Dedicated to the citizens of Mason County, Washington since 1886
Dedicated to the citizens of Mason County, Washington since 1886
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Turning Pointe Survivor Advocacy Center in Shelton will use a $20,000 grant to remodel its kitchen to better serve women and children at its domestic violence shelter. The nonprofit, helping survivors of domestic violence since 2000, states it is one of more than 1,100 domestic violence shelters that applied for grants from the Mary Kay Ash Foundation this year. The foundation, which states it has donated more than $92 million to organizations since 1996, raises and distributes money for cancer...
Olympic College offers courses Olympic College Shelton is offering courses in creative writing, flagger certification and forklift certification. The class Creative Writing — Making Scenes is from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Wednesdays Jan. 25 through Feb. 23. The class explores how to develop scenes through selling, exposition, action, conversation, pacing and clarity. Sign up by calling 360-432-5400 or go to tinyurl.com/anm42zsj. The class on flagger certification is from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Jan. 14. Become a certified flagger by learning safety for e...
The past two weeks in Mason County has seen several extreme weather events. On Dec. 23, the county had to deal with freezing rain and cold, making roads slick and taking out power for several Mason PUD customers. On Dec. 27, the county had a low pressure system that included high winds coinciding with a king tide, causing flooding and damage throughout Mason County. Mason County commissioners hosted an emergency meeting on Dec. 27 and approved a resolution for a countywide state of emergency and...
The Northwest’s most prolific bootlegger of the 1920s, the history of atomic power in Washington, and a look back at the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens are the topics of three Inquiring Minds programs hosted by the Humanities Washington Speakers Bureau and the Harstine Island Community Club. This is the 14th year the two entities have presented the programs, which are staged at 1:30 p.m. on the last Sunday in January, February and March at the Community Club, 3371 E. Harstine Island Road North. Donations will be accepted to support I...
Mason PUD 3 received $3 million in federal funding for its Belfair Electrical Capacity Infrastructure Project, while the Skokomish Tribe received $2.2 million for its T3ba'das Infrastructure Project to create housing. The funding was announced last week by the office of U.S. Rep. Derek Kilmer, D-Gig Harbor, who voted to pass the Consolidated Appropriations Act government funding legislation. In a news release, Kilmer states he led the efforts to secure funding for the projects through the House...
Mason County Fire District 12 is under investigation by the FBI, according to the Mason County Sheriff's Office. In an email to the Journal, Detective Corporal Michael Sargent wrote, that the Sheriff's Office has suspended its investigation into the case and "it has been adopted for investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation." Fire District 12 hosted its monthly meeting Tuesday in Matlock. When asked about the investigation being handed over to the FBI, Commissioner Albert Wilder said,...
A woman injured in a Christmas Eve apartment fire at 1100 North 12th St. at the Saratoga Springs Apartments died two days later at a Seattle hospital. According to a news release from Central Mason Fire and EMS, CMFE responded to the fire around 6:30 p.m, arriving to find a resident attempting to put the fire out with a garden hose. An elderly woman living in the residence collapsed and became unresponsive as the fire began, and paramedics immediately administered CPR. The woman was revived and...
The North Mason School Board's meetings Dec. 8 and Dec. 15 drew testimony from three area residents on the proposed transfer of the Theler wetlands, trail system and associated properties from the school district to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. Herb Gerhardt and Don LePere supported the transfer, while Ken VanBuskirk requested certain conditions for the transfer to proceed. Gerhardt's written comments, which were read into the record by district Superintendent Dana Rosenbach,...
Mason County Fire District 4 welcomed new fire chief Gregory Rudolph in October. "It's exciting, it's a good challenge," Rudolph told the Journal. "I'm enjoying my time here so far." Fire District 4 covers the southeast corner of Mason County, from Arcadia Road south county line and west to the county line on state Route 108. Rudolph, 49, took over from Bob Burbridge, who retired in April. Before becoming fire chief, he was the assistant chief at Griffin Fire Department for two years in Thurston...
Mason County PUD 1 will receive $594,857 from the Bonneville Power Administration’s Power Dividend Distribution Credit through the next 10 months. PUD 1 will pass that money on to its customers after approving the action at the Dec. 13 commissioners meeting. PUD 1 staff proposed setting aside $25,000 in the local government investment pool to help fund the PUD’s low-income energy assistance program as required by the state’s Clean Energy Transformation Act and the remaining $569,857 will be di...
Jordan and Jareau Afo were sentened Tuesday for the murder of Derrick Wily in November 2020. Jareau pled guilty Nov. 8 to second-degree murder in Mason County Superior Court. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison, according to Mason County Clerk Sharon Moore-Fogo. Jordan pled guilty to one count of first-degree criminal assistance and received a five-year prison sentence. He also pled guilty to one count of unlawful disposal of human remains and received 90 days in prison, according to...
