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Newspaper Archive of
Shelton Mason County Journal
Shelton, Washington
April 15, 1999     Shelton Mason County Journal
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April 15, 1999
 
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Olympics offer gold medal view THE OLYMPICS LOOM above Highway 101 on a glo- casters predict there will be more such views rious Sunday as spring seems to explode onto the through this weekend as sunshine continues and scene in one day after months of rain. Weather fore- temperatures reach the 70s by Friday. County commission roundup: Accused of killing boyfriend: Jones pleads not guilty to murder Elizabeth Jones, 37, of Shelton pied not guilty Wednesday to murdering her boyfriend at the Mason County Shelter. The plea followed a two-week stay at Western State Hospital, a medical facility in Tacoma for people with mental illnesses. A sanity commission there said she was depressed and irritable but found that she does not have any psychosis that would make her incompetent to stand trial for murder in the second degree. Defense attorney Robert Quil- lian said the sanity commission found that she had a long history of abusive relationships. He said the concepts of self-defense and "the battered-woman syndrome" would likely be an element of her defense.. Jones is accused of stabbing 47-year-old Randy Freeman in the chest following a bout of heavy drinking at the shelter. Jones and her 16-year-old son, Jayson, were guests of the shelter when Freeman was found there late on the March 25. Freeman was killed ter Jayson Jones tacked in an the Mason County say he was beaten by at a drinking party M , . Sawyer scheduled an o( hearing for May 6, pre.trl May 26 and trial for thejUU that begins June 7. q'imberland sets meeting on Internet access By JEFF GREEN Timberland Regional Library Board of Directors will hold a public meeting Tuesday evening to discuss to library's policy about access to the Internet. That meeting will be from 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, April 20, at Tim- berland's Service Center, 415 Air- dustrial Way SW, Olympia. A small group of Olympia-area residents have raised concerns County approves a preliminary phase of 85-acre subdivision near Hoodsport decided to return it to the county. Judge Sheldon will miss two months of work whe'n her infant twin sons come home from the hospital, she added. BOLENDER SAID the board appreciated the judge's generosi- ty and her effort and initiative in helping to ease budget demands on the courts. * Approved a professional ser- vices contract with Theresa Bol- ing, a dental hygienist, to oversee the health department's oral health program. Steve Kutz, personal health services direc- tor, noted a state Department of Health grant, which funds for the program, also stipulates that a dental professional must oversee the program. He said Boling was manager for a similar program in Grays Harbor County. The contract runs from March 1 to December 31 at a rate of $50 per hour with the total not to exceed $3,000. * Scheduled a public hearing for 9:15 a.m. Tuesday, May 11, on the vacation of a portion of the county right-of-way on North Shore Road, as requested by Ed- ward Triol of the Triol Family Limited Partnership. • Authorized Gary Yando, community development direc- tor, to advertise for proposals to harvest hay on four properties which the county acquired through the federal hazard miti- gation grant buyout program in the Skokomish Valley. The fields are located at 140, 180, 241 and 421 East Bourgault Road. All proposals must be received by Yando no later than 5 p.m. Fri- day, April 30. • HEARD FROM Yando that people had signed up to arrange for over 400 vehicles to deliver refuse on "free dump day" at the county solid-waste facility on Eells Hill Road. The free day is part of the county's spring clean- up effort. "I think it's an exciting program," he commented, add- ing that he hoped the county could sponsor another free day as a part of a fall cleanup. • Approved the warranty deed and real estate tax excise agree- ment with Ray and Barbara Kealy for the purchase of property on West Skokomish Valley Road as part of the federal hazard mit- igation grant buyout program. • Proclaimed April 18 to 24 as National County Government Week. • Approved veterans' assis- tance applications, as recom- mended by the screening com- mittee, for three individuals to- taling $1,142. ment conditional-use permit re- quest by Tim Sheldon of Pot- latch. Sheldon wants to excavate former fill and, restore property on two of four lots in Potlatch Beach tracts, located on Potlatch Lane toward Hood Canal from Highway 101. Bolender pointed out the origi- nal application called for the re- moval of 490 cubic yards but noted that the request had been revised to 320 cubic yards. He worried "this is an effort to squeeze into a small box" since grading of less than 200 cubic yards per lot is exempt from the county's grading ordinance, While