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Newspaper Archive of
Shelton Mason County Journal
Shelton, Washington
October 15, 2020     Shelton Mason County Journal
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October 15, 2020
 
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Thursday, Oct. 15, 2020 Shelton-Mason County Page A-37 The renovation of Shelton High School’s Highclimber Stadium, shown Monday, is nearly complete. Crews this week will add striping to the track and high-jump areas. Construction work on the Mini-Dome addition at the school is also expected to be completed soon. Courtesy photo Return Of sports closer after guidance updates (Boxleitner kbox/e/tne/@masoncounty.com When the Governor’s Office and the state Department of Health is- sued new guidance Oct. 6 for return- ing to sports and activities, at least one Mason County school district was ready. The Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) has used the guidance from the Depart- ment of Health to develop new gen- guidelines to replace those previously tied to phasing in Gov. Jay Inslee’s “Safe Start” plan. I The Governor’s Office informed the WIAA that the guidelines must be followed, and that neither schools nor community sports programs have the authority to implement more le— nient policies. County benchmarks will be used to determine which sports or activi- ties are recommended to take place based on COVID-19 activity in the county. Each county’s status can be found by visiting the Washington Risk Assessment Dashboard» on-‘ line or by communicating with local health departments. These bench- marks mirror those issued by the Department of Health to aid schools in their decision-making for models of in—person vs. remote learning. The three tiers indicate high, moderate or low risk, and allow for varying levels of participation: 1. “High risk” is more than 75 cas- es per 100,000 for 14 days, or more than 5% positivity. Team practices and training can resume if players are limited to groups of six in separate parts of the field or court, and are separated by a buffer. Brief close contact such as three-on-three drills is permitted. Any practice or training activities that can be done outdoors should be done so. Scrimmage, intra-team competi- tions and league games or competi- tion are allowed for low-risk sports, see SPORTS, page A-30 era] and sport-specific return-to-play ON THE TRAIL c Loving beauty, but withholding its location always makes me feel foolish; while my last column was being published and the newspaper still two days from hitting the stands, a grisly murder occurred in the Olympic National Forest not far from the place I would be recommending my tenders should go that week to get away from the noise and unpleasantness of society. “Sorry, road closed. Crime scene.” It was one of those odd coincidences that ByMARK plies were being ironic. Or maybe supplying a bit of window dressing, as ina story that begins with “Oh, yeah, you think THAT’S bad . .g .” TWILIGHT DIVE Here’s a few snapshots of summer past. The first is of me and George Stenberg on a mountaintop as the sun is sinking. George alerts me to a chirping sound that appears On Facebook a day later, after I started WOYTOWICH to be draWing Closer. A brown bird, 110131? a discussion on the summer closure of Lake Cushman, two people sent me the county sheriffs press release on the murder. No discussion of the closure, no pro or con. Just a link to a wanted poster featuring photos of the prime suspects, a man and woman looking like they belonged on the title slide of a sleazy Netflix film, a movie with a one-word title like “Whipsaw” or “Stranglehold.” Sure, the tourists were a real plague this past summer, but are we going to add a murder to the same conversation? I think those two Facebook re- er than ajay, is diving and darting in the twilight above. I busy myself gathering wood for our fire. The chirps grow louder, and now I see two birds sway- ing in the sky above. Suddenly, one dives steeply and swings by our camp, making an odd, “thwap« ping” sound as it passes our heads. It sounds like a rubber band snapping next to my ear. 7 For the next half hour, the tWo birds peppered us with dive bomber attacks, each swoop accompanied by that odd, thwacking sound as they flew near to the ground, circling us tightly, like fighter planes harassing infantry. George took a photo of one and I sent it to a friend who is pretty reliable on bird identification. 1 It seems we Were getting strafed by a pair of night- hawks, known for being active in the early evening and for diving with precision. HOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL . My next image of this past summer is of a fire ring on the Hamma Hamma River, a perfect, round circle of rocks with blackened char in the center. There were 12 of us cleaning up trash that day, on one of my TrashMashlLitter Posses. Nicolette Burtis, youth and community resource assistant with the National Forest Service, accom- panied us that day. A very young and fresh hire, she reminded me of those AmeriCorps interns I have come across before, sweet and enthusiastic, and so grateful to be out here in the West, far from their flatland homes in Iowa, Indiana or Illinois. a. millage rise