October 4, 1973 Shelton Mason County Journal | ![]() |
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PAT WEAVER of Shelton beats the gasoline shortage. He'd rather ride than eat.
,of robbery were filed
ty Superior Court
William Robert
his arrest was
order fl)r warrant
by Judge Hcwitt
arges filed by
Attorney Byron
accuse Main of
~rley and Audrey
Thursday at gun
man had not been
time Wednesday.
ich led to the
:ted against Main
morning
after Shelton Police officers
answered a call that an armed
robbery had occuned at Prepp's
Rexall Drug Store.
Mr. and Mrs. Preppernau told
officers they were in the store
about 9:30 a.m. when a man they
believed to be young entered the
store wearing a ski mask with
only his eyes showing and
demanded class A narcotics.
The robber pointed a gun at
the couple and Preppernau put
sonre narcotics in a towel and
wrapped them up. While he was
doing this, the man with the gun
fired one shot while holding the
gun on Mrs. Preppernau. She was
not struckby a bullet.
After the man fled with the
narcotics, ahnosl knocking down
an elderly woman who was
entering the store, Mrs. Prepperau
called the police depart,nent.
Officers were able to get a
description of the vehicle which
the man had driven away in and
broadcast it to other law
enforcemenl agencies as soon as it
was obtained.
A short time later, a Mason
County Deputy Sheriff who was
on patrol on the John's Prairie
Road spotted a car which
matched the description of the
vehicle wanted in conuection with
the robbery.
The driver of the vehicle fled
with the sheriff's car in pursuit,
going off John's Prairie Road
onto Highway 3 and onto the
Agate Road at a high rate of
speed.
The officer who was in
pursuit of the vehicle radioed for
assistance and other patrol cars
from the sheriff's office,
Washington State Patrol and
Shelton Police Department
blocked both ends of the
Agate-Pickering Road.
The officer who was in
pursuit of the vehicle lost sight of
il
31FTEEN CHESS GAMES were played simultaneously by Sergeant Greg
anford of Fort Lewis on September 26. His opponents were Chess Club
hnoembers of Shelton High School and Junior High School. He is shown at the
ard of Steve Martinell, the only victorious student.
In a chess demonstration
presented on September 26 in the
Shelton High School. staff
Sergeant Greg Danford played 15
simultaneous games, losing one to
high school student Steve
Mattinell.
At 2:30 p.m. eight members
of the Shelton High School Chess
Club set up boards and play was
begun. Approximately one hour
later, seven additional players
front Shelton Junior High School
entered the event.
Sergeant Danford progressed
rapidly from board to board to
complete the final game at 5 p.m.
Three ganres were designated as
draws when players were obliged
to leave belore completion of
play. From donations made by
participants, a check for $25 was
sent to the American Cancer
Society.
Chess is played in Shelton
elementary schools and in the
Junior High School. The Shelton
High School Chess Club evolved
from recreational games played
between students and instructor
Clyde Ruddell.
After four years of unofficial
activity, the group was organized
last year with Ruddell as advisor.
A bake sale provided funds for
the purchase of five chess sets.
The club meets during lunch
hour.
Sergeant Danford, serving
with the United States Army and
stationed at Fort Lewis, has been
active in amateur chess
tournaments in the United States
and in foreign countries.
Two escapees from the
Washington Corrections Center
who were discovered missing
shortly after midnight Sunday
night were still at large at press
time Wednesday.
The escapees were identified
as William E. Johnson, 20, who
was committed from Clark
County on an auto theft charge
and Robert Merrifield, 16,
conrmitted from Yakima County
for auto theft.
The two young men were
discovered missing by a
Corrections Center officer when
he made a bed check at 12:15
a.m. Monday. The Mason County
Sheriff's Office was notified at
1:25 a.m. Monday after
corrections center officers were
unable to find the escapees.
Corrections Center officials
reported that the officer who
discovered the two were missing
found dummies made of clothing
and bedding in their beds
Officers were unable to determine
what time the two young men
left.
The sheriff's, office said
Wednesday they had been unable
to find any trace, of the two
young men.
Officers reported a ton
pickup, reported stolen froln the
Dayton area by Charles Archie
Kidd had not been found.
Officers were told the pickup was
taken from the Kidd home in the
Dayton area sometime between 9
p.m. Sunday and 7 a.m. Monday.
Efforts to find the two are
continuing.
They are the fourth and fifth
inmates to escape from the
corrections center in recent
months and the first to get away
without being captured within 24
hours.
The first to get over the fence
was Arlen Cuzick, a former
Shelton resident, who was hit by
a bullet fired by a guard as he was
going over the fence.
He was captured a few hours
later when he was brought to
Mason General Hospital by a man
who had found him wounded in a
Christmas tree yard.
The second and third were
two young men who had been
committed on drug charges from
Thurston County.
They were captured in the
Lake Limerick area less than 24
hours after they had been spotted
by an off-duty corrections center
officer as they walked along a
road a short distance from the
center.