he said he had no problem with the concept of the proposal, Bolender noted that he wanted to ensure that the commission was "not circumventing our own rules." Both commissioners asked for verification from the contractor, Ron Gold of R.G. Forestry Con- sultant of Hoodsport, as to how much fill would be removed from each of the lots involved. • Approved a supplemental appropriation to the budget of $12,580 for the superior court. Ione Siegler, budget director, told the board the funds are a private donation from Mason County Superior Court Judge Toni Shel- don for court commissioner ex- penses during her absence. Siegler explained that Judge Sheldon is required by law to take her salary but the judge has City of Shelton Comprehensive Plan Amendments The City is now accepting requests for amendments to the 1995 City of Shelton Comprehensive Plan. Amendments may be made in the form of map changes and/or text changes, and must be submitted by 5:00 p.m., April 30, 1998. A public hearing date for those amendment requests will be set in May. Cover sheets for amendment requests and a list of required submissions is available at City of Shelton, Development Services, 130 South 2nd Street. The Mason County commis- sioners gave preliminary ap- proval to an 85-acre subdivision north of Hoodsport at their meet- ing Tuesday. "This is probably the last one of these we'll see tbr awhile," Commissioner John Bolender observed, retbrring to the stand- still in development as the coun- ty struggles with compliance with the state Growth Manage- ment Act. Rulings of invalidity %r sections of the comprehensive plan and development regula.. tions by the Western Washing- ton Growth Management Hear- ings Board have resulted in an inability by the county to process various permits. But the large-lot permit re- quest submitted by Sam Boling of Brinnon predates any growth management hearings board de- cisions, Planner Pam Bennett- Cumming explained in her staff report. "This proposal was origi- nally initiated in December of' 1995, prior to the adoption of the 1996 Mason County Comprehen- sive Plan and development reg- ulations," she said. "THE APPLICANT has worked with the various county departments, other government agencies and interested parties in an attempt to craft a proposal which will meet county stan- dards, other agency concerns and address the concerns of the public," Bennett-Cumming wrote in her staff report. The board approved Boling's request to develop 85 acres in upland hills east of Holiday Beach into 17 clustered lots, with two tracts of open space totaling 38.28 acres. The residential lots range in size from 2.14 to 4,35 acres for a total acreage of 45.5 acres, Ben- nett-Cumming said. This con- figuration would result in a density of one dwelling unit per five acres, she noted. The proper- ty was logged in 1996. Miller Creek, a stream identi- fied by commenting agencies as an important fish habitat re- source, has been set aside as part of the open space in perpetuity, Bennett-Cumming explained. The steep slope area is also a part of the open space. CHARLES MARLEY, Bol- ing's brother-in-law and his partner in American Develop- ment, told the board they had done "lots of analysis," like hir- ing Allen L. Hart, engineering geologist from Tacoma, to pre- pare a geotechnical report. The board included the report's rec- ommendations as one of' the con- ditions for the permit. Marley noted they wanted to protect the stream and the people who live in Holiday Beach too, adding that is why all the devel- opment is on the hill. "I think we've done a good job of making sure everyone's protected - fish, people and the land," he said. IN OTHER business conduct- ed without Commissioner Mary Jo Cady, who was on a trip, Bolender and Olsen: • Approved a grant agreement with the Washington State De- partment of Ecology (DOE) to fund the treatment of Eurasian miifoil at Mason Lake. The three-year grant is for $54,000 total with DOE providing $47,250 and the recipient match providing $6,750 in cash or in- kind contributions, explained Health Services Director Brad Banner. He told the board a letter from the Mason Lake Watermil- foil Steering Committee indicat- ed the committee had a cash bal- ance of $5,283 with $1,500 in pledges. Banner noted the grant will be "back dated" to January 1, 1999 so the committee's work might be reimbursed. "They've done a tremendous amount of in-kind work," he said. "I'M VERY proud of the Mason Lake residents for putting forth the effort to achieve this grant," Olsen said. • Continued to 7:30 p.m. Tues- day, April 27, a hearing on a shoreline substantial-develop- Chuck Ruhl Insurance 10186 C',mmings l)rive 5dtc Woollcv, WA 98284 ()[rice (360) 854-91,!3,3 • Fax (.360) 854-0308. Toll Free Pager 1-888-204-4939 Journal Thursday, A)ri115, 1999 Page 2 Shelton-Mason For more information call the City of Shelton Planning Department at 426-9731. about access to pornographic ma- terials through Internet comput- ers at the library system's 27 branches. There currently