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Newspaper Archive of
Shelton Mason County Journal
Shelton, Washington
December 13, 2007     Shelton Mason County Journal
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December 13, 2007
 
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MAS SHELTON" ')URN 0100I COUNTY J(, Thursday, December 13, 2007 121st Year -- Number 50 5 Sections -- 46 Pages Published in Shelton, Washington 75 cents major school facelifts eyed . :  ton School Board members Tues- dent safety and staff supervmlon, mg would be modermzed, with tmns for improvements to ath- i'ilajor improvements at Shelton day evening the task force recom- Marshall told the school board. In improvements to classrooms and letic facilities at the high school. ! School and Mountain View mends replacing five buildings at addition, the new building would locker rooms and increased park- Those included adding artificial :entary School are among a the school with 57,000 square feet be outside the landing pattern at ing spaces, which would provide turf at Highclimber Stadium and ber of recommendations called of new building that would link Sanderson Field. for future expansion at the school, replacing the existing track. Such ltby the Shelton School District's the administratibn and student Marshall said. changes would increase safety and ':,eilities Task Force. ilB ob Marshall, a teacher at SHS kt task force member, told Shel- union building to make a single IN ADDITION, under the school building, task force's recommendations, the That change would enhance stu- Minidome and SHS shop build- SHS Vice Principal Deena A1- community use, she added. ley, also a member of the task The task force also. recom- force, spoke about recommenda- (Please turn to page 6.) rn'm '[damage :lily JEFF GREEN | Last week s big storm caused up- ards of $25 million in damage to ublic facilities and private homes and property in Mason County, ac- Cording to a local official. Marty Best, director of the Ma- son County Department of Emer- gency Management, said that esti- mate was a conservative one. Damage to public facilities in- eluded $11 million in Mason Coun- ty, $1.3 million to the two PUDs ][and $100,000 to the Skokomish |Nation. Damage to private homes, |and property in Mason County and Shelton was estimated at $12 mil- |'lion, Best said. . There were 18 homes destroyed |ia the county anti another 68 with :|Significant damage. The hardest |hit arcs,' were Hoodsport, Pot- |latch Skokomish Valley and the |Tahu'ya Peninsula, Best said. SEVERAL RESIDENTS on the Tahuya Peninsula were iso- lated tbr a time due to road clo- Btlres. That area is slowly corn- A WOMAN HELPS dig out a home on Holidayeach lag back and people are manag- that was swamped by the mud that flowed through (Please turn to page 6.) the area during last week's storm. 00000000mystel iously dis00appears 00ear Tahuy t)ridge was a, mt I MARY DUNCAN Family, friends and area hospi- k 50-year-old Belfair man dis- tals have been checked with nega- )eared last week after flood tive results. The sheriffs office ers washed out a bridge in the conducted "an extensive search Luya area. and rescue mission" and no signs eorge Ronald Fuller was re- were found of Fuller. "There is no ed missing from the Belfair indication he is suicidal. There is a by family members at 8:23 no indication there was a vehicle," t. on December 6. He was last Byrd said. rt walking from a residence at Fuller, who is 5'8" and weighs NE Tahuya River Drive around 140 pounds, has a serious heart • tn. on December 5. His disap- condition and, according to family a'ance may be related to flooding members, is in poor physical con- %rth Mason County, according dition, Byrd said. He was last seen hief Deputy Dean Byrd of the wearing a black leather jacket, Son County Sheriffs Office. blue jeans and hiking boots. ]yrd said Fuller's brother lives Anyone having information on e residence, which is close to the whereabouts of George Fuller bridge which washed out on should call 911 or the sheriffs of- Belfair-Tahuya Road. He said rice at 427-9670, extensions 226 or 'e was substantial flooding on George Fuller 313. ember 3 and waters were still ng very fast. Byrd said Fuller his brother had some sort of a reement and Fuller stepped Christmas Fund e to get some air. at was the last time he was [Byrdsaid. reaches _ 16,000 llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll With just over one week re- lene Taylor, A.R. Zamzow, Thomas the inside maining, the Journal-40 et 8 and Barbara Parsloe, Rosalee and Christmas Fund totaled $16,284, Fred Anderson, Ken and Maureen not quite two-thirds of the way to Hekel, Miles and Roxanne Silver- the $25,000 goal of the 61st an- thorn, the Mason County School lassifleds ........................... 