Notice: Undefined index: HTTP_REFERER in /home/stparch/public_html/headmid_temp_main.php on line 4394
Newspaper Archive of
Shelton Mason County Journal
Shelton, Washington
October 11, 2012     Shelton Mason County Journal
PAGE 5     (5 of 20 available)        PREVIOUS     NEXT      Jumbo Image    Save To Scrapbook    Set Notifiers    PDF    JPG
 
PAGE 5     (5 of 20 available)        PREVIOUS     NEXT      Jumbo Image    Save To Scrapbook    Set Notifiers    PDF    JPG
October 11, 2012
 
Newspaper Archive of Shelton Mason County Journal produced by SmallTownPapers, Inc.
Website © 2025. All content copyrighted. Copyright Information
Terms Of Use | Privacy Policy | Request Content Removal | About / FAQ | Get Acrobat Reader




EDITOWSNOTE Letters Continued from page A-5 Better than hype Editor, the Journal Most efforts sent to your department from your read- ers seem to be opinions on controversial subjects, as have mine, some "rants," some "raves," and especially now, about which "public servant" will make the tough decisions and save our great nation from bankruptcy. I had a recent experience that I'd bet no other person has ever experienced. I'd like to depart from the norm and share it with you. Who hasn't heard of Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Tom's pal Jerry, "Of Mice and Men," "The Mouse That Roared," the question "Hey! Are you a man or a mouse?", "The Lion and the Mouse?" Who hasn't been plagued by mice in the pantry? Mice are an integral part of our lives. I've been looked at askance because I have both a gravesite and a sanctu- ary for mice. We have two wicked mouse traps that we have used only once or twice when a mouse has really moved in and wasn't discov- ered until it had made an unhealthy mess in the pan- try. Most of the time, though, the mice we have had were brought in as gifts from one of our two cats. Sometimes, all we see is the remains of a half-eaten corpse; which will usually be in the bathtub, which must be thoroughly sanitized. Other gifts have been little lizards, a snake and once I thought a cat had made a mess, but when I went to clean it up, it hopped away -- a big, fat toad. :But usually it happens late in the evening and the first we see is a very lively mouse and a cat scurrying around the floor. For some time, I have joined them on the floor, on my hands and knees, until we have cornered the mouse and I have beenableto use a small Tupperware container to cover the mouse. I then shde a card under the con- tainer and take it to our little barn and turn it loose on the woodpile. They have always lost no time in getting out of sight. Those that I'm not able to save I take out and de- posit in a little hollow stump with a lid on it. Alright, I'm 86 years old and I can plead senility, OK? A week ago, though, the experience was different. It was late in the evening and Charlotte and I were in the living room watching PBS' "As Time Goes By" when across the rug comes a little mouse with "Lisbeth," our cat, hot on its tail. I can't scurry on my knees anymore so I have contrived a little box on the end of a mop stick so I can stand up and do the chase. We lost sight of the mouse and by watch- ing the cat I couldn't tell if it was in an easy chair or the bookshelves. We never saw it until the next day when a friend visiting spotted a mouse in the dining room. Again, it slipped away. The next night we had gone to bed. We have the window open and I read a few min- utes before I got to sleep. The light attracted a little Miller moth, which was banging about in the lampshade. I turned the light off and went to sleep. Then it happened again and I brushed it away, turned on the light and dis- covered it was not a moth -- it was a little mouse there on the pillow six inches away on its haunches looking at me. I brushed it onto the floor and it scurried over and crawled onto my slipper. It then scur- ried madly under the bed. It was 2 a.m. and I wasn't up to a mouse chase so I went back to sleep. Shortly after, the same thing happened. I turned on the light and there it was trying to crawl into my beard. I pushed it away • and was able to trap it with my cupped hand while Char- lotte handed me a glass from the night stand, which I cov- ered it with. It is 2:30 a.m., I'm in my slippers and paja- mas heading for the barn. I let it go. The mouse scurries away a little to a leaf, then to another, then back to me, and stood on my toe looking up at me. I swear, this is all true, no dream. The mouse then unhurriedly ambled off to the woodpile. As I said above, I'm in the my 80s so can plead senility, but this is a true story and in my mind a heck of a lot more interesting than the current political hype we are being subjected to today, Charles Winne Hoodsport Higher ed. Editor, the Journal I was delighted to read in the Kitsap Sun that Olympic College resumed its nurs- ing assistant program after being discontinued because of last year's state funding cuts. Washington's colleges and