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And the winner is...
It's been described as one of the most important
decisions they will make and they will make it to-
day.
The Shelton school board will meet at noon to-
day, Thursday, Feb. 17, and is expected to offer the
superintendent job to one of four finalists.
District teachers and staffers announced last
week that they were unable to endorse a particu-
lar finalist, but would support whomever the board
chooses to replace outgoing superintendent Joan
Zook.
The board's decision follows a nationwide search,
multiple site visits and forums.
It was school board member Dean Hirschi who
underscored a couple of months ago how monu-
mental a decision it is to pick a new chief of schools
when he said it will be the biggest decision the
board will make and that whoever is chosen will
need to be handsomely compensated.
Hirschi and his fellow board members have un-
dertaken the task with great care. They have gone
out of their way to involve the public and they have
also, literally, gone out of their way to visit each of
the finalists' home turf to make a more informed
decision.
Teachers and staff didn't feel that they could
make an endorsement of any of the four finalists
after reading the resumes and spending parts of
just one day with each of" them. We think that's a
pretty reasonable position.
The reality, of course, is that there are a lot of
unknowns when making any hiring decision. What
we do know, though, is that the board is committed
to hiring someone who will take the district in a
new direction.
This board has made strides to improve learn-
ing and we're hoping that whoever they select as
the new superintendent will do the same and then
some.
A Little Straight Talk
The proposed Adage plant produces
smoke before it even exists. It's time
for a rational discussion of "biomass"
and power production.
Biomass has been used since the
1800's, when wood was burned to pro-
duce steam that dried lumber, drove
mill and logging equipment, heated
schools, public buildings and most Pa-
cific Northwest homes. Urban wood
smoke was common into the 1980's.
Regulatory and technology advanc-
es brought dramatic change to biomass
energy production. Modern boilers
and burners vastly are more efficient.
Ancillary equipment catches most fine
particulates and gasses. Zero emis-
sions? No, but we no longer see smoke-
stacks or wigwam burners belching
wood smoke, or a pall of wood smoke in
low wind events.
The regulatory process also substan-
tially reduced slash burning. No lon-
ger do we see the once-common smoke
columns on our few good summer days.
We now find ourselves looking fbr
new or improved ways to produce en-
ergy. A fw harsh realities get in the
way: there is a last barrel of oil and we
are well on our way to finding it. There
is no current technology or product
that will replace our petroleum depen-
dency. Solar and wind energy have se-
rious limitations and will replace only
a small part of our overall energy use.
Electricity is touted as, "clean," but
the hidden price is a continued - even
expanded - dependency, on dams; coal,
nuclear or gas-fired facilities to pro-
duce those little electrons that make
our lives livable.
To compound matters, we, the peo-
ple, passed an initiative that mandat-
ed state energy producers generate at
least 15 percent of our electrical en-
ergy from renewable energy sources,
including woody biomass (with specific
restrictions related to old growth tim-
ber and treated wood). And this is to
be accomplished by 2020, which must
have seemed distant in 2006, the year
it was passed.
Wise people cautioned the initiative
was a technical and economic stretch,
but we passed it anyway. So, now we
must accomplish that goal, which re-
mains far from reality.
Comes now the oddly named firm,
Adage, which proposes to site a plant in
our community. They will use the lat-
est technology to power 40,000 homes
with minimum emissions and environ-
mental impact. Existing biomass will
fire the plant, solving a long term re-
forestation and fire hazard dilemma by
using logging debris as fuel.
The proposed plant initially was
welcomed, but recent rhetoric would
have us believe property values will
suffer, the bay will be polluted, people
will suffer pulmonary distress and the
area will be inundated with a pall of
smoke while streams run muddy with
logging silt. Tourists will shun Mason
County while residents clog hospital
wards. And on and on ...
Vigorous conversation is construc-
tive, but current bombastic rhetoric
adds nothing to the debate. The bottom
line is that we need new power and we
need it now. The people, for better or
worse, said they want it from renew-
able sources of which biomass is one.
While we need energy in a manner
that has least impact on our commu-
nity, that doesn't mean zero impact.
Physics and chemistry just don't work
that way. The Adage proposal, how-
ever, produces power with minimal im-
pact. Most of us won't realize the plant
is there. We are fortunate for the firm's
interest in building the plant and for
the renewable natural resources with
which we are blessed.
Finally, Washington has sophisti-
cated forest practices laws and regu-
lations. Mason County's major non-
federal landowners, Green Diamond
and DNR, are excellent land manag-
ers with environmental protection and
clean streams critical parts of their
operations. Claims otherwise are un-
founded and an affront to forest man-
agers. Claims landowners will pillage
their forestland base to fire a power
plant are ludicrous.
If we can produce power, or lower
the cost of forest management and for-
est products manufacture from har-
vest residue use, more power to them.
And us.
Bob Dick
Shelton
Bats in the
belfry
Editor, the Journal
I really appreciated the
front page of last week's
Journal of the moon shin-
ning on the Baptist Church
- it was beautiful.
I've got a story about
what happened in the bel-
fi.y.
Years ago, I taught a
Sunday school class to the
sixth grade boys. At the
floor in the belfry there were
benches on all four sides -
that was where we had our
class. When it came prayer
time I told the boys "now if
you don't feel like praying
just give the boy next to you
a little tap on the knee" - it
went ok for a while but then
stopped. Then I could hear
more than a tap. I looked up
and two boys were batting
each other back and forth -
so I call this my "bats in the
belfry story."
