Ol' Sol's long-awaited reappearance brings out the usual in Kneeland Park last week as kids of all ages thrill to the first hint of spring. Indeed, after weeks of colder-than-usual weather the ol' mercury climbed into the mid-50's and even the rain abated, if briefly.

       February 28: The City of Shelton’s “show me” vote on funding residential street repairs is headed for the August 19 primary election ballot, Shelton city commissioners decided at their meeting on Monday. The ballot proposition includes a one-year, $500,000 property tax levy to chip seal approximately 40 blocks of streets during the summer of 2009. The Mason County Children’s Dental Coalition just completed the new Mason Community Dental Clinic. It is located in the Family Support Center site at 807 Railroad Avenue in Shelton. The clinic will provide affordable dental service to low-income, uninsured and under-served residents of Mason County. About 50 people gathered last week in the Johnson Library at Olympic College Shelton to hear from a panel of experts about immigration issues sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Mason County. The local League is working with the national League to develop by April 30 a policy statement on immigration informed by the values of equality, fairness and respect for civil rights. Gilberto Pablo Perez, 27, of Shelton, will be deported after serving a sentence in the Mason

County Jail after admitting choking the mother of his 2-year-old son. He was sentenced Monday in Mason County Jail to 11 months in jail for second-degree assault and to a concurrent sentence of six months for felony harassment. Shelton High School boys and girls basketball players made the all-conference list as honorable mentions. They included Alex Olson, Will Trondsen, Alex LeGault, Brynna Fuller, Paige Barrett and CarrieAnne Allegri. Mission Creek Corrections Center for Women Superintendent Wanda McRae said adding 100 beds at the Belfair facility will alleviate overcrowding at other prisons in the state, provide more local jobs and allow for inmates who are better prepared to reenter society. The expansion work should be done this April.
      Deaths: Williadean Morgan, 76; Janice Ruth Leslie, 70; Virginia M. Kanarr-Strong, 93; Donald Lawyer Dunsworth, 61; John L. Bradon, 52; Dennis Gordon Bowden, 65; Frances J. Lukey, 100; Emma D. Williams, 84.
      Births: Matthew Joseph Dahman, James Patrick Wheeler, Mattox Korbin Yeck, Khloie Michelle Sorg, Chase Davies Tupper.