universities play a criti- cal role in our state's emer- gence from this recession, and public investments in higher education continue to be invaluable in job genera- tion and supporting a strong middle class. Lynda Ring Erickson, candidate for 35th District representative, knows the importance of higher educa- tion. She will work to make college tuition more af- fordable for local families, expand access to vocational training and create partner- ships between community colleges and business leaders to ensure that students are being trained for the jobs most needed by local busi- nesses. In the Legislature, Ring Erickson will be a strong voice for veterans, making. sure they have the resources they need to get an educa- tion, find a job, buy a home and find access to appropri- ate counseling services to transition to civilian life. As a former school district community relations direc- tor, Lynda Ring Erickson understands education is the single most important investment we can make for our children, our state, our economy and our future. Lynda graduated from the University of Puget Sound and has both masters and doctoral degrees from the School of Education at Se- attle University. I support Lynda Ring Erickson for state repre- sentative; we need more strong advocates for higher education and its role in job creation. Linda Amar Shelton Diamond a neighbor Editor, the Journal Green Diamond owns thousands of acres of tim- berland in this county. This timberland provides wonder- ful green open space for resi- dents and tourists visiting the county. This open space provides great benefits to wildlife, aquifer recharge ar- eas and our aquatic species. The trees Green Diamond grows sequester carbon, im- proving the atmosphere. The company also allows infor- mal recreation to occur on its private timberlands. Forestry is always a highly profitable business, as you have to wait 60 years for a return on your investment. During this time timber harvest regulations could change, forest fires or other calamities could destroy the young trees. Green Dia- mond's timber harvests and land management supports many jobs in this county and elsewhere in the state. I applaud Green Diamond for being a good neighbor and keeping the major- ity of its lands in forestry. Converting a small portion of its lands near high value recreation areas only makes information and distorted business sense. I don't know information about the record many businesses, still in of Lynda Ring Erickson as business, that are not in a commissioner for Mason business to make money. County. Therefore, I feel compelled to respond. Phil Wolff The Belfair sewer proj- Allyn ect was handled entirely by the professional staff at the county. When the con- Rio k~ struction was in . ,.r~ Eric on it was discoveredPr°gress'that two i ced pump stations needed to exper en be added. A professional appraiser was hired and Editor, the Journal the properties appraised at Since I have known Lynda $26,000 to $28,000. What Ring Erickson for a number was considered to be reason- of years, I believe that I able offers were made to the can speak to her interest in property owners based on working to keep our families the results of the appraisals. safe. Lynda was one of the One property owner settled first women to be hired and reasonably, but the second to work as a police officer in one (Mr. Jack Johnson) King County. As a woman wanted a road and some gas entering a traditionally lines moved. After the road male-dominated occupa-was moved, Mr. Johnson tion, she also experienced wanteJ it moved again and the difficulty of "getting the he wanted more money. The job" in a time when women county offered him $80,000 were struggling to enter and he rejected it, wanting those areas of employment. $190,000 with no alternative However, after a well-fought appraisal. The first time the battle, she succeeded in the commission was briefed was hiring process and became a when the construction com- respected officer before being pany was up against a dead- injured in the line of duty. line that would have cost the Since that time, she has county $50,000 per day for maintained her relationship further delays. The legal ad- with many of the individu- vice received was to move for als with whom she worked condemnation. By the time and who have risen to top mediation was reached, the positions in law enforcement demand from Mr. Johnson in the state of Washington. was $440,000. As a result, she has been The commissioners (in- endorsed for the position of cluding Ring Erickson) were representative for the 35th trying to be good stewards District by the Washington of the taxpayers' money. Council of Police and Sheriffs Ultimately the court was and the Washington State called upon to resolve the Troopers Association. In ad- issue and it settled at around dition, during her time as $100,000. In the process of a commissioner for Mason that settlement, exorbitant County, Lynda was elected attorney's fees were