Hood River Fire & EMS is beginning to utilize geographic information systems as a strategic tool to help preserve property, natural resources, and lives.  GIS will help Hood River firefighters in planning strategic response to fires and developing tactical actions for specific buildings.  It will also allow firefighters to be able to share and view information to and from other county and state resources.  Hood River Fire Chief Leonard Damian says because their mission is location dependent, GIS has emerged as an important information platform to improve firefighter response and safety.

Boys Basketball

Hood River Valley 56, Redmond 50:  HRV took sole possession of first place in the Intermountain Conference with the win.  Carson Flores scored 19 points and Noah Webster 18 to lead the Eagles to their fourth straight win.

Pendleton 81, The Dalles 60:  Jacob Hernandez scored 30 points for the Riverhawks, but it wasn’t enough to prevent Pendleton from moving into a second place tie with The Dalles in the IMC.

Castle Rock 66, Stevenson 49

LaCenter 89, Columbia 41

Dufur 72, Ione 41

Dufur 80, Mitchell-Spray 33

Horizon Christian 64, Echo 32

Horizon Christian 49, Arlington 34

Sherman 67, Condon-Wheeler 62 (overtime)

Sherman 62, Echo 38

Mitchell-Spray 56, South Wasco 47

Condon-Wheeler 75, South Wasco 55

Trout Lake 64, Klickitat-Glenwood 33

Yakama Tribal 71, Trout Lake 58

Sunnyside Christian 83, Klickitat-Glenwood 30

Lyle-Wishram 51, White Swan 48

Columbia (Burbank) 54, Lyle-Wishram 40

Naches Valley 59, Goldendale 42

LaSalle (Yakima) 91, Goldendale 32

Girls Basketball

Pendleton 40, The Dalles 34

LaCenter 63, Columbia 38

Dufur 32, Ione 30

Dufur 36, Mitchell-Spray 13

Condon-Wheeler 49, Sherman 31

Echo 53, Sherman 31

South Wasco 58, Mitchell-Spray 32

South Wasco 45, Condon-Wheeler 15

Trout Lake 72, Klicktat-Glenwood 54

White Swan 62, Lyle-Wishram 36

Columbia (Burbank) 60, Lyle-Wishram 14

LaSalle (Yakima) 68, Goldendale 20

Wrestling

Thurston won the Hood River Elks Invitational while HRV was fifth and The Dalles sixth.  The Riverhawks’ Steven Preston was the lone first place finisher from the area, taking the title at 160 pounds.

Stevenson finishes fourth at the Joe Stewart Invitational at Putnam.  The Bulldogs’ Brenden Dudley won the 106 pound division.

Girls Wrestling

Sweet Home won the Hood River Elks Invitational championship with host Hood River Valley in second and Columbia ninth.  Elena Kroll and Grace Miller won individual titles for HRV, while Hailey Johnson had a first place for CHS.

Swimming

The Dalles finished third in the boys’ standings and fourth in the girls’ competition at the LaGrande Invitational.

Alpine Skiing

The Hood River Valley girls took three of the top four places in a Mt. Hood League slalom at Mt. Hood Meadows.  Josie Peterson won the race with Eric Anderson in second and Marisa Rigert in fourth.  Lucy Booth was 17^th for the The Dalles.  HRV’s Chris McElwee won the boys’ slalom, while Louis Redcloud of The Dalles was third.  Hood River’s Ezra Johnson finished sixth.

Nordic Skiing

Hood River Valley’s boys were second in a Northern League race at Mt. Bachelor.  Summit took the top five places, while HRV’s Benjamin Kaden was sixth.  The Eagles also finished fourth in the relay.  In the girls’ race, Hood River’s Josephine Dickinson was ninth.

It will be a busy Monday for public meetings in the area.  Skyline Hospital in White Salmon will hold a public forum to update the community on the hospital’s exploration of a possible affiliation with a larger health system and give the public an opportunity to answer questions.  That will start at 5:30 Monday evening in the hospital’s downstairs meeting space.  The Dalles City Council also meets at 5:30 Monday in The Dalles City Hall, with a discussion of transportation system funding planned.  And the Hood River Council meets Monday at 6 p.m. in Hood River City Hall.

