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SM~LL TOW~ PAPERS
[~17 I~.) COTA ST
M,I,A ,ll,,-ih
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Week 17 -- The Voice of Mason County since 1886 -- Published for Mason County and Mike Leitch of Union -- $1
Not guilty pl
a
Hoodsport man admits to killing wife
By NATALIE JOHNSON
natatie@masoncounty.eom
Christopher D. Thorson,
who admitted to shooting
his wife with a 12-guage
shotgun last week, was ar-
raigned in Mason County
Superior Court on Monday.
Thorson plod not guilty
at the arraignment to the
charge of first-degree mur-
der with a domestic violence
enhancement.
Authorities say Thorson,
64, admitted to killing his
wife, Vanessa Thorson, 55,
in their home near Lake
Cushman on April 12, after
an argument.
He originally told Mason
County Sheriffs Deputies
that he shot his wife as an
assisted suicide.
The Thorsons recently
moved to the Lake Cush-
man area from Steila-
coom.
Thorson's next appear-
ance will be at an omnibus
hearing on May 7.
"It's basically a hearing
where the court yerifies
that information is being
exchanged between the par-
ties," Mason County Pros-
ecutor Mike Dorcy said. "It's
pretty routine."
A pro-trial hearing on
May 29 has been set with a
trial set for June 12.
Journal photo by Natalie Johnson
The new PUD 3 operations center on Johns
Prairie Road is open to customers this month.
In the lobby, customers can use a touch screen
interactive display to see how much power the
PUD's solar array puts out ..............
PUD completes move
By NATALIE JOHNSON
nc~talie@masoncountyoeOm
On April 2, Mason County
PUD 3 completed its first day
of full operations at its new
Johns Prairie offices.
"The move was phased
over the last month so we
had departments moving in
shifts," said Joel Myer, public
information and government
relations manager for PUD 3.
Since then, employees of
the utility have noticed sev-
eral improvements.
"We're already seeing
improvement in commu-
nications and coordination
between and among depart-
ments," PUD 3 Manager
Wyla Wood said. "We're all
enjoying it."
Myer said having most of
the PUD departments in one
complex, rather than spread
out in several locations, also
helps communications at the
utility.
"Right off one of the things
I've noticed where I'm located
I have access to every depart-
ment," Myer said. "That's the•
whole value of being in the
same facility and building."
Last week Rushforth Con-
struction, the general con-
tractor in charge of the $34.5
million project to build the
new PUD 3 operations center
on Johns Prairie Road, was
putting finishing touches on
the main office building.
Myer plans on organiza-
tion open houses and tours
of the new PUD complex in
mid-May, but gave the Shel-
ton-Mason County Journal
an early look inside the office.
Much of the new office
building is lit with natural
light, with help from inter-
nal lights. "Light walls" let
in sunlight from outside, and
dividers between offices are
IIIIU!!1!!11!!!!!11112
frosted glass, rather than
solid walls.
'~/hen you have natural
light it's a better working en-
vironment," Myer said.
The PUD's interior lights
are also sensitive to the sun-
light outside, and will dim as
exterior light increases, and
vice versa.
"Both of those are good en-
ergy savers," Myer said.
Now that the building is
open to customers and mem-
bers of the public, the PUD
has installed a touch screen
display showing output from
the solar array atop the com-
plex's Building D.
In the PUD's old adminis-
trative building on West Cota
Street, community groups
regularly used the auditori-
um for community functions
and meetings. Wood said the
new complex also offers an
auditorium for use by the
public, which is more than
twice the size of the old one,
and available more often.
The new PUD 3 audito-
rium's primary function is to
host PUD commission meet-
ings. The room can be split
into two separate meeting
rooms, which can each hold
up to 123 people, Wood said.
"There are really two good
sized rooms in there," she
said. '~,Ve think it's going to be
a great community resource
for a long time --that's how
we designed it."
While the downtown audi-
torium was often only avail-
able on weekends or before or
after business hours because
it was the PUD's primary
meeting space, the new build-
ing offers about eight meeting
spaces just for PUD person-
nel, which frees up the large
meeting rooms for public use.
The spacious administra-
tive building at the new con-
ference also includes a full
kitchen to use to feed staff
during responses to power
outages, expanded crew areas,
open offices, and more than 30
miles of computer cables.
Journal photo by Will Adams
Members of the fire dancing troupe Dragon Steps headlined the Dragonfest event last
weekend at the Shelton fairgrounds. The event was created to raise funds and awareness
for the Mason Area Fair.
nge coming in commun
Mason County seeks
input with online survey
By NATALIE JOHNSON
The Mason County Parks and
Trails Department wants your in-
put as it updates the county's six-
year parks master plan.
