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Page A44 Shelton-Mason County Journal — Thursday, Oct. 7, 2021
OysterFest: Designed to keep spirit of OysterFest alive
continued from page A-1
event was really to just keep the spirit of OysterFest
alive. Obviously, due to unfortunate circumstances
where we find ourselves with COVID, we certainly felt
it appropriate not to hold a large event with 20,000
people. We still wanted to have something out there so
certainly the community would not forget us. I think
our team did a really good job just keeping people up-
dated throughout the weekend.”
Miller said the OysterFest Facebook page had
more than 23,000 people visit during the weekend. A
lot of the posts on Facebook featured Skookum Rota-
ry members talking about OysterFest history, people
submitting videos of their memories of OysterFest,
recipes for preparing oysters or vendors showing off
some fresh oysters.
Oysters are one of the largest industries in Mason
County, according to Miller, providing lots of jobs and
money for people, as well as a delicious meal.
Miller has been participating in OysterFest since
he was 3 years, old and has attended every OysterFest
for the past 40 years except for four occasions when
he was out of the country. His father was a Rotarian
while Miller was growing up and he considers himself
a “Pop Wagon Master” because that is where he gener—
ally volunteered in his early years.
“When I officially joined Rotary myself in 2014, it’s
something I knew I had always wanted to do,” Miller
said. “I was fortunate at 16 to be a Rotary foreign ex-
change student to Germany for my junior year of high
school so Rotary had always been a big part of my life
growing up as well as OysterFest has been.”
The Grand Old Oyster, or GOO, is generally the
past president of the Skookum Rotary. Two years ago,
he was elected to be the president and was able to
serve a two-year stint.
“It was pretty cool. One, was following in my fa-
ther’s footsteps as president and also 30 years af-
ter he was GOO of OysterFest, I got to be GOO of
OysterFest,” Miller said. “I’m excited to continue the
legacy there of getting my kids now, who are 8 and 10,
to start volunteering serving soda and water certainly
once we go to a live event. I’m incredibly honored to
havethis role and also fortunate since I was president
for two years, I get'to be GOO for two years as well.”
, Miller said he prefers his oysters straight from the
beach and out of the shell. He likes to pair his oysters
with a nice martini or a chardonnay.
Gov. Jay 'Inslee signed a proclamation Sept. 24, de—
claring this week “Oyster Week” in the state. Miller
said he is celebrating by incorporating a little seafood
into his meals every day.
Miller thanked Hama Hama Oysters, Taylor Shell-
fish and Goose Point Oysters for supporting Oyster-
Fest this year and making the custom OysterFest
boxes so people can enjoy getting oysters and clams
delivered to their door.
Miller is hopeful and excited for the prospect of a
normal OysterFest in 2022.
Ban: Most stores accept people bringing their own bags
continued from page A—1
brown, paper bags to use now that
are 15 cents per bag, and the retailer
charges the 8-cent per bag fee, which
the retailer keeps. The retailer can
also write off the bags on their state
business and occupation tax.
Onisko said he looked into the re-
cycled bags that Walmart uses, and he
said they are 30 cents each.
“Some customers so far the last
couple of days have complained, some
are used to it from Olympia. It’s been
that way in Olympia for a while,”
Onisko said. “I’m not sure, personal-
ly, why we’re going this direction. I’m .
old enough to remember we left paper
bags to save the forest and now we’re
going back to paper bags to save the
landfills, I guess?”
Onisko, who is also on the'Shelton‘y
City Council, said the companyis'ESC‘“
Johnson was going to come in to do'a
pilot program on recycling film, and
have every resident volunteer to put
out ‘a recycle bin forrbags, but he says
they probably won’t do it now since
there won’t be any bags.
‘fThey are recyclable, I’m notsure
why we didn’t try that route first,”
Onisko said. “I’m kind of concerned
about paper bags and what that’s go-
ing to do, personally.”
Anyone who still has single-use
plastic bags can recycle them at the
Shelton Safeway, Fred Meyer or
Walmart. All three confirmed to the I
Journal that there are collection bins
at the entrances to the stores that
people can put their single-use plastic
bags in to be recycled.
Most stores accept people bringing
'in their own bags to put their groceries .
or items in, and Onisko said his stores
allow people to do that as well.
Onisko said he’s heard from one .
of his ‘ve'ndors'that a lot of business-
es aren’t going to charge for the bags. w
'Wes‘tern’Washington recycling coordi-
nator for the state Department of Ecol-
ogy Shannon Jones told the Journal
that is not an option for business to not
charge the 8-cent fee.
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“The charge is intended to incentiv-
ize customers to bring their own bags,”
Jones said. “It isvalso to reimburse the
business and they keep the entire 8
cents and it is a taxable sale. It quali-
fies for a B&O tax.”
The charge has to be shown on the
receipt. There is an exemption for cus—
tomers purchasing items with EBT,
SNAP and similar programs and “the
purchaser must provide proof for the
charge to be exempted.
Jones said leading up to the ban
last week, there were a lot of busi-
nesses calling to make sure they un-
derstood the requirements before the
ban took effect. The biggest questions
was whether businesses can use 'up
their existing single-use plastic bags
and the answer is yes, provided they
can show proof of purchase before the
banwent
“We haven’t received a lofiofpush-
back and we’ve gotten a lot of support
from people of the ban,” Jones said.
“It’s a transition, people are going, to
have to get used to it. People will get
used to it over time and it will become
second nature. We are really encour-
aging people to use reusable bags.”
Jones doesn’t believe the bins at
local stores for recycling plastic bags
will go away, especially considering
any type of plastic film can be recycled
through these bins, including Ziploc
bags and even the reusable plastic
bags that can be purchased can also be
recycled. , ,
overall, Onisko said it isn’t much
of an inconvenience oiltside of some of
the supply chain issues trying to get
the appropriate bags to give to custom-
ers. Gov. Jay Insl‘ee delayed the bag
ban due to supply chain issues,“b}1t it
still remains a problem.
“I think it’s just going to be part of
the business,” Onisko said. “It’s like
ID-ing for alcohol and tabacco, you’ve
.th to do whetrszsfrsssfsisiaesht?
I’d rather build it into t e price of the
product then say, ‘Do you want a bag?
It’s going to.be 8 cents.’ That’s just a
little annoying I think for the :most
part, we’ll get used to it.”
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