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Newspaper Archive of
Shelton Mason County Journal
Shelton, Washington
July 31, 1975     Shelton Mason County Journal
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July 31, 1975
 
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Grossenbacher Bros. Inc, 6]./, N. 6th Ave, GAY parked on the street pointing the gismo at your car Mars; he's from the Police Department and with a hand-held that is making it a lot the cops to catch a ride with Mark Oliviero one last week when he flagrant speeders in in hour, have been trying radar gun for the past they're catching people On Wednesday, Shelton wrote 12 tickets for on Thursday, they and on Friday they 1. Police Chief Frank the department hopes one of the $1,400 with money from a grant. radar gun makes it easier speeders because no involved and it is a Operation than the old is fixed to the side of With the radar gun, have you coming and other words, if a is parked on a street, the radar gun at you which way you're going works like this: high radio waves are emitted unit, bounce off objects and come back to the farther away an object longer it takes the waves back. The differences in takes for the waves to to the unit are used by to calculate the r anobject." ' Of course the for the radio waves back is only a small of a second. purpose of the radar is tickets," said Oliviero for a spot near on Railroad. "In the 1, it's to prevent accidents. is no quota of tickets has to turn in. This is known, but people (when the policeman over), 'Oh, I suppose make your quota'." on Railroad, took and pointed it out the going out of town The second car us was going 37 miles ir in a 25 zone. The police ting right beside the view. He pulled over and wrote a ticket. don't try to hide from Oliviero. "The state kind of sneaky that way. of your purpose is to be to create a deterrent. sight of a police car explained that there areless speeders and Mason County commissioners Monday chopped off the payroll two eniployecs of the Mason County Sheriff's Department hired by Sheriff Dan McNair. The action is the latest consequence of a $22.3 million lawsuit fded against numerous county officials by Robert Johnson, a former sheriff's ..... ..... .... department employee who started the class action suit on behalf of PATROLMAN MARK OLIVIERO points the police's new radar gun at a passing motorist. The numberlights on the back of the gun register the speed of the object at which the gun is pointed. offender and simply forfeited so the offender doesn't have to go to court. The bail (or what turns into a free) ranges from $15 for going five miles per hour over the limit to $23 for nine mph over, to $41 for 15 over, to $81 for 25 over, to $100 for 30 over, to $165 for 40 over and includes all the speeds in between. "Thirty-two dollars!" exclaimed the lady sitting next to, the driver of the car Oliviero cited. "It should be $20 or $15. 'TII just have to sit it out in jail, I guess," said the driver. "You get a lot of that," said Oliviero. "They think they're being cute when they tell you they're going to sit it out in jail." We moved to the log monument (on Highway 101) on Hillcrest. Within five minutes, the officer said, "I got the truck going 40." It was a 30 zone. The truck passed the patrol car and Oliviero pulled out into traffic and turned on his light. When the driver got out of the truck, Oliviero asked him to come back to the patrol car to look at the radar gun, which still had "40" in fights registered on its backside. "Can't argue with that, I guess," said the offender. "We show it to the violators when we stop them," said Oliviero. "It (radar's 'authority') makes it a little easier for us, you know. People take it a little better." The police try to work streets all over town, said Oiiviero. There are people speeding all during the day, he said, not just in the morning and late afternoon. He moved to Pioneer Way and the second car that passed us was going 37 in a 25 zone. "It's a good public relations piece of equipment," said the officer as he sat in the car pointing the instrument. "Kids come up to us and we show them how we use it. "It makes police work a little more professional." The radar is checked for accuracy with a tuning fork before the policeman hits the streets. The tuning fork vibrates deliberate speeders. "Careless speeders don't pay attention to what they're doing, so they won't see us even when we're in full view. Deliberate speeders will probably see us before we get them. Both kinds can cause accidents because they're going too fast for the road they're on." Oliviero showed us a copy of the bail schedule, which is set by taw. I;% pretty expensive to have a lead foot and get caught. The bail is usually posted by the all the citizens of the county. The lawsuit claims that McNair, Chief Criminal Deputy Tom Creekpaum and the county Civil Service Commission violated civil service procedures in the hiring of employees for the department. last week Prosecutor Byron McClanahan said the commissioners could ask McNair to resign if they thought he was running the sheriff's department unfairly or in iolation of the law. The commissioners declined to do that ~at their Monday meeting, but i instead passed a resolution thatI Undersheriff Ed Doench and ~Administrative Assistant Dim~tri Todd not be paid afterl July 31. The commissioners took the action as the result of a recommendation of McClanahan, who said the sheriff's office was in apparent violation of a 1959 Attorney General's opinion in hiring Doench, who does not live in the county. MeClanahan also said Todd never took the civil service examination and has been hired by the sheriff's office ever since 1973 by special contract. McNair denied that there is anything wrong with the way he's been running his office or with the people he's hired. "Judging by the amount of verbiage Mr. McClanahan has put out, it's time I said something," said McNair. "The commissioners and I finally met and went over the claim. As far as I'm concerned, there's no fact to the damn thing. I don't understand all of tl ~s svgge::!