Wasco County Commissioners will hold a worksession Wednesday morning on doing revisions to its community planning assistance for wildfires.  The work becomes all the more timely in the wake of a difficult summer fire season.  Commission Chair Steve Kramer hopes the interface between the different agencies involved in fire protection will be at the forefront of this effort.  The worksession will be at 9 a.m. Wednesday in the Deschutes Room of the Wasco County Courthouse.

Boys Basketball Goldendale 60, Columbia 58   Girls Basketball Goldendale 50, Columbia 16

A traffic stop one week ago in Odell resulted in the suspect being taken custody after a deputy fired his weapon.  According to the Oregon State Police, a patrol sergeant with the Hood River County Sheriff’s Office attempted to pull over a vehicle on December 3 for traffic infractions but the driver did not stop, instead continuing north and eventually driving into an orchard on Chamberlain Drive.  About 400 yards into the orchard the driver stopped and quickly exited the vehicle with a black object in his hand.  The deputy gave verbal commands and fired one shot, missing the subject, who eventually complied with the officer and was taken into custody.  The subject, a 27-year-old from Odell, was arrested and charged with Driving Under the Influence of a Controlled Substance, felony attempting to elude police, and no operator’s license.  The use of force by the deputy is under investigation, with officers from the Hood River Police Department, Hood River County Sheriff’s Office, Wasco County Sheriff’s Office and the Oregon State Police working on the investigation.

The Port of The Dalles has received three responses to its call for proposals to do a feasibility study of what can be done to help production of value-added food products in the area.  Port Executive Director Andrea Klaas says the contract will be awarded in the middle of this month, and that consultant will be asked to gather information to assess the needs in that area.  The Port received a $32,000 grant from the U.S Department of Agriculture to do the work, and is matching that with its own funds.

Boys Basketball Hood River Valley 61, LaGrande 56 Hood River Valley 83, Madras 73 Madras 92, The Dalles 70 LaGrande 60, The Dalles 45 Stevenson 79, Irrigon 54 Trout Lake 53, Columbia 37 Trout Lake 59, Horizon Christian 53 Damascus Christian 69, Horizon Christian 60 Sherman 68, Damascus Christian 53 South Wasco 57, Mohawk 34 South Wasco 59, Camas Valley 40 Dufur 53, Powder Valley 48 Dayville-Monument 42, Klickitat-Glenwood 37, OT Arlington 47, Klickitat-Glenwood 35 Kittitas 77, Lyle-Wishram 45 Goldendale 55, Kiona-Benton 50 River View 67, Goldendale 35   Girls Basketball Milwaukie 61, Hood River Valley 40 Putnam 55, The Dalles 45 Trout Lake 33, Columbia 31 Stevenson 56, Irrigon 49 South Wasco 43, Mohawk 28 South Wasco 41, Camas Valley 13 Powder Valley 62, Dufur 10 Dayville-Monument 42, Klickitat-Glenwood 39 Klickitat-Glenwood 40, Arlington 16 Kittitas 56, Lyle-Wishram 19 Soap Lake 40, Lyle-Wishram 21 Goldendale 42, Kiona-Benton 32 River View 43, Goldendale 34   Wrestling The Dalles finished 13^th at the Muilenberg Invitational in LaGrande.  J.R. Scott placed third at 195 pounds while winning 5 out of 6 matches, and Maricio Carrera was sixth at 182.

The Port of Hood River will hold a drop-in style community meeting on Monday night to allow the public to give feedback on the start of plans to replace the aging Hood River-White Salmon Interstate Bridge.  Port Executive Director Michael McElwee says there will be a number of different stations for people to rotate to and ask questions of those involved in the project.  The event will run from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Monday in the Best Western Plus Hood River Inn Riverview Room, with a brief overview presentation planned for 6:30.

The City of White Salmon will be asking the Washington Department of Transportation to deal with a number of issues during the repaving of Jewett Boulevard.  Requests range from creating a roundabout at Jewett and Garfield to installing pedestrian and crosswalk safety features and lowering speed limits.  Mayor David Poucher says they are also coordinating their water and sewer line replacements with the road work. The Jewett Boulevard repaving is scheduled to take place in 2020.

Swimming Hood River Valley swept an Intermountain Conference dual meet from The Dalles, with the Eagle boys winning 99-35 and the girls 126-34.  Sarah Arpag, Celilo Brun, and Faith Ocheskey won two events apiece for the HRV girls, while David Hecksel, Chad Klaas, and Ethan Yoakum did the same for the Hood River boys.   Wrestling Hood River Valley 45, St. Helens 30:  Chad Muenzer, Tristan Keely, Timothy Fletcher, Blake Willis, and Ryan Zeller all won by fall for the Eagles. Fort Vancouver 48, Columbia 12 Evergreen 72, Columbia 11   Boys Basketball Estacada 45, Stevenson 42 South Wasco 44, Crow 42   Girls Basketball Columbia 55, Dufur 54 South Wasco 50, Crow 14  

Mosier will receive $1.4 million in funding from U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development to help improve its municipal water system.  Rural Development State Director John Huffman made the announcement Thursday.  With the help of a $763,000 loan and a $659,418 grant from USDA’s Water and Waste Disposal Program, Mosier will drill a new well to serve as a backup water source.  The town will also install a new telemetry system to improve system efficiency and build a new pump station to provide backup power and redundant pumps, expanding the system’s capacity.  Mosier currently depends upon a single well to provide water to the town, but that infrastructure does not have the capacity to meet increasing demand and lacks a backup water supply and systems.

Permitting is nearly complete to allow White Salmon’s Aquifer Storage and Recovery Program to begin.  City officials are hoping for water quality permits from the Washington Department of Ecology to be issued in time for operations to start in the first quarter of 2019.  Under the program, water not needed to meet City demands in the winter would be diverted from Buck Creek, treated, and conveyed into one of the City’s wells where the water would be injected into the aquifer for storage and then used during high demand periods.  Mayor David Poucher says that will give them 25 percent of their water during peak usage times.  Poucher noted the City has been working on this project for nearly ten years.