Mason County commissioners adopted the 2023 budget at $177,976,694 following a public hearing Dec. 5. According to the information packet, the general fund is $68,492,402, and the other funds total $109,484,292. The beginning balance for the general fund is $26 million and revenues are $42,492,402. Salaries and benefits total $31,916,861, operating expenditures are $15,256,512 and the ending fund balance is $21,319,029. The county has budgeted for 281.55 full-time employees. The total for other...
After about five years of discussions and planning, the Shelton Veterans Village is taking shape on North 13th Street near Olympic College Shelton, with a planned opening for 30 homeless veterans next summer. A crew from Forma Construction this week is erecting the framework for the village's community building on 3 acres leased from the City of Shelton. The village will feature seven four-plexes and one duplex. The nonprofit organization Quixote Communities also has tiny home villages in Olympi...
The Shelton School District developed a five-year strategic plan relying on comments from more than 1,000 people, and students are benefitting from earlier recruiting and hiring of quality teachers. At the same time, student test scores in math and language arts are low compared with students statewide. Those are some of the takeaways from Superintendent Wyatt Jessee's state-of-the-district presentation Tuesday evening at the Shelton School Board meeting in the Mountain View Elementary School...
Respiratory illnesses are surging in Mason County, according to the last Mason County Board of Health meeting of the year Nov. 29. According to Public Health Officer Dr. Keri Gardner, the county is seeing high rates of influenza A, RSV and COVID-19. “Unfortunately, this is coming at a time when for reasons that we don’t really understand, hospital occupancy rates are quite high,” Gardner said during the meeting. “So we’re asking people to continue to practice all of the things we’ve been doing...
On Dec 3, the Mason County Republicans had their biannual reorganizational meeting. In spite of the weather conditions, 27 precinct committee officers and many guests gathered at the meeting. Mason County Prosecutor Michael Dorcy asked the newly elected PCOs to raise their hands as he swore them into office. Sen.-elect Drew MacEwen served as the temporary chairman and led the precinct committee officers in electing the executive board that will serve for the upcoming two-year term. Elected to the executive board were chairman Melissa Upson,...
The City of Shelton has contracted with the Nisqually Correctional Facility on Yelm Highway to provide jail beds for detainees. The Shelton City Council on Tuesday unanimously passed the contract, which calls for the Nisqually Correctional Facility to receive $130 per day per inmate, with no guaranteed beds. Shelton Police Department employees will drive the inmates to the facility. 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 a...
It's autumn on the calendar but winter weather appeared with a week of steady snow and precipitation that knocked out power and forced school cancellations. According to weather.gov, Shelton received 3.21 inches of precipitation from Nov. 29 to Tuesday. Belfair received 2.76 inches of precipitation, according to weather.com. A Facebook post by a Union resident showed 24 inches of snow piled up. Two winter weather advisories were issued last week. The Mason County Sheriff's Office also reported...
Mason County Public Utility District 3 has increased its rates for 2023, which was included in adopting the 2023 budget in a vote on Nov. 22. According to a news release, PUD 3 commissioners adopted a 5% effective energy rate increase for various rate schedules and a monthly “low-income energy assistance surcharge” to comply with state legislation for low-income programs. The residential increase will take effect in April and raise the energy rate from $0.07710 per kilowatt-hour to $0.08160 per...
Establishing a mitigation site for a year where homeless people could erect tents would cost the City of Shelton about $35,000, while employing staff to oversee the encampment at night would cost about $100,000. The Shelton City Council discussed and ranked seven recommendations by its homelessness task force Nov. 22 at a study session at the Shelton Civic Center. “I’m hearing the mitigation site is the number one thing we should be working on,” said City Manager Jeff Niten. “I think a mitigation site is the most important start,” Mayor Eri...
Marty Best, the vice chairman of the Shelton School Board, died Nov. 20. He was 67. The Shelton resident joined the board in 2021 and represented District 2. The board and the district mourned his death at the Nov. 22 meeting in the Mountain View Elementary School cafeteria and honored him with a moment of silence. “Marty did a lot of work in public service, not just the school board,” said Superintendent Wyeth Jessee. Best was the administrative services manager for Grays Harbor Transit and president of Whirlwind Ministries Inc. He had bee...
The North Mason Regional Fire Authority is launching a physician’s assistant program in 2023, hoping to fill a need for medical services in the community. NMRFA Chief Beau Bakken said the authority was looking to start a similar program before COVID hit, but the logistics were too complicated at the time. The pandemic did allow time to plan on how to execute the program. The intention of the program is to fill a gray area in coverage. When NMRFA responds to a call for medical attention, it h...
Washington’s COVID state of emergency ended Oct. 31, but for Mason Health and General, not much has changed. “There’s a big health care exclusion. We have to continue masking … patients, visitors, staff — we all continue to mask,” Chief Nursing Officer Melissa Strong told the Journal. “That is a requirement. We have expanded our visitor hours, we went back to pretty much pre-pandemic visiting hours.” COVID is not over. Kimberly Cooper, program manager for infection prevention and employee health and safety, said Mason County is one of eight co...
