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Newspaper Archive of
Shelton Mason County Journal
Shelton, Washington
July 20, 2023     Shelton Mason County Journal
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continued from page “Fire season has definitely started earlier than normal,” Searles said. “We expect it to go long this year into October. Normally for us, it’s August time frame we see this sort of activity but seeing it the first week of July is early for us.” The biggest fire was the McEwen Prairie Road fire on July 4. CMFE is proud of the response and saving houses. “Our fire district, aldng with DNR, and all of our part- ner agencies that showed up on initial attack made all the difference,” Brock said. “They were able to shift from at- tacking the fire to structure protection seamlessly and no structures were damaged, which is a testament to all those hardworking firefight— ers out there,” The fire is still burning, Brock said Monday, who said within the bounds, they are still out there working to con» tain hotspots. ’ Searles said it’s the same landscape as the Powerline fire in October 2012, so the crews were familiar with the area and how the fire would progress. Searles said the biggest benefits of a five—member Thursday, July 20, 2023 — Shelton-Mason County Journal Page 11 Board: Five commissioners improve representation commission are better repre- sentation, accountability and transparency for CMFE. “By having a five-member board, it allows two commis- sioners could now meet and work on projects, discuss needs of the fire district be— cause having two is not a quo- rum,” Searles said. “You’d have to have three or more for that so it allows two to meet to be able to do that. Today, with three members, you can’t do that. So going to five allows two commissioners to be able to meet and the big thing is having more commissioners on board allows that trans- parency for more folks for the citizens to go to to talk to their elected officials and allows more people to be an elected". official at the fire district to have that voice and have more of a say.” Fire 12: Nepotism policy adoption expected in August continued from page The first policy talks about the pur- pose and scope along with definitions of the policy. It states that the district will not prohibit all personal relation- ships between employees, but in order to avoid nepotism, reasonable restric- tions will apply. The second policy states, “Whenever possible, married or in relationships shall not be placed in direct supervisor/ subordinate positions. Direct supervi- sion is defined to include a supervisory relationship where the supervisor is directly responsible for supervising a subordinate. In situations where direct supervisory relationships cannot be avoided, such appointments must be ap- proved by the board of commissioners.” Wilder said the policy will be voted on at the next general meeting sched- uled for 2 p.111. Aug. 15. “The biggest problem is trying to find a policy that fits the department,” Wild- er said. “Just like every other rural fire department is if you go back to when 'vn mam Pm - SHELTON, wii 311w 20 -— THE LAW mums WlllSKEV this fire department was started, the chief’s son was a commissioner. There’s always been family, always.” Mason County Commissioner Kevin Shutty, who represents Matlock, said he understands the frustration of the community. Shutty attended the Fire 12 candidate forum in Matlock on Sat- urday, with only candidate Nick Jones making himself available for the com- munity to ask questions. Commissioner candidate Cinda Compton was appointed to the vacant position after Pais resigned. Jennifer J utson is a commissioner candidate but did not attend the forum. “I think it’s really frustrating that the current regime is playing a shell game to try to avoid accountability for years of malfeasance, years of misfea— sauce and fraud,” Shutty said. When asked about the federal crimi- nal investigation into Fire 12, Shutty said it is his understanding that the FBI is investigating and when people make referrals to the Mason County Sheriff’s Office, they’re sending those to sum 27 ~ nuns LLLLE llELl. JlUGUS‘l' 3 -~ “1an scorr JUGUST Lo - POP UP CHOIR ’ THURSDW EVENlNGfi TZOOPM~823OPM the FBI. “I think it’s pretty common for the FBI to not comment on open investiga- tions as they’re going through their pro— cess but I’m confident in my conversa— tion with the Sheriffs Office that it is being investigated,” Shutty said. “We just don’t know what a timeline is on a process like this.” Shutty said he wants people to con— tact the Sheriff’s Office when there are concerns or any new allegations relat- ing to the way the fire district has been operating and “keep the pressure on that side too.” One person who plans to apply ’for the open commissioner position is Marj Adsero, a resident of Lake Nahwatzel. Adsero applied for Pais’ seat after he re— signed, but she was not appointed. She emailed her application after J utson re~ signed but was still not appointed. “Both times in the meeting, he (Wild- er)’said ‘No one applied, no one had in- terest,’ with me sitting in the meeting,” Adsero told the Journal. “Again for the paper saying no one stepped up other up to $250 off First year of Gig Internet Smart WiFi than one person, which was his daugh- ter, Kelli, but at that time, Nick (Jones) and I both put our applications in for that position that they voted for Kelli.” Adsero’s husband was a volunteer firefighter with Fire 12 for 13 years, but Marj said when Kelli became chief, they started pushing out many volun* teers and community members. Adsero, who is retired, said she has 11 years of board experience and 1'7 year’s experi— ence with a global company as a plant controller where she conducted internal and external audits. At the end of the meeting after Wild; er announced his resignation, Adsero asked Whether her application would be accepted, and Wilder said “all the appli- cations that have been provided to this point are still. here.” . Adsero is not hopeful she will be appointed to the open commissioner position. “1 confirmed again do you have my application? And he said ‘Oh, we have it,”’ Adsero said. “But it’s not going to matter.” ’ ;FREE§Eillllll.UiERlEllDLu iWRCERSESiSPONSOREDEBQZ l‘inaniioees . ‘ ’ , _ $ EXPLORE Lori L Morgan. AAMS’“ fifiggcmfi. {in v -i ‘vjv r r Whole-home coverage and even some outdoors too. Discount applied as l2 monthly credits based on service. Services must remain active to receive full discount. WiFi reach varies. Some restrictions may apply. Offer subject to change without notice. Cannot be combined with other offers. Offer ends 9/30/23. A .\\‘”\ lixcl HC StateFarm Melanie Bahia, agent Windermere r