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Shelton Mason County Journal
Shelton, Washington
May 17, 2007     Shelton Mason County Journal
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May 17, 2007
 
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SHELTON- MASON COUNTY JOURNAL Thursday, May 17, 2007 121st Year -- Number 20 5 Sections -- 46 Pages Published in Shelton, Washington 75 cents Bus levy teeters 27 votes shy Shelton School District's $1.3- on transportation vehicle levy is teetering on the brink (! ssing following vote-counting '1, Iday evening. he measure currently has 59.3 ant "yes" votes, just 27 votes 0f the needed 60 percent voter approval. Mason County Elec- tions Supervisor Pat Sykora said she expects a couple of hundred additional votes to be counted on Friday. As of Tuesday night, the levy has 2,280 "yes" votes and 1,565 "no" votes. Voter turnout in the all-mail election currently is 38.4 percent. If the ballot measure ultimately passes, the school district would use money from the levy to pur- chase seven special-needs buses and 12 regular school buses dur- ing a five-year span from the next school year through the 2011-2012 school year. The transportation vehicle fund levy would be in addition to bond and maintenance-and-operation levy funds currently collected by the district. In 2008, district property own- ers would pay an estimated $5.96 per $1,000 for the combined bond and M&O levy. With the trans- portation vehicle fund levy of 51 cents per $1,000 added to that, they would pay $6.47 per $1,000 in 2008. The bus levy would be col- lected only in 2008 and 2009. A FIREFIGHTER WORKS to extinguish the fire at a home on the corner of Johns Prairie and Batstone Cutoffroads. The people living there were unharmed but two dogs and a cat were killed in the blaze. one hurt but three pets in fire on Johns Prairie pets were killed and three Were forced to find new ac- after fire swept a home on Johns Prairie r morning. County Fire Marshal :Iaugen is still investigat- fire. Charlene 52, said the fire started box of her home at the Johns Prairie and Bat- Road. Staying with time were her son, Den- and her granddaugh- another child, Alysha everything: all my |, all Alysha's clothes," said. "Dennis got to save lost were the three pets in the blaze: Big Dog, the Fat Cat and Maxie, a terrier. "We've been a few photo albums, furniture is gone," Cuz- IMPLOYEE of Mason alerted fire fighters to the noticing smoke com- roof line of a house on Johns Prairie Road on the morn- ing of May 10, calling fire rescue crews to the scene. The homeown- ers had gone to the store at the time, unaware of the fire about to engulf their home. By 10 a.m., Mason County fire districts 4, 5, 11 and 13, along with Shelton Fire Department and Griffin Fire District in Thur- ston County, were responding to the report. Since the single-fam- ily residential structure was not well marked with an address, fire crews initially thought the call was to the Island Lake area, said Jeff Cowan, assistant chief of Fire Dis- trict 5. The blaze occurred within the jurisdiction of District 5, and a unified command worked together to extinguish the flames. By the time crews arrived, the structure was fully involved in fire. Cowan estimates the home was about 1,200 square feet in size and had been remodeled several times. Firefighters were able to contain the fire almost immediately, but suppressing it entirely was a long and difficult process, taking a few hours, because the home was in- sulated with sawdust. This caused the blaze to smolder and then re- kindle, flaring up again. "The sawdust gave us a hard time putting the fire out," Cowan said. "So until we were able to ex- tinguish every spark, it took us a lot longer to put it out." HOWEVER, THE team was able to stop the fire from spread- ing further and then help the resi- dents recover their personal be- longings and mementos. "It was a good team effort," Cowan said. The American Red Cross was able to help provide the family with emergency housing, and the resi- dents are now staying with friends and relatives. An account has been set up at Key Bank in Cuzick's name for persons who would like to help her defray the cost of set- ting up a new household. "I'm at the neighbor's and Den- nis is staying with a friend and Alysha went back home," she said. The friend is Lisa Mendoza, who will take calls from people want- ing to help on her cellular phone: 451-1314. charged with assault shooting of his brother Shelton man ar- allegedly shooting his the leg was arraigned IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII the inside . • ................................ U eds ........................... 33 Ivaity Calendar ....... 19 mWord ........................... 