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Page A—1 4 Shelton-Mason County Journal Thursday, Oct. 15, 2020
Candidates square off in chamber debate
By Gordon Weeks
gordon@masoncounty. com
Public safety, the pandemic, job creation and con-
version therapy were among the topics discussed
at a candidates forum Oct. 8 by the Shelton-Mason
Chamber of Commerce, the North Mason Chamber
of Commerce, and MasonWebTV.
The 2 1/2-h0ur event pitted Mason County Com-
missioner Randy Neatherlin against challenger
Ted Jackson for District 1; 35th District, Position 2
Rep. Drew MacEwen against Darcy Huffman; 35th.
District 35, Position 1 Rep. Dan Griffey against
Colton Myers; and 10th U.S. Congressional District
candidates Marilyn Strickland and Beth Doglio,
both Democrats.
Unlike the U.S. presidential debate the week be-
fore, the candidates were not able to interrupt each
other; their microphones were cut ofi‘ when their
time expired.
NEATHERLIN AND JACKSON
Neatherlin, an independent, has been on the
Board of Mason County Commissioners since 2013.
Jackson, a Republican, is a Port of Allyn commis—
sioner and the executive director of United Way of
Mason County.
Neatherlin stressed his experience, including six
years as a Port of Allyn commissioner and as the
current chair of the county commission.
“I’ve been involved in everything that was hap-
pening since I got here back in the ’705,” Neatherlin
said.
Jackson touted his 30 years in law enforcement.
“I’ve seen the unobstructed View of what is going
on in Mason County and the challenges we have in
Mason County,” he said.
The two were asked how the county can balance
the needs of public safety versus the limitations of
the county budget.
“That’s always the hardest job in this position,”
Neatherlin said. “There’s never enough money.”
Neatherlin pointed out the county spends
$14 million a year on its sheriffs department, and no
deputies or corrections department employees were
laid off during budget cuts.
“There’s going to be limitations and costs and
we’ve just got to balance them,” he said.
Jackson said his experience in law enforcement
can better balance the needs of public safety and fi-
nancial limitations.
“I’m the only one who has managed a police de-
partment, that’s ever worked in a police department
and understands the cost of training,” he said.
GRIFFEY AND MYERS
Griffey, a lifelong Mason County resident who
works as a lieutenant firefighter EMT, is in his third
term as a representative as a Republican.
Myers, a Democrat, is a senior health policy an-
alyst for the state Health Care Authority.,He has
never held office.
“The reason I’m running is simple —— for too long,
our district has been lefi: behind and taken for grant—
ed by ineffective leadership,” Myers said.
Griffey pointed out he is the House of Representa-
tive’s Republican whip, which means he “marshals
people to vote.”
The candidates were asked to name one policy,
requirement or initiative they would immediately
revoke or initiate, given the chance.
Griffey said he would suspend the Growth Man-
agement Act, while keeping zoning requirements in
place and protecting critical open space.
Myers said he would help create a state savings
account for children, also known as baby bonds, sim-
ilar to one Nevada has enacted.
The candidates also asked questions of each oth-
er. Myers, who is gay, asked Griffey why he voted
in 2018 against banning conversion therapy despite
the fact it has been debunked by the scientific com-
munity as ineffective and creates long-term psycho-
logical harm.
“Sometimes you want to be able to remove your
vote,” Griffey replied. “On this one, it was wrong; it
was a misvote. I’ve since been educated on what the
LGBTQ community has been put through on these
therapies. When we looked through it, it looked like
there were limits on a parent being able to take their
kids who were confused, or thought they were con—
fused, at least to a counselor, to at least some talk
therapy. I was wrong. I was wrong on that vote and
I do not in any way, shape or form support torture.”
MACEWEN AND HUFFMAN
MacEwen, a Republican, has represented the
35th District since 2013. He is president of Falcon
Financial Inc., a managing partner of Mountain
Lakes Capital Management, and a partner in Smok-
ing Mo’s Restaurant and The Dock.
Huffman, a Democrat, hasn’t held public office.
She worked for 25 years in banking, finance and risk
management, and for the past nine years has been
the resource and communication director for the Lu-
theran Church of The Good Shepherd in Olympia.
MacEwen touted his business ownership “that’s
given me a great hands-on experience.” He also
pointed out the infrastructure dollars he has helped
bring to the district that includes the North Mason
sewer extension. He said he is proud to reach across
the aisle in Olympia to work on bipartisan efforts.
“My track record speaks to that loudly,” he said.
“If you want rural Washington, the 35th District,
to be heard, you need to put somebody in that room
where decisions are being made,” Huffman said. “It
doesn’t do any good to stand outside the room and
shout at the top of your lungs, ‘No, no, that’s not
good for my district.’ ”
STRICKLAND AND DOGLIO
Strickland was on the Tacoma City Council from
2008 to 2009, and was mayor of Tacoma from 2010-
2017. She also was the president and CEO of the
Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce.
Doglio is a state representative for District 22,
which includes Olympia, Tumwater, Lacey and
north Thurston County.
Both candidates are Democrats. They agreed the
corporate tax structure should be reformed. They
also agreed that getting control of the COVID—19
pandemic and bringing people back to work are the
top two priorities to help the economic recovery in
the district.
Doglio said that as a legislator, she helped bring
$233 million in projects to the district, including
money for the Shelton YMCA, which is under con-
struction.
Strickland said that when she announced her
candidacy in December, 'she visited Shelton and met
with members of the Shelton;Mason County Cham-
ber of Commerce.