also to the National Association requested by Mr. Johnson of Counties (NACo) board ($390,000). That portion has and served as vice chair for not yet been settled as the Law Enforcement for the final amount is still in nego- NACo Public Safety Com- tiation. mittee. The discrimination law- Lynda will lead efforts suit that has been referred to to crack down on criminals, in several letters lies entirely especially those who prey on the shoulders of Com- on the most vulnerable in missioner Tim Sheldon. He our society -- children and was the Iberpetrator of the seniors, discrimination and Commis- When you cast your vote sioner Ring Erickson spoke for the person who can best on the side of the victim in represent the interests of the the case. For that action, she people of the 35th District in was persecuted by Commis- the State Legislature, please sioner Sheldon personally keep in mind, that Lynda and in the press. The fact Ring Erickson's only special is that, once a claim such interest is those of us who as this is filed, the county live here. has nothing to say about what occurs thereafter. It is Jean Farmer placed entirely in the hands Allynof the Insurance Risk Pool. When a settlement is made, the commissioners have no Bjorgen a choice but to accept it. Regarding the contract for disposal of solid waste for the county, Commissioner Ring Erickson recused her- candidate self because she had already accepted contributions to her Editor, the Journal campaign for state represen- I am writing in strong tative for the 35th District support of Tom Bjorgen can- from three potential bidders. didate for Court of Appeals That means, since she had Judge. received those funds, she did He is a high honors gradu- not vote because it would ate of Washington State Uni- have been a conflict of inter- versity and received his law est to do so. It was the right degree from the University thing to do. of Washington. Tom has 33 Drew MacEwan has no years of excellent and broad- record of public service in based legal experience, this county or in this state. My recommendation Therefore, he has to misrep- comes from first-hand expe- resent and skew the record rience. Many years ago be- of his opponent in order to fore I was in public life, I had get the attention of the vot- the honor to appear before ers. Don't believe it because Tom in his role as a hearing it is simply not the truth! examiner. I checked him out and Pam Ward found he had a reputation Shelton for listening and fairness. That reputation was moreCharter than confirmed by my expe- rience. What I did not real- ize was how smart he was schools in instantly understanding some pretty complex issues ~ p while treating everyone with can't he dignity and great respect. I think he is an ideal candi- Editor, the Journal date for the Court of Appeals Public schools are failing, and I urge your support, however charter schools of- fer no solution to restore the Fred Finn Olympia The truth about Ring Erickson Editor, the Journal For the last several weeks I have read letter after letter after letter presenting mis- academic foundations, but rather lock in the failures. This is done by removing the elected boards and replac- ing them with appointees. Our Washington Constitu- tion provides for a recall of elected school officials, but not appointees. Charter School Initiative 1240 provides two ways to become a state authorizer of charter schools. (1) By ap- pointment of the governor, speaker of the House, and president of the Senate. (2) By appointment by the State Board of Education. Either way, the authorizers (1) may delegate its responsibilities to employees or contractors (2) must be held free from any liability (3) must follow the chartering policies and practices of the principles and standards of the Na- tional Association of Charter School Authorizers who are funded by the Gates Founda- tion. Changing the state Con- stitution requires a citizen vote on its specific language. Initiative 1240 deceptively inserts "including charter schools" into Article 9 lan- guage, even though Article 9 uses the language, "a general and uniform system." "A" and "system"are singular terms. Charter schools op- erate under appointed corpo- rate boards, and are exempt from regulations required in traditional schools. Worse, charter schools still require the mandates of the onerous expensive State Essential Academic Learning Systems and assessments and federal mandates. Initiative 1240 attempts to deceive voters into be- lieving the use of a petition signed by either a majority of teachers or parents of stu- dents in the district is legal to convert an existing public school into a charter school. A petition is not an election held by all voters of the dis- trict. It is taxation without representation. Additional- ly, both teachers and parents of school students may not even reside there. A study of charter schools by Stanford showed some charter school scored 17 per- cent higher than traditional