REGION
Saturday, November 20, 2021
East Oregonian
A3
New gym in Hermiston invites people to return to training
By ERICK PETERSON
East Oregonian
HERMISTON — Having
recently opened a new gym,
personal trainer Toni Piek has
been seeing people who are
excited to start training again.
Piek is the owner of
Elevate Fitness Studio, 2120
First St., Hermiston, which
opened Oct. 3. This is the fi rst
time she has opened a gym.
She was training three
customers in one session the
morning of Thursday, Nov.
18, and they expressed happi-
ness about Piek, her gym and
their workouts.
“My body told me I needed
it,” Pam Hefner said about
working out.
She said she used to train at
the gym before the pandemic,
back before it was closed
under a diff erent name and
different ownership. Then,
she changed her lifestyle,
doing some walking and
Zoom workouts, but it was
not the same as being in the
gym, she said.
She added she missed the
gym, is glad to be back and is
happy with Piek as a trainer.
The other two women train-
ing with her expressed the
same feelings.
“Toni is such an awesome
trainer,” Connie Burke said.
And Geneva Timpy agreed
but added, “She cuts me no
slack.”
Exercise provided Timpy
with stress relief, she said.
Yoga, in particular, provided
her a way for dealing with the
diffi cult time we have all been
facing since we fi rst heard of
the coronavirus.
“The last couple of years
have been tough,” Piek said.
She expressed her hope that
her gym could raise people’s
Erick Peterson/East Oregonian
Geneva Timpy, Toni Piek, Connie Burke and Pam Hefner take
a break from a training session Thursday, Nov. 18, 2021, to
pose for a photo in Piek’s new Hermiston gym.
spirits in addition to improv-
ing their health. Therefore,
she said, she named the
gym “Elevate.”
For Piek, exercise is a
great helper, she said, and she
Downtown parking still
available, city study says
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
PENDLETON — Down-
town Pendleton parking lots
are fuller than they have been
in the past, but open parking
remains ample, according to a
study the Pendleton Develop-
ment Commission conducted.
At a Tuesday, Nov. 16,
meeting, Charles Denight, the
commission’s associate direc-
tor, and Patrick Holzman,
an associate working for
the city through Ameri-
Corps’ Resource Assistance
for Rural Environments
program, presented their
fi ndings.
Denight and Holzman
did a windshield count of
every on-street and off -street
parking spot between South-
west First Street and South-
east First Street, and Frazer
Avenue and Byers Avenue, in
addition to the public parking
lot near the Pendleton Center
for the Arts, at 11 a.m. and
3 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 14
and Saturday, Oct. 16. The
study excluded private park-
ing lots like the lots belonging
to Zimmerman & Company
True Value and Old West
Federal Credit Union.
On both days, the vacancy
rate was 63% in the morning.
In the afternoon, the vacancy
rate was 64% on Oct. 14 and
70% on Oct. 16. Compared to
the last time the commission
conducted this study in 2017,
the overall 2021 rates were
lower, though still far above
50%.
Broken down by location,
the 200 block of Southwest
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
Parked cars line the road Friday, Nov. 19, 2021, on South Main
Street in Pendleton. The Pendleton Development Commis-
sion in a recent study found downtown parking is fuller than
it has been in the past but an ample number of parking spac-
es remain available.
First Street and the nearby
Crabby’s parking lot had the
heaviest traffi c and were the
only areas where the vacancy
rate was below 25% overall.
At the other end of the spec-
trum, parking lots on the
outskirts of the downtown
core — the art center park-
ing lot, the Eagles parking
lot and the Pendleton Cham-
ber of Commerce parking lot
— were all more than 75%
vacant regardless of date or
time of day.
“We have more people
driving and parking down-
town now than in 2017, which
would indicate that there’s
more economic activity,”
Holzman said.
City Manager Robb
Corbett added the lower
parking vacancy rates could
be attributed to new apart-
ments downtown. Since 2018,
developer Al Plute has been
converting the second and
third fl oors of the Bowman
Building from offi ce space to
apartment units.
