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00___00,f__pournal o 0 inion:,
Chuck the holes
Shelton residents who have been complaining about the city's
streets for the past few decades will get a chance soon to improve
things. Here's hoping the citizens will get behind a reasonable
city plan to start a long-overdue facelift of urban thoroughfares
in residential areas.
The program wouldn't be the dream fix - immediate
repair of all ugly streets, which would be prohibitively
expensive. The proposed plan is by no means inexpensive,
and it would take years for some streets to be fixed, but it
is an affordable alternative to the pattern of neglect that
has left streets in their current condition.
The city will need a great public-relations campaign to explain
the program to the citizens. They need to know what it is and
what it isn't, what they can expect and what they can't expect
from a maintenance program when priorities could be in flux
and skyrocketing materials costs could affect the amount of work
done in any one year.
The city commission hopes to get voters' permission in
this fall's general election and then start the maintenance
program next year. Consent is needed to raise the city's
levy lid for six years, which would increase property
owners' taxes to pay for the program. The exact amount, to
be determined when the commission fine-tunes a proposal
for the voters, probably will start at about 25 cents per
$1,000 of valuation in the first year and rise to more than
a dollar after a few years.
This would be a long-term maintenance program financed by
levy money, not a short-term rebuilding program financed by
a bond issue - the sort of proposal rejected by voters twice 10
years ago. Back then, the city proposed to tax property owners
$1.40 per $1,000 for 15 years to improve 34 miles of streets. (A
1990s survey of the city's 57 miles of streets found 36 miles to be
substandard, and conditions have worsened since then.)
So why does the city need more for streets when its
street maintenance budget already tops $600,000? The
"street maintenance budget" includes everything from
streetl{ghts to snow removal to street cleaning to mowing
and traffic-light maintenance. The upshot is that about
one-tenth of the "street maintenance budget" goes for
what the average person thinks of as street repair.
The city engineer in 2005 estimated that the city would need
$500,000 a year to maintain its residential streets. So each year
that it spends a fraction of that on street repair it falls further
behind. A 2004 Journal editorial pointed out that at the rate the
city was repairing streets it would take 201 years to do the $13-
million backlog of work existing at that time.
As much as the citizens would like a list of promised
work on certain streets in specific years before they vote
on the levy lid lift, city officials won't be able to give them
one. That's unfortunate, because it probably would help
sell the proposal, but city officials don't want to make
promises they might not be able to keep. They can commit
to "x" lane miles of work in a year, but priorities could
change. For example, in 2008 citizens could expect about
two miles of streets to be repaired. In 2009 it would be
about seven miles if the maximum were collected ($1.17
per $1,000) but more like three miles if less were collected
(48 cents per $1,000).
How could priorities change? For one, the city would move up
projects in neighborhoods forming local improvement districts
(LIDs) to fix streets. It can improve more miles for its dollars by
creating an incentive (paying a portion of LID costs) to form an
LID. Second, a street might drop off a list of eligible projects if it
suddenly fell into the worst category - those very expensive to
repair. In fact, two streets fell from adequate to failed in the last
year. That's even more reason to get a maintenance program in
place: to stop continuing deterioration.
Another unfortunate aspect, one that coul d cast a few
votes, is that the city wouldn't repair the rst streets
- those that have failed so badly that they would cost
much more than others to fix-because its goal is to fix the
most miles of streets for its money. Gravel streets aren't
necessarily failed streets and can often be chip-sealed
relatively cheaply. There will be people in this town who'll
wonder what's in it for them if they live on a failed street
that is a last priority. But the city will be forthright in
labeling those streets before election.
Yet another factor making it more difficult to sell the program
will be that senior citizens don't get relief from a levy lid lift the
way they do with bonds. That shouldn't be an automatic "no" vote.
Seniors, too, have to determine what they can afford and consider
their quality of life and the community good.
In many ways it will boil down to trust. To vote "yes,"
the citizens need to trust that this city administration
will deliver. The city has been trying to earn that trust
over the last few years by tackling thorny infrastructure
issues such as sewer and stormwater systems whose past
neglect threatened to strangle the municipality. We hope
an informed electorate can see the merit in repairing the
streets before they are all pathetic.
-CG
lulull
Shelton- I
ourna
County usPs 492-800
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Shelton-Mason
County Journal, P.O. Box 430, Shelton, WA 98584.
