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Newspaper Archive of
Shelton Mason County Journal
Shelton, Washington
March 31, 2011     Shelton Mason County Journal
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March 31, 2011
 
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Thursday, March 31, 2011 Year 125 -- Week 13 9 Sections -- 62 Pages -- Published in Shelton, Washington -- $1 Courtesy art Several ceiling areas at the Pioneer School district are caving in like this one. Pioneer supporters hope bond will pass By KEVAN MOORE Pioneer School District boosters have their fingers crossed that the second time's a charm. Voters will get a4aother chance to weigh in on a $24.5 million bond during a special April 26 election. Ballots are set to go out April 8. • The same measure was narrowly defeated in November elections, but supporters are optimistic that it will pass this time around due to increased campaign efforts and increased awareness about poor conditions at the school. The cost of the bond is $1.09 per $1,000 of vahiat~n which is a75 cent increase over what taxpayers are already lmying for the remaining debt on the primary School. Bond supporters point:out that the intermediate middle school bm dings have rated poor or unsatisfactory on several building standards following various inspections. ~nis merely added to the known problems with the hodgepodge of five separate structures that form the school at the corner of Agate and Spencer Lake Roads,~ states a district notice. "The district was already aware that the building campus impeded their ability to provide an effective learning environment." The Pioneer Eagles PTA has set up an extensive website with information about the bond and district See Pioneer on page A-7 Community Calendar B-3 Entertainment/Dining B-3 Journal of Record A-5 Obituaries B-7 Opinions, Letters A-4 Sports C-1 Weather A-5 Tides A-5 8 UlIU! !l!!ll!!!!!! 112 t # Journal phOto by Dean Slernon Despite recent rain, spring is officially here with cherry blossoms; coming out along the streets of downtown Shelton. Sheriff's office to reduce hours By KEVAN MOORE The Mason County sheriffs administrative office will be reducing the hours its open to the public starting April 11. The new hours will be from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Officials said the change in hours has been brought about by the unprecedent- ed increases in demands placed on the staff as a result of mandated tasks such as public disclosure requests. "The sheriff's admin- istrative staff has had considerable difficulty in meeting the high volume of public disclosure requests and has not been able to increase staff to meet the increased demands," said Chief Deputy Dean Byrd. According to Washing- ton State law, each public records request requires a response within five days or penalties can be as- sessed against the sheriff's office. Accordingly it is es- 'sential these requests are "The economic downturn we all have been experiencing over the past couple of years has severely reduced revenues to county government, so the money is simply not there to hire additional staff." processed in a systematic and timely manner, Byrd noted. "The economic down- turn we all have been ex- periencing over the past couple of years has se- verely reduced revenues to county government, so the money is simply not there to hire additional staff," said Mason County Sher- iff Casey Salisbury. "This is the best way possible at this time to comply with the public disclosure law ' and meet the public's de- mand for information." Reducing the hours that administrative staff is available to the public will provide them with the ad- ditional time they need to keep up with the high vol- ume of mandated service requests, Byrd added. New chamber director backs out By NATALIE JOHNSON The Shelton-Mason County Chamber of Commerce almost hired a new execu- tive director last week, but today, are still without a leader. Mike Morrisette, who had previously spent five years as the executive direc- tor of the Woodinville Chamber of Com- merce, 15 years as the President and CO0 of the Auburn Area Chamber, and five years as the president and CEO of the Greater Yakima Chamber of Com- merce, reportedly accepted the position, then reconsidered. YHe had accepted the position, but we've not been able to come to terms," chamber president Patti Case said. The chamber is still on the search for a new executive director to replace Terri Jeffries, who announced her resignation in January. "We'll regroup and figure out what to do next,~ Case said. City releases SEPA determination on Solomon boiler By NATALIE JOHNSON Adage may be out, but the. Solomon Renewable Energy Company is still in the running to con- struct a biomass boiler in Shelten. After months of re- view, the city of Shelton issued a SEPA (the state environmental policy act) Mitigated Determina- tion of Nonsignificance (MDNS), on March 24 for the proposed Solomon Re- newable Engergy Cogen- eration Plant at Simpson Lumber in downtown Shelton. "The purpose is to identify impacts and off- set them through miti- gation," said Jason Dose, senior planner at the city of Shelton. "It helps any permitting agencies make an informed deci- sion." The document says that the lead agency in the project, the city of Shelten, does not believe the project poses a risk to the environment, and does not plan to conduct and Environmental Im- pact Statement (EIS). "The city of Shelton be- lieves that the informa- tion being provided gives adequate information for the city of Shelton to identifiy potential im- pacts with potential miti- gation measures, thus, an EIS is not required ... The lead agency for this proposal has determined that the project does not have a probable signifi- cant adverse impact on See Biomass on page A-7 Fiddle Fest to feature 91-year-old performer By KEVAN MOORE The Shelton Old Time Fiddlers' Fest will run this Friday and Satur- day, April 1 and 2, at the Shelton High School Per- forming Arts Center. The two-day event, which is a beneft for Save Our County's Kids (SOCK), will feature : three separate shows, showcasing performers from all over the state and a spaghetti feed. Organizers say that the oldest fiddler at this year's show will be Floyd Engstrom, 91. He will appear on the Friday evening and Saturday afternoon shows, at 6:30 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. re- spectively. Engstrom hails from Bremerton. After at- tending a fiddle show at Bremerton High School in 1978, he became inter- ested in fiddling and has been a member of the Old Time Fiddlers ever since. Engstrom took two years of violin lessons as a young boy that cost $2 apiece. Those lessons came to an abrupt halt for Engstrom at the age of 11 in 1929 when the stock market crashed. It would be nearly 50 years before Engstrom picked up his violin and began to play again. Engstrom has played at 24 of the 26 Fiddle Fest shows here in Shel- ton. Event organizers said that it is an honor to include Engstrom among the festival's perform- ers and that it is always amazing to see and hear how beautifully he still plays at 91 years of age. In addition to Eng- strom, several young Floyd Engstrom fiddlers will be making their Fiddle Fest debut this year. The Nakhla and Crichton families from Shelton and Union will be playing Friday evening and Saturday evening, respectively. Other styles will include Swing, Celtic, Bluegrass, Old Time Dance tunes, Gospel, Cowboy Poetry and just plain old foot- stompin' fiddle tunes. Attendees will hear many regulars, such as Phil and Vivian Wil- liams from Seattle, who have been champions of Old Time Dance music for more than 50 years and have done extensive research into the histori- cal aspects of the genre. Jeff Anderson and Lau- rel Stone will play some twin fiddle and Rosin in the Air will provide a great cross-section of old time and bluegrass music. Vern Morgus and Paul Barber are favor- ites, and will begin the Friday evening show with vocal, piano, guitar and harmonica selec- tions. See Fiddle on page A-7 i! I