The Columbia Gateway Urban Renewal Agency board will hold a special meeting Wednesday to consider bids for demolition of the westerly portion of the Recreation Building in downtown The Dalles.  Community Development Director Steve Harris gave an update to The Dalles City Council Monday evening on the situation involving a buckling of the roof and its supports, which came to light after heavy rains on August 9.  Harris says engineers report they’ve received indicate when the bowling alley was put in the building in 1958, some of the supporting columns were removed.  The roof has been failing in that portion of the building, and Councilor Russ Brown noted references in the reports that the rains were not the cause of the failure.  Harris said the cause is still under investigation, adding the engineers representing the URA’s insurance company wants to do a post-demolition investigation.  Harris says they have received three bids to demolish the building.

The Dalles City Council voted to amend the municipal Transportation Systems Plan to add a project to attempt to improve safety at the intersection of West 2^nd and Cherry Heights and have staff begin to design the project.  There have been nine traffic accidents at that intersection in the last five years, and traffic engineers found attempting left turns onto West 2^nd from Cherry Heights caused significant delays.  Public Works Director Dave Anderson says this project will involve channelization with raised concrete medians that will eliminate the left turns and straight-through movements from Cherry Heights and the Auto Zone business onto West 2^nd.  Cost is estimated at $295,000, and with the Council putting the project in the Transportation Systems Plan it can be paid for with funds from systems development charges the City already has.  Anderson said just painting stripes would not accomplish the safety improvements they want, installing signals would be more expensive and would actually increase the expectation of accidents, and there is not enough room for a roundabout.

Nighttime travelers who use the Bridge of the Gods, which connects Highway 14 in Washington to Interstate 84 in Cascade Locks, should plan to use an alternate route during intermittent full closures of the bridge in late September and early October.  From September 23 to October 9, crews will close the Bridge of the Gods nightly for deck rehabilitation work.  Closures from Sundays through Thursdays will begin at 9:30 p.m. and last until 5:30 a.m., while on Fridays and Saturdays the closures will be from 10:30 p.m. to 6:30 a.m.  The Bridge will be closed to all pedestrian and vehicle traffic during those times.  It will be open at all other times, with single-lane closures.

The Port of Hood River will re-grade and repair deteriorated asphalt on portions of the Waterfront Trail near the Marina fuel dock and the Port offices beginning Tuesday, forcing a closure of the trail in that area.  Port crews will remove all paving from the small section of trail and a branch that leads to the Port office parking lot and prepare for re-grading the relatively steep section, paving with new asphalt, and installation of a railing for the stairs leading to the fueling dock.  Barricades will be placed, closing the trail in the project area.  There are no paved trail detours around the project site.

Hood River County is going to receive a substantial donation for its forest trails system from a developer receiving an easement to put a fiber optic cable along a road in the County forest.  Administrator Jeff Hecksel says in addition to the usual compensation to the County for receiving an easement in the forest, the developer has agreed to donate $100,000 for the trails program, which has been threatened during the County’s current budget crunch.  The easement still must be approved by the County Commission, which will consider it at its meeting next Monday.

The annual Get Ready The Dalles emergency preparedness fair will take place this coming Saturday.  The event is put on NW Natural, Mid-Columbia Fire and Rescue, the American Red Cross, and a number of other emergency service organizations.  Tonya Brumley of NW Natural says September is Emergency Preparedness Month, and the goal is to help people prepare and plan for various emergencies.  The event will be from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday at Mid-Columbia Fire and Rescue on 1400 West 8th in The Dalles, with interactive presentations beginning at 10:30.  The first 100 families to attend will receive a free preparedness item.

Fire crews were kept busy in the region over the weekend.  On Friday afternoon, Mid-Columbia Fire and Rescue crews dealt with a large grass fire in the area of 16^th and Kelly.  Saturday in the Tygh Valley area a fire in the vicinity of J Hix Road west of Highway 197 burned just over 19 acres.  And on Sunday there were a number of fire starts reported in Klickitat and Skamania counties in the aftermath of Saturday night’s major thunderstorm after numerous lightning strikes.  No major fires were reported as a result.

Football

Hood River Valley 36, The Dalles 22:  Tanner Fletcher ran for 271 yards and two touchdowns, while Trenton Hughes caught a touchdown pass, ran back a kickoff for a score, and had a key late interception as the Eagles won the season opener.  Gabe Helseth threw for 214 yards and two touchdowns for The Dalles.

Columbia 29, Goldendale 6

Blanchet Catholic 27, Stevenson 14

Adrian 66, Dufur 8:  The Rangers’ 33-game winning streak comes to an end.

Perrydale 44, Lyle-Wishram 28

Sherman 73, Huntington 22

Cross Country

Hood River Valley won both the boys’ and girls’ varsity Class 5A/6A race at the Ultimook Race in Tillamook.  Frances Dickinson was second and Josephine Dickinson third for the Eagles in the girls’ race while Chloe Bullock was ninth.   In the boys’ race Omar Quintana was sixth and Jack Grim eighth.

The Dalles girls finished second and the boys third at the Tualatin Invitational.  The Riverhawks’ Tressa Wood was third and Hanna Ziegenhagen fifth in the girls’ race, while Sam Alvarez was seventh and Friedrich Stelzer eighth for The Dalles boys.

Goldendale’s girls were second and boys sixth at the Ellensburg Invitational Relays.  The Timberwolves’ Ellie Rising had the best relay split in the girls’ race.

Volleyball

Dufur def. Lyle-Wishram 25-15, 25-5, 25-23

Girls Soccer

Wapato 6, Goldendale 3

Two people are confirmed dead as the result of a single-engine plane crash at Hood River’s Ken Jernstedt Airfield this morning.  Hood River County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Joel Ives says the accident occurred just after 10 a.m.  Ives indicated the plane was a Super Cub with two occupants. The victims have been identified as 56-year-old pilot Matthew Titus of Turlock, California and 55-year-old Ben Davidson of Hood River.  Ives says the plane was doing a takeoff off of grass when the accident occurred.  He said eyewitnesses indicated the plane was about 100 feet off the ground when they heard the engine sputter and quit, and the plane immediately nosed over and turned to the right, coming in at a steep angle.  Ives said they believe the plane was from the local area, but that is still being confirmed.  The Airfield and the adjacent Western Antique Aeroplane and Automobile Museum is hosting its annual fly-in this weekend.  The Federal Aviation Administration will investigate the cause of the accident.

Klickitat County Commissioners have until September 27 to decide whether to appeal a federal judge’s ruling that the long disputed Tract D in the Glenwood area is within the boundaries of the Yakama Reservation.  Commissioner David Sauter says they will discuss that topic during their upcoming meetings over the next two weeks.  Commissioners held a special meeting in Glenwood to answer residents’ questions in light of the ruling, which was focused on law enforcement jurisdiction.  Sauter says emergency services personnel will still be sent out regardless of who calls 9-1-1, and other county services should remain status quo.  He also says County roads will still be maintained and plowed by Klickitat County, and they will be still be collecting taxes as they always have.  Sauter notes this is not an unprecedented situation in Washington, and the Commission is reaching out to their counterparts in those locations for guidance.