Dedicated to the citizens of Mason County, Washington since 1886
Dedicated to the citizens of Mason County, Washington since 1886
Sorted by date Results 751 - 775 of 1021
Mason County Commissioner Sharon Trask, a Republican, will face Democrat and Shelton City Council member Miguel Gutierrez in the Nov. 8 general election, while Democrat Sandy Kaiser and Republican Travis Couture will compete to replace Drew MacEwen representing District 35, Position 2, in the state House of Representatives. Those are among the initial results of Tuesday’s primary election. The results of the second ballot count were scheduled to be released at 4 p.m. Wednesday, after the Journal went to press. For updates, go to the J...
Central Mason Fire Chief Mike Patti is hanging up his coat Aug. 19. Patti, 68, joined Central Mason Fire in July 2011 as the assistant chief and fire marshal. He worked in that position until 2015 when he was promoted to deputy chief of operations while continuing his fire marshal duties. He was promoted again in January 2020 to fire chief. "I think once I retire, I'm going to take a couple months to breathe and we'll just see what the future holds," Patti told the Journal. "I want to do some...
Guns and other weapons would be banned at Shelton School Board meetings under proposed new rules. At its July 26 meeting, the board gave preliminary approval to rule revisions on meeting conduct, the order of business and language considered “uncivil.” The board can make the changes official with a vote at its meeting at 6 p.m. Tuesday. Some of the proposed changes include simple logistical tweaks, such as noting the meeting site has changed to the Mountain View Elementary School cafeteria the second and fourth Tuesdays of each month. Oth...
The Shelton City Council on Tuesday evening approved code amendment changes that allow community organizations to host temporary homeless encampments of up to 30 people. The council in a 6-1 vote approved the code changes, with James Boad voting against it without explanation. The vote was the same when the proposal received preliminary approval by the council at its July 19 meeting. Under the amendments, a community group could be permitted for an encampment on private property of up to 30 people for seven months, and after that could apply...
NOTE: This story was updated to include Wednesday's 4:30 p.m. second ballot count. Four levies supporting emergency medical services in Mason County are passing after the initial ballot count of Tuesday's primary election. An emergency medical services levy for the City of Shelton is passing with 998 "yes" votes and 653 "no" votes. Mason County Fire Protection District No. 4's levy lid-lift vote was easily passing in the second count, gathering 1,346 "yes" votes against 804 "no" votes. The levy...
The Belfair sewer project has received bids for its proposed extension, and Mason County commissioners will decide Tuesday what action to take. The commissioners had a briefing July 6 to go over information with County Administrator Mark Neary, Public Works Director Loretta Swanson and Deputy Director of Utilities and Waste Richard Dickinson. According to the briefing information packet, commissioners voted April 5 to authorize the Public Works Department to advertise and set a bid opening for...
Fourth of July is usually a busy time for fire departments, but not this year, according to local fire districts. West Mason Fire Chief Matthew Welander said it was a quiet Fourth of July for his department. "Agencies and organizations got ahead of most of the issues and put rules in place and did a good job of advertising them," Welander wrote in an email to the Journal. "We had one incident involving a firework starting a very small fire. We had prepositioned crews in that area and the fire...
Growing up in a small village in central Mexico, Jose de Jesus Melendez picked corn, beans and sweet potatoes to help support his subsistence-farming family. He attended a one-room schoolhouse, at least when a teacher was available. When Melendez was in the fourth grade, his father told him, "You're an educated man now" and pulled him out of school to pick sugar cane fulltime. His formal schooling days in Mexico were over. A remarkable educational journey that began in his 20s has led Melendez...
The Shelton-Mason County Chamber of Commerce is hosting the Chamber Expo & Bite of Mason County from 11:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Friday in downtown Shelton. Admission is free. Nearly 100 vendors with local restaurants, services, retailers and community groups will be there. More than a dozen local food and beverage vendors will be showcased in the Bite of Mason County. Dale's Mobile Kitchen, Shelton Candy Shoppe, Snacksidents, Tasty Bites and Wilde Irish Pub will make their first appearance at the...
Improving the city's Western Gateway on West Railroad Avenue and building two roundabouts on Wallace Kneeland Boulevard, are the top three priorities on the City of Shelton's proposed Six-Year Transportation Improvement Plan. The Shelton City Council on Tuesday evening hosted its first public hearing on the proposed plan. The council is scheduled to vote on the document at its July 19 meeting. No one from the public offered comments Tuesday. The city's code states that the plan is designed "to...
