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Newspaper Archive of
Shelton Mason County Journal
Shelton, Washington
October 7, 2021     Shelton Mason County Journal
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October 7, 2021
 
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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. Serving Western Washington for aver 50 years I #AlROOl‘l 1 1PR ssggflggnIOJX) OFF 21 mm OMAN? “ROOF ORRERODF Mwmforafmmtmm- (360)455-3812 macaques-tmmmmnmmwum WQHW “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.” * ‘ LCSOO ~‘II.E~XI'.IS CONVERTIBLE lS'l’ PLACE 2021 LCSOO LEXUS CQN‘VERTIBLE 0R $30K. CASH 2ND PLACE $5,000 CASH l 3RD PLACE $2,500 CASH DRAWING OCTOBER 30TH AT PM A convertible or $30,000 cash? Three winners will be drawn with one having the chance to win a brand-new convertible. -. a. .~ in n" CASINO