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| September 12, 2019 Shelton Mason County Journal |  |
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Thursday, Sept. 12, 2019 -Shelton-Mason County Journal- Page A-5
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Fire District 5
Editor, the Journal
After reading the letter -.
from Bill Bush last week re-
garding the "unstaffed fire
stations in need of repair," I
must respond. Bill is a retired
fire chief from the Seattle
area and had all the money
he needed to take care of the
stations that carry apparatus.
Unfortunately, Mason County
Fire District 5 (Central Mason
Fire-EMS) does not have that
same tax base, and therefore
must cut some corners that
the Seattle-area fire stations
didn't worry about. I know
nothing about the Seattle-
area stations, but wonder how
many onIy holdapparatus
and none of the firemen them-
selves. Most of Fire District
5's stations only hold the ap-
paratus.
Although Fire District 5
]y $10 million for its budget,
the commissioners are looking
at their equipment more than
their stations Somehnw I ha- voters decided the of
lieve the equipment they have 100% of the county's resi-
and use may be of more im- dents. These percentages
portance when they are need- starkly illustrate the well-
ed and used. That equipment, known fact that more people
to say the least, is expensive, vote in general elections
LikeMr. Bush, I have at- than vote in primary etec-
tended a number of meetings tions. They also illustrate
in the last few years, and tru- why important questions
ly believe the commissioners should be reserved for gen-
have attempted to meet most eral elections.
0fthe concerns of the Harstine It is hardly a secret that
Island folks at most of those most working people have
meetings. It was also men- more important things to do
tioned that the commissioners' than muck about in partisan
way ofnottaking questionspolitics and that primary
from the public was unaccept- elections are the province of
able. Neither was it accept- the ultra committed. It is true
able the way they raised their that the primary system we
voices to the commissioners have had for about 100 years
when asking their questions, is an improvement over the
I believe that Fire District "a few men in sm0ke-filled
5 commissioners are trying rooms" practice that led to
to take Care of the district to the establishment of primary
the best of the general public's elections.
needs and requirements. But the salient fact is
that both methods, whether
Ellie Nevers smoke-filled rooms or prima-
Atlyn ries, were designed to decide
"only" partisan questions.
The problem General elections are where
the voters take the time to
y understand the issues and
with primar make hard decisions. It is
a fairly recent development
that questions that affect all
citizens began to be plated
Editor, the Journal on primary ballots. Manipu-
Congratulations to the lative political operatives
14,599 voters of Mason Coun- have seized on the "primary
ty who recently cast primary election" approach in order
ballots regarding a proposed to pass measures that they
sales tax increase for "crimi- know would likely fail in a
nal justice purposes." The general election. It is time to
outcome of the election is not outlaw general election type
the focus of this letter, what questions, such as proposed
I am concerned about is the increases from primary
misuse of the primary elec- elections.
tion process. I will be writing to Mr.
Consider these numbers: Tim Eyman, who has made it
In the last general election, a career of suggesting ballot
72% of Mason County's eli- initiatives, in the hope that
gible voters cast ballots, in if he agrees with me, he will
the recent primary election, use his considerable talents
only 36% of the county's to bear on this question. I in-
eligible voters made their vite like-minded citizens to do
wishes known regarding the same.
a tax increase. Think of it
as, slightly more than one- Brian T. Walsh
third of the county's eligible Shelton
/411 UI.It ll ICLI, I
to Bill Gates
~ n th~nl~ yml
(gl nhn 1 cl i m ntp ~tri k~ n ~.f.)
Bill Zeigler . Michael Siptroth
Shelton Belfair
Editor, the Journal
Dear Mr. Gates,
Can I call you Mr. Bill for
this letter?
Being a part-time resi-
dent of Mason County, I was
hoping you would consider
financially assisting Ma-
son County in construct-
ing a new and much larger
jail. You see, the jail, built
about 35 years ago, was too
small, even oil the first day
it was opened. We have ex-
perienced large population
growth since then and seem
to be having an increasing
problem with drugs, gangs
and other such mayhem. I'm
told by Prosecutor Dorcy,
Sheriff Salisbury, commis-
sioners Neatherlin and Shut-
ty, and others that without
more jail space, the courts,
judges, sheriffs deputies and
local police are unable to use
common-sense law enforce-
ment to keep our streets and
homes safer. Sheriff Sal s-
bury admits that he has over
4,500 unserved warrants
because of this issue. Unless
a person does something re-
ally bad, we have a "catch
and release" system where
many bad guys simply do not
return for their court date.
The deterrent of jail time is
simply not there.
I have suggested on sev-
eral occasions that we build
a 1,000-bed jail andrent out
the unused beds and cells
to other counties, cities and
tribes with the same problem
and we can make a fortune,
and maybe pay for the overall
costs of operating the jail. Of
course, I am not an expert on
anything but, Mr. Bill, you
are and hopefully have the
vision to see we need help on
this issue. Be a good neighbor
and help us out. Maybe they
will name the jail after you,
natural gas
plant not the
Editor, the Journal
The liquefied natural gas
(LNG) plant being.illegally
built on Puyallup tribal land
is neither "needed" nor per-
missible; the Puyallup Tribe
has said no to this plant
many times and the neces-
sary permits have never
been issued. As the climate
crisis intensifies, all of us
must say yes to life-affirming
conservation, green, renew-
able energy, not fracked gas,
not carbon-based energy.
Don Brunell's guest column
Sept. 5 in the Shelton-Mason
County Jv urnal only pres-
ents a narrow, one-sided
view and leaves out critical
information about why the
Puyallup Tribe and support-
ers have written letters, ap-
peared at public hearings,
and risked arrest to stop
the illegal work on the LNG
project.
Puget Sound Energy's
LNG plant is not the an-
swer to our need for clean
energy. It is a danger to
Tacoma and a direct threat
to the federally recognized
tribal rights of the Puyal-
lup Tribe. The construction
of the plant and related
pipelines without permits
should never have been al-
lowed to start and the plant
must be stopped now. The
Puyallup Tribe is starting
a multiday march from the
LNG site to Olympia (ar-
riving Sept. 24) at 9 a.m.
on Sept. 20 as part of the
global climate strike
Democratic
unqualified
Editor, the Journal
A great ' West Side Story"
song has the line, "Tonight,
tonight, won't be just any
night "Yes, tonight, Sept.
12, will be (pant; pant) the
third round of debates for the
remaining (only 10 are left)
Candidates for the Democratic
preSidential nomination.
This food fight (veggies
only, please) is scheduled to
begin at 5 p.m last for two-
plus hours and feature three
very left-wing moderators.
Hint, number one: Watch
Joe Biden. If he had a scalp,
many people, both in the
media and in his own party,
would be after it. More on
this in a moment.
A couple of weeks ago. in
a serendipitous moment. I
heard on the radio an an-
nouncement for CNN's
Sept. 5 town hall on climate
change. Thiswas followed im-
mediately by a commercial for
an "amazing" new anti-snore
medicine. Timely, yes?
Last Thursday evening, in
an effort to lower its ratings
even further, CNN really did
inflict on its audience a seven-
hour (seven-hour!). town hall
Q & A session, fright night,
snooze lest Or whatever. It
was on a subject most Ameri-
cans have ranked in recent
polls as the least of their con-
cerns, climate change. CNN
has promised their next town
hall will be on LGBTQ issues.
Reviews of this special inform
us that while it went on, and
on, and on, and on,
see LETTERS, page A-6