REGION
Saturday, January 26, 2019
Steps to better health
Good Shepherd joins walking program
to encourage better community health
By JAYATI
RAMAKRISHNAN
East Oregonian
There’s strength in
numbers, and Good Shep-
herd Medical Center is
hoping to capitalize on
that idea as they encour-
age community members
to join them in a national
exercise challenge.
The hospital’s Educa-
tion Department has cre-
ated a team for the “Bil-
lion Steps Challenge,” an
effort by the American
Public Health Associa-
tion to get participants to
collectively walk one bil-
lion steps. The challenge
started at the beginning
of 2019, and participants
have until April 7 to join
the “Hermiston Walks”
team.
Jaime Crowell, the hos-
pital’s Community Health
Educator, said so far there
are 3,000 participants
nationwide, which have
so far reached 300 mil-
lion steps. But only fi ve
people have signed up for
the Hermiston team. The
Hermiston team’s goal is
to collectively walk 5 mil-
lion steps by the end of the
challenge.
“If you break that
down to 10,000 steps a
day, that’s only 50 people
that need to do that many
steps, for 10 days,” Crow-
ell said. “And we have
way more than 10 days
left.”
But more than reaching
the goal, Crowell said the
point of the challenge is to
get people exercising.
“It’s to show that phys-
ical activity can be fun,
and a good way to jump-
start physical activity is
through competition or
doing a challenge,” she
said.
She encouraged fam-
ilies to make their own
goals, or compete with
each other to reach a cer-
tain number of steps.
Participants can sign
up for the challenge by
creating a Movespring
account, where they can
sync their device to track
their steps. They can also
manually enter their steps,
or enter the distance they
walked or ran.
She said although the
team is named “Hermis-
ton Walks,” it’s open to
anyone in the surrounding
areas, too.
In a few months, Crow-
ell said the hospital hopes
to debut another tool that
they hope will encour-
age people to walk more
— the Northeast Oregon
Prescription Trails web-
site. The website, mod-
eled after a program in
New Mexico, will have
a catalog of local parks
and trails, with photos,
descriptions of the trails,
and things users need to
be aware of, like accessi-
bility for wheelchairs.
“Doctors,
dentists,
even veterinarians can
write prescriptions for
exercise as part of man-
agement of chronic dis-
eases,” Crowell said.
“Exercise has been proven
to be as effective if not
more in prevention of
diseases.”
She said that she hopes
the tools will help the
community shift toward
relying on exercise as
a sustainable way to
improve health.
Crowell said there are
other ways people can
learn to form healthy hab-
its if they need some extra
help. The hospital has
free classes, like a phys-
ical activity class, and a
“jumpstart weight loss
through exercise” class.
SIGN UP FOR “HERMISTON WALKS”
Go to https://link.movespring.com/join
Go to “sign up now”
Enter the organization code: APHA2019
Scroll down and click on “join team”
Search for the team name “Hermiston Walks.”
East Oregonian
A3
City announces road closure
ahead of capital plan discussion
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
A portion of South First
Street in Hermiston will be
closed for several weeks
starting Feb. 4.
The bridge over the canal
between Southeast Crest-
line Drive and Southwest
Desert Sky Drive, about a
mile south of the Hermis-
ton Agricultural Research
and Extension Center, is
expected to be closed for
about 45 days while con-
tractors replace it. Signs
will warn of the impending
detour starting Feb. 1.
According to a news
release from the city, the
existing canal crossing is
“approaching the end of
its useful life” and will be
replaced by a signifi cantly
wider box culvert.
Replacement of the
bridge has been one of the
top capital improvement
goals for the city since
2017. During Monday’s city
council meeting, the coun-
cil plans to award a bid for
another capital priority:
replacing 650 feet of sewer
line along Southeast Sev-
enth Street between Main
Street and Newport Avenue.
According to a memo in
the council’s agenda packet,
the size and condition of
the current 8-inch diame-
ter pipe presents risks from
continued development on
the south side of the city and
Staff photo by Jade McDowell
The canal bridge on South First Street between Southeast Crestline Drive and Southwest
Desert Sky Drive will be closed for about 45 days starting Feb. 4.
“has been such a concern
for surging in to homes in
the area that city crews have
installed temporary bypass
pumping here for the past
two years during the Uma-
tilla County Fair.”
The council will con-
sider a bid of $132,595
from Sineco Construction
of Hermiston. The project
would be the fi rst phase in
a larger pipe up-sizing plan
that is expected to total
about $600,000.
