310 comprehensive coverage girl murdered

Thursday, July 1, 2010 Year 124 — Week 26 — 6 Sections — 50 Pages — Published in Shelton, Washington — $1

JournalShelton-Mason County

On theinside

Girl murdered near Lake CushmanBy KEVAN MOORE

A 29-year-old Canadian man is being held on a $3 million bail in the Mason County Jail for allegedly mur-dering his 5-year-old stepdaugther.

Police say that Peter James Wil-son admitted to slitting the throat of Clare Louise Shelswell shortly after 6 p.m. this past Sunday at a Lake Cushman vacation rental home.

Mason County Coroner Wes Stock-well said that an autopsy performed on Shelswell on Monday morning re-vealed that she died from blood loss after nearly being decapitated from a knife wound to her neck.

According to a probable cause statement issued by the Mason County Sheriff’s Office, Sergeant Travis Adams arrived at 260 Mt. Se-attle Way shortly after paramedics who were tending to Shelswell. Ser-geant Adams located Wilson sitting

on a swing in a gazebo next to the residence and took him into custody without incident.

Sergeant Adams then contacted the girl’s mother, Sarah Jane Wil-son, who said she had gotten into an argument with her husband about discipline earlier in the day and he told her “not to worry that he would take care of it.” She said that Wilson then took Clare downstairs and she heard a scream a short time later.

She then found her husband standing next to the kitchen covered in blood and Clare laying in a pool of blood on her back on the floor hold-ing her throat with her hands. Wil-

son then told her her that she better call 911.

Detective Jeff Rhoades advised Wilson of his rights which he waived before talking.

“Peter Wilson confessed to Det. Rhoades that he did indeed know-ingly kill Clare by cutting her throat with a knife he found on the kitch-en counter,” the probable cause statement states. “Peter told Det. Rhoades that as soon as he started to walk down the stairs to the kitchen with Clare he knew he was going to kill her.”

Clare Louise Shelswell

State settles trespass disputes with shellfish growersBy ARLA SHEPHARD

Ending months of speculation as to how the state would handle tres-pass issues on five acres of its public tidelands, the Washington State De-partment of Natural Re-sources (DNR) announced last week that it had reached settlements with the three major shellfish companies involved.

Taylor Shellfish, Ar-cadia Point Seafood and Seattle Shellfish will pay a total of $417,000 to the state for their unauthor-ized harvest, over the last five to seven years, of geoduck clams on state property in Mason County.

“I’m happy with the way this turned out,” said Jim Gibbons, owner of Seattle Shellfish, which will pay $75,000 for its trespass on a half-acre at Arcadia Point in Case In-let. “Hopefully, it doesn’t happen again, but in the big picture of our opera-tions this was not major.”

Taylor Shellfish will pay the largest fine of $225,000 for its encroach-ment on two acres at North Bay, which was the first of these tres-passes DNR discovered in the fall of last year.

The Shelton-based Taylor Shellfish made headlines in 2008 for trespassing on nearly 16 acres at Totten Inlet near Olympia. The company eventually agreed to pay the state $1.5 million over three years.

“What the North Bay and Totten problems have taught us and DNR is that there is no sub-stitute for a land survey by a land surveyor,” said Taylor Shellfish spokes-person Bill Dewey. “It is the only accurate way to determine ownership on the ground. County par-cel maps and DNR maps of state ownership are not reliable.”

Commissioner of Public Lands Peter Gold-mark, who began his tenure in Jan. 2009, said he was pleased that all three companies showed commitment to working cooperatively with DNR.

“Goldmark has made transparency a priority [in his administration],” said Aaron Toso, DNR’s communications manag-er. “That’s an ethic we’re working toward driving down through the entire agency.”

Rockin’ at the Robin HoodBy NATALIE JOHNSON

Robert Poole is having a blast.

In the past two years, what began as a side proj-ect, hosting a weekly open mic night at the Robin Hood Restaurant and Pub in Union, has become nearly a full time job, expanding first to more local acoustic shows, and eventually to a radio show on KMAS.

As for the future, the sky’s the limit, but Poole’s got his heart set on TV.

“Yeah I plan on going into television,” Poole said. “I have some friends who do some TV stuff.”

Poole began as a sing-er-songwriter in a band that frequented the Robin Hood. After several twists and turns, he began host-ing weekly open mic nights, featuring professional and semi-professional artists he knows from around Wash-ington and inviting more ca-sual musicians to play a few songs afterward.

While the Robin Hood used to host rowdy and fully amplified rock bands, Poole said that unplugged artists suit the pub better.

“The place lends to a more singer-songwriter, artsy [at-mosphere], that kind of a thing, I wanted to go in that direction,” Poole said.

After only a short time, he began hosting two-hour acoustic shows at the Union Square Deli, again inviting veteran and talented young artists alike to play a couple of sets of original music in a cozy, acoustic environment.

“I’m getting players that are just coming out of the woodwork. Basically that’s why I started the radio show. There needed to be a portal for all this really cool original music to funnel over the airwaves,” he said.

Earlier this year, he launched a radio show, Song-writer’s Stage, on KMAS. On the show, Poole, Bruce Whit-comb of Red Arrow Records and various musical guests try to make listeners laugh between songs.

By MARY DUNCAN

Shelton Relay for Life cel-ebrated its 10th anniversary last weekend and raised $99,000 toward its goal of $128,000.

That’s well above the goal in 2000 of $35,000 when some 25 teams participated in the 24-hour fundraiser for the American Cancer Soci-ety.

Just as the goal has grown each year so have the number of teams which participate in the event. “We had around 25 teams in 2000 and we struggled to hit our goal of $35,000,” said Vickie Gonzales, who has been a co-chair of Relay for Life for most of the decade. Donations that first year to-taled $36,603.

This year there were 41 teams. Fundraising contin-ues through August and the goal of $128,000 is in sight.

Three teams have been in the Relay for all 10 years. They are Peninsula Credit Union, Tek Trekkers and Hi-awatha Corporation which

has also been an event spon-sor from the beginning.

During the Relay there is plenty of team competition. “We have the best decorated tent site, which included decorating to the birthday theme this year,” Gonzales said.

“We have the team baton award. Some very creative work goes on with this con-test,” she said.

Then there’s a “cancer jin-gle” where the teams make up a little jingle or song to go along with the theme and cancer education, preven-tion and detection, Gonzales said.

Awards are given out for best dressed in three catego-ries: men, women and chil-dren.

“We do the ‘punch card’ contest where we punch their cards once an hour for the full Relay, which encour-ages participation through-out the entire event,” Gon-zales said. There’s a prize drawing at the end.

“The really cool contest

I feel is the ‘Spirit of Relay’ award given to a team that exemplifies the work of the Relay for Life and the Amer-ican Cancer Society year round,” Gonzales said. “It is voted on by all the teams and awarded at the team wrap up party in July. Last year’s winner was Maple Glen.”

The Relay kicks off with a “survivor lap” and this year more than 100 people par-ticipated in the opening cer-

emonial lap.New this year was a cer-

emonial lap near the end of the Relay honoring local he-roes from law enforcement and emergency services.

“I had seen the heroes lap done at another Relay last year and really wanted to recognize our own home-town heroes,” Gonzales said. “We probably had around 30 participants, a pretty good showing for the first one.”

There have been several significant incidents over the past decade.

“I’m thinking probably our most memorable event was to have Dr. Gordon Klatt present at our Relay about five or six years ago. He is the gentleman that actually started the Relay for Life 25 years ago in Ta-coma,” Gonzales said.

“One funny thing we are all going to remember is that the sprinklers came on at 1 o’clock in the morning this year. It has never hap-pened in all 10 years we’ve been up there,” she said.