“When I look at Shelton and Mason County, I see
opportunity in health care, in telemedicine, in man-
ufacturing” to revive the local economy, she said.
Fire 11 seeks new truck; Fire 12 levy on Nov. 3 ballot
__________________=fi:_
By Justin Johnson
justin@masoncounty. com
Mason County Fire Protection Dis-
trict No. 11 is asking voters to approve
money for a new primary fire trick.
The district, which covers Island
Lake and areas to the immediate
north and south of Sanderson Air
Field, has a general obligation bond
measure on the Nov. 3 ballot for an
aggregate principal amount of no
more than $371,000.
The district projects the bond ——
which requires a 60 percent super ma-
jority to pass — to be about $0.35 per
$1,000 of assessed property value for
continued from page A-3
PUD PLAYS HOPSCOTCH
WITH POWER OUTAGES
Mason Public Utility District 3 re-
ported new power outages minute by
minute, first noting widespread out-
ages on the Tahuya Peninsula at 9:59
a.m., before tweeting at 10:36 am.
about a second outage affecting cus-
tomers along South Shore Road (state
Route 106), East Rasor Road, Alder-
wood Road, Cedar Street and their
connecting road.
Although power was restored to
most of the Tahuya peninsula by
11:15 a.m., the PUD reported new
outages on the far side of Mason Lake
and Daniels Road at 1:34 p.m.
The restoration of power to State
Route 106 at 2 p.m. was followed by
the need to attend to Lake Limerick
near Penzance and Harstine For-
no more than six years.
According to a release by’the dis—
trict, its main fire engine is 21 years
old. The normal life span of a similar
class A fire truck is 10 to 15 years.
“Even though we have taken great
care of our primary fire truck, the
maintenance issues and cost continues
to increase yearly,” the release states.
“It is hard to find some parts for the
fire engine since it is 21 years old.”
The district says a new truck will
last 15 to 20 years and will save
money in its annual budget by reduc-
ing costs spent on maintaining the
current truck, allowing it to use that
money for other needs.
Winds: Power crews fight to
est, but power was restored to North
Shore Road past Tahuya Town at 2:17
p.m. .
The Daniels Road and Lake Lim-
erick outages were likewise restored
‘ by 4:10 p.m., but by 4:30 p.m., the
PUD tweeted, “It can feel as if we’re
working backwards” because it had
customers out in Benson Lake, Mason
Lake, Trails End, South Shore Road,
Twanoh Heights and North Shore
Road before Tahuya.
By 4:53 p.m., the PUD had added
Deer Creek, Bayshore, Johns Prai-
rie Road, Mason Lake Road, Catfish
Lake, Mikkelsen, Lake Limerick, Em—
erald Lake and surrounding areas to
its list of customers without power.
Mason County Public Utility Dis-
trict I hardly fared better than its
counterpart, with trucks rolling out to
Skokomish Valley Road at 3:47 p.m.,
as well as Route 106 by 3:54 p.m.
“Each year we wait to purchase a
new fire truck, the cost by manufac-
turers increases by 7% to 10%, costing
us and you, the tax payers, more mon-
ey,” the district wrote. “By purchasing
now, we can save up to $50,000 on the
cost of a new primary truck.”
The district also wrote that it is
only asking voters to pay for a portion
of the cost of the truck. The remainder
will be paid by the district’s reserve
account.
“We knew the day would come that
we would need to purchase a new
primary fire truck, so we have been
setting aside funds to assist in the
purchase.” '
Fire 12 EMS levy ‘y
Mason County Fire Protection
District 12, which covers Matlock
and most of the southwestern por-
tions of the county,.is seeking to
pass an Emergency Medical Services
regular property levy on the Nov. 3
ballot.
The proposed levy would not ex-
ceed $0.45 per $1,000 assessed value
for six years, beginning collection in
2021, according to the text related to
the ballot measure.
The levy requires a simple major-
ity of 50 percent plus one to pass.
stay in’ front of outages
The PUD confirmed an outage in
Alderbrook at 4:21 p.m., and while
it was able to identify the culprit of
the Skokomish Valley Road outage as
a downed tree by 4:33 p.m., the PUD
noted that the power pole was bro-
ken, so it would require at least a few
hours to clean up the road and set up
a new pole.
As of 4:46 p.m., the PUD was pa-
trolling the transmission line to de-
termine why Alderbrook and Union
Weren’t getting their power, and
tweeted, “It started out small and
something else in the wind took the
whole distribution line out.”
By 5 p.m., the PUD reported a
failed transformer at the Twin Totems
store on the Skokomish Reservation,
and between 5:30 p.m. and 5:45 p.m.,
the PUD attempted to reenergize the
line in Alderbrook and Union, which
it warned its customers might cause
their power to go on and off.
This appeared to restore power to
Alderbrook and Dalby Road by 5:42
p.m., but the PUD acknowledged it
would probably still need half an hour
to an hour longer to restore power to
downtown Union and parts of Route
106.
The PUD reported that “most of
Union” should be back in service, ex-
cept for those customers along Route
106, and confirmed that the Skokom—
ish Valley Road had been cleared, but
nonetheless estimated it would take
four hours to finish setting the power
pole and getting everyone back online
for the latter area.
By 6:20 am. Wednesday, power
had been restored to most custom-
ers and line crews were visiting the
remaining “small scattered outages”
to get their power turned back on, ac—
cording to the PUDvl.