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| December 8, 2011 Shelton Mason County Journal |  |
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Neon
Continued from page A-1
He thanked each and ev-
ery one for their help during
the tour last week.
"I've been interested in
light since I was very young,
about 12," he said. "Light is
a medium through which we
see the world."
Cooper, who with his
wife Amy, owns Cooper Stu-
dios, a photography studio
in downtown Shelton, said
light has always been a part
of his art.
"I am not a sign repair
man," he said.
He said as a child he no-
ticed that low lighting and
cloudy weather in fall and
winter months affected his
mood. With the help of an
old neon beer sign in his
room, he created his own
light therapy and noticed
how much difference a little
light can make.
"I started getting more
and more attracted to neon,"
he said.
During art school and
after, Cooper said he has
worked in many different
artistic mediums, but light
has been the one constant
among them.
Photography has let him
use light in his art every
day, he said.
"I get to sculpt with light
everyday," he said.
Each of the signs down-
town was completely re-
painted, and all have at
least partially new glass for
the neon lights. The work
was done entirely through
donations from the commu-
nity, Cooper said.
While all of the signs are
called "neon," only warm col-
ors such as red and orange
are made by neon gas. Cool-
er colors like blue and green
are created using argon,
Cooper said.
The signs had varying de-
grees of difficulty, but it was
the smallest sign, the Stew-
art Realty sign, that proved
to be the most challenging,
Cooper said. The sign is lo-
cated between two awnings,
making it difficult to work
on, and because of building
codes, the signs had to re-
main on the building during
the work, he said.
The Stewart Realty sign
is also the only sign restored
for a business that no longer
exists.
Budget
Continued from page A-1
of any budget discussion or meeting with
the prosecutor 24 hours before the meeting
took place.
Representatives of the sheriffs office
said that Monday's motion amended the
budget by decreasing money diverted from
the county's road fund to traffic policing ef-
forts at the sheriffs office from a requested
$1 million to $875,000 - a loss of $125,000.
"I would disagree that we're changing it
now," Commissioner Tim Sheldon said.
Commissioner Lynda Ring Erickson
agreed.
"We don't believe
they fomlowed the
pubik process."
constituents that our respective offices are
legally mandated to serve."
County Clerk Pat Swartos explained to
the commission why she refused to make
additional cuts to her department.
"I did not submit additional reductions.
That would cause me to lay of at least one
person off," she said. "We cannot survive.
I could not reduce my budget. It's just im-
possible."
Cooper worked with the
Mason County Historical
Society to make sure the
restorations were historical-
ly accurate. He said Histori-
cal Society Director Justin
Cowling was invaluable to
the project.
"He is an amazing wealth
of knowledge on the history
of this town," Cooper said.
The only snag in the
lighting event happened
when a portion of the Pine
Tree restaurant sign did not
light up.
"This particular sign has
been taunting me," Cooper
said.
However this one snag
helped Cooper illustrate
another component of the
Shelton Neon Project. The
project will continue to take
donations for a reserve fund
to make repairs on the often-
finicky signs.
Cooper encouraged people
in attendance to be active in
improving their community.
"If you have a unique skill
or a way to help someone, of-
fer it up," he said.
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"I think we just passed what we passed Swartos said that because she is already :':: ...........
yesterday," she said. running the clerk's office on such a short
The commission maintained that the staff, overtime costs have become debilitat-
$875,000 sum was never read into the re-
cord on Monday's hearing, hence the need
for a clarification. Sheldon said the sum
for traffic control was listed as being much
higher on a handout given out Monday,
while the commission always meant to ap-
prove the lower $875,000 amount.
"If they made a decision to reduce it,
that's their legislative authority," Salis-
bury said. "We don't believe they followed
public process."
County Prosecutor Mike Dorcy summed
up his opinion on the matter. "I don't like it," he said.
