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Shelton Mason County Journal
Shelton, Washington
September 13, 2007     Shelton Mason County Journal
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September 13, 2007
 
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BELFAIR HERALD Serving Belfair -- Allyn m Grapeview -- Tahuya Mason Lake m South Shore Victor Thursday, September 13, 2007 Section of The Shelton-Mason County Journal arrison rep A closer look at the election: be at the Ballot language could've ber lunch played role in outcome By KEVAN MOORE Thomas Kruse, the vice presi- of planning and business for Harrison Medi- Center, will be the featured at the September lun- of the North Mason Cham- of Commerce. will discuss the North community's efforts to es- Public Hospital District and Harrison's offer to bring urgent-care to North Mason. The Citizens Committee for Establishment of Public Hos- District 2 has collected the petitions to put the de- form the new district on November ballot. If the mea- ls approved in November, Hospital District 2 will be Kruse will give a presen- that will include an update planning of the clinic, in- locations and ar- renderings. THE NORTH Mason Cham- of Commerce holds a regular luncheon meeting with speaker on the fourth of every month at Community Center in The Shop Local winner each month is drawn and is at these meeting. The start at 11:30 a.m. and the r concludes around Lunch is $8 per person and is invited. other chamber news, Frank Kenny, the local group's executive director, was among the 72 par- ticipants in the first-year class of Academy, a professional develop- ment program running in three- year stints that was presented by the Western Association of Chamber Executives (WACE). Academy is an interactive three-day training program on chamber management essentials designed for today's chamber ex- ecutives and staff professionals. "ACADEMY WAS founded as a program for a new era of cham- ber management," said Dave Kilby, president and chief execu- tive officer of WACE. "We con- gratulate all of the participants in our first-year class and their chambers for having the vision to invest in professional develop- ment." The first-year Academy curric- ulum included three-hour classes on chamber trends and issues, membership development and re- tention, budgeting, legal issues, volunteer development and mar- keting and communications. WACE is an association of chamber of commerce executives and staff professionals designed to promote and enhance profes- sional development. With over 800 members from 15 western states, WACE is the largest state or regional association of cham- ber of commerce executives in the United States. tourney to fit NMHS Olympia Federal Savings and Schwab Tire Center are pre- a scramble golf tourna- at Trophy Lake Golf and Club on Sunday, Septem- 30, to benefit the North Mason School Athletic Department. supporters are invited Participate in the exceptional of golf in an effort to raise to support all athletes and provided at North Ma- School. event organizers high-school stadium's sound the stadium scoreboard a remodel of' the press box. ARE delighted to have Federal Savings and Les Tire Center as our major for this event," said tour- chairman Bob Patterson. entry fee for the scramble is $90 per player, includes lunch, green fees cart, tee prizes, competition es and a raffle ticket. according to Patter- and the staff at Trophy Lake, be a progressive scramble. tournament committee has obtained prizes from McLendon's Hardware, Pizza Factory and oth- er local businesses. "The local business community has been fantastic in their support of this tournament," said Mark Swofford, North Mason High School's athletic director. THERE WILL be prize draw- ings and a little game of "Deal or No Deal" at the awards ceremony after the golf tournament. "We will be putting a golf spin on the deals, which should be fun for everyone in attendance," Pat- terson said. Entry forms can be picked up throughout Belfair at the follow- ing locations: North Mason High School annex, Olympia Federal Savings, Les Schwab Tire Center, Petersen Chiropractic and Pizza Factory. For more information or to reg- ister, folks should contact Swof- ford or Tracey Wardean at the high school by calling 277-2163. Registration and warm-up will get under way at noon followed by a 1:30 p.m. shotgun start. Awards and prizes will be distributed in the pavilion after the tournament. the library: ops will with stories North Mason residents will a chance to learn how to tell life stories during a special series of events at the r in Belfair. Rebecca Horn will residents through three that show how to cre- from memories of their The workshops will be held 10 to 11:30 a.m. on Tuesdays 18 and 25 and October the North Mason Timberland Library, located at 23081 Route 3 in Belfair. monstrate techniques and other storytellers' methods for