Monday night, the parks and
trails department hosted the first
of two public workshops in Shelton
to ask what members of the commu-
nity want from their county park
system.
The parks and trails department
decided to hold public forums so the
county could gather input from resi-
dents while answering questions
about county parks.
"One of the challenges when we
do a park plan, especially last time,
when we did our survey, a lot of
folks don't know that Lake Isabella
is a state park ... Huff and Puff is a
city park," said John Keates, Mason
County director of parks and trails.
Journal photo by Natalie Johnson
John Keates, Mason County
director of parks and trails
speaks at a recent public
forum for the county's six-
year parks master plan.
The second workshop is sched-
uled for 6:30 p.m. April 30 at the
North Mason Timberland Library
in Belfair.
The survey asks several ques-
tions of community members
through multiple-choice questions.
For example, respondents are asked
to pick which benefits of a county
park system are most important
to them, and rate the existing park
system.
Respondents are also invited to
suggest new ideas for county park
facilities or properties, or new loca-
tions for water access or boat ramps.
Mason County has 21 park prop-
erties, Keates said.
The county also recently acquired
a 22nd park -- Sunset BluffPark on
Oakland Bay.
The Mason County Recreation
Area (MCRA) and Sand Hill sports
parks are the county's "flagship
parks," Keates said.
"They also take the lion share of
our attention and maintenance," he
said. " At MCRA, we're just in the
final phases of doing infield renova-
tions of two fields there, we have
more work to do there."
Community input helped shape
the last Mason County park mas-
See Parks on page A-6
Conservation district awards good stewards
By NATALIE JOHNSON
natalie@m(~soncouniy,com
Many people recycle
their paper and plastic.
Others work to improve
their land. Not many,
however, go above and
beyond.
In an effort to recog-
nize these good stewards
of Mason County, the
Mason Conservation Dis-
trict gave its Conserva-
tion Steward of the Year
award to two local orga-
nizations this month.
Wilson Recycling and
Skokomish Farms both
received the honor for ef-
forts to preserve Mason
County.
"We took nominations
from the community and
we ended up with two
who were above and be-
yond," said Stephanie
Bishop, education and
outreach coordinator at
Mason Conservation.
Bishop said the district
has given out awards for
conservation in the past,
but changed the award
this year.
"Last year we had the
Conservation Farmer of
the Year," she said. "We
kind of expanded it this
year because we wanted
to be able to recognize
more people in the com-
munity who weren't nec-
essarily farmers."
Wilson Recycling
prides itself on being
able to recycle virtually
anything, or send it to a
company that can, and
David Baker, director of
Wilson Recycling, said
the company received the
stewardship award part-
ly because of its efforts to
recycle agrigultural plas-
tics.
"We focused a lot in
2011 in supporting the
agricultural community,"
he said. "Agricultural
plastics --really they're
a burden on the agricul-
tural community."
Agrigultural plastics
include everything from
bailing twine to hay wrap
to flower pots from nurs-
eries, Baker said. Many
of these products can be
recycled to not only keep
such plastic out of land-
fills, but also to reduce
the need for new plastic,
and its root material --
oil.
"For us to be able to
give more life to this
product reduces the need
around that have a park
bench that's like plastic
wood and that's most-
ly where• that's coming
from," Baker said.
The conservation
recognized a farm this
year as well. Bishop
said Skokomish Farms,
for the origi- owned by Alann
nal natural re-~We took and Mali Kriv-
source," he said. or, has done ex-
Agricultural ~O~iF~atioF~$ tensive work in
plastic can be
reused in sever-
al applications,
Baker said.
For example,
nursery ~ pots
are often shred-
ded, melted and
reused to make
things like laun-
dry detergent
bottles. Bailing
twine can be re-
used to make plastic fab-
rics and plastic film used
for feed bags and hay
wrap can be recycled into
things like plastic park
benches, or plastic lum-
ber, sometimes used in
decking.
"There's a few places
from the the past several
years to pre-
CO~F~it~ serve their land
and we in the Skokom-
ish Valley.
ended up oo9,
~/itb t~/O they enrolled
42 acres of their
who were property into a
above and program called
Emergency Wa-
beyond o" tershed Protec-
tion Program,"
Bishop said.
As part of that pro-
gram, the Krivors plant-
ed 21,000 trees and in-
stalled 2,000 feet of fenc-
ing on that 42 acres of
land.
See Awards on page A-6