Shelton Relay for Life marks 10 years

Journal photo by Dean Siemon

Two Shelton cancer survivors walk in the Survivor’s Lap at Shelton High School’s track during this year’s Shelton Relay for Life on Friday. Below, a young girl walks on the track.

Robert Poole

See Poole on page A-7

It’s ‘all about the clams’

By NATALIE JOHNSON

Area residents have been har-vesting shellfish from the shores of Oakland Bay since long before Mason County even existed, or Washington was a state. How-ever, in the past hundred years, those clams, oysters and other shellfish have been threatened by chemical pollution introduced by the same Mason County resi-dents that depend on them.

Representatives from the EPA, the Washington State Department of Ecology, the Squaxin Island Tribes, the Puget Sound Partnership and the Shelton City Commission and Public Works staff met at Taylor Shellfish’s FLUPSY, or Floating Upswell System, site last Wednesday concluding a day-long tour of local ecological projects, to discuss the state of pollution in Oakland Bay, and how the city’s new wastewa-ter treatment plant will pump cleaner effluent water into its delicate ecosystem.

“We’re pretty proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish,” Commissioner Dawn Pannell said.

New wastewater treatment plant designed to protect ecosystem in Oakland Bay

See Clam on page A-7

Port says ‘no’ to Adage ballotBy MARY DUNCAN

The Port of Shelton voted not to run an advisory ballot on Adage, the company that wants to build a biomass facility to generate electricity on port property on Johns Prairie.

The action came at a special meeting June 23.

Commissioner Jack Miles made the motion to authorize an advisory vote and put it on the November ballot. He said the vote was neces-sary after the Mason County Commission de-nied a request for a county-wide advisory bal-lot.

“As I stated yesterday (June 22) I have seri-ous reservations about an advisory ballot that does not encompass all voters,” Commissioner Tom Wallitner said. “It’s a lose-lose with 60 percent of the county’s voters left out.”

See Port on page A-7

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Lastly, the probable cause state-ment notes that Mr. and Mrs. Wil-son told police that he is bipolar and was taking medication for it.

Mrs. Wilson issued a statement on Monday, describing it as “with-

out a doubt one of the hardest let-ters I have had to write, because it is the hardest thing I have ever had to deal with.”

She said that her husband did, indeed, kill Clare.

“Anyone with a heart will be af-fected by this story, especially due to the brutal way in which she died … My request now, is that we be

left to mourn the loss of our beloved daughter, granddaughter, neice and sister in peace,” she wrote, be-fore offering her heartfelt gratitude to all of the emergency responders involved.

Chief Deputy Dean Byrd said that Clare’s murder has had a huge impact on deputies and paramed-ics, several of whom have been in

regular contact with deparment chaplains.

“In my 37 years this is the most heart-breaking crime I can ever re-call,” Byrd said.

Syndee Redfearn has lived across the street from the house where the homicide occurred for about five years and was also deep-ly affected by Sunday’s events.

“The flight for life had landed nearby and we were waiting for them to take her to the ambulance to transport her to the helicopter, but the ambulance never left,” she said amidst tears.

A candlelight vigil for Shelswell, that was organized by Redfearn, was set for Wednesday night, after this paper went to press.

Continued from page A-1

Shelswell

“It’s a comedy program with serious music,” Poole said.

Songwriter’s Stage is growing daily, but Poole says he still has more plans for expansion, without aban-doning any of his projects.

“I don’t want to burn any bridges with it, I want to keep the whole thing, with the music, the radio, the television, it all working together and all growing to-gether,” he said.

While he is obviously enjoying his many proj-ects, Poole admitted that at times, the work can get over-whelming on top of a full time job as the Robin Hood resort’s maintenance man-ager. He described his desk as covered in miscellaneous information about acts for

his musical programs.“Every week I find some-

body different for the Robin Hood and [the Union Square Deli], so I have all these slots and all these people strung all over the desk,” he said. “There’s so much going on, I’m just tired.”

The local notoriety amus-es Poole but also leaves him feeling a little frazzled. Dur-ing our interview outside the Union Deli, everyone who walked by stopped to say hello to him.

“I know all these people too, do you see? That’s why I want to go hide…” he said laughing, “not really, they’re all nice people, but I can’t believe how many people I know.”

Most people sit in a hot tub, or go to the gym, or watch bad movies to relax when faced with this mag-nitude of stress, but not Robert Poole. He goes back

to nature, he explained, to practice a very unique ex-treme sport to recover from long hours working and planning musical acts.

He calls this sport, which he says he invented, “river running,” and it involves wading into river rapids, and trying to make it from one side of the river to the other, exploring along the way. Poole admitted that this is quite dangerous.

“It’s scary kind of doing that but yet it’s an adrena-line thing,” he explained, “It’s making me go up into nature and run rivers. Yeah, it’s pushing me to the river.”

Poole’s musical projects are numerous, and can be overwhelming, he says, but his attitude towards them are perfectly expressed by his feelings after climbing out of raging river rapids.

“It sure feels good when you come out, he said”


Poole

Taylor Shellfish’s FLUPSY designed to circulate water and algae to more effec-tively feed and grow oyster seed, sits on the shores of Oakland Bay, which in the past has been affected by local sources of pollution, including the City’s wastewa-ter treatment plant and chemicals from pulp mills, said Bill Dewey, spokesman for Taylor Shellfish.

“At the height of the pulp mill efflu-ent, this bay was dead,” he said, “People brought their boats here in the winter time to kill the fouling on the hulls. The crabs, barnacles, you name it, it was gone.”

Because of the chemical pollution’s di-sastrous effects on local shellfish popu-lations, the city engineered the redesign of its waste-water treatment plant with those shellfish in mind.

“We always said it’s all about the clams,” Pannell said. “That refers to clams as in Taylor Shellfish clams because we were really all about protecting that very valuable resource and protecting the en-vironment we live in, but also clams as in money clams. We were also concerned about… the economic realities of what we had to deal with.”

Private contributions and federal and

state funding helped the city develop and begin construction on the plant as quickly as it did, Pannel said.

“Thanks to funding from the EPA and stimulus funding, we were able to get it going a lot sooner than I think anybody really thought was possible,” she said.

Pannell explained that the outdated plant, originally built in 1979, will be equipped to process waste more effective-ly, for example by removing nitrogen from the waste to help reduce pollution in the bay.

Several speakers addressed the im-portance of the bay to local businesses as well as to the history and culture of Ma-son County.

“This area is very important for both the tribe and the shellfish community and the community at large,” John Konovsky, environmental program manager for the Squaxin Island Tribes said.

Oakland Bay and other South Sound inlets are ideal for farming oysters be-cause of their large tidal exchanges, Dewey said, so preserving the ecosystem is vital to the survival of the shellfish in-dustry in the area.

While the old wastewater treatment plant pumped polluted water into the bay, Pannell said some plant employees would quite happily drink the effluent water now being pumped into the bay.

“It will be very clean,” she said.

The port district includes 40 percent of voters in the county.

“I disagree because 60 percent of county does not pay into our taxes,” Miles said. “They have a right to have their voices heard. This is not a final decision, just a survey or opinion poll.”

“I wrestled with this very hard,” Com-missioner Jay Hupp said. “Where I stand currently on this subject is I’m not inter-ested in the port going through with an advisory ballot that only covers the port.”

Hupp also said he was abandoning the idea of a phone survey, which he had sug-gested at the June 22 meeting. He said after hearing comments from the public about the survey idea, he was not interest-ed in seeing that go forward either.

