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Newspaper Archive of
Shelton Mason County Journal
Shelton, Washington
October 6, 2011     Shelton Mason County Journal
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October 6, 2011
 
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October[ 6, 2011 -- Week 40 -- The Voice of Mason County since 1886 -- Published in Shelton, Washington -- $1 Appointme until Novet By NATALIE JO] After weeks of, tainty, l~ason Cou commissioner - St~ After sifting th~ applicants, Maso~ sioners Lynda R: Tim Sheldon agree Tuesday to appoin the vacant Distric commission. The district 3 s when Commission~ unexpectedly in At "I really apprec will last ber 20 r2 tNSON vaiting and u acer- nty has its m west ;ve Bloomfielc ir way throu~'h 16 County Commis- ng Erickson and d on their first try t Bloomfield ~o fill ; 3 position o~ the | ;at became vacant r Jerry Lingle[ died gust. [ .ate it I'm ~um- bled," Bloomfield said. "Jerry was an field. outstanding individual. I was just Ring Erickson seconded the mo- getting to know him." tion. Bloomfield is a lifelong Mason While Bloomfield said he would County resident, and has worked as a likely not run for the position in 2012, clam farm manager and government Sheldon and Ring Erickson said that affairs advisor for Seattle Shellfish didn't factor i~lto their decision. since 1988, according to the resume "I think it's up to the individual if he submitted to the county, they want to run again. It's not a cri- The process of replacing Lingle was teria I used," Sheldon said. not easy, the commissioners said. They also said they had no private "I want to thank everyone who was or executive session meetings on the brave enough and cares about their appointment of a new commissioner community enough to apply" 16 is a and did the entire process in the pub- big number," Sheldon said. lic. Sheldon narrowed the original 16 Immediately after Commissioners applicants down to five people he felt Sheldon and Ring Erickson voted to he could nominate, appoint Bloomfield, Mason County "I'll start with the person I think Auditor Karen Herr stood up to swear is most qualified," he said, before he made a motion to nominate Bloom- See Bloomfield on page A-7 Journal photo by Natalie Johnson Mason County Auditor Karen Herr, left, swore in Steve Bloomfield as Mason County Commissioner for District 3 immediately after Commissioners Tim Sheldon and Lynda Ring Erickson voted to appoint him. Journal pnoto Dy Jesse Mullen OysterFest volunteer Joyce Taylor serves oysters after the third heat of the speed shucking contest during the 30th annual OySterFest on Saturday. The event drew more than 8,000 people. OysterFest 30 draws, thousands By ARLA SHEPHARD $100,000 up front to run the festival and collects OysterFest ce.ebrated on~-third of the~et profits its 30th birthday in style from each food vendor, all this year, with m(re than of who must represent a 8,000 people in attendance Mason County nonprofit. and thousands ofp)unds of More than 60 nonprof- shellfish, its participated this year, The 30th-annu?l West including service clubs Coast Oyster S~ucking lik~ the Hood Canal Lions Championship and Wash- and the Kristmas Town ington State SeafOod Fes- KiWanis to churches like tival witnessed a, atten- the-- Shelton Presbyter|- dance dip from last year, an Church and Belfair's said event coordinators, Prihce of Peace Catholic but an increase[in the ChUrch. amount of food vendors Skookum Rotary pro- meant more local nonprof- vid~s the food vendors with its were raising n~oney to ter~ts, which cost about support the community. $1~,000 at the 2010 Oys- "This year's OysterFest terFest. This year, the .... " .... ¢.'~!~: ':'( ~i~ ..... , °, .,~,~, :~,:~.',~r~,~!,:~i~,~''~*' 'i~ :: Journal Dno[o by Aria SheDhard Gerardo Leon, sponsored by Palix Oysters, concentrates carefully on shucking an oyster in the timed third-heat of the oyster shucking competition last Saturday, Oct. 1, at attendance was 8,028, nonprofit had to purchase down 3,500 from last year," more tents because there said Paul Everett a pastwere more vendors. president of the event's "We had significant OysterFest. Leon went on to place fifth in the finals with a time sponsor Skookum Rotary number of new food ven- of three minutes and 19 seconds. who goes by the title of dots, and they seemed to Grand Old Oyster (GO0). be doing well," Everett know we do, that's the ers competed over both because over 30 years "It was a combin ~tion of said. "I would say the most only fundraiser we days for the fastest oys. they've heard about the weather and t:~e econ- popular, by the length of have." ter shucking times and it," Barnard said. "It's omy. People are sc~red and the line, were the coconut The "fun part" of best oyster shucking a fun group and we're they have a right tl) be." wrapped shrimp (from theOysterFest that doesn't presentation, like family." Skookum Rotar3 spends Senior Services of Southmake any money is theThe first-place win- Everett said he UlI!IJ!I!!IIIJ!!I i!.!] ]] 112 SoUnd)... Eyerything goes two-day shucking corn-ner of the 2011 half-thought Skookum Rota- to~upport community non-petition, said Skookum shell shucking finalsry made "considerably pr6fit budgets and in fact, a Rotary's Mike Barnard, was Mario Leon spon- less than last year" due number of those nonprofits co-chair of the competi- sored by Palix Oyster. to the perceived lower up there make their whole tion. "People come from budget at OysterFest. I Thirty-three shuck-all over to participate See OysteWest on page A-7 8 City talks budget, jail, wastewater By NATALIE JOHNSON The City of Shelton's 2012 budget overview, while still showing a projected shortfall, looks more positive than last year's budget, city officials said. While the budget includes no staff changes and flat revenue growth for the coming year, it also projects a smaller expected shortfall than last year's ap- proximate $600,000 deficit. "There is constant uncer- tainty - the recession is going to continue," City Administra- tor Dave O'Leary said. 'Tee're about $300,000 upside down. It's not that bad, we've been a lot worse." The city estimates $9,900,304 in expenditures and $9,604,483 in expected rev- enue, leaving a shortfall of al- most $296,000. At this time the budget does not include any revenue that could come from a public safety sales tax, if voters approve it during the November general election. Also, the city does not expect to receive a grant that funded crxme prevention, last year. The street fund also has a $51,000 shortfall, but city staff plans to merge the general fund and street fund in the coming year. "It's funded by the general fund so it makes sense," City FinanCe Manager Cathy Bei- erle said. O'Leary said revenues have stabilized and city staff is opti- mistic about Shelton's future. "Recovery is going to be slow, it's going to take years to get out of this," he said. 'Tfe need to recover Shelton." The city commission plans to discuss strategies to aid Shel- ton's economic recovery during a retreat on Thursday, Oct. 6. On Oct. 31 the city has scheduled another budget pre- sentation, a public hearing on Nov. 14, and a final hearing on Dec. 5. The Shelton Metropolitan Park District, however, will likely have an overage of al- most $13,000 in 2012. Re- quested expenditures amount to $404,996, while projected revenues amount to $417,900. In other city news, the com- mission discussed a presenta~ tion to approve an interlocal agreement with the City of Forks for prisoner confinemen~ in its jail. The agreemen~ is designed to save the city money on pris- oner confinement, said Shelby Conklin, from the city's Judi- cial Detention and Correction Department. The city currently has in- terlocal agreements with the See City on page A-7