A garbage truck turning into a driveway and hitting a power pole led to Friday’s power outage in Hood River.  Hood River County Sheriff Matt English says no one was injured in the accident on the 1000 block of Tucker Road, near a Pacific Power substation.  Tom Gauntt of Pacific Power said about 7,700 customers in Hood River and Wasco counties were impacted by the outage, which started at about 6:55 a.m.  Power was restored by 8 a.m.

Installation of a new track and synthetic turf field at Hood River Valley High School’s Henderson Stadium will start in April.  The school has been discussing the project for some time, and will be paid for through a matching grant from the state from their bond sale of over a year ago along with a good bond rate that brought in additional funds.  HRV Athletic Director Tom Ames says it will lead to some inconveniences for the school’s track and field and lacrosse teams this spring, but when it is done will improve playing conditions for a number of sports and allow the field in particular to receive more use.  Ames pointed out finding practice facilities for the track team will be the biggest issue.  The new field should be ready for the start of the 2018 fall sports season.

The Hood River Warming Shelter will open for the winter this Sunday night.  For the first time the shelter has hired a part-time director, Laura Westmeyer, and she says they also will have a permanent location for the winter at Riverside Church on State Street next to the Hood River County Courthouse.  The shelter will be open from 6 p.m. to 7 a.m. every night until March 10.  There is still a need for volunteers and donations to help the shelter serve those in need of a place to stay during the cold winter nights.  For information on how to help, go to hoodrivercares.org.

There will be intermittent, single-lane closures on the Hood River/White Salmon Interstate Bridge Friday between the hours of 9:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m.  Port crews and Gorge Electric contract crews will be on the bridge making the repairs to bridge lights.  Bridge users are encouraged to plan for delays during these hours.  Delays are expected throughout the day from 15-30 minutes depending on traffic volume.

White Salmon City Councilors are looking at revising sewer and water rates to better differentiate between the types of usage by customers of the system.  Mayor David Poucher expects that for most people, rates won’t change significantly.  White Salmon reviews water and sewer rates about every five years.  Poucher said new rate structures would be approved as the municipal budget for 2018 is passed over the next month.

The latest vote count has probably determined winners in White Salmon City Council elections.     Under Washington state law, ballots only had to be postmarked by last Tuesday to be counted, and numbers released late yesterday afternoon represent the final count until November 27.  In the closest race, Ashley Post had 348 votes to 334 for Ben Berger for position one.  For position three Jason Hartmann has received 327 votes to 261 for Jason Sabourin.  Amy Martin maintained her advantage for position four with 388 votes to 291 for Dan Caldwell.  And Marla Keethler has 386 votes for position five to 302 for Maurice Tunstall, Jr.

The Hood River City Council approved bringing on another firefighter.  City Manager Steve Wheeler says the move was planned in the current fiscal year budget, but both staff and Councilors wanted to wait to make sure emergency medical services transfers would pay for it.  First quarter revenue confirmed they could move ahead.  However the City will wait at least another quarter to add a new position in the police department.  Wheeler says the plan is to use marijuana tax revenue for that person, but they want to get a better handle on where those monies will settle in at before moving forward.  He notes most of the uncertainty is at the state level.

The Dalles City Council will hold a town hall-style meeting to discuss homeless issues.  Councilors reached consensus on that after discussing a potential ordinance to create a “civil exclusion zone” in the downtown business area that brought an overflow audience to City Hall. Mayor Steve Lawrence early on told the audience the ordinance was still in draft form and would only be the subject of discussion among Council members whether to move forward to have staff continue to develop it and eventually schedule a public hearing, and no comment would be taken on the subject during the public input period.  But that didn’t sit well with at least one person who had a loud exchange with Lawrence, and after an outburst while another person was commenting was escorted from the room by Police Chief Pat Ashmore.  Councilor Tim McGlothlin, who has been active in discussing the homeless issue, said he hopes many people offer ideas for solutions, pointing out the number of homeless in The Dalles has more than tripled since 2015.  Lawrence said a town hall-style meeting will be planned before anything moves forward.  The draft ordinance that was discussed would allow people who habitually violate any one of 24 different offenses to be excluded from the downtown area for up to 90 days, and face a second degree criminal trespass charge if found in the zone with some exceptions, including work or receiving social and medical services.  The intent was to address aggressive panhandling and loitering in tourist and shopping areas.  Police Chief Pat Ashmore told the Council he felt no more than five-to-six people would be impacted by an exclusion zone, noting it would be for anyone who habitually offended, not just people who are homeless.

A special meeting to discuss using urban renewal to develop infrastructure for Lot 1 on the Hood River Waterfront between the Hood River Urban Renewal Agency Board and the Port of Hood River Commission will take place.  The URA panel is made up of the City Council and two Port Commissioners.  A feasibility analysis done by EcoNorthwest for the Port indicated there will need to be public involvement to pay for infrastructure needs that would allow Lot 1 development to be feasible.  City Manager Steve Wheeler notes no formal ask for expansion of the maximum indebtedness of the Waterfront Urban Renewal District has been made by the Port, but the topic was discussed during Monday’s URA meeting.  No date has been set for the meeting.

The Hood River City Council has passed a resolution to revise parking in-lieu fees and downtown residential parking spaces.  It establishes a reduced in-lieu parking fee of $2,000 per space for new residential development in the City’s commercial districts that provide at least two-thirds of the required parking.  Councilors made the move in response to a request by Key Development to reduce what had been a fee of over $20,000 for residential parking downtown as the company considers an apartment complex in that area.  At a goal-setting session over the weekend, Councilors indicated they want to develop a comprehensive effort to review parking issues downtown.