Mayor John Turner said
the study seemed to run
counter to some residents’
claims that they can’t find
any parking downtown,
but Councilor McKennon
McDonald encouraged staff
to study the parking lots at
night when people travel to
the downtown area to dine.
“Pretty much every night
that I drive down Main Street,
there are very, very few slots
in the evenings,” she said. “I
feel like that’s when people
make comments and then
people are less likely to want
to park in a lot because it’s
further and the lighting has
always been something that
comes up.”
Pendleton Children’s Center
receives support from OCF
East Oregonian
PENDLETON — Oregon
Community Foundation
announced Thursday, Nov.
18, it granted $904,220 to
30 Oregon-based nonprofi ts
through its GO (Giving Oppor-
tunities to) Kids initiative.
Funds were awarded to
organizations that are working
to close the “opportunity gap”
for children from low-income
families, communities of color
and rural areas.
Pendleton Children’s
Center is the recipient of a
$100,000 GO Kids grant to
support its work to build a new
child care center. The funding
is renewable in 2022, accord-
ing to a press release from the
center, and will total $200,000
over two years.
Pendleton Children’s
Center, a 501©(3) nonprofit
organization, was established
in 2019 to solve the communi-
ty’s child care shortage, with a
mission to provide high-qual-
ity, aff ordable care to benefi t
working families and enhance
the economic vitality of Pend-
leton.
The organization is work-
ing toward acquiring prop-
erty to remodel for a child care
center. Eventually, it plans to
have capacity for 150 infants,
toddlers and preschoolers.
According to the press release,
the center’s board of directors
has contracted with Brittney
Jackson, long-time Pendleton
child care provider, to be the
administrator to get the center
up and running.
In addition to the $200,000
GO Kids funding, Pendleton
Children’s Center also reported
it recently received grants of
$50,000 from the John and
Ginger Niemeyer Founda-
tion, $1,000 from the Ward
Family Fund and $750 from the
Walmart Community Grants
Team and Facility No. 2492.
“Our board is so grate-
ful for all the support we
have received from Oregon
Community Foundation, the
Niemeyers, the Ward Family,
and Walmart,” said Kath-
ryn Brown, secretary-trea-
surer of Pendleton Children’s
Center and the vice president
of the EO Media Group, the
parent company of the East
Oregonian. “This is a great
start to our capital campaign.
We know that this project will
be of lasting benefi t to Pend-
leton’s children, families and
economy.”
For more information
about Pendleton Children’s
Center and how you can help
its efforts, contact Brittney
Jackson at director@pend-
letonchildrenscenter.org or
541-429- 0553. You also can
fi nd more about the center at
www.pendletonchildrenscen-
ter.org and on Facebook at
www.facebook.com/Pendle-
tonChildrensCenter.
told of her own history with
it. She said she has not been
fi t all of her life. Though she
was active and played basket-
ball in her youth, she did not
start working out until after
she had kids.
Then, she went to a gym,
dropped the kids off in the
gym’s kids room and trained,
she said. It helped her both
mentally and emotionally, as
it relieved her stress, she said.
Having now trained for
15 years, she is a National
Academy of Sports Medi-
cine certifi ed personal trainer
with a work history in physi-
cal therapy. Her work includes
employment at Wheatland
Village in Walla Walla, and
she has been working with
seniors for the past three
years, she said.
These days, she gets up
at around 4 a.m. for her fi rst
appointment 90 minutes later
three days a week. By early
afternoon, she has a break,
but she returns to work in the
evening for additional classes.
“It’s not work if you love
what you do,” she said.
And she added most of her
clients range in age from their
30s to their 70s and are trying
to fi nd the same of peace of
mind she sought when she
started training.
Piek is not off ering an open
gym membership in which
people enter any time for
workouts. Rather, she accepts
clients for personal train-
ing sessions, group work or
classes. In addition to classes
she off ers, she also has a yoga
class and a cardio class, which
other instructors teach. And
another trainer comes in to
train young people for sports.
