May 22, 1975 Shelton Mason County Journal | ![]() |
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May 22, 1975 |
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Voters in the Pioneer School
District Tuesday rejected a special
levy for maintenance and'
operation of its school for the
coming year by a vote of 256 yes
and 215 no. The special levy
needed a 60 percent yes vote to
pass. The special levy received a
vote of 54 percent yes.
This was the second defeat for
the levy in the district this year
and it cannot be put on the ballot
again.
The levy, for $96,000, had
been reduced from the previous
levy proposal of $193,000 which
was defeated in March.
Voters in two of the four
precincts in the district gave the
levy proposal strong support with
Northside voting 67 yes and 34
no and Harstine voting 59 yes and
28 no.
Pickering precinct gave the
proposal 43 yes and 40 no votes
while Miller precinct voted
heavily against the levy with 113
no and 87 yes votes.
Thursday, May 22, 1975 Eighty-ninth Year, Number 21 3 Sections - 34 Pages 15 Cents Per Copy
i
ANOTHER SLAB drops off the log during the large power saw competition
during the eliminations for the Forest Festival Loggers' Sport Show. The
eliminations were held at the fairgrounds Saturday to reduce entrants for the
festival event to four in each contest.
for and against
Shelton School
levy which will be
3 were heard
by a small crowd at the Mason
County Young Democrat meeting
last Wednesday evening.
Speaking in support of the
levy was Walt Parsons and
speaking against was John
Kneeland.
Parsons confined his opening
Second consecutive
ItOrdeaux School
class tutored by
yielded a "Keep
Green" poster
entries, that
Cindy Baxter took
the state in the
In the 1974
SUSan Goodbum
race at state
to win first
regional contest
western states.
Prize winner for
of Janna and
She had not
to the beginning
of the 90 sixth-graders studying
art under the direction of Lee
Rhodes is required to make a
poster for the "Keep Washington
Green" contest.
"In each of the three
classrooms," he explains,
"students vote to choose six
favorites. These are copied on
quality paper and all are entered
in the Mason County
competition. From then on it's
out of my hands.
"1 guess I've just been lucky,"
he adds•
"It's more than that," Cindy
Baxter declares. "He's a real good
teacher!"
is in the timber
says, "and in
Pictures in his
ideas for my
assignment each
CINDY BAXTER, grand prize winner in the State "Keep Washington Green"
.l:)oSter contest, has a big smile for her art teacher, Lee Rhodes, sixth-grade
InStructor in Bordeaux School.
remarks to a comparison of
teachers' salaries in the Shelton
District in comparison to those in
industry here.
He presented charts which
showed pay for beginning
teachers below that for the base
wage for employees of ITT
Rayonier and Simpson Timber
Company.
Parsons presented a charge
which indicated that while base
salaries at ITT Rayonier had
increased by 150 percent over the
past several years and at Simpson
148 percent, the base salary for
teachers had increased 117
percent.
Even if the part of the levy
intended to increase teacher
salaries is approved, Parsons said,
they would still be below the base
salaries for ITT Rayonier and
Simpson.
He stated teachers on the
average spent about seven hours a
week in additional time beyond
what they spend in the classroom
and that they are required to get a
fifth year of education which
they must pay for themselves and
do on their own time.
Parsons also stated teacher
salaries in the Shelton District are
below that of other districts in
the area and below the state
average for first class districts.
In his opening remarks,
K neeland said that to him a
special levy should be for
something which was unforeseen.
He stated that a part of the levy is
for purchase of buses. He stated
that buses are machines and can
be expected to wear out and need
to be replaced. He said there
should have been a fund set aside
for the replacement of the buses.
Kneeland said he would not
argue with the point that the
schools need money, but that the
problem is the continuing to
overtax the property owners.
A solution should be worked
out by the school people and. the
legislature, he said.
He stated he would not
question that the teachers were
not adequately paid, but that he
was not satisfied with the levy
method of financing and that
there has to be a better way of
acquiring the needed funds.
Parsons commented in other
remarks that tt was doubtful the
legislature would do anything and
that the low level of state support
was unforeseen.
He commented also that the
Shelton District had the lowest
per pupil expenditure of any first
class district. The district, he said,
has had good financial
management but that the teachers
had been subsidizing the budget
Larry E. Harper, 34, 1413
Ellinor, Shelton, suffered a
number of injuries when his
four-wheel drive vehicle went off
the road on Highway 3 about 4.7
miles north of Shelton at 7:30
p.m. Tuesday, the Washington
State Patrol reported.
The patrol said Harper
suffered two broken legs, a
crushed skull, multiple lacerations
and contusions and a "broken
pelvis.
