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M IDWEEK E DITION
A12
Official Newspaper, City of Hood River and Hood River County
HOOD RIVER, OREGON
■
Vol. 109, No. 36
WEDNESDAY, MAY 6, 2015
75 cents
2 Sections, 24 Pages
www.hoodrivernews.com
Gorge Scenic Area stars in
expanded Google Maps
With dramatic waterfalls, moun-
tain peaks, alpine lakes and the
magnificent Columbia River and
Gorge, the Columbia River Gorge
National Scenic Area in Oregon
and Washington is one of the Unit-
ed States most spectacular natural
areas. Google is celebrating this
Earth Day by sharing the region
with a global audience through the
launch on Goo gle Maps of
panoramic images from 20 sites
throughout the Columbia River
Gorge and Hood River County.
T he ima g es were captured
through the Google Maps Trekker
program, which outfitted volun-
teers from the Hood River Chamber
of Commerce with
wearable Trekker
backpacks. T he
A10 –
Chamber staff then
Where
set out on foot to
Trekker
capture some of the
takes you.
region’s most spec-
tacular (and car-
free) areas, from the Wahclella
Falls Trail, which takes hikers to
one of the Gorge’s most powerful
waterfalls, to the side of Mount
Hood via the Cooper Spur Trail, to
Rowena Plateau, with its spectacu-
lar views of the Columbia River
Gorge. The Columbia River Gorge
is the first region in the Pacific
Northwest to be highlighted by
Google Maps Trekker.
“We’re thrilled that Google chose
the beautiful Columbia River Na-
tional Scenic Area for its first Pa-
cific Northwest Google Trekker
project. Now anyone, anywhere in
the world, can explore this breath-
See TREKKER, Page A10
NEW HOME FOR FISH
Submitted photo
A HIKER mounts up with a special camera that will take panoramic images of
the Columbia River Gorge for Google Maps.
Local doctor urges
fluoridation at
national conference
By PATRICK MULVIHILL
News staff writer
A retired surgeon from Hood
River, Dr. Charles Haynie, spoke at
a national oral health conference
in Kansas City, Mo., last Sunday,
advocating water fluoridation for
dental health.
Haynie filled in dental leaders
from around the nation on the pol-
itics of fluoridation in communi-
ty water supplies at the annual
American Association of Commu-
nity Dental Programs Sympo-
sium, part of the National Oral
Health Conference held in Kansas
City.
Haynie described it as “preach-
ing to the choir,” because most of
the health professionals present
supported fluoride as a water ad-
ditive in some capacity.
“My fluoridation advocacy
began as a small town surgeon
and city councilor. I saw too many
cases of dental devastation that
could have been prevented by
proper fluoridation,” said Haynie.
The former surgeon argued
that low-income families can’t af-
ford the costs of fluoride supple-
ments, which are required to pre-
vent expensive cavities. He said
one molar cavity costs about
$6,000 to fill, while fluoridated tap
water would cost a family less
CALEB BELL carries Irene Best’s fa-
vorite yellow stool, one of the final
items to depart the long-tike FISH food
bank home in Concordia Lutheran
Church on the Heights.
On Monday Bell and other Ryan Juice
Company volunteers helped FISH vol-
unteers move the last shelves, tables,
chairs, bulletin boards and bags of food
from the June Street location, home for
the past 12 years, to FISH’s new $1 mil-
lion headquarters on Tucker Road next
to Asbury Our Redeemer Lutheran
Church. Food bank patrons now go to
the Tucker Road location for food,
where they will choose their goods in a
supermarket shopping system (photo
at right, as volunteers get a tour.)
The yellow stool has been at the food
bank since its early days, and was the
favorite perch of the late Irene Best, a
food bank founder. New furniture,
along with nearly-new equipment such
as shelving donated by Hood River
Supply, will be in use at the expanded
food bank site. The Odell, Parkdale and
Cascade Locks sites continue to oper-
ate on the same schedule. One of the
Hood River freezers is being moved to
the Cascade Locks site. Additional
photo on A10.
than three cents per gallon.
Haynie is a former Hood River
city councilor and surgeon.