recalling memories and creating oral stories from those memories. "We will explore why we tell our stories, how to go about telling those stories and how they fit into the larger history of our times," said Horn. "The focus will be on the spoken rather than the writ- ten word, on strong images rather than proper grammar. We will lift the words off the page into our re- tellings." The workshops are free of charge and attendance is limited. Those that are interested in participating should call the library in Belfair at 275-3232 for more information and to register for the workshops. What's in a name, anyway? Well, when it comes to the lan- guage contained in an election bal- lot, it can mean the difference be- tween winning and losing. It can mean the difference between need- ing just over 50 percent of the vote (a simple majority) and needing just over 60 percent of the vote (a super majority). It turns out that a levy and a levy lid lift are two very different ani- mals. The former needs a super ma- jority and the latter needs a simple majority. The recent attempt by Fire Dis- trict 2 to collect taxes for the next six years earned 1,127 "yes" votes (49.3 percent) and 1,159 "no" votes (50.6 percent). Under that scenario, there was not enough support to constitute a simple majority, let alone a super majority. THE QUESTION now, though, has become this: What exactly were people voting for? And, beyond that, could it have affected the way that a person or persons voted? Fire District 2 officials contend that they submitted ballot language to the county representing a levy lid lift and that the county returned and ran ballot language that repre- sented an excess tax levy. 'lhe general appearance is that the ballot measure was changed from a lid lift to an excess levy," said Fire District 2 Chief Beau Bakken. "I want to be able to sit down and work with the auditor's office and Mason County to get a situation that's agreeable to everybody." Bakken and his board of fire commissioners were set to meet on Tuesday evening of this week to dis- cuss the entire situation. Mason County Auditor Karen Herr says her office got the pro- posed language from Fire District 2 and sent it to the Mason County Prosecutor's Office for review. It then came back with changes, be- fore it was sent back to Fire District 2 for review. HERR AND THE prosecutor's office also looked at a Fire District 2 resolution in which the commission- ers called for the election. "In the resolution it never men- tions anything about a,lid lift, so we never imagined that was a possibili- ty or that's what it was," Herr said. Mason County Superintendent of Elections Amber Cervantes, who works out of the auditor's office, also said that the county always viewed the fire district's efforts as one of running an excess tax levy. She says the ballot language "would have the effect of making (voters) believe it was an excess levy," but also points out that the phrase "in excess" came from the district's original resolu- tion. The board of Mason Coun- For the purpose of expanding ty Fire District No. 2 ad- firefighting service levels and opted Resolution No. 232, continuing operations ibr fire a proposition to maintain and emergency medical service and expand firefighting and the Board of' Commissioners of emergency medical services. Mason County Fire Protection This proposition authorizes District 2 adopted Resolution the District to levy excess No. 232 concerning a proposi- taxes on all taxable prop- tion to restore its regular prop- erty within the District at a erty tax levy to an amount not rate not exceeding $1.32 per to exceed $1.32 per $1,000 of $1,000 of assessed value for assessed valuation tbr collec- collection in 2008 and would tion in 2008 and to authorize authorize a growth factor setting a growth factor limited limited to a maximum of 4% to a maximum of 4% per year per year each of the follow- for each of the five succeeding ing 5 years, years. You be the judge: Questions about ballot language have arisen follow- ing the recent attempt by Fire District 2 to gain voter support for a tax measure. At issue is whether or not the district's intent to run a lid lift was changed and whether that could have affected the outcome of the election. The actual ballot language appears at left, while the district's proposed language appears at right. The key differences are emphasized. District 2 for review prior to the election. In a letter to Bakken, Herr mentions the need to shorten the ballot language, per state law, and includes the revised version. But, Bakken and his commissioners did not pick up on the change. In fact, Bakken sent an e-mail out to one of his commissioners after receiving the revised language that clearly implies that he didn't pick up on the change. "Below is a change in ballot lan- guage from the county auditor's office as established by the county prosecutor's office," Bakken wrote. "As