Published
weekly by Shelton Publishing Inc. at 227 West Cota Street, Shelton, Washington
Mailing address: p.o. Box 430, Shelton, WA 98584
Telephone (360) 426-4412 • www.masoncounty.com
Periodicals postage paid at Shelton, Washington
Member of Washington Newspaper Publishers' Association
SUBSCRIPTION RATES: $31,00 per year in-county address,
$45.00 per year in state of Washington $55.00 per year out of state
Charles Gay, editor and publisher. Neweroom: Sean Hanlon, managing editor, Port of Shelton;
Steve Patch, sports editor; Jeff Green, general assignment, city government, schools; Rebecca
Wells, society editor, county government; Mary Duncan, police, courts. Advertising: Stephen
Gay, advertising manager; Dave Pierik and Harvey Morris, ad sales. Front office: Julie Orme,
business manager; Kathy Lester, circulation; Donna Kinnaird, bookkeeper; Cricket Carter, mallroom
supervisor. Composing room: Diane Riordan, supervisor; Margot Brand, Jan Kallinen, pagination;
Monica CarvajaI-Beben, pagination, darkroom; Koleen Wood, typesetter, computer system manager;
William Adams, ad builder, computer system manager; Clinton Kendall, proofreader. Pressroom: Kelly
Riordan, pressman; Nick Carr, pressman's assistant.
Page 4 - Shelton-Mason County Journal - Thursday, May 17, 2007
"00PO and OLP Uk00"
I00eaders" 00ournal:
What a difference words make
Editor, The Journal:
In regards to Lois Walker's May
10 letter about the U.S. Supreme
Court's decision on abortion ("Ap-
palled at court's decision"):
The ruling covered partial-birth
abortion only. Before the ruling a
baby partly delivered but whose
head was still inside the mother's
body was not alive enough to be
protected. They could choose to re-
duce or separate the fetal caluar-
ium. That's called "choice speak"
by the pro-choice people.
Another way of putting "reduc-
ing the calvarium" is to suck the
brains from the baby's head or
"separating the calvarium" is to
sever the head with scissors.
What a difference words can
make. "Choice speak" sounds civi-
lized while the other sounds bar-
baric.
Women can still render them-
selves unpregnant by other means.
They can still disarticulate the fe-
tus (choice speak), which means
to dismember it - and we call our-
selves civilized?
Rest assured not all women are
confused by the pro-choice tactic of
using Orwellian language to sani-
tize what's being said• ¢d
As for whatever happen ;t'l
separation of church and sta
not there and it never was
It s a myth used by the Amer
Civil Liberties Union, whiCh .
lieves if you tell a lie long en0
and often enough people will
to believe it Get a copy of the .C,
• jj
stitution and see for yourself. I
misused phrase written by Tl
as Jefferson in a personal lettg'.
It's not a question of reli.?
it's a question of right and w.
Ralph E. Ald
More inconvenient truths
Editor, The Journal:
More inconvenient truths.
In response to three letters last
week, "Appalled with court's de-
cision," "Guilty of crimes" and
"Keep letters short and factual":
(1) Appalled? Who's appalled?
The left-leaning media has hard-
ly made mention of the recent
Supreme Court decision against
"partial-birth abortions." Only
a few diehard liberals and some
who are past childbearing age are
complaining.
Nowhere in our Constitution or
Bill of Rights does it say anything
about a woman's right to murder
an unborn child.
I'm all for choice prior to sex
and pregnancy. Women have the
absolute right to say YES or NO,
use or not use a condom, a dia-
phragm, spermicide or abstinence,
or they can just cross their legs. If
none of these CHOICES comes to
mind before sex, then, there is al-
ways the morning-after pill.
Presumably unless a woman is
a hooker or is raped there is a ro-
mantic bond that leads up to sex.
Having an abortion, especially
a mid- to late-term abortion, is
NOT a justifiable means of birth
control and is risky to the patient
just as is any medical procedure.
You do not have to be a religious
man or woman to come to this
conclusion.
(2) It should be obvious to even
far-lei-wing liberal Democrats
and critical thinkers alike that
the Bush/Cheney Administration
has not committed high crimes
and misdemeanors. With majori-
ties" in both the House and,
ate, the leadership of which
ally hates President Bush
administration, it is beyond r
abilities to do anything bu
plain, moan and whine aboU
thing they don't agree with.
In other words there
impeachable offenses that
stand up in an imp em
ceeding. By extension that
there was no lying or
the Congress or the
only Democrats who are
posing impeachment are so:
in left field that even
of Democrats ignore them. 1
(3) Sometimes more th'
words are needed to corlVeY
idea.
Bill
Weather works without help
Editor, The Journal:
Larry Taylor in his letter of May
3 ("Cranks and liars") only showed
his arrogance once again. Accord-
ing to him, he's far superior to any-
one else ad he is an expert on ev-
erything.'