is no screening of Internet computers, which provide open access to in- formation, said Tina Roose, Tim- berland's deputy director. "It's a small number of people" who are complaining, Roose told The Journal. People using the In- ternet through the library system accumulate thousands of hours of use, but the number of complaints is small, she added. THE MISSION of the region- al library system is to provide public access to a whole spectrum of ideas, Roose said. "The Internet is a whole new public forum that we haven't had before. The courts and legislatures around the coun- try are wrestling with how to con- trol this new medium of free speech," she said. Libraries across the country are also wrestling with the issue. "It's a classic democratic question: What should people be allowed access to and who decides what will be allowed," Roose said. One possible solution is com- puter software that automatically screens out photos of objection- able material. Timberland library computers currently have an op- tional search engine that filters out such material. Mike Potts, reference library at liam G. Reed thinks patrons have choices now to sive Internet sites. Shelton library teach basic Internet trons on Monday evenings, Potts the classes is to shoW ulous tool the ed. STAFF trons to return to home page when they're ing the Internet. though, they leave sites on the corn when they leave, "That's what sometim alarm and questions brary staff," Potts said. Five of the library'S lic-access comput trons to access the said that ever since library set up its couple of years ago an Internet access, the have gotten a lot of us of five patrons who come the computers want to ternet, he said. The library's "privacy" screens tb seen from the helps to protect inadvertently seeing they might find offensive' Nominations doe for volunteer kids Mason County is looking for nominations for the fourth annual Youth Volunteer Recognition Awards celebration. Any agency with young people between 13 and 18 who volunteer time and services can nominate youngsters for this recognition, says Carla Huyck of the Mason County Health Department. Nomination forms are avail- able from Huyck ty Building IV dar streets, or noW: call Maggie Roberts Parenthood or Kacie Sanborn at ty Literacy, Nominations ted no later than those nominated ognized at the April 2 When Tax Day Ends, Let's April 16&17 Show Starts at 9pm Live Country Music, Classic Rock, and Oldies € A S N 0 .............. ..... Open Daily * interdumge Hwy 101/108 * Shelton * (360) 427-7711 * www.Uttle-creek.com Check out our new hours: Suaday thru Wednelay loan, to 4am, Thursday thru Saturday 10am to 6am Olympics offer gold medal view THE OLYMPICS LOOM above Highway 101 on a glo- casters predict there will be more such views rious Sunday as spring seems to explode onto the through this weekend as sunshine continues and scene in one day after months of rain. Weather fore- temperatures reach the 70s by Friday. County commission roundup: Accused of killing boyfriend: Jones pleads not guilty to murder Elizabeth Jones, 37, of Shelton pied not guilty Wednesday to murdering her boyfriend at the Mason County Shelter. The plea followed a two-week stay at Western State Hospital, a medical facility in Tacoma for people with mental illnesses. A sanity commission there said she was depressed and irritable but found that she does not have any psychosis that would make her incompetent to stand trial for murder in the second degree. Defense attorney Robert Quil- lian said the sanity commission found that she had a long history of abusive relationships. He said the concepts of self-defense and "the battered-woman syndrome" would likely be an element of her defense.. Jones is accused of stabbing 47-year-old Randy Freeman in the chest following a bout of heavy drinking at the shelter. Jones and her 16-year-old son, Jayson, were guests of the shelter when Freeman was found there late on the March 25. Freeman was killed ter Jayson Jones tacked in an the Mason County say he was beaten by at a drinking party M , . Sawyer scheduled an o( hearing for May 6, pre.trl May 26 and trial for thejUU that begins June 7. q'imberland sets meeting on Internet access By JEFF GREEN Timberland Regional Library Board of Directors will hold a public meeting Tuesday evening to discuss to library's policy about access to the Internet. That meeting will be from 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, April 20, at Tim- berland's Service Center, 415 Air- dustrial Way SW, Olympia. A small group of Olympia-area residents have raised concerns County approves a preliminary phase of 85-acre subdivision near Hoodsport decided to return it to the county. Judge Sheldon will miss two months of work whe'n her infant twin sons come home from the hospital, she added. BOLENDER SAID the board appreciated the judge's generosi- ty and her effort and initiative in helping to ease budget demands on the courts. * Approved a professional ser- vices contract with Theresa Bol- ing, a dental