March 17, 2011 Shelton Mason County Journal | ![]() |
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GUESTCOLUMN
Happy St. Patrick's Day
Kiss me, I'm Irish.
The last names of the three
members of the Journal edito-
rial board are Kennedy, Moore
and Mullen and all three of us
were brought up in Irish Catholic
households. We're not trying to
say that we are more Irish than
you (although Kevan Patrick
Moore has a good head start), just
establishing our credibility at the
outset of this fine day.
According to the good folks
at Guinness, everyone is Irish
today. So, to celebrate the holi-
day we have put together a few
"must-knows" to avoid confusion
for those that are not Irish on the
other 364 days of the year.
1) The holiday is called Saint
Patrick's Day, not St. Paddy's Day
and definitely not St. Patty's Day.
Patty is short for Patricia, and
while Paddy is short for Patrick, it
has also been used as a racial slur
at times, primarily by the British.
The gist is, we use it, not you.
2) Yes it is a celebration. Go
ahead and drink and be merry,
if you want, but don't get sloppy.
Also, keep in mind that this is a
cultural and religious holiday.
3) If you plan to drink, a Yager-
bomb is not a traditional Irish
concoction nor is watered-down
PBR with green dye.
4) Enjoy the holiday. Be spar-
ing with the pinches and gener-
ous with the kisses. Alternatively
if anyone disagrees or wants to
complain, p6g mo th6in. Or just
call and let us know. Only please
wait until after noon on Friday.
We won't be in early.
Mason County Adaged a bullet
Editor, the Journal
The recent decision by Ad-
age to cancel its plans to build a
60MW biomass fueled plant at
Johns Prairie Road Industrial
Park was as close as Shelton ever
wants to get to being known as
the "Incinerator City of Western
Washington."
Port of Shelton spin-doctors
notwithstanding, the proposal
ultimately died for lack of merit.
Efforts by biomass opponents
merely put the facts under the
light of public scrutiny and the
rest, as they say, is history.
What we have learned from
this arduous struggle is two
things: 1) You can fool most of
the people some of the time, but
you can never fool some of the
people any of the time, and 2) by
prematurely entering into a lease
option agreement with Adage,
some port commissioners have
cast serious doubt on their abil-
ity to make objective decisions
on the part of the public; tens of
thousands of dollars have been
wasted on unnecessary legal fees,
and good will has been irrevers-
ibly lost.
That said, the opportunity to
replace a bad business plan with
a good one will never be better. If
there is any good that came from
the whole Adage fiasco, it is that
we have learned Mason County
is rich in talented, intelligent and
dedicated people eager to alter
the direction of our community.
We are our own best leaders;
we know what is fair, equitable
and prosperous for our communi-
ty when we see it, now we need to
create it. This is not as difficult
as it may seem. The hard part is
changing minds; changing direc-
tion follows naturally.
Getting involved in the vari-
ous advisory committees and
task force efforts is the first step
toward any economic recovery.
Trying to change minds after the
process has been set in motion is
much more difficult than starting
off in the right direction.
Not enough community in-
volvement has led us to poor
proposals like Adage. We must
learn from this close call and get
ourselves back on the right track.
Let's work together. Let's get in-
volved.
Tom Davis
Shelton
LETTERSTOTH00!iEDITOR
The levy is a
must
Editor, the Journal
I have lived in the Alder-
brook area for three years
and two months. I have only
seen one occasion the use
of 911 services. I know the
services are there and living
in a community like Alder-
brook, I can see the need for
service. We have a lot of re-
tired and elderly people that
require the necessary ser-
vices provided by District 6.
The levy is a must. I sup-
port District 6 levy for medi-
cal services.