Maybe he should take his invalu-
able talents to Washington and give
his great expertise to the nation. Of
course he would fit in just like he
didn't fit into the Navy way of life.
Everything in the environment
can have an effect on the climate
and therefore the climate is part
of that environment. Wind com-
ing down a mountain slope tends
to increase as it flows down the
mountain and compresses, raising
the temperature. Conversely wind
flowing in off the water masses
tends to cool the earth. Also large
concreted areas tend to cause the
temperature to increase as much
as five degrees or more on bright
sunny days.
The climate is directly affected
by the environment of every area
on Earth. That includes deforesta-
tion, new developments of housing
and businesses. Mr. Taylor should
quit trying to make people think
they have something to do with the
weather. It's been working very
well without his or Al Gore's help.
Explain what caused the ice age
and why we don't have one now. All
things in the environment affect
the climate or the weather. They
are all part of that great outdoors.
Without certain things in the envi-
ronment we would not have rain.
And weather isn't an exact science
either. Tell me man had something
to do with that. As far as I know God
didn't turn climate or the control of
weather over to man yet. It would
be just one more thing for man to
mess up. He gave humans free will
over their lives and see how they
have managed to mess it up.
Mr. Taylor's great A1 Gore is just
a pompous, overbearing jackass
who likes to create fear. He's a pes-
simist who can only see everything
as bad and nothing good in anyone
except himself and idiots like Mr.
Taylor who don't enjoy life and
don't think anyone should be ei-
ther. Mr. Taylor can only see a half
empty glass and not one half full.
He and Al Gore make a great pair.
I suppose Mr. Taylor takes in this
garbage of carbon credits and just
like Gore don't have to change his
lifestyle but everyone else must.
Another one of those that think
there should be two classes of peo-
ple, the Haves and the Have Nots,
just as long as you are one of the
Haves.
Science is just that - a
It isn't exact and never
Just like evolution is a
nothing more. M.an didn't
from apes, or the apes
around now.
At least the Republi
conservatives for the m
interested in
selves and trying to advara
We believe you get ahead i
your own merits, not
ernment handouts.
There are some just aS
Mr. Taylor's ilk as there :
Democrats who are okaY v
they tend to let the liberals
them because they are .too:
kneed to speak out. Joe Liew"
is that one exception.
00___00,f__pournal o 0 inion:,
Chuck the holes
Shelton residents who have been complaining about the city's
streets for the past few decades will get a chance soon to improve
things. Here's hoping the citizens will get behind a reasonable
city plan to start a long-overdue facelift of urban thoroughfares
in residential areas.
The program wouldn't be the dream fix - immediate
repair of all ugly streets, which would be prohibitively
expensive. The proposed plan is by no means inexpensive,
and it would take years for some streets to be fixed, but it
is an affordable alternative to the pattern of neglect that
has left streets in their current condition.
The city will need a great public-relations campaign to explain
the program to the citizens. They need to know what it is and
what it isn't, what they can expect and what they can't expect
from a maintenance program when priorities could be in flux
and skyrocketing materials costs could affect the amount of work
done in any one year.
The city commission hopes to get voters' permission in
this fall's general election and then start the maintenance
program next year. Consent is needed to raise the city's
levy lid for six years, which would increase property
owners' taxes to pay for the program. The exact amount, to
be determined when the commission fine-tunes a proposal
for the voters, probably will start at about 25 cents per
$1,000 of valuation in the first year and rise to more than
a dollar after a few years.
This would be a long-term maintenance program financed by
levy money, not a short-term rebuilding program financed by
a bond issue - the sort of proposal rejected by voters twice 10
years ago. Back then, the city proposed to tax property owners
$1.40 per $1,000 for 15 years to improve 34 miles of streets. (A
1990s survey of the city's 57 miles of streets found 36 miles to be
substandard, and conditions have worsened since then.)
So why does the city need more for streets when its
street maintenance budget already tops $600,000? The
"street maintenance budget" includes everything from
streetl{ghts to snow removal to street cleaning to mowing
and traffic-light maintenance. The upshot is that about
one-tenth of the "street maintenance budget" goes for
what the average person thinks of as street repair.
The city engineer in 2005 estimated that the city would need
$500,000 a year to maintain its residential streets. So each year
that it spends a fraction of that on street repair it falls further
behind. A 2004 Journal editorial pointed out that at the rate the
city was repairing streets it would take 201 years to do the $13-
million backlog of work existing at that time.
