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Thursda3 March 22, 2012
Week 12" The Voice of Mason County since 1886 --- Published Mason County and Bob Veach of Skokomish Valley -- $1
Father presumed dead in Lake Limerick tragedy
By KEVAN MOORE Deputies immediately organized a Monday, from 9 a.m. until about 5:30
t~evan@rnasoru:ounly.com search utilizing one of the department's p.m. The searches utilized three boats,
three boats and divers. Deputies found with three divers per boat, and as many
Jace's body at about 9:20 p.m. and sus- as 20 people total in various support-
A 2-year-old Shelton boy drowned in pended any further searching for Shel- ing roles. Divers included local depu-
Lake Limerick Saturday night and his don Olsen at about midnight. " ties and additional deputies from the
father is still missing. "Deputies have not discovered any Thurston County Sheriffs Office and
The Mason County Sheriffs Officesigns of foul play and characterize the the Squaxin Island Police Department.
said that Jace S. Olsen, 2, and his fa- incident as a father and son outing that On Tuesday, Byrd said that the
ther, Sheldon W. Olsen, 31, went on turned tragic," said Chief Deputy Dean searches had been suspended.
a canoe outing in the lake. They were Byrd. "When the canoe was recovered %Ve've used all the assets we can at
seen in the boat offshore from the two life jackets were discovered in the this pointtotryandrecoverMr. Olsen,,'
Lake Limerick Clubhouse as late as canoe leading investigators to conclude Byrd said.
6:13 p.m., but the alarm was sounded life jackets were not u~ed by either vic- Olsen, his wife and their adopted
a short time later when the canoe was tim." son recently moved to Shelton from Or-
spotted on the lake with nobody aboard. Additional searches were conducted egon. Sheldon Olsen worked as an op-
The first 911 call came in at 6:48 p.m. Sunday, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., and on tometrist at Walmart.
Courtesy photo
Julie Olsen, left, lost her 2-year-old son, Jace,
in a drowning on Saturday evening in Lake
Limerick and her husband, Sheldon, has still
not been found.
Students
shine at
showcase
Hood Canal School
hosts annual event
By ARLA SHEPHARD
arla@masoncounly,com
Journal photo by Kevan Moore
Air Force Technical Sergeant Kevin McAbee, left, helps U.S. Army Sergeant Daniel Jones out of his Tyvek suit
Tuesday afternoon in downtown Shelton. The men are part of the 10th Civil Support Team out of Camp Murray, a
unit that specializes in identifying and dealing with chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and enhanced
explosive agents and devices.
Military experts called in to identify powdery substance hour later with evidence bags.
Chief Sobotka said the soldiers made a pre-
liminary determination inside the DOC office
By KEVAN MOORE Tuesday. The responding officer then called that the unknown substance was meth. Fur-
kevan@mas'oncountyoeom in fire department personnel. Assistant Fire ther analysis done inside one of the unit's mo-
Chief Mike Sobotka said that, per department bile labs confirmed.that initial finding. .
procedure, he immediately called the Wash- Evidence that was gathered was turned
A suspicious package led to the evacuation ington State Department of Ecology. No state over to the Shelton police.
of the downtown Shelton office of the Depart- patrol units were available, so the 10th Civil SPD Lieutenant Les Watson said that the
ment of Corrections, located at 507 N. 4th St., Support Team from Camp Murray was dis- meth was found inside a plastic baggie inside
on Tuesday afternoon, patched, a paper envelope. Lt. Watson said that the en-
A Weapons of Mass Destruction team from That military unit specializes in dealing velope was addressed to the Shelton DOC of-
Camp Murray was eventually called in and with and identifying chemical, biological, ra- rice and contained a name and return address.
determined that the unknown substance in diological, nuclear and enhanced explosives -- "Whether or not that is a fictitious name or
the package was crystal methamphetamine: also known as CBRNe. not is something we don't know at this time,"
A call to police alerting them to the suspi- Two soldiers in Tyvek suits entered the Lt. Watson said. "That, of course, is something
cious package was made shortly after 2 p.m. DOC office and emerged a little over a half we are following up on and determining."
Medical marijuana debate rages on at commission meeting
By NATALIE JOHNSON
r~ataZie@~na,~or~cottnly.com
Both the City of Shelton and
Mason County officials resumed
public discussion on their re-
spective moratoriums on medical
marijuana collective gardens on
Monday.
81111!!!1!!11!!1!!1!11112
The City of Shelton
Commission voted unani-
mously after a public
hearing Monday night to
continue its moratorium
for another six months, to
give city staff more time
to consider potential zon-
ing regulations and re-
quirements for the collec-
tive gardens.
"In this case, it's a step
back to take a look at what
we need to do," city Commissioner
Dawn Pannell said.
Steve
Goins
The city commission
first enacted the morato-
rium on September 19,
2011, after the Wash-
ington State Legislature
passed Engrossed Second
Senate Substitute Bill
(ESSB) 5073, which le-
galized collective medical
marijuana gardens.
According to the bill,
up to 10 patients could
get share space to grow
up to 45 cannabis plants.
Both the city and Mason Coun-
ty commissions voted to pass
moratoriums on the gardens soon
after the Legislature passed the
bill.
"In part that was a result of
ambiguity in state and federal
law and confusion that existed
and still exists now," Goins said.
"There are several issues that
we need a little more time to ad-
dress."
While state law allows collec-
tive gardens, federal law classifies
See Marijuana on page A-7
Ever since Lea Townsend
Was little, she's wondered
why flames can make dif-
ferent colors.
Townsend, a ,Hood Ca-
nal Scho01 seventh-grade
student, got the chance to
explore her curiosity for the
school's student achieve-
ment showcase last week.
Students from the
school's classes contributed
to the event, creating sci-
ence, history, writing and
art projects to display for
family members and the
community.
"It's an opportunity for
kids to bring their parents
to school and for their par-
ents to see not only their
child's work, but see how
their child's work compares
to their peers," Hood Canal
School District Superinten-
dent Tom Churchill said.
"It's a subtle message for
parents and a tangible way
for them to do that. A lot of
times parents only see their
kid's homework."
Townsend, 13, created a
science fair project about
the colors in flames.
"I've been to a lot of
beach fires, so I wondered
whatochanges the colors of
fire," she said. "Now I know
it's the chemical in the salt
and the water that gets into
the driftwood."
Younger students cre-
ated class art projects.
Ruthie Peterson-Blue-
bird, 9, created a shape
poem -- a poem in the
shape of its subject matter
-- in the form of a flower
with her third-grade class.
"I liked it because it's re-
ally artistic and stuff," she
said. "I like that I can show
this to people."
Fifth-grade student Bry-
an Daggett created a sci-
ence project exploring how
to make rubber eggs.
"I was hungry that's how
I thought of this project," he
said. "I looked it up and ap-
parently you can make rub-
ber eggs."
Daggett soaked eggs in
jars full of vinegar, which
reacted to the calcium car-
bonate in the egg shells,
dissolving the shells.
The eggs become trans-
lucent and are held to-
gether by a rubber-like
See Showcase on page A-7