The motion failed on a 2-1 vote.“What you have done as commissioners

is wrong in this process,” Miles said. “Your actions up to this point are wrong and I’m sorry that you have made the wrong deci-sion.

“These citizens have asked you to let them have a vote.”

Several audience members shouted “Shame on you” after the vote was taken.


PortContinued from page A-1

Clam

Journal photo by Natalie Johnson

Bill Dewey describes how Taylor’s FLUPSY system functions last month in Oakland Bay.

Shelton(360) 868-4650

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Thursday, July 15, 2010 Year 124 — Week 28 — 6 Sections — 50 Pages — Published in Shelton, Washington — $1


On theinside

Murder OneWilson pleads not guilty to first degree murder chargesBy KEVAN MOORE

A 29-year-old Canadian man pled not guilty to first-degree murder charges on Monday in Mason County Superior Court.

Prosecutors filed charging papers Friday for Peter James Wilson of Abbotsford, British Columbia, and said they will seek an exceptional sentence upon a conviction. Wilson is accused of killing his 5-year-old stepdaughter, Clare Louise Shelswell, shortly after 6 p.m. on Sunday, June 27, at a Lake Cushman vacation rental home.

Wilson, who is being held on $3 million bail, appeared in court on Monday for his arraignment in

EDC backs AdageBy MARY DUNCAN

The Economic Devel-opment Council of Ma-son County announced its support for the bio-mass electric generating facility Adage wants to build at Johns Prairie Industrial Park owned by the Port of Shelton.

The announcement came at the July 13 Port of Shelton workshop meeting.

Matt Matayoshi, EDC executive director, said there are approximately 40 biomass facilities in the state, with two of them in Grays Harbor County.

He said such facilities were here before state-hood and used to gener-ate steam. An old picture of Shelton waterfront shows two stacks.

The Adage plant would build on a heri-tage of forest products in Mason County and provide additional jobs, Matayoshi said. It would pump $200 million into tax base per year, money that would support fire services and Shelton schools and would yield $250,000 Mason Coun-ty’s general fund.

“There are a number of reasons why we have this project here,” he said. “The EDC will be working with Adage as they work through the permitting process.”

Matayoshi told the port commissioners he was “confident you’ll see other organizations come out in support of Adage project.”

Commissioner Jack Miles asked him how many of the 40 current facilities are publicly owned.

“The ones I am famil-iar with are privately owned. How they were constructed I don’t know,” Matayoshi said.

He also told the port the vote by the EDC board was unanimous. The board is comprised of representatives from business and the public sector.

Those board members representing public

Journal photo by Kevan Moore

Candidates

face offBy NATALIE JOHNSON

Sheriff, prosecutor and county commissioner can-didates met with Mason County Deputy Sherriff’s Guild members Tuesday night to answer questions about how each would han-dle issues related to the sheriff’s department and law enforcement in general.

The forum’s modera-tor, guild president Mi-chael Sargent, asked spe-cific questions about public safety and law enforcement in Mason County to each candidate. Guild members and the general public had a chance to ask questions.

Sheriff Casey Salisbury, running for sheriff as the incumbent candidate, was the first to answer questions from the guild. His sole op-ponent, Deputy Rich Ger-meau, did not attend the fo-rum or respond to a request to attend.

Salisbury was the first in the evening to touch on an issue that was repeated of-ten throughout the forum: the need for the county to settle a contract with the deputy sheriff’s guild.

“Until the union’s con-tracts are settled I don’t think any elected officials or department heads should be receiving pay raises,” he said.

When answering a ques-tion about budget cuts in the sheriff’s office, Salisbury said that they had made all the budget cuts that they could.

“We’re going to reach a point where we can’t cut anymore, we’re going to have to reduce some of those services,” he said. “We can’t expect these deputies to go from call to call to call … and be able to maintain the level of service that they’re providing now.”

Prosecutor candidates, Michael Dorcy and Monty

Radar Ridge wind farm threatenedBy NATALIE JOHNSON

In many ways, Radar Ridge, near Naselle, Washington, is the perfect place for a wind farm. It would be a local renewable energy source for Mason County PUD 3, as well as Grays Harbor, Clallam and Pacific PUDs.

It would be cheap to maintain and could use existing power lines, and it would provide a boost of pow-er during the winter when demand reaches it’s peak, said Jack Baker, vice president of energy business services at Energy Northwest.

One thing stands in Energy Northwest’s path as it strives to develop Radar Ridge, named for a World War II radar installation on the hillside, into the first wind farm in southwest Washington: The marbled murrelet.

The marbled murrelet is an en-dangered bird, about the size of a

duck, native to the Pacific North-west. These birds nest in old growth forests, like those found near the proposed wind farm at Ra-dar Ridge.

“We’re looking at all the options to have minimum impact on the environment and to also make the project cost effective,” Baker said.

Early in the process of develop-ing the wind farm Energy North-west commissioned a long-term study on the possible effects that a wind farm could have on the popu-lations of marbled murrelets in the area.

“We hired what we considered to be the West Coast experts on the marbled murrelets and said ‘Give us some honest assessments on what affect this project would have,” Baker said. “You end up with an average of less than one bird per year that could be impacted.”

However Seattle Audubon is concerned that the numbers of im-pacted marbled murrelets could be much higher.

“There’s a lot of uncertainty about that data. The DNR (Depart-ment of Natural Resources) has done its own independent study and there’s some disagreement about how many marbled mur-relets there are in the area,” said Matt Mega, conservation director at Seattle Audubon.

The marbled murrelets are part of a DNR habitat conservation plan

“You end up with an average of less than one bird per year that could be impacted.”

Former auditor brings resolution on biomass ballotBy MARY DUNCAN

Former Mason County Auditor Al Brotche brought a resolution to the Port of Shelton Commission on Tuesday offering wording for an advisory ballot on the proposal to build a biomass facility to generate electricity at the port’s property on Johns Prairie Road.

Brotche cited his expertise in elections and said he was a strong advocate of advisory ballots as an elected official.

“The process of an advisory ballot is authorized by law,” he said. “The purpose is to listen to the will of the people and receive direction from the voters you represent.”

Brotche presented a draft resolution which he said could be submitted by Aug. 10, “that would al-low you to get direction on a biomass plant on port property” when it is placed on the November ballot. He said he had consulted the prosecuting attorney regarding the wording of the ballot measure.

He said the estimated cost is just under $3,000. “Tom Davis has stated he would cover cost through a personal grant of $5,000 from him to the port.”

Davis is a Shelton area resident and real estate developer who has been regularly attending port

Beben has BBQ in the bonesBy NATALIE JOHNSON

Barbeque is serious business. Tom Beben, barbeque pitmaster at Smoking Mo’s

Kitchen in Shelton, takes his barbeque and bar-beque sauce seriously, staying true to his southern

roots and family traditions. “I’m a traditionalist in the sense of

southern barbeque, or Carolina style barbeque,” he said.

There isn’t one kind of barbeque that is better or more authentic than another, he said. It can change dra-matically depending on who cooks it and where it comes from.

“Southern barbeque is a number of different things; there’s Memphis style, there’s Alabama, there’s Texas, it really just depends on where you are,” he said. “In South Carolina we cook hogs … we worship the pig.”

Beben worships the pig by only smoking pork shoulder butts slowly, at temperatures as low as 225 degrees for as long as 10 hours, over hickory wood, in his small smoker, which he has affection-ately named “Lucille.”

“It’s my baby,” he said. Beben has been steeped in barbeque for most

of his life, growing up barbequeing with his

Tom Beben

Local defense attorney Ron Sergi, left, and accused murderer Peter James Wilson.


