Administration

from State of Hawaii Department of Transportation June 2021 Newsletter

by DOT_CSS

Director’s Message

Wellness Corner: Move Naturally Challenge

By: Melanie Martin

In April, 11 HDOT employees signed up for the Move Naturally Challenge sponsored by the Blue Zones Project.

The challenge was to take at least 7,500 steps per day for a total of 225,000 steps for the entire month of April.

Congratulations to four of the participants who conquered the challenge! Here is how they did it.

Curtis Motoyama, ADA Program Specialist with the Office of Civil Rights took on the challenge by walking in his neighborhood.

“My dog Mimi took me on a lot of walks,” Curtis said.

He was pleasantly surprised that he would be splitting the prize money amongst the finishers. He does not plan to keep the money for himself.

Instead, he explained, “I am donating my prize money to Hawaiian Humane Society. We adopted Mimi from the Hawaiian Humane Society and she helped me reach the goal. “

Lester Molina, Human Resources Assistant with HWY-O knocked this challenge out of the park with more than 800,000 steps! the gym before covid. But at the beginning of covid and all the lockdowns, I somehow became lazy and stopped working out at all because the gym closed.

After 2-3 months I found that I am becoming bulky and gaining lots. So, I started doing home exercises, taking a walk/run around my neighborhood and at some point, I push myself to go farther until I feel tired.

Now it became my routine to run at least 12 miles a day.

It simply makes me feel good, incredibly positive and invigorated after, also hungry. It feels great pushing myself.

Sometimes it’s hard and there are days when it takes more self-motivating that other days but the feeling of accomplishment and euphoria afterwards are always worth it.”

Juli Chun, Operational Planning & Development Specialist, made her journey a family affair.

She said, “The Move Naturally Challenge was a fun way to get me up and moving at every opportunity I had. The goal was at least 7,500 steps a day, but I tried to do at least 10,000.

“From standing and stepping in place at my computer to walking every day. With the help of my family, we walk through the University

Administration

2021 HURRICANE SEASON continued from page 1

the year). Hawai’i hurricane season traditionally starts to ramp up in July and goes through September. The next four names slated to be used in 2021 are Hone, Iona, Keli, and Lala. Wind speed is the determining factor in the scale, as storm surge values are highly dependent on the slope of the continental shelf in the landfall region. Wind speeds are measured using a 1-minute average.

Difference between a WATCH and a WARNING:

A great source of information on building a Disaster Kit can be found here.

Hurricanes are classified on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale is a 1-5 rating based on the hurricane’s present intensity.

This is used to give an estimate of the potential property damage and flooding expected along the coast from a hurricane landfall. A hurricane watch is declared when there is a threat of possible hurricane conditions at any time within the next 36 hours.

A hurricane warning is declared when hurricane conditions are expected at any time within the next 24 hours.

MOVE NATURALLY continued from page 4

of Hawaii in the evenings. This was a wonderful way to reminisce on my good times as a student at UH. Although I didn’t lose too much weight doing this challenge, I feel healthier and had a chance to create a closer bond with my family.” strength training. I also started intermittent fasting which I still practice on a daily basis.

Melanie Martin, Civil Rights Coordinator also finished the challenge.

She claims that the challenge kept her from being lazy and forced her to walk even when it was rainy.

Melanie said, “These pictures are before and after shots from the recent weight loss challenge which I did not officially enter, but wanted to see for myself if I was up for the challenge. I lost about 10 pounds through daily cardio and “Once you get used to the diet, it becomes part of your lifestyle. I also stopped drinking on the weekdays and that helped both my waistline and my pocketbook. LOL”

Administration

Updates from EUTF

By: Rey Domingo

EUTF New Benefits Administration System

EUTF will be launching a new Benefits Administration System (BAS) in early 2022. The new BAS will have self-service capabilities for members to review their health benefit enrollment and premiums, make open enrollment and life event changes including uploading of supporting documents.

The member self-service capabilities will eliminate the need for employers to certify EC-1/EC-1H forms, reducing the time between submission of the request and notification of the insurance carriers. More information is forthcoming.

Change of Address

If HDOT employees move or change addresses, they must upate their personal address using the Hawaii Information Portal (HIP).

Pre-Retirement Health Benefits Webinar

Attend a Pre-Retirement Health Benefits Webinar and learn about how to apply for EUTF retiree health insurance benefits. It’s never too early to start planning for your future. Whether you plan to retire in a few months or a few years from now, join us for a 60-minute presentation to learn about applying for your EUTF retiree health insurance benefits. Topics covered will include:

• Dependent eligibility • Health plan options • Medicare • Differences between active employee and retiree plan • Completing the EC-2 enrollment form • Premiums and contributions • Making changes to your plans

The schedule of Webinars from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. OR 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. is as follows

June 10, 2021 June 22, 2021 July 7, 2021 July 22, 2021 August 10, 2021 August 25, 2021 September 2, 2021 September 16, 2021

To access the webinar, go to eutf.hawaii.gov on the day of the event and select “Learning Center” in the menu bar. Click the “Webinar” button and select the desired webinar.

Administration

HDOT 2021 phonebook cover design selected By: Jai Cunningham & Alan Hilton

HDOT called all artists to help us create our 2021 agency phone book. The challenge was thrown out there a few week ago, and we were not disappointed with the results!

And the winner is….

Believe it or not, this creative taskmaster chooses to remain anonymous. But there will be nothing anonymous about his or her artwork because it will be the cover of our 2021 phone book!

Our anonymous winner is from the Adminstration Division, but the artist said, “I’m honored to be selected as the winner of the Telephone Directory Cover Design Contest!

“In designing the cover, I wanted to ensure that all modes of transportation were represented and wanted to include historical pictures as well. Thank you for the opportunity to express my artistic side!” the winner added.

The selection committee also wants to give a shout out to the second and third place finisher, Pradip Pant and Tommy Leong respectively.

cover artwork will be featured prominently in the online version, and printed copies (in booklet form) will be available from the HDOT Print Shop upon request.