hygienist, to oversee the health department's oral health program. Steve Kutz, personal health services direc- tor, noted a state Department of Health grant, which funds for the program, also stipulates that a dental professional must oversee the program. He said Boling was manager for a similar program in Grays Harbor County. The contract runs from March 1 to December 31 at a rate of $50 per hour with the total not to exceed $3,000. * Scheduled a public hearing for 9:15 a.m. Tuesday, May 11, on the vacation of a portion of the county right-of-way on North Shore Road, as requested by Ed- ward Triol of the Triol Family Limited Partnership. • Authorized Gary Yando, community development direc- tor, to advertise for proposals to harvest hay on four properties which the county acquired through the federal hazard miti- gation grant buyout program in the Skokomish Valley. The fields are located at 140, 180, 241 and 421 East Bourgault Road. All proposals must be received by Yando no later than 5 p.m. Fri- day, April 30. • HEARD FROM Yando that people had signed up to arrange for over 400 vehicles to deliver refuse on "free dump day" at the county solid-waste facility on Eells Hill Road. The free day is part of the county's spring clean- up effort. "I think it's an exciting program," he commented, add- ing that he hoped the county could sponsor another free day as a part of a fall cleanup. • Approved the warranty deed and real estate tax excise agree- ment with Ray and Barbara Kealy for the purchase of property on West Skokomish Valley Road as part of the federal hazard mit- igation grant buyout program. • Proclaimed April 18 to 24 as National County Government Week. • Approved veterans' assis- tance applications, as recom- mended by the screening com- mittee, for three individuals to- taling $1,142. ment conditional-use permit re- quest by Tim Sheldon of Pot- latch. Sheldon wants to excavate former fill and, restore property on two of four lots in Potlatch Beach tracts, located on Potlatch Lane toward Hood Canal from Highway 101. Bolender pointed out the origi- nal application called for the re- moval of 490 cubic yards but noted that the request had been revised to 320 cubic yards. He worried "this is an effort to squeeze into a small box" since grading of less than 200 cubic yards per lot is exempt from the county's grading ordinance, While he said he had no problem with the concept of the proposal, Bolender noted that he wanted to ensure that the commission was "not circumventing our own rules." Both commissioners asked for verification from the contractor, Ron Gold of R.G. Forestry Con- sultant of Hoodsport, as to how much fill would be removed from each of the lots involved. • Approved a supplemental appropriation to the budget of $12,580 for the superior court. Ione Siegler, budget director, told the board the funds are a private donation from Mason County Superior Court Judge Toni Shel- don for court commissioner ex- penses during her absence. Siegler explained that Judge Sheldon is required by law to take her salary but the judge has City of Shelton Comprehensive Plan Amendments The City is now accepting requests for amendments to the 1995 City of Shelton Comprehensive Plan. Amendments may be made in the form of map changes and/or text changes, and must be submitted by 5:00 p.m., April 30, 1998. A public hearing date for those amendment requests will be set in May. Cover sheets for amendment requests and a list of required submissions is available at City of Shelton, Development Services, 130 South 2nd Street. The Mason County commis- sioners gave preliminary ap- proval to an 85-acre subdivision north of Hoodsport at their meet- ing Tuesday. "This is probably the last one of these we'll see tbr awhile," Commissioner John Bolender observed, retbrring to the stand- still in development as the coun- ty struggles with compliance with the state Growth Manage- ment Act. Rulings of invalidity %r sections of the comprehensive plan and development regula.. tions by the Western Washing- ton Growth Management Hear- ings Board have resulted in an inability by the county to process various permits. But the large-lot permit re- quest submitted by Sam Boling of Brinnon predates any growth management hearings board de- cisions, Planner Pam Bennett- Cumming explained in her staff report. "This proposal was origi- nally initiated in December of' 1995, prior to the adoption of the 1996 Mason County Comprehen- sive Plan and development reg- ulations," she said. "THE APPLICANT has worked with the various county departments, other government agencies and interested parties in an attempt to craft a proposal which will meet county stan- dards, other agency concerns and address the concerns of the public," Bennett-Cumming wrote in her staff report. The board approved Boling's request to develop 85 acres in upland hills east of Holiday Beach into 17 clustered lots, with two tracts of open space totaling 38.28 acres. The residential lots range in size from 2.14 to 4,35 acres for a