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Thursday, July 15, 2010 - Shelton-Mason County Journal -

shackles and wearing a bulletproof vest. He kept his head bowed throughout almost the entire hearing and muttered only a couple of words to his attorney, Ron Sergi, when signing court papers. Security was heightened for the hearing and deputies used a metal detector on those who entered the court room.

Police say that Wilson admitted to killing Shels-well by slitting her throat and nearly decapitating her with a serrated bread knife. But prosecutors said that, by law, they cannot pursue the death penalty in the case.

Mason County Sher-iff’s Office Sergeant Tra-vis Adams was the first officer to arrive at the Lake Cushman home on June 27 and found Wil-son sitting on a swing in a gazebo next to the resi-dence.

After being advised of his rights, Wilson admit-ted to murdering Shels-well.

Police said that Wil-son and his wife had ap-parently had a disagree-ment about discipline earlier in the day and he told her “not to worry that he would take care of it.”

Police say Wilson took the girl downstairs and, after hearing a scream, his wife found him stand-ing next to the kitchen covered in blood.

Wilson told a detec-tive “that as soon as he started to walk down the stairs to the kitchen with Clare he knew he was go-ing to kill her.”

Wilson and his wife both told police that he is bi-polar and was on med-ication at the time of the murder.


Wilson

Cobb addressed general questions about the justice system in Ma-son County and their judicial phi-losophies, but also answered very specific questions about pursuing convictions for possession of trace amounts of illegal drugs and their attitudes toward the death penalty.

“The fact that somebody is appre-hended with a very small amount of an illegal substance does not make it not illegal,” Dorcy said.

Cobb disagreed, and in his state-ment said that prosecuting the pos-session of trace amounts of drugs would be counterproductive.

“I’m not all that fired up about residue cases given our budgetary constraints,” he said. “If we had a lot of cops on the street, if we had a lot of time in court, then I’d be will-ing to spend some of your overtime to deal with those.”

The candidates each stated that they would be in favor of pursuing the death penalty if a case met all of the requirements. Both cautioned,

however that they would have to look at the individual circumstances of each case, and would not seek the death penalty only because a case meets the requirements.

All six candidates for Mason County Commissioner for District 3 were in attendance and also an-swered questions about how they would support law enforcement.

“I feel that this county would re-ally improve from a lot of family ac-tivities, by having something for our children to do that takes them off the street,” candidate Laura Lewis said.

Tom Randall, of Randall Custom Lumber, was one the only candi-dates who said that he intended to improve the county’s infrastructure in order to create and encourage new businesses, and thereby cre-ate more revenue to help balance the county’s budget and allow more funding to be spent on law enforce-ment.

“We can’t keep taxing our hom-eowners, they’re done,” he said.

Former Shelton police officer and candidate Jerry Lingle expressed his enthusiastic support for local

law enforcement.“Public safety is the most impor-

tant thing in our county today,” he said.

Incumbent candidate Ross Galla-gher opened his remarks by saying, “It’s not easy being a commissioner.”

He went on to explain all of the things he and his fellow commis-sioners had done for the sheriff’s department.

“We helped the sheriff move out of the dungeon to a new facility – we didn’t have to do that,” he said.

Brenda Hirschi promised to bal-ance the county’s budget, saying her Master of Business Administra-tion (MBA) degree made her most qualified to that. She also spoke out against pay increases for elected of-ficials.

“I come from the army, and this is how it stands in the army — a good leader doesn’t go through the chow line until every single soldier has eaten,” she said.

The last candidate to speak, Ter-ra Dittmer, spoke against corrup-tion in county government.

“There’s so much ickyness and badness in our county officials,” she

said. At many points throughout the

forum, county commissioner candi-dates discussed the need to estab-lish a contract with the guild.

“The commissioners have no re-spect for their employees and that is something that has to change, “Randall said. “This union has no recourse. They can’t go on strike … you have to get someone in there who respects the working person.”

Candidates also promised to bal-ance the county’s budget. Hirschi gave her opinion on the state of the county’s budget, saying that even with her experience in balancing massive budgets, to her the county’s budget was indecipherable.

“I couldn’t understand why I couldn’t understand the budget,” Hirschi said.

Throughout the forum many of the candidates also expressed their displeasure with the behavior of current county commissioners and their desire to set a better example, including Lingle.

“We are not children,” he said, “We are representatives of this county.”


Sheriff

created in 1997, which also includes the northern spot-ted owl, designed to protect natural habitat, like old growth forests.

“One of the big factors, is [Energy Northwest’s] study is based on current num-bers of birds in the area,” Mega said.

Mega explained that Se-attle Audubon’s studies on the impact of the wind farm to the birds count on mar-bled murrelet populations growing in the future.

“The Audubon Society has threatened to file a lawsuit if we try to proceed with the project,” said Jay Himlie, power supply man-ager at Mason County PUD 3.

While Seattle Audubon intends to fight the devel-opment of the Radar Ridge wind farm, they deny ever threatening to sue Energy Northwest if the project continues, Mega said.

“We have never talked about lawsuits. That’s just a rumor that we thought we’d cleared up,” Mega said.

Grays Harbor PUD may not continue their involve-ment in the wind farm proj-ect, leaving Energy North-west in search of new part-ners to pick up their share of the project.

“One of our members, Grays Harbor was con-cerned about the cost of the permitting,” Baker said. “They’ve announced that they’re seriously consid-ering dropping out of the project.”

If the Radar Ridge wind project is delayed for any reason, it could cost Ma-son County PUD 3 a lot of money in the future. PUD 3 is counting on this project to help them meet a fed-eral requirement to have 9 percent of their power sup-plied by a renewable en-

ergy source by 2016. If they don’t meet the require-ment, they face significant penalties, Himlie said.

“The penalty escalates … by the time 2012 rolls around, it’ll be close to 60 dollars per megawatt hour,” Himlie said.

He added that this could add up to $1.3 million a year in fines.

Energy Northwest is considering multiple op-tions in order to address concerns about the safety of the marbled murrelets, Baker said.

“We’ve even agreed, for the first year or two … to shut down the turbines during peak flight times,” he said.

They are also testing a radar system that would allow scientists on Radar Ridge to detect birds flying in their direction, so they could shut down the wind turbines until the birds passed, Baker said.

Despite concerns for the local wildlife, Baker said that this project would be good for Radar Ridge, and good for the community.

“We’re comfortable that the wind resource can be a good resource for these utilities,” he said.


Radar “We have never talked

about lawsuits. That’s just a

rumor that we thought we’d cleared up.”

uncle, working in “bar-beque joints,” and perfect-ing sauce recipes with his wife, and business parter, Mo.

“My role models grow-ing up were all people who made barbeque,” he said. “My uncle cooks in compe-titions all over the south, and I traveled with him when I was a kid.”

The technique of cook-ing meat slowly over wood coals most likely originated in the Caribbean islands, Beben said, where the smoked meat was called “Barbacoa,” and was later transplanted to the south-ern United States.

While the style of cook-

ing barbecue does not vary widely, he said, the dif-ferent kinds of sauces are tied to the regions they come from.

“The Carolina style sauce you will only find in South Carolina. It is a mustard and apple cider vinegar based sauce,” he said.

The mustard based sauce, often paired with cole slaw, is most likely in-fluenced by high numbers of German immigrants in South Carlolina, he said. Other regions of the South and Midwest are partial to a red, tomato based bar-beque sauce, while still others prefer no sauce, or a vinegar sauce.

“Our red sauce is top se-cret,” he said.

Both Tom and Mo Be-

ben explained that bar-beque means much more than just a meal to them, the family, friends and customers they cook for, and it’s early pioneers in the South.

