Boys Basketball Arlington 48, Trout Lake 22 Castle Rock at Columbia, ppd.   Girls Basketball Arlington 47, Trout Lake 23 Columbia at Castle Rock, ppd.

The Hood River County School District will be conducting community polling over the next week to determine what people would support in a planned bond measure request this May.  District board members were briefed by Superintendent Dan Goldman and a consulting team on the findings of community workgroups on district facility needs.  Two packages were presented, with both based around taking care of deferred maintenance along with improving technology options, a six-classroom expansion of Hood River Middle School, and refurbishment of STEM facilities at Wy’east Middle School  The difference was in how to create more elementary school space in the lower valley, with a 42 million dollar package including money for six new classrooms at Westside Elementary, while a 60 million dollar bond measure would accommodate a rebuild of May Street Elementary.  Goldman says what the community tells the district will dictate what they can do.  The district board will receive the polling results on January 13, and need to make a decision by the end of January to get a bond measure on the May ballot.  A bond measure approved in 2000 comes off the books in 2017, and both of the packages the workgroups came up with would keep tax rates where they are now.

The Oregon Legislature has a number of fiscal challenges they will have to face in 2017, but it does not appear likely many steps can be taken during the short session of 2016.  59th District State Representative John Huffman, who serves on the Ways and Means Committee, says there is the potential for a two billion dollar hole in the next biennium’s budget.  He believes the only way to deal with it is to start prioritizing the state budget.  The recent state economic forecast showed a slight uptick in revenue.

The holidays can be a challenging time for those who have recently lost a loved one.  Providence Hospice of the Gorge chaplain Jan Schiering says it can be a very stressful period, and she tells those facing that situation to simplify.  Schiering says it is important to focus on determining what’s really meaningful to you, share your needs with your loved ones, and perhaps have a checklist to determine what you really want to do during the holiday and remove some of the stress from it.  Schiering says there are grief groups for adults and youngsters that meet regularly in both The Dalles and Hood River that can provide support.  Call 541-387-6449 for more information.

Roger Kline has been tabbed to be the new general manager at Northern Wasco County People’s Utility District.  Kline has worked in the energy industry for more than 22 years, holding positions in enterprise risk, generation operations, maintenance and senior management.  He comes from the Eugene Water & Electric Board, and has held positions with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Calpine Corporation, Texas Independent Energy, Solar Turbines Inc., and the United States Navy.  Kline takes over for the retiring Dwight Langer, who spent 23 years in the position.

Girls Basketball The Dalles 56, Wilson 41:  The Riverhawks win their first game of the season after opening with two losses.

72-hour rainfall totals from the National Weather Service illustrate the strength of the storms that have come through the region the past three days.  Those statistics show just over nine inches of rain had fallen in North Bonneville, eight-point-four inches at Kingsley Reservoir, slightly over eight inches at Buck Creek, six-point-two inches at Dee Flat, five-and-a-half inches on Middle Mountain, four-point-seven inches at Tucker Bridge, three-and-two-third inches at the Hood River Agricultural Station and at Pine Grove, and three-and-one-tenths of an inch in Hood River and in Underwood.  All of the readings are as of early this morning.

Wasco County Commissioners may try again to hold a discussion on options how to best handle building code services.  An evening session during wintry weather last week drew only one person, but County Commissioner Steve Kramer said it may be worth rescheduling to give others a chance to comment.  Mid-Columbia Council of Governments currently handles those services, and Commissioners are trying to determine whether to continue with that, take them in-house, or seek another outside entity to do it.

Local health officials are reminding parents to make sure their school-age children have their immunizations up to date with the annual exclusion date looming in February.  Trish Elliott of the Hood River County Health Department says schools are beginning to review their immunization records now, and will submit their reports to County health departments by January 13.  Students whose immunization records are not up to date by February 17 will be taken out of school.

Public works and utility crews have been busy in Hood River County since last night’s rain and wind brought down trees and branches.  There were scattered power outages throughout the County during the early morning hours.  Hood River County Sheriff Matt English says a tree fell and hit an apartment building on 1585 9th Street in Hood River, and a tree also hit a house on Highway 35 near Hanel Mill.  Country Club Road between Barrett Drive and Riordan Hill was expected to be closed for most of the day due to a downed power line and tree issues.  Klickitat PUD worked through the night to repair outages in the areas of Little Mountain Road, Northwestern Lake, Highway 141, Lyle-Snowden, McGowan, and Bertha Orchard area of Appleton.