38 etainment, Dining ..... 32 tal of Record .. 20 it  ........... h., es ........................... 10 LU It ls, Letters ................. 4 • "Qooee..ee*ee.ee*eeeoe.e.e.e. 3 ,, "',,,,,,,,,,,,,,,E;E,,=,,;,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, , |J! !!lJIIIJIJ!l!l!lll II last week in Mason County Supe- rior Court. Eddie Dino Sanchez of 900 Olympic Avenue entered not- guilty pleas on May 10 to charges of assault in the first degree and unlawful possession of a firearm in the first degree. He is accused of domestic violence in the shooting his brother, Jesus "Jesse" Clovis Sanchez. Officers of the Shelton Police Department responded to Mason General Hospital at 4:14 a.m. on May 2 and contacted Jesus San- chez, who told officers he had been shot by his brother, Eddie Sanchez, while in their apartment. Eddie Sanchez reportedly was attempt- ing to wake up his brother when shots were fired from a black semi- automatic handgun which Eddie Sanchez reportedly identified as belonging to him. Eddie Sanchez allegedly leR the apartment in a 2002 black Volk- swagen Jetta, and two neighbors, Travis Lee Shank and Frances Joanne Shank, took Jesus Sanchez to Mason General Hospital. Jesus Sanchez, 29, was later transported to Saint Peter Hos- pital in Olympia. Eddie Sanchez was found by Shelton police offi- cers inside the Jetta parked in the 1000 block of Wyandotte Avenue. He reportedly had a handgun with him but is prohibited from owning, using or possessing firearms as a result of a previous felony convic- tion. Eddie Sanchez is being held on $250,000 bail. First-degree assault is considered a "strike" offense un- der the state's persistent offender sentencing act, which mandates a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole for per- sons convicted of three "strikes." His future court dates include an omnibus hearing on May 21, a pre- trial hearing on June 11 and trial during the jury term beginning June 26. Drags boosters want to pave way to bigger things By JEFF GREEN With an eye on bigger events, the Shelton Drag Strip Associa- tion has initiated talks with the Port of Shelton about resurfacing the closed runway at Sanderson Field where drag races were held last summer. Rahn Redman, executive di- rector of the association, told The Journal after Tuesday morning's port commission meeting that the asphalt on the runway is 60 years old, hard and brittle and that when it's heated, as by the smoking tires of a drag racer, tiny pieces of the runway come out. Redman would like to see 1,400 feet of the runway resurface& 700 feet resurfaced with 8-inch-thick concrete, the remaining 700 feet with three layers of asphalt total- ing 41/2 inches in thickness. The runway currently has an asphalt surface that's 31h inches thick, he said. The cost of resurfacing the runway would be paid for by a company owned by Tacoma busi- nessman and drag racing buff Walt Austin. Redman told port commissioners Tuesday the as- sociation needed to have concrete poured by June 5 to give it time to cure by drag racing this sum- mer, which is planned for the weekends of July 6-8 and 13-15. MORE THAN likely, that won't happen before this year's back-to-back weekend event, said Bob Robinson, the port's manag- ing director. Half a loaf is better than none and Redman wants to see a 60-foot strip at the starting line resurfaced before this sum- mer's racing. Redman said if the entire drag strip is resurfaced, the National Hot Rod Association would like to hold a divisional racing event here in June 2008. That could lead to a national drag racing event at the Shelton airport in three to five years, he noted. The divisional would be held over a four-day weekend and would draw racers from Wash- ington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Alaska and two Canadian provinc- es, he told The Journal, adding it could draw 60,000 to 100,000 visi- tors to Mason County and pump an estimated $3 to $5 million into the local economy. After the port commission meeting, Redman said his asso- ciation is seeking a five-year con- tract between the port and Walt Austin Racing that would provide for 12 weekends of racing per year, with the Tacoma firm pay- (Please turn to page 7.) Nighttime seatbelt emphasis planned Local law enforcement will be in the national spotlight as offi- cers make some big changes in the Click it or Ticket campaign. Seat- belt enforcement patrols are mov- ing to nighttime hours, starting on Monday. Statewide, there will be 75 law-enforcement agencies partici- pating in the nighttime seatbelt enforcement project including the Shelton Police Department and Mason County Sheriffs Office, as well as the state patrol. Patrolling for seatbel violators is more difficult at night because it is hard