David Salzer, the Mason County Fire Marshal, told the city commissioners at the July 6th meeting, that the Fourth of July was relatively quiet for Shelton and Mason County. Of the 6 licensed firecracker sales booths in Shelton, only one booth had illegal firecrackers, which the owners removed.  There was one fire reported, on Capitol Hill.

The formal name for the federal stimulus money is the Recovery Act of 2009.  Shelton has been very fortunate receiving several grants/loans through the funding.  The approximately $2 million loan from the Washington State Department of Ecology for the Kneeland Park Pump Station is actually from federal stimulus money.  It was announced that work would start on the pump station July 27th with expected completion by March 2010.

The Shelton City Police Chief, Terry Davenport, told the city commissioners his department had received two grants from the Department of Justice.  The funds are grants from federal stimulus funds:  one grant is for approximately $43,000 for two new police cars; and one grant for $10,000 is for three new in-car cameras.

At the July 13th meeting, Chief Davenport told the commissioners about a $38,000 grant for school zone lights at Bordeaux School.  The grant is through the Washington State Traffic Commission.  The match for the grant is $10,000 shared by the school district and the city.  The city part of the match will be in-kind (work by city engineers to get the lights installed).  There are 10 lights that need to be installed because of the mismatch of streets surrounding the school.  I will try to find out if the funds are from the federal stimulus funding.

Also at this meeting, it was announced that Jim’s Towing was being awarded the contract for towing at the Evergreen Square lot.  The basic towing fee is $85 plus $25 per day for storage.  Mayor John Tarrant stated the contractor had said if vehicles are retrieved within a reasonable amount of time, the storage fee would not be payable.  But what is reasonable: two hours, 12 hours, 24 hours? The new parking rules for the Evergreen Square start August 3rd.

The draft report for Shelton City Transportation Improvement Program was presented to the city commissioners at this meeting.  The report was adopted at the July 20th meeting.  There are 45 proposed street projects for the period of 2010-2015.  Only the first four projects are funded at this time.  The first two projects are the traditional city street projects:  chip/fog seal and maintenance overlay. (I know what chip seal is, but I don’t understand fog seal.  Maybe they want the pavement wet.)  Another project is State Route 3 and Pine Street from Front Street to the Railroad Trestle for entryway corridor improvement.  The last project is related to the third project: for the park and ride from Railroad Trestle to the Old Treatment Plant on SR 3.  The cost of the two SR 3 projects is $500,000 with federal funds covering  $432,0000 of the cost.  The two SR 3 projects started in May 2009 and will run through June 2010.

The city commissioners held a public hearing on July 20th regarding the emergency moratorium on building development in Shelton.  The moratorium was enacted on June 15th.  A number of people talked with the commissioners regarding the problems they will encounter developing their property because of this rule.  The city commissioners instructed staff to come back at a future date with possible changes to the moratorium.

The city commissioners meeting is held at the Shelton Civic Center on the 1st and 3rd Mondays of the month at 6:00 p.m.  On the 2nd and 4th Mondays, the commissioners meet at 2:00 p.m. for business meetings.  If there is a 5th Monday, that meeting is also held at 2:00 p.m.

Puget Sound Partnership

The only funding for projects in Mason County from the federal stimulus package that I could track at this time are the items reported in the column about Shelton City.  I cannot find any projects funded for Mason County or for federal projects.  I will try to find more information for the future.

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