He was taken to Mason
General Hospital by a Fire
District Five aid car and was
transferred to St. Peter Hospital
in Olympia after emergency
treatment.
balancing with the low salary
level.
The need, he said, is for
additional buses because more
students are being bussed than
before.
He agreed that a better
method of financing schools is
needed, but that until that occurs
the school district needs the
money from the special levy to
operate.
An income tax is one
possibility, Parsons said, but it
will have to be written so there is
a lid before it will be approved.
A Mason Lake couple, Victor
and Mildred Christiansen, Rt. 1,
Box 623, were injured when an
apparent explosion set their
25-foot camper trailer on fire.
The couple were taken to
Mason General Hospital by an aid
car from Fire District 5, which
had answered the fir call.
Officials of the fire district
f•
The patrol said Harper was
southbound on Highway 3 when
the vehicle went off the road to
the right, struck a power pole and
came to rest on its side.
Richard Knight, chief of Fire
District Five, said extraction
equipment recently purchased by
the district and carried in the aid
cars, was used for the first time to
get Harper out of the smashed
vehicle.
Knight said it was necessary
to use the equipment to get the
smashed vehicle opened enough
that Harper could be gotten out.
Harper was pinned in the
vehicle in the driver's seat with his
face in the dirt when fire
department personnel arrived,
Knight said.
rl
Albert W. DeWitt, 31,
Tacoma, was sentenced to a
maximum of 15 years in the
custody of the Department of
Institutions on a charge of carnal
knowledge. The sentence was
imposed by Superior Court Judge
Gerry Alexander, before whom
DeWitt appeared Friday.
DeWitt had pleaded guilty to
the charge, which had been
reduced from a charge of rape to
one of carnal knowledge, April
25.
Deputy Prosecutor Gary
Burleson to:d the court DeWitt
had picked up a 15-year-old
Bremerton girl who was
hitchhiking in that area and had
taken her to an area in Mason
County where the offense
occurred.
Burleon told the court DeWitt
had been convicted in Mason
County in 1968 of carnal
knowledge, auto theft and escape
and that he had at that time been
sentenced to prison terms to be
• tO
said- the cause of the explosion
was undetermined.
Three fire trucks, an aid car
and 12 firemen from the fire
district responded to the fire call
and brought the fire under
control in about 20 minutes.
The trailer was totally
destroyed.
served consecutively which
totaled 50 years.
He was taken to the state
penitentiary at Walla Walla in
1970 and was paroled 3½ years
later•
Burleson said the prosecutor's
office concurred in the conclusion
of the pre.sentence report that
DeWitt was a menace to society
and was not safe to be at large.
DeWittt's attorney, Michael
committed. He ~iso stated he did
not believe the program at
Western State Hospital would be
appropriate.
Judge Alexander stated he
would recommend DeWitt be held
in a state institution until such
time as it was determined he was
safe to be at large and that he
receive whatever type of
treatment is available.
Jennings, Tacoma, asked
DeWitt be given a suspended
sentence on the charge or that he
be sent to Western State Hospital
to participate in the sexual
psychopath program.
Jennings told the court that
DeWitt had been married since his
release from the penitentiary and
was on work release in the
Spokane area up until a short
time before he had come to the
Tacoma area, where he was
staying at the time the offense
occurred.
Jennings told the court
DeWitt and his wife were
expecting their first child in a few
months.
The attorney told the court if
DeWitt were given a suspended
sentence he would return to the
Spokane area where he had had
no problems.
Judge Alexander, in
sentencing DeWitt, stated he did
not believe a suspended sentence
would be appropriate where there
had been previous criminal
behavior and where a sex crime
involving force had been
thatBill __till
School
hearing on
its bud
The Shelton School Board has
set 8 p.m. May 27 for its
preliminary budget hearing.
A special meeting is being
held to consider the preliminary
budget.
Superintendent Louis Grinnell
said approval of the preliminary
budget by June 1 is required by
state law and allows the district to
have a budget to operate under
from July 1 until the final budget
is approved in September.
The final budget will probably
be changed considerably from the
preliminary, depending on what
the state does as far as school
financing is concerned and
whether or not the special
maintenance and operation levy
scheduled for a vote June 3 is
approved.
IIIIIIlUlIIIIIIIIIIBIlUlIlUlIIIBlUllBIIBIBtBIN!
SIMPSON TIMBER COMPANY'S three-day auction to sell the contents of
the now-defunct Shelton Insulating Board Plant has attracted customers
from as far as Puerto Rico and Los Angeles. Begun on Tuesday, the auction
sold items from ten-ton refiners to hand tools called by a Portland
auctioning firm. Simpson officials do not yet have plans for the building
itself.