Dedicated to the citizens of Mason County, Washington since 1886
Dedicated to the citizens of Mason County, Washington since 1886
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Rae Van Fossen is relatively new to Mason County and acrylic painting, but she's been building toward developing as an artist while settling into home. Her work is on display at Belfair Self-Storage as artist of the month for March. A California native, Van Fossen moved to Washington in 2013 and then hopscotched through Renton, Lakewood and Elma before the currents of the housing market brought her to Shelton in 2021. Van Fossen credited a handful of paint-and-sit sessions, in which she was...
Forest McCullough of Northwest Land & Tree told the Port of Hoodsport Commission on Feb. 8 that tree and debris removal at the port’s parklands was almost done, despite “Mother Nature giving us headaches.” As soon as a stretch of dry weather arrives, McCullough predicted the parking lot would be “all cleaned up, fixed up,” and ready to receive treatments such as beauty bark. He assured Port Commissioner Lori Kincannon they were “still on target” for the parking lot grading to be finished and rea...
There's a good chance you can soon see Allyn photographer Brent McCallister's work displayed on Belfair Self-Storage's art wall. McCallister and Barbara Treick, manager of the self-storage business, were put in touch with each other by a friend of McCallister's who, like many who know him, has more confidence in McCallister's photographic skills than he does. McCallister told the Shelton-Mason County Journal that his self-confidence and his photographic skills are areas he needs to work on....
At North Mason School Board’s Feb. 16 meeting, Hawkins Middle School Principal Robert Kalahan and Vice Principal Kevin Pattison introduced the robotics club and teacher Sommer Landers, who presented the robotics project that will compete at the Washington Technology Student Association State Championship in Seattle from March 22-25. The school’s robotics team includes seventh-grader Alan Strange and eighth-graders Jackson Keller, Zanual King, Gavin McKee, Elizabeth Ordway and Yadira Solis, who...
After the Port of Dewatto received $50 for a birthday party building rental in December, the port took stock of its campground’s cleanliness after the winter holidays. Port commissioners David Haugen and Ted Edwards went to the campground to check on its sites and river’s edge, and aside from some beer bottles, Haugen found the campground to be clean of trash, although enough debris remains to be picked up during the campground’s cleanup day March 25. Port Commission Chair Ray Mow sugge...
It took me a while, in the midst of other assignments and recommendations, but I finally finished watching both seasons of "Reservation Dogs" on Hulu, per the suggestion of reader John Skans, and I find myself wishing I'd made more time for this show before. Like "Northern Exposure" did with its fictional small town of Cicely, Alaska, "Reservation Dogs" depicts the amusing and occasionally discouraging idiosyncrasies of everyday life in its isolated rural community, trading traditional sitcom st...
Dock damage, pier replacement, potential surplussing of property and some unexpected new developments on long-standing projects kept Port of Allyn commissioners busy during the Feb. 8 board meeting. After the port’s Hood Canal Marina dock was damaged between Christmas and New Year’s, port insurer Enduris hired a consultant and marine surveyor, with whom Port Executive Director Lary Coppola met while inspecting the dock. Of the port’s two bids to repair the dock, Coppola expected the port to sele...
The last week of January and first week of February saw intriguing variations in the formulae of some weekly TV shows I've recommended in this space before, so I thought I'd touch upon each of them briefly. 'The Last of Us,' Sundays on HBO Season 1, Episode 3, "Long, Long Time" on Jan. 29 began with Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) making their way west from Boston, before it detoured into a 20-year-long, nearly episode-length flashback, fully encompassing the relationship of...
The Port of Allyn is considering surplussing a park it owns along North Bay, port Executive Director Lary Coppola told representatives of the state Recreation and Conservation Office at a Jan. 23 special meeting. RCO Compliance Specialist Myra Barker asked why the port wants to dispose of Kayak Park, a property a quarter of a mile south of the Port of Allyn offices that covers less than an acre. Barker said the goal of the state office is to keep such property open and available for outdoor...
Port of Grapeview commissioners voted in Mike Blaisdell as president, and Art Whitson as secretary and public records officer at their meeting Jan. 17. Brad Pomroy, with the Case Inlet Fisheries Task Force, said members met that morning for their first meeting of 2023. Pomroy noted that over the preceding three weeks, Coulter Creek is up and running, and is raising fry salmon for release this coming year. He added that the Department of Fish and Wildlife has been funding work at Coulter Creek....
Engaging the community is critical to the success of any update to the Port of Grapeview’s comprehensive scheme, said Brad Pomroy of the port’s Strategic Planning Advisory Committee. At a port workshop Jan. 22, port Commissioner Jean Farmer added that listening to constituents is essential because “what the people want may be different from what we want, and we work for them, so we need to make sure we’re doing what they’re asking of us.” When Commission Chair Mike Blaisdell asked when the po...
The Port of Hoodsport opened 2023 by ensuring its finances were in order. Port of Hoodsport Operations Manager Kathleen Wyatt noted Jan. 18 that Port Commissioner Lori Kincannon, during the previous month’s port meeting, had tasked Wyatt with doing “a real comparison, with real numbers, on the end-of-year, and it turns out, we did go over budget,” by $15,230, before she went into further detail about how it was offset. “We did put in the $20,000 from January 22nd’s resolution to cover the Hoods...
