Hood River County School District is making plans to make up class time lost to winter weather conditions this month.  The district has had to cancel five full days of school this month.  District Superintendent Dan Goldman says a plan will be presented to the board at their meeting Wednesday evening to extend the school year by one week to June 18.  The emergency closure make-up days are already marked out in the district’s calendar.  Wednesday night’s board meeting is at 6:30 at Westside Elementary School.

Pacific Power will be installing about 9,000 new smart meters in Hood River, Grass Valley, Moro, Mosier, Rufus, and Wasco over six weeks starting March 11.  Pacific Power Regional Business Manager Diana Knous says the meters are already being used in 70 million homes in the United States.  She says the digital meter sends and receives energy usage through a secure wireless network and makes it available for the customer to see at any time.  Knous says having that information will allow customers to better manage their power usage.  Pacific Power customers will be receiving notifications in the mail on when their new meters will be installed.

Continued difficult travel conditions forced cancellation of the final games of the Intermountain Conference basketball tournament.   Hood River Valley had been scheduled to host Pendleton in the boys’ final Wednesday, while Pendleton was to visit Redmond for the girls’ final, but another day of school closures in Pendleton and Central Oregon led to the cancellations.   The IMC had already abandoned the consolation round portion of its tournament to establish its representatives to the state Class 5A playoffs.  Hood River Valley will be the league’s number one seed for the boys, and will host LaSalle in round one on Friday night at 6:30, followed by Pendleton and The Dalles.  The Riverhawks will visit Churchill on Friday.  Redmond is the top girls’ seed, followed by Pendleton and Ridgeview.

Hood River County Commissioners approved ballot titles for a pair of tax measures they are planning to put on the May ballot.  The ballot titles for an 89-cent local option levy and a five-percent prepared food and beverage tax were approved with minimal revisions at a short meeting on Monday.  County Administrator Jeff Hecksel says those titles can now be challenged, while the Commission moves ahead in the process of putting the measures on the ballot, including a first reading next Monday and a public hearing on March 18.  The County has been considering the measures to deal with their budget shortfalls since the latter part of 2018.

The Dalles Public Works crews have been working to get roads cleared in the wake of the latest blast of winter in the area.  Mayor Rich Mays says equipment has been holding up, but today’s conditions provide plenty of challenges, particularly with heavy amounts of ice and slush.  Mays notes some of their equipment can scrape ice off of the streets, but not all of it.  He points out winters like this are taxing on the equipment and the people operating it.

Washington 14th District State Representative Gina Mosbrucker says work continues to find dollars for school districts whose finances have been negatively impacted by changes made to K-12 funding through the Legislature’s response to the McCleary decision.  A number of school districts in the 14th District lost money through the plan that increases state funding but reduces the amount of maintenance and operations levies.  Mosbrucker says a solution has to be found, pointing out with four billion dollars in unanticipated revenues in the state budget, she would like to see those used to backfill K-12 funding, but adds there is plenty of competition for that money.

The City of Hood River is reminding residents about parking restrictions to allow for snow removal.  Under the City’s snow plan, parking is prohibited on the north and east side of streets.  Parking is also prohibited anywhere on primary streets in the Downtown and Heights districts between the hours of midnight and 6 a.m.  People are asked to stay out of roadways, as plows have limited visibility, maneuverability, and braking ability.  Do not use the roads for recreation, immediately move all fender benders off the road, and, whenever possible, keep vehicles out of the street.

Klickitat County has an added degree of difficulty in dealing with roads and other issues in the winter weather is its sheer size.  County Commissioner David Sauter says what is happening in the west end of the County can be vastly different from what is going on at the eastern end 94 miles away, noting in this latest storm blowing and drifting snow has been an issue at the east end of the county.  Sauter says the County has had to deal with some equipment breakdowns during the recent winter weather, but they have been able to work through them and for the most part they have been able to keep up as planned.  Klickitat County offices have also been able to stay open.