“Barbeque for me isn’t just the food it’s the expe-rience,” Tom Beben said. “It’s those nights you sit out tending your fire with your uncle, or your fam-ily.”

Mo went on, explaining her own connection to the barbeque experience, and why barbecue really is se-rious business.

“It’s a way of life, it’s not just cooking, it’s not just going in the kitchen and making dinner, it’s paying respect to every person be-fore you that perfected the art of barbeque.”


BBQ

entities recused themselves from the vote. They were Pat Cusack from the Shelton School District, Joel Myer from PUD 3, Eric Moll from Hospital District 1 (Mason General Hospital), Mason County Commissioner Ross Gallagher and Shelton Mayor John Tarrant.

Port Commissioner Tom Wallitner, who is on the EDC board, was not present at the meet-ing when the vote to support the project was taken.

Commissioner Jay Hupp said there had been very little input on the part of those who support Adage. He said there is “a considerable amount of positive sup-port of Adage from busi-ness community and a level of intimidation they feel.”


AdageEDC endorses Simpson biomass efforts

The day before the Economic Development Council of Mason County announced its support for the biomass electric generating facility Adage it issued a press release supporting a similar project proposed by Simpson at its facility on the Shelton waterfront.

The Simpson proposal is to construct an $85 million biomass cogeneration facility adjacent to the current sawmill.

“The cogeneration project will support $15 mil-lion in construction wages,” said EDC Executive Director Matt Matayoshi. “When completed in 2013, the project will generate green renewable power to meet our state’s energy demands.

“The project can also provide steam to nearby wood products operations at the Simpson sawmill and Olympic Panel Products facilities, and overall it helps reduce our dependence on foreign oil and offshore drilling.”

According to the press release, the Shelton wa-terfront is currently home to a biomass boiler and had a biomass cogeneration operation in its recent past.

TREATING GROIN PAINBY JOSEPH ZYGAR, P.T.

Groin pain, which is a c o m m o n p r o b l e m among ath-letes, can stem from several dif-

ferent places in the body, includ-ing the lower back, hip joint, and lower abdomen. Those most at risk for groin pain are participants in sports that require running, body contact, and repeated kick-ing. While treatment of groin pain typically includes exercise therapy, there has been little evidence as to which approach was best. Then, a study was conducted that involved evaluating five different exercise protocols to find which was most effective. Researchers discovered that strengthening the hip and ab-dominal muscles appeared to be the best approach. The strengthening exercise interventions lasted four to sixteen weeks, which argues against a quick return to action. We completely understand the

frustrations of those who have suffered a sports injury and want nothing more than to get back in the game. Recognizing no two pa-tients are alike, we design individu-alized treatment plans to maximize mobility and physical functioning. Utilizing available techniques, our physical therapists can alleviate physical impairments, functional limitations, and relieve pain. When you require the care of a physi-cal therapist ask your physician to refer you to SHELTON PHYSI-CAL THERAPY AND SPORTS MEDICINE at (360) 426-5903. You’ll find us conveniently located at 2300 Kati Ct., Ste. B. New pa-tients are welcome. Same day ap-pointments are available and most insurance plans are accepted.P.S. According to the research mentioned above, interventions for groin pain were found to work best when they were conducted on a one-to-one (or small-group) basis, along with jogging, running, and cycling.

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See Wilson on page A-7

Thursday, September 16, 2010 Year 124 — Week 37 — 6 Sections — 48 Pages — Published in Shelton, Washington — $1


On theinside

Classifieds D-1 Community Calendar B-2 Crossword D-4 Entertainment/Dining B-3 Journal of Record A-6 Obituaries B-7 Opinions, Letters A-4 Sports C-1 Tides A-8

Laid off Simpson workers may be rehiredBy MARY DUNCAN

The Port of Shelton signed a lease with Simpson Lumber Company to use the facilities formerly occupied by Mason County Forest Products at Johns Prairie Industrial Park.

The contract was approved on a 3-0 vote September 7 with the lease effective on September 10. Simpson purchased the forest products business earlier this summer.

“We finally have the third leg of the milk stool,” said John Dobson, port executive director.

The first leg was a purchase agreement of assets from Mason County Forest Products by Simpson.

The second leg was termination of five existing leases the port had with Mason County Forest Products.

The third is this 10-year lease agreement for 34 acres, including four buildings and the equipment in them.

“All three had to be completed in a very short period of time. If we don’t sign the agreement today, we’ll have to put it off and go back (to the beginning),” he said. “Looks like we finally have it put together.”

This action ensures that some of the currently laid off employees have a chance to get back to work, according to the port. Nearly 130 employees were out of a job when Mason County Forest Products closed the mill on July 31.

“It is the port’s mission and job to lease property and create jobs. This does just that,” Dobson said. “We apologize to people who have been left waiting.”

The lease includes all activities related to the manufacture of lumber and wood residuals including, but not limited to log storage and handling, lumber manufacturing, sawing, drying, finishing and shipping lumber and lumber related products.

Commissioner Jack Miles raised a concern about the possibility that

See Simpson on page A-7

Peter James Wilson

Wilson guiltyBy KEVAN MOORE

A 29-year-old Canadian man pled guilty Monday in Mason County Superior Court to murder-ing his step-daughter.

Peter James Wilson of Abbots-ford, British Columbia, appeared for an omnibus hearing Monday, but entered the guilty plea to first-

degree murder charges with ag-graviting circumstances, instead, in a hearing that lasted a little over 10 minutes.

In plea papers signed by Wil-son, he admitted that the June 27 murder of his five-year-old step-daughter, Clare Shelswell, at a Lake Cushman rental home was premeditated.

Wilson’s defense attorney, Ron Sergi, said his client pled this week because the prospects of a trial weren’t good and in order to spare family members any more pain and suffering.

Sentencing has been set for 9 a.m. on September 22 and Sergi

Welcome back football


Charlie Becker, North Mason High School junior quarterback, drops back for a fourth quarter pass during a home game against Wash-ington High School on Friday, September 10. For more Shelton High School and NMHS action see page C-1.

City expands recycling programBy NATALIE JOHNSON

In an effort to continue to reduce levels of city waste sent to landfills, Shelton city commissioners voted on August 6 to expand their yard waste collection pro-gram.

The program provides and opportunity for citizens to collect their yard waste, such as lawn clippings, leaves or small tree branches in a 95 gallon bin pro-vided by the city, which is then sent to a local compost facility, Mason County Wood Recyclers. The commis-sion approved an amendment to the ordinance that al-lowed for more bins per residence, and more pickups.

“Yard waste is something the city’s been toying with having a recycling program for, for years,” said senior planner Jason Dose, who also heads up the city’s re-cycling program. “Every municipality is mandated to reduce their amounts going to waste … so this is just a simple way, fairly cost effective too, for people to re-cycle.”

In the original ordinance, customers who signed up for the program were only provided with one yard-waste bin, which is emptied every other Wednesday, Dose said. But some customers began asking about re-ceiving additional bins during summer months, when they had more yard waste.

“The program is in its baby steps – we have less than 300 customers signed up for it,” he said. “But it’s growing, everyday we get more calls.”

Dose said that even though it is technically against city ordinances, people often put grass clippings or fallen leaves in their trash cans. When organic mate-rial ends up in a landfill it can cost the city a lot of money, he said.

“Yard waste by volume is typically much heavier than trash,” he said. “If you take a truck full of yard waste and you bring it to the transfer station it’s gonna be six, seven, eight tons … and they’re gonna charge us somewhere over $80 a ton to tip it. You take

See Recycle on page A-7

State patrol instructor kills attackerBy KEVAN MOORE

An emergency driving instructor at the state patrol’s academy in Shel-ton was identified Monday as the off-duty trooper who shot and killed a man that attacked him in front of his Olalla home over the weekend.

