July 14, 2011 Shelton Mason County Journal | ![]() |
©
Shelton Mason County Journal. All rights reserved. Upgrade to access Premium Tools
PAGE 7 (7 of 14 available) PREVIOUS NEXT Jumbo Image Save To Scrapbook Set Notifiers PDF JPG
July 14, 2011 |
|
Website © 2025. All content copyrighted. Copyright Information Terms Of Use | Privacy Policy | Request Content Removal | About / FAQ | Get Acrobat Reader ![]() |
Whistleblower complaint turned away
By NATALIE JOHNSON
After reviewing an independent
investigation into a whistleblower
complaint against Port of Shelton
Executive Director John Dobson,
the Mason County Prosecutor's Of-
rice has declined to further investi-
gate the matter.
"Based on everything we got,
there's no ,further action for this
office to "take," said Mason Count
Chief Deputy Prosecutor Timothy
Whitehead.
On April 29, former port em-
ployee Theresa Rebo sent the pros-
ecutor's office a whistleblower com-
plaint accusing Dobson of attempt-
ing to gi public funds to Northwest
Event Organizers, the organization
rUnning the Mason Area Fair.
Earlier, on April 10, Rebo sent
the complaint to the Port of Shelton
Commission, which ai'eer consult-
ing with attorney Charles "Skip"
Houser, retained Seattle consult-
ing firm the Seabold Group, which
conducted an investigation which
concluded that no wrongdoing had
taken place. The port commission
accepted the investigation on May
31.
Whitehead said that the 0nly
reason the prosecutor's office looked
into the matter is because the port
does not have policy for responding
to whistleblower complaints.
"When the port doesn't have poli-
cies or procedure to follow up on a
whistleblower complaint, the RCW
(Revised Code of Washington) says
it comes to the prosecutor," White-
head said.
Rebo was fired from the port on
Monday, June 20. Dobson and the
port commission said at that time
that the firing was not related to the
whistleblower complaint.
Oyster
Continued from page A-1
record is that Guinness no
longer will carry a ten minute
record for clams for health
issues," Gagnon said.
But health issues, at least
those caused by a massive over-
indulgence of raw shellfish,
were not on Gagnon's mind as
he slurped his way to success at
the Alderbrook Resort on July
1.
However, Gagnon had his
own health issues that were
rapidly falling behind him that
sunny Friday evening at the AI-
derbrook. About one year ago,
Gagnon was diagnosed with
bladder cancer.
"Anybody can get cancer. The
c-word's not like it was ten, 20
years ago, you got the c-word
and it's like 'oh, you're going to
die," he said "Early detection's
the key...I got it early and I had
chemo for a while and then I did
what they call a scope."
Gagnon, a tennis coach at
Shelton High School, active
bowler, softball player and com-
petitor in the senior Olympics,
is now cancer free, and can get
back to doing what he loves full
time - starting his 38th year of
teaching, and competing in vir-
tually everything.
"I still continued playing soR-
ball through my treatments,"
he said. "I'm 63 years old but
I feel like I'm 43. Age is just a
state of mind."
Gagnon approached the oys-
ter eating competition much like
he would any sporting event - he
researched the best way to pre-
pare for the arduous, five-min-
ute slurpathon ahead of him.
"Right off the bat you're
thinking, 'okay, how do I pre-
pare," he said. "Whatever you
do in life, you want to prepare
yourself, you want to give it 100
percent, that's just who I am."
ARer some internet search-
ing, Gagnon discovered that one
of the many secrets of competi-
tive eating is not to fast, so he
set to work eating several small
meals a day and drinking lots of
water.
"I listened to Rocky - it's one
of my favorite movies actually,"
he said.
Gagnon knew how to prepare
in advance, but he was unsure
of how to prepare the morning
before the contest; which was at
seven in the evening.
"So I did a couple things, but
I can't tell you that because
that's my secret, I have to come
back next year and defend my
title," he said.
Gagnon plans to win next
year's oyster eating contest on
July 3 at the Alderbrook, and
live up to his father's famous
shellfish-eating example.
Sewer
Continued from page A-1
to pay more based on the number of
ERUs they are assigned.
Belfair Maytag Laundry had
been tentatively allocated 22 ERUs,
which means that it would cost the
business $66,000 to connect and
more than $2,000 per month in
sewer rates.
"Unfortunately, we would be
forced to close it," said the laun-
dry service's owner Jack Johnson.
"rm close to a lot of businesses in
the community, and they're re-
ally struggling. It just seems like
the sewer really could be kind of a
knock-out punch for a lot of these
small businesses."
