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by Jeff Slakey
Long-form interviews and conversations from Mason County, Washington. Host Jeff Slakey sits down with local leaders, legislators, small business owners, and community voices for unhurried conversations about what's shaping the Hood Canal region — government, education, healthcare, the outdoors, and the people making a difference.New episodes drop throughout the week. For daily local headlines, subscribe to KMAS Morning News with Jeff Slakey.
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- Today12 min
Mason County Sheriff Ryan Spurling on Fentanyl, Overdose Rankings and Washington's 19 New Sheriffs | Sheriff Sit-Down, November 2026
This month on the Sheriff Sit-Down, presented by Our Community Credit Union, I caught up with Mason County Sheriff Ryan Spurling just after the November election — and we covered a lot of ground.We started with the person of interest the Sheriff's Office is looking for in connection with a recent shooting, and what you should do if you ever see someone they're searching for: call it in, don't make contact. Then the Sheriff showed me the door hangers deputies leave when they check businesses in the middle of the night — a program that goes back to Sheriff Casey Salisbury, now with a QR code full of business-safety resources.The biggest part of our conversation was fentanyl. Mason County is no longer number one in Washington for overdoses per capita, but the Sheriff says the danger hasn't gone anywhere. His message from a recent DEA briefing: if a pill didn't come from a pharmacist, assume it's been cut with fentanyl. He explained carfentanil, why backyard pill presses cause clusters of overdoses, and why the office keeps investing in D.A.R.E. and school outreach.We also talked about the court ruling striking down key parts of Washington's sheriff standards law (the state has said it will appeal), the at least 19 new sheriffs taking office across Washington — and the Sheriff's role in training them — and why he believes law enforcement should be nonpartisan: "we all either suffer together or we benefit together."We wrapped with a reminder for snowbird season: talk to your neighbors, keep your cameras running, and report what you see to the non-emergency line.Send me your thoughts or questions: jeff@kmas.com. KMAS is the local radio station in Mason County, Washington.#MasonCounty #SheltonWA #SheriffSpurling #KMASRadio #SheriffSitDown #Fentanyl #FentanylAwareness #OverdosePrevention #PublicSafety #WASheriffs #HoodCanal #CommunityPolicing
- 3 days ago23 min
Reading Is Up, Money Is Tight, Math Is Next: Shelton Schools' Next 5-Year Plan | Mason County, WA
How do you keep schools improving when the money's tight? Shelton School District Superintendent Wyeth Jessee sits down with Jeff Slakey on Focus on Shelton as the district wraps up Shelton Success, its five-year strategic plan, and starts gathering input for the next one.Jessee explains why his team is having conversations and writing down what people say on cards instead of relying on surveys. So far they've collected about 300 pieces of input. He puts the district's reading progress in context, saying about half of third graders are meeting standard in reading and writing, and that Shelton has posted some of the strongest early literacy growth in Washington.Then the conversation turns to what's hard: paying for mental health supports, working within state budget pressure, and taking on math with limited staff and money. "I'm not looking for sympathy," Jessee says. "I'm just looking for understanding."They also talk about how the school board makes decisions, why Jessee is in classrooms most Thursdays, what a one-on-one reading conference sounds like, and how shared routines from preschool through 12th grade help students show up ready to learn. He also shares how the district is working to support about 40 students with the most intensive needs.In this episode:• The current strategic plan is closing out, and the district is gathering input for a new five-year plan.• Jessee says rolling out new math materials will take at least three years. The district's website says it plans to implement a new program for grades 5–12 and pilot a K–4 program in 2027–28.• Jessee says there's no direct pot of state money for mental health, so those supports compete with other priorities.