Corporal Jason Blankers, 36, an 11-year veteran of the patrol, shot and killed Port Orchard resident Brent Bayliffe, 30, on Saturday night.

Police said that Blankers was at home with his wife around 11:30 p.m. Saturday when they heard a vehicle working its way up the drive-way of their home, which is set back well off the roadway. Blankers was not expecting company, picked up a handgun and told his wife to call 911.

Police said Blankers did not know Bayliffe and identified himself as a law enforcement officer. Police say that’s when Bayliffe struck Blank-ers in the head with a steel rod and knocked him down. After getting back up onto his feet, Blankers told Bayliffe not to move but Bayliffe

See WSP on page A-7

Shelton schools need to improve

By MARY DUNCAN

The Shelton School Board heard a report Tuesday evening on the recently released test re-sults for 2009-2010.

The focus of a report by Pam Farr, director of teaching and learning, and Gail Straus, direc-tor of early childhood education, was on how Shelton scores com-pare to statewide scores and the

fact that the scores indicate the students did not make Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) as defined in the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act known as the No Child Left Behind Act.

Overall reading scores for stu-dents in grades 3,4,5,6, 7, 8 and 10 mirrored the statewide re-sults but were lower for all grade levels than the results reported statewide.

Math scores for the same grades levels also followed state scores but again were below the state scores for all grade levels.

All schools in Shelton have been identified as needing im-provement according to AYP de-terminations for having not met AYP in math for two consecutive years.

“All schools in Shelton are in some stage of school improve-ment,” Straus said.

Straus said 110 schools dis-tricts in the state have been identified as being in step one or step two of district improvement.

Belfair man shot by neighborBy KEVAN MOORE

A Belfair man sustained three gunshot wounds at his home at about 6:40 a.m. on Tuesday and police arrested a suspect later that morning.

According to the Mason Coun-ty Sheriff’s Office, the injured man, who is described as being in his fifties, was apparently shot by a neighbor.

Detectives do not yet have

a motive for the shooting, but learned that the shooter was a neighbor who came over to the victim’s residence to borrow something. The shots rang out after the victim went outside with the suspect.

When deputies and medics arrived the man was conscious and alert. Due to foggy weather and poor visibility, the man was transported by ground rather than chopper to St Joseph’s Hos-

pital in Tacoma. He was later listed in stable condition.

Deputies and SWAT team members in concert with the Washington State Patrol, WDFW officers, Shelton police and Squaxin Police found the suspect at his home.

Without the suspect’s knowl-edge SWAT team members set up a perimeter around the house

See Belfair on page A-7

Scores show students are not making adequate progress

Page A-7 - Shelton-Mason County Journal -Thursday, Sept. 16, 2010

SheltonFamilyMedicine

Where caring counts. Feel the difference.Operated by Mason General Hospital

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Animosity on display at Belfair Water DistrictBy ARLA SHEPHARD

Tensions rose between the com-missioners of the Belfair Water District at Tuesday’s regular meet-ing, at which the commissioners voted, 2 to 1, to change the regular meeting time for the third occasion this year.

For several years, the water dis-trict meetings had been held at 7 p.m. on the third Tuesday of the month, though this year that time has fluctuated from 7 p.m. to 2 p.m. to, up until recently, 6 p.m.

Water District Manager Dave Tipton suggested a switch back to 2 p.m. to accommodate the of-fice staff, and commissioners John Phillips and Harry Hatlem voted in favor of the time change.

Commissioner Mike Pope, who has made the argument in the past that he and the public have more

trouble attending day-time meet-ings because of work schedules, said that the vote did not represent the wishes of the audience.

“Changing the meeting time, it’s another form of not wanting the public to have any say,” he said.

When Phillips interrupted Pope’s comments, Pope said the meeting was a democracy, “not a Hitler regime.”

Throughout most of the meet-ing, Pope either voted against Hatlem and Phillips or abstained from voting altogether – he vot-ed against accepting the consent agenda because he wanted to see more vouchers, he abstained from voting to join a new insurance pool and he recused himself from a vote to allow Tipton to look into fencing water district property.

Tipton also revealed that the district had uncovered a $72,000

mistake, due to human error – soft-ware programmed in June 2009 by Lorie Waggett had mistakenly dropped a digit from the meter readings.

In February, the mistake had been corrected for three of those customers, but there are still nine who may face increased bills.

Though Hatlem, Pope and Tip-ton called into question the fairness of billing customers for a water dis-trict mistake, Phillips initially sug-gested charging the customers for their water use.

“To go back to all these people and get the money is legal, but it’s not very fair,” Tipton told Phillips.

Hatlem advocated negotiating with each property owner, and Pope said the district should not take any course of action if the property owners chose not to pay.

Ultimately, the commissioners

all agreed to table the issue for next month’s meeting.

At the start of the public com-ment period, Pope took the time to air his displeasure about the meet-ing time change, the lack of desig-nated commissioner comments in the agenda and the on-going issue with the locks on the fire hydrants, over which the water district and Mason County Fire District 2 have publicly disagreed on.

Pope also asked for Phillips’ res-ignation, while Phillips repeatedly told Pope he was out of order for using up the audience’s public com-ment period.

When Phillips asked the two sheriff’s deputies to remove Pope from the meeting for being disrup-tive, however, the deputies said Pope was not violating any laws.

Phillips eventually cut Pope off and allowed public comments,

which ranged in topic from cross-contamination awareness, propos-als for grant funding options for the district’s water line replace-ment project and questions as to why the manager was not complet-ing public records requests in a timely manner.

Anne Whitman, executive di-rector of the Theler Community Center, said that the center had four of the nine accounts that had been under billed in the last year, and that she had, in fact, already received a bill for the water use.

The center has spent $5,000 in the last month-and-a-half to re-solve on-going water issues and would have a hard time paying another $1,500 this month for the water district’s mistake, she said.

“I’d like to get a notice before we’re shut off, because we can’t af-ford to pay this,” she said.

came at him again and Blankers shot him, according to police.

Bayliffe was taken to Tacoma General Hospital and pronounced dead upon arrival. Blankers was taken to St. Anthony Hospital in Gig Harbor for injuries that included a laceration to his head and was released Sunday morning.

Blankers is on administrative leave, which is rou-tine anytime a trooper uses deadly force, whether on-duty or off-duty.


WSP

Simpson might use the Johns Prairie site for cogeneration of electric power. Simpson is in the process of obtaining permits for a cogeneration plant at its Shelton waterfront mill.

“There is no use allowed on the premises for a cogeneration facility,” said Skip Houser, the port’s counsel.

“This doesn’t authorize Simpson to do anything Mason County Forest Products wasn’t doing there,” Commissioner Jay

Hupp said.The purchase of Mason

County Forest Products operations is part of a continuing strategy by Simpson to acquire assets that can add value over the long-term of manufacturing operations, according to Dave McEntee, vice president operational services and external affairs for Simpson.

McEntee called the purchase a standard business deal which both parties found acceptable and which is complimentary to Simpson’s future plans.

“We’ve been interested in the Mason County forest

Products operations for quite some time,” said Douglas Reed, vice president and general manager for Simpson.

Reed said the new operations at Johns Prairie are a nice complement to existing company owned mills in Washington. “They can do some things that we haven’t been able to do before and we’re looking forward to expanding our product offering,” Reed said.

Although the mills are idle Simpson plans to restart the mills in phases over the next several month and plans to rehire from a pool

of former mill employees.“We will probably not

be running initially at the same level of Mason County Forest Products,” McEntee said. “Demand is way down.”

