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00ournai of Opinion:
Stop for Coffee
If you care about how growth affects Shelton and the quality
of" life you'll enjoy in the future, consider attending a meeting
next Thursday about Coffee Creek Estates. The proposed 275-
lot subdivision has the potential to change the face of sleepy
neighborhoods in the southwest corner of town and beyond.
The meeting will focus on the process of developing
an environmental-impact statement for the 97-acre
subdivision southwest of Angleside and adjacent to
Eagiewood and Grandview Heights. It's to begin at 6 p.m.
at the Shelton Civic Center.
Owners of the property have a perfect right to develop housing
on land zoned residential. Development pressure - the need and
demand for affordable housing next door to expensive Thurston and
Kitsap counties- is so great these days that City Planner Jason Dose
has no doubts the Coffee Creek property will be developed sometime
soon if not by the existing project developer. So the question becomes
how the land can be developed with the least impact on the area.
An EIS, in outlining the impacts of development and
the ways impacts can be mitigated, can be used as a tool
by the city's hearings examiner and the city commission
in making decisions about the subdivision, including
requiring certain conditions for approval.
The traffic impacts alone raise cause for concern, but 275
houses with 700 people in them also affect many aspects of life.
Schools and parks become more crowded, stormwater pours off
cleared land, air and water pollution increases, fire and police
departments receive more calls for help, lines at government
offices grow, waits at the emergency room are longer and so on.
Make no mistake: The benefts of the development
will accrue to a few and the majority will pay the costs
involved - everything from taxes for new schools to
the unquantifiable losses in quality of life. That's the
way growth works. It doesn't pay for itself and it forces
adjustments by current residents, but communities have
been accepting it forever as inevitable.
One of the impacts addressed by the EIS will be mounting
traffic. Planners use a rule of thumb that a house generates 10
trips a day - by its occupants and by anyone serving the house
such as a postal employee, a deliverer or a garbageman. That
means approximately 2,750 trfps a day out of and into Coffee
Creek. What streets will the 2,750 vehicles use?
So far, the developer .proposes that motorists use
Wyandotte Avenue, Grandview Avenue, Eaglewood Way
and Eagleview Place. That brings 16th Street at the top
of Angieside into the picture, as well as Turner Avenue,
the two streets off the Angleside hill, Seventh Street on
Angleside and downtown, Second Street toward Five
Corners, where drivers train to watch tennis matches,
and Arcadia Avenue. Hardly a bunch of the city's finest
and safest streets, and all but one without sidewalks.
The traffic would funnel by necessity. Planner Dose points
out that Coffee Creek motorists would gravitate to one of only
three intersections to leave town - Seventh at Railroad, Arcadia
at Olympic Highway South, and Turner at First. And a lot of
them would be trying to leave town because Coffee Creek is being
sold as a good buy for people priced out of the Thurston County
market. So they'd commute to Olympia and return home on the
same Shelton streets. Dose said none of those intersections as it
stands is well designed for lots of traffic.
It's disturbing that the developer has dropped a proposal
to build a road west out of Coffee Creek toward the freeway,
which would take a lot of the pressure off existing city
streets, and instead plans to use existing streets for access
to the subdivision. The new road would connect with East
Deegan Road, giving motorists access to Highway 101.
However, when the idea was first proposed, the Washington
Department of Transportation had problems with it because
Deegan Road is so close to a freeway off-ramp and the left-
turn lane on Shelton-Matlock Road for traffic headed south
on the freeway isn't designed for more than a few cars.
The developer has become concerned about the permitting
process for the new road because it would cross a wetland, Dose
said. The city's position has been that the developer should build
the new road and enhance the wetland, he added.
Shelton residents have a chance to get involved in the
review process for Coffee Creek starting next Thursday,
when the subdivision proposal and EIS process will be
explained. Dose said draft documents will be coming out
during the EIS process that will be available for public
review and comment. He wants as many citizens as possible
involved, because often they can point out a problem to
city staffers. He's confident the city and developer can
come up with a mutually beneficial plan.
Your voice can affect this growth process. In Coffee Creek and
other projects, there are enough homes on the drawing board to
double the population of Shelton. Nobody's going to stop growth in
its tracks, but citizen vigilance can ensure that the development
is done carefully.
