REGION
Thursday, April 18, 2019
East Oregonian
A3
‘Cooking Matters’ expands culinary classes to seniors
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
It’s never too late to learn
how to cook.
On Wednesday at the
Harkenrider Senior Activ-
ity Center in Hermiston, 16
senior citizens were steam-
ing asparagus and being
quizzed about saturated fats
at a Cooking Matters class.
Kathy Burns said she was
there because she wanted to
move beyond heating things
up in a microwave and learn
recipes that fi t diet restric-
tions her doctor had given
her.
“I’m the worst cook in
the world,” she said.
The free, six-week class
sends participants home
with a free cookbook and
ingredients for the week’s
recipes at the end of each
two-hour session.
Burns said she was glad
the senior center was will-
ing to host the classes so that
seniors can learn new skills.
She said she wished more
men were taking advan-
tage of the opportunity
(there was only one present
Wednesday) because some-
times seniors fi nd them-
Staff photo by Jade McDowell
Seniors make pasta with beans and greens during a Cooking Matters class at the Harkenrider
Senior Activity Center in Hermiston on Wednesday.
selves in a tough spot when
the spouse who does all the
cooking passes away.
Angie Treadwell, the
class’ instructor, usually
teaches Cooking Matters
classes to parents and chil-
dren as part of a partnership
between Umatilla Morrow
County Head Start, Oregon
State University Extension
and area school districts.
She said OSU plans to
expand the Cooking Matters
program to seniors over the
next few years, and seniors
Blue Mountain Wildlife hits
its $50,000 fundraising goal
East Oregonian
Blue Mountain Wild-
life’s capital fundraising
campaign is called “Soar
Higher,” but the wild bird
rehabilitation center ended
up soaring higher than
anticipated.
Beginning in Febru-
ary, the nonprofi t asked
people to donate money to
help improve Blue Moun-
tain Wildlife’s facilities
south of Pendleton. Member
Linda Wolcott would match
each dollar donated up to
$25,000.
But Blue Mountain Wild-
life announced in a news-
letter Sunday that it had
exceeded its goal, raising
$27,937. Including Wolcott’s
match, that means the rehab
center has raised nearly
$53,000.
Blue Mountain Wildlife
will continue raising money
through Saturday, but the
organization is already turn-
ing its mind toward celebrat-
ing its success. Fittingly, the
nonprofi t will celebrate by
releasing a red-tailed hawk
at Wild Birds Unlimited in
Richland, Washington, on
Saturday.
The newsletter states that
the proceeds from the fund-
raiser will go toward new
display pens for its “ambas-
sador birds,” permanent
residents at the rehab cen-
ter who are used for educa-
tional purposes, a move that
will open up four fl ight pens
for birds on the mend.
Ultimately, Blue Moun-
tain Wildlife hopes that
“Soar Higher” will be a
part of a larger fundrais-
ing drive that will help the
nonprofi t add a new wild-
life hospital, indoor and
outdoor classrooms, care-
taker housing, and intern
housing.
Committee starts artist selection
process for vets memorial
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
It’s been more than two
years since the Veterans of
Foreign Wars Let ‘er Buck
Post 922 presented their idea
for a veterans memorial to
the Pendleton City Council,
and it could be another year
and a half before the idea
comes to fruition.
The VFW in partner-
ship with the city is making
progress on the project, said
Charles Denight, the chair-
man of the Pendleton Arts
Committee.
The arts committee will
meet April 25 at the Pend-
leton Center for the Arts to
discuss putting out a request
for qualifi cations for artists
to design the installation.
Once the committee has
received all submissions,
Denight said it will narrow
its list of qualifi ed artists to
three fi nalists, who will sub-
mit concept art of the memo-
rial. He said the committee
wants to involve the public
in the selection process.
Although the artists will
presumably put their own
spin on the project, the basic
idea for the memorial is set.
Located at a dormant
fountain near the intersec-
tion of Highway 11 and
Southeast Court Avenue, the
memorial is supposed to fea-
ture fi ve, 16-inch medallions
placed on basalt columns,
each medallion representing
a branch of the military. The
columns will be placed in a
circular formation that sur-
rounds a piece of art that is
designed by the artist.
The request for qualifi -
cations includes mention
of the memorial’s $123,753
price tag, but the exact
breakdown of how the city
is going to pay for it is an
open question.
Organizers have already
crossed some things off
their checklist: the VFW
has acquired the basalt col-
umns while the city coun-
cil agreed to buy the fi ve
bronze medallions in 2018.
But how much more
money will come from the
city’s art fund — a fund
derived from a small ear-
mark in the lodging room
tax — depends on how much
money the project is able to
raise in private fundraising.
Denight said the fund-
raising effort will start this
summer when organizers
approach individuals about
contributing to the project.
Once the committee selects
an artist and a design is
approved, the fundraising
campaign will be expanded
to include the public.
The committee plans to
collect all requests for qual-
ifi cations by Sept. 20, select
a fi nalist by March 1, 2020,
and hold a dedication cer-
emony for the completed
memorial in January 2021.