34 nual program, which will pay for Retirees Association and The Rev- mmunity Calendar ....... 42 holiday baskets for the needy, erend Ronald H. Belisle. eossword ........................... 38 Large donations during the Other contributors included itertainment, Dining ..... 33 past week included $1,500 from an Nick and Claire Attarian, $50; Qalth Journal ................. 18 anonymous donor, $600 in memo- Mary and Hugh Gruver, $30; N. urnal of Record ............. 28 ry of Richard and Solveig Johans- Larson, $20; B. Larson, $20; Ches- bituaries ................. 9, 10, 11 son, $500 from the Yesteryear Car ter, $50; Association of Sanderson Iinions, Letters ................. 4 Club and $500 from Cabane 135. Pilots, $50; Elizabeth Frew and Donations of $250 each came John Krause, $50; Paul Arm- botts ................................... 21 from Paul Deschamps and Fred strong, $30; the Earsley family, des ..................................... 42 ather ................................ 24 Finn, $200 came from Sharon J. $50; Charlie Stephens, $75; Marv's i, III|IIIIIIUIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIUlIIIIUIIIIIIlIIIIIIIIIIII I Davison, $200 came from Dana Auto Repair, $50. and Dave Thacher and $200 came Donations also came from from Wilson Construction Corn- Jackie and Fred Sanderson, $25; Several donated $100, includ- Andrew, $50; Vid and Bill Clu- B 2 ing Barbara and Fred McDowell, ver, $50; Gary Darrell, $50; Alvin Kendra Smith, Richard and Mar- (Please turn to page 7,) Ct iefs .prote,00l: any luctlon in c:ounty fire marshal's time By REBECCA WELLS What? Mason County might lose its fire marshal again? Maybe. Fire chiefs from across the coun- ty swept into the Mason County Commission meeting this week on receiving word of this threat. All were adamantly against the com- missioners' idea of cutting back the fire marshal's position to only half time. After hearing their comments, commissioners opted to keep the position filled until March 30. By then, they hope to have reached an agreement on how to address the budget-versus-need issue regard- ing the fire marshal. "The Mason County Fire Chiefs Association believes that reducing the Mason County Fire Marshal's hours in half and using the fire marshal budget to fix other depart- ments is fiscally irresponsible, ill conceived and a serious danger to community safety," Jim Ghiglione, IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIllllllllll A drop in revenue from the real-estate excise tax as home sales slump has caused the county to impose a hiring freeze. See story on page 2. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII president of the association, told the commissioners in  letter he read at the meeting. WHILE THE FIRE mar- shal primarily investigates the causes of fires, Ghiglione pointed out there also is a need for a fire marshal to enforce fire code and burning regulations, perform fire and other required inspec- tions and update the public on fire prevention methods. All of. this amounts to a full-time job, he (Please turn to page 7.) PUD plans rate hike The PUD 3 Commission on Tuesday approved a $53.2-million budget that calls for a 5 percent rate hike next year. Action on a public power spend- ing plan for 2008 was taken by a 3-0 vote after some discussion of how the rising cost of motor fuel is also raising the cost of cables, transformers and repair costs in general. Repair costs have been significant this year thanks to a storm last December that knocked out many powerlines, and this year's storm is likely to translate into more repair costs when the bills for last week's weather come due in January of next year. Annette Creekpaum, the public utility's budget officer, made men- tion of the storms when her report got to the subject of cash reserves. "It's important to have funds on hand for the storms we've experi- enced these past two Decembers," she said. Her update on how this year's budget has panned out as of No- vember 30 notes that spending on a number of things has exceeded (Please turn to page 7.) Chief uses his noggin The last time Shelton Fire Chief Jim Ghiglione had his head shaved he was 11. That changed Saturday when he offered to let his head and mustache be clipped at the annual Toys for Kids Plus auction at Bob's Tavern. Bids went over the $3,500 mark and several people earned the right to help cut his hair. The chief said his wife had never seen him without his mustache, which dated back to around 1970. "The only people suffer- ing are my barber and shampoo makers," he quipped. The auction earned nearly $40,000. Those funds will be used to buy toys for needy children