-CG
Shelton-00
]Ylason ourn
eounty 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: RO. 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. Newaroom: Sean Hanlon, managing editor; Steve Patch,
sports editor; Jeff Green, general assignment, city government, schools, Port of Shelton; 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, mailroom
supervisor. Composing room: Diane Riordan, supervisor; Margot Brand, Jan Kallinen, pagination;
Frank Isaac, pagination, photo technician; Koleen Wood, typesetter, computer system manager;
William Adams, ad builder, computer system manager; Clinton Kendall, proofreader. PtQnroom: Nick
Carr, pressman; Joey Parrott, pressman's assistant.
Page 4 - Shelton-Mason County Journal - Thursday, July 19, 2007
i00eaders" 00Journal:
No maintenance following LID
Editor, The Journal:
Everette Spatz of Hillcrest hit
the nail right on the head in the
letter last week about using local
improvement districts to improve
city streets.
I have lived in my home for 50
years. Between 1966 and 1969 all
the neighbors (property owners)
on East E Street joined in and
formed an LID with the city ad-
ministration. East E Street was
blacktopped from Olympic High-
way North to King Street, with the
promise to maintain the street and
keep the shoulders maintained
and the edges protected, because
it was too costly to put in cement
sidewalks.
Well, guess what? East E Street
has never been taken care of. As
a matter of fact the edges of the
blacktop have never been taken
care of. If the property owners
wanted to pay the city to spread
crushed rock along their part of
the street, well, that's not cheap.
I have tried for years to get the
street department bosses to fix the
cracks and holes, etc., on E Street,
but no luck.
But a year or two ago, the street
department chip-sealed Jefferson
Street from C to D that had been
dirt forever. Guess what? There
are four houses'on one side of the
block. Then at the same time, they
chip-sealed three one-block streets
that got no major traffic. Where's
that reasoning?
Right now East E Street is being
used as a major through street; it
never had been before.
Now we have heavy dump
trucks hauling heavy loads to and
from the construction on North-
cliff. Who is going to pay for the
repairs on E Street caused by the
heavy equipment? The city?
I don't have a problem with
buses. Their weight isn't exces'
sive and they follow the rules
speed limits.
Also: Our three city leaders
a supervisor for the street
ment. He or she starts a street
pair program and what
That person leaves,
comes on line and has
ideas and priorities.
goes on hold and another
goes by and the prices keep going
up. I paid for E Street to be black"
topped, and once is enough!
Another thing I'd like answered:
Why do we (the citizens) need
pay for an expensive city
and street supervisor; when we
voted in a mayor and two city
missioners?
Barbara M.
Mountain
Misguided teaching methods
Editor, The Journal:
Apparently some teachers
aren't quite sold on new-age "con-
structivist" education methods.
The newspapers report that there
are problems implementing the
BERC Group's Powerful Teach-
ing and Learning (PTL) project in
the North Mason schools, noting
that after two years, 68 percent of
the teachers are still not "aligned"
with PTL.
It turns out that the teachers
might have good reason to resist
the change.
There is increasing evidence
that the "reform" movement in
education, which PTL represents,
and which was initiated by the
Washington State Office of Su-
perintendent of Public Instruc-
tion in the 1990s, is seriously
short-changing our children. This
is most noticeable in math and
science, but it cuts across all sub-
jects.
For example, the concep of
small groups working together to
solve problems actually discour-
ages individual achievement.
Emphasis on the teaching of "con-
cepts" rather than "facts" doesn't
prepare kids for the real world,
where getting the right answer is
expected. Dumbing down curricu-
lum to the level of slow learners
doesn't challenge the more capable
students and cheats them out of a
quality education.
And there is a lot of "feel good"
emphasis on the cultural aspects
of curriculum. Even in math,
OSPI uses criteria such as "incor"
porates multicultural information,
resources and materials in all
the subjects and skills
taught" to judge the alignment
textbooks with state curriculunl
objectives.
Is it any wonder that a lot
parents are home-schooling or
sending their children to
schools? Local school boards
have the power to select traditional
and in many cases internationally
recognized curriculum and teach"
ing methods. They should stand
up and do so before this misguidedi
experiment completely wrecks our
schools.
Bob Benze
Silverdale
Change mayors and priorities
Editor, The Journal:
Gary Cronce is my man for
mayor. Here is why:
(1) He has a history of honesty
and integrity in the construction
business, always building quality
homes.
