Dedicated to the citizens of Mason County, Washington since 1886
Dedicated to the citizens of Mason County, Washington since 1886
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Mason County commissioners approved a letter opposing the Board of Natural Resources trust lands Carbon Project, including 400 acres near Elk Lake. Elk Lake is just south of the Jefferson County line. According to the state Department of Natural Resources Carbon Project website, the project is to protect some of the most ecologically and culturally valuable forests while generating revenue for schools and services that state trust lands support. DNR is trying to move an estimated 10,000 new...
The Shelton Police department arrested two suspects Jan. 27 for an assault at Kneeland Park. According to police documents obtained through a public records request, Officer Warren Ohlson stated he arrived at Kneeland Park for a disturbance call and found a man who was bleeding from the left side of his face. The man said he was walking downtown and came across two women, whom he did not know, and exchanged combative words. The women followed the man to Kneeland Park, where the verbal...
A profile on an anti-government and anti-law enforcement extremist set to air on NBC's "Dateline" at 9 p.m. Friday will feature the recollections of his former wife, a longtime Shelton resident, and his son, a 2002 Shelton High School graduate. Lloyd Barrus, 67, is serving three concurrent life sentences without parole in a Billings, Montana prison. He was in the driver's seat when he and his now deceased son Marshall Barrus lured Broadwater County Deputy Mason Moore into chasing them, and...
The internal investigation into Mason County Fire District 12 will wrap up by the middle of February, according to lawyer Brian Snure. Snure, part of the law office conducting the investigation, told the Journal in an email he anticipates receiving the investigators report on or sometime near Feb. 13. “I will need some time to review it and any supporting documentation and will need to discuss with my client before a decision is made regarding releasing a summary (or the report itself),” Snu...
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...
Valentine's Day is the deadline to cast ballots for replacement levies in the Shelton and Pioneer school districts. Both would replace existing levies that expire at the end of 2023 and both need a simple majority to pass. Ballots were mailed last week. The Shelton School District's three-year levy would be $2.09 per $1,000 of assessed property value. If passed, the levy will collect $7.1 million in 2024, $7.6 million in 2025 and $8.2 million in 2026. The levy money provides about 11% of the dis...
The North Mason girls basketball game against Crescent on Saturday in Crescent was ruled a no-contest after Bulldog coach Alex Fitzhugh pulled his players and left after the game got aggressive and parents started getting involved. According to Fitzhugh, Crescent was “playing dirty” and the North Mason players reacted. “I was telling the refs to watch out and the girls felt defeated,” Fitzhugh told the Journal on Monday. “One sister defended the other and I called the game. The crowd started com...
The City of Shelton is planning to move its congested public works yard from behind Loop Field and Evergreen Elementary School to a wooded 5-acre site that houses Well No. 1 at Shelton Springs Road and North 13th Street. The "laydown yard" would just be the start for the transformation of the triangle-shaped piece of land just north of Mason General Hospital. "All public works would be combined in one center," Public Works Director Jay Harris told the Shelton City Council on Jan. 17. The...
Sen. Drew MacEwen and Rep. Dan Griffey and Travis Couture are in Olympia representing Mason County residents. Here is what the three Mason County representatives have been working on so far: MacEwen MacEwen is the primary sponsor of 15 bills in the Senate, according to the Legislature’s website. Among the bills are Senate Bill 5206 in the Senate High Education and Workforce Development committee, which would keep the University of Washington and Washington State University in the same a...
The Shelton School Board on Tuesday evening surplussed 10 school buses used by the Mason County Transportation Cooperative due to age and wear. The request came from Don Hall, the director of the district's transportation department. "The repairs required to maintain the buses for presentation to the Washington State Patrol for annual inspection have become labor intensive and cost prohibitive," Hall wrote in a report to the school board members. Five of the surplussed buses are Bluebird models...
Four power stations were attacked on Christmas, leaving thousands without power in Pierce County. Those attacks have put local PUDs on alert, including Mason County PUD 1 and 3. “Vulnerabilities of the electrical grid is something that all power providers, from the large power market administrations like BPA, to the local power companies that deliver the electricity to the customers, are all cognizant of and continue to address in various ways,” PUD 1 General Manager Kristin Masteller wrote the...
Commissioners approve WSU agreement Mason County commissioners approved a memorandum of agreement with the Washington State University Extension for 2023. According to the information packet, the MOA provides money for the extension to provide programs in Mason County based on the 2023 budget. The amount approved for the agreement is $90,072 and is in the 2023 budget. Suppressor purchase approved County commissioners approved the sole-source purchase of a R556I Integral Suppressed Upper through Federal Eastern International to upgrade the...