to see the seatbelt. Howev- er, the Washington State Patrol is pioneering an enforcement meth- od that will be used statewide. It involves both an observational of- ricer and several pursuit vehicles. Once an unbuckled motorist is spotted, the observing officer will radio ahead to the pursuit vehicle to make the stop. "Many people think that law en- forcement can't see unbuckled too- torists at night, so seatbelt use is lower and consequently the night- time death rate is four times what 4t is during the day. This project will change that," said Lowell Por- ter, director of the Washington Traffic Safety Commission. LOOKING AT ALL vehicle oc- cupant deaths in Washington for the years 2001-2005, there were 2,366 vehicle occupant deaths, with 1,153, or 49 percent, occur- ring from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. and 1,198, 51 percent, occurring from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. Though the num- ber of people killed during the day is about the same as those killed at night, the death rate at night is approximately four to five times higher because traffic volumes are much lower at night. "We know that people are most at risk of dying in a severe colli- sion at night because more risky driving behavior takes place at night: more impaired driving, (Please turn to page 7.) Sewage system eyed on canal West Shore The U.S. Congress will be asked to turn the tide on a tribal funding measure that would solidify a $19.8-million plan to improve wastewater management on the West Shore of Hood Canal from the Skokomish Reservation to Hoodsport. Word that a change in the language of a 2003 State and Tribal Assistance Grant to the Skokomish Nation is supported by the Bush Administration was delivered May 4 in a letter to local authorities from Thomas Eaton, director of the Washington Operations Office of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. This project has become a priority in the wake of reports that high levels of bacteria have translated into low levels of oxygen, resulting in a couple of sizable "fish kills" in Hood Canal. "Nutrients, especially nitrogen in he form of nitrate and ammonium, are introduced into Hood Canal via such mechanisms as failing septic systems in the nearshore watershed," Eaton wrote. "This increased nutrient load from septic systems impacts the marine environment of Hood Canal by contributing to algal blooms that deplete valuable dissolved oxygen needed to sustain healthy marine life." (Please turn to page 7.) SHELTON- MASON COUNTY JOURNAL Thursday, May 17, 2007 121st Year -- Number 20 5 Sections -- 46 Pages Published in Shelton, Washington 75 cents Bus levy teeters 27 votes shy Shelton School District's $1.3- on transportation vehicle levy is teetering on the brink (! ssing following vote-counting '1, Iday evening. he measure currently has 59.3 ant "yes" votes, just 27 votes 0f the needed 60 percent voter approval. Mason County Elec- tions Supervisor Pat Sykora said she expects a couple of hundred additional votes to be counted on Friday. As of Tuesday night, the levy has 2,280 "yes" votes and 1,565 "no" votes. Voter turnout in the all-mail election currently is 38.4 percent. If the ballot measure ultimately passes, the school district would use money from the levy to pur- chase seven special-needs buses and 12 regular school buses dur- ing a five-year span from the next school year through the 2011-2012 school year. The transportation vehicle fund levy would be in addition to bond and maintenance-and-operation levy funds currently collected by the district. In 2008, district property own- ers would pay an estimated $5.96 per $1,000 for the combined bond and M&O levy. With the trans- portation vehicle fund levy of 51 cents per $1,000 added to that, they would pay $6.47 per $1,000 in 2008. The bus levy would be col- lected only in 2008 and 2009. A FIREFIGHTER WORKS to extinguish the fire at a home on the corner of Johns Prairie and Batstone Cutoffroads. The people living there were unharmed but two dogs and a cat were killed in the blaze. one hurt but three pets in fire on Johns Prairie pets were killed and three Were forced to find new ac- after fire swept a home on Johns Prairie r morning. County Fire Marshal :Iaugen is still investigat- fire. Charlene 52, said the fire started box of her home at the Johns Prairie and Bat- Road. Staying with time were her son, Den- and her granddaugh- another child, Alysha everything: all my |, all Alysha's clothes," said. "Dennis got to save lost were the three pets in the blaze: Big Dog, the Fat Cat and Maxie, a terrier. "We've been a few photo albums, furniture is gone," Cuz- IMPLOYEE of Mason alerted fire fighters to the noticing smoke com- roof line of a house on Johns Prairie Road