April 7, 2011 Shelton Mason County Journal | ![]() |
©
Shelton Mason County Journal. All rights reserved. Upgrade to access Premium Tools
PAGE 4 (4 of 22 available) PREVIOUS NEXT Jumbo Image Save To Scrapbook Set Notifiers PDF JPG
April 7, 2011 |
|
Website © 2025. All content copyrighted. Copyright Information Terms Of Use | Privacy Policy | Request Content Removal | About / FAQ | Get Acrobat Reader ![]() |
COLUMN
EDITORIAL
ear
Cool your jets. millions and millions of dollars of
That has been the ongoing mes- development nearby.
sage out of the Port of Shelton for It's in some ways ironic that the
years now regarding the develop- Port of Shelton has spearheaded
ment of 160 acres of land for new efforts to stop this development.
homes near Sanderson Field. On the one hand, it's under-
City commissioners, though, standable that pert officials want
finally seem poised to approve a to protect the airport. On the
rezone of the land that will hold other hand, ports, in essence, are
up to port challenges before the designed to promote the kind of
Western Washington Growth economic development that this
Management Hearings Board. whole project will provide. That is
It's about time. the core mission of each and every
It's about time for a brand one of the 75 ports in this state
new neighborhood in Shelton. and they all rely on our local tax
It's about time for local, new- dollars toachievethatmission.
construction jobs in Shelton. It's The proposed development is,
about time for the improved infra- indeed, fairly close to the airport.
structure and revenue that will So are Shelton High School, Oak-
come with all those new homes land Bay Junior High School and
and families. Olympic Middle School. Those, of
But, it's also about a lot more course, are the very places that
than just a new neighborhood, we -- and all the new residents in
The developer behind the project the new neighborhood will -- send
is also poised to clean up Goose our kids to learn and grow and
Lake and create park space. The dream and, pardon the pun, soar.
developer is poised to install new The pert may have won the
roads, intersections and utilities first battle before the hearings
to support sprawling new corn- board, but they are doomed to lose
mercial and retail space along the broader war.
Highway 101. It's too bad that so many years,
A successful rezone to allow amidst this terrible economy,
residential use on those 160 acres have already slipped by.
will open the door to millions and Clear the flight deck, already.
The city of Shelton picks up biomass banner
Not to be outdone by the mis- esthetically intrusive incinerator smacks of third world economics.
steps of Mason County and Port in the most densely populated area To make matters worse, Simp-
of Shelton officials, the City of of Mason County? son/solomon wants to build a co-
Shelton has picked up the biomass Historically, wood products generation plant on the Shelton
banner, have been synonymous with do- waterfront and sell the electricity
I speak, of course, of the Mitigat- mestic growth and jobs; harvested to the highest bidder. And what
ed Determination of Non-signifi- trees were milled into dimensional does Mason County get from this
cance the City recently assigned to lumber and used in the construc- new source ofrovenue? About what
the Simpson/solomon SEPA appli- tion of homes and businesses; the Adage was trying to sell us: bad
cation, all but giving full blessing economic trickledown was enor- air, bad water and poor health, all
to the siting of a 31MW cogenera- mous. But a prolonged recession of which begs the question, is any-
tion plant in downtown Shelton. left big timber looking for new cns- one trying to attract business that
Despite a yearlong battle waged tomers and ways to turn trees into does not involve using our environ-
by Concerned Citizens to steer our profits. And the timely emergence ment as an industrial toilet?
community to more constructive of globalization offered up just However you shake it, reliance
economic reforms, some of our of- such opportunities. Now most of on a single industry is a sure-fire
ficials seem intent on beating this the trees harvested in Washington recipe for economic failure; diver-
dead horse back to life. are being exported to South Korea, sity is the only means by which
So it is little wonder that those China and, of course, Japan. For a community can hope to protect
charged with leading the parade reasons of economy, some of these itself against the inevitable chal-
are the last to notice their follow- countries prefer to do their own lenges of the future. That is why
ing has headed off in another di- milling, which means fewer jobs at every financial planner advises his
rection, and is now marching to a local sawmills, stagnant domestic or her clients to diversify their in-
different drumbeat, growth and little economic trickle- vestment portfolio.
