September 13, 2012 Shelton Mason County Journal | ![]() |
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Thursday, Sept. 13, 2012
Week 37 The Voice of Mason County since 1886 Published for Mason County and John Eliasen of Tahuya $1
i
D redg:'nlg l00eg ns downtown
Shelton City
Engineer Mike
Michael squats
alongside
Shelton Creek
downtown near
the railroad
culvert where
the creek enters
Simpson
Lumber Co. land
and then
Oakland Bay.
Journal photo oy Gordon Weeks
By GORDON WEEKS
gordon@masoncounty.com
When Shelton City Engineer Mike Michael
was a child in the mid-1970s, he culminated
his summer visits to the downtown Shelton
Dairy Queen by wading into the Shelton
Creek alongside the business and sloshing
through the culvert that travels underneatla
First Street.
The clearance between the streambed and
the culvert ceiling was about three or four
See Dredging on page A-6
.................
copper prices among
reasons for upswing
By NATALIE JOHNSON
natalie@masoncountv.com
crap metal can fetch a
high price, and some
thieves are taking ad-
vantage of light secu-
rity to strip area buildings of
copper wiring, aluminum and
other scrap metals.
Chief Deputy Dean Byrd
of the Mason County Sher-
iffs Department said metal
thefts make up a dispropor-
tionate amount of the thefts
in Mason County.
"There's several things in
the area creating what you
might call a perfect storm,"
Byrd said.
A downturn in the economy, favor-
able copper prices and motivated of-
fenders have contributed to an upswing
in thefts, he said. Copper was valued at
81111U!!I!!II!!IJ!I!II I
Courtesy photo
Scrap metal thieves stole the aluminum doors from this wood
drying kiln at Port of Shelton property on Johns Prairie. Scrap
metal thieves have stolen tens of thousands of dollars of aluminum,
copper and other metal this year in Mason County.
$3.52 a pound last week.
Since January, the Mason County
Sheriffs Office has responded to 16 inci-
dences of scrap metal theft, amounting
to a minimum estimated loss of $23,857.
Copper is generally unmarked and
very difficult to trace when stolen. Byrd
said there are few regulations regard-
ing scrap metal processing.
Targets for metal thieves include cop-
per wire as well as beer kegs, manhole
covers bronze plaques and statues, car
parts -- specifically catalytic convert-
ers -- and plumbing parts, Byrdsaid.
Mostrecently, on the weekend of Aug.
18-19, metal thieves stole thousands of
dollars of copper and other metal from a
building at the Port of Shelton's Johns
Prairie Industrial Park, said port Ex-
ecutive Director John Dobson.
Willapa Bay Hardwoods leases the
building but is not currently using the
See Copper on page A-6
Brush fire
still burns
in Belfa.ir
B .
laze s cause
still unknown
By GORDON WEEKS
go rdonnazoncou nty,com
A brush fire that began
behind North Mason High
School in Belfair "Tuesday
afternoon temporarily closed
State Route 302, and was
contained and still burning
on Wednesday.
The fire was reported
about 2 p.m. Tuesday behind
the school's fastpitch field,
said Central Mason Fire and
EMS Fire Chief Tim McK-
ern. The blaze burned about
five acres, and was about 70
percent contained by yester-
day morning, he said.
The cause of the blaze was
unknown as the Shelton-Ma-
son County Journal went to
press, but it wasn't started
by nature, McKern said.
The fire temporarily shut
down both lanes of State
Route 302. The fire singed a
section of the fastpitch field
and came within about 50
feet of one house, but was
contained before any struc-
tures were damaged, McK-
ern said.
The responding agencies
included Central Mason Fire
and EMS, Mason County
Fire District 2 and 3, and the
state Department of Natural
Resources.
Photo courtesy of Tiffany Trammell Zurn
Crews responded to a
brush fire on
Tuesday near North
Mason Higll School's
fastpitch field.
Churchill
pleads guilty
By NATALIE JOHNSON
natalie@masoncounty.com
Stephan R.C. Churchill,
29, pleaded guilty in Ma-
son County Superior Court
Tuesday to first-degree mur-
der and first-degree robbery
See Guilty on page A-7