COMMUNITY
A8 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
WEDNESDAY, MAY 8, 2019
Families put down the screens for downtown event
By JADE MCDOWELL
NEWS EDITOR
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Airport Road resident Chris Waine is gathering signatures
for a petition to hold a public hearing to discuss Umatilla
County’s plan to redesign Airport Road .
EOTEC neighbor disputes
plans for East Airport Road
By PHIL WRIGHT
STAFF WRITER
Chris Waine has run the
measurements again and
again and again with the
same results each time.
If Umatilla County
rebuilds East Airport Road
in Hermiston to a width of
66 feet at the intersection
of Ott Road, he stands to
lose at least 13 feet of what
he has always been told is
his 2-acre property along
the Airport Road’s south
edge.
Perhaps as many as 10
more people with front-
age property down the mile
length of road would lose
out as well.
“I can’t see how it’s
going to cost our neigh-
borhood any less than
$100,000,” Waine said.
Airport Road is the pri-
mary feeder to the Eastern
Oregon Event and Trade
Center, which is where the
county held a public meet-
ing at the end of March to
tell the property owners
about the $1.2 million proj-
ect to add a third lane to the
road that connects to High-
way 395 on the west end
and Ott Road on the east.
The project also would
continue
improvements
north on Ott, depending on
costs. The county hired the
engineering fi rm Ander-
son Perry & Associates to
design the road and over-
see the construction.
Anderson Perry showed
its designs at the meet-
ing. For those plans to
become reality, fences,
underground sprinkler sys-
tems and fruit trees would
have to go to make room
for the wider road. Waine
said he and one other resi-
dent would have to relocate
their septic drain fi elds.
Even the Umatilla Elec-
tric Cooperative would
have to move numerous
utility poles.
The
problem,
he
explained, is the property
owners for more than 60
years built onto the coun-
ty’s right-of-way. The
locals matched their prop-
erty lines to the “witness
corner,” but a county sur-
vey in late autumn found
the true property lines were
13 feet farther south and 13
feet farther east.
Gary Culp runs his
machining business at the
intersection of East Air-
port Road and Highway
395. He said there is no
doubt Airport Road needs
improvements, and the
county’s plan could mean
it butts against his fence.
But he said that’s not his
real concern.
“I’m for the neighbors,”
he said. “I’m on the neigh-
bors’ side here.”
Tom Fellows, the county
public works director, said
Anderson Perry has yet to
fi nalize the design. Until
then, he said, the project
is in a holding pattern. He
could not even speculate
on a timeline.
“If we’re talking about
if we get into the mid-
June time, I think it’s pretty
unlikely it would happen
before the fair this year,”
Fellows said.
The county fair takes
place the the fi rst full week
of August. County counsel
Doug Olsen was even less
confi dent about the con-
struction project launching
this year. Once the county
gets the design, he said,
there’s the bidding pro-
cess and the county board
of commissioners has to
OK the contractor. He said
the construction project is
almost certain to start next
spring.
Under state law, the
county would have to hold
a public hearing on the
construction of a new road.
Airport Road is not new,
and Olsen said the county
has no plans for another
meeting.
So Waine is gathering
signatures of Airport Road
property owners to petition
the county to hold a public
meeting to consider vacat-
ing the road or least the
portions that would affect
him and others. He needs at
least 60 percent of property
owners to sign on, and he
said he is just a few names
away. Those are proving
tough because they don’t
live there.
Your Family Deserves The
BEST
From cell phones to tele-
visions, screens can feel
like an inescapable part of
life, but Hermiston families
dodged the temptation for a
few hours Thursday night.
A coalition of organiza-
tions hosted a celebration of
National Screen-Free Week
on the city’s festival street
Thursday. Under a blue sky,
parents and children wan-
dered through stations where
they could paint, arrange
fl owers, do yoga, sample
healthy foods and more.
Gracie Littrell, 7, has
learned the value of screen-
free time well. She said she
and her mom Jamie Littrell
and brother Michael, 3, were
downtown to “have some
fun and also spend some
time outside.”
“We always need to
play outside,” she said. “It
keeps our bodies healthy
because we get fresh air and
sunlight.”
Jamie said sometimes it’s
hard to get the kids away
from the family’s tablets or
video games, but she has
been working to teach them
about the value of making
time for other types of activ-
ities as well.
Limiting screen time to a
healthy amount is one of the
great struggles of modern
parenting.
“In the summertime it’s
easier because they like to
play outside, but in the win-
tertime it’s harder,” said
Misty Gutierrez, who was
watching as her children put
together a fl ower arrange-
ment to take home. The
booth was sponsored by the
Kiwanis Club and run by
Sassafras Flowers staff.
Gutierrez said she appre-
ciated that the community
hosted a screen-free event
each year.
“I like that it’s fami-
ly-friendly, that everyone
can come,” she said. “I also
like that they actually teach
the kids things.”
Elise Royer, 8, was look-
ing through the free books
available from Altrusa Inter-
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Elise Royer, 8, of Hermiston, does yoga with OSU Extension Service staff er Erin Scionti at a
celebration of National Screen-Free Week on Thursday in Hermiston.
Even at the “screen-free”
event, some people automat-
ically pulled out phones to
capture photos of the event
or post to social media.
The event is part of a
larger movement of National
Screen-Free Week, held the
fi rst week in May. The move-
ment focuses on “entertain-
ment screens” like video
games, television and scroll-
ing through social media,
not screens used for work or
homework.
“Even though it’s about
turning off screens, Screen-
Free Week isn’t about going
without – it’s about what
you can get!,” screenfree.org
states. “An hour once dedi-
cated to YouTube becomes
an hour spent outside; ten
minutes wiled away on
social media turn into ten
minutes spent doodling; a
movie on a rainy afternoon
is replaced by time spent
reading, chatting, or playing
pretend!”
Many health organi-
zations have warned that
children’s still-developing
brains can suffer ill effects
from too much time in front
of a screen, and that too
much time on social media
or watching television can
also negatively affect adults’
physical and mental health.
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Celeste Rodriguez, second from left, helps Rodrigo Mohedana,
4, of Umatilla, and his brother, Benito, 10, gets help from
Nayeli Ibarra while making fl ower arrangements .
national. Her mom Melissa
Royer said Elise had per-
suaded the family to come
downtown after getting
a fl yer for the event from
school.
Her kids Elise and Logan,
she said, are “big readers.”
“I have a lot of books,”
Elise added.
She ended up going with
“Matilda” by Roald Dahl, on
a recommendation from her
dad Casey, who promised to
read it to her.
Brian
and
Jeannie
Thomas brought their chil-
dren — Aurora, 6, Phoenix,
4, and Alphonse, 2 — down-
town for the free bicycle hel-
mets from Good Shepherd
Health Care System. Once
they got the helmets, they
said, they planned to stick
around and participate in
some of the other activities.
Angie Treadwell,
a
founder of the Healthy Fam-
ilies Coalition and chair of
the Children’s Health Com-
mittee, said she helped coor-
dinate the event, but there
was a long list of commu-
nity organizations participat-
ing. She said the goal was to
remind people to put down
the screens and spend some
time interacting as a family
or as a community.
“We’re missing a lot of
that,” she said. “These days,
everyone is behind a screen.”
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