expected they have changed some of our language on the ballot. I personally don't have any heartache over the changes. How about you? Below, I have also put our original ballot language for comparison." ONE OF THE big questions at this point is whether or not the change could have affected the out- come of the election. Herr doesn't think so. "I don't think (voters) would un- derstand it," Herr said. "We're hav- ing a tough time ourselves. There's a fine line. I've never heard that, so I don't know if that would make a big difference to the voters." Cobb and Cervantes simply are not sure. "Whether the language affected anybody's vote, there's no way of telling unless you go poll everybody that voted," Cobb said. Rotary has will allow prospective hunters to go afield, so long as they have an experienced hunter by their side." Without a deferral, hunter-ed- ucation training is required for all first-time hunters in Washington born after January 1, 1972. In a typical year, more than 12,000 new hunters complete training in hunter-education classes across the state, Mikitik said. Application forms for the new deferral option are available on the WDFW Web site at httpg/wdfw. wa.gov or can be obtained by call- ing the department's hunter-edu- cation division at 360-902-8111. A $20 application fee is required. Completed applications should be sent to: Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Enforcement Program - Hunter Education Di- vision, 600 Capitol Way North, Olympia, WA 98501-1091. Additional information on the state's hunting, fishing and wild- life viewing opportunities is avail- able on the WDFW Web site men- tioned above. New hunters m. ay get specml wmver Part of the roughly one-and-a- quarter-page resolution includes the following sentence: "Such services will necessitate the expenditure of revenues for station construction, maintenance, operations, equip- ment and personnel in excess of those which can be provided by the District's regular tax revenue levied at the current rate per $1,000 of as- sessed valuation of taxable property within the District." THAT, CERVANTES says, is where the notion of an excess levy, not a lid lift, came from. "In our minds it was an attempt to clarify it, not change the intent, because it was our understanding that it was an excess levy," Cer- vantes added. Mason County's Chief Civil Dep- uty Prosecutor Monty Cobb says that the district's proposed ballot language was changed for several reasons. "I pretty much rewrote the whole thing because it was vague, too long and it was biased," Cobb said. "If the language I wrote in any way con- fused anybody, that's never my in- tent. My intent when I rewrite is to comply with state requirements." Cobb, though, also says that beth versions, that proposed by the dis- trict and his rewrite, represent a levy lid lift. "I GUESS IYI a little bit at a loss," he said. "It's a non-issue in that under either scenario they didn't break 50 percent." Cobb, Herr and Cervantes all also point out that the revised bal- lot language was sent back to Fire The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) is now accepting applications from be- ginning hunters seeking to defer state hunter-education require- ments and hunt under the super- vision of an experienced hunter. The new deferral option, autho- rized by the 2007 legislature, al- lows hunters to qualify for a once- in-a-lifetime, one-year deferral of hunter-education classes and hunt with an adult who has been licensed to hunt in Washington state for at least three years. Beginning hunters who qualify can use the one-time deferral op- tion during the current licensing season or in upcoming seasons, said Mik Mikitik, the WDFW hunter education coordinator. The current licensing season runs through April 30, 2008. "Every year, we hear from be- ginning hunters who just couldn't attend classes, whether because of military service, family obliga- tions or some other reason," Miki- tik said. "As in a number of other states, the new deferral option The North Mason Rotary has installed its 2007-2008 board of di- rectors. The new board includes the fol- lowing members: Chris Ladner (president), Mike Boyle (past presi- dent), Debbie Jacobs (president elect), Lori Severson (treasurer), Anne Armstrong (secretary), Mar- gie Kaiser (membership chair), Mark Christel (foundation chair), Peggy Jensen (club service chair) and Beth Ribli and Gary Podesta (community service co-chairs). Rotary is a global network of community volunteers. Rotary members are business and prots- sional leaders who provide human- itarian service, encourage high ethical standards, and help build goodwill and peace in the world. Some 31,000 Rotary clubs in more than 165 countries carry out service projects in their local communities and abroad to address such critical issues as poverty, health, hunger, illiteracy and the environment. The North Mason Rotary Club meets every