The City of Hood River plans to put a three-hour time limit on parking on Central Portway Avenue in the Waterfront area.  City Manager Steve Wheeler says with the Port of Hood River establishing metered parking on the streets in owns on the Waterfront, the City is anticipating greater demand for the free parking on its streets.  The Port of Hood River established paid parking in the Nichols Basin area, on North First Street, East Portway Avenue, the West Jensen parking lot and West Portway Avenue.  Wheeler indicates the City and the Port will be evaluating the impact of the Waterfront parking changes during 2018.

The Hood River Valley Parks and Recreation District will hold a grand opening celebration for newly redeveloped Golden Eagle Park on Saturday afternoon.  The park is located adjacent to the Hood River Valley High School baseball complex, and was leased by Hood River County in 1978 to the Hood River County School District, and then subleased to the parks district last year. It now has facilities for tennis, basketball, pickleball, and bocce ball, along with 98 spaces of paved parking and restrooms.  There will also be a mountain bike skills area and an asphalt pump track.  The grand opening will take place from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturday.  There will be demos and games for all the activities in the park.  

The eight-day temporary traffic calming demonstration project at the Dry Hollow Elementary School will be finished Wednesday.  It was to test the effectiveness of a number of potential traffic calming measures to improve student and traffic safety during the busy drop-off and pick-up times at Dry Hollow Elementary School, develop data on the viability of various modifications, and give an opportunity for users and residents to provide feedback.  City officials emphasize wants to reiterate that no decisions have been made on permanent modification, which would be presented and discussed in public workshops.  The public is invited to provide feedback and input related to the demonstration project at www.dryhollow.org.

Hood River city officials looked at three potential short-term steps to help with improving building code administration.  A number of area builders have expressed dissatisfaction with Clair Company of Corvallis, which is contracted to provide the City’s building code services through the end of next year.  City Manager Steve Wheeler says one would be to have the company hold an interactive talk with the local building community to go over what is necessary to have a complete application done.  A second is to enhance telecommunications between local uses and Corvallis, with Wheeler adding the City would be willing to put some money into that.  Another step would be to have the company’s code consulting services manager in Hood River twice a week instead of once a week.  Wheeler added he is recommending when the City prepares to seek bids for a new contract during 2019 to be very specific has to what it is looking for from whoever is selected.

The Dalles City Council approved the City’s budget for Fiscal Year 2018-19.  It was approved with only minor adjustments from what came out of the municipal budget committee.  Mayor Steve Lawrence called it the best budget the City has adopted since he took the position, noting reserves and contingency have been fully funded and projects are being done within the resources the City has.  In other business, the Council approved a contract with consultants KPFF to update the financial figures for The Dalles Riverfront Access Project for the City Council and Urban Renewal Board to decide if it wants to pursue it.

Skamania County Search and Rescue located a 44-year-old Vancouver woman whose car battery died west of Trout Lake.  According to the Skamania County Sheriff’s Office…the department received a report at 4:20 p.m. Sunday that Shawna Lamb had become lost while hiking above Stevenson as she was solo camping.  Her husband had received a call from her that her car battery had died and her cell phone was almost out of battery.  He told dispatchers Lamb gave him directions but was unable to locate her.  A search & rescue Deputy made contact with the husband and found the location was not in the Stevenson area but Trout Lake, some 50 miles Northeast.  The deputy started checking spurs near Mt. Adams, and located Lamb 5 1/2 hours later after checking 70 miles of roadway.  She was in Yakima County near “Backstrap Trail.”  The deputy assisted in getting her vehicle running and then reunited her with her husband.

A grant from Northern Wasco County PUD will help complete Phase 1 of plans to expand Klindt Cove Kiwanis Park.  At their June 4 meeting the PUD’s Board of Directors awarded $16,000 to the project through their economic development grant program.  The grant will allow Phase I completion through the addition of site seeding and irrigation.  The Port of The Dalles, Northern Wasco County Parks & Recreation, and The Dalles Kiwanis are collaborating on the expansion project.  The Port has donated a bit over one acre of land for the expansion project, which will include more picnic and activity areas.   A $70,000 Oregon Parks grant will provide much of Phase 1 funding.

Hood River County Commissioners are continuing to conduct their focus group discussions as part of its sustainability project to deal with budget issues.  Each of the five commissioners is overseeing focus groups for a different part of County operations.  Commission Chair Ron Rivers has been involved in discussions around public safety, and feels like it’s building momentum, and he expects the outreach to continue, adding they aren’t hearing negatives from those taking part.  The County plans to have the panels make recommendations during the summer as Commissioners angled toward putting a revenue measure on the ballot in November of this year or May 2019.  For more information on the various groups and how citizens can take part, go to the Hood River County website.

After a week of volunteers building the new structures at Children’s Park in Hood River, the facility is about 85 percent complete.  According to a post on the Children’s Park Facebook page, another couple of community days will be upcoming to finish the park up.  Specific dates and plans will be announced later.  Volunteers spent all of last week building the play structures.  The original wood-based structure had to be replaced after 25 years of use for safety reasons.

An early morning fire in Odell destroyed a manufactured home.  Wy’east Fire District Chief Greg Borton says crews arrived at the scene of the fire on Summit Drive at 2 a.m. Monday and found the older style manufactured home fully involved, and had to fight the fire defensively.  Borton said two sisters who lived in the manufactured home were helped out of the home by relatives who live in a trailer close by.  Borton did say one of three dogs that lived in the home was found dead inside the burned structure, while a second is missing and a third got out safely.  All Hood River Valley fire departments were involved in the firefighting effort.  The American Red Cross assisted those displaced by the fire.