Most of the pandemic restrictions are gone and people have gone back to “normal” life, but COVID-19 is still prominent in the country and Mason County. Mason General Hospital and Mason Health still deal with the virus daily. So, what is the state of COVID in Mason County? “Alive and well,” Mason Health Chief Medical Officer Dr. Dean Gushee said. “It’s certainly still out there. Case counts have gone up. What’s a little harder now is at one time we were tracking cases, which are test positivi...
Mason County commissioners approved a correction officers retention bonus at a special commission meeting June 23. The county jail has had a problem with attracting and retaining employees in “law enforcement positions in general,” according to County Administrator Mark Neary. “We obviously have a 24/7 operation there very dependent on the population of inmates that we have and as we see individuals maybe getting out of law enforcement all together and wanting to identify other career paths...
WSDOT striping roads this weekend The state Department of Transportation crews from Tacoma will be striping roads this weekend. According to a Twitter post, the striping takes place annually and usually takes a day and a half to complete. Crews will begin striping Friday with an expected completion by Monday afternoon. Shelton has 36 miles of yellow and white road striping. Seven county vehicles replaced Mason County will receive seven new vehicles as part of replacement vehicle order requests from Enterprise in 2022 and 2023. According to the...
As the summer recreation season gets underway, the Port of Hoodsport is ensuring its park facilities are safe for visitors after the damage caused by last winter’s storms. Port of Hoodsport Commissioner Lori Kincannon told the Shelton-Mason County Journal how the port’s 80-acre trail park, which includes the 20-acre Hoodsport Hills Disc Golf course, is awaiting the removal of hazardous damaged trees, along with hundreds of trees that fell during winter storms. “After a forestation plan, and p...
Discharging private fireworks is always illegal within the City of Shelton, including on the Fourth of July, while Mason County will allows private fireworks during specific times through Tuesday. The then-Shelton City Commission voted in 2013 to ban private fireworks in the city after residents complained about their use and the noise, litter, scared pets and traumatized military veterans before, during and after the Fourth of July. Violators can be charged with a misdemeanor and a fine. To report suspected fireworks violations, call 360-426-4...
Three school principals resigned this month from the Shelton School District. June 13 was the last day for Mario Juves, the principal at Oakland Bay Junior High School for two years. Today is the last day in the district for Stacey Anderson, the principal at CHOICE High School for 14 years, and Amber Argus, the principal at Evergreen Elementary School for two years. All three resignations were approved as part of the consent agenda at the Shelton School Board’s meeting Tuesday evening. Katie Diamond, communications specialist for the Shelton S...
A 2-year-old child died after being submerged in a car that plunged down an embankment into Lake Cushman on Monday. “This is still under investigation and the cause is still under investigation,” MCSO Chief Criminal Deputy of Patrol Operations Ryan Spurling told the Journal. “It’s terrible. Every year, it seems like we lose one or two people up there from jumping off the rock or drownings.” According to the Mason County Sheriff’s Office Declaration of Probable Cause, Christopher J. Valeta, 30,...
After three years of searching for a suitable location for a dog park, members of the nonprofit organization “Friends of Lake Cushman Dog Park” have found a home. Bill Long, secretary of the organization, pursued options that included a proposed arrangement with the Port of Hoodsport, whose commissioners had spoken favorably of the group and its proposal during their April and May meetings, even though they ultimately declined to take part in a partnership. But it was the group’s discu...
Preliminary county budget guidelines approved Mason County 2023 and 2024 preliminary budget guidelines were approved by county commissioners at the June 21 meeting. According to the information packet, the calls for budget from county departments goes out by the second Monday in July. The board sends out budget instructions on or before the date the auditor sends out the call for budgets. The Congressional Budget Office has projected elevated inflation will continue through 2022 because of a combination of strong demand and restrained supply...
The Skokomish River Ecosystem Restoration Project money is at risk due to inaction by Mason County in acquiring the land necessary to complete the project. The project was the topic of a special Mason County commissioners meeting June 2 over Zoom with U.S. Army Corps of Engineers employees. According to the project website, the effort aims to restore 277 acres in the Skokomish River Basin that is habitat for chinook and chum salmon and a key food source for southern resident orca whales. The pro...
People in Mason County can be cautiously optimistic about this year's wildfire and fire season, according to the state Department of Natural Resources. "Fires on the west side, especially really bad fires on the west side, are not a very common thing," Wildland Fire Meteorologist Matthew Dehr told the Journal. "You really have to have a lot of factors line up for a prolonged period of time. Last summer was one of those times where it was hot and dry for a long enough time that people were...