On Monday, October 31, the county com-
mission asked all of its department heads
and elected officials to cut an additional 8.5
percent from their proposed budgets.
ing for the department.
"In the last month overtime accrued by
my staff was 33 hours," she said. "There's
nothing left to reduce except people."
Commissioner Steve Bloomfield pro-
posed accepting the budget even without
the requested cuts.
"I'm not in favor of cutting any people,"
he said. "Having said that, there's no mira-
cle funding coming in."
Commissioner Tim Sheldon attributed
part of the shortfall to the unwillingness of
some department heads to make additional
cuts asked by the commission earlier this
fall.
"Are we going to move forward with
the process?" he asked rhetorically, before
eventually voting to approve the budget.
Ten elected officials and ..departmentCommissioner Lynda RingErickson said
heads responded to the commissioners that that each year about $1 m~llion becomes
they would not submit additional cuts to
their budgets.
The officials who signed the letter in
the first week of November include Mason
County Sheriff Casey Salisbury, County
Assessor Melody Peterson, Prosecutor
Mike Dorcy, Clerk Pat Swartos, District
Court Judge Victoria Meadows, Auditor
Karen Herr, Coroner Wes Stockwell, Trea-
surer Lisa Frazier, Judge Amber Finlay
and Judge Toni Sheldon.
"Given the speculative, complex and
evolving state budget process, we do not
believe it is responsible to significantly
cut the budgets of elected offices legally
mandated to provide services on an across
the board basis," the letter states. "We are
therefore unwilling to comply with the
board's October 31, 2011 request ... in that
we do not believe it is responsible to the
priorities of local government and to the
carryover funding. This moriey could go to
supplement the current year's budget.
"On a yearly basis the departments have
turned in about a million of approved but
unexpended funds," she said. "While it
might be suggested that we're on the short
side. I think we're right about on target for
the year."
After only a few moments of discussion,
the commission approved the 2012 budget
unanimously.
"I'd kind of like to get this thing behind
me," Bloomfield said.
The budget's current expense fund
amounts to $30,689,687, including the $6.9
million ending fund and projected expendi-
tures of almost $25 million.
The shortfall of about $1.2 million dol-
lars will come out of the ending fund bal-
ance, expected to be $6.9 million at the end
of 2011.
PUD
Continued from page A-7
said PUD 3 Finance Man-
ager Annette Creekpaum,
including a 10 percent
wholesale rate increase
from the PUD's main pow-
er supplier, the Bonnev-
ille Power Administration
(BPA).
Creekpaum said the
PUD chose to institute a se-
ries of small rate increases
over the next few years to
soften the blow of a larger
rate increase.
"That's always our finan-
cial plan is to do small rate
increases over time," Creek-
paum said. "We would start
the rate increase as of April
1st to help the impact of
high winter bills."
Originally the utility
planned on having 7.5 per-
cent increases in 2010 and
2011 but was able to de-
lay increases until 2012,
Creekpaum said.
The PUD will loose some
funding sources as well,
she said. The utility faces a
$750,000 reduction in BPA
funding for mandated con-
servation projects and will
see a $450,000 increase in
taxes in 2012.
"We had received a cred-
it on our taxes last year so
we didn't have to pay that,"
Creekpaum said. "We're
also on the alert for in-
creased taxes."
The 10-cent increase in
the daily customer charge
will not impact low income
or disabled customers, she
said.
The PUD was able to
keep the rate increase low
in part by supplementing
its budget with $500,000
from its reserves.
"It's really our motto
here to keep things small
in nature and plan ahead
with our financial plan to
mitigate that for our rate-
payers," Creekpaum said.
At the end of 2011,
Creekpaum said the PUD
3 should have a positive
budget balance of $3 mil-
lion dollars. Most of that
money will go into general
reserves, she said. The re-
serves can help pay for
damage from storms or the
stabilization of retail power
rates.
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Shelton-Mason County Journal -Thursday, December 8, 2011 - Page A-7