Thursday, August 22, 2019 - Week 34
True colors
Clint Ashcraft, right, shows a tie-dyed tanktop to Belfair resident Anika Atkins in his vendor tent Saturday at Hoodstock, a three-day music event at the Skokomish Valley Grange. For more photos of Hoodstock, see pages A-8 and A-9. Journal photo by Shawna Whelan
Double murderer gets 35 years
By MICHAEL HEINBACH
michael@masoncounty.com More than seven years after Charles Sydney Longshore III shot and killed her 19-year-old son, Tara Drake faced her oldest child’s murderer and conveyed her grief Tuesday in Mason County Superior Court. Judge Amber Finlay sentenced Longshore to the agreed recommendation of Mason County Prosecutor Michael Dorcy and defense attorney Brett Purtzer of 421 months (35.08 years) in prison for the May 28, 2012 shooting deaths of 19-year-old Tyler William Drake and 37-year-old Anitrea “Roxy” Taber at a residence on West Harvard Avenue in Shelton. But 35-plus years for two convictions of second-degree murder isn’t enough for Tara Drake, who told the court and Longshore exactly that while reading her victim-impact statement aloud to the court. “I have thought long and hard for many days, months and years about what punishment I felt would fit the crime for murder, but there really isn’t one,” Tara Drake said. “I will say this though, I don’t feel like the 35 years that the state has offered is enough justice for killing Tyler and Roxy. I would like to see you (Longshore) spend the rest of your life locked up in prison, for you have left me to live the rest of my life without my precious son.” Earlier, Taber’s husband at the time of her murder, John Zachary “Zac” Taber, also gave an impact statement, which drew tears from Longshore, seated at the defendant’s table a mere 15 feet away. Zac Taber concluded his statement by offering forgiveness. For more of the Shelton-Mason County Journal, subscribe to our weekly edition. |
New Mason Clinic set to open in February
By GORDON WEEKS
gordon@masoncounty.com The two-story, 60,000-square-foot Mason Clinic is expected to welcome its first patients in February, and expand the number of examination rooms from 71 to 110 at Mason General Hospital & Family of Clinics in Shelton. Eric Moll, the company’s CEO, gave an update on the campus expansion at a luncheon sponsored by the Economic Development Council of Mason County on Friday at the hospital. Construction of the $35 million Mason Clinic is on budget, Moll said. The exterior siding is scheduled to be completed Nov. 14, and the building substantially completed by Jan. 20, Moll said. The first patients should be walking through the doors in February, he said. The clinic departments will be built in a “cascading way” between February and June, Moll said. The new medical office building will allow Mason General to consolidate many of its Shelton services under one roof. Mason General is creating a multi-specialty group practice model with “more seamless referral access,” Moll said. Mason General Hospital will house the birth center, diagnostic imaging, emergency services, a laboratory, rehabilitation services and surgery. Mason Clinic will house ophthalmology, primary care, orthopedics, women’s health, pediatrics, general surgery, walk-ins, podiatry, imaging and a laboratory. For more of the Shelton-Mason County Journal, subscribe to our weekly edition. |
A post marking a former golf tee, seen here in early June, is one of the last remaining traces of the Bayshore Golf Course. The course was sold in 2014 to Capitol Land Trust, which established the Bayshore Preserve. Journal file photo by Justin Johnson
Nature’s return
By JUSTIN JOHNSON
justin@masoncounty.com
Blink as you’re driving and you might miss the dirt turnoff and single gate that marks the entrance to what is now 74 acres of gently manicured natural habitat on the western shore of Oakland Bay.
Newer residents may not know that a golf course graced the bay’s shore for decades, or about the location’s rich tribal history. Five years later, nature has begun to take it back.
The Bayshore Preserve is privately owned by Capitol Land Trust, but is open to the public for hiking and sightseeing each day from dawn until dusk.
The preserve includes 27 acres of salt marsh habitat, more than 4,000 feet of Oakland Bay shoreline and the lower portion of Johns Creek.
“Since removing the 1,400-foot tidal dike and excavating tidal channels, we are seeing salmon spawning and a resurgence of native pickleweed,” Dave Winter, executive director of Capitol Land Trust, previously said. “We believe that places like Bayshore Preserve
directly impact the quality of life in our community and inspire a love of the land.”
Planned trail improvements haven’t been made on the property, but Capitol Land Trust welcomes the public to come and see the views of Johns Creek and Oakland Bay as it’s transformed to a nature preserve.
A public information pamphlet about Bayshore Preserve states, “The bridge over Johns Creek is a great place to watch the salmon run in early November.
Long-term plans for the preserve include an ADA-accessible trail, viewing platforms, and covered structures to support environmental education programming already taking place here.”
For more of the Shelton-Mason County Journal, subscribe to our weekly edition.
justin@masoncounty.com
Blink as you’re driving and you might miss the dirt turnoff and single gate that marks the entrance to what is now 74 acres of gently manicured natural habitat on the western shore of Oakland Bay.
Newer residents may not know that a golf course graced the bay’s shore for decades, or about the location’s rich tribal history. Five years later, nature has begun to take it back.
The Bayshore Preserve is privately owned by Capitol Land Trust, but is open to the public for hiking and sightseeing each day from dawn until dusk.
The preserve includes 27 acres of salt marsh habitat, more than 4,000 feet of Oakland Bay shoreline and the lower portion of Johns Creek.
“Since removing the 1,400-foot tidal dike and excavating tidal channels, we are seeing salmon spawning and a resurgence of native pickleweed,” Dave Winter, executive director of Capitol Land Trust, previously said. “We believe that places like Bayshore Preserve
directly impact the quality of life in our community and inspire a love of the land.”
Planned trail improvements haven’t been made on the property, but Capitol Land Trust welcomes the public to come and see the views of Johns Creek and Oakland Bay as it’s transformed to a nature preserve.
A public information pamphlet about Bayshore Preserve states, “The bridge over Johns Creek is a great place to watch the salmon run in early November.
Long-term plans for the preserve include an ADA-accessible trail, viewing platforms, and covered structures to support environmental education programming already taking place here.”
For more of the Shelton-Mason County Journal, subscribe to our weekly edition.