The intent is to increase production as markets improve over the next two to three years.

McEntee also addressed the concern raised by Miles. “We bought Mason County Forest Products as a sawmill site operating in the capacity of a sawmill. The sawmill site does not rely on cogen nor is the cogen plant to rely on Johns Prairie,” he said.


Simpson

said he didn’t know wheth-er or not Wilson will ad-dress the court.

The aggravating circum-stances of the murder allow for a sentence beyond the standard range of 28 years and prosecutors are likely to seek as much prison time as possible for Wilson.

Wilson murdered Shels-well shortly after 6 p.m. on Satruday, June 27, by slit-ting her throat with a ser-rated bread knife.

Mason County Sheriff’s Office Sergeant Travis Ad-ams was the first officer to arrive at the Lake Cush-man home on June 27 and found Wilson sitting on a swing in a gazebo next the residence.

Police said that Wilson and his wife had appar-ently had a disagreement

about discipline earlier in the day and he told her “not to worry that he would take care of it.”

Police say Wilson took the girl downstairs and, after hearing a scream, his wife found him standing next to the kitchen covered in blood.

Wilson told a detective “that as soon as he started to walk down the stairs to the kitchen with Clare he knew he was going to kill her.”

Wilson and his wife both told police that he is bi-po-lar and was on medication at the time of the murder.

to prevent the suspect’s escape. Just as SWAT members were about to contact the suspect, he attempted to leave the residence in a vehicle. The suspect was arrested without incident.

The suspect, Danial R. Halverson, 51, of Bel-fair, was booked into the Mason County Jail on in-vestigation of attempted murder.

Halverson made his first appearance in Supe-rior Court on Wednesday, after this paper’s dead-line.

same truck to the wood re-cyclers it’s gonna cost like 30 or 40 bucks total.”

The city charges $11.25 to sign up for their yard-waste pickup program and $5.50 per month for each bin, or for additional pick-ups.

Both the city and the

county have recycling pro-grams for household waste like cardboard, plastic, and glass, and both have yardwaste collection pro-grams. But neither yet has a program for composting other kinds of organic ma-terial, such as food waste.

Shelton residents inter-ested in signing up for the city’s yard waste collec-tion program can call (360) 432-5102.


Wilson


Recycle


Belfair

Thursday, October 28, 2010 Year 124 — Week 43 — 74 Sections — 50 Pages — Published in Shelton, Washington — $1


On theinside

Births B-4 Classifieds D-1 CommunityCalendar B-6 Crossword D-4 Entertainment/Dining B-3 JournalofRecord A-6 Obituaries B-7 Opinions,Letters A-4 Sports C-1 Tides C-4 Weather C-5

City officials

weigh how to

balance the budget

without harming

Shelton’s image

By NATALIE JOHNSON

City officials gathered for a budget retreat Fri-day, in which they dis-cussed the city finance committee’s recommen-dations for the 2011 budget.

Faced with the task of balancing the city’s budget, which faces a $600,000 deficit without cuts, city officials are struggling to find a way to continue promoting a very positive image of Shelton.

“It’s kind of like sell-ing a property,” Mayor John Tarrant said. “We want people to believe it’s a good investment now and in the future.”

Tarrant spoke figura-tively, as the city is not planning to sell any real estate, but the subject of selling Shelton came up repeatedly during the retreat session.

The finance committee recommended looking at the absolute worst-case scenario for the state of the 2011 budget, city manager Dave O’Leary said, because they could only work with what funds they could abso-lutely guarantee having next year.

Among those uncer-tain revenue sources are the city’s $260,000 EMS levy, resolutions 1100 and 1105, which would privatize liquor sales and could cost the city up to $100,000 in valuable tax revenue, and sales tax revenue, which O’Leary said is unpredictable.

“We have a pile of uncertainties in front of us – it’s absolutely im-possible,” commissioner Mike Byrne said. “This is the best we can do. As the money is there, we’ll use it”

This worst-case bud-get showed that without that revenue, they might have to make significant cuts to programs like public works, animal control and law enforce-ment.

“It is not the budget that we want to

SeeSheltononpageA-7

Selling Shelton

Ready, set, go!


Sixth and eighth graders from different Mason County Schools dash from the start of a 3K race, part of a youth cross country meet held on Friday at Southside Elementary School in Shelton.

City reviews Solomon biomass plantBy NATALIE JOHNSON

City officials discussed the proposed Solomon Renewable Energy Company (SREC) biomass cogeneration facility at Simpson Timber, in Shelton, during their budget retreat Friday.

The city last discussed the proposal at a public informational meeting in September, along with representatives from Simpson, and the Olympic Regional Clean Air Agency (ORCAA).

Steve Goins, community and economic development director, said that the project might take longer than originally planned.

“In all likelihood I wouldn’t expect this to come before the commission this year, at this point,” he said.

This issue directly affects the city’s budget for next year, Goins said, because through permitting fees alone, the city could make between $40,000 and $60,000 from the project. The city also stands to gain sales tax revenue from the construction of the project.

Goins presented the commission with a site map of the biomass cogeneration facility, detailing where each building, boiler and smokestack would be located on Simpson property.

The 31-megawatt cogeneration boiler, proposed by SREC, would provide power to the Simpson plant but would also produce enough energy for SREC to sell to utility companies.

The fact that Solomon, rather that Simpson, is proposing this project, may be one of the reasons that progress with gaining approval from ORCAA and State Envronmental Policy Act (SEPA) has been delayed.

“One of the things that Simpson went through in this process is they created the Solomon Renewable Energy Company,” Goins said. “As a new operator, they may fall under different criteria under ORCAA than Simpson, the existing operator, so this is an issue.”

There are also several other issues slowing the SEPA process, Goins said.

“There have been a lot of complications with SEPA about what exactly is there – the question of how often it’ll operate plays into that and how much fuel they actually generate in the plant versus outside,” he said.

City officials are also still backlogged looking through public comments about the project.

“As you know we had an informational meeting with the community where we listened to a number of comments and we’re still sifting through all that and going through the letters,” Goins said. “At this point we haven’t determined the outcome.”

The city commissioners hope to schedule a public hearing on the facility in November.

Wilson gets 55 yearsBy KEVAN MOORE

An Abbotsford, British Columbia, man was sen-tenced in Mason County Superior Court last week to 55 years in prison for murdering his 5-year-old stepdaughter.

Peter James Wilson murdered Clare Shelswell by slitting her throat with a knife at a Lake Cushman vacation rental home in June.

At his sentencing last week, Wilson broke down and said he was having trouble breathing before composing himself while addressing the court.

“I’m really sorry for what I did,” Wilson said. “I loved my family. When I get mad, I get outta control. I would have given my life to protect her. I never saw something like this com-ing. I’m so sorry for what I did. I wish I could give my life to get hers back, but it doesn’t work that way. All I can ask is that everybody would forgive me even though I don’t think I’m worthy of it.

“And as for sentence, I guess it doesn’t really mat-ter because my life is over anyway — so whatever you decide,” he said.

Clare’s mother, Sarah Wilson, also addressed the court at the sentencing hearing and said the girl’s murder has been “shocking and devastating beyond comprehension” for her

and her family.“I have difficulty falling

asleep every night,” Mrs. Wilson said. “In the dark and the quiet, the image of my baby girl bleeding to death in my arms keeps me awake. Every morning I wake with new sadness. Not a day goes by where I’m not subjected to seeing some replay in my mind of the day that Clare died. On good days I only see it once.”

Mrs. Wilson said her daughter was a bubbly, smart, loving, creative, vi-brant 5-year-old girl that was full of love and enjoyed giving people hugs.