The Skamania County Sheriff’s Office is investigating after detectives responding to a report of suspicious circumstances on a forest road in the northern part of the county discovered a deceased person.  Sheriff Dave Brown says the investigation on Forest Road 83 about six miles east of Cougar is in its very early stages, and there is no additional information at this point.  Officers found the body Thursday afternoon, and with diminishing daylight the area was secured overnight to allow the scene to be processed this morning.  The investigation efforts will cause traffic delays on forest road 83 and will impact recreational traffic to the Ape Cave as well as the Marble Mountain Sno-Park which provides access to the climbing route for Mt. St. Helens. 

The Dalles Public Works Department will be flushing fire hydrants in the Port area over the next few weeks, weather permitting.  Motorists and pedestrians are asked to avoid driving or walking through the water coming directly from a hydrant while it is being flushed.   Occasionally main flushing causes water flowing from a tap to be discolored from stirred up sediment or milky white caused by tiny air bubbles.  Although discolored water won’t make you sick, you might want to flush the pipe by running the water for several minutes before drinking or washing.  Fire hydrants are flushed in order to clean out deposits, sediments and rust from distribution pipelines, help minimize water quality problems, test fire protection water pressures, exercise hydrant valves, and identify hydrants needing repair or replacement.

Girls Basketball

Redmond 58, Hood River Valley 43:  McKaylie Capps scored 25 points for Redmond on six three-pointers as the Panthers led from wire-to-wire.  Morgan Baker led HRV with 11 points.

King’s Way Christian 59, Stevenson 36:  King’s Way got off to a quick start and moved two games in front of the Bulldogs atop the Trico League standings.

Seton Catholic 69, Columbia 61

Swimming

Hood River Valley’s girls rolled by Redmond 130-34.  The Eagles received two event wins apiece from Sarah Arpag, Alea McCarty, and Faith Ocheskey.  Redmond topped the HRV boys 84-73, in spite of two wins each for HRV from Chad Klaas and David Hecksel.

All parties have agreed to final language revisions for the Intergovernmental Agreement between Columbia Gorge Community College, the City of The Dalles, and Wasco County to provide the seven-point-three million dollars in local match of state grant funds to construct the Treaty Oak workforce training center and campus housing.  CGCC’s Dan Spatz says signatures are being gathered this week which paves the way to prepare for a bond sale and get funds in the bank by a state deadline of February 11.  Spatz once the state bond sale occurs later this spring the college would have three years to complete the project, but they would like to get it done faster than that.  The project will take place on property adjacent to the Fort Dalles Readiness Center that was prepped for construction when that facility was built.

Oregon 59th District State Representative Daniel Bonham has seen his committee assignments shuffled as the legislative session gets underway.  The Dalles Republican will be vice-chair of the House Committee on Economic Development while also serving on the House Business and Labor and the Joint Carbon Reduction panel.  Bonham notes Democrats have the votes to pass some kind of cap and trade carbon tax plan during this session, so he sees his role on the carbon committee as a voice for the rural part of the state.  Bonham was also just selected to the Joint Committee on Ways and Means General Government Subcommittee.

Boys Basketball

King’s Way Christian 78, Stevenson 58

Seton Catholic 81, Columbia 25

Wrestling

Pendleton 72, Hood River Valley 6:  Cody Durham provided the lone win for the Eagles.

Hood River County Commissioners continued a public hearing on proposed revisions to regulations on short-term rentals in the county’s zoning ordinance as they asked for some language changes.  County Administrator Jeff Hecksel says the modifications will require the ordinance to go through another first reading at the Commission meeting in February.  Commissioners also continued discussions on the potential for seeking both a local option levy and a prepared food and beverage tax during the May election, but no decisions were made.  Hecksel said the Commission plans to address that subject during their annual planning session this Saturday.