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Newspaper Archive of
Shelton Mason County Journal
Shelton, Washington
March 17, 2011     Shelton Mason County Journal
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March 17, 2011
 
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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 " USPS 492-800 POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Shelton-Mason County Journal, RO. Box 430, Shelton, WA 98584. Shelton-Mason County Journal is a member of Washington Newspaper Publishers' Association. Published weekly by Shelton-Mason County Journal, Inc. at 227 West Cota Street, Shelton, Washington Mailing address: RO. Box 430, Shelton, WA 98584 : Telephone (360) 426-4412 • www.masoncounty.com Owrld arid published by Periodicals postage paid at Shelton, Washington She/ton-Mason County Journal, Inc 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