family-run since 1961,
we are easy to deal with and we work hard to be helpful which makes
the whole process of having your car repaired a lot more pleasant. We
speak English, not "mechanics" so you'll always find us easy to talk to
about what's been done on your car. We're at 202 South First St. (426-
9762).
HINT: Vehicles with cam chains do not need to follow the cam-belt
replacement prescription.
Page 2 - Shelton-Mason County Journal - Thursday, February 4, 1999
.Edw. ard Jones
invites you to attend
a live broadcast on
Financial Stocks Puzzle: Putting
The Pieces Together
Featuring Wells Fargo CEO Dick Kovacevich
Highlights of this program include:
! Picking financial-service stock winners
I How shareholders can benefit when banks consolidate
I Live question/answer session with the CEO of one
of the 10 largest U.S. bank-holding companies
Date: Wednesday, February I 0, 1999
Time: 3 p.m.
Place: 821 West Railroad Avenue
The broadcast is free, but seating is limited.
Call or stop by today for reservations.
Armin Baumgartel
Investment Representative
821 West Railroad Avenue, Suite A,
Shelt0n
426-0982 • 1-800-441-0982
www.edward jones.eom
Member
Edward Jones.
Servi Individual hveors Since s87
II III I
TaxAide ready
to lend a hand
TaxAide volunteers completed training last week
will be ready next week to assist folks who need help
preparing their 1998 income-tax returns.
"We will begin operations the week of February 8,"
John Davis, one of the trainers in the program.
particularly designed for senior citizens and
families, but information is available to other taxpayers as
well.
TaxAide volunteer sites and hours in Mason County
the coming tax season, Davis says, include the following:
* William G. Reed Library, Seventh and Alder
Shelton: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 6 to 9 p.m. Tuesdays,
10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays.
* Olympic College Shelton campus, North 13th
and Alpine Way: 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays. Electronic
ing is available from OCS as is regular return
Davis notes.
e Mason County Senior Activities Center, Ninth
Railroad, Shelton: 8:15 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Wednesdays
appointment only.
* Timberland North Mason Library, Highway 3,
1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Thursdays.
• Hoodsport Timberland Library, Schoolhouse
Hoodsport, 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Thursdays.
Tax-Aide is a program of the U.S. Internal Revenue
vice and the American Association of Retired Persons.
The problem is further compli-
cated by federal law, which re-
quires that all states allow suffi-
cient "transit time" for the mail-
ing and return of absentee ballots
used by out-of-state and overseas
voters, particularly those in the
military. States that have failed
to provide sufficient transit time
have been sued consistently and
successfully by the U.S. Depart-
ment of Defehse.
During the current legislative
session, Munro will request legis-
lation to provide for timely pro-
cessing, tabulation and certifica-
tion of elections results. That will
include the following:
• Moving back the candidate
filing period and the primary by
at least three to four weeks.
• Requiring that all absentee
and mail-in ballots be received by
the county election department
no later than 8 p.m. (when polls
close) on election day.
• Requiring that all permanent
absentee ballots received up to
the day of the election and other
absentee ballots issued prior to
the printing of the poll books be
counted with the votes from the
polls on election night.
• Requiring all other absentee
ballots be counted no later than
three days after the primary or
general election (the Friday fol-
lowing the election).
'55 Alive'
class set to start
American Association of Re-
tired Persons will offer "55 Alive,"
its class for senior drivers, on
Monday and Tuesday, February
22 and 23, in the Ellinor Room of
Mason General Hospital.
Donald Payne will be instruc-
tor for the course.
The class, he said, will help
seniors deal with age-related
changes which affect driving
skills. Participants will also ex-
plore defensive-driving tech-
niques and receive information on
recent changes in traffic laws.
The eight-hour course runs
from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. both days,
and attendance is required at
both days to receive a certificate
person, and preregistration
quired. There are 12 op
available in the class,
emphasized, so it's
serve a place. The phone
for preregistering is
General information about
class is available from
426-0590.
PUD 3 not
meeting on'
February
The Mason Count'
of completion. The class is avail- Commission has ca
able to drivers aged 50 and older:' ular meeting scheduled for'
Membership in AARP is not re-
quired, Payne noted.
"Those completing the course
may be eligible for a reduction in
their insurance premiums," he
commented.
Tuition for the class is $8 per
day, February 9.
The next regular
the commission will be held
a.m. Tuesday, February 16,
commission room in the
headquarters at Third and
streets in Shelton.
Chevron C.C. Cole & Sons,
D.B.A.
24 HOUR
DIESEL
FUELING
STATION
From &
Grove
streets
Evergreen Fuel
Full Line Petroleum
• Tanks • Lubricants
• Furnaces & Equipment
661 East Pine
Shelton
Serving Mason County 426-44 I
since 1935 4;
Your community needs your
HELP
The City of Shelton is forming an advisory board
to asssist officials on land use planning issues.
Citizen involvement in government
is the cornerstone of a strong
Community
The Planning Advisory Board (PAB) will advise the City Commission
on all decisions that effect the ways in which our community will
GROW
The PAB will be a balanced group with membership drawn from nm
business districts, and key civic organizations.
For more information call Paul Rogerson, Planning Director at 426-9731
• Apply by February 15TH.
"Building A Stronger Community TOGETHER"