Local officials step it up

There was quite a bit of action in Clark County stairwells Wednesday.

Local officials and business owners encouraged people to take the stairs instead of boarding an elevator to celebrate the county’s inaugural Take the Stairs Day.

Community Choices, Leadership Clark County and Clark County Public Health sponsored the event. Mayors in Vancouver and Battle Ground read proclamations supporting the campaign.

Congresswoman Jaime Herrera Beutler also showed support for the event by posing for this picture with Ralph Parker, a Leadership Clark County project team member.

(No word on whether the congresswoman went up more than the two stairs she’s standing on in the photo.)

Most local officials made it a point to use the stairs Wednesday.

Clark County Commissioner Steve Stuart was five minutes late to the Wednesday morning work session because he went up six flights of stairs – initially bounding up two steps at a time before slowing his pace to single steps – to reach the commissioners’ conference room.

Stuart said he doesn’t usually take the stairs because he “runs hot.” But Wednesday, he left the suit at home, presumably to make the stair experience less sweaty.

Commissioner Tom Mielke said he forgot to take the stairs up to his office on the sixth floor, but promised to take them on the way down.

Battle Ground Mayor Mike Ciraulo said he went up five flights of stairs in the Public Service Center Wednesday morning.

But five floors was a walk in the park for Ciraulo, who has competed in the Firefighter Combat Challenge in Seattle many times. (That’s one of those challenges where firefighters race up 50+ flights of stairs in full fire-fighting gear. I’m exhausted just thinking about it.)

“In my business it is critical to be in good shape (for obvious reasons) thus I always take the stairs whenever possible,” Ciraulo said.

Speaking of causes-of-the-day. Today is National No Pants Day. (Here’s a fun flowchart for women who are unsure if they’re wearing pants.)

Just thinking about an elected official strolling through city hall sans pants is disturbing, so we didn’t ask who was participating.