on the morn- ing of May 10, calling fire rescue crews to the scene. The homeown- ers had gone to the store at the time, unaware of the fire about to engulf their home. By 10 a.m., Mason County fire districts 4, 5, 11 and 13, along with Shelton Fire Department and Griffin Fire District in Thur- ston County, were responding to the report. Since the single-fam- ily residential structure was not well marked with an address, fire crews initially thought the call was to the Island Lake area, said Jeff Cowan, assistant chief of Fire Dis- trict 5. The blaze occurred within the jurisdiction of District 5, and a unified command worked together to extinguish the flames. By the time crews arrived, the structure was fully involved in fire. Cowan estimates the home was about 1,200 square feet in size and had been remodeled several times. Firefighters were able to contain the fire almost immediately, but suppressing it entirely was a long and difficult process, taking a few hours, because the home was in- sulated with sawdust. This caused the blaze to smolder and then re- kindle, flaring up again. "The sawdust gave us a hard time putting the fire out," Cowan said. "So until we were able to ex- tinguish every spark, it took us a lot longer to put it out." HOWEVER, THE team was able to stop the fire from spread- ing further and then help the resi- dents recover their personal be- longings and mementos. "It was a good team effort," Cowan said. The American Red Cross was able to help provide the family with emergency housing, and the resi- dents are now staying with friends and relatives. An account has been set up at Key Bank in Cuzick's name for persons who would like to help her defray the cost of set- ting up a new household. "I'm at the neighbor's and Den- nis is staying with a friend and Alysha went back home," she said. The friend is Lisa Mendoza, who will take calls from people want- ing to help on her cellular phone: 451-1314. charged with assault shooting of his brother Shelton man ar- allegedly shooting his the leg was arraigned IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII the inside . • ................................ U eds ........................... 33 Ivaity Calendar ....... 19 mWord ........................... 38 etainment, Dining ..... 32 tal of Record .. 20 it  ........... h., es ........................... 10 LU It ls, Letters ................. 4 • "Qooee..ee*ee.ee*eeeoe.e.e.e. 3 ,, "',,,,,,,,,,,,,,,E;E,,=,,;,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, , |J! !!lJIIIJIJ!l!l!lll II last week in Mason County Supe- rior Court. Eddie Dino Sanchez of 900 Olympic Avenue entered not- guilty pleas on May 10 to charges of assault in the first degree and unlawful possession of a firearm in the first degree. He is accused of domestic violence in the shooting his brother, Jesus "Jesse" Clovis Sanchez. Officers of the Shelton Police Department responded to Mason General Hospital at 4:14 a.m. on May 2 and contacted Jesus San- chez, who told officers he had been shot by his brother, Eddie Sanchez, while in their apartment. Eddie Sanchez reportedly was attempt- ing to wake up his brother when shots were fired from a black semi- automatic handgun which Eddie Sanchez reportedly identified as belonging to him. Eddie Sanchez allegedly leR the apartment in a 2002 black Volk- swagen Jetta, and two neighbors, Travis Lee Shank and Frances Joanne Shank, took Jesus Sanchez to Mason General Hospital. Jesus Sanchez, 29, was later transported to Saint Peter Hos- pital in Olympia. Eddie Sanchez was found by Shelton police offi- cers inside the Jetta parked in the 1000 block of Wyandotte Avenue. He reportedly had a handgun with him but is prohibited from owning, using or possessing firearms as a result of a previous felony convic- tion. Eddie Sanchez is being held on $250,000 bail. First-degree assault is considered a "strike" offense un- der the state's persistent offender sentencing act, which mandates a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole for per- sons convicted of three "strikes." His future court dates include an omnibus hearing on May 21, a pre- trial hearing on June 11 and trial during the jury term beginning June 26. Drags boosters want to pave way to bigger things By JEFF GREEN With an eye on bigger events, the Shelton Drag Strip Associa- tion has initiated talks with the Port of Shelton about resurfacing the closed runway at Sanderson Field where drag races were held last summer. Rahn Redman, executive di- rector of the association, told The Journal after Tuesday morning's port commission meeting that the asphalt on the runway is 60 years old, hard and brittle and that when it's heated, as by the smoking tires of a drag racer, tiny pieces of the runway come out. Redman