Notice: Undefined index: HTTP_REFERER in /home/stparch/public_html/headmid_temp_main.php on line 4394
Newspaper Archive of
Shelton Mason County Journal
Shelton, Washington
October 11, 2012     Shelton Mason County Journal
PAGE 1     (1 of 20 available)        PREVIOUS     NEXT      Jumbo Image    Save To Scrapbook    Set Notifiers    PDF    JPG
 
PAGE 1     (1 of 20 available)        PREVIOUS     NEXT      Jumbo Image    Save To Scrapbook    Set Notifiers    PDF    JPG
October 11, 2012
 
Newspaper Archive of Shelton Mason County Journal produced by SmallTownPapers, Inc.
Website © 2025. All content copyrighted. Copyright Information
Terms Of Use | Privacy Policy | Request Content Removal | About / FAQ | Get Acrobat Reader




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