• Consistent behavior expectations across schools have helped bring a steep drop in discipline, Jessee says.Links:• Share your input (strategic plan survey): https://forms.gle/gPEmFW3hgjNLyoJCA• Shelton Success strategic plan: https://www.sheltonschools.org/district/strategic_plan• Math adoption information: https://www.sheltonschools.org/departments/teaching_learning/math_adoption0:00 Superintendent Wyeth Jessee and the strategic plan wrap-up0:33 Why Shelton Schools wants conversations, not just surveys2:49 The low-hanging fruit is gone4:03 Third-grade literacy in context4:41 Mental health supports and budget trade-offs5:15 State funding and the "razor's edge"7:02 Math is next: why it takes three-plus years9:03 Closure talks in other districts and the Shelton School Board11:44 Why the superintendent walks through classrooms15:05 Just-right books and one-on-one reading conferences17:14 A strong start at Shelton High and Oakland Bay18:32 One system from preschool through 12th grade19:35 Shared behavior expectations and less discipline21:11 How structure gives teachers room to teach22:03 Transitions for students with intensive needs23:16 How to weigh in on the next strategic plan#SheltonWA #MasonCounty #SheltonSchools #SheltonSchoolDistrict #FocusOnShelton #KMAS #WashingtonEducation #PublicEducation #Literacy #MathEducation
- 3 weeks ago20 min
A Skokomish Longhouse on Hwy 106: sm3tcoom Delbert Miller on Ceremony, Family and the Twana People
Just off Highway 106, about a mile from the Hood Canal School, stands a longhouse that sm3tcoom Delbert Miller of the Skokomish Tribe spent more than seven years of weekends building by hand. In this conversation, recorded inside the Skabob House, Miller tells KMAS’s Jeff Slakey how a great-uncle’s instruction to “face it towards the east” shaped a lifetime of preparation — and how he milled the logs on his own sawmill, hand-hewed the beams, and set yellow cedar corner posts on a scorching summer day.The house was built for his daughter. Miller describes a series of ceremonies spanning her life, from the day she was born onward, witnessed by members of the Lummi, Tulalip, Nisqually, Nooksack and Skagit tribes and by a sitting Washington governor. Two years ago, with the house finished and a family song presented to her, she became head of the home — completing a ceremonial cycle Miller says hadn’t been carried through in 175 years. He also explains how the longhouse is used today for namings, weddings, memorials, healing and salmon ceremonies, and how the carvings on its walls came out of a family’s grief.In the second half, Miller turns to the history many Mason County residents drive past without knowing. He shares his elders’ account of a prophecy of upheaval, of the arrival of missionaries and Indian agents around 1850, of longhouses along the water destroyed, and of the nine Twana bands — from villages at Quilcene, Dabob Bay, Seabeck, Dewatto, Tahuya, Belfair, Duckabush, Dosewallips and Hamma Hamma — being moved to Skokomish. He describes how breaking up community longhouses into single-family homes changed a way of life, how burial laws and funeral homes cost families their land, and why, through all of it, his people say: “We’re not victims.”sm3tcoom Delbert Miller speaks at the Hood Canal Improvement Club meeting on Tuesday, November 3.#SkokomishTribe #Skokomish #HoodCanal #MasonCounty #MasonCountyWA #SheltonWA #KMAS #FocusOnShelton #Longhouse #TwanaPeople #IndigenousHistory #NativeHistory #CoastSalish #PacificNorthwestHistory #WashingtonHistory #HoodCanalImprovementClub #TribalHistory #LocalHistory #PNW
- Sep 24, 202610 min
Coats for Kids 2026: Inside Taylor Station's Sept. 25 Fundraiser for South Mason Fire
Ahead of the September 25 Coats for Kids fundraiser at Taylor Station, Jeff sits down with Amber Anderson of South Mason Fire and Stephanie Bronson of Taylor Station to walk through what the night looks like and why the program matters. Amber explains how the fundraiser — last held in 2023 — has funded the department's coat program ever since, helping South Mason Fire District, including the Squaxin Island Early Learning Center, keep kids warm and dry through the winter. The program isn't limited to kids or to fundraiser night, either: Amber describes South Mason Fire crews carrying coats on calls and handing them out on the spot, including to houseless adults the department's mobile integrated health team encounters in the community.Stephanie details Taylor Station's role since taking over the restaurant in 2023 — a standing in-house coat donation display, a Christmas Giving Tree program, and, for this event, 10% of all proceeds from 5 p.m. to close going toward Coats for Kids. The night itself runs 5 p.m. to midnight with a silent auction (bidders don't need to be present to win), live music from Katie Wade, an emcee, a full open bar, and dinner specials including prime rib and a homemade pasta dish. Steph and Amber also make the pitch for local businesses to donate silent auction items — recent donations include a Blackstone griddle, a custom cake for 50, and a "Taste of Mason County" gift-card basket built from six local restaurants.Hashtags#CoatsForKids #TaylorStation #SouthMasonFire #KMAS #MasonCountyWA #SheltonWA #HoodCanal #WashingtonState #SilentAuction #CommunityFundraiser #LocalNews #GivingBack #PNWEvents #ThingsToDoWA