this Christmas as well as go to other community uses. Shown above giving Ghiglione's pate a pat is Shelton Fire Depart- ment employee Roxanne Bruner. MAS SHELTON" ')URN 0100I COUNTY J(, Thursday, December 13, 2007 121st Year -- Number 50 5 Sections -- 46 Pages Published in Shelton, Washington 75 cents major school facelifts eyed . :  ton School Board members Tues- dent safety and staff supervmlon, mg would be modermzed, with tmns for improvements to ath- i'ilajor improvements at Shelton day evening the task force recom- Marshall told the school board. In improvements to classrooms and letic facilities at the high school. ! School and Mountain View mends replacing five buildings at addition, the new building would locker rooms and increased park- Those included adding artificial :entary School are among a the school with 57,000 square feet be outside the landing pattern at ing spaces, which would provide turf at Highclimber Stadium and ber of recommendations called of new building that would link Sanderson Field. for future expansion at the school, replacing the existing track. Such ltby the Shelton School District's the administratibn and student Marshall said. changes would increase safety and ':,eilities Task Force. ilB ob Marshall, a teacher at SHS kt task force member, told Shel- union building to make a single IN ADDITION, under the school building, task force's recommendations, the That change would enhance stu- Minidome and SHS shop build- SHS Vice Principal Deena A1- community use, she added. ley, also a member of the task The task force also. recom- force, spoke about recommenda- (Please turn to page 6.) rn'm '[damage :lily JEFF GREEN | Last week s big storm caused up- ards of $25 million in damage to ublic facilities and private homes and property in Mason County, ac- Cording to a local official. Marty Best, director of the Ma- son County Department of Emer- gency Management, said that esti- mate was a conservative one. Damage to public facilities in- eluded $11 million in Mason Coun- ty, $1.3 million to the two PUDs ][and $100,000 to the Skokomish |Nation. Damage to private homes, |and property in Mason County and Shelton was estimated at $12 mil- |'lion, Best said. . There were 18 homes destroyed |ia the county anti another 68 with :|Significant damage. The hardest |hit arcs,' were Hoodsport, Pot- |latch Skokomish Valley and the |Tahu'ya Peninsula, Best said. SEVERAL RESIDENTS on the Tahuya Peninsula were iso- lated tbr a time due to road clo- Btlres. That area is slowly corn- A WOMAN HELPS dig out a home on Holidayeach lag back and people are manag- that was swamped by the mud that flowed through (Please turn to page 6.) the area during last week's storm. 00000000mystel iously dis00appears 00ear Tahuy t)ridge was a, mt I MARY DUNCAN Family, friends and area hospi- k 50-year-old Belfair man dis- tals have been checked with nega- )eared last week after flood tive results. The sheriffs office ers washed out a bridge in the conducted "an extensive search Luya area. and rescue mission" and no signs eorge Ronald Fuller was re- were found of Fuller. "There is no ed missing from the Belfair indication he is suicidal. There is a by family members at 8:23 no indication there was a vehicle," t. on December 6. He was last Byrd said. rt walking from a residence at Fuller, who is 5'8" and weighs NE Tahuya River Drive around 140 pounds, has a serious heart • tn. on December 5. His disap- condition and, according to family a'ance may be related to flooding members, is in poor physical con- %rth Mason County, according dition, Byrd said. He was last seen hief Deputy Dean Byrd of the wearing a black leather jacket, Son County Sheriffs Office. blue jeans and hiking boots. ]yrd said Fuller's brother lives Anyone having information on e residence, which is close to the whereabouts of George Fuller bridge which washed out on should call 911 or the sheriffs of- Belfair-Tahuya Road. He said rice at 427-9670, extensions 226 or 'e was substantial flooding on George Fuller 313. ember 3 and waters were still ng very fast. Byrd said Fuller his brother had some sort of a reement and Fuller stepped Christmas Fund e to get some air. at was the last time he was [Byrdsaid. reaches _ 16,000 llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll With just over one week re- lene Taylor, A.R. Zamzow, Thomas the inside maining, the Journal-40 et 8 and Barbara Parsloe, Rosalee and Christmas Fund totaled $16,284, Fred Anderson, Ken and Maureen not quite two-thirds of the way to Hekel, Miles and Roxanne Silver- the $25,000 goal of the 61st an- thorn, the Mason County School lassifleds ........................... 34 nual program, which will pay for Retirees Association and The Rev- mmunity Calendar ....... 