REGION
Friday, July 28, 2017
East Oregonian
Page 3A
HERMISTON
Bill could shed
Super sleuths team up to find medallion
light on wireless
coverage gaps
By TAMMY MALGESINI
East Oregonian
The early bird catches the worm
— and, in the case of two Hermiston
families — finds the golden medallion.
Members of the Lindley and South
families, who are neighbors, have been
participating in the Hermiston National
Night Out treasure hunt for 10 years.
The super sleuths, who also found the
medallion in 2015, located the hidden
treasure among rocks in a metal sculp-
ture of cattails, which is across the street
from Nookie’s/Hermiston Brewing Co.
“We went down to the store every
morning and took turns buying the
paper,” said Allison Lindley. “We all sat
around with our newspapers and read
the clues and talked about it.”
The group included Phil and Allison
Lindley and their son, Devan, 18, along
with the Matt and Rondi South family,
with their children Berek, 13, Hailey,
12, and Preston, 11.
The first clue, Allison said, didn’t
really give them much direction, but
they would search public areas in
hopes they would stumble on the trea-
sure. After reading the bonus clue in
Wednesday’s Hermiston Herald — with
references to Ted Nugent’s song, “Cat
Scratch Fever,” they were confident the
medallion wasn’t hidden by the river.
Keying in on the word “track” and
“Maxwell” in Clue No. 2, the would-be
detectives surmised it had to be some-
where near the railroad tracks along
Highway 395. The Maxwell Siding
Railroad Museum and the Maxwell
Siding Event Center provided a search
perimeter for the group.
Nearly a mile-long stretch, things
heated up as the group searched for
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
Staff photo by Tammy Malgesini
Members of the Lindley and South families gather around a statue of
cattails along Highway 395 near Nookie’s in Hermiston. It’s where they
found the golden medallion during Hermiston’s National Night Out
treasure hunt.
nearly five hours on Wednesday.
Finally, as the sun stated to dip below
the horizon, the group went home.
“We were looking in bushes and
everything,” said Matt. “It was hot and
we got all scratched up.”
Knowing they would need to get
a jump on other treasure hunters, they
crawled out of bed early Thursday
morning to go buy a newspaper —
finding the medallion before 7 a.m.
After reading the third clue, with
references about dialing (there’s a
Rotary sign nearby) and a bank (Banner
Bank), Allison said it donned on them
that the bonus clue referring to Typha,
the scientific name for cattails, meant
the statue — not actual plants.
The Hermiston Police Department
and city officials are treating the group’s
neighborhood to an ice cream social
block party for National Night Out. The
festivities are Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the
1300 block of Southwest 10th Street.
———
Contact Community Editor Tammy
Malgesini at tmalgesini@eastorego-
nian.com or 541-564-4539
HERMISTON
Good Shepherd welcomes new pediatrician
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
Hermiston-area parents looking
to get their child in for a physical
and vaccinations before school starts
will see more appointment options
open up after Good Shepherd Health
Care System hired pediatrician Allan
Damian.
Damian is now accepting patients
at Good Shepherd Medical Group
Pediatrics office located at 600 N.W.
11th St., Suite E-33.
He has been working at Texas Tech
University Health Sciences Center in
El Paso as a pediatrician and clinical
assistant professor in the pediatrics
department. He also completed his
internship and residency there.
In a news release, Damien called
pediatrics his calling after he did one
of his first rotations in neonatology.
“What immediately fascinated
me was an experience of a 24-week
old baby in the Neonatal Intensive
Care Unit (NICU),” he wrote. “I
was amazed at how a child so small
was able to thrive and succeed and
eventually make it home. Years later
I remember this same child walking
into my office for a physical exam.
What a great privilege and honor
as a doctor to be able to hold these
precious lives in our hands and to
care for children. In some cases, I
was the first human contact many
of these children ever had — even
before their parents. I feel that I am
a child’s first line of defense which is
just amazing.”
Damian said he is an advocate
for living an active lifestyle with
a healthy diet, and prides himself
on being thorough in his visits with
patients. Outside of work his hobbies
include CrossFit, collecting die-cast
model airplanes and participating
in outdoor activities like hiking and
fishing.
To schedule an appointment call
541-667-3740.
Contributed photo by Good Shepherd Health Care System
Allan Damian
BRIEFLY
Class takes steps to
healthier lifestyle
PENDLETON — People
who are tipping the scales
or who need guidance in
managing their weight are
invited to participate in a
program at St. Anthony
Hospital.
An orientation session
for LifeSteps® Weight
Management is Tuesday,
Aug. 8 from 5:30-6:30 p.m.
at the hospital, 2801 St.
Anthony Way, Pendleton.
The 14-week course starts
Tuesday, Aug. 22.
According to Christine
Guenther, a registered
dietitian nutritionist and the
group leader, the program
provides an opportunity
for anyone who struggles
with weight loss to
join others with similar
challenges in a safe and
supportive environment.