As much as the citizens would like a list of promised
work on certain streets in specific years before they vote
on the levy lid lift, city officials won't be able to give them
one. That's unfortunate, because it probably would help
sell the proposal, but city officials don't want to make
promises they might not be able to keep. They can commit
to "x" lane miles of work in a year, but priorities could
change. For example, in 2008 citizens could expect about
two miles of streets to be repaired. In 2009 it would be
about seven miles if the maximum were collected ($1.17
per $1,000) but more like three miles if less were collected
(48 cents per $1,000).
How could priorities change? For one, the city would move up
projects in neighborhoods forming local improvement districts
(LIDs) to fix streets. It can improve more miles for its dollars by
creating an incentive (paying a portion of LID costs) to form an
LID. Second, a street might drop off a list of eligible projects if it
suddenly fell into the worst category - those very expensive to
repair. In fact, two streets fell from adequate to failed in the last
year. That's even more reason to get a maintenance program in
place: to stop continuing deterioration.
Another unfortunate aspect, one that coul d cast a few
votes, is that the city wouldn't repair the rst streets
- those that have failed so badly that they would cost
much more than others to fix-because its goal is to fix the
most miles of streets for its money. Gravel streets aren't
necessarily failed streets and can often be chip-sealed
relatively cheaply. There will be people in this town who'll
wonder what's in it for them if they live on a failed street
that is a last priority. But the city will be forthright in
labeling those streets before election.
Yet another factor making it more difficult to sell the program
will be that senior citizens don't get relief from a levy lid lift the
way they do with bonds. That shouldn't be an automatic "no" vote.
Seniors, too, have to determine what they can afford and consider
their quality of life and the community good.
In many ways it will boil down to trust. To vote "yes,"
the citizens need to trust that this city administration
will deliver. The city has been trying to earn that trust
over the last few years by tackling thorny infrastructure
issues such as sewer and stormwater systems whose past
neglect threatened to strangle the municipality. We hope
an informed electorate can see the merit in repairing the
streets before they are all pathetic.
-CG
lulull
Shelton- I
ourna
County usPs 492-800
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Shelton-Mason
County Journal, P.O. Box 430, Shelton, WA 98584.
Published
weekly by Shelton Publishing Inc. at 227 West Cota Street, Shelton, Washington
Mailing address: p.o. Box 430, Shelton, WA 98584
Telephone (360) 426-4412 • www.masoncounty.com
Periodicals postage paid at Shelton, Washington
Member of Washington Newspaper Publishers' Association
SUBSCRIPTION RATES: $31,00 per year in-county address,
$45.00 per year in state of Washington $55.00 per year out of state
Charles Gay, editor and publisher. Neweroom: Sean Hanlon, managing editor, Port of Shelton;
Steve Patch, sports editor; Jeff Green, general assignment, city government, schools; Rebecca
Wells, society editor, county government; Mary Duncan, police, courts. Advertising: Stephen
Gay, advertising manager; Dave Pierik and Harvey Morris, ad sales. Front office: Julie Orme,
business manager; Kathy Lester, circulation; Donna Kinnaird, bookkeeper; Cricket Carter, mallroom
supervisor. Composing room: Diane Riordan, supervisor; Margot Brand, Jan Kallinen, pagination;
Monica CarvajaI-Beben, pagination, darkroom; Koleen Wood, typesetter, computer system manager;
William Adams, ad builder, computer system manager; Clinton Kendall, proofreader. Pressroom: Kelly
Riordan, pressman; Nick Carr, pressman's assistant.
Page 4 - Shelton-Mason County Journal - Thursday, May 17, 2007
"00PO and OLP Uk00"
I00eaders" 00ournal:
What a difference words make
Editor, The Journal:
In regards to Lois Walker's May
10 letter about the U.S. Supreme
Court's decision on abortion ("Ap-
palled at court's decision"):
The ruling covered partial-birth
abortion only. Before the ruling a
baby partly delivered but whose
head was still inside the mother's
body was not alive enough to be
protected. They could choose to re-
duce or separate the fetal caluar-
ium. That's called "choice speak"
by the pro-choice people.
Another way of putting "reduc-
ing the calvarium" is to suck the
brains from the baby's head or
"separating the calvarium" is to
sever the head with scissors.
What a difference words can
make. "Choice speak" sounds civi-
lized while the other sounds bar-
baric.
Women can still render them-
selves unpregnant by other means.
They can still disarticulate the fe-
tus (choice speak), which means
to dismember it - and we call our-
selves civilized?
