Thursday's Internet Edition, September 02, 2010.

Mark Fenton, a public health planning and transportation consultant from the greater Boston area, visited the Roane Committee on Aging building Monday afternoon for a Mid-Ohio Valley Health Dept. “walkabout.”

The event’s purpose was to discuss ideas for a $4.5 million community wellness grant, also known as Wild, Wonderful, Well WV. The grant is funded as part of the Communities Putting Prevention to Work Program, which is part of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act.

Fenton, a motivational speaker, host of the current PBS series “America’s Walking” and former editor of Walking Magazine, took part in the discussion.

“The idea is… to use the money to build healthier environments for active living and healthier nutrition,” Fenton said.

One of the ideas discussed was the maintenance of existing walking trails, such as the Ben’s Run trail behind the Spencer city swimming pool.

“The Walmart parking lot could be a trailhead parking lot,” Fenton said. He cited the presence of a footpath already in place on a hill by Walmart, as well as a general lack of sidewalks in the store’s vicinity.

“The whole idea of this movement is to reverse those trends… to start to build places where it’s easy to be physically active and it’s easy to make good food choices so that you don’t have to make a conscious effort to end up being a healthier person,” Fenton said.

Other items on the walkabout agenda included: promoting existing farmers markets and supplying them with EBT/debit machines to broaden their customer demographic, healthy food choices at school-sponsored events and a full-time physical education teacher for RCHS.

Other stops on Fenton’s itinerary in the six-county MOVHD service area included Belmont, Harrisville, Mt. Zion, Elizabeth and Parkersburg.