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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, JULY 13, 2017
Complex: Future
Seaman’s Day: ‘They are very social dogs’
still uncertain for
property, businesses
Continued from Page 1A
Continued from Page 1A
motorcycle. Since then,
police have also linked Mer-
rill to a major Ocean Park
burglary. They suspect him
of providing equipment and
financing to the burglars, who
were busted when they tried
to sell about $15,000 in stolen
guns to an undercover cop.
The case is still under inves-
tigation, according to Pacific
County Prosecutor Mark
McClain.
Merrill disappeared after
his family paid $25,000 to
release him from jail. There
is now a nationwide warrant
for his arrest, and the family
stands to be held liable for
the entire $250,000 bail if he
does not turn up.
In his absence, another
member of the family has
stepped up: his sister-in-
law, Julie Merrill, president
of Apollo Mopeds in Ocean
Shores, Washington.
“Julie seems to be very
reputable. She seems to have
a good head on her shoul-
ders,” Phillips said Monday.
The mayor, City Adminis-
trator David Glasson and
Building Inspector Matt Bon-
ney met with Merrill about
a month ago to discuss the
possibility of reopening the
businesses.
Julie Merrill could not be
reached for comment.
Family business
State records show Van-
couver, Washington, res-
idents Robert and Eldora
Merrill opened Long Beach
Mopeds, along with an Ocean
Shores amusement business
and an investment company,
in the mid-1980s. They have
operated the local go-kart
business since at least 1991.
Over the last two decades, the
Merrills’ children and other
relatives took an increasingly
active role in starting and
running various enterprises,
including go-kart tracks in
Longview and Vancouver.
Julie Merrill has helped run
the family empire for almost
two decades. Tony Merrill
appears to have taken over
management of the Long
Beach businesses in about
2005.
The family has started at
least 16 parent corporations
since the 1980s. Some of their
properties and businesses,
including the ones in Long
Beach, have been transferred
between owners and corpora-
tions numerous times, mak-
ing it challenging to piece
together a complete history of
their business dealings.
In 2011, they transferred
ownership of the down-
town Long Beach properties
to the Merrill Partnership.
This partnership appears to
include Robert, Eldora, their
son Timothy, and Julie, his
wife. However, Tony Merrill
probably operated the busi-
nesses on his own — the two
elder Merrills and Julie Mer-
rill told city officials they
were mostly unaware of the
problems at the Long Beach
complex.
“(Julie) was appalled with
how the place looked,” Phil-
lips said.
Disrepair and
disrepute
At the height of tour-
ist season, the windows of
the moped shop are boarded
up and there are knee-high
weeds growing through the
cracks in the asphalt. The
rental bikes that once lined
the sidewalk are now covered
up with tarps.
It shocks some tourists to
see a Long Beach institution
in disarray, the mayor said,
but there were serious prob-
lems well before the busi-
nesses closed. In fact, the city,
the state Department of Labor
and Industries and the County
Public Utilities District had
all been pressuring Tony
Merrill to clean up his act.
In a May 2015 letter, the
city cited him for piles of
lumber, tires, scrap metal
and “junk,” including old
shopping carts. Officials had
received complaints, and
were concerned the piles
were a safety hazard as well
as an eyesore.
Phillips, who was a coun-
cilman before he became
mayor in January 2016, said
Merrill established a pattern
of partially complying when
the city pressured him.
“He would clean a little
bit up, and it would go back
to the way it was,” he said.
The city imposed a stop
work order in February 2016
when he installed buildings
that did not meet city stan-
dards. A month later, the
city suspended his business
license for numerous ongo-
ing violations, including piles
of “broken, rusty” bicycles
and mopeds, a collection of
junk cars, and “rags, batteries,
trash, tires” and other litter.
The landscaping and fencing
also violated city standards.
He got his license back
several days later, but Merrill
was ordered to keep working
on cleanup. In June 2016, the
city filed a case against him
in Municipal Court for lin-
gering violations. In Octo-
ber, Bonney, the building
inspector, gave Merrill a list
of 26 things he needed to do
to keep his license. Among
them, removing weeds, gar-
bage and stagnant water, fix-
ing broken equipment and
faulty wiring, and getting
rid of unauthorized storage
buildings.
Citing “multiple areas
of unsafe wiring,” Labor
and Industries in Novem-
ber ordered the PUD to dis-
connect Merrill’s property
from the utility service “as
soon as possible.” During the
raid six months later, officers
learned Merrill had been run-
ning the moped building off
of generators.
Ongoing negotiations
The future of the property
and the businesses are still
uncertain, Phillips said. He
thinks Julie Merrill will only
take over if she can negoti-
ate a satisfactory lease with
Robert and Eldora Merrill,
but at least one potential deal
with them has already fallen
through.
“Someone negotiated with
the parents for several hours,
but didn’t come to an agree-
ment,” Phillips said.
At the meeting last month,
“We gave her a list of things
that have be done prior to
opening, a list of things for six
months, and for 12 months,”
Phillips said. Immediate tasks
included removing some big
fuel and oil tanks.
“I believe the moped
building cannot be occupied
until repairs have been done
to it,” he added.
Road: County hopes to
have the road completed
within the next year
Continued from Page 1A
Sheriff’s Office that opened
last year and has worked on
other projects in Warrenton.
The design process typi-
cally takes about nine weeks,
and the county is hoping
to have the road completed
within the next year, Sum-
mers said. The next steps for
the county include acquir-
ing permits and opening
bids for construction con-
tractors. In total, the project
will cost an estimated $1.2
million, more than $500,000
of which will come from a
state grant. Previous addi-
tions to Ensign Lane as part
of development in the area
cost $2.9 million.
Though not yet offi-
cial, S.E. Bugle Avenue is
the name the county is call-
ing the road. Summers said
the name references a tool
used to hunt elk, an animal
commonly seen roaming the
county.
National Historical Park that
recognizes Meriwether Lewis’
Newfoundland,
Seaman,
during the Lewis and Clark
Expedition from 1804 to 1806.
Crichton
described
the breed as “loving” and
“forgiving.”
“You never have to worry
about them with strangers or
kids,” she said.
Crichton added that New-
foundlands are smart, and
laughed as she described how
her previous dog, Truman, was
inconspicuously escaping her
house. One day she waited to
see how the Newfoundland
was getting out. She caught
him twisting the door han-
dle using his front paws while
standing only on his hind legs.
Big companion
Xihuitl Campos and Frank
Valenzuela traveled from Seat-
tle to show their black, 211-
pound Newfoundland, Sir
James Bond, at their first Sea-
man’s Day.
“I’m amazed how good he
does with kids,” Campos said
of her 2-year-old dog.
Valenzuela said he is not a
very social person, but New-
foundlands “make you go out
of your comfort zone and meet
other people.”
Sir James Bond’s striking
size, bear-like appearance and
friendliness creates a lot of
publicity for Valenzuela and
Campos.
“They (Newfoundlands)
like to say ‘Hi.’ They are very
social dogs,” Valenzuela said.
Valenzuela, like other New-
foundland owners, said caring
for this breed is a lot of work
as they drool and shed every-
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Deacon the Newfoundland finds himself a spot away from the heat on Wednesday during
the Seaman’s Day celebration at the Lewis and Clark Historical Park. The event began
as a way to recognize the role Seaman, a Newfoundland owned by Meriwether Lewis,
played in their epic voyage. More photos available online at DailyAstorian.com
where, but would not trade it
for anything.
“I’ve always liked big
dogs. Now I have the opportu-
nity to be with them and enjoy
them. He’s like a big compan-
ion,” Valenzuela said.
A favorite event
Sally Freeman, a Lewis
and Clark National Historical
Park ranger since the summer
of 1989, started the Seaman’s
Day talks, which she said is
the park’s most popular one-
day event.
“I think it’s fun. Definitely
one of my favorite events
of the year,” Freeman said.
“These dogs are very loyal.”
Freeman said she noticed
an interesting trend in this Sea-
man’s Day. Of the 12 dogs, 10
were boys. And of the boys,
six of their names started with
the letter B.
Every second Wednesday
of July, Newfoundland dogs
are invited to the Fort Clatsop
Visitor Center while the park
acknowledges the famous
dog. Freeman shared many
stories of the Lewis and Clark
Expedition, including when
Seaman herded a charging
buffalo bull away from the
lodge where Lewis, William
Clark, and the other travelers
slept, potentially saving their
lives.
It has been 211 years since
the expedition, and it has
become a tradition for Lewis
and Clark National Histori-
cal Park to introduce people to
modern Newfoundland dogs
and to learn more about Sea-
man’s role in the expedition.
Untangled: Freeing whales can be dangerous work
he and a rescue crew freed
a trapped right whale in the
Gulf of St. Lawrence, Canada.
NOAA has since suspended
all large whale entanglement
response activities until fur-
ther notice. The agency wants
to review its own emergency
response protocols in light of
the tragedy.
Continued from Page 1A
Oregon and Washing-
ton state are not named in the
potential lawsuit and the two
states see fewer reports of
entangled whales — only one
whale was reported entangled
in Oregon’s waters last year.
But fishermen, fishery manag-
ers, gear producers and sellers,
biologists and others associated
with the industry have already
been brainstorming how to
address the issue for a months.
Solutions
‘Nobody wants that’
An Oregon whale entangle-
ment group, coordinated with
help from Oregon Sea Grant,
formed recently. It boasts 18
members so far, representing a
wide swath of the commercial,
science and management com-
munities based around ocean
fisheries. The group has already
held one meeting and plans
to hold another next week in
Newport. A similar group has
already formed in California
and another is in the works in
Washington state.
Dungeness crab is an excel-
lent product, maintains Fran
Recht, habitat program man-
ager for the Pacific States
Marine Fisheries Commis-
sion, which was established
by Congress to coordinate
management of Pacific Ocean
resources in California, Ore-
gon, Washington state, Idaho
and Alaska.
“It’s sustainable,” she said.
“And this is a black eye, and
nobody wants that.”
Gear that shows up tangled
around a whale in California
could easily have come from
somewhere farther north, the
Oregon entanglement group
members say. In many cases,
a tangled whale is not always
immobile.
This makes it more compli-
cated to pinpoint exactly where
any entanglement problems
begin and who bears the most
responsibility, though commer-
cial crab gear with its long lines
that can wrap around whale
torsos, fins and tail flukes, has
been implicated up and down
the West Coast.
In California, there are far
more boats — private boats
as well as fishing vessels —
and dozens of more eyes on
the water. With all that traf-
fic, entanglements can happen
more often; they are also more
likely to be reported when they
do occur.
Humanitarian issue
The Oregon Coast, by con-
trast, is an empty stretch of blue
— cold and formidable.
“It’s not so easy to sight a
whale that’s tangled,” said Jim
Rice, of Oregon State Univer-
sity, the stranding coordina-
tor for the Marine Mammal
Stranding Network for the Ore-
gon Coast. “It’s a needle in a
haystack, frankly.”
In Oregon, “most of the
reports of entangled whales
come from fishermen,” he said.
“We rely a lot on them to let
us know what they see when
they’re out there.”
On average, his group, per-
mitted by NOAA to disentan-
gle whales, receives two con-
firmable reports of entangled
whales each year. Many more
reports end up being false
alarms: gray whales foraging
close to shore and near buoys,
not in any danger at all.
“From a conservation stand-
point, I don’t think it’s terri-
bly serious,” Rice said. Ore-
gon impacts so few whales and
the whales impacted tend to
be gray whales on their annual
migration from California to
Alaska, not endangered hump-
back or blue whales. “It’s more
of a humanitarian issue than
anything else.”
He is encouraged by how
proactive Oregon and Washing-
ton state fishermen have been
in addressing the issue.
But, Rice said, “I think the
challenge is to find means that
are not going to be too much of
a burden on the fishermen and
would have a realistic outcome
for the whales.”
Because Oregon sees so few
incidents of whale entangle-
ment, it could be hard to mea-
sure if changes to gear have
positive results.
“It’s going to take testing
and it’s going to take time,”
said John Corbin, a commer-
cial crab fisherman and mem-
ber of the Oregon Dungeness
Crab Commission. “It’s imper-
ative for us to at least be look-
ing at gear modifications to see
whether or not they’re feasible
for the fishery.”
Federal regulators have
sent mixed messages in other
fisheries.
The Trump administration
in June withdrew a rule that
would have set strict limits
on the number of endangered
whales, dolphins and sea turtles
tangled in sword-fishing nets
in California and Oregon. The
fishing industry and conserva-
tionists had worked on the rule,
published last October under
the Obama administration, but
the National Marine Fisheries
Service decided the changes
were not warranted.
Dangers
In a photo graphic shown
during a presentation in March,
a single rope stretches across
a gray whale’s smooth back.
It looks like someone has
dropped it there, carelessly.
Below water, unseen, that rope
twists tightly around one of the
whale’s pectoral fin, pinching it
in a thick tangle that includes
other gear lines, weights and
floats.
The graphic appeared at
workshop in Portland, the first
mass meeting of Oregon and
Washington’s fishing indus-
tries over the issue of whale
entanglement.
A whale tangled like this
won’t last long. But freeing it
can be dangerous work.
“Entangled whales can
become very defensive when
approached and may use their
powerful tail flukes to strike
their would-be rescuers,” Rice
said.
Boats can capsize; people
might get directly hit by a flail-
ing whale.
“It’s also possible for the
responders to get caught up
in the lines attached to the
whale and lose fingers or get
dragged into the water,” Rice
said.
Canadian fisherman and
marine mammal responder Joe
Howlett died Monday after
So far, solutions to whale
entanglement proposed by the
commercial fishing industry
include everything from adjust-
ing fishery seasons to changing
the gear used.
“Our fishery is more effi-
cient now than in the past
and will be more efficient in
the future,” reported Oregon
crab fisherman Justin Yea-
ger in March. “We can do bet-
ter. We need to realize the
responsibility that comes with
being a crab fisherman and
make the changes that make a
difference.”
He believed the Dungeness
fishery could see the most suc-
cess by changing the behav-
ior and timing of the fishery
and improving gear retrieval
programs.
The East Coast has already
grappled with this issue, though
with a different whale and in a
different fishery. Traps for that
region’s lobster fishery caused
serious injury and deaths
among endangered North
Atlantic right whales.
Even with this example,
Sheila Garber, who works
for Englund Marine & Indus-
trial Supply in Astoria and is a
member of the Oregon whale
entanglement group, says there
are no solutions yet.
“There are a lot of things the
guys have already done,” she
said, pointing to the use of sink-
ing lines, or neutral buoyancy
lines, both ways to make it so
there is less line floating on the
surface of the water.
The group needs to gather
much more information before
it can start posing realistic
answers to the problem.
Look at the gray whales,
Garber said. Not all of them go
north. Some stop midmigration
in places like Depoe Bay and
don’t go any farther.
“The fishermen actually
usually trigger any sort of
change,” she said. Gear suppli-
ers like Englund’s try to work
hand in hand with fishermen
when something like whale
entanglement comes up. “But
a lot of it comes from the fish-
ermen. It’s a very proactive
industry because it’s their way
of life.”