This Special Meeting took the cake in lack of civility of all previous Belfair Water District 1 Meetings that I have attended. The chair opened the meeting with some very personal derogatory statements against Bonny, Greg and Ken for filing the Garnishment against the BWD funds which affectively froze all of their funds. Chair Phillips stated that “… this was a selfish and stupid act by the plaintives….” He then stated that “…. I just want to go on record that these selfish, mean spirited plaintives ?was? shut down the entire Belfair Water District and then gloat about it, snicker about it thinking they’re real funny ….“ At that point the shouting began…….. In my opinion, the chair believes that all of the Belfair Water District Problems are because of their law suit which forced BWD 1 to comply with the Public Records Act. Had they complied with the law in the first place, these suits would never have been filed but despite that the courts found the BWD to be in violation of the law on nine counts, I really don’t believe that neither John nor Dave feel like they did anything wrong…… The district was also given an opportunity to settle these law suits for well under $20,000 but two of the three commissioners refused to accept that offer because they did nothing wrong…..

Keep in mind that this Special Meeting did not meet the 24 hour Advance Meeting Notice Requirement, nor was Commissioner Pope even informed of this meeting by the district, nor did they state the subject for this special meeting in their notice to the media as required by law…… Thank you KMAS for publishing this notice in your on-line news, otherwise there probably would not have been anyone in the audience. Also keep in mind that it was stated during this meeting that Manager Dave will receive three days extra pay for attending a meeting outside the normal meeting hours……

Then there also was the issue of their latest BWD Aqueduct Newsletter mailed out with their latest bills….. Maybe someone who received this newsletter can post it here for all to read……

I am looking forward to the new transparent BWD beginning on January 1st. It is a shame that neither the county commissioners, the county prosecutor, the WA State Attorney General nor the WA State Auditor has taken any action to stop all of these violations of the law in the past several years. The universal answer always was we have no authority regarding this matter, it is a political matter…..

Herb Gerhardt, North Mason

On Tues., Nov. 1 at 9:30 AM, Mason County Commissioners will hold a public hearing on whether to enact a 1/10 of 1% tax increase for sales and services, the proceeds of which will be used to fund mental health, substance abuse and therapeutic court issues.

Few people will argue against the need for alternatives to the incarceration of people with mental health issues, though some will object to any new tax for any reason, no matter how worthy the cause.

Having spent the past three months serving on the committee that is recommending alternatives to “revolving door” incarceration of those struggling with mental health issues, I am confident that a new approach to an old problem will reap great rewards for our community. It is well documented that every $1 invested in prevention saves our community $18 in services that are not working. Additionally, it does our business community no good to have the same people loitering and soliciting near their place of business, driving away potential customers.

It is important to keep the scale of the proposed increase in perspective: a hundred dollar purchase will add only an additional dime to the tab; if you spend $20,000 on purchases in Mason County in a year you will pay an additional $20 in sales tax. If you shop in Thurston, Lewis, Jefferson or any of the 17 counties that have already adopted the tax, you are contributing to the success of their mental health services, not ours.

Please attend the public hearing on Nov. 1 and tell our County Commissioners you want local money to fund local programs that benefit local families and businesses.

When it comes to “revolving door” incarceration, we know what does not work, now let’s do something that will. A 1/10 of 1% increase is a small price to pay for a giant step in the right direction.
 

Tom Davis, Shelton

The closure of Blaine Municipal Airport has been the focus of several ‘Citizen Editorials’ and is cited by Port Director, John Dobson, as an example of how noise related complaints from nearby residents could lead to the closure of Sanderson field. Despite the results of two noise studies to the contrary, the Port has stuck to this premise as the cornerstone of their argument, opposing the rezone of 160 acres south of Sanderson Field from commercial/industrial to neighborhood/residential.

To get the first hand facts surrounding the Blaine City Council’s decision to close their municipal airport I took a trip up to Blaine, which is located in Whatcom County next door to the Canadian border. I spent two days interviewing about a dozen residents, including a Chamber of Commerce member and two business owners located on the now closed airport site. (I left two messages for Blaine City Manager, Gary Tomsic, but the calls were not returned).

Here’s what I found:

1) According to reliable sources, an FAA promise of 16 million dollars to expand and improve Blaine Airport was not going to be fulfilled anytime soon; furthermore, any monies would come in unscheduled installments over a period of 20 years, or longer. As it turned out, there were many who thought the proposal not good enough to keep the airport open. It should be noted, however, that right up to two weeks before the City moved to close the airport, everybody thought a compromise had been reached.

2) Noise and/or development encroachment issues played no part in the decision to close the airport; the decision (though flawed) was based on economics and other factors: It seems no one can remember how it all started, but the issue of whether to close Blaine began some thirty years ago and festered to a point where two groups - the pros and the cons - became so entrenched in their positions that nothing could dissuade either camp from budging, and the airport was closed in 2008.

3) After closure, the City renamed the 33 acre site (7.3ac. is wetlands), Gateway Business Park, and a sale price of 5.7M to a commercial developer seemed imminent. But before any of that could happen the economy tanked and the funding along with it. To date, the City has sold only one parcel, and a brand new trucking warehouse now sits right across the middle of what was once the runway. (I got the distinct sense the buyer chose that location to insure the airport could never be reopened- I have photos).

Surprisingly, after two days of asking the same question - “Why did the City Council decide to close the airport?” - I never got a clear answer. But of particular interest was a conversation with Mr. Don Nelson, a major stakeholder in the airport site, and a private pilot. Mr. Nelson told me that he had led the fight to keep the airport open since the 1980’s, yet not even he was sure why people had become so entrenched in their separate camps. One thing I can say for sure, the closure of Blaine Airport - no matter what the reason - may well have been an unwise decision; but by all accounts it had nothing to do with noise or encroachment issues. From there I drove to the City of Lynden about 20 miles east, to check out the ‘runway homes’ at Lynden Municipal Airport; and then it was on to joint base, Lewis-McChord to ask why there seems to be so many military helicopter operations taking place at Sanderson Field lately. I’ll save that ‘edi-storial’ for another time.T