News Briefs

WSDOT striping roads this weekend

The state Department of Transportation crews from Tacoma will be striping roads this weekend.

According to a Twitter post, the striping takes place annually and usually takes a day and a half to complete. Crews will begin striping Friday with an expected completion by Monday afternoon.

Shelton has 36 miles of yellow and white road striping.

Seven county vehicles replaced

Mason County will receive seven new vehicles as part of replacement vehicle order requests from Enterprise in 2022 and 2023.

According to the information packet, seven vehicle order requests made in the 2023 budget year to replace high mileage and aging vehicles. The vehicles include three police pursuit vehicles, including one Ford Police Interceptor Utility car with an annual lease of $12,996 and capital upfit of $31,447, and two Chevrolet Tahoe canine units with an annual lease of $15,456 per vehicle and capital upfit of $33,735.

Four vehicles were replaced in the county “white fleet,” including one Ford Escape 4x4 for sheriff administration, with an annual lease of $8,352 and capital costs of $10,000. The fleet is adding a Ford F150 for sheriff litter pickup for an annual lease of $14,652 and capital costs of $30,000.

The fleet is adding one Ford Ranger Supercab 4x4 for facilities with an annual lease of $8,688 and capital costs of $1,000 and one Ford Transit cargo van for the coroner with an annual lease of $14,148 and capital costs of $20,301.

The county began contracting with Enterprise for municipal leases in 2020. This order will complete the first round of capital leases since the start of the program and the order placed next year for 2024 will allow the county to cycle through leases and start a regular vehicle replacement rotation of one quarter of the fleet each year. At the end of the lease, the county owns the vehicles and can choose to sell or keep the vehicles.

Neatherlin said the county was behind on replacing vehicles because it cost so much to replace them.

“We fought and fought and when I first came into office, we had vehicles in our sheriff’s department that had over 200,000 miles on them,” Neatherlin said. “You don’t want your car to stall once you try to take off to go run to a call, but at the same time, I tried to work to help with that when I first came here but it was such an uphill battle because you only have so much dollars.”

Money approved for eviction rent assistance

Mason County commissioners approved the reallocation of unspent money from the Mason County Administration fund and approved a contract for the money to be used through the eviction rent assistance program at the July 5 meeting.

According to the information packet, the eviction rent assistance program 2.0 is part of the state’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The program is intended to prevent evictions that could contribute to the spread of the virus by paying past due, current due or future rent. The program targets those with the greatest needs while distributing the money equitably.

The money is now subcontracted out to Crossroads Housing and Shelton Family Center. Mason County Administration will reallocate $150,368 so more evictions can be prevented.

Oldham appointed to Lodging Tax committee

County commissioners appointed Greg Oldham to a vacant position on the Mason County Lodging Tax Advisory Committee.

According to the information packet, the lodging committee consists of at least five members appointed by the county commissioners, including at least two representatives of businesses who are required to collect lodging tax money, two members who are people involved in activities that are authorized to be funded by lodging tax revenue and one county commissioner will serve as the chair of the committee.

Nathan Welch resigned and Oldham applied for the vacancy. Other members of the committee are Shaun Tucker, Pam Volz, Heidi McCutcheon and Duane Wilson.

Commissioner Randy Neatherlin thanked Oldham for stepping up to take the vacancy.

“This is how the people get represented in a large government,” Neatherlin said. “You have to have these citizen advisory committees to give you the input because we cannot do everything and we cannot be everywhere. We try our best but it just doesn’t work that way so we need you to volunteer for these committees, have conversations and bring us your ideas.”

Rustlewood Water Project moves forward

County commissioners authorized Public Works to obtain materials and services, advertise set bid openings and award contracts, and the deputy director and chair signed all pertinent project documents for the Rustle Wood Water System Upgrades project.

According to the information packet, the 2022 Supplemental State Capital Budget included $550,000 for the Rustlewood Water Project. The project will address water quality issues, update and improve drinking water system reliability and safety for Rustlewood. Reservoir, wellfield and system pressurization, and electrical and control systems, will be updated to current electrical code standards.

The project is 100% grant funded and the net grant award is $533,500.