Fred Archer
Shelton
Agencies
loosen codes
to allow
pollution
Editor, the Journal
My wife and I attended
the ORCAA meeting on AD-
AGE a couple of weeks or
so ago Monday and unfor-
tunately were not able to
stay fbr the whole meeting.
We tMt the ORCAA engi-
neer took too long with his
talk. One thing that stood
out from the beginning was
how the unions "packed" the
room. There were some peo-
ple giving testinmny that
gave a rather bleak future
for the county if the inciner
atoi were to be built. What
really bothers me the most
is what I've seen over and
over through the years and
that is government agencies
loosen their codes and al-
low "variances" so polluting
companies could continue to
poison the air or the earth
or both. According to some,
Mason County could end up
like "Love Canal," where so
many were sick and many
diel from the pollution. The
government had to buy ev-
eryone there out and the
area was fenced off. It seems
like an awful price to pay for
24 jobs and Califbrnia gets
the power. Much of this is a
matter of trust. Do you re-
ally want to trust a govern-
mental agency to keep its
word?
If we are so desperate
for power, there are other
ways. We have some of the
greatest hydroelectric capa-
bilities in the nation. What
about harnessing the tides?
We have the technology.
What about the wind? We
seem to have a prevailing
wind right up by Walmart.
I've had my hat blown off
many times up there. What
I'm saying is that we have
alternatives and do not have
to jump into something that
may end up killing people
with pollution.
Dave Maxwell
Agate
Budget,
furlough,
lay-off
Editor, the Journal
The legislature and the
governor ignored their fi-
nancial analyst a year ago
about the cost of the:: ev-
erything but marriage law,
They said it would cost too
much without more income
to support it. And so a bud-
get crisis.
A furlough is time off
with pay. A lay-offis time off
without pay due to weather
or market conditions. The
way the government uses
lay-off used to mean fired.
Our legislators are get-
ting over $42,000 a year for
a part-time job, plus $90
per day that they are act-
ing as legislatures in Olym-
pia. They claim the salary
commission cannot reduce
their salaries, only raise
them. The salary commis-
sion should be eliminated
and any salary changes be
put on the ballot in a ref-
erendum to the voters. The
governor is getting over
$164,000 a year. That was
a raise of approximately
$16,000 per year plus liv-
ing in the governor mansion
rent-free with utilities and
any repairs thrown in. May-
be the mansion with such a
prestigious address could be
rented out for 30 to 40 thou-
sand per year.
Those so-called furlough
days are a reduction in pay
for government employees.
Are there too many employ-
ees? Are they paid too much?
I assume that most are
making house payments,
car payment or rent. That is
not good for the economy or
safety of these people work-
ing for us to reduce their
income so much. I would
propose that fbr each three
percent reduction in pay for
government employees that
elected people would have
their salary cut by 10 per-
cent.
Some of the committees
are in session all year. They
have nothing to do but get
their $90 per day. They bring
people from Pennsylvania
to talk about toll roads and
how much to charge. There
to the editor. We will print signed, original letters
of local interest. We will not publish letters that
are libelous or scurrilous in nature. Letters should
be under 350 words and provide contact and ad-
dress information for the Journal.
has been someone from the
middle of the country to talk
about education. How much
are those out-of-state ex-
perts costing?
Maybe if the $90 per day
was reduced to $45 per day
we could have shorter legis-
lative sessions.
Some of the proposed
bills are ridiculous. I have
always thought that the
amount of education had
nothing to do with brain-
power. I really hate to be
proven correct. One of the
most intelligent individu-
als I have known likely did
not have more than a third
grade education.
Ralph Wingert
Shelton
Open letter
to Shelton
School
District
board
Editor, the Journal
I read the February 10
article in the Journal, "No
superintendent finalist up
to grade" regarding the hir-
ing process of the district's
new superintendent and I
would like to comment on it.
The letter given to the
board by various SSD em-
ployee groups smells fishy
to me. The rejection of your
finalists by theses groups
makes me wonder if per-
haps their cronies applica-
tion did not make it into the
finalist pile. For too long the
hiring process in the Shel-
ton School District has been
rife with cronyism, nepo-
tism or localism. This has
to stop. Promotion is never
a guarantee. Just because
someone happens to be a
long time employee does not
mean that they are qualified
or fit for promotion.
I would like to commend
the school board for your
hard work in striving to hire
the most qualified candidate
fbr the postion of superin-
tendent. Please do not be
bullied into hiring an un-
qualified but .local replace-
ment.
Please feel free to share
this letter at your next
meeting and keep up the
good work.
Ione K. Vrabel
Shelton
Thanks for
your support
Editor, the Journal
With a huge sigh of relief
and gratitude I thank this
community once again for
supporting our young citi-
zens by voting "yes" for the
replacement levy for Shel-
ton School District. The crit-
ical programs for the stu-
dents that depend on levy
funds can now be continued.
We should be proud that
"strong schools - strong
community" is a living
pledge to the children that
voters understand. Shelton
is a better community be-
cause we value the educa-
tion of our children and we
are willing to dip into our
pockets to prove it.
This is a great place to
live, made even better by the
positive choices we make.
On behalf of the students,
thank you for your support.
Joan Zook
Superintendent
USPS 492-800
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Page A-4 - 5helton-Mason County Journal - Thursday, Feb. 17, 2011
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