Lee M. Ayers
Union
EMS levy
time again
Editor, the Journal
Fire District 6 will be
running an EMS levy April
26, 2011. We are getting by
this year on reserve funds,
but if the levy fails there will
be no funding for 2012. Our
levy last November got 57.3
percent approval, but EMS
levies require 60 percent ap-
proval to pass. For a home
assessed at $250,000, the
levy rate of $.35 per thou-
sand will result in a tax of
$87.50 per year or $7.20 per
month. This modest amount
of money will allow us to
staffthe fire station 24/7 by
using part-time labor dur-
ing nights and weekends to
augment our full time staff.
StMYmg the station 24 hours
a day will reduce the district
average response times for
medical calls from nine min-
utes to six minutes. For a
large portion of our popula-
tion that live close to the fire
station the response time
will be even less than six
minutes. This is a significant
improvement over existing
response times.
For me personally, this
is more than just a game of
numbers. Recently I had two
strokes on different days in
which the fire department
responded to my home. They
arrived within minutes. The
first incidence happened on
a Sunday and the response
time was much faster be-
cause we had just imple-
mented weekend 24-hour
coverage. The second one
was a weekday when the fire
station was normally staffed.
If we pass this levy we will
Journal Letter Policy
be able to extend the cover-
age to seven days a week. If
we do not pass the levy, we
will have no24-hourcover- The Journal welcomes and encourages your letters to the edi-
age. It's just that simple. For tor. We will print signed, original letters of local interest. We will
a relatively few dollars we
can have full EMS coverage not publish letters that are libelous or scurrilous in nature. Letters
- 24 hours a day, seven days
a week. should be under 350 words and provide contact and address infor-
I commend the Fire Dis-
trict 6 personnel for going rnation for the Journal.
back to the drawing board
and coming up with the idea
of using the existing spare
room in the firehouse for a
bedroom and thus avoiding
the cost of another building
to house our 24/7 person-
nel. I know these are tough
times economically, but for a
low tax increase we will get
24-hour coverage for medical
calls. I believe this is a bar-
gain, which will significantly
reduce response times.
Merlyn Flakus,
Fire commissioner,
District 6
Pothole not
what it
appears?
Editor, the Journal
This is a response to the
letter written by Mrs. John- .....
son that appeared in the w .......
last week:
Here's the reasonable
explanation you requested.
The street department crew
was in Mountain View re-
cently patching potholes
with hot mix. The crew got
to King Street and begin to
prepare some holes to be
filled when it was realized
they were out of hot mix. It
was late in the day and the
patch plant was closed, so
pothole repairs stopped for
the day. The crew completed
patching this area with cold
mix the following day.
The street department
is generally out patching
the days following a good
rain, as this is when most
potholes appear. In many
instances, the crews use cold
mix to fill potholes, but late-
ly the City' is trying to use
hot mix more frequently, be-
cause it holds up longer than
a cold mix patch. However,
hot mix is only available
when the patch plant is run-
ning, and needs to be used
the same day it is mixed
and picked up. There are
other materials and methods
available to repair potholes;
perhaps I could address this
topic another time.
See Letters on page A-5
ir =::. SheltoniMason County "
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at 227 West Cota Street, Shelton, Washington
Mailing address: RO. Box 430, Shelton, WA 98584 :
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Page A-4 - Shelton-Mason County Journal - Thursday, March 17, 2011
SUBSCRIPTION RATES:
$37 per year for Mason County addresses,
$51 per year in state of Washington but outside
Mason County, $61 per year out of state.
Rick Kennedy, publisher
Newsroom:
Jesse Mullen, editor
Kevan Moore, news editor
Dean Siemon, sports
Advertising:
Dave Pierik, advertising manager
Harvey Morris, ad representahve
Mat Taylor, ad representative
Front office:
Donna Kinnaird, bookkeeper
Aria Shephard, North Mason, Margot Brand, circulation
environment, reporter Natalie Cricket Carter, mailroorn supervisor
Johnson, reporter .... •
Composing room:
William Adams, graphics
Gaylene Wiseman, paginator
Koleen Wood, classifieds/legals
Becky Corr, typing
Pressroom:
Kelly Riordan, productionmanager
Tra/is Miller press Ol0rator