Thursday at noon at the Bistro in LakeLand Village in Allyn. Those that would like more information should call 277-3282. new board members BELFAIR HERALD Serving Belfair -- Allyn m Grapeview -- Tahuya Mason Lake m South Shore Victor Thursday, September 13, 2007 Section of The Shelton-Mason County Journal arrison rep A closer look at the election: be at the Ballot language could've ber lunch played role in outcome By KEVAN MOORE Thomas Kruse, the vice presi- of planning and business for Harrison Medi- Center, will be the featured at the September lun- of the North Mason Cham- of Commerce. will discuss the North community's efforts to es- Public Hospital District and Harrison's offer to bring urgent-care to North Mason. The Citizens Committee for Establishment of Public Hos- District 2 has collected the petitions to put the de- form the new district on November ballot. If the mea- ls approved in November, Hospital District 2 will be Kruse will give a presen- that will include an update planning of the clinic, in- locations and ar- renderings. THE NORTH Mason Cham- of Commerce holds a regular luncheon meeting with speaker on the fourth of every month at Community Center in The Shop Local winner each month is drawn and is at these meeting. The start at 11:30 a.m. and the r concludes around Lunch is $8 per person and is invited. other chamber news, Frank Kenny, the local group's executive director, was among the 72 par- ticipants in the first-year class of Academy, a professional develop- ment program running in three- year stints that was presented by the Western Association of Chamber Executives (WACE). Academy is an interactive three-day training program on chamber management essentials designed for today's chamber ex- ecutives and staff professionals. "ACADEMY WAS founded as a program for a new era of cham- ber management," said Dave Kilby, president and chief execu- tive officer of WACE. "We con- gratulate all of the participants in our first-year class and their chambers for having the vision to invest in professional develop- ment." The first-year Academy curric- ulum included three-hour classes on chamber trends and issues, membership development and re- tention, budgeting, legal issues, volunteer development and mar- keting and communications. WACE is an association of chamber of commerce executives and staff professionals designed to promote and enhance profes- sional development. With over 800 members from 15 western states, WACE is the largest state or regional association of cham- ber of commerce executives in the United States. tourney to fit NMHS Olympia Federal Savings and Schwab Tire Center are pre- a scramble golf tourna- at Trophy Lake Golf and Club on Sunday, Septem- 30, to benefit the North Mason School Athletic Department. supporters are invited Participate in the exceptional of golf in an effort to raise to support all athletes and provided at North Ma- School. event organizers high-school stadium's sound the stadium scoreboard a remodel of' the press box. ARE delighted to have Federal Savings and Les Tire Center as our major for this event," said tour- chairman Bob Patterson. entry fee for the scramble is $90 per player, includes lunch, green fees cart, tee prizes, competition es and a raffle ticket. according to Patter- and the staff at Trophy Lake, be a progressive scramble. tournament committee has obtained prizes from McLendon's Hardware, Pizza Factory and oth- er local businesses. "The local business community has been fantastic in their support of this tournament," said Mark Swofford, North Mason High School's athletic director. THERE WILL be prize draw- ings and a little game of "Deal or No Deal" at the awards ceremony after the golf tournament. "We will be putting a golf spin on the deals, which should be fun for everyone in attendance," Pat- terson said. Entry forms can be picked up throughout Belfair at the follow- ing locations: North Mason High School annex, Olympia Federal Savings, Les Schwab Tire Center, Petersen Chiropractic and Pizza Factory. For more information or to reg- ister, folks should contact Swof- ford or Tracey Wardean at the high school by calling 277-2163. Registration and warm-up will get under way at noon followed by a 1:30 p.m. shotgun start. Awards and prizes will be distributed in the pavilion after the tournament. the library: ops will with stories North Mason residents will a chance to learn how to tell life stories during a special series of events at the r in Belfair. Rebecca Horn will residents through three that show how to cre- from memories of their The workshops will be held 10 to 11:30 a.m. on Tuesdays 18 and 25 and October the North Mason Timberland Library, located at 23081 Route 3 in Belfair. monstrate techniques and other storytellers' methods for recalling memories and creating oral stories from those memories. "We will explore why we tell our stories, how to go about telling those stories