“What remains of my baby girl this side of eter-nity is a bag of ashes inside a pretty urn, photographs and memories,” she said.

Mrs. Wilson said that Clare, who was farsighted, looked adorable in her new glasses, loved books and was just beginning to mas-ter the alphabet.

“She started adding little curls on the letters when she wrote her name,” Mrs. Wilson noted.

Mrs. Wilson said her daughter had a fabulous sense of humor, loved to sing and was “filled with the love and light of Christ.” Clare also loved drawing and coloring. Pickles were her favorite food and purple was her favorite color.

“I’ll never get to take her dress shopping,” Mrs. Wilson said. “She’ll never attend her prom. I won’t

Journal photo by Kevan Moore

Peter James Wilson, right, appears in court earlier this year with his lawyer Ron Sergi.

SeeWilsononpageA-7

Lacey woman killed in wreck with school busBy KEVAN MOORE

A Lacey woman was killed near the intersection of Highway 101 and Hur-ley-Waldrip Road early Wednesday morning.

Mason County Coroner Wes Stock-well identified the woman as Kahil (pro-nounced Kale) Marie Marshall. Mar-shall was a passenger in a southbound SUV that collided with a school bus at

the intersection.Stockwell said that Marshall died at

the scene from blunt trauma.The driver of the SUV was transport-

ed to St. Joseph’s Hospital in Tacoma. There were no children on the school bus and the bus driver was not injured.

A southbound lane of the highway was closed for about an hour and a half and the collision is still under investiga-tion by the Washington State Patrol.


Shelton-Mason County Journal -Thursday, Oct. 28, 2010 - Page A-7

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Please join former county commissioners Mary Jo Cady, Bill Hunter, Herb Baze and Annette McGee

“Vote for Jerry Lingle, Ind. Mason County Commis-sioner”

“Citizens need to take back the control of government”

“Lingle is honest, a proven leader, has experience, is dedicated, an advocate for more jobs and our future.”

Endorsed by the Shelton Police Guild, Mason Co. Board of Realtors, Master Builders Assoc., Wash-ington State Realtors Association, Affordable Housing Council, Squaxin Tribe, Taylor Shellfi sh, Joe Robertson, Jerry Cermak, Steven Bloomfi eld, Dick Taylor, Sara Watkins, Brian Cook, Sara Ste-vens, Myrna Bennett, John Krouse, Bill Peterson, Lois Omdahl, Lyle Oling, Ray Duffy, Ray Jenne, Steve and Jenny Morgan, Fred and Betty Ehrlich, Frank Rains, Nick Hensley, Jeff Meyers, Charlie Swenson, Pam Hunter, Bob Philips, Bill McGee and many others.

Paid for by Committee to Elect Jerry Lingle Mason County

Commissioner, Ind., 422 N. 3rd St., Shelton, WA 98584

VOTELingle

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ElectTheresa JacobsonDistrict 1 CommissionerPublic Utility District 3

Goals as commissioner

• Listen to ratepayer concerns• Open meetings always• Seek honest “green power”• Emphasize power conservation• Protect the environment• Vigilant payroll oversight• Strict audit of $45 million Johns Prairie project

Integrity and HonestyA pledge of openness and transparency

“I intend to see to it that Public Utility District 3 operates out in the open. I want you, the owners of PUD 3, to once again have the certainty your electric utility is being managed to serve you and not being run for the selfi sh interests of its staff and management.”

Facts about Theresa Jacobson• Resident of Mason County for 19 years• Rural home in Agate area• Served on County Planning Commission• Active in Community and Civic Affairs• Prominent observer of county government• Experienced community organizer• Community service: Children’s Reading Programs in public library systems

Paid for by Theresa Jacobson for PUD3 CommissionerP.O. Box 1657 • Shelton, WA 98584 13

645

Paid for by Committee to Elect Melody Peterson Assessor301 Wallace-Kneeland Blvd • Suite 224-160 Shelton, WA 98584

www.melodypeterson.com

Melody PetersonMason County

Assessor

�� (D)

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EXPERIENCEINTEGRITYLEADERSHIP

ANNUAL REVALUATIONPOINT OF CONTACT IN NORTH MASON

Fairness and integrity of appraisals with clear

communication to the taxpayers of Mason County

Dr. Marilyn Berko, board-certified in pedi-atrics, joined the medi-cal staff at Oakland Bay Pediatrics and Mason General Hospital in Au-gust.

Dr. Berko received her medical degree from John A. Burns School of Medicine, Honolulu, Hawaii, and has been

practicing since 1989. She joins Dr. Ma-

ria Rowena Carreon Ramirez, M.D., and Theresa Pizanti, Cer-tified Pediatric Nurse Practitioner, in treating all Oakland Bay Pediat-ric patients from birth to age 18. To make an appointment call (360) 426-3102. Marilyn Berko

recommend to you, but it is balanced,” O’Leary said. “This is what it would take to balance the budget.”

One of the difficult decisions that the finance committee had to make when designing the worst-case budget is to determine whether to fund code enforcement or animal control.

They determined that to cut animal control for all but vicious dogs would save around $44,000 per year. Cutting code enforcement might leave vacant buildings and abandoned cars unchecked in the city, officials said, and could tarnish the city’s image for residents and tourists alike, mak-ing it difficult to “sell” the city in the long run.

“I wish I could find something optimistic, but I can’t,” Byrne said.

The Shelton Police Department’s budget was, again, organized with the worst-case scenario in mind.

The police department’s budget would call for cuts totaling $197,000; including two patrol of-ficer positions, the animal control program, and new police uniforms. The loss of those two offi-cers would cause the department to restructure its patrol and detective departments and cut back overtime, which costs almost $40,000 an-nually.

“I feel like instead of wearing a uniform, I should be wearing a cloak and sickle,” Shelton Police Chief Terry Davenport said. “It’s a grim picture if you decide to go forward with the fi-nance committee’s recommendation.”

With such cuts, the department would no longer be able to investigate crimes without suspects, burglaries without evidence, stolen vehicles, wire fraud or counterfeiting, Daven-port said. They would also not assist with code enforcement, vehicle lockouts, civil complaints, family disputes and neighborhood speed com-plaints among others.

All these things, city officials said, could lead to a perception that Shelton is not a safe or desir-able place to live.

“If there’s less folks out there watching the community, there are probably more things hap-pening that shouldn’t be,” said community and economic development director Steve Goins.

O’Leary said that while the city does not want to make cuts to vital programs like law enforce-ment, it has no other choice at this point.

City officials stressed that this is by no means a final version of the budget. They are continu-ing to ask themselves if they can afford to make these cuts, and if they can afford not to.

“We have to keep in mind what happens when we make these cuts,” Commissioner Dawn Pan-nell said. “We have to have something to sell.”


Shelton

get to teach her how to drive. I’ll never see her off on her first date or heal her heart with a bowl of ice cream after the first break-up with

a boyfriend. We’ll never know what career path she would have chosen and how much good she could have done in her chosen field…Susie will never get to play with her little sister again and will have to grow up as an only child.”

Mrs. Wilson told the court that

no amount of time that her husband would serve in prison could be ade-quate because it wouldn’t bring her daughter back.

“We’ve been reduced in one fell swoop from a family of four to a mother and a daughter — broken and incomplete. It’s all so senseless.”


Wilson

New doctor joins the staff

at Mason General Hospital

Drive thru liquor

Journal photo by Natalie Johnson

Mason 5 firefighters clean up after a man drove his Chevrolet sedan over a curb and into a window at the Shelton liquor store on Wednesday afternoon.

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