(2) He is a man of purpose who
locks onto objectives like a pit bull
and sees them through to comple-
tion.
(3) He is not just project-orient-
ed but he is also people-oriented,
always trying to help individuals
by training them or trying to give
them a fresh start.
(4) He plans to do something
about the streets, which haven't
changed much since I arrived here
on November 1, 1974!
Is it an impossible dream to
imagine just the three streets
parallel to Railroad and First be
upgraded: Cota, Franklin and
Front? I won't even mention the
broken asphalt washboards, grav-
el and dirt roads inside our city
limits.
We lived in a Third World coun-
try town with better streets than
Shelton! The mayor and the towV
council of that place were deter-
mined to make it a budget prior-
ity.
The budget for street repair
here is rumored to be less than 1
percent.
Let's change mayors and change
budget priorities. Cronce wants to
do that instead of raising taxes.
Footnote: Whom do we thank
the one nice block on Cota Street
in front of the civic center?
Dennis Teague
Shelton
Shelton built 'barn'
Editor, The Journal:
In response to Mary Profitt
Johnston's letter in last week's
Journal about the deteriorating old
red "barn" on North First Street,
I'd like to mention that records at
the Mason County Historical Soci-
ety show that the old bowling alley
building she refers to was probably
built by David Shelton, our town's
founding father.
Records are incomplete, but
it appears that Shelton built the
structure at First and Railroad in
1888 for Mrs. Margaret McDon-
ald's general merchandise store,
known as McDonald & O'Neill.
(With her son-in-law, Thomas
O'Neill, she had been running the
business out of "the old Masonic
Hall on Front Street.")
In February 1930, the building
was moved some 30 feet to make
room for a "super service station."
Apparently, the plan was to con-
vert it to apartments and some
storage space, but in July 1935,
renovations were under way to
convert it to a bowling alley, which
became known as the Shelton Rec-
reation Parlor.
Jan Parker, secretary
Mason County Historical Society
Shelton
Sure, the price of the
median house is only
$195,000, but why would
you want to live in the
middle of a freeway with
all that traffic whiz-
zing by on both sides?
00ournai of Opinion:
Stop for Coffee
If you care about how growth affects Shelton and the quality
of" life you'll enjoy in the future, consider attending a meeting
next Thursday about Coffee Creek Estates. The proposed 275-
lot subdivision has the potential to change the face of sleepy
neighborhoods in the southwest corner of town and beyond.
The meeting will focus on the process of developing
an environmental-impact statement for the 97-acre
subdivision southwest of Angleside and adjacent to
Eagiewood and Grandview Heights. It's to begin at 6 p.m.
at the Shelton Civic Center.
Owners of the property have a perfect right to develop housing
on land zoned residential. Development pressure - the need and
demand for affordable housing next door to expensive Thurston and
Kitsap counties- is so great these days that City Planner Jason Dose
has no doubts the Coffee Creek property will be developed sometime
soon if not by the existing project developer. So the question becomes
how the land can be developed with the least impact on the area.
An EIS, in outlining the impacts of development and
the ways impacts can be mitigated, can be used as a tool
by the city's hearings examiner and the city commission
in making decisions about the subdivision, including
requiring certain conditions for approval.
The traffic impacts alone raise cause for concern, but 275
houses with 700 people in them also affect many aspects of life.
Schools and parks become more crowded, stormwater pours off
cleared land, air and water pollution increases, fire and police
departments receive more calls for help, lines at government
offices grow, waits at the emergency room are longer and so on.
Make no mistake: The benefts of the development
will accrue to a few and the majority will pay the costs
involved - everything from taxes for new schools to
the unquantifiable losses in quality of life. That's the
way growth works. It doesn't pay for itself and it forces
adjustments by current residents, but communities have
been accepting it forever as inevitable.
One of the impacts addressed by the EIS will be mounting
traffic. Planners use a rule of thumb that a house generates 10
trips a day - by its occupants and by anyone serving the house
such as a postal employee, a deliverer or a garbageman. That
means approximately 2,750 trfps a day out of and into Coffee
Creek. What streets will the 2,750 vehicles use?