Rest assured not all women are
confused by the pro-choice tactic of
using Orwellian language to sani-
tize what's being said• ¢d
As for whatever happen ;t'l
separation of church and sta
not there and it never was
It s a myth used by the Amer
Civil Liberties Union, whiCh .
lieves if you tell a lie long en0
and often enough people will
to believe it Get a copy of the .C,
• jj
stitution and see for yourself. I
misused phrase written by Tl
as Jefferson in a personal lettg'.
It's not a question of reli.?
it's a question of right and w.
Ralph E. Ald
More inconvenient truths
Editor, The Journal:
More inconvenient truths.
In response to three letters last
week, "Appalled with court's de-
cision," "Guilty of crimes" and
"Keep letters short and factual":
(1) Appalled? Who's appalled?
The left-leaning media has hard-
ly made mention of the recent
Supreme Court decision against
"partial-birth abortions." Only
a few diehard liberals and some
who are past childbearing age are
complaining.
Nowhere in our Constitution or
Bill of Rights does it say anything
about a woman's right to murder
an unborn child.
I'm all for choice prior to sex
and pregnancy. Women have the
absolute right to say YES or NO,
use or not use a condom, a dia-
phragm, spermicide or abstinence,
or they can just cross their legs. If
none of these CHOICES comes to
mind before sex, then, there is al-
ways the morning-after pill.
Presumably unless a woman is
a hooker or is raped there is a ro-
mantic bond that leads up to sex.
Having an abortion, especially
a mid- to late-term abortion, is
NOT a justifiable means of birth
control and is risky to the patient
just as is any medical procedure.
You do not have to be a religious
man or woman to come to this
conclusion.
(2) It should be obvious to even
far-lei-wing liberal Democrats
and critical thinkers alike that
the Bush/Cheney Administration
has not committed high crimes
and misdemeanors. With majori-
ties" in both the House and,
ate, the leadership of which
ally hates President Bush
administration, it is beyond r
abilities to do anything bu
plain, moan and whine aboU
thing they don't agree with.
In other words there
impeachable offenses that
stand up in an imp em
ceeding. By extension that
there was no lying or
the Congress or the
only Democrats who are
posing impeachment are so:
in left field that even
of Democrats ignore them. 1
(3) Sometimes more th'
words are needed to corlVeY
idea.
Bill
Weather works without help
Editor, The Journal:
Larry Taylor in his letter of May
3 ("Cranks and liars") only showed
his arrogance once again. Accord-
ing to him, he's far superior to any-
one else ad he is an expert on ev-
erything.'
Maybe he should take his invalu-
able talents to Washington and give
his great expertise to the nation. Of
course he would fit in just like he
didn't fit into the Navy way of life.
Everything in the environment
can have an effect on the climate
and therefore the climate is part
of that environment. Wind com-
ing down a mountain slope tends
to increase as it flows down the
mountain and compresses, raising
the temperature. Conversely wind
flowing in off the water masses
tends to cool the earth. Also large
concreted areas tend to cause the
temperature to increase as much
as five degrees or more on bright
sunny days.
The climate is directly affected
by the environment of every area
on Earth. That includes deforesta-
tion, new developments of housing
and businesses. Mr. Taylor should
quit trying to make people think
they have something to do with the
weather. It's been working very
well without his or Al Gore's help.
Explain what caused the ice age
and why we don't have one now. All
things in the environment affect
the climate or the weather. They
are all part of that great outdoors.
Without certain things in the envi-
ronment we would not have rain.
And weather isn't an exact science
either. Tell me man had something
to do with that. As far as I know God
didn't turn climate or the control of
weather over to man yet. It would
be just one more thing for man to
mess up. He gave humans free will
over their lives and see how they
have managed to mess it up.
Mr. Taylor's great A1 Gore is just
a pompous, overbearing jackass
who likes to create fear. He's a pes-
simist who can only see everything
as bad and nothing good in anyone
except himself and idiots like Mr.
Taylor who don't enjoy life and
don't think anyone should be ei-
ther. Mr. Taylor can only see a half
empty glass and not one half full.
He and Al Gore make a great pair.
I suppose Mr. Taylor takes in this
garbage of carbon credits and just
like Gore don't have to change his
lifestyle but everyone else must.
Another one of those that think
there should be two classes of peo-
ple, the Haves and the Have Nots,
just as long as you are one of the
Haves.
Science is just that - a
It isn't exact and never
Just like evolution is a
nothing more. M.an didn't
from apes, or the apes
around now.
At least the Republi
conservatives for the m
interested in
selves and trying to advara
We believe you get ahead i
your own merits, not
ernment handouts.
There are some just aS
Mr. Taylor's ilk as there :
Democrats who are okaY v
they tend to let the liberals
them because they are .too:
kneed to speak out. Joe Liew"
is that one exception.