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SMALL TOWN PAPERS
Since 1886 - Vol. 134, No. 33
MASON COUNTY, THURSDAY, AUG. 13, 2020
$1.50
927 W RAlLROAD AVE
SHELTQN WA, 98584 3847
Deputies
surViVe
By Isabella Breda
lsabel/a@masoncountycom
A Mason County sheriff deputy is expected
to make a full recovery after sustaining a se-
vere head injury while trying to recover partial
remains of a body in the canyon near High Steel
Bridge around 1 p.m. Aug. 6.
We sent guys on a mission to see if they could
locate missing persons, Chief Ryan Spurling said.
While coming out of the canyon, one of my
deputies was on a rope ascending, and the rope
forced a rock to break loose and hit him in the
head. '
Another deputy was able to catch the uncon-
scious deputy before he fell into the South Fork of
the Skokomish River, Spurling said.
The deputy sustained ve broken facial bones
including injuries to the orbital bone, cheek and
jaw, a broken leg and a severe concussion. The
deputy was wearing a helmet when the injury oc
curred. g '
The second deputy sustained soft tissue inju-
ries, including muscle strains and sprains, Spurl
ing said.
According to the Mason County emergency
communications call detail, the deputy who sus-
tained a head injury fell about 15 feet down the
canyon before he was caught. L
High Steel Bridge is 420 feet above the South
Fork of the Skokomish River and is recognized as
the tallest bridge in Washington. The steep can-
yon below is composed of eroding sedimentary
rocks.
We re doing our own investigation to see if
anything was missed or overlooked, Spurling
see INJURIES, page A-16
Splashing at the
Jawslyn Cruz, 4, cools off in her mother s inner tube Monday afternoon at
Lake Devereaux. Tem-
peratures are forecase to hit the 805 this weekend. Journal photo by
Isabella Breda
By Gordon Weeks
gordon@masoncounty. com
The Mason County Fire Protection District No.
16 levy passed by a mere 22 votes.
The measure on the Aug. 4 primary election bal
1' lot was only leading by one vote after the rst ballot
count at 8 p.m.
By the Aug. 6 second count, that lead had wid-
. ened with 607 voting yes, and 586 voting no.
On the third and nal count Friday afternoon, the
measure had 611 yes votes and 589 no votes for
50.92 percent.
Mason County Fire District 16, part of West Ma-
son Fire District, will receive 50 cents per $1,000 of
assessed home property value to pay for emergency
services. '
The three other re protection measures passed
with comfortable margins.
The ballot to merge Mason County Fire Protec-
tion District No. 1 and Mason County Fire Protec-
tion District No. 18 received 80.22 percent. The
emergency medical services levy for Mason County
Fire District No. 4 received 58.13 percent. North
Mason Regional Fire Authority s emergency medi-
cal services levy passed with 70.63 percent.
Voter turnout was 57.92 percent, with 24,211
Mason County residents casting votes.
see V01:E, page A-16
Mystery unearthed at Shelton High
Many theories about origins of mangled. metal ,
By Gordon Weeks
gordon@masoncounly.com
Is the mangled metal re-
cently unearthed from under
the Shelton High School foot-
ball eld swamp ller, part
of a time capsule, a student
prank, or race car chunks
from a long-gone wrecking
yard?
A Shelton mystery that
stretches back ve- decades
was brought to light July 14
at the Shelton School Board s
regular board meeting. Jeff
Feeney of KMB Architects,
the district s project manag-
er, was giving anupdate on
the district s building bond
projects. He mentioned that
workers constructing the new
football eld had unearthed~
parts of a barely recognizable
vehicle.
Feeney showed seven pho-
tos, including the metal being
exhumed and placed in a pile.
One photo shows the vehicle s
speedometer, which looks like
it s melted.
Now you can put that mys-
tery to bed, Feeney told the
school board.
Well, not exactly. No one so
far can determine the make or
the model of the vehicle. And
the mystery remains: how did
it get there? .
When I arrived here in
the district, in 2016, there
were countless old tales and
myths about when the high
school started dirt work back
in the 1968 to 69 time frame
that they had a lot of swamp
to ll in and bring up to grade
for the new campus, Robert
Herron, the Shelton School
District director of facilities
and maintenance, wrote in an
email to the Shelton Mason
County Journal. Supposedly,
according to the legends re-
layed to me, it was request-
ed of the community to help
bring items to back ll the
swamp. Those legends talked
about all kinds of household
items that were discarded in
the ll. Most notably of the ru-
mors that I heard was an old
car actually disposed of in the
swamp to help the cause.
Herron continued: Inever
put any credence in the ru-
mors because no one knew of
them rsthand. Everyone i
talked to said, My friend s dad
always said this and I heard
back in high school that.
People love to talk about it.
Every Shelton long-timer that
was associated with the high
school in any way either as a
student, faculty, tradesmen
over the age of 50 seem to have
their own version of what was
buried under the high school.
see MYSTERY, page A 1 5
. I Shelton School District Wendy s coming Sweetwater Park project
,sets 2020-21 budget to Shelton? underway in Bevlfair
8 5 6 3 0 01 1 1 Page A-2 Page A-6 Page A 25