So far, the developer .proposes that motorists use
Wyandotte Avenue, Grandview Avenue, Eaglewood Way
and Eagleview Place. That brings 16th Street at the top
of Angieside into the picture, as well as Turner Avenue,
the two streets off the Angleside hill, Seventh Street on
Angleside and downtown, Second Street toward Five
Corners, where drivers train to watch tennis matches,
and Arcadia Avenue. Hardly a bunch of the city's finest
and safest streets, and all but one without sidewalks.
The traffic would funnel by necessity. Planner Dose points
out that Coffee Creek motorists would gravitate to one of only
three intersections to leave town - Seventh at Railroad, Arcadia
at Olympic Highway South, and Turner at First. And a lot of
them would be trying to leave town because Coffee Creek is being
sold as a good buy for people priced out of the Thurston County
market. So they'd commute to Olympia and return home on the
same Shelton streets. Dose said none of those intersections as it
stands is well designed for lots of traffic.
It's disturbing that the developer has dropped a proposal
to build a road west out of Coffee Creek toward the freeway,
which would take a lot of the pressure off existing city
streets, and instead plans to use existing streets for access
to the subdivision. The new road would connect with East
Deegan Road, giving motorists access to Highway 101.
However, when the idea was first proposed, the Washington
Department of Transportation had problems with it because
Deegan Road is so close to a freeway off-ramp and the left-
turn lane on Shelton-Matlock Road for traffic headed south
on the freeway isn't designed for more than a few cars.
The developer has become concerned about the permitting
process for the new road because it would cross a wetland, Dose
said. The city's position has been that the developer should build
the new road and enhance the wetland, he added.
Shelton residents have a chance to get involved in the
review process for Coffee Creek starting next Thursday,
when the subdivision proposal and EIS process will be
explained. Dose said draft documents will be coming out
during the EIS process that will be available for public
review and comment. He wants as many citizens as possible
involved, because often they can point out a problem to
city staffers. He's confident the city and developer can
come up with a mutually beneficial plan.
Your voice can affect this growth process. In Coffee Creek and
other projects, there are enough homes on the drawing board to
double the population of Shelton. Nobody's going to stop growth in
its tracks, but citizen vigilance can ensure that the development
is done carefully.
-CG
Shelton-00
]Ylason ourn
eounty 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: RO. 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. Newaroom: Sean Hanlon, managing editor; Steve Patch,
sports editor; Jeff Green, general assignment, city government, schools, Port of Shelton; 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, mailroom
supervisor. Composing room: Diane Riordan, supervisor; Margot Brand, Jan Kallinen, pagination;
Frank Isaac, pagination, photo technician; Koleen Wood, typesetter, computer system manager;
William Adams, ad builder, computer system manager; Clinton Kendall, proofreader. PtQnroom: Nick
Carr, pressman; Joey Parrott, pressman's assistant.
Page 4 - Shelton-Mason County Journal - Thursday, July 19, 2007
i00eaders" 00Journal:
No maintenance following LID
Editor, The Journal:
Everette Spatz of Hillcrest hit
the nail right on the head in the
letter last week about using local
improvement districts to improve
city streets.
I have lived in my home for 50
years. Between 1966 and 1969 all
the neighbors (property owners)
on East E Street joined in and
formed an LID with the city ad-
ministration. East E Street was
blacktopped from Olympic High-
way North to King Street, with the
promise to maintain the street and
keep the shoulders maintained
and the edges protected, because
it was too costly to put in cement
sidewalks.
Well, guess what? East E Street
has never been taken care of. As
a matter of fact the edges of the
blacktop have never been taken
care of. If the property owners
wanted to pay the city to spread
crushed rock along their part of
the street, well, that's not cheap.
I have tried for years to get the
street department bosses to fix the
cracks and holes, etc., on E Street,
but no luck.
But a year or two ago, the street
department chip-sealed Jefferson
Street from C to D that had been
dirt forever. Guess what? There
are four houses'on one side of the
block. Then at the same time, they
chip-sealed three one-block streets
that got no major traffic. Where's
that reasoning?
Right now East E Street is being
used as a major through street; it
never had been before.
Now we have heavy dump
trucks hauling heavy loads to and
from the construction on North-
cliff. Who is going to pay for the
repairs on E Street caused by the
heavy equipment? The city?
I don't have a problem with
buses. Their weight isn't exces'
sive and they follow the rules
speed limits.
