August 11, 2011 Shelton Mason County Journal | ![]() |
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Belfair Water District
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new manager contract
By ARLA SHEPHARD not been advertised and put out to bid. pay equivalent to three years' pay in
"It's my opinion that we consider the event that he is fired.
The Belfair Water District Board this bid, [but] I'm not opposed to Mr. The severance pay must be payable
of Commissioners voted, with a 2-to- Pope's suggestion," Tipton said. in one lump sum within five days of his
1 majority, to amend the contract for Phillips argued that soliciting more notice of termination, and his notice of
District Manager David Tipton, allow- bids would be time-consuming and termination must be made 120 days in
ing him three-year severance pay and said that time was Tipton's "stock and advance and with written notification.
a 1.5 percent annual raise, at the dis- trade." Tipton's severance pay includes all
trict's regular meeting on Tuesday. Pope made a motion to advertise for benefits and he is entitled to payment
The majority of the meeting took bids and make a final decision in Sep- for all accrued vacation and sick leave
place in Tipten's office, following a dis- tember, but his motion died for lack of up until his termination. There is no
pure between commissioners during a second, and Phillips made a motion limit to the number of hours and sick
the manager's report and subsequent to accept TNT Excavating as the con- leave he can collect.
interruptions from the public, tractor, which Commissioner Harry In the event that Tipton voluntarily
The quarrels began after Commis- Hatlem seconded and which passed leaves, heis entitled to a severance of
sioner Mike Pope questioned whether with a 2-to-1 majority, two years' pay and must give written
the district would appeal a state De- The board also voted to make chang- notice no less than 30 days in advance.
partment of Labor & Industries vio- es to its wage and salary schedule for Other amended items in the con-
lation submitted by former employee its employees, in order to make the tract include allowing Tipton's dogs
Gerard Fitzpatrick. wages competitive with those in other access to the building and disallowing
The state fined the district $1,200 ~stricts, Phillips said. anyone from entering Tipton's office
for violating safety standards dur- The changes amounted to about awithout his consent and presence.
ing construction work (see article in 40-cent increase for one office clerk Tipton is also entitled to an annual
this week's Belfair Herald), and Pope position, with the varied increases de- performance review by the commis-
asked why the district would endanger pending on how long the workers had sioners each October, and if the corn-
workers' lives, been under employment. The salary missioners fail to do so, he is entitled
"Safety is absolutely of utmostschedule called for a $1.57 increase for to a $5,000 performance bonus pay-
importance," Pope said, while Corn- the water distribution lead worker un- able on November 1 for every year of
mission Chair John Phillips said he der the first salary step. his contract.
thought Fitzpatrick's entire claim was "The only person who makes a de- Pope said he felt the contract was
"staged." cent living here is me," said Tipton, "morally wrong" and a "sweetheart
The meeting quick]y unraveled, and advocating for the wage increases, deal" for Tipton that took away the
the commissioners reconvened about "They are all underpaid." rights of the commissioners.
10 minutes later in Tipton's office, After about a 20-minute executive "I'm trying to salvage this water
where the only people in attendance session, the board then approved a district," he said. "That contract right
were the commissioners, Tipton, the new contract for the district manager, there could bankrupt the district."
district secretary and the press. Under his new contract, Tipton will Phillips said that the contracts'
During new business, the board ap- be compensated for three days' pay for amendments were made in response
proved the purchase of wood and a $75 any regular or special board meeting to Pope's aggressive actions toward
registration into the Washington As- that occurs.after 2 p.m. or is still in Tipton and the staff.
sociation of Public Records Officers for session after 4 p.m. and he is not re- "It's the Board of Commissioners
its Public Records Officer Stacie Mar- quired to attend any meetings or work view that [the contract is] the best for
rocco, on Saturday or Sunday, absent a ma- the customers of the Belfair Water Dis-
The board also voted to hire TNT jor emergency, trict and to protect the manager from
Excavating to do the work for side Tipton's annual salary is $72,070 political retaliation," Phillips said.
sewer connection into the new Belfair and will increase by a minimum of 1.5 The board voted, with a 2-to-1 ma-
sewer system, for $8,552.27. Pope ob- percent each year, under the new con- jority, to approve the amended con
jected to the vote because the job had tract, and he is entitled to a severance tract.
i'
i!:
Voters in Mason County
Fire District 4
The volunteers of Fire district 4 urges you to approve our lid lift levy that
appears on your ballot. We ask for your help to better serve you.
Our equipment is aging and not that reliable. We wantto respond and not
worry about getting there. Our newest engine is nineteen years old.
We need to keep up on our training but because of funding limitations,
it is inoeadngly difficult.
Our shift coverage is limited. We pr~ cannot afford to cover 24/7 with our
funding limitations. Responses are critical with most of our EMS calls since we
usually arrive firstto calls such as heart attacks and injury auto accidents.
PLEASE HELP US SERVE YOU
BETTER BY VOTING YES TO THE
LEVY PROPOSAL.
Citizens in Support of FD#4881 West Delight Park Road, Sheiton WA 98584
f
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was nearly twice as large as the first. Accordmg to the Department of Ecology,
Jeffreys said there are two flaws in the sewer district has put together an in-
Continued from page'A-1 the plant's design that exacerbated the terim plan to prevent another spill, which
problem, involves manual operation of the plant.
The plant's permits require daily vis- First, there is no alarm system to no- "Our job will be to work with them to
its by operators, but it is not continu- tify operators and managers of a prob- find a more long-term solution for their
ously staffed, Jeffreys said. lem at the plant. This problem has been plant's operation," said Kim Schmanke,
Jeffreys first noticed the spill on corrected, he said. spokesperson for Ecology.
Wednesday during a routine visit. Jef- Also, there is no containment method In situations like this there are o~en
freys said he stopped the spill, and for a spill at the plant, he said. If there no plans to clean the water or shoreline,
thought the problem was fixed, is a spill, there is no place for the sewage Berbells said. Instead, the Department
"It operated for well over 12 hours to go but into the inlet, of Health, Mason County Public Health,
and went through its different cycles "That was a major concern of ours the Department of Ecology and land
without any issues at all," he said. and we'd been working with the Depart- owners just have to wait and see.
Then the second spill occurred, which ment of Ecology," Jeifreys said. "We wait for it to flush out," he said.
An aerial view of the PUD's Johns Prairie Operations Center.
Courtesy pholo
buildings take shape on Johns Prairie
By NATALIE JOHNSON es, the company coordinat- nificant steps toward en- ting under way this month.
ing between the PUD andclosing the building." The Mason Conservation
Mason County PUD 3's Rushforth construction,"You can actually stand District is installing a rain
Johns Prairie Operations Since July, many of thein the building and not look garden and working on
Center is starting to take buildings are in their sec- through to the other end," landscaping on the corn-
shape after about a year of ond layer of building wrap, she said. plex.
construction, and some are even getting Rushforth also plans to The project is on sched-
In the last month, the drywall work on the inte- install solar panels on the ule and budget, and has
buildings at the site have rior. roof of one building. The completed 340 days without
gone from empty shells of Glass and awnings have panels will supply power to a time-loss incident. The
steel and concrete to en- also been installed in sev- buildings in the PUD's op- project should be completed
closed buildings, said Ni- eral buildings, erations center, by the end of the year, ac-
cole Brown of OAC Servic- Brown called these "sig- Landscaping is also get-cording to Brown.
~ Spill
A-2 - Shelton-Mason County Journal -Thursday, August 11,2011