and how they fit into the larger history of our times," said Horn. "The focus will be on the spoken rather than the writ- ten word, on strong images rather than proper grammar. We will lift the words off the page into our re- tellings." The workshops are free of charge and attendance is limited. Those that are interested in participating should call the library in Belfair at 275-3232 for more information and to register for the workshops. What's in a name, anyway? Well, when it comes to the lan- guage contained in an election bal- lot, it can mean the difference be- tween winning and losing. It can mean the difference between need- ing just over 50 percent of the vote (a simple majority) and needing just over 60 percent of the vote (a super majority). It turns out that a levy and a levy lid lift are two very different ani- mals. The former needs a super ma- jority and the latter needs a simple majority. The recent attempt by Fire Dis- trict 2 to collect taxes for the next six years earned 1,127 "yes" votes (49.3 percent) and 1,159 "no" votes (50.6 percent). Under that scenario, there was not enough support to constitute a simple majority, let alone a super majority. THE QUESTION now, though, has become this: What exactly were people voting for? And, beyond that, could it have affected the way that a person or persons voted? Fire District 2 officials contend that they submitted ballot language to the county representing a levy lid lift and that the county returned and ran ballot language that repre- sented an excess tax levy. 'lhe general appearance is that the ballot measure was changed from a lid lift to an excess levy," said Fire District 2 Chief Beau Bakken. "I want to be able to sit down and work with the auditor's office and Mason County to get a situation that's agreeable to everybody." Bakken and his board of fire commissioners were set to meet on Tuesday evening of this week to dis- cuss the entire situation. Mason County Auditor Karen Herr says her office got the pro- posed language from Fire District 2 and sent it to the Mason County Prosecutor's Office for review. It then came back with changes, be- fore it was sent back to Fire District 2 for review. HERR AND THE prosecutor's office also looked at a Fire District 2 resolution in which the commission- ers called for the election. "In the resolution it never men- tions anything about a,lid lift, so we never imagined that was a possibili- ty or that's what it was," Herr said. Mason County Superintendent of Elections Amber Cervantes, who works out of the auditor's office, also said that the county always viewed the fire district's efforts as one of running an excess tax levy. She says the ballot language "would have the effect of making (voters) believe it was an excess levy," but also points out that the phrase "in excess" came from the district's original resolu- tion. The board of Mason Coun- For the purpose of expanding ty Fire District No. 2 ad- firefighting service levels and opted Resolution No. 232, continuing operations ibr fire a proposition to maintain and emergency medical service and expand firefighting and the Board of' Commissioners of emergency medical services. Mason County Fire Protection This proposition authorizes District 2 adopted Resolution the District to levy excess No. 232 concerning a proposi- taxes on all taxable prop- tion to restore its regular prop- erty within the District at a erty tax levy to an amount not rate not exceeding $1.32 per to exceed $1.32 per $1,000 of $1,000 of assessed value for assessed valuation tbr collec- collection in 2008 and would tion in 2008 and to authorize authorize a growth factor setting a growth factor limited limited to a maximum of 4% to a maximum of 4% per year per year each of the follow- for each of the five succeeding ing 5 years, years. You be the judge: Questions about ballot language have arisen follow- ing the recent attempt by Fire District 2 to gain voter support for a tax measure. At issue is whether or not the district's intent to run a lid lift was changed and whether that could have affected the outcome of the election. The actual ballot language appears at left, while the district's proposed language appears at right. The key differences are emphasized. District 2 for review prior to the election. In a letter to Bakken, Herr mentions the need to shorten the ballot language, per state law, and includes the revised version. But, Bakken and his commissioners did not pick up on the change. In fact, Bakken sent an e-mail out to one of his commissioners after receiving the revised language that clearly implies that he didn't pick up on the change. "Below is a change in ballot lan- guage from the county auditor's office as established by the county prosecutor's office," Bakken wrote. "As expected they have changed some of our language on the ballot. I personally don't have any heartache over the changes. How about you? Below, I