42 holiday baskets for the needy, erend Ronald H. Belisle. eossword ........................... 38 Large donations during the Other contributors included itertainment, Dining ..... 33 past week included $1,500 from an Nick and Claire Attarian, $50; Qalth Journal ................. 18 anonymous donor, $600 in memo- Mary and Hugh Gruver, $30; N. urnal of Record ............. 28 ry of Richard and Solveig Johans- Larson, $20; B. Larson, $20; Ches- bituaries ................. 9, 10, 11 son, $500 from the Yesteryear Car ter, $50; Association of Sanderson Iinions, Letters ................. 4 Club and $500 from Cabane 135. Pilots, $50; Elizabeth Frew and Donations of $250 each came John Krause, $50; Paul Arm- botts ................................... 21 from Paul Deschamps and Fred strong, $30; the Earsley family, des ..................................... 42 ather ................................ 24 Finn, $200 came from Sharon J. $50; Charlie Stephens, $75; Marv's i, III|IIIIIIUIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIUlIIIIUIIIIIIlIIIIIIIIIIII I Davison, $200 came from Dana Auto Repair, $50. and Dave Thacher and $200 came Donations also came from from Wilson Construction Corn- Jackie and Fred Sanderson, $25; Several donated $100, includ- Andrew, $50; Vid and Bill Clu- B 2 ing Barbara and Fred McDowell, ver, $50; Gary Darrell, $50; Alvin Kendra Smith, Richard and Mar- (Please turn to page 7,) Ct iefs .prote,00l: any luctlon in c:ounty fire marshal's time By REBECCA WELLS What? Mason County might lose its fire marshal again? Maybe. Fire chiefs from across the coun- ty swept into the Mason County Commission meeting this week on receiving word of this threat. All were adamantly against the com- missioners' idea of cutting back the fire marshal's position to only half time. After hearing their comments, commissioners opted to keep the position filled until March 30. By then, they hope to have reached an agreement on how to address the budget-versus-need issue regard- ing the fire marshal. "The Mason County Fire Chiefs Association believes that reducing the Mason County Fire Marshal's hours in half and using the fire marshal budget to fix other depart- ments is fiscally irresponsible, ill conceived and a serious danger to community safety," Jim Ghiglione, IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIllllllllll A drop in revenue from the real-estate excise tax as home sales slump has caused the county to impose a hiring freeze. See story on page 2. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII president of the association, told the commissioners in  letter he read at the meeting. WHILE THE FIRE mar- shal primarily investigates the causes of fires, Ghiglione pointed out there also is a need for a fire marshal to enforce fire code and burning regulations, perform fire and other required inspec- tions and update the public on fire prevention methods. All of. this amounts to a full-time job, he (Please turn to page 7.) PUD plans rate hike The PUD 3 Commission on Tuesday approved a $53.2-million budget that calls for a 5 percent rate hike next year. Action on a public power spend- ing plan for 2008 was taken by a 3-0 vote after some discussion of how the rising cost of motor fuel is also raising the cost of cables, transformers and repair costs in general. Repair costs have been significant this year thanks to a storm last December that knocked out many powerlines, and this year's storm is likely to translate into more repair costs when the bills for last week's weather come due in January of next year. Annette Creekpaum, the public utility's budget officer, made men- tion of the storms when her report got to the subject of cash reserves. "It's important to have funds on hand for the storms we've experi- enced these past two Decembers," she said. Her update on how this year's budget has panned out as of No- vember 30 notes that spending on a number of things has exceeded (Please turn to page 7.) Chief uses his noggin The last time Shelton Fire Chief Jim Ghiglione had his head shaved he was 11. That changed Saturday when he offered to let his head and mustache be clipped at the annual Toys for Kids Plus auction at Bob's Tavern. Bids went over the $3,500 mark and several people earned the right to help cut his hair. The chief said his wife had never seen him without his mustache, which dated back to around 1970. "The only people suffer- ing are my barber and shampoo makers," he quipped. The auction earned nearly $40,000. Those funds will be used to buy toys for needy children this Christmas as well as go to other community uses. Shown above giving Ghiglione's pate a pat is Shelton Fire Depart- ment employee Roxanne Bruner.