Ever since COVID reacquainted me in 2020 with Peter Falk's "Columbo," I've considered how neat it would be to see the murder-mystery genre diversified by creating a female version of the Columbo character. Until recently, one niche of character portrayals where women have been underrepresented, especially outside of relationship-oriented dramedies, is the "clever mess" category. You'd recognize this character as a man, because he's Hugh Laurie as Dr. Gregory House and Peter Falk as LAPD Lt....
Sand Hill Elementary Principal Jason Swaser, Assistant Principal Rosanna Lampano and special education teachers Aurora Tollestrup and Rachel Caraway addressed the North Mason School District Board on Jan. 19 about their school’s inclusionary practices. “Our vision of inclusion at Sand Hill Elementary is that we are engaging and challenging every student, in every classroom, every day,” Lampano said. “How are we going to address that goal within our building? We identified three main areas of stu...
Western Washington filmmaker Brion Rockwell, and Don Manning, with whom he's worked on three of his films, found themselves overwhelmed by the bustling turnout for a Jan. 21 afternoon screening at the Roxy Theater in Bremerton. The screening included the Rockwell-directed, Tacoma-based "Till I Reach You" and selected scenes from the still-under-production "We All Got Up to Dance," which Rockwell wrote and directed, and filmed in Bremerton. "We got about 100 folks on Facebook who said they'd be...
I have spent an inordinate amount of time thinking about a sitcom that has arguably always been designed to be entirely disposable. I was a huge fan of the original "Night Court," which ran for nine seasons from 1984-92 on what became known as NBC's "Must See TV" Thursday night primetime lineup, and I was far from alone. John Larroquette, who played the unrepentantly randy and acerbic prosecutor Dan Fielding, won four consecutive Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series...
The Friends of Lake Cushman Dog Park spoke to the Shelton-Mason County Journal about what lies ahead for the nonprofit group in the wake of its recent progress. Bill Long, treasurer for the group, said the group’s efforts to create an off-leash dog park in Mason County yielded the signing of an agreement by members of the Friends of Lake Cushman Dog Park, a 501(c)(3) organization, and Mason County to provide such a dog park at the county’s current Foothills Park, at 241 Foothills Park Road nea...
Recommended viewing: 'The Last of Us' on HBO I have noted before that I am not an avid video game player, but I have several friends who are, and they all recommended I check out the TV series adaptation of "The Last of Us" on HBO. I'm glad they did, because what the first episode on Jan. 15 delivered was a genuinely novel twist on the zombie apocalypse genre, that managed to be both surprisingly plausible and all too relevant to our modern era of global pandemics and ongoing climate change....
Writer-director Brion Rockwell knows film, and he knows the Northwest, so he's hoping the next year or two will help him launch his latest in-progress feature films, set in the Northwest, to an audience of his fellow residents, and possibly beyond, starting with a select screening at the Roxy Theatre in Bremerton on Jan. 21. Rockwell boasts a bicoastal film and writing education pedigree, with a bachelor's degree in liberal arts from The Evergreen State College in 1990, a Trustee Scholarship...
What occurs to me first, after having watched a sampling of four films by Brion Rockwell, is that some of the best film footage of the Pacific Northwest comes from those who spend just enough time elsewhere to appreciate this region more deeply. David Lynch's childhood began in Missoula, Montana, Sandpoint, Idaho, and Spokane (one of my own early hometowns) before the rest of his youth was spent in the South and Northeast, and he captured this region's flavor flawlessly in "Twin Peaks."...
The Port of Allyn addressed the damage its dock sustained over the holidays and heard about the latest progress on the Sargent Oyster House at its Jan. 4 meeting. The king tides between Christmas and New Year’s severely damaged the Hood Canal Marina dock. Port of Allyn Executive Director Lary Coppola said port insurer Enduris had hired a consultant and marine surveyor to assess the damage. The consultant has already inspected the dock, and Coppola is waiting for a report to see how Enduris w...
The Port of Hoodsport closed out 2022 by discussing the state of its dock going into 2023. When Katherine Yackel, operations manager of the YSS Dive Shop in Hoodsport, asked whether donations or fundraisers could be organized for the dock, Port Commissioner Cody Morris said the port is working with attorneys to establish an account for funding any dock work. After a recent dock inspection, Morris said the dock was in "much rougher shape" than he'd realized, so dock work will be emphasized, but...
I'm starting 2023 by recommending a streaming series I was remiss in not reviewing in 2022, even though it was easily one of the best TV shows of last year. "Severance" was the show that persuaded me to subscribe to Apple+, and not only is its first season still available on the streaming service, but it's been confirmed to receive a second season this year. "Severance" is like Patrick McGoohan's "The Prisoner" if it was remade for the post-COVID era. In an unnamed wintery state, the Eagan busin...
Port of Allyn lobbyist Holli Cocci reviewed the port’s priorities and what she will be requesting from the Legislature during its “long” 105-day session that begins Jan. 9. She spoke to the commission Dec. 19. Cocci noted the port’s pier is a primary priority, so she ceded the floor to Port of Allyn Executive Director Lary Coppola, who said the pier’s pilings are deteriorating. Coppola said the piling beneath the alcove on the pier has rotted out, compelling the port to close that section o...
The Port of Grapeview completed a hectic agenda of new business Dec. 20 as port commissioners agreed to a memorandum of understanding with Mason County for rural county 0.09 sales tax funding in 2023. Port Commissioner Jean Farmer said the money has been available for applications “for a while,” but the Belfair sewer had precluded that money from being available to the port. Under the memo, the port will receive a $20,000 grant it can use to pay for maintenance of its facilities. The port must s...
