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Newspaper Archive of
Shelton Mason County Journal
Shelton, Washington
December 1, 2011     Shelton Mason County Journal
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December 1, 2011
 
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ourna pno[o o} Natahe Johnson Mason County Fire District 5 Assistant Chief Mike Patti is one of two level three fire investigators in Mason County. Mason County approves ~Community Financial Center Located at Our Community Credit Union Mark Mager, MSFS F nancia Consultant 2948 Olympic Hwy North Shelton, WA 98584 (360) 432-5201 Offce mark.mager@lpl.com f Financial Cente )ivisiur: of .~)u; Co~na#!itv Cr,.;r~:t Uq;o~ SecudUes and insurance products offered through LPL Financial or its licensed affiliates, Member FINRA~SIPC. LPL Financial is not affiliated with OCCU. I Not NCUA Insured I NO Credit Union Guaranteel May Lose Value I agreement for fire investigation By NATALIE JOHNSON After being without a fire marshal since March, the Mason County Board of Com- missioners approved an interlocal agree- ment tbr fire investigation services with the Mason County Fire Chiefs Associa- "Just because there's a car fire, it doesn't mean you need to call the on-call investigator," [licks said. Some firefighters in every district will receive level two training, he said. With such training, those responders will be able to investigate fires that are suspi- Light he tion on Tuesday, Nov. 22. cious, but are likely not arson. Bob Burbridge, Fire District 4 chief and "The level two training will probably president of the fire,chiefs association, start right after the first of the year," called the agreement a milestone. Hicks said. "This was great. As we watched the Finally, three firefighters in the county, county governments in the state ... They're including Hicks and City of Shelton Fire ~ .... dropping the fire marshal r~sponsibilities Marshal Mike Pattiwill have level three on the districts,' he said. training and will share the responsibility While other counties in thestate have dropped fire marshals from their budgets, Burbridge commended the county tbr working with the fire districts to find an innovative solution. "It's a win-win," he said. The contract is unique because it shares the task of investigating suspicious fires between Mason County's 14 fire districts. "No one district can do it," said Fire District 2 investigator Jeromy Hicks. Mason County used to have its own fire marshal, in charge of building inspections and investigations of suspicious fires. However, in March the county fired Craig Haugen, the last fire marshal. After that, the fire chiefs association suggested the county look at fire investi- gation in a new way. The new plan, approved by the county last week will cost $79,768, and will in- clude a three-tiered approach to fire in- vestigation, Hicks said. All new recruits to Mason County fire districts will now be trained in fire in- vestigation at level one, Hicks said. This means that all firefighters in Mason County will at least know how to tell if a fire looks suspicious and if it might have been intentionally set. of investigating arsons and other suspi- cious fires in the county. Hicks said there are benefits to both the fire districts and the community in the agreement between the county and the fire chiefs association. "On my side of it, it shares the duty be- tween multiple people," he said. These investigators will rotate so that an investigator will be on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week. "The community gets the benefit be- cause ... you'll have really good investiga- tors that are able to maintain their skills," he said. Under the plan, the county, rather than the fire districts, will handle building in- spections. Individual districts will handle fire pre- vention and community fire education un- der the contract. Burbridge said such du- ties are morally and ethically important to districts, but are not always funded. "Some of those fire prevention budgets get pretty skinny," he said. Burbridge said he plans to focus on comnmnity education and fire education in schools in 2012. "We're looking down the line to the fu- ture," he said !Si!ii!ii i .... ......... iii i .... 6" to10" sizes: 'Tree Any Size POTTED PORCH TREE • Looks real • Weathers the cold year after year • Includes lights i Multicolored lights 98o68~ or Clear lights 9204228 : WITHCONE =-- , LED Lights (~(~ 50 Ct. M5 50 Ct. C5 LED Light Set LEg Light Set White or Multi-Color, White or Multi-Color. :,:::::: . 9101494,9101486 9190141,9190158 w/multicolored lights 9192600 hts 9192634 LED Lights 99 lOg Ct. LED 100 Ct. LED Icicle Lights Mini Light Set Clear or MuSi-Color. Looks exactly like a 9207267, 9207275 mini light bulb. Clear or Multi-Color. 9194861,9194879 Mason County PUD 3 selects new commission districts By NATALIE JOHNSON After weeks of delib- eration the Mason County PUD 3 Board of Commis- sioners approved a plan to reorganize its commission districts. PUD 3 Executive Assis- tant Nancy Bolender put together seven options for the commissioners to con- sider. On Tuesday, Nov. 22 the commission voted to approve option seven. This option closely fol- lowed Mason County's recently approved redis- tricting plan in having one district encompass all of Shelton, another cover the northeast corner of the county, and the third span the west side of the county. While the map looks similar to the county's, the district names are swapped. PUD 3 district 1 corre- sponds with county com- mission district 3, PUD district 2 corresponds with county district 1 and PUD district 3 corresponds with county district 1. Bolender said the com- mission wanted to follow Mason County's redistrict- ing plan and keep the City of Shelton together in one district. "There were only a cou- ple of options that had the city as one whole commu- nity," she said. The issue was further complicated by having to take out the population served by PUD 1 while keeping the resulting three districts as close as pos- sible to the same size and population. "It's trying to keep like communities together," Bo- lender said. Bolender also had the hard task of keeping the commission districts the same size while keeping in mind where current com- missioners live. "You can't develop it based on where your cur- rent commissioners live," she said. While the districts in option seven don't have exactly the same popula- tions, they are very simi- lar, Bolender said. "l think as far as keep- ing communities together that needed to be together I think it's best," she said. 99 Ceramic Tower Heater remote. Whisper quiet, oscillating. HooW Ughts y~g~ ( 100 Ct. Heavy 100 Ct. Heavy Duty Duty Icicle Mini Light Set , ~]~E , Light Set C' ..... Multi-Color. 99901 ot 95900. Justv/ Isk R E N TA L First & Mill • Shelton 426-4373 or 426-2411 Monday-Saturday 8:00-6:00 Sunday 9-5 QD QO Shelton-Mason County Journal - Thursda~ December 1,2011 - Page A-5