Haynie grew up in Milton-Freewa-
ter, attended Whitman College in
nearby Walla Walla, then went on
to study at University of Oregon
Medical School and University of
Mississippi at Columbia. He
served nine years in the U.S. Navy,
plying his surgical craft in Wash-
ington, D.C., before moving to
Hood River in 1977.
Haynie served as a city coun-
cilor from 1999 to 2005. During his
last year in office, Haynie intro-
duced the idea of a ballot measure
for water fluoridation at the No-
vember 2004 election, which asked
citizens to vote on the additive.
The Hood River Drinking Water
Protection political action com-
mittee, made up of Hood River cit-
izens, asked that the city charter
be amended to prohibit the addi-
tion of industrial waste by-prod-
ucts to city water and that the U.S.
Environmental
Protection
Agency’s (EPA) Maximum Conta-
minant Level Goals be applied to
the water supply. The committee
successfully passed the initiative
in March 2005, and the ballot mea-
sure was dropped by the city in
August 2005.
See FLUORIDE, Page A10
Trailer rollover closes
I-84 near Hood River
By PATRICK MULVIHILL
News staff writer
A flipped trailer closed west-
bound Interstate 84 near Hood
River at milepost 49 for nearly
four hours Sunday. Traffic was
backed up for roughly four miles.
No injuries were reported. Ac-
cording to a report from Oregon
State Police Lieutenant Josh
Brooks, the trailer driver, Michael
Glenn Mulks, 59, of Mesa, Ari-
zona was traveling westbound in
the fast lane, moving into the slow
lane when he lost control of the
vehicle. The vehicle smashed into
the guardrail, flipped on its side,
then came to rest in the way of
traffic. The driver and the passen-
ger, Laura Mulks, 57, also of Mesa,
Photos by Kirby Neumann-Rea
were uninjured.
Oregon State Police and Oregon
Department of Transportation of-
ficials responded to the scene at
about 2:15 Sunday afternoon and
closed off both Westbound lanes.
Shortly after, ODOT officials al-
lowed traffic to pass on the right
shoulder. All lanes were reopened
shortly before 5:30 p.m., said
ODOT spokesman Don Hamilton.
The vehicles were towed by
River’s Edge Towing out of Hood
River. In another traffic hazard, a
hole on westbound I-84 near
Troutdale caused ODOT to close
the right lane for safety reasons.
Delays were expected and the lane
was scheduled to stay closed until
Tuesday.
Four To Go
Bridge lane closures scheduled
FFA plant sale May 9
The Port of Hood River announces that the Hood
River-White Salmon Interstate Bridge will have sin-
gle lane closures for the entire week of May 11-15
between the hours of 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. each day.
Commuters using the bridge during those hours
should expect up to 15 minute delays. Port of Hood
River facilities maintenance crews will be perform-
ing maintenance welding to the bridge deck. Flag-
gers will be stationed on the northbound and south-
bound lanes of the bridge to direct traffic. For more
information contact the Port of Hood River office at
541-386-1645 or via
email to
porthr@gorge.net.
The Hood River Valley FFA
chapter is hosting its annual
Plant Sale Saturday, May 9,
and Sunday, May 10, from 9
a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Green-
house, located at Hood River
Valley High School, 1220 Indi-
an Creek Road.
Students will have annuals
to fill your baskets, bedding
plants, vegetable starts and
cedar plant identification
stakes for sale.
7
05105 97630
3
Dine Out for
a Cure May 11
Master Gardener
Spring Plant Sale
In support of the American
Cancer Society’s Relay For
Life of the Columbia Gorge
team, Pietro’s Pizza and
Gallery of Games is donating
20 percent of the restaurant’s
proceeds all day on May 11.
Diners — in and out — must
say they are dining for Relay
For Life for the group to re-
ceive the donation. For more
info, contact Terry Joyer 541-
399-2081 or tjoyer@charter.net.
The annual OSU Central
Gorge Master Gardener Spring
Plant Sale will be held on Satur-
day, May 9, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
in the Learning Garden on the
OSU Extension Grounds, 2990
Experiment Station Road in
Hood River, rain or shine.
Plants include over 3,000 veg-
etable starts, flowering perenni-
als, native trees and shrubs,
ground covers, herbs and orna-
mental grasses. Proceeds help to fund the Central Gorge
Master Gardener Association and its programs.