LOCAL AUTHOR TALKS ABOUT HER REVEALING NEW BOOK INSIDE
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May 18, 2017 • coastweeken
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AN
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WITH A
‘HALF-ASSED’
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LOCAL AUTHOR
DIANA KIRK TALKS
ABOUT HER
INTIMATE
NEW BOOK
DailyAstorian.com // THURSDAY, MAY 18, 2017 ONE DOLLAR
144TH YEAR, NO. 230
OCEAN PARK CHEF | NANCI MAIN
Chef puts lid on
delicious career
PAGE 8
Seaside
builds new
campus,
patches old
District to add staff,
meet new science rules
By R.J. MARX
The Daily Astorian
Main helped put
Willapa Bay on
culinary map
By LUKE WHITTAKER
EO Media Group
O
Photos by Luke Whittaker/EO Media Group
A welcoming atmosphere and ambiance was characteristic of
Main, no matter what was on the menu. “People can come in
from clamming or they can come in all dressed up for their
anniversary and feel comfortable,” she said.
CEAN PARK, Wash. — Starting out,
they had to drive 30 miles to fi nd green
peppercorns. Pesto sauce was an unfa-
miliar term for most customers. Such was
life in on the Long Beach Peninsula in
1981, a particular time and place that pre-
sented unique challenges and opportunities
to two young chefs named Nanci Main and
the late Jimella Lucas. Neither set out to
change the culinary world, but destiny has a
way of happening anyway.
“We were just wildly enthusiastic about
what we were doing,” Main said, refl ect-
ing on the roots of her culinary career last
week.
“We loved it. We were passionate
and we celebrated it.” May 27, will mark
the fi nal day of regular operation for
the Nanci & Jimella’s Café & Cocktails
in Ocean Park, concluding a culinary career
that spanned more than 45 years — one
as deeply personal as it was widely
publicized.
Debt of gratitude
Ocean Park, Wash., chef Nanci Main has prepared meals for
presidents, been featured in numerous TV, radio and personal
appearances, won awards and written books, but her proudest
accomplishment are the people she mentored and inspired,
and the legacy she and the late Jimella Lucas leave behind.
‘I’m proud of the things
we emphasize — value in
food and community.’
Nanci and Jimella didn’t seek fame, but
it found them.
“I’ll forever have a debt of gratitude
to James Beard,” the famous food writer,
Main said.
“We were young chefs just starting
out when he walked in our door.” Beard
recognized greatness when he saw it. “He
knew right away what we were doing,”
Main said, “and he wrote us up in his
column.”
This support from the press — includ-
ing articles in The New York Times and
Newsweek — helped draw new visitors to a
remote little port town.
Memories fl ood over Nanci when asked
about The Ark, the iconic restaurant she and
Jimella ran for more than 20 years in Nah-
cotta overlooking Willapa Bay.
“Nahcotta wasn’t on the map — people
couldn’t fi nd it,” Main said. “Because of all
the support, we started to bring a whole new
kind of tourism into the area.”
“The kitchen was built by a chef and it
was huge,” said Main extolling the virtues
of the architecture, but it was the experience
and the people along the way that still reso-
nate strongest.
“There’s one guy that would bring
oranges, another brought asparagus. There
were so many traditions that would happen
with food every year,” she said.
Nanci Main | Ocean Park chef
See CHEF, Page 9A
SEASIDE — With a building project
ready to launch and the state boosting cof-
fers, the Seaside School District’s budget
committee has approved a $20.6 million
operating budget .
With an improving state
economy, timber revenue
and “excellent manage-
ment,” the district plans
to move forward without
reductions in staffi ng or
programs, Superintendent
Sheila Roley said in a bud-
Sheila
get message.
Roley
The school district plans
to hire an elementary school guidance coun-
selor and a new high school science and math
teacher, among other personnel additions.
The budget addresses rising student technol-
ogy costs, with districtwide licenses for math
and science software. A new science curricu-
lum will be implemented in the fall to meet
new science and technology standards.
A full-time licensed staff member will
be hired to provide management support to
See SEASIDE, Page 4A
Equal pay
bill lets
some get
back wages
Senate OKs amended
bill; back to the House
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
SALEM — The state Senate unani-
mously passed an equal pay bill Wednesday
that would allow workers to recover up to
two years of back pay by fi ling a complaint
with the Bureau of Labor
and Industries.
Senators amended a
House bill to win support
from the business commu-
nity, which had previously
opposed stiff penalties in
the original bill.
“It is currently illegal in
Kathleen
Oregon to pay someone dif-
Taylor
ferently for the same work,”
said state Sen. Kathleen Taylor, D-Portland.
“Our current legal system is not working. We
know far too many people are being paid less
for the same work.”
See EQUAL PAY, Page 9A
For sale: When Oregon farm,
ranch lands change hands
By ERIC MORTENSON
EO Media Group
Diane Daggett remem-
bers the conversation with the
woman who had just purchased
the Daggett family’s 440-acre
cattle ranch in northeast Ore-
gon’s Wallowa County, land
that had been in the family for
four generations.
The buyer said she had
called her husband, who was
aboard their yacht in the Cay-
man Islands, to share the news.
“Honey,” the woman said
she’d told him, “I just bought
the most amazing birthday gift
for you.”
And the land, sold by Dag-
gett’s step mother for what Dag-
gett fi gures was three times
what it could generate as a cat-
tle ranch, slipped from the fam-
ily’s grasp. Now it lies behind a
locked gate.
Variations of that story are
playing out across Oregon and
other states as farm and ranch
land changes hands, sometimes
by thousands of acres at a time.
Some buyers are fellow farmers
who are expanding their opera-
tions under the mantra of “get
big or get out.” But other buy-
ers include investment fi rms,
wind energy developers, con-
servation organizations, com-
panies that fi t the description
of “Big Ag” and wealthy indi-
viduals looking to establish pri-
vate hunting reserves or vaca-
tion retreats.
Primary worry
The impact is unclear at this
point, but the primary worry is
about ag land being taken out
of production. Jim Johnson, the
state’s Department of Agricul-
ture’s land-use and water plan-
ning coordinator, said ag land
See FOR SALE, Page 4A
Eric Mortenson/EO Media Group
The 8,000-acre Murtha Ranch along the John Day River
near Condon, was purchased by the Western Rivers Con-
servancy for $7.9 million. The group sold it for the same
price to the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department,
which developed it into Cottonwood Canyon State Park.
As a nod to traditional uses, hunting and fishing are al-
lowed, and state officials are developing a grazing plan
that may be put into effect next spring.