Thursday, October 4, 1973 Eighty-seventh Year, Number 40 34 Pages - 3 Sections Ten Cents Per Copy
rn
The Mason County Sheriff's
Office is looking lbr the persons
who turned off valves and
attempted to drain holding tanks
at the State Salmon Hatchery at
Hoodsport Friday night.
The incident resulted in the
loss of about five million salmon
eggs which would have been put
into hatcheries, according to AI
Demerest of the State Fisheries
Department office in Olympia.
Rudy Schwab, manager of the
hatchery at Hoodsport, said
sometime Friday night or early
Sattarday morning, someone
turned off the water to the valves
which provided fresh water to the
fish holding ponds at the hatchery
and then turned on some of the
drain valves.
The ponds were not
completely drained since they are
not constructed that way.
The result, Schwab said, was
that the water level in the holding
ponds was reduced to about half
its normal level and no fresh
water was entering.
The hatchery manager said
about 1,250 Chinook salmon,
weighing between 20 and 25
pounds suffocated. Of these
about 900 were females.
The fish had been in the
holding tanks for some time,
being held for the eggs to ripen so
they could be taken from the fish
and put into the hatchery. The
fish, Schwab said, are normally
held from three weeks to a
month. The fish which were in
the pond would have been ready
to take the eggs from in about a
week.
The hatchery manager said
between 50 and 60 percent of the
fish in the ponds died of
suffocation since the ponds were
quite full and when the fresh
water supply was shut off, the
oxygen in the water was depleted
quite quickly. He said about 40
percent of the fish survived and
will be used for eggs for the
hatchery.
Schwab said as close as the
fish were to being ready for the
eggs to be taken, they were of
little value for human
consumption and would be useful
mostly for pet food.
Schwab said since the
incident, efforts have been made
to lock the valves and gates at the
hatchery as well as possible and
volunteers have been patrolling
the hatchery at night.
He said other methods which
have been suggested include an
alarm system and watch dogs to
patrol the hatchery at night.
These suggestions are under
consideration, with no decision
made as yet as to whether or not
to use them.
There have been gaffing and
netting problems at the hatchery
previously, but, nothing like what
happened last Friday night,
Schwab said.
Demerest said it would be
difficult to put a dollar value on
the loss of the eggs, which would
have been used to produce fish
which would have provided
The Mason County
Commission continued the
hearing on its 1974 budget until 3
p.m. Friday, when final adoption
is expected.
Commissioners have been
meeting with various department
heads in an effort to balance the
budget, which saw about
$200,000 difference between
anticipated revenue and spending
requests from the various
departments.
County employees will be
given salary increases based on 5.5
percent, commission ch'Arman
Martin Auseth said at ,1.e budget
hearing Monday afternoon.
The budget for the sheriff's
office, assessor's office and some
minor changes in others were not
completed before the budget
hearing Monday afternoon.
The commission was meeting
this week with representatives of
the sheriff's office and IWA Local
3-38 officials who are
representing the union formed by
sheriff's office employees.
A preliminary budget request
which is about $200,000 higher
than last year was submitted by
Sheriff Dan McNair.
The budget, which combines
the operations of the sheriffs
office and the jail into one budget
for the first time, was based on an
eight-hour day for deputies.
McNair had been requested to
include the eight-hour day in
Second half tax statements
will be late coming out of his
office this year County Treasurer
John Cole said this week.
He said office personnel are
busy making adjustments because
of the tax rollback which resulted
from a State Supreme Court
ruling earlier this year.
The amount of the rollback is
being deducted from second half
tax statements, Cole said.
The second half statements
will be mailed the latter part of
this month, the treasurer said.
Two file in special period
Two persons filed for
positions on the Mary M. Knight
School Board during a special
three-day filing period last week,
County Auditor Ruth Boysen
said.
They were Zane Dick and
Steve Landblom.
The special filing period was
for non-partisan offices for which
there had been no filings during
the regular filing period.
potential catch for sports,
commercial and Indian fisheries.
He said the fish carcasses were
picked up by the contract buyer
who gets the fish from the
hatchery for sale for use in pet
food.
While the eggs in the fish were
dead and unusable for hatching,
budget by the commission.
The budget, as submitted,
calls for eight additional deputies
and three clerk-typists.
they will produce some value for
sale by the contract buyer who
can sell them for other purposes.
There will be enough eggs
available to keep the Hoodsport
hatchery going, Denrerest said,
with fish which survived the
incident and others which are
coming in.
The eggs which were lost, he
said, would have been used at the
Itoodsport hatchery or to take up
the slack at hatcheries at other
locations. They would have all
been used to provide fish for the
various fishing groups.
The sheriff's office said a
deputy was working Wednesday
morning checking leads which had
developed and that the
investigation would continue.
A PANTOMINE by Robert Newman was one of several skits
put on by the Flyloft Players at an open house at their Little
Theater building last week. A charter for the group, which is
an Explorer Scout Post, was presented to the sponsor, LeRoy
Robbins.