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217 W CgT(~ ST
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Thursday, Oct. 18, 2012
! Voice of Mason County since 1886 -- Published for Mason County and Donald Jones of Grapeview -- $1
years
Defense attorney files appeal
By NATALIE JOHNSON
aatatie@masoncoun~y.corn
Travis Carl Baze was sentenced Monday in Ma-
son County Superior Court to almost 28 years in
prison for the murder of Shawn Joseph Morrow, 23,
last spring.
Baze, 28. was convicted on
Sept. 5 of first-degree assault,
first-degree robbery and first-de-
gree murder.
"This makes absolutely no
sense to me," he said.
Baze said he didn't under-
stand why he was convicted of
more crimes, and was sentenced
to more time, than Stephan R.C.
Travis Churchill, who was also convicted
Baze in the murder.
The jury convicted Baze based
on evidence and testimony that
he helped Churchill. 29, lure Morrow to a public
fishing area near the Bayshore Golf Club on March
26. where Churchill hit Morrow on the head three
times with a baseball bat. Baze drove Churchill to
and from the scene of the crime and watched the
beating from his car.
Morrow died of his injuries three days later.
Churchill pleaded guilty to first-degree murder
and first-degree robbery on Sept. 11. He was sen-
tenced to 21.75 years in prison for the crime.
At Baze's sentencing hearing on Monday, Cathy
Oppelt, Morrow's mother, spoke briefly, reciting a
letter she sent to Baze while he was in the Mason
County Jail.
Baze's attorney, Charles Lane, objected to Op-
pelt's request to address his client in the hearing.
Mason County Superior Judge Amber Finlay al-
lowed Oppelt to address some of her remarks to
Baze.
"It's very, very difficult to sit here and listen to
these proceedings go on and on about Mr. Baze's
rights when my son's rights were removed." she
said to Finlay.
Oppelt went on to encourage Baze to take re-
sponsibility for his actions and find personal faith.
"You. Mr. Baze, had the power to save Shawn.
You could have stepped in after the first blow, after
the second ... but you didn't," she said. "It is my
hope that you choose to live what's left of the rest of
your life in the light."
Morrow's father, Jeff Morrow, also spoke at the
hearing.
"This was an absolute horror," he said. "I choose
See Sentenced on page A-7
"I don't know if it is something you can repair without ....
• • - . ,, ~':~ .~!~(.) ........
a lot of money, but I certainly have memories of it. 'iii:l !
-Pauline Barrom, .... ,S
Journal photo D~ Gordon weeks
Shelton resident Pauline Barrom, 89, moved into the Hotel Cameron at age 18 to help her aunt
Bertha Cameron, who owned the business. She hasn't set foot inside the now-derelict building
since 1945, when she lived there with her husband.
Former Hotel
Cameron now derelict
building awaiting
possible demolition
By GORDON WEEKS
gordon(q'ma,~o~co~tn~y.cop~
Shelton resident Pauline Barrom,
89: eyed the weeds, broken glass and
garbage strewn outside the abandoned
brick building at 303 S. Second St. and
shook her head.
"It's pretty sad, isn't it, in our little
town?" she said.
Anyone else driving by the struc-
ture today sees boarded up or broken
windows, graffiti on faded brick and
feral cats scurrying about. The former
three-story building -- now reduced to
two -- has been declared derelict by
the City of Shelton, which is consid-
ering spending between $15,000 and
$20,000 to demolish it as part of a new
abatement program.
But Barrom remembers it as the
30-room Hotel Cameron, which was
opened by her uncle and aunt George
and Bertha Cameron in 1927. Guests
gathered in a room next to the lobby
to play the piano and the wind-up pho-
nograph and converse. Rooms went for
$1.50 a night - unless you wanted a
room with your own private bathroom,
which would set you back three bucks.
Barrom moved into the hotel at age
Courtesy pnoto
A photograph from 1927 shows George Cameron and his new
Hotel Cameron at the corner of Grove and Second streets in
downtown Shelton. A clipping in the Shelton-Mason County
Journal praised the hotel at its opening as "a credit to the city
from every standpoint," but the derelict, abandoned building
now is being eyed by the city for demolition.
18, and then lived there with her hus- of it," she said.
band until her aunt sold the building. Barrom has a collection of news-
She hasn't set foot inside since 1945. paper stories about the Hotel Camer-
"I don't know if it is something you on. A front page story from Sept. 13,
can repair without spending a lot of
money, but I certainly have memories See Building on page A-7
Pioneer School District
seeks $25 million bond
By NATALIE JOHNSON
natalie@masoncoun~y.com
The Pioneer School Dis-
trict Board of Directors
passed a resolution in a spe-
cial meeting Tuesday night
to ask district voters to ap-
prove a bond sale for a maxi-
mum of $25,016,520 to build
a new middle school and add
on to the Pioneer Primary
School.
81111!!!1!!11!!!1!1!11112
The bonds would be paid
offwith a $1.24 per $1,000 of
assessed value levy on hom-
eowners in the district.
Voters in the district will
be asked to approve the sale
during a special election on
Feb. 12, 2013.
The new middle school
would be 60,000 square feet,
have a larger parking lot
than the current school does,
and have a rebuilt track and
football field.
The project also includes
an expansion to the primary
school so it can accommodate
See Bond on page A-7
Cityconsiders closing park for restoration
By GORDON WEEKS
gordon@masonc.ounty,con~
Glen and Jackie Lautt's reward
for sharing a fence with the City
of Shelton's riverside Sixth Street
neighborhood park is a constant
nightmare of open drug use, drunk-
enness, fistfights, public urination,
theft and a consistent stream of
loud profanities.
Young gang members "come
down in groups of 20 or 30, and be-
tween the language and the liquor,
there is no park goer who wants to
go there," Glen said.
The fence that separates the cou-
ple's house from the one-acre patch
See Park on page A-8
Journal photo by Gordon Weeks
Glen and Jackie Lautt share a fence with the City of Shelton's
Sixth Street neighborhood park, and say they are besieged
round-the-clock by young patrons drinking, taking drugs,
fighting, urinating and stealing and damaging their property.