have also put our original ballot language for comparison." ONE OF THE big questions at this point is whether or not the change could have affected the out- come of the election. Herr doesn't think so. "I don't think (voters) would un- derstand it," Herr said. "We're hav- ing a tough time ourselves. There's a fine line. I've never heard that, so I don't know if that would make a big difference to the voters." Cobb and Cervantes simply are not sure. "Whether the language affected anybody's vote, there's no way of telling unless you go poll everybody that voted," Cobb said. Rotary has will allow prospective hunters to go afield, so long as they have an experienced hunter by their side." Without a deferral, hunter-ed- ucation training is required for all first-time hunters in Washington born after January 1, 1972. In a typical year, more than 12,000 new hunters complete training in hunter-education classes across the state, Mikitik said. Application forms for the new deferral option are available on the WDFW Web site at httpg/wdfw. wa.gov or can be obtained by call- ing the department's hunter-edu- cation division at 360-902-8111. A $20 application fee is required. Completed applications should be sent to: Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Enforcement Program - Hunter Education Di- vision, 600 Capitol Way North, Olympia, WA 98501-1091. Additional information on the state's hunting, fishing and wild- life viewing opportunities is avail- able on the WDFW Web site men- tioned above. New hunters m. ay get specml wmver Part of the roughly one-and-a- quarter-page resolution includes the following sentence: "Such services will necessitate the expenditure of revenues for station construction, maintenance, operations, equip- ment and personnel in excess of those which can be provided by the District's regular tax revenue levied at the current rate per $1,000 of as- sessed valuation of taxable property within the District." THAT, CERVANTES says, is where the notion of an excess levy, not a lid lift, came from. "In our minds it was an attempt to clarify it, not change the intent, because it was our understanding that it was an excess levy," Cer- vantes added. Mason County's Chief Civil Dep- uty Prosecutor Monty Cobb says that the district's proposed ballot language was changed for several reasons. "I pretty much rewrote the whole thing because it was vague, too long and it was biased," Cobb said. "If the language I wrote in any way con- fused anybody, that's never my in- tent. My intent when I rewrite is to comply with state requirements." Cobb, though, also says that beth versions, that proposed by the dis- trict and his rewrite, represent a levy lid lift. "I GUESS IYI a little bit at a loss," he said. "It's a non-issue in that under either scenario they didn't break 50 percent." Cobb, Herr and Cervantes all also point out that the revised bal- lot language was sent back to Fire The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) is now accepting applications from be- ginning hunters seeking to defer state hunter-education require- ments and hunt under the super- vision of an experienced hunter. The new deferral option, autho- rized by the 2007 legislature, al- lows hunters to qualify for a once- in-a-lifetime, one-year deferral of hunter-education classes and hunt with an adult who has been licensed to hunt in Washington state for at least three years. Beginning hunters who qualify can use the one-time deferral op- tion during the current licensing season or in upcoming seasons, said Mik Mikitik, the WDFW hunter education coordinator. The current licensing season runs through April 30, 2008. "Every year, we hear from be- ginning hunters who just couldn't attend classes, whether because of military service, family obliga- tions or some other reason," Miki- tik said. "As in a number of other states, the new deferral option The North Mason Rotary has installed its 2007-2008 board of di- rectors. The new board includes the fol- lowing members: Chris Ladner (president), Mike Boyle (past presi- dent), Debbie Jacobs (president elect), Lori Severson (treasurer), Anne Armstrong (secretary), Mar- gie Kaiser (membership chair), Mark Christel (foundation chair), Peggy Jensen (club service chair) and Beth Ribli and Gary Podesta (community service co-chairs). Rotary is a global network of community volunteers. Rotary members are business and prots- sional leaders who provide human- itarian service, encourage high ethical standards, and help build goodwill and peace in the world. Some 31,000 Rotary clubs in more than 165 countries carry out service projects in their local communities and abroad to address such critical issues as poverty, health, hunger, illiteracy and the environment. The North Mason Rotary Club meets every Thursday at noon at the Bistro in LakeLand Village in Allyn. Those that would like more information should call 277-3282. new board members