total acreage of 45.5 acres, Ben- nett-Cumming said. This con- figuration would result in a density of one dwelling unit per five acres, she noted. The proper- ty was logged in 1996. Miller Creek, a stream identi- fied by commenting agencies as an important fish habitat re- source, has been set aside as part of the open space in perpetuity, Bennett-Cumming explained. The steep slope area is also a part of the open space. CHARLES MARLEY, Bol- ing's brother-in-law and his partner in American Develop- ment, told the board they had done "lots of analysis," like hir- ing Allen L. Hart, engineering geologist from Tacoma, to pre- pare a geotechnical report. The board included the report's rec- ommendations as one of' the con- ditions for the permit. Marley noted they wanted to protect the stream and the people who live in Holiday Beach too, adding that is why all the devel- opment is on the hill. "I think we've done a good job of making sure everyone's protected - fish, people and the land," he said. IN OTHER business conduct- ed without Commissioner Mary Jo Cady, who was on a trip, Bolender and Olsen: • Approved a grant agreement with the Washington State De- partment of Ecology (DOE) to fund the treatment of Eurasian miifoil at Mason Lake. The three-year grant is for $54,000 total with DOE providing $47,250 and the recipient match providing $6,750 in cash or in- kind contributions, explained Health Services Director Brad Banner. He told the board a letter from the Mason Lake Watermil- foil Steering Committee indicat- ed the committee had a cash bal- ance of $5,283 with $1,500 in pledges. Banner noted the grant will be "back dated" to January 1, 1999 so the committee's work might be reimbursed. "They've done a tremendous amount of in-kind work," he said. "I'M VERY proud of the Mason Lake residents for putting forth the effort to achieve this grant," Olsen said. • Continued to 7:30 p.m. Tues- day, April 27, a hearing on a shoreline substantial-develop- Chuck Ruhl Insurance 10186 C',mmings l)rive 5dtc Woollcv, WA 98284 ()[rice (360) 854-91,!3,3 • Fax (.360) 854-0308. Toll Free Pager 1-888-204-4939 Journal Thursday, A)ri115, 1999 Page 2 Shelton-Mason For more information call the City of Shelton Planning Department at 426-9731. about access to pornographic ma- terials through Internet comput- ers at the library system's 27 branches. There currently is no screening of Internet computers, which provide open access to in- formation, said Tina Roose, Tim- berland's deputy director. "It's a small number of people" who are complaining, Roose told The Journal. People using the In- ternet through the library system accumulate thousands of hours of use, but the number of complaints is small, she added. THE MISSION of the region- al library system is to provide public access to a whole spectrum of ideas, Roose said. "The Internet is a whole new public forum that we haven't had before. The courts and legislatures around the coun- try are wrestling with how to con- trol this new medium of free speech," she said. Libraries across the country are also wrestling with the issue. "It's a classic democratic question: What should people be allowed access to and who decides what will be allowed," Roose said. One possible solution is com- puter software that automatically screens out photos of objection- able material. Timberland library computers currently have an op- tional search engine that filters out such material. Mike Potts, reference library at liam G. Reed thinks patrons have choices now to sive Internet sites. Shelton library teach basic Internet trons on Monday evenings, Potts the classes is to shoW ulous tool the ed. STAFF trons to return to home page when they're ing the Internet. though, they leave sites on the corn when they leave, "That's what sometim alarm and questions brary staff," Potts said. Five of the library'S lic-access comput trons to access the said that ever since library set up its couple of years ago an Internet access, the have gotten a lot of us of five patrons who come the computers want to ternet, he said. The library's "privacy" screens tb seen from the helps to protect inadvertently seeing they might find offensive' Nominations doe for volunteer kids Mason County is looking for nominations for the fourth annual Youth Volunteer Recognition Awards celebration. Any agency with young people between 13 and 18 who volunteer time and services can nominate youngsters for this recognition, says Carla Huyck of the Mason County Health Department. Nomination forms are avail- able from Huyck ty Building IV dar streets, or noW: call Maggie Roberts Parenthood or Kacie Sanborn at ty Literacy, Nominations ted no later than those nominated ognized at the April 2 When Tax Day Ends, Let's April 16&17 Show Starts at 9pm Live Country Music, Classic Rock, and Oldies € A S N 0 .............. ..... Open Daily * interdumge Hwy 101/108 * Shelton * (360) 427-7711 * www.Uttle-creek.com Check out our new hours: Suaday thru Wednelay loan, to 4am, Thursday thru Saturday 10am to 6am