On Monday the city
council will consider adop-
tion of a capital improve-
ment master plan for water,
sewer and streets that the
city’s infrastructure com-
mittee has been working on
with staff for more than a
year. The fi ve-year plan lists
and prioritizes the city’s
most-needed improvements
to its 83 miles of water
main, 72 miles of sewer
pipes and 161 “lane miles”
of roadway.
Projects in the proposed
document, which city staff
anticipate could be funded
and completed by the end
of the 2023-2014 fi scal year,
have been narrowed down
to $4.4 million in water
projects, $6.5 million in
sewer projects and $7.95
million in street projects,
with more than $20 million
additional projects listed in
the appendices as possible
additions should funding
come available.
The city council meets at
7 p.m. Monday at city hall,
180 N.E. Second St.
Sheriff’s offi ce rescues men stuck in snow
East Oregonian
The Morrow County
Sheriff’s Offi ce rescued
two Heppner men after
their pickup truck got stuck
in the snow on Shaw Grade
Road.
According to a news
release from MCSO, Philip
Mullins called 911 about
8 p.m. Thursday to report
that he and Kim Martz were
stuck six or seven miles
up the southern Morrow
County road. Spotty cell-
phone service meant the
dispatcher was able to get
very little information from
Mullins, but dispatch staff
contacted family members
and discovered the men had
likely been headed to the
lookout at Chicken Springs.
A search and rescue mis-
sion was mobilized and a
command post was set up
in the area of Willow Creek
Road and Shaw Grade
Road. Sergeant Nathen
Braun and Sergeant Todd
Siex searched on snow
machines, Lieutenant Terry
Harper assisted and Hep-
pner Ambulance was put on
standby.
At 10:21 Mullins was
again able to connect with
dispatch and communicated
that he and Martz did not
have any food or water left
but had been able to stay
warm in the truck.
They were located by
Braun and Siex at few min-
utes before midnight, but
the waist-deep snow meant
it was not safe to bring them
out on the snow machines.
Heppner resident Thomas
Wolff arrived at 1:18 a.m.
with a tracked snow UTV to
assist, and the rescuers and
rescued men arrived at the
command post about 3 a.m.
They were driven back to
their residences after it was
determined they did not
need medical treatment.
“This was a great team
effort by all involved,”
Undersheriff John Bowles
wrote in a statement. “We
would like to thank Mor-
row County Dispatch, Sgt.
Braun and Sgt. Siex for a job
well done. Also thank you
to Thomas Wolff for assist-
ing with his tracked snow
UTV. Without his assis-
tance this mission would
have taken a lot longer.”
Fallen power line cancels
Umatilla High School on Friday
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
Umatilla High School stu-
dents got an extra weekend to
wrap up their assignments for
the semester after a downed
power line caused school to
be canceled Friday.
Superintendent Heidi Sipe
said a custodian entered the
high school about 5:30 a.m.
Friday to fi nd lights fl ash-
ing on and off and various
bells and alarms going off
intermittently.
“It was very clear there
was some sort of electrical
challenge,” she said.
The district called Pacifi c
Power, which determined
a fallen power line near the
school was causing the prob-
lem and would not be resolved
by the start of school. Friday
was the last day of the semes-
ter and had been planned as
a “fi nish Friday” for students
to fi nish up any remaining
assignments for the semester.
Instead, Sipe said, the semes-
ter will end Monday.
After-school programs at
the high school and middle
school were canceled for Fri-
day, but basketball was not.
Sipe said if the high school
was still having problems
when the games were sched-
uled to begin, teams would
play in the middle school
gym instead.
On Dec. 13, the high
school and middle school
were evacuated for a gas leak
at Clara Brownell Middle
School. Sipe said the district
always builds more school
days into its schedule than
required and so will not need
to make up the recent missed
days. Earlier in January there
was a power outage across
Umatilla during the school
day, but Sipe said in that case
the district opted not to send
students home early.
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Diabetes Self
Management Series
February 7 th , 14 th , 21 st & 28 th
9:30am to 11:30am
Advance Registration Required
Most Major Insurances,
Medicare, Medicaid
For more information or to register
541-278-3249
Melissa Naff , RD, LD, CDE
Diabetes Educator • 541-278-3249
2801 St. Anthony Way
Pendleton, OR 97801
www.sahpendleton.org
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