The 100th birthday of the Historic Columbia River Highway was marked with ceremonies on Tuesday at Vista House and Multnomah Falls.  Kristen Stallman of the Oregon Department of Transportation says the route showed how roadbuilding could be done with nature and scenic beauty in mind.  The two-lane highway is now divided into different segments, some of which are accessible only by foot and bicycle.  Only 10 miles of the highway still need to be completed for the entire 73-mile stretch to be totally reconnected.  Two additional miles of the State Trail, between Lindsey and Starvation Creeks, will open this September, and three more miles between Wyeth and Lindsey Creek will open in 2018.  32 to 35 million dollars in funding still needs to be raised to finish the final five miles.

Clean-up of Friday’s train derailment in Mosier continues.  The Mosier Incident Command Center reported today that a significant amount of oil from derailed cars was removed overnight and crews could have all of the oil transloaded off-site by day’s end.  Crews had transloaded more than 65 truckloads of recovered oil by this morning.  It’s estimated that about 25 more truck loads remain.  The oil is being transferred to tanker trucks and transported to The Dalles, where it is being staged until resuming its trip to Tacoma.  Once all of the oil is transloaded, crews will begin removing the damaged rail cars.  Interstate 84 Exit 69 at Mosier has been reopened.

North Wasco County School District 21 officials are calling the results of a survey of community attitudes around the perception and vision for schools and the district very positive.  The survey by Patinkin Research Strategies of 300 likely D-21 voters found 62 percent had a positive opinion of the quality of education in the district, while 55 percent said they would be willing to pay more to repair or replace aging facilities. D-21 Superintendent Candy Armstrong says the results were much better than a similar survey conducted seven years ago, and believes the voting community wants to be a part of the district preparing for the future.  Armstrong said messages from the survey also showed voters want the district to be transparent and accountable, and to take care of the basic needs when it comes to facilities, especially in regard to safety and overcrowding.  She says the next task for the district is to continue the community conversation to shape the specifics of what should be included in a bond measure in the near future, and staff will need to refine those priorities into a detailed form.

The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service June Water Supply Outlook indicates June through September streamflow forecasts in the Hood, Sandy, and Lower Deschutes basins range from 69 to 71 percent of average.  NRCS Snow Survey Supervisor Scott Oviatt says early snowmelt resulted in streamflows peaking sooner and beginning to recede to mid-summer levels up to four weeks early.  However, he says water year precipitation has been at 111 percent of average in the basins, boosting reservoir levels that were at near record lows at the end of last summer and painting a much better picture for water supply this year.  But Oviatt says if the summer is hot and increases demand, water users drawing from reservoir sources could still experience possible water shortages.  As of June 1, only two monitored sites in the basins still have snow, which is not unusual for this time of year, but due to warm spring temperatures, most sites melted out 1 to 3 weeks earlier than normal.

Guardrail repair work on the Hood River/White Salmon Interstate Bridge has been completed ahead of schedule.  Single lane closures planned for today and tomorrow have been cancelled.  About 260 feet of guardrail was damaged by an unknown large vehicle on Thursday afternoon.

The Next Door has been awarded a one-year, $50,000 grant from the Oregon Community Foundation to support its work as the Parenting Education Hub for parents of children from birth to six-years-old in Wasco and Hood River counties.  This funding will enable The Next Door to continue providing parenting education class series.  In addition to their 12-week Incredible Years series, The Next Door will be offering a new six-week series, Attentive Parenting.  The grant is part of the Oregon Parenting Education Collaborative, and a result of a multi-year initiative of The Oregon Community Foundation in partnership with the Meyer Memorial Trust, The Ford Family Foundation, The Collins Foundation and Oregon State University.

Blasting will occur during the next two weeks on property located at the end of River Trail Way in the Port of The Dalles Industrial area.  The blasting will help to remove rock outcroppings that the contractor is not able to excavate with heavy equipment for site preparation prior to construction there.  A blasting plan has been submitted and approved by the City of The Dalles.  Pre-blast surveys will be performed on all structures within 200 feet of the blast zone as well as required signage and traffic control measures will be set-up along River Road and River Trail Way during the procedure.  Those with questions can call The Dalles Planning Department at 541-296-5481, ext. 1129 or ext. 1131 or Crestline Construction at 541-506-4000.

The boil water order in Mosier has been lifted. Water sample tests showed that the water from a back-up well now being used is safe to drink. The city lifted the boil water advisory for all residents except for two homes on Rock Creek Road.

Train traffic has resumed through the site of Friday’s derailment of 14 rail cars in Mosier, but a railroad representative said there will be no unit oil trains going through until clean-up finished.  A unit train is a train in which all cars carry the same commodity and are shipped from the same origin to the same destination, without being split up or stored en route.  Union Pacific spokesman Justin Jacobs said multiple agencies inspected the incident scene and track, and made a combined decision Sunday night that it was safe to run trains again, with the railroad instituting a slow order to reduce the speed limit through Mosier from 30 to 10 miles per hour until clean-up is finished.  Jacobs says so far the trains coming through have been mixed manifest, adding “they do not to intend to run any unit crude oil trains in the near term, and will inform the community when they are back to normal operations.”  The restart has made many unhappy.  The Mosier City Council had passed a resolution at an emergency meeting on Sunday asking Union Pacific Railroad to wait until clean-up of the site is finished before rail traffic continued.  Columbia Riverkeeper Executive Director Brett VandenHeuvel issued a statement through YouTube expressing his displeasure, calling running trains through an area where the derailed cars still have oil in them “unbelievable.”  Oregon’s Senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden, Governor Kate Brown and Representatives Earl Blumenauer and Suzanne Bonamici released a statement today calling for a temporary halt to oil train traffic in the Gorge.

The incident command center at Mosier reported good progress on the clean-up of Friday’s train derailment.  Thirteen cars remain at the incident site, two have been fully pumped, and the remaining eleven are in the process of having oil transferred to tanker trucks and transported to The Dalles.  The oil will be staged in The Dalles until resuming its trip to Tacoma.  A short-term fix involving trucking wastewater to the Hood River treatment plant has allowed sewer service to resume, but a boil water order remains in effect until tests on the City’s second well are complete.  Bottled water is available to anyone who needs it at the Union Pacific Claims Center across from the Mosier Market.  Interstate 84 Exit 69 at Mosier has been reopened.