Denight said the timeline
is intended to give the artist
time to design, create, and
install the memorial.
While
the
veterans
memorial is still more than a
year down the road, the arts
committee is already look-
ing ahead to future sites for
public art.
The committee will
spend part of their next
meeting prioritizing vari-
ous spots that members have
visited for potential new art
including areas around the
airport, a lot near the Rotary
sign on Eastgate, a fi eld in
front of the driveway lead-
ing up to Blue Mountain
Community College, and an
Interstate 84 overpass.
in Hermiston are helping
to pilot the idea thanks to a
generous grant from Lamb
Weston. Each week she gets
feedback from class mem-
bers — portion sizes are too
large, there aren’t enough
lactose-free options — and
passes it on to the university.
“We’re trying to fi nd out
what seniors want,” she said.
Treadwell said there are
many health issues seniors
face that are preventable
with the right diet. Often as
people age they start feel-
ing like it’s not worth cook-
ing for just themselves, or
they suddenly fi nd them-
selves with special dietary
needs they don’t know how
to cook for.
“Nutrition is so import-
ant in older adults,” she said.
“It can make a huge differ-
ence in medical costs.”
Cooking classes provide
a social outlet too. Lupe
Housden said she ended up
in the class because a friend
signed her up.
“It’s always nice to have
a group to cook with,” she
said.
Housden said she has
also learned a lot about how
to read labels on food, and
the importance of whole
grains.
On Wednesday Tread-
well started off by asking
participants if their cook-
ing habits had changed after
their fi rst two classes. One
woman said she had made
Hermiston breaks ground
on new water tower
By JAYATI
RAMAKRISHNAN
East Oregonian
A small crowd turned
up at the northeast edge of
Hermiston on Wednesday,
to see the site where a water
tower will soon stand.
City councilors and
county
commissioners
broke ground on a site at
Northeast 10th Street and
East Punkin Center Road,
where crews will start
working on a $4.1 million
water storage and system
expansion project.
It’s expected to accom-
modate more than 1,000
new homes in Hermiston
in the next 10 years.
The project will be
funded by a partner-
ship between the city and
Umatilla County, with the
county dedicating $2 mil-
lion over four years. The
city will furnish the rest of
the costs.
Additionally, the Infra-
structure Finance Author-
ity will loan $500,000 to
the city and to the county
each year, starting in sum-
mer of 2020, as part of the
two entities’ enterprise
zone agreement.
City Manager Byron
Smith said they hope con-
struction on the mil-
lion-gallon water tank will
be done by the end of 2019.
The project will include
installation of about 2 miles
of water main, in the neigh-
borhoods of East Theater
Lane, between Northeast
Fourth and Northeast 10th
Staff photo by Jayati Ramakrishnan
Hermiston city councilors and Umatilla County commis-
sioners break ground on a site in Northeast Hermiston
where a new water tower will soon be constructed.
streets, along Northeast
10th between Theater Lane
and Punkin Center Road,
and East Punkin Center
Road between Northeast
Fourth and 10th. The proj-
ect is expected to be com-
pleted in mid-2020.
Hermiston Mayor David
Drotzmann said the new
water tower will mean
Hermiston can accommo-
date more people, and keep
up with overall growth.
He said the location of the
water tower will make it
feasible for developers to
build homes on about 300
acres of residential land
that previously wouldn’t
have had adequate access
to water.
“This is about address-
ing one of the coun-
cil’s main goals,” he said.
“Affordable housing for the
Dr Reddy is
now accepting
new patients.
Board Certifi cation: Board Certifi ed
American Board of Internal Medicine
Education: Unity St Mary’s Campus,
Bangalore Medical College
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community. It’ll allow us
to keep employees here in
town, recruit people. When
we work with our partners
at the county and the school
district, amazing things
can happen.”
Umatilla County Com-
missioner George Murdock
said the city is capitaliz-
ing on its location, and its
resources.
“In terms of agricul-
ture, we are clearly one
of Oregon’s most produc-
tive regions,” he said. “We
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the kind of partnership we
are celebrating here today.
Umatilla County is proud
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construction of a thousand
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the previous week’s rec-
ipe and had so many left-
overs she shared with her
neighbors. Another said she
made one of the recipes but
it didn’t turn out well. A
third said she had put her
own spin on it with ingredi-
ents she had at home.
One recipe — a south-
west-style Cowboy Salad
— was so popular that the
senior center is adding it to
their lunch menu.
After discussing recipes
Treadwell taught the group
about different types of fats
and how to look for health-
ier ones. She answered a
variety of questions about
the health of different foods
and summed up her advice
as eating food “as close to
the form nature gave you as
possible and using modera-
tion in all things.”
During the hands-on
portion of the class, the
group worked together to
make pasta with beans and
greens, and ginger aspara-
gus using fresh local aspar-
agus from Walchli Farms.
Ingredients for both recipes
were waiting for them in a
take-home bag at the end of
class.
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