After a lengthy worksession revolving around a staff report on options for how correctional services should be handled, Klickitat County Commissioners came to agreement to have its staff prepare documents for creation of a Department of Corrections under County Commission control, and seek a consultant to consider the options of either maintaining the current jail with remodeling under the new department with staff to have a seven-day a week medical clinic, or contracting with NORCOR but maintaining booking and holding in Goldendale. They also directed staff to look to hire an interim jail manager, and the motion also removed the directive passed in late March that included closing the jail completely. After reviewing the staff jail report, Commissioners found the options that would have gone with contracting with NORCOR and closing the jail completely or building a completely new Klickitat County Jail to be unfeasible. Commissioner Jacob Anderson said he firmly believes this is a good step and compromise, but there is still a long way to go. Commissioner Dan Christopher said he wasn’t happy with how the board got to this point, but the decision that was made was the best available option before him.
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Wasco County Planning Looking At Obstacles To Residential
The Wasco County Planning Department is considering obstacles to residential development as part of the statewide effort to create more housing. Planning Director Kelly Howsley Glover says the nuances of housing issues are different in for the unincorporated areas overseen for counties as opposed to the urban areas of cities. Glover says part of her process is looking at streamlining the permitting process to create new housing. Another issue that is much tougher to tackle revolves around aging infrastructure, and how to repair it and increase its capacity. Glover says they are working on data now, with an eye toward taking public input at the end of this year.
HR Council Pay To Jump In Bid To Increase Diversity
Hood River City Councilors approved significantly raising compensation for Councilors and the Mayor as a way of encouraging more people to feel like they can seek election to the panel and create more diversity on it. The Council approved a resolution putting financial compensation at ten percent of Hood River County’s Area Median Income for Councilors, and twenty percent for the Mayor. Based on 2023 statistics, Councilors’ pay would go from $50 to $742 a month, and the Mayor from $100 to $1483 a month. The new pay schedule would not go into effect until each Council position was up for election or an appointment was made to a vacated seat, so no current members are receiving an immediate bump in compensation. Mayor Paul Blackburn says the goal is to get a more diverse pool of candidates. When the resolution fully takes effect in 2027, the impact on the general fund will be approximately $72,000.
TD City Council Approves Extended Enterprise Zone For 280 Earth
The Dalles City Council approved a five-year extended enterprise zone tax abatement for a carbon sequestration company working on new technology in The Dalles. 280 Earth has already constructed a 500-ton test facility on River Trail Way at the Port of The Dalles, and is looking to construct a 5,000-ton production module on the same parcel. City Economic Development Officer Dan Spatz says the company sought the tax abatement to help offset the cost of carbon transport to Wyoming and show its investor base there is community support for the company in The Dalles. The abatement would only be for improvements to the parcel, and not for the land itself. 280 Earth is a spin-out from Google, but Google is no longer an investor in the project.
HR URA Board To Seek State Funds For Transfer Of Highway 281
The Hood River Urban Renewal Agency Board approved sending a pre-application and letter of support to the state’s Jurisdictional Transfer Advisory Committee seeking eventual funds to help transfer ownership of state Highway 281, or 12th and 13th Streets, between Pacific Avenue and Oak Street from the Oregon Department of Transportation to the City of Hood River. The move is being sought to allow for 12th and 13th Street improvements called for under the Heights Streetscape Plan. Urban Renewal Administrator Will Norris says they are taking a two-pronged approach, direct negotiations with ODOT and seeking a legislative appropriation for the transfer. The Hood River County Transportation District is also signing on to the support letter.
HR Sheriff’s Foundation Fundraising For Water Rescue Craft
The Hood River County Sheriff’s Foundation is raising funds to purchase an enhanced jet ski to allow Marine Patrol to perform faster water rescues, operate in rough conditions, and provider safer rescues in all sorts of water conditions. Sheriff Matt English says they are looking to raise $39,500 to purchase the craft that will be easier for a lone officer to operate and make a rescue than the Marine Patrol boat that patrols the water. The Sheriff’s Foundation was set up in 2020 to raise money for programs that have a lasting impact on public safety. English says a Go Fund Me page has been set up for rescue watercraft fundraiser.
Klickitat County Commissioners Approve Dallesport Sewer Rate Increase
Klickitat County Commissioners approved a 5% increase of monthly rates for customers of the Dallesport sewer plant. Commissioners had left the record open for written comments last week, putting off a decision until Tuesday. County officials said state law requires all utility service areas to be self-sustaining, and the County had been subsidizing the Dallesport wastewater tipping fees from the Roosevelt Regional Landfill. But they say with County costs increasing, that cannot continue, and the rates must be brought in-line with other systems in the County. With the rate increase, the monthly charge will now be $64.22. The charge to connect into the system was increased by 3% to $4,602.68. The resolution approved by Commissioners called for an annual review of the rates. The panel heard testimony at their meeting last week about a number of issues including criticism of Klickitat PUD’s maintenance of the plant, but Commission members pointed out the subject at hand was the rate increase. The County’s Public Works Department has indicated some of the equipment in the Dallesport treatment plant is at the end of its life and will need replacement that will need to be paid for.
Gloria Center Grand Opening On Friday
Mid-Columbia Community Action will hold the grand opening of The Gloria Center at 2505 West 7th in The Dