3A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 2018
Oysterville businessman wins epic battle over county
Pacific County
won’t appeal
court ruling
By NATALIE ST. JOHN
Chinook Observer
OYSTERVILLE, Wash. —
Oysterman Dan is back in busi-
ness again.
After years of fighting
Pacific County over land use
and licensing issues, Dan
Driscoll, 57, of Oysterville,
appears to have prevailed.
County officials decided not
to appeal to the Washington
Supreme Court after the Court
of Appeals ruled in Driscoll’s
favor in mid-April. And in late
June, he received the license
he needs to operate his retail
seafood shop in his historic
cannery on Willapa Bay.
“I’m thrilled that they
didn’t appeal,” Driscoll said.
Driscoll’s family has sold
oysters and snacks at Oyster-
ville Sea Farms for decades.
The county began to pass more
formal zoning and land use
policies in the 1990s. The can-
nery ended up in an area where
retail business wasn’t allowed,
but the county “grandfa-
thered” his business since it
was already established.
For years, county officials
signed off on Driscoll’s efforts
to offer more products and
serve food, beer and wine on
the store’s deck. Then, in 2011,
Driscoll’s uncle — and rival
— Dick Sheldon, filed a com-
plaint alleging that Driscoll
was violating his agreement
with the county by selling
items like jam and cereal in the
seafood market. Through his
attorney, Sheldon intimated
that county officials might face
recalls or legal action if they
didn’t crack down on Driscoll.
Within weeks, authori-
ties in the county Department
of Community Development
began a new effort to regu-
late Driscoll’s business. Their
first salvo was a list of spe-
cific foods Driscoll could and
couldn’t sell, based on the
county’s decidedly white-bread
opinions of whether the foods
were “seafood-related.” Crack-
ers were fine, they said, but
pasta was most certainly not.
A turning point came in
summer 2013, when the county
issued a cease-and-desist let-
Chinook Observer
Oysterman Dan Driscoll, shown here in 2013, has pre-
vailed in a dispute with Pacific County.
‘Whether we’ll ever be able
to recuperate to where we
were in 2009, 2010, 2011
remains to be seen. But at
least we’re not fighting to
protect our rights.’
Dan Driscoll
oysterman
ter to Driscoll that effectively
brought his formerly boom-
ing business to a standstill.
Driscoll asked for a review
hearing in court, and that
kicked off nearly five years of
escalating court proceedings.
In turn, Pacific County South
District Court, Pacific County
Superior Court and the state
Court of Appeals made rul-
ings; each more favorable to
Driscoll than the last.
County Prosecutor Mark
McClain, who represents
county commissioners in civil
matters, was tight-lipped about
the case in an email.
“Not sure why Dan get-
ting a food license is news, but
OK,” McClain wrote. “My cli-
ents simply decided despite a
clear error of law and misap-
plication of the rules of appel-
late procedure, they elected to
not seek further review. I really
cannot provide more.”
Driscoll thinks County
Commissioner Lisa Olson’s
diplomatic efforts helped to
bring about the cease-fire.
“It was the first time we
made progress talking to each
other,” Driscoll said. “It’s the
first time any county commis-
sioner has been willing to talk
Trump administration
defends expansion of
Oregon monument
By MATEUSZ
PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
Attorneys for the Trump
administration are siding with
environmentalists in defend-
ing the legality of the Obama
administration’s expansion of
Oregon’s Cascade-Siskiyou
National Monument.
Shortly before leaving office
in early 2017, former President
Barack Obama increased the
monument’s size by more than
70 percent to about 114,000
acres.
The decision was met with
lawsuits by representatives of
timber companies and county
governments, who claimed a
prohibition on commercial log-
ging within the monument vio-
lated the Oregon & California
Revested Lands Act.
The monument’s enlarged
boundary includes nearly
40,000 acres of “O&C Lands”
that must be managed for tim-
ber harvest under that statute,
according to their complaints.
While the legal arguments
primarily concern logging,
ranchers who operate within the
monument also fear they’ll be
subject to grazing curtailments.
As part of a wide-ranging
review of national monument
designations, Interior Secre-
tary Ryan Zinke recommended
shrinking the Cascade-Siski-
you National Monument with-
out specifying how the bound-
aries should be adjusted.
Litigation over the expan-
sion was delayed several times
to allow the Trump administra-
tion to implement Zinke’s rec-
ommendation but was reacti-
vated earlier this year when the
government didn’t take action.
Plaintiffs in three complaints
against the federal govern-
ment — the American Forest
Resource Council, Association
of O&C Counties and Mur-
phy Co. — have filed motions
seeking to invalidate the mon-
ument’s expansion onto those
40,000 acres.
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In early 2013, the Depart-
ment of Community Develop-
ment changed the way it issues
licenses to food establish-
ments. In the past, the county
used an “a la carte” system,
where restaurant operators
paid a flat fee for the basic
license, and additional fees
based on which products and
services they offered.
In 2013, the county
switched to a system where
food businesses were required
to get a particular level of
license, “based upon knowl-
edge of the facility and findings
during inspections,” accord-
ing to a department newslet-
ter. Driscoll had previously
installed a county-approved
commercial-grade
kitchen.
Under the old system, Driscoll
was licensed to operate as a
market and small-scale restau-
rant and oyster bar. When
county staff assigned the new
licenses to existing businesses,
Driscoll was given a Level
One license. It allowed him to
make espresso drinks and sell
cold, prepackaged foods. If the
old license was equivalent to
a moving truck, Driscoll said,
the new license was a moped.
“The county specifically
told us we could not slice, por-
tion and weigh fish. They also
told us we could not chuck
oysters on demand,” Driscoll
said.
Driscoll appealed the deci-
sion in early 2014. The county
denied the appeal. In corre-
spondence with Driscoll’s
attorney, Ben Cushman, the
county said the problems with
Driscoll’s business were land
use and zoning issues, and
therefore, the health depart-
ment could not make decisions
about his food license until
those issues were resolved.
Driscoll and Cushman
asked for the necessary food
license after each court deci-
sion, but did not sue the county.
“We didn’t want to have
two separate legal issues going
on,” Driscoll explained.
Driscoll is still frustrated
over a lot of things — he thinks
the county misrepresented his
business to the public, lead-
ing people to believe that he
was not qualified to run a food
establishment. He still has an
open public records-related
lawsuit against the county, and
he’s still considering filing a
tort claim for lost income and
damage to his business. He
estimates he’s spent as much
as $250,000 on legal fees and
lost as much as $1 million in
revenue.
But with the worst of the
legal trouble behind him, and
customers once again coming
to slurp oysters and sip wine
on the deck, he’s trying to
focus on the future.
“We have declared that
the county is no longer inter-
fering with us, and we are in
recuperation mode. Whether
we’ll ever be able to recu-
Consult a
PROFESSIONAL
Q: I have a Medicare
Steve Putman
503-440-1076
Q: What causes
bad breath?
all food eaten begins
A: Basically,
to be broken down in your
Elizabeth “Lib” Moore
LEO FINZI
Lib was an active member of many Peninsula organizations in
her lifetime. The Village Club in Ocean Park that raised money for the
Ocean Park Grade School, American Legion Auxiliary, Mentor Study
Club, the Ocean Park Cemetery Association and the Altar Society of
St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Seaview, Wash. Also several cherished
groups, as a young wife, the Secret Pal Birthday Club where she and
her friends who gathered in each others homes to play bridge when
they could (also a time to have a break from being wives and Mom-
mies). She spent a lot of her retirement years helping out her daughter
and son-in-law Katie and David Williams, who lived locally, at two of
their business, Daves’ Sport Shop at the Port of Chinook, Wash., and
from 1995 to 2014 at Sweet Williams on Bay gift store in Ocean Park,
Wash.
The greatest joys of her life were children, grandchildren and
her little great-grandchildren. She is already missed by Colleen (Bill
Morse) Britt and Geoff; Katie (David Williams) Carolyn and Sam
Lord; Tracy (Betty); Bridget; Jessica and Nate Lord, Liza and Jay Tlou-
gen, Julia and Trevor, Olivia and Liam. She has six “greats,” Sammy,
Robert, Natalie, Ryder, Theo, and Rowley. Her grand and greats have
fond memories of what they called “Nana’s Beach” one in Nahcotta
and one in Klipsan Beach. Her beloved sister, Margaret; her eight
nieces and nephews and their families, Pat, Mike, Greg, Katherine and
Jim and Martha, Rae and Shelley, also survive her.
Lib brought a lot of warmth from her home state of Texas to
Washington when she moved here in 1946. She was known for her big
smile and her genuine friendliness. She really loved people, and would
often give you a big hug and kiss.
When Mom left the Peninsula with her death 72 years after she
arrived, she still believed the decision she made with her husband,
Tracy, to make their home here at the beach, was the best decision of
their lives.
Recitation of the Rosary will be held Sat., July 14th at 11 a.m.
at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Seaview. Funeral service will follow
at noon at St. Mary’s with a reception following in the church hall.
Private committal at Ocean Park Cemetery. Her guestbook is available
at www.penttilaschapel.com
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Q: Should I use heat
Lib arrived with Tracy and Colleen on the Peninsula here, for
the first time, in July 1946. Coming with them to their beach lot in
Ocean Park to tent camp were in-laws, Peg and Trace Moore; sister
and brother-in-law, Nancy and Jerry Moore, Nancy’s mother, Al and
the family dog, Nickie. The visit was supposed to be a short one to
enjoy the beach, go clamming and visit the local friends and summer
neighbors on their block.
That visit for Lib lasted 72 years. Tracy asked Lib if she would
consider not going back to California and instead living here in Ocean
Park, if he could find a job. So, they did. Colleen was eventually joined
by three more children: Katie, Tracy III and Bridget. Several years
later, Tracy and Lib bought Arthur Strand Insurance in Ilwaco where
Tracy had been employed. Lib was at home with the kids as they grew
up. Finally in 1970 she joined her husband at the insurance office. Lib
worked with Tracy until they retired in 1984.Aftering retiring, Lib and
Tracy were able to do the traveling they had always hoped to do. They
made several trips to Ireland, and England. They saw most of Europe,
also China, Indonesia, Greece, Egypt, Turkey and the Holy Land, often
traveling with good friends.
mouth. Bacteria which accumulate
with food form a sticky film called
plaque which leads to gum disease.
This process creates what is known as
volatile sulfur compounds resulting
in bad breath. Poor brushing habits,
a coated tongue, strong odor foods,
smoking and heavy alcohol drinking
all contribute to bad breath. If this
is you, do something about it by
calling your dentist to schedule an
evaluation.
Q: Can you recommend
SEASIDE — Mary Elizabeth “Lib” Moore left her beloved family,
friends and Peninsula just after midnight on July 2, 2018 just before
her 94th birthday.
Tracy left to serve in WWII in Belgium and Germany. Lib then
lived with her parents. Later, after their daughter, Colleen, was born,
Lib and Colleen moved to Westwood, Calif., to live with her in-laws,
Peg and Trace Moore, and her sister-in-law, Nancy Moore. After Tracy
came home from the war and got out of the hospital, they continued
living with Tracy’s family until he graduated in 1946 from UCLA.
year you have a Special
A: Each
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Even as a little girl, Lib was known for her friendliness. She was
always busy with school activities and with friends from school and
neighborhood kids. After graduating from St. Anthony High School,
she went on to attend two years of college at Incarnate Word College
in San Antonia, Texas. She was to start her next two years at the U of
Texas in the fall. A chance meeting of a young Army Lieutenant at
the drive-in across the street from her college changed her plans. That
October she married her soldier, Wm. Tracy Moore Jr., in Beaumont
and left with him for his training at Ft. Benning, Georgia. They had
their honeymoon in New Orleans on the way to Georgia.
Supplement policy
and was told that
I could change
companies without
having to answer
questions about my
health. Is that right?
Medicare Products
JEFFREY M. LEINASSAR
DMD, FAGD
Lib was born at her grandparents’ home in Palestine, Texas around
midnight July 20, 1924. She was the first child of Patrick Russell and
Katherine O’Connell Russell. Her beloved sister Margaret was born 15
months after Lib. The family lived briefly in Port Arthur, Texas and the
rest of the years through college in Beaumont, Texas. Though she grew
up during the depression years, she had a happy life with her sister
Margie as one of two very cherished children of Pat and Katie Russell.
perate to where we were in
2009, 2010, 2011 remains to
be seen,” Driscoll said. “But at
least we’re not fighting to pro-
tect our rights.”
He’s researching new reci-
pes, hoping to add clam chow-
der and cookies to the menu
soon.
Driscoll said he wants to
express his gratitude to the
many friends and family mem-
bers who have supported him.
“People aren’t gonna let
this location die,” he said.
or cold?
you hurt,especially in
A: If a joint,
use ice; it reduces
ASTORIA
CHIROPRACTIC
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503-325-3311
2935 Marine Drive
Astoria, Oregon
inflammation and pain and
shortens healing time. You can get
a burn from ice just like with heat,
so don’t leave it on for more than
20 minutes. Most problems get
better more quickly with ice. Heat
feels good, but may seriously
make problems worse. As long
as there is pain and/or swelling,
continue ice; it can be done as
often as once an hour. Would you
heat a cut? No, because it would
keep bleeding —that is what
happens inside where you can’t
see it.
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