LifeSteps, Guenther
said, works because it
is grounded in science,
and it stresses personal
choice, responsibility and
accountability, she said.
“The program recognizes
that everyone is unique, with
different exercise and eating
habits, weight loss goals and
daily schedules,” she said.
Participants learn various
aspects of healthy eating,
benefits of physical activity
and strategies for challenging
situations from dining out
to emotional eating. Most
importantly, Guenther said, it
puts people in charge of their
eating and activities.
For more information,
contact Guenther at
christineguenther@chiwest.
com or 541-278-3235.
both cars with damage to
the front end. One person
sustained minor injuries
in the crash, but declined
medical help. The driver
of the pickup was cited for
disobeying a traffic control
device, a stop sign.
There are parts of
Eastern Oregon where a cell
phone is a little more than
an overqualified clock.
Large swaths of rural
Oregon don’t have cell
phone service, but exactly
how much is subject to
interpretation — an fact that
has caught congressional
attention.
On Thursday, U.S. Sen.
Ron Wyden announced
his support for the Rural
Wireless Access Act of
2017, a bill that takes initial
steps toward identifying
gaps in cell service and
wireless internet coverage
throughout rural Oregon.
“Wireless coverage is
essential for law enforce-
ment
and
healthcare
providers
to
respond
quickly to life-and-death
situations and for precision
agriculture as well as small
mom-and-pop businesses
to communicate with their
customers in the global
economy,” Wyden said in
a statement. “Simply put,
the reliability of wireless
coverage data maps must
be improved for the safety
and well-being of rural
Oregonians.”
The bill, sponsored by
U.S. Reps. Dave Loebsack,
D-Iowa, and Ryan Costello,
R-Penn., directs the Federal
Communications Commis-
sion to create a methodology
to collect mobile service
data around the country.
As a local legislator and
a economic development
professional, Greg Smith is
familiar with the coverage
gaps affecting rural areas.
The Heppner Repub-
lican’s
House
district
includes two of the most
sparsely populated counties
in Oregon — Gilliam and
Sherman counties. As
the officer of the board
for the Wheeler County
Development Corp., Smith
has also been involved in
trying to bring broadband
to Oregon’s least populated
county.
Smith also mentioned
the southern portions of
Umatilla and Morrow
counties as having poor
service. He said a lack of
wireless service primarily
hurts those communities in
two areas — public safety
and economic development.
If someone gets into a
car accident on a remote
highway, there’s a chance
their emergency call might
not make it to the dispatcher.
“Unfortunately,
lives
and property are lost in the
process,” Smith said.
Wireless infrastructure
“The reliability of
wireless coverage
data maps must
be improved for
the safety and
well-being of ru-
ral Oregonians.”
— Sen. Ron Wyden
is also a requirement for
employers looking to locate
into some of these rural
areas.
Mike
Smith,
the
marketing director of
Condon-based
Frontier
TeleNet, said improving
these services are difficult
to do without an accurate
coverage map.
Frontier
TeleNet
provides telecommunica-
tions services to Wheeler,
Gilliam, Sherman and
Jefferson counties, a group
Smith refers to as “frontier
counties” because of their
relative sparseness.
“If I want to go a day
without phone calls, I just
go to Wheeler County,” he
said.
While these counties
might be small in popu-
lation, Mike Smith said a
lack of wireless service also
affects the people traveling
through these communities,
which is sometimes double
the local population.
Mike Smith said one of
the hurdles in improving
wireless service in these
areas is a lack of accurate
maps that depict coverage
gaps.
While
wireless
providers create their own
maps, he said they are
often inaccurate and overly
generous.
The Frontier TeleNet
executive has been tracking
the Rural Wireless Access
Act and recently spoke with
Wyden’s office on how
to accurately determine
coverage gaps in Oregon’s
frontier counties.
Mike Smith’s suggestion
is to crowdsource that infor-
mation, asking local citizens
where wireless service
worked the best and where
it doesn’t work at all.
Mike Smith is encour-
aged that there is bipartisan
support for the bill, which
was sent to the House of
Representatives Energy and
Commerce Committee after
it was introduced in March.
“You don’t really under-
stand the problem until you
understand what’s wrong,”
he said.
———
Contact Antonio Sierra
at asierra@eastoregonian.
com or 541-966-0836.
Minor injuries
from fender-bender
HERMISTON — A
two-car motor vehicle
accident briefly blocked
traffic in Hermiston on
West Ridgeway Avenue and
Northwest 2nd Street around
3 p.m. Thursday afternoon.
The accident, between a
white Chevrolet pickup and
a black Dodge Charger, left
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• The East Oregonian won
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time in the past seven years
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Best Overall Website and placed
second in General Excellence
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Sweepstakes award as best
associate member publication
group
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