Also: Our three city leaders
a supervisor for the street
ment. He or she starts a street
pair program and what
That person leaves,
comes on line and has
ideas and priorities.
goes on hold and another
goes by and the prices keep going
up. I paid for E Street to be black"
topped, and once is enough!
Another thing I'd like answered:
Why do we (the citizens) need
pay for an expensive city
and street supervisor; when we
voted in a mayor and two city
missioners?
Barbara M.
Mountain
Misguided teaching methods
Editor, The Journal:
Apparently some teachers
aren't quite sold on new-age "con-
structivist" education methods.
The newspapers report that there
are problems implementing the
BERC Group's Powerful Teach-
ing and Learning (PTL) project in
the North Mason schools, noting
that after two years, 68 percent of
the teachers are still not "aligned"
with PTL.
It turns out that the teachers
might have good reason to resist
the change.
There is increasing evidence
that the "reform" movement in
education, which PTL represents,
and which was initiated by the
Washington State Office of Su-
perintendent of Public Instruc-
tion in the 1990s, is seriously
short-changing our children. This
is most noticeable in math and
science, but it cuts across all sub-
jects.
For example, the concep of
small groups working together to
solve problems actually discour-
ages individual achievement.
Emphasis on the teaching of "con-
cepts" rather than "facts" doesn't
prepare kids for the real world,
where getting the right answer is
expected. Dumbing down curricu-
lum to the level of slow learners
doesn't challenge the more capable
students and cheats them out of a
quality education.
And there is a lot of "feel good"
emphasis on the cultural aspects
of curriculum. Even in math,
OSPI uses criteria such as "incor"
porates multicultural information,
resources and materials in all
the subjects and skills
taught" to judge the alignment
textbooks with state curriculunl
objectives.
Is it any wonder that a lot
parents are home-schooling or
sending their children to
schools? Local school boards
have the power to select traditional
and in many cases internationally
recognized curriculum and teach"
ing methods. They should stand
up and do so before this misguidedi
experiment completely wrecks our
schools.
Bob Benze
Silverdale
Change mayors and priorities
Editor, The Journal:
Gary Cronce is my man for
mayor. Here is why:
(1) He has a history of honesty
and integrity in the construction
business, always building quality
homes.
(2) He is a man of purpose who
locks onto objectives like a pit bull
and sees them through to comple-
tion.
(3) He is not just project-orient-
ed but he is also people-oriented,
always trying to help individuals
by training them or trying to give
them a fresh start.
(4) He plans to do something
about the streets, which haven't
changed much since I arrived here
on November 1, 1974!
Is it an impossible dream to
imagine just the three streets
parallel to Railroad and First be
upgraded: Cota, Franklin and
Front? I won't even mention the
broken asphalt washboards, grav-
el and dirt roads inside our city
limits.
We lived in a Third World coun-
try town with better streets than
Shelton! The mayor and the towV
council of that place were deter-
mined to make it a budget prior-
ity.
The budget for street repair
here is rumored to be less than 1
percent.
Let's change mayors and change
budget priorities. Cronce wants to
do that instead of raising taxes.
Footnote: Whom do we thank
the one nice block on Cota Street
in front of the civic center?
Dennis Teague
Shelton
Shelton built 'barn'
Editor, The Journal:
In response to Mary Profitt
Johnston's letter in last week's
Journal about the deteriorating old
red "barn" on North First Street,
I'd like to mention that records at
the Mason County Historical Soci-
ety show that the old bowling alley
building she refers to was probably
built by David Shelton, our town's
founding father.
Records are incomplete, but
it appears that Shelton built the
structure at First and Railroad in
1888 for Mrs. Margaret McDon-
ald's general merchandise store,
known as McDonald & O'Neill.
(With her son-in-law, Thomas
O'Neill, she had been running the
business out of "the old Masonic
Hall on Front Street.")
In February 1930, the building
was moved some 30 feet to make
room for a "super service station."
Apparently, the plan was to con-
vert it to apartments and some
storage space, but in July 1935,
renovations were under way to
convert it to a bowling alley, which
became known as the Shelton Rec-
reation Parlor.
Jan Parker, secretary
Mason County Historical Society
Shelton
Sure, the price of the
median house is only
$195,000, but why would
you want to live in the
middle of a freeway with
all that traffic whiz-
zing by on both sides?