~on from one area tha', ', aio ~d ue fired nr asked to resign. "First of all, I was dected and the commissioners cannot fire me, and I have no intention of resigning. If it takes every dime I've got and can borrow, I'm going to take this thing right down to the wire." McClanahan told the commissioners Monday that he investigated the claims in the lawsuit and found that Creekpaum had been one of the questioners at the oral civil service examinations. "I think this is not proper," he said. "The sheriff should not be involved in the" examinations and he should be told to cease and desist having any member of his department take part in those examinations." McClanahan suggested that the sheriff's department's involvement in the civil service exams was unfair and that any exams in which a sheriff's department member took part should be discarded. "I'm not saying there was fraud or skullduggery involved," said McClanahan to the commissioners, "but under the apparent fairness doctrine, the sheriff shouldn't have anything to do with those exams." McNair said it was his at a constant frequency (say 65 privilege to appoint one man, the mph) and it takes only a fewundersheriff, and he did. He also seconds for the officer to see if the radar machine registers the correct speed by "reading" the ~ __1 waves from the tuning fork. ~~th~ A truck passed us on Pioneer Way and the radar clocked it at 39 mph. The driver didn't believe it. "Forty miles an hour up that crooked road? By God, that's said the Attorney General's opinion McClanahan quoted was hard to believe," he protested. He Southside School District will also mentioned that he knew increase the size of its board of Frank Rains. , ", directors from three to five "See?" said Oliviero. 'Heres people as a result of school • district reclassification, tcts a case of somebody being famihar with the road getting used to Third class school distr" knowing how fast he can drive his have been reclassified as second truck on a particular road." The class districts and are required to man lived just off Pioneer Way. increase the number of members Oliviero said a lot of people of their boards from three to five mention that they know Frank by SeptemberThe Southside29" school .... ~ Rains, or some other official. "Of directors will consider applicants course'it does them no good,"he for two positions at their next said. , . MATT HAWKINS, 13 (lying down) of Shelton was riding on People who don t believe tlae regular meeting to be held August 11 at 7:30 p m. at Southside the back of a stingray bike down First Street near Kneeland cops about the speed they we; School. Park Thursday morning when the bik ' , ........ .4 ,.. e s dr,~, ~vw,v~u tu traveling are the exception, sal miss a concrete abutment sticking out in the road and ran Oliviero. Most take their lumpS as . The appointment period for into a motor home driven by Corrine W Duckham of Shelton. The boy on the front Of the bike was not seriously if theYAnddeservethe police'sthem" new radar" generalfr°mthe neWseptemberelectionrnemberSinuntilWillNovembelaStthe onlYne:~ injured but Matt suffered lacerations to h s head and was gun is dealing a lot of lump this ye~ir. taken to Mason General Hospital in an ambulance. lately. out of date. "Today it is not an uncommon practice to have sheriff's department employees live out of the county," he said. The sheriff also denied there was anything wrong with having Creekpaum in on the questioning at civil service exams. "I see no problem there," he said. "Other counties do this, and one in. particular has a chief criminal deputy who is also the chief examiner for the civil service colnmission." The commissioners' official motion included cutting off the pay of the two employees, calling for the re-examination of job candidates in civil service jobs where there was a question of fairness, and saying that the county does not condone any of the allegations of wrongdoing in the claim. Thursday, July 31, 1975 Eighty-ninth Year, Number 31 4 Sections - 36 Pages 15 Cents Per Copy ,oroner ose caus Tw enty-five-year-old Russell Charles Viger Jr. of Shelton died of a drug overdose early Wednesday morning, the Mason County Coroner reported Wednesday. Coroner Byron McClanahan said the results of lab work were not known at press time Wednesday, but that he believes Viger died of an overdose of heroin. McClanahan said the physical facts surrounding the case and the statements of witnesses indicated that Viger had given himself a shot of something Tuesday night. The coroner said Viger had also been drinking away from his home and his condition was such that he could not drive home to Union, so he stayed at the Jeff White residence, Rt. 5, Box 665, Shelton. Friends said they assumed Viger passed out, but he couldn't be awakened at 6 a.m. Tragedy struck Belfair State Park Sunday evening when 68-year-old Walter Hawks of Bremerton apparently suffered a heart attack while swimming and died. The Kitsap County Coroner said Hawks, of 1209 Gregory Way in Bremerton, was dead on arrival at Harrison Memorial Hospital in Wednesday. McClanahan said he apparently died at about 2 or 3 o'clock Wednesday morning. Viger was born on December 6, (Please turn to page two.) Bremerton after being transported there by the Belfair Aid Car. Efforts to revive Hawks enroute to the hospital failed. The incident happened at about 7:30 p.m. Sunday. Hawks was a former Puget Sound Naval Shipyard draftsman who retired in 1966. SC ool ! commission open Five people, including the three incumbents, had filed by Wednesday afternoon for Shelton City Commission elections this fall and three people had fried for the Shelton School District Board of Directors. Filing for mayor were James F. Lowery of 1611 Monroe and Frank A. Travis, the incumbent. Bradley Owen, 918 Ellinor, and incumbent David T. Kneeland, 1240 East Fairmount, had filed for Commissioner of Finance. Incumbent Michael J. Byrne was unopposed at press time for the position of Commissioner of Public Works. George Hermes, 2308 Callanan, filed for the district 1 position on the school board now held by Dr. Mark Trucksess. Vicki Lee Conley, 522 North Third, was the lone flier in district number 5, the post now held by "I'om Weston. DL Geo, ge Radlch, 1713 King Street, flied to keep his position Frank Travis in distlic~ 2. Citizens have until Friday to file. Jim Lowery ..... David Kneeland Brad Owen Michael Byrne Vicki Lee Conley George Radich George Hermes