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Newspaper Archive of
Shelton Mason County Journal
Shelton, Washington
August 24, 2023     Shelton Mason County Journal
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J Thursday, Aug. 24, 2023 SHELTON-MASON COUNTY our n 4” The Voice of Mason County Since 1886 —— Vol. 137, No.34 The City of Shelton’s proposed update to its wastewater facility includes a six-year capital-improve- ment plan for the plant totaling $11.2 million. The Shelton City Council can pass the update at its Sept. 5 meeting. Journal photo by Gordon Weeks City wades into water plans By’G’ord’cm Wee” ks ’ . gordOI7@masoncount}.zcom The City of Shelton is awash in water matters. At its Aug. 15 meeting, the Shelton City Council gave pre- liminary approval to a wastewa- ter facility plan and a water plan. The updated plans, required by the state, can receive final ap— proval at the council meeting at 6 pm. Sept. 5. At that meeting, the coun- cil will have public hearings on adopting preposed water and -. er rates. Information on the pro- posed ordinances can be Viewed at sheltonwa.gov/UtilityRates. Resi- dents can comment at the hear- ings or write comments to the city clerk by emailing donna.nault@ sheltonwagov. The city’s wastewater plan was last updated in 2008 or 2009, said Jay Harris, the city’s public works director. “It addresses the city’s needs for wastewater collection, trans» mission, treatment, reuse of some and disposal for a 20-year period,” he said. The proposed document in— cludes a six—year capital-improve— ment plan for the wastewater treatment plant capital improve- ments totaling $11.2 million. The see WATER, page 13 Chief: West Mason Fire needs help at Massed; matt@masoncounty.com If you live in the West Mason Fire District, fire chief Matt Welander wants to talk to you. The district’s August EMS levy failed despite get- ting a simple majority, with 436 votes or 54.5% of the votes voting “yes,” but it needed 60% to pass. The levy measure failed to get a majority with 423 “no” votes for 53.07%. Welander said he was sad to see the results of the election and wants some answers on what he needs to do to get some help from residents. “I’ve obviously not done a good enough job of ex- plaining the realities of the position of the district,” Welander told the Journal. “I don’t know how to help people understand and the question is do they un- derstand and not care or do they not understand and I’m not doing a good job of selling it? That’s what it comes down to. In Washington, you literally have the ability to vote yourself out of fire protection. You can vote in commissioners who don’t know anything, you can vote in commissioners who will hire chiefs with no certifications or experience. You can do all kinds literally vote your fire service away and it’s not the ‘ fire service. We always say it’s a fire department but the reality is and firefighters aren’t ever going to tell fire trucks.” of stuff. You can vote down every spending measure to the point you can’t keep the doors open. You can llllllllllllllllll 2 8 "53263 00111 you this, we’re all ambulance companies that own West Mason Fire is going to run the EMS levy again in November and ask for half of What they were asking for in August. The levy would allow the district to hire some emergency medical technicians, staff the ambulance and bring in revenue with the ambulance to make up some of the money and get full crews, according to Welander. Welander said 60% to 80% of calls are medical calls. When an EMS levy can’t pass, hesaidthat is tough and they are the only fire district in the county without an EMS levy. The district was able to pass a lid lift in 2016 and 2020. According to data provided by Welander, West Mason Fire covers 92 square miles and has respond— ed to 496 calls this year through Aug. 9. Among Ma- son County fire districts, West Mason had the fifth most calls, and has a tax rate that is the lowest in the county. The aggregate tax rate is 10th out of 1 1. see WEST MASON, page 9 INSIDE lells WEEK 4&9 iiiliilllll‘il'l“iiill‘i‘l’lmlllllli‘lllil‘lll‘lilliil‘llllli‘ ***?K?K****¥*******CAR~RT LOT’R’KC SMALL TOWN PAPERS 92? W RAILROAD AVE SHELTON WA 98584—3847 8- 13 8-72 Shelton . schools set budget $2 ‘ By Weeks gordon@masoncountyz com The Shelton School Board on Tuesday evening passed a $78.3 million budget for the 2023-24 school year. Instruction is the largest expense in the bud— get at 57.50%, followed by instructional support at 13.46%, central administration at 6.50%, main- tenance and operations at 6.07%, the principal's offices at 5.64%, pupil transportation at 4.52%, food services at 2.80%, utilities and insurance at 2.25%, other services at 1.15% and public activi- ties at 0.11%. That translates to $45,058,755 for instruc- tion, $10,548,702 for instructional support, $5,095,732 for central administration, $4,421,817 for principal’s office, $2,194,632 for food services, $3,538,436 'for pupil transportation, $4,754,424 see BUDGET, page 14 Permit ruling anticipated By Matt Baide mati@masoncouniy.com Mason County Hearing Examiner Phil Ol- brechts once again heard public comment and asked his own questions about the permit for Tay- lor Shellfish’s proposed floating oyster bag farm in Oakland Bay. The public hearing continued Aug. 16 af— ter a previous public hearing Aug. in the Ma- son County commissioner chambers that drew a standing-room-only crowd. It began with Taylor Shellfish representative Erin Ewald asking Ol- brechts for two weeks to provide written respons- es to the public comment received about the pro- posal, which was granted. Taylor Shellfish has until Aug. 30 to reply to public comments received about the project. After Taylor’s response, the county will post those responses by Aug. 31, and the public will then have a chance to respond to Taylor’s respons- es by Sept. 7. Taylor Shellfish will‘get a chance for a final reply by Sept. 14. After that, Olbrechts has 10 business days to issue a decision. “I think all total, it will be a three and a half week process,” Olbrechts said during the hearing. “If we close the hearing, to get all those comments arranged and out of the way.” Jesse DeNike, an attorney representing Tay— lor Shellfish at the hearing, responded to some of the public comments received on the project. DeNike said over Zoom that they’ve heard several see PERMIT, page .14 Shelton to renovate Civic Center ex 3 \, Harstine Theatre Club stages ’The Short Show ll’ Prep football, volleyball and girls soccer schedules