Lane County Health Rankings
A national program that ranks the health of counties based on a variety of measures has released its annual rankings. CountyHealthRankings.org looks at health factors, policies and programs and overall health outcomes and considers health behaviors, socio-economic factors and the physical environment which includes air quality, water quality and housing and transit. For Oregon Lane county was ranked 18th among the state with the top spot for healthiest counties going to Washington County which houses a significant portion of Portland’s suburbs. Lane County ranked in the 50-75 percentile of health outcomes and health factors yet ranked higher than the state and federal numbers in poor or fair health, poor physical health days and poor mental health days. It was also ranked in the 30 percentile for obesity. The latest report was distributed by the Oregon Health Authority.
Call Before You Dig
April is National Safe Digging Month. The Oregon Utility Notification Center is reminding homeowners and employers, as well as contractors, about the importance of calling them before beginning any project that involves digging. The center is available by calling 8-1-1, or online at Oregon811-dot-com. They require a minimum of two working days notification prior to beginning work so that local utilities have time to mark the locations of their lines. Statistics say that a majority of what they call “line strikes” occur during warmer months as that’s when more projects are being done.
Fishing
It’s springtime and that quite often means a young man’s fancy turns to going fishing. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife has been working hard to satisfy that urge, no matter the gender. The department stocked 150 “trophy size” rainbow trout this week in Cleawox lake and have plans to drop off another 1800 of legal-size next week. Woahink Lake is slated for about 1300 legal trout next week, along with a thousand for Carter Lake. North of Florence fish will be stocked at Munsel, Buck, Alder and Sutton Lakes will be stocked. Several other area lakes are scheduled to be stocked, along with repeat deliveries to the most popular sites in the next several weeks. If you’re looking for a “lunker” there will be more than 100 trophy size fish stocked in Siltcoos Lagoon at the U.S. Forest Service Lagoon Campground between April 17th and the 21st.
Egg Hunt
A reminder that tomorrow is the annual interact easter egg hunt for ages 5th grade and younger. The event will be a Miller Park and will start promptly at 10 am.