- Sep 9, 202613 min
Mike Tice on Hard Knocks, the Seahawks' Opener, and Giving Back to Thurston County
Taped on 9/8/2026 at the 1889 Prime Steakhouse in Downtown Olympia, Washington, Jeff Slakey talked with Mike Tice, former Seahawk and former Minnesota Vikings head coach, as the Seahawks open the regular season at Lumen Field in a rematch of last year's Super Bowl. Kickoff's at 5:20, with our pregame starting at 3 on KMAS. Tice spent 14 years playing in the NFL, 130 games with Seattle, and 21 years coaching, including four seasons as the Vikings' head coach. We got into what it's really like having an NFL Films crew embedded with your team for Hard Knocks (he lived it himself in Atlanta), what he's seeing from the Seahawks' new coaching staff and their rookie running back, why he thinks the NFC North could be wide open with Kyler Murray in Minnesota, and which under-the-radar teams he's watching this year.We also talked about what brought him to this community in the first place, and the golf tournament he and his wife Diane run that's given more than $1.1 million to youth charities, including a $90,000 check to the Boys & Girls Club of Thurston County just two weeks ago.#Seahawks #GoHawks #NFL2026 #MikeTice #MinnesotaVikings #SeahawksOpener #KMASRadio #MasonCountyWA #SheltonWA #FocusOnShelton #NFLSeasonPreview #ThurstonCounty
- Aug 22, 202620 min
"We May Be Going Backwards in Time": Mason County's Public Health Director on Rural Health Funding Cuts
Mason County Public Health Director Dave Windom sits down with Jeff Slakey from KMAS for an update after weeks of budget discussions in front of the county commissioners, and the picture is a difficult one. Windom lays out where his department's money actually comes from, and why state-level constraints on foundational public health funding are leaving Mason County short somewhere between $800,000 and a million dollars. Most of it has been absorbed through retirements and unfilled positions, the county now has one food inspector where it had two, but Windom says the department has reached the point where any further reduction means cutting programs outright.The conversation widens from there. Windom explains what public health actually does day to day, from communicable disease investigations and bat protocols to septic inspections, code enforcement and the county's new mobile health unit, which is now running in partnership with North Mason Fire after the state clawed back funding for a nurse practitioner position. He discusses why health funding has grown steadily more urban-centric over the past decade, what HR1 could mean for rural hospitals where two-thirds of patients are on Medicaid or Medicare, and the fast-moving $181 million Rural Health Transformation award that small counties may not have the staff to chase, applications are due August 21 with the money spent by October 31.Looking ahead, Windom describes a possible return to a model Mason County last used in the early 2000s, with public health itself providing low- and no-cost care, women's health, family planning, immunizations, out of two clinic rooms that are built and sitting empty. Paying for it may fall to local voters: the legislature's House Bill 2442 gives counties new sales and property tax options tied to public health clinics, and Windom plans to bring those models to the county commission. The interview closes with a practical roundup: why salmonella outbreaks come from big commercial packagers rather than the farmers market, the measles outbreak in Clark County, and a multi-year uptick in tuberculosis cases that has staff watching patients take their medication in person.#MasonCounty #MasonCountyWA #PublicHealth #KMAS #SheltonWA #HoodCanal #RuralHealth #WashingtonState #DaveWindom #MasonCountyPublicHealth #HB2442 #RuralHealthcare #PNWNews #Matlock #NorthMasonFire #MeaslesOutbreak #FarmersMarket #LocalGovernment #ThingsToKnowWA
- Aug 22, 202619 min
Olympia Author Joe Fuller on "8th Street," His Own Recovery, and the Musical Born From Intervention