The dismal failure of Adage to down. If it is the goal of our communi-
fulfill its promise of jobs and stim- But not everyone is hurtinff. In ty to create a stable economy based
ulato the local economy has left a an effort to meet global demand, on proven principals of economics,
few folks with enough egg on their Simpson is aggressively harvest- we must reconsider proposals that
face to make a pretty embarrass- ing trees, and the Port of Olympia impede business diversity. Toward
ing omelet. So what does it say of is now the second largest exporter that end, it is time to declare a
those leaders who refuse to learn, of logs in the State. At first glance moratorium on biomass-fueled
even from experience? Is it possi- this would seem to be a good thing, plants or, failing that, replace the
ble they still don't understand the but large-scale exportation of our leaders of our parade.
pitfalls of siting an environmen- natural resources does little to Tom Davis
tally destructive, unhealthy and spur growth or create jobs; and Shelton
TO EDITOR
etery district a voice in its medical levies.
opeation and maintenance I would fully support any
of the park not just the fiat tax on properties or a
needed for founding organizations, sales tax for all.
Formation of Cemetery Richard Reineman
District 2 does not commit Shelton
the public to any financial
obligation. If additional
District 2 funds were necessary, there
would have to be a future
ballot for the voter to con-
Editor, the Journal sider at request for a levy.
The Save Our Cemetery Consider that over a cen-
Committee will be through- tru of history and many of
out Shelton and other loca- your friends and relatives
tions in Mason Cunty circu- reside at Shelton Memorial
lating a petition requesting Park. Editor, the JOurnal
registred voter's signatures The Shelton Cemetery I am sure everyone in
from those living within the Association thanks you for the Pioneer School District
proposed Mason County your support, has a reason for voting for
Cemetery District 2 defined Dav Pifke or against the Pioneer bond
boundaries. Shelton Cemetery issue. I think anyone who
The proposed boundaries Association, VP has been to the Middle
are the following five school SheltonSchool would be in favor
Districts, Shelton, Pioneer, if they or their children
Souside, Grapeview and were attending. The school
Hood Canal. Do not exceeded its useful life
The petition is then several years ago and will
submitted to the Mason have to be replaced at some
County Auditor for verifica- point. I feel that now is one
tion. Once verification is m" |n ~jf of the best times because of
approved the petition would e e historically low bond rates
then be presented to the along with contractors bid-
county commissioners for cling projects just to break
public hearings. If the coun- Editor, the Journal even. The contractors are
ty commissioners at public That is quite a heart- just trying to keep their
hearings approved, the cre- wrenching picture of thework force in place until
ation of Mason Count Cem- ceiling of the school in the economic conditions im-
etery District 2, it would Pioneer School District.prove. If we wait to replace
appear on the Noverber 8Consider this, the time it the school we will be paying
General Election. Shelton took to set up for this pic- considerably more. You will
Memorial Park is located at ture, I, for one, could have be paying increased prop-
1605 Van Buren Street inhad the old tiles nailed back erty taxes eventually. Some
Shelton and has providedup or new ones in place,of you say that you do not
burial space to the area for From what I've been told, have any children in school
mo~e than 120 years. Here there are a fair amount so why should I pay for a
are approximately 11,500of men out of work in this new school? I am going to
interred within its 44 acres, school district. Surely the assume that at some point
The park is maintained district can muster up in your life that you at-
and operated by the 100 enough volunteers to help tended school. There were
year old non-profit, Shel- maintain the school, butmany people in your shoes
ton Cemetery Association, I won't bore anyone who who helped fund your edu-
formed from the originalmight read these letterscation. Do you have grand
cemetery owners, Catholic, with the things volunteers children or great grand-
Masonic, Oddfellows and can do. children in school? Even if
Mason County cemeteries I am also aware that they are not in our school
A Veterans section is also anyone working around district would you want
included, schools has to have a back- what's best for them? The
The association's board ground check, but it should only reason I can see to vote
of directors has for several be ok to work on weekends against the bond is that you
years been very concerned when children aren't pres- feel that a few dollars in
about the conditions andent. your pocket is worth more
sustainability of the park. Concerning the draco- than our children. I do not
They have concluded thatnian taxing method used to have any children or grand-
the only viable choice is to force money from property children in school and I am
form a public entity that owners, i.e., the levy sys- voting for our children.
would provide a better op- tern. I will never support Jeff Roberge
portunity for Mason County and will attempt to con- Harstine Island
citizens' choice and support, vince anyone I can, not to
It will also give the resi- support this levy, or fire or
dents of the proposed cem-
Today is ~s emitted-common sense, city and county government
right? what you want. And, when
...... The .city commission has the scarce energy scare tac-
been hasty in their judg- tics are dropped on you, tell
b~ ment that increasing thethem there are sustainable
• " amount of pollution af- energy sources, but the be~t
Editor, the Journal fecting the downtown andgift you can give your fellow
Whew. Adage, LLC has residential areas on thehumans and the planet is to
seen the light and departed, hillsides is harmless. It is conserve.
