The White Salmon City Council is gathering information on vehicle license fee to provide additional funding for street maintenance.  Mayor David Poucher says the state of Washington has been cutting back funds they had shared with cities, including privatization of liquor stores eliminating much of that income and a car tax that went directly to the city.  The state is now allowing cities to form transportation benefit districts and impose fees on vehicle licenses starting at $20 and eventually getting to $50.  Poucher says the Council is gathering information and would at least have a public hearing before making any decisions.  Poucher added he would want to see a vote of the people before adding any type of tax.

With the cherry harvest in the Mid-Columbia underway, a volatile international trade situation is creating uncertainty.  Ken Bailey of Orchard View Farms says you never know for sure what the impacts of tariffs would be until you product begins to be put on the market.  Bailey notes non-tariff barriers that can be an issue.  He says one example is China’s move last month to change its inspection rate of produce for pesticide residues from 30 percent of imports to 100 percent.  That slows the inspection process, and combined with insufficient cold storage facilities has the potential to lead to major disruptions.

The discharge from the City of The Dalles Wastewater Treatment Plant to the Columbia River has returned to compliance with permit limits for E. coli as of Thursday evening.  Samples taken throughout the day on Wednesday at the City discharge point to the river were within limits for each individual sample and for an average of five samples.  The delay in reading out the test results is due to the 24-hour incubation time that the test requires.  Samples taken at pre-arranged locations in the river late in the day on Wednesday were also within limits for each sample.  Signs which were placed at locations of public river access on the Oregon shore of the Columbia River, to warn of contaminated water, were taken down last night.

An incident earlier this week involving a Dry Hollow Elementary School student being directed to the wrong place to be picked up by a parent turned out to simply be a case of miscommunication rather than foul play.  In a joint statement, The Dalles Police Department and North Wasco County School District 21 said they learned parents of two different students called the school within minutes of each other, and the message intended for one student was accidentally sent to another.  The message directed the wrong student to walk to a day care where the student was to remain until the parent could pick that child up.  In their statement, police and the school district said it was a relief that the event was a simple mistake and not a more ominous event.

Mid-Columbia Fire and Rescue District has put open burn restrictions in effect as of Thursday.  Due to recent fire activity and below average fuel moistures, no outdoor burning of any type is allowed inside The Dalles city limits, and no open pile burning is allowed outside of the city limits.  Mid-Columbia Fire and Rescue burn permits will allow the use of burn barrels located outside of The Dalles city limits from dawn to 11 a.m. until the July 1 burn ban take effect.  In addition, on lands protected within the Central Oregon Forest Protection District, smoking while working in or traveling through any operation area is prohibited.  The use of fuse and caps for blasting without prior approval from the forester…and the discharge of an exploding target or tracer ammunition, is also banned.  Contact your local fire department for further information.

In the wake of a meeting two weeks ago involving governmental and corporate officials, the hope is a proposed pump storage project on the Columbia River at the former Goldendale Aluminum site can eventually move from a dream to a reality.  Klickitat PUD is now acting in a facilitation role as energy generation and storage company Rye Development and international energy company National Grid have received federal permits to study the project, which would cost two-point-five billion dollars.  Klickitat PUD General Manager Jim Smith says numbers from National Grid show the project could be an economic boom to Klickitat County and the entire region, starting with large amounts of employment during construction.  A preliminary permit gives Rye and National Grid the ability to study the site and decide if they want to pursue development, which would require a federal license.

The Port of Hood River Commission approved administrative rules governing potential public/private partnerships for a new Hood River Interstate Bridge.  The adoption comes after a process that included two public hearings.  Port Executive Director Michael McElwee says the rules are substantially similar to the Oregon Department of Transportation as called for under a bill that passed in the 2017 Legislature, but the Port Commission did remove the section on unsolicited proposals with the blessing of ODOT and lawmakers.  That means the rules do not allow an unsolicited proposal.  The Port board also approved entering into contract negotiations with WSP Engineering to do the environmental studies related to the bridge.  A selection committee had found WSP Engineering as the highest ranked firm to seek the contract, and McElwee hopes they can wrap up a deal in the couple of weeks.

The White Salmon City Council has approved a contract with a designer to put together three designs and an operation plan for a new swimming pool.  The contract for $25,000 is with W.M. Smith and Associates of Ellensburg, which has built pools for other communities in Washington.  Mayor David Poucher says the designs will allow for expansion in the future.  Poucher said the designs should be ready fairly quickly, probably in less than a month.  Poucher added the current pool is on track to open on June 16, as repairs on the pool’s control room have been made.

There will be a number of high school graduation ceremonies in the area this weekend.  It starts with Hood River Valley High School’s ceremony at the WAAAM museum Friday evening at 6 p.m.  The Dalles High School will conduct its graduation at Amaton Field at 10:30 Saturday morning.  Also on Saturday:  South Wasco High School holds graduation at 10 a.m. in the school gym, Klickitat and Horizon Christian ceremonies are at 2 p.m., and Stevenson High School’s event is at 3 p.m.  Columbia High School will also conduct graduation on Saturday.  Dufur, Sherman, and Lyle seniors graduated last weekend, while Trout Lake High School holds its ceremony next Saturday.

Oregon State University Extension Service is looking for food heroes.  Extension’s Lauren Kraemer says they will be conducting Food Hero Volunteer Training, which is part of a statewide marketing effort to get people to check out fresh, healthy recipes.  She says they want to train people on healthy eating on a budget, food safety, basic nutrition, food resources, and how to give community demonstrations and presentations to pass that knowledge on to others.  The training will take place on June 27 at One Community Health in The Dalles.  To pre-register, call OSU Extension at 541-386-3343.