Intermountain Conference Basketball Tournament

Semi-Finals

Boys

Hood River Valley 68, Redmond 58, overtime:  The Eagles clinched their first state playoff invitation in 25 years.  Redmond led most of the game, but HRV came back to take the lead in the fourth quarter before Redmond tied the game with under two seconds left in regulation on Blaine Aamodt’s rebound put-back.  In overtime, Noah Webster scored five of his 23 points and had two steals as Hood River outscored the Panthers 13-3.  The Eagles will host Pendleton in the IMC tournament final on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m

Pendleton 83, The Dalles 48:  The Riverhawks move into the third place bracket, and will host Crook County for their next game.

Girls

Redmond 55, The Dalles 45: The Dalles will host Hood River Valley in the third place semifinal. 

Oregon Class 1A Boys Basketball Tournament Second Round

Sherman 62, Siletz Valley 41:  Keenan Coles scored 17 points while three other Huskies were in double figures.  Sherman faces Prairie City on Wednesday at 1:30 in the quarterfinals in Baker City.

Horizon Christian 49, Crosshill Christian 43:  Caleb Lingel scored 14 points while Derek Johnston and Bailey Holste scored 13 apiece.  The Hawks meet Nixyaawii in the quarterfinals on Wednesday at 3:15.

Prairie City 66, Dufur 49:  The Rangers fell behind by 13 in the first quarter, got back to within eight points in the third quarter, but could get no closer.

Oregon Class 1A Girls Basketball Tournament Second Round

Saturday Schedule

Crane 48, South Wasco 45, overtime

Oregon High School Wrestling Tournament at Portland Memorial Coliseum

Hood River Valley’s Grace Miller won the girls’ 145 pound title.  Miller won her semi-final over Lindsay Burrell of Thurston by fall at 1:40, and followed that up with a win by injury default over Anna McDougal of Elmira at 1:29 of the final.  HRV’s Emily Sullenger and Elena Kroll both had second place finishes.  Sullenger won by fall over Callie Hallett of Thurston in semi-final before falling to Emma Truex of Phoenix in the final 11-3.  Kroll stopped Alexandra Byrne of Mountain View at 1:44 of the semi-final, but lost to Tyler Richardson of Vale by fall at 3:45 on the title bout.

In boys’ class 5A, HRV’s Chad Muenzer scored a third place finish at 132 pounds with a 4-1 record, finishing up with a win over Jacob Curry of Redmond by fall at 4:57.  The Dalles’ J.R. Scott also earned a third place finish at 195 pounds, going 5-1.  Scott won a 6-0 decision over Owen Magill of Silverton in the third place match.

Oregon High School Nordic Ski Championships

Hood River Valley’s boys were fourth and the girls’ sixth in the team standings. 

Intermountain Conference Basketball Tournament

First Round

Boys

The Dalles 59, Ridgeview 49:  Jacob Hernandez scored 20 points as the Riverhawks advance to the tournament semi-finals.  Oscar Fernandez added 17 points and Josh Nisbet 10 for The Dalles, which will play Pendleton at Blue Mountain Community College on Saturday at 2 p.m.

Redmond 56, Crook County 51:  Redmond will play at top-seed Hood River Valley in a semi-final on Saturday at 4:30 p.m.

Girls

The Dalles 54, Crook County 37:  Kilee Hoylman and Jenna Miller scored 13 points apiece for the Riverhawks, while Lauryn Belanger added 11.  The Dalles will visit Redmond in the semi-finals on Saturday at 2:30 p.m.

Pendleton 39, Hood River Valley 18:  The Eagles will play the loser of Saturday’s The Dalles-Redmond game on the road on Monday.

Oregon Class 1A Boys Basketball Tournament Second Round

Today’s Schedule

Siletz Valley at Sherman, 6 p.m.

Dufur at Prairie City, 6 p.m.

Crosshill Christian at Horizon Christian, 7 p.m.

Oregon Class 1A Girls Basketball Tournament Second Round

Saturday Schedule

Crane at South Wasco, 4 p.m.