would like to see 1,400 feet of the runway resurface& 700 feet resurfaced with 8-inch-thick concrete, the remaining 700 feet with three layers of asphalt total- ing 41/2 inches in thickness. The runway currently has an asphalt surface that's 31h inches thick, he said. The cost of resurfacing the runway would be paid for by a company owned by Tacoma busi- nessman and drag racing buff Walt Austin. Redman told port commissioners Tuesday the as- sociation needed to have concrete poured by June 5 to give it time to cure by drag racing this sum- mer, which is planned for the weekends of July 6-8 and 13-15. MORE THAN likely, that won't happen before this year's back-to-back weekend event, said Bob Robinson, the port's manag- ing director. Half a loaf is better than none and Redman wants to see a 60-foot strip at the starting line resurfaced before this sum- mer's racing. Redman said if the entire drag strip is resurfaced, the National Hot Rod Association would like to hold a divisional racing event here in June 2008. That could lead to a national drag racing event at the Shelton airport in three to five years, he noted. The divisional would be held over a four-day weekend and would draw racers from Wash- ington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Alaska and two Canadian provinc- es, he told The Journal, adding it could draw 60,000 to 100,000 visi- tors to Mason County and pump an estimated $3 to $5 million into the local economy. After the port commission meeting, Redman said his asso- ciation is seeking a five-year con- tract between the port and Walt Austin Racing that would provide for 12 weekends of racing per year, with the Tacoma firm pay- (Please turn to page 7.) Nighttime seatbelt emphasis planned Local law enforcement will be in the national spotlight as offi- cers make some big changes in the Click it or Ticket campaign. Seat- belt enforcement patrols are mov- ing to nighttime hours, starting on Monday. Statewide, there will be 75 law-enforcement agencies partici- pating in the nighttime seatbelt enforcement project including the Shelton Police Department and Mason County Sheriffs Office, as well as the state patrol. Patrolling for seatbel violators is more difficult at night because it is hard to see the seatbelt. Howev- er, the Washington State Patrol is pioneering an enforcement meth- od that will be used statewide. It involves both an observational of- ricer and several pursuit vehicles. Once an unbuckled motorist is spotted, the observing officer will radio ahead to the pursuit vehicle to make the stop. "Many people think that law en- forcement can't see unbuckled too- torists at night, so seatbelt use is lower and consequently the night- time death rate is four times what 4t is during the day. This project will change that," said Lowell Por- ter, director of the Washington Traffic Safety Commission. LOOKING AT ALL vehicle oc- cupant deaths in Washington for the years 2001-2005, there were 2,366 vehicle occupant deaths, with 1,153, or 49 percent, occur- ring from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. and 1,198, 51 percent, occurring from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. Though the num- ber of people killed during the day is about the same as those killed at night, the death rate at night is approximately four to five times higher because traffic volumes are much lower at night. "We know that people are most at risk of dying in a severe colli- sion at night because more risky driving behavior takes place at night: more impaired driving, (Please turn to page 7.) Sewage system eyed on canal West Shore The U.S. Congress will be asked to turn the tide on a tribal funding measure that would solidify a $19.8-million plan to improve wastewater management on the West Shore of Hood Canal from the Skokomish Reservation to Hoodsport. Word that a change in the language of a 2003 State and Tribal Assistance Grant to the Skokomish Nation is supported by the Bush Administration was delivered May 4 in a letter to local authorities from Thomas Eaton, director of the Washington Operations Office of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. This project has become a priority in the wake of reports that high levels of bacteria have translated into low levels of oxygen, resulting in a couple of sizable "fish kills" in Hood Canal. "Nutrients, especially nitrogen in he form of nitrate and ammonium, are introduced into Hood Canal via such mechanisms as failing septic systems in the nearshore watershed," Eaton wrote. "This increased nutrient load from septic systems impacts the marine environment of Hood Canal by contributing to algal blooms that deplete valuable dissolved oxygen needed to sustain healthy marine life." (Please turn to page 7.)