schools, 37 percent lower, the rest about the same. Some "model" KIPP Charter Schools fall below traditional schools and are not renewed, even though students attend 67 percent longer, and re- ceive about double the fund- ing, courtesy of additional Gates grants. Across the nation there are 130 Gulen Muslim Schools, taught by Turkish Muslims, funded in part by Gates, 100 Confucius Insti- tute Schools and now GLBT charter schools. How will these students understand our American Republic? Numerous charter schools are operated by the very people respon- sible for destroying the traditional schools. They now benefit economically from managing charter schools. Vote no and work to restore true education in our existing public schools or forever lose that opportunity. Cris Shardelman Poulsbo tolerate Editor, the Journal Mason County taxpay- ers must not continue to tolerate the wastefulness of our county commission- ers. These commissioners have generated thousands of dollars in taxpayer fines caused by their incom- petence in the conduct of county business. Their record: lawsuits for illegal contracting practices; unfair labor practices cost- ing thousands in fines and retroactive wage settlements that any beginning person- nel administrator would be fired for committing; and blatant age discrimination practices wasting thousands of tax dollars while all the time continuing to automati- cally raise their own salaries (soon to be $80,000) while cutting wages for county em- ployees. Voting based on name familiarity is a bad choice: "If we keep on voting as we always have, then we're go- ing to get what we've always got." Enough already. Dr. Ivan Jones Shelton Sheldon: "Play ball' Editor, the Journal Tim Sheldon: I called you last Thursday to help correct the mistake you made in the statistics you gave at the de- bate last Wednesday in Shel- ton. You didn't seem to care at all about it, almost as though you were "thumbing your nose at truth." Well, I do happen to care. I believe it is your re- sponsibility to have your facts straight and I think it will help you in the long run if you do that. Otherwise, it makes you look like a liar, game play- er, or as one who is completely incompetent for the job of com- missioner. That is not good for you or your campaign, or your job as senator for that matter. For clarification, here is what you told the people: the Belfair Sewer Project total so far is $44 million and 85 per- cent of that money is grants and only 15 percent is loan. Fifteen percent of $44 million is $6.6 million. You chose to take the outdated, year-old stats Emmett Dobey lied to you about on June 19, 2011, and are using them to herald a successful project when you and I both received an up- dated emafl from John Cun- ningham who watches the numbers on the project since Emmett flew the coup. Well, here is the truth from the most updated information: as of Aug. 15, the total cost of the project is $53,458,256, and the total debt of the project that must be paid back (not forgivable) is: $16,894,797 or 31.6 percent debt on the project. That is 2.5 times more debt than you stated to the people. Those are the undis- putable facts and those facts were delivered to you, Tim, on Sept. 21 at 8:54 p.m. by John Cunningham via email. To claim ignorance or to say, "that is what I was told:" isn't it your job as commis- sioner to cut through the lies and get to the truth and be accurate with what you say? Hopefully you will take this and learn from it, and will never become one who is actually a propagator of self serving lies in order to make yourself look good and win votes. God help our county (and state) if you get re: elected on that ticket! If that is who you are, then no one in their right mind should ever cast a vote for your reelection. For the record, Mason County, I am not a supporter of Roslynne Reed. Neither am I against Tim Sheldon. My goal in sincerity is to simply plead the cause oftrnth for- ward, call out lies or incompe- tence when I see it, and to ne- gotiate if possible in attempts to get those in power to make what should be "no brainer" right decisions, giving them every opportunity to "play ball" instead of "play games." I'm sorry, Mr. Sheldon if you ended up on the other side of the coin on this one. Maybe next round we could "play ball" instead of"play games." I was a little concerned when I spoke to you on the phone recently. My hope is that you don't have a vengeful spirit in you. You were pretty angry at me. I'm a little con- cerned you might use your power to run a personal ven- detta, but I hope you wouldn't do that. But if it comes to that, then so be it! I spoke the truth and people will know what you represent if you at- tack me because I have built credibility based on truth and not games. You cannot defeat that, Mr. Sheldon. It's impossible! So let the chips fall where they may, Mason County! Let the chips fall! John Gunter Belfair Shelton-Mason County Journal - Thursday, Oct. 11,2012 - Page A-5