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S~I~LL Ti]~ p(,'~kU~S
Thursday, Oct. 11, 2012
Voice of Mason County since 1886 Published for Mason County and Marilyn Nauss of Lincoln, Calif. $1
No homes lost in. 'Powerline 2'blaze
By NATALIE JOHNSON
What began as a small brushfire
near Rainbow Lake on Oct. 4 turned
into a wildfire last week, burning near-
ly 230 acres of land on Johns Prairie.
As of Monday, the "Powerline 2
Fire" -- so-dubbed because it followed
the path of Bonneville Power Adminis-
tration power lines -- was 100 percent
contained.
"It's been a long summer. It's been
a few years since we've seen a fire
season like this," said Dave LaFave,
incident commander with Washing-
ton Incident Management Team 3, a
group that manages large fires for lo-
cal fire districts, which took over the
effort to fight the fire Friday. About 80
days without measurable rainfall have
contributed to perfect conditions for
wildfires in Mason County and much
of Western Washington, he said.
Crews from the team plan to re-.
main in the county through the week
to monitor the area.
The fire began near the intersec-
tions of Mason Lake and McEwan
Prairie roads. Personnel from every
Mason County fire district and the
Washington Department of Natural
Resources (DNR) initially responded
See Fire on pageA-7
Journal photos by Natalie Johnson
Jack Riley of Bainbridge Island shucks an oyster on Saturday at OysterFest. Riley said he is no stranger to oyster
festivals andwas born in Annapolis, Md.
Annual event draws
more than 11K attendees
By NATALIE JOHNSON
r~atalie(~'~rr~aso~co~n(v.con~
Warm sunny weather
and the promise of freshly
shucked, steamed or grilled
oysters brought more than
11,000 people to Mason
County for OysterFest 31
last weekend.
"It's enormous," said Dar-
ryl Cleveland, publicity chair
for the Skookum Rotary Club
on Saturday. "It's interest-
ing, we've had at least two
TV stations weather people
s lIIIU!U!!II!!!I!!!II12
announce there's a big oyster
festival going on and it's go-
ing to be gorgeous."
Cleveland estimated
about 7,200 people visited
OysterFest on Saturday and
4,300 came to the festival on
Sunday.
Those numbers don't in-
clude the about 500 volun-
teers and roughly 200 camp-
ers, he said.
"It was up from last
year -- last year was kind
of a down year because of
weather," he said. "It didn't
quite meet 2010. It was a
big year."
Approximately 60 ven-
dors, all of which were non-
profit organizations, served
See OysterFest on page A-8
OysterFest 31 drew more than 11,000 people this weekend.
Shelton
man
sentenced
to 21 years
in prison
By NATALIE JOHNSON
natalie@masoncounly.com
In a packed courtroom
in Mason County Superior
Court Thursday, Stephan
R.C. Churchill, 29, was sen-
tenced to 261 months, or
21.75, years in prison for the
murder of Shawn Joseph
Morrow,:23, last spring,
Stephan
Churchill
"I miss
him ev-
-ei~ ..... day ....
and I will
miss him
the rest of
my life,"
Morrow's
mother
Cathy Op-
pelt said
during the
sentencing
hearing.
Churchill pleaded guilty
onSept. 11 to one count of
murder in the first degree
and one count of robbery
inthe first degree. He ad-
mi:tted to assaulting Mor-
row with a ba~e~all bat on
March 26. Morrow died of
his injuries three days later.
Travis Carl Baze, 28, was
also charged in connection
with :Morrow's death. He
was'found guilty by a jury
in:Mason County Superior
Court on Sept. 5 of first-
degree assault, first-degree
robbery and first-degree
murder, all with sentencing
enhancements.
Baze's sentencing is
scheduled for Oct. 15 in Ma-
son County Superior Court.
Churchill confessed his
crime to Mason County
Sheriffs Office detectives
on March 27, saying that he
met Morrow at a public fish-
ing area near Bayshore: Golf
Course after arranging to
sell him heroin, then hitting
him in the head with a base-
ball bat several times.
The statement, which
was taped, was played at
an earlier hearing in Ma-
son County Superior Court.
Churchill confessed to beat-
ing Morrow in retaliation
for burglarizing his house in
February.
Oppelt made a statement
at the sentencing hearing.
During that statement, she
read a letter she sent to
Churchill in May.
"I will never understand
what you did," she said. "My
son and I are paying the
ultimate price for your ac-
tions."
She spok:e at length to
Churchill about the num-
ber of people his crime has
touched.
'~You need to understand
See Sentenced on page A-7