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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
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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
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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
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First year of Gig Internet
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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.” ’
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