Notice: Undefined index: HTTP_REFERER in /home/stparch/public_html/headmid_temp_main.php on line 4394
Newspaper Archive of
Shelton Mason County Journal
Shelton, Washington
August 18, 2011     Shelton Mason County Journal
PAGE 1     (1 of 18 available)        PREVIOUS     NEXT      Jumbo Image    Save To Scrapbook    Set Notifiers    PDF    JPG
 
PAGE 1     (1 of 18 available)        PREVIOUS     NEXT      Jumbo Image    Save To Scrapbook    Set Notifiers    PDF    JPG
August 18, 2011
 
Newspaper Archive of Shelton Mason County Journal produced by SmallTownPapers, Inc.
Website © 2025. All content copyrighted. Copyright Information
Terms Of Use | Privacy Policy | Request Content Removal | About / FAQ | Get Acrobat Reader




Thursday, August 18, 2011 Year 125 -- Week 33 -- 8 Sections -- 44 Pages -- Published in Shelton, Washington -- $1 Journal photo by Kevan Moore James Re n, the managing director of Hearland LLC in Seattle, speaks Tuesday about Green Diamond plans to conserve 18000 acres of timberland. By KEVAN MOORE economic, environmental, and recre- "We have operated in this re- ational benefit," said Trust for Public gion for five generations and are Mason County's largest landown- Land's Western Divisions Director committed to practicing responsi- er, a company with deeper roots than Roger Hoesterey. ble forestry," said Paul Wing, vice just about any other, is promising to The Trust for Public Land will president and general manager of keep 18,000 acres of land as working seek project funding from federal, Green Diamond's Northwest Tim- forest forevermore, state and local governments, along berlands Division. "As our commu- Green Diamond Resource Compa- with private philanthropy, to put- nity grows, this unique partnership ny, working with the Trust for Pub- chase a conservation easement based with the Trust for Public Lands tic Land, announced plans this week on an independent appraisal of the and other public and private stake- to place a conservation easement on land's value, Hoesterey said. holders will enable us to maintain most of its property between Shetton Approximately 7,000 of the 25,000- working forests that support our and Belfair, permanently preventing acre project area, with access, utility, local economy while addressing it from being developed and conserv- and other locational advantages, are emerging needs." ing it as working forest, planned to retain their existing de- Nationwide, the Trust for Public "This is a real opportunity to bring velopment rights and be positioned Land has protected more than 3 rail- together an important local landown- for low-impact development by Green lion acres in 47 states, and in Wash- er with local government, tribal and Diamond as Mason County market ington TPL has completed over 290 stakeholder groups to protect a long- demand dictates over the next 20 to projects protecting more than 83,000 established working forest and its 30 years, acres. City votes again on sales tax measure - By NATALIE JOHNSON The City of Shelton Com- mission voted for a second time Tuesday to approve putting a one-tenth of 1 percent sales tax increase saiiet3 lot in the November gener- al election. The tax would only be applicable within city lim- its and would not apply to food, car purchases or oth- erwise exempt items. Last week, Commis- sioner Mike Byrne, who is running for reelection as Shelton Commissioner of Finance and Mayor John Tarrant, who is not run- ning for reelection this year, voted to allow city staff to draft a resolution to put the proposed tax on the November ballot. Commis- sioner Dawn Pannell, who is running for Mayor, voted against it. However, on Monday, all three commissioners voted to approve a resolution to put the proposed one-tenth of 1 percent tax on the bal- lot. By law, at least one-third of the taxes collected must go to public safety. City Manager Dave O'Leary said that all funds collected would go to public safety in the city. The city originally planned to pursue such a sales tax along with Mason County, and although the Mayor personally spoke be- fore the county commission several times to request consideration of the ballot measure, the county de- clined to act. However, Codnty Com- missioner Lynda Ring Er- ickson weighed in on the issue Tuesday. "We've been following the requests for several weeks by the Mayor of Shelton," she said. Although the county will not pursue the sales tax, it will still receive 15 percent of revenue collected by the city if voters approve the tax in November. Ring Erickson See Sales tax on page A-7 ~3 ~ ~.~, Mason County Commissioner Lynda Ring Eriekson, left, and Mason set of primary election results Tuesday night in Shelton. County Auditor Karen Herr • • • Journal photo by Kevan Moore look over the first By KEVAN M{OORE Tuesday's primary election featured a tittle bit of everything for political junkies: close calls and blowouts, a levy that hangs in the balance and incumbents sent packing. Mason County Auditor Karen Herr said that about 1,000 additional ballots will be tal- tied Friday, but the results, with the possible exception of a levy at Fire District 9, are un- likely to change. In the race for Shelton mayor, sitting city commissioner Dawn Pannell garnered 41.44 percent of the vote followed by Shelton busi- nessman Gary Cronce who earned 31.5 per- cent. Political newcomer and first-time can- didate Tracy Moore was eliminated from the running with just 25.48 percent. Incumbent Port of Shelton Commissioner Jack Miles came in second with just 25.71 per- cent of the vote while challenger Dick Taylor earned 52.53 percent. Brian Avery was elimi- nated with 20.16 percent. In the Port of Allyn race, incumbent Jean Famer earned 53.59 percent of the vote fol- lowed by Barry Fischer with 34.84 percent and Danielle Skeeters-Lindsey with 9.84 percent. Sitting Belfair Water District Commis- sioner John Phillips was eliminated after only earning 14 votes. Linnie Griffin, meanwhile, earned 69.41 percent and Lynn Stevenson got 21.76 percent. Another incumbent at Fire District 3 also struggled Tuesday. Stan Catron advances, but only earned 36.01 percent while Nancy Mont- gomery earned 54.81 percent. Jeremy Seetig was eliminated with just 8.45 percent. At Fire District 8 in Tahuya, incumbent Tom Wampold got 60.26 percent, Steve Chris- tensen got 31.2 percent and John Henderson got 6.84 percent. An EMS levy at Fire District 6 passed over- whelmingly with 83.14 percent and Fire Dis- trict 4 voters also passed a levy lid lift with 52.97 percent. After Tuesday's initial count, an EMS levy at Fire District 9 fell just shy of the required super-majority for passage with 59.87 percent. Some 188 voters said "yes" to the measure while 126 others said "no." Journal photo by Adam Rudnick Arcadia resident Rob Stewart drops his primary election ballot in Shel- ton Tuesday. "I thought I'd save a stamp but I think I spent more on gas," he said. PUD prepa for BPA rate increase in October By NATALIE JOHNSON Mason County PUD 3 is pre- paring for as high as a 10 percent wholesale rate increase on Octo- ber 1 from its largest power sup- plier, federal power marketing agency Bonneville Power Admin- istration (BPA). BPA has listed the region wide "We won't know for sure (what the increase will be) until we get our first bill on November 1." exactly what it's going to be. We Last year, PUD 3 staffworked the rate increase at 7.8 percent, but won't know for sure until we get increase into their 2011 budget PUD 3 Manager WylaWood said our first bill on November 1," she so it wouldn't affect retail rates the PUD might not know its ex- said. or PUD customer payments. act rate increase for some time. BPA's wholesale, ra~.k~e ~ :. ~ budge~£or a 10 percent "We're still trying to figure out hasn't come at a surpnse;~;'~"o~gl~, increase to be sure we were cov- ered," Wood said. However, as the PUD enters into the 2012 budget process, the impact of the BPA rate increase will reach ratepayers. If PUD 3's rate hike is close to the region wide average of 7.8 percent, the PUD's power bills, the money they pay to BPA, would increase by $2 million. "We're talking real money," Wood said. Wood said PUD 3 customers See PUD on page A-7