They are a big, rich corn- incomprehensible that OR- Constance Simpson
pany with teams of accoun- CAA doesn't take the emis-
tants, economists, lawyers, sions from Olympic Panel
engineers, public relations and Simpson into account
statTand lobbyists. We are a when determining the
small community with curi- amount of pollution they
ous, interested, intelligent, will allow the new polluter,
active citizens ... and we Solomon. It appears that
won the day. Simpson, with those teams Editor, the Journal
Today is another day and of professionals, just has to The March 31 Journal
another problem is appear- form a separate company front-page article on the
ing to engage Mason Coun- for each finger of their hand biomass boiler says that "...
ty's curious, interested, and they can keep addingthe city of Shelton issued a
intelligent and active citi- sources of pollution. That SEPA (the state environ-
zens ... Simpson/Solomon. might not be so concerning mental policy act)Mitigated
As with Adage, Simpsonif a monitor were recording Determination of Nonsignif-
has lots of money, teams of what they are putting out in icance (MDNS)...~ "solomon
professionals dedicated to their missions now. is still waiting on... ORCAA
earning their salaries and There is another issue: through a ... NOC..."
promotions. They tell us how can the fuel for Adage One must note that we
they are different than Ad- be waste, as determined have yet to hear from the
age. Their pollution won't by our Prosecuting Attor- agency responsible for the
hurt us, hasn't hurt us, but I ney, Mr. Dorcy and the fuel Nonmitigated Indeter-
know different. Shopping or Simpson/Solomon not be? ruination of Significance
doing errands downtown on Solomon must submit to (NMIDS). This may possibly
a bad air day of inversions an environmental impact be a conflict with the Un-
plus active smoke stacks study, only then can the citi- mitigated Redetormination
zeus of Shelton and their ru- of Inconsequential Signifi-
sends me home to get my ral neighbors feel confident
inhaler.
cance (UMRDIS). Nor has it
I was shocked to learn that their health, the health
yet been proven to conform
that there is tlo air moni- of Oakland Bay and the en- with or be relevant to the Fi-
tor in the bowl of Shelton's vironment are not being ex- nal Mitigated Final Deter-
downtown, despite the ploited for corporate profits, ruination of Insignificance
Simpson/Olympic Panel in-Finally, this community
dustrial complex in the bowl needs to come together with (FMFDIS). I encourage the
lead agency to report there-
with our city proper. One their vision for healthy, sus- upon in their Final Review
thing the effort to under- tainable economic develop- Environmental Energy Poli-
stand air pollution and its ment. People retire here,
health consequences have people move here to raise cy Act Solomon Significance
(FREEPASS). This will as-
done is to alert people to the families and people from sure clarity and transparen-
deficiencies of the ORCAA far away come to enjoy the
monitoring system. There natural beauty of our home. cy of the permitting process
must be a monitor placedMore pollution, more trucks Wayne Salus
Shelton
near the source of pollution in town, more smoke stacks
to know how much pollution will neither attract nor sup-
port those people. Tell your
Shelton-Mason County
USPS 492-800
She~ton-Mason County Journal is a member of
Washington Newspaper Publishers' Association.
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Shelton-Mason SUBSCRIPTION RATES:
County Journal, RO. Box 430, Shelton, WA 98584. $37 per year for Mason County addresses,
Published weekly by Shalton-Mason County Journal, Inc. $51 per year in state of Washington but outside
at 227 West Cota Street, Shelton, Washington Mason County, $61 per year out of state.
Mailing address: RO. Box 430, Shelton, WA 98584
Teleptione (360) 426-4412 • www.masoncounty.com Owned and published by
Periodicals postage paid at Shelton, Washington She~ton-Mason County Journal, Inc
Page A-4 -Shelton-Mason County Journal - Thursday, April 7, 2011
Rick Kennedy, publisher Advertising: Composing room:
Dave Pierik, advertimng manager William Adams, graphics
Newsroom: Harv_ey Morris, ad representative Gaylene Wiseman, paginator
Jesse Mullen, editor Mat Taylor, adrepresentative Koiaan Wood, classifieds/legals
Kevan Moore, news editor Becky Corr, typing
Dean Siemon, sports Front office:
Donna Kinnaird, bookkeeper Pressroom: .
Aria Shephard, North Mason, Margot Brand, circulation Kelly Riordan, productionmanager
environment, reporter Natalie
Johnson, reporter Cricket Carter, rnailroom supervisor Travis'Miller press operator