Editor’s Note: Fire 17 responded to a story in last week’s edition with a letter to the editor that can be found on page 5 of this week's PDF (above). Mason County Fire District 17 disputes a claim that the district cannot respond to calls. According to Jenni Glasco, a resident of Mason County Fire District 17 who works at Brinnon Fire, the point of concern was forgotten by Fire 17 in an email response to last week’s Journal story about the dispute between the two districts. “I started this with...
Adverse winter weather conditions, including an ice storm a couple of weeks ago, has pushed the estimated completion date of the City of Shelton's $2.6-million Western Gateway Project from Feb. 14 to early April. That new forecast is "weather-dependent," City Manager Jeff Niten wrote in an email Tuesday responding to questions from the Journal. "We can't lay down asphalt unless the temperature is 40 degrees and rising, among other things," he wrote. That also means an extension of traffic...
Four people have been arrested in the Jan. 4 slaying of a Kitsap County man whose body was found near Camp Lyle McLeod on the Tahuya Peninsula, about 5 miles west of Belfair. The suspects have been charged in the shooting death Alejandro Rodriguez, 27, a Kitsap County resident. Brenda Maja Hudson-Culp, 27, Breanna Lynn Stewart, 24, Crystal Marie Dodson, 45, and Jacob Elijah Joe Ualika, 23, were all arrested in connection to the slaying. All four were charged with one count of murder in the...
The City of Shelton is considering changing its jail contract with Mason County so it no longer pays for empty beds. The city has been contracting with the Mason County Sheriff's Office for jail services, and currently pays for seven guaranteed beds per day. Five of the beds are reserved for arrestees who are being charged with violations that would be adjudicated in Municipal Court. Inmates are being booked for Class A and B felonies, and now the occasional Class C felony, but not for lesser ch...
Mason County Fire District 17 based in Lilliwaup, and Brinnon Fire appear to be at odds with each other over a recent proposal for the two fire districts to merge. According to a Dec. 31 letter to the community, Brinnon Fire Chief Tim Manly submitted a merger proposal for the two districts to “streamline resources and provide even better patient services. A merger would have increased Mason County levy rates proportional to Jefferson County residents.” The two fire districts had been wor...
Meet Rhodes, Duenkel The group Take Back Mason County is hosting a meet-and-greet at 6 p.m. Jan. 19 at The Beginnings Christian Church at 123 W C St. in Shelton with newly elected county clerk Charles Rhodes and county auditor Steve Duenkel slated to be in attendance. Refreshments will be provided. Contact Rebecca Bechtolt at 360-490-3239. Temporary promotion extended An extension of the temporary promotion of Corrections Support Officer Brad McQuade to alternative sentencing unit coordinator until March 16 was approved by county...
The Shelton City Council on Tuesday made a preliminary move to buy land on Olympic Highway North for a new sewer lift station. The council voted unanimously to purchase parcels by two landowners at Olympic Highway North and A Street for $405,000. The council can make the move official at its Jan. 17 meeting. The North Division Sewer Lift Station would redirect most of the wastewater flow in the northwest sections of the city and pump it to the membrane treatment plant near Sanderson Field. Accor...
While Mason County Fire District 12 is fighting legal battles to keep the fire chief and commissioners in place, it appears the community has had enough. The final meeting of 2022 on Dec. 27 was attended by about 25 community members, who asked questions and directed criticism at fire district officials. Some asked the district for records, including the district's 2023 budget, previous meeting minutes and the fire chiefs' contract. There were questions about the district's 2022 spending and...
The state Department of Transportation used a blog post to update North Mason on the state Route 3 Freight Corridor project, pushing back the expected construction year to 2026 instead of 2024 as it had been projected. According to the blog post, the Move Ahead Washington funding package included two more roundabouts for the project, which are at the intersection of state Route 3 and state Route 302 near North Mason High School. The connections of the roundabouts will allow new local roads to...
The Shelton City Council on Tuesday formally accepted a $2-million grant from the state Department of Commerce to help rehabilitate its Well No. 1. The city secured the $2-million grant in the 2021-23 State Capital Budget, using the state’s Coronavirus State Fiscal Recovery Funds through the federal American Rescue Plan Act, administered through the state Department of Commerce. The city informed the Department of Commerce that the grant will be used for two things: ■ To complete a readiness survey “further characterizing” the project and ident...
Mason County high school juniors and seniors who are interested in being a member of Mason County Forest Festival Royalty Court, and their parents and guardians, are invited to attend an informational meeting at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Shelton YMCA. Positions are open for Queen of the Forest and Paul Bunyan — who both must be seniors — Timber the Axe Man, Princess of Hemlock and Princess of Douglas Fir. Scholarships of between $1,000 and $2,000 will be awarded. The coronation ceremony will be Feb. 11, following coronation practices from 6:3...
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...
