UMATILLA COUNTY FAIR
SPECIAL SECTION » INSIDE
WEDNESDAY, JULY 25, 2018
HermistonHerald.com
$1.00
INSIDE
FOOD TRUCKS
The Hermiston city
council discusses new
rules for mobile vendors
and creation of a food
truck “pod.”
PAGE A3
WHAT’S COOKING?
HOOP BATTLE
More than 150 teams
participated in
Hermiston’s Takin’ it
to the Streets 3 on 3
basketball tournament
over the weekend.
PAGES A9, A15
DANGEROUS BUGS
Mosquito-borne diseases
are on the rise, and
local mosquito control
districts are working
hard to beat the insects.
PAGE A10
BY THE WAY
Hermiston giving
watermelons
to Portland
Hermiston will be prac-
ticing a bit of watermelon
diplomacy on Friday, Aug.
3 as representatives of the
city head to Portland for
the annual seed-spitting
contest and watermelon
giveaway.
“This is a great event
that continues to build
on our relationship with
our partners in Portland,”
Hermiston Mayor David
Drotzmann said in a
statement.
The tradition was
started by the late Frank
Harkenrider when he
was mayor in the 1980s
and challenged then-Port-
land Mayor Bud Clark
to a seed-spitting contest.
After a break in 2007, the
event resumed in 2015.
This year’s giveaway
is sponsored by the city
of Hermiston, city of
Portland and Greater
STAFF PHOTOS BY E.J. HARRIS
Samantha Hernandez, Ilana Castillo and Victoria Erevia-Garcia work on making a Mexican vegetable-beef skillet dish Thursday during a family
cooking class for the OSU Extension Service’s nutrition education program in Hermiston.
Family class is setting the
table for healthy eating habits
By JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN
STAFF WRITER
A
ngie Treadwell wants to talk produce.
“Does anybody here have a favorite
vegetable?” she asked the 10 people in
her cooking class.
“Carrots!” shouted four-year-old Angel.
He was in luck. For the “Fruits and Vegeta-
bles for Families” class on Thursday in Herm-
iston, Treadwell, coordinator for OSU Exten-
sion Service’s nutrition education program,
taught families how to make two dishes using
the orange root — an Asian carrot salad, and
a Mexican vegetable-beef skillet dish.
Even though several of the people at the
class knew how to cook, many were there
to learn how to use more vegetables in their
meals, and how to make healthier choices
when cooking.
Each family in the program gets a bag of produce to take home at the end of the class.
See FOOD, A16
See BTW, A16
New subdivision underway on Gettman Road
By JADE MCDOWELL
STAFF WRITER
The Wolf Run subdivision is just
getting started, but it already had a
neighborhood barbecue Friday.
The barbecue was part of a rib-
bon-cutting for the new 13-acre
housing development on Gettman
Road in Hermiston, which so far has
one house completed and four more
in construction. The subdivision is
expected to feature 46 homes in total.
New housing is a welcome sight
in rapidly growing Hermiston, where
the real estate market overall is tight.
Heidi Carver of RE/MAX Corner-
stone, the listing agent for the homes
in Wolf Run, said new industrial
developments by Amazon, Lamb
Weston and other companies has cre-
ated an increase in prices paid for
family homes.
Debbie Pedro, director of the
Greater Hermiston Area Chamber
of Commerce, told the gathering at
the ribbon-cutting that the chamber
was happy to see investment in the
community.
“We’re excited about this subdi-
vision,” she said. “Boy, do we need
houses!”
Developer Frank Gehring of
Frank W. Gehring Construction has
experience developing other housing
in Hermiston, including small pock-
ets of eight to 12 lots built in recent
years, and was a key player in the
Overlook Ridge subdivision in the
northwest part of town.
Carver said so far the largest
home in the subdivision is $379,900
See SUBDIVISION, Page A16
STAFF PHOTO BY JADE MCDOWELL
Developer Frank Gehring and real estate agent Heidi Carver cut the ribbon
on the first completed house of the Wolf Run subdivision.