The fire chief in Orting lost his job Thursday amid charges he misappropriated funds, misled the fire district’s board of commissioners and had “anger issues.”

Randy Shelton, chief of Orting Valley Fire and Rescue, was terminated by the fire district’s Board of Commissioners Thursday after a closed-door meeting to discuss allegations against him.

Shelton wouldn’t comment Thursday but denied all the charges.

Shelton was placed on leave in late May pending the results of an investigation into undisclosed complaints.

Late last month, the fire district’s Board of Commissioners laid out seven formal charges against Shelton and sent the chief a notice of intent to discipline him.

The district’s investigation found that Shelton did the following:

-Overpaid himself by $16,000, plus six unauthorized hours of vacation pay.

-Harassed fire district employees, showing “anger issues.”

-Implemented new operations policies without approval from the Board of Commissioners.

-Falsified information to gain access to confidential fire district files and read commissioners’ e-mails.

-Suspended an employee without issuing prior written warnings.

-Falsified information to the board during the hiring of a new medical service officer, at one point telling the board the applicant was certified as a firefighter when he was not.

-Manipulated the hiring process for two new lieutenant positions to exclude certain applicants, ultimately hiring two people who failed the lieutenant’s exam.

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The Pierce County Library System has a winning design for its first teen library card, and the winning artist is Michelle Barreto, an 18-year-old who graduated from Harrison Preparatory School in Lakewood.

“I use a watercolor technique with more paint and less water, which produces a bright, mural-like piece,” Barreto said in a library news release, describing how she created her fish-and-floral design.

Barretto's card will be available for free, in addition to other designs that the library system offers at its 17 branches, during the third annual card drive this fall. While the new design is intended to appeal to teens and tweens, adults can ask for it, too.

The contest began this spring, when 110 young contributors submitted creations in colored pencil, pen, paint, camera and computer-generated art. Judges narrowed the field to five finalists, and 1,240 Pierce County residents cast votes on the library’s Web site to pick the winner.

This could be one of the coolest events of the summer for history buffs and mystery fans. It is a tour of the Old Tacoma Cemetary near South Park.

I've spent a little time in this cemetary and its neighbors and wish I knew more about it. It's kind of hidden in plain site and holds many stories and mysteries.

I'll let the sponsors explain the event and how to join in.

Historic Tacoma Cemetery Tour
On Friday evening July 17th, Fort Nisqually will be partnering with the Tacoma Historical Society and the Old Tacoma Cemetery to present a living history event.

For those of you who remember the Port Townsend/Jefferson County Historical Society Cemetery tour of several years ago, this will be a very similar format – where re-enactors stand at the headstone of people from Tacoma’s past and tell their life story in first person.

If you would like to know more about people like Job Carr (Jim Weatherford), Rebecca Carr Staley (Jill Weatherford), Thea Foss (Karen Haas), Angelo Fawcett (Patrick Haas), Clinton Ferry (John Salicco), Edward Huggins (Jerry Eckrom), Letitia Huggins (Judy Bridges), John Sprague (Ken Morgan) or Allen C Mason (Steve Ricketts) be sure to mark the date on your calendar.

Like Fort Nisqually’s Candlelight Tour, tickets will be purchased for specific start times and can be purchased from the Tacoma Historical Society by calling 253-472-3738 or emailing info@tacomahistory.org or visit their website at www.tacomahistory.org . The tickets are $8 each.

OR, if you would like to volunteer to help we are also looking for docents to lead the groups through the tour. The primary job of the docent is to lead the group from person to person and introduce the character the group is about to meet. If you would like to volunteer please contact Melissa McGinnis at melissam@tacomaparks.com.

The Old Tacoma Cemetery is located at 4801 South Tacoma Way and is adjacent to South Park Community Center where Fort Nisqually holds the annual Robert Burns Volunteer Recognition Dinner.

Tacoma ranks 150th among the 200 largest U.S. cities in terms of frequency of automobile collisions, according to Allstate’s fifth-annual "America’s Best Drivers Report” released this week.

Tacoma was rated slightly safer than it was in the Insurance company's 2005 list. The average Tacoma driver has a collision every 7.9 years. That compares to once every 13.5 years in No. 1-ranked Sioux Falls, S.D.

Among the five Washington cities that made the list, Tacoma was ranked the least safe in terms of collisions.

For a tongue-in-cheek look at this year's rankings, check out this week's Nose column when it comes out Friday morning.