Owning the gym excites
and frightens her, she said.
“Everybody wishes that
they could have their own
place to call her own shots,
but it’s scary,” she said.
She also said people have
supported her, and she is
appreciative.
LOCAL BRIEFS
Collision sends
tractor driver to
hospital
MILTON-FR EEWA-
TER — A man driving farm
equipment Tuesday morn-
ing, Nov. 16, on County Road
just outside Milton-Freewa-
ter was hit from behind by a
vehicle.
A woman driving a car
collided with the back of the
tractor, which had a mower
attached. The force of the
collision caused the trac-
tor to fl ip over, according to
Chief Rick Saager with the
Milton-Freewater Rural Fire
District.
Saager said his crew
responded to the collision at
about 7:35 a.m. and closed
the road for 20 minutes to
move the tractor safely out
of the way of traffi c.
The man, who was not
identified, was taken by
ambulance to Providence St.
Mary Medical Center, Walla
Walla, and was treated and
released.
The woman driving the
car suffered no injuries,
Saager added.
Police: SUV strike
on local off ender
‘intentional’
HERMISTON — Herm-
iston police Monday, Nov.
15, arrested Carlos Barra-
gan in connection to a felony
theft case, and now police
are looking for the suspect
who smashed into Barragan
with a Hummer H2.
Police Chief Jason
Edmiston reported the colli-
sion took place at 6:39 p.m.
Nov. 17 while Barragan, 43,
was riding his bicycle on
West Orchard Avenue near
Southwest 11th Street (High-
way 207).
“I can say based on video
evidence, this was not acci-
dental, it was clearly inten-
tional,” Edmiston said.
An ambulance took
David Prock/Contributed Photo
A vehicle Tuesday morning, Nov. 16, 2021, struck farm
equipment from behind on County Road just outside Mil-
ton-Freewater.
Barragan to Good Shepherd
Medical Center, Hermiston,
according to Edmiston, and
later an emergency craft
fl ew him to Legacy Emanuel
Medical Center, Portland,
for his non-life-threatening
injuries.
Police do not know who
was driving the large SUV,
but the department issued an
attempt-to-locate notice for
a yellow Hummer H2 with
possible front-end damage.
Edmiston also said the
hospital reported on the
morning of Nov. 18 that
Barragan was stable and
awaiting surgery.
Barragan is well-known
to local law enforcement.
Capturing Barragan on
Nov. 15 at his father’s home
while he was trying to hide
in a crawl space marked the
15th time Hermiston police
arrested him, Edmiston said.
And Barragan in 2009
helped set up the largest
illegal marijuana crop in
Grant County. Two years
later in federal court he
pleaded guilty to conspiracy
to manufacture and deliver
more than 1,000 marijuana
plants.
No print paper
on Thanksgiving
holiday
PENDLETON — In
observance of the Thanks-
giving holiday, the East
Oregonian will not publish
a print edition on Thursday,
Nov. 25.
“It’s a chance to give our
employees an opportunity to
spend an uninterrupted holi-
day with their families,” said
EO editor Andrew Cutler.
The EO will publish an
expanded edition, includ-
ing additional comics and
puzzle features as well as
the weekly GO! magazine,
on Tuesday, Nov. 23.
An e-edition only paper
will be published on Thanks-
giving and will be available
to paid subscribers through
the East Oregonian website,
www.eastoregonian.com.
The Thanksgiving e-edition
will include local stories, an
opinion page and sports.
To make sure you are
subscribed to the e-edition:
• Log on to www.eastore-
gonian.com/users/forgot,
enter your email address and
click “I’m not a robot” then
“Reset Password.”
• An email will be sent to
you with a link to click on,
click on the link.
• A website will popup to
enter your new password.
• You’re all set.
For questions or prob-
lems, call the EO Media
Group customer service line
at 800-781-3214.
— EO Media Group
and Walla-Walla Union
Bulletin
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