Author and playwright Joe Fuller joins Jeff Slakey at Lions Park in Olympia for two conversations in one. First: his book "8th Street," a collection of short stories and poetry about growing up in a big Catholic family in Olympia, Knights of Columbus, St. Michael’s School, and the kind of free-range childhood a lot of South Sound listeners will recognize. Joe talks about how a chance visit with fellow local author Dick Pust during the pandemic pushed him to finally publish stories he’d been writing since his early 30s, and shares one of the book’s best moments: the true story of sneaking out his bedroom window with his brother, only to get locked out by his own dad. Then the conversation shifts: Joe opens up about getting sober at 33, working at Olympia’s recovery clubhouse for $4.35 an hour, and a 1991 intervention for a high school friend that didn’t work that day, but did six months later, and the friend has been sober ever since. That night became the seed for a musical stage play Joe wrote about drug and alcohol intervention, with every song written from a family member’s point of view, what addiction looks like from the outside, not the inside. Joe closes with a simple message: it’s never too late to ask for help, and support is closer than you think.https://www.amazon.com/8th-Street-Joe-Fuller/dp/B0BXMTJT3N#OlympiaWA #KMAS #SouthSound #ThurstonCounty #LocalAuthor #8thStreetBook #PNWAuthors #Playwright #RecoveryStory #Sobriety #InterventionSupport #AddictionRecovery #WashingtonState #CommunitySpotlight #NeverTooLateForHelp
- Aug 21, 202629 min
"How Do They Get Out of Their Own Way?" Outgoing Mason County EDC Director Kevin Shutty on What the New County Commission Has to Fix
Kevin Shutty is leaving the Mason County Economic Development Council at the end of the month, and before he goes he sits down with Jeff Slakey from KMAS for a wide-ranging look back at two and a half years, and a pointed look forward at what the county has to get right next. Shutty, who came to the EDC from the Mason County Commission, says the arrow keeps pointing up for Mason County: the community landed in the top 10 nationally for growth among communities its size, and he describes an organization that has deliberately widened what "economic development" means, from supporting existing small businesses to career pathways with the Shelton School District to a transportation partnership with North Mason Regional Fire Authority that gets people into recovery and health care appointments. His argument: a healthy, stable community is economic development.The heart of the conversation is infrastructure, and Shutty doesn't soften it. With a new face joining the county commission in January, he lays out the collaboration problem in the Shelton urban growth area, the city, unincorporated Mason County, PUD 3 and the Port of Shelton all holding different pieces, and points to the Shelton Springs Road sewer extension as the kind of project that would unlock housing and development quickly if the jurisdictions could align. "The real question for the new commission," he says, "is how do they get out of their own way." He rejects the build-it-and-they-will-come framing in favor of something blunter: trunk-line infrastructure serves the public good, and if you don't build it, they aren't coming anyway. He also details a concrete win, Mason County and the Port of Shelton splitting the cost of site readiness at Johns Prairie Industrial Park, tied to an international recruitment: a shellfish and agriculture manufacturer looking to relocate from British Columbia to Mason County.Shutty also makes the case for what Mason County could be. Living wage jobs come first, he says, but the county can hold onto its timber and shellfish heritage while courting remote workers, startups, manufacturers like TruFab, health care employers, and an emerging defense sector positioned to capture spillover from a multibillion-dollar investment at the naval shipyard in Bremerton, five miles up the road from Belfair. On growth itself he's unequivocal: "good enough isn't good enough for Mason County," and with roughly 1,500 housing units moving through Shelton's permitting process, growth is going to happen whether the county plans for it or not. The conversation closes on a lighter note, the EDC's own limited-edition blend with Olympic Mountain Ice Cream, debuting at the August 20 event, and on Shutty's confidence in Karin Leaf, who steps in as interim executive director, and the board that will hire his replacement.#MasonCounty #MasonCountyWA #SheltonWA #KMAS #HoodCanal #Belfair #EconomicDevelopment #MasonEDC #ChooseMason #KevinShutty #PortOfShelton #PUD3 #WashingtonState #PNW #RuralEconomy #SmallBusiness #Housing #Infrastructure #LocalGovernment #OlympicMountainIceCream #Allyn #Matlock #ShipyardJobs #LivingWageJobsKMAS is the local radio station in Mason County Washington.
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About KMAS Radio
Long-form interviews and conversations from Mason County, Washington. Host Jeff Slakey sits down with local leaders, legislators, small business owners, and community voices for unhurried conversations about what's shaping the Hood Canal region — government, education, healthcare, the outdoors, and the people making a difference.New episodes drop throughout the week. For daily local headlines, subscribe to KMAS Morning News with Jeff Slakey.
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