Under one of the county's pro-
jected population growth models,
connections costs for new devel-
opments would rise to $14,500 in
2013 and escalate to $20,600 in
2025, per ERU -- meaning a new
business similar to Belfair Maytag
Laundry would then face more than
$300,000 in connection costs alone
in two years. :: ..... :"
Other scenarios proj slower
growth in Belfair, and therefore
lower connection costs for new de-
velopers (the lowest at $6,000 to
connect per ERU), yet those models
project rates as high as $183 per
month per ERU for sewer service.
"If you're simply using computer
models, yes, that could happen,"
said Emmett Dobey, the county's
director of utilities and waste man-
agement. "But it all depends on how
fast Belfair would grow and how
many customers you can get ... you
get bigger numbers because it takes
longer to build out, and $30,000 in
the future is not $30,000 today, so
those are inflated dollars."
The county estimates that the to-
tal number of customers served dur-
ing Phase I will be about 400, while
a group of Belfair business owners
and developers place that figure
closer to 240, spreading the proj-
ect's $48 million cost over a smaller
amount of customers.
"They've spent, spent, spent and
they forget that there's only 200
people to hook into the system,"
said Brian Petersen of Petersen
Chiropractic who, along with John-
son and other business owners and
developers, has hired a lawyer to
investigate the issue further. "It's
unbelievable. The [county] commis-
sioners have completely lost sight of
the project."
There's a big difference between
what the Belfair developers think
are the total number of customers
and what the county thinks are the
total number of customers, Dobey
said.
"Both of them have significance,
but it depends on how much water
you use and that gives you an av-
erage to determine the number of
ERUs based on the number of cus-
tomers," he said. "But everybody
will be charged at least one ERU."
The county had been estimating
one ERU at a value of about 150
gallons per day, which many busi-
n.ess owners felt was skewed too
low allowing the county to charge
for more ERUs per business.
At Tuesday night's meeting,
Belfair Wastewater consultant
Gordon Wilson presented an even
lower figure -- 135 gallons per
day.
It wasn't until Monday of this
week that the county had been
able to access accurate water us-
age data from the Belfair Water
District, Dobey said.
"We had repeatedly asked for
accurate water data from the Bel-
fair Water District," Dobey said.
"We said from the very beginning
that we needed better water data
to make these decisions and we're
just now getting that better water
data."
The last-minute data yielded
better-quality estimates, said Wil-
son at the sewer meeting.
"It feels more equitable, at least
to me," he said.
Wilson also suggested the coun-
ty commissioners look into extra
charges for strength of flow, ca-
pacity rental (whereby someone
would be charged if their sewer
usage rises) and irrigation.
During public comment, busi-
ness and home owners alike ex-
pressed their displeasure with the
sewer costs that many said would
put them out of business and force
them or their loved ones into mas-
sive debt.
"we poured our life savings into
this business," said David Callan,
owner of the new Casper's Pizza
and Barbecue in Belfair. "I put my
whole life's savings into this busi-
ness, into Belfair ... Not only will
this project put us out of business,
this project will take my house
from me."
Representatives from large
businesses like QFC to smaller or-
ganizations like the Belfair Com-
munity Baptist Church, as well as
realtors, low-income housing pro-
viders and parents whose children
attend daycares that are threat-
ened by the project, spoke of how
the sewers' costs could damage the
economic landscape of Belfair and
prevent future growth.
"There are a lot of'ifs' here, but
I do think the issue of stymieing
development and the sticker shock
of that is important," Wilson said.
"Because we want to encourage
growth as soon as possible."
Others pointed out that the
sewers' close to $50 million in
projected costs at this point more
than double the $25-million figure
that prior consultants had pegged
the costs at back in 2007.
The soils at the site of the
wastewater treatment plant did
not accurately fit the design of the
original facilities plan, Dobey said.
Some commentators at Tuesday's
meeting suggested spreading the
project's debt over the entire Belfair
Urban Growth Area base instead of
just the Phase I customers. Others
suggested Mason County should
shoulder more of the cost respon-
sibility and utilize phased-in con-
nection costs and a tax assessment
from all of Belfair and perhaps Ma-
son County to fund the project.
The North Mason Chamber of
Commerce plans to formulate an
opinion this week, before the county
commissioners hold a hearing next
Tuesday to determine the interim
sewer rates.
The public hearing on the rates is
set for 9:30 a.m. next Tuesday at the
commission Chambers in Shelton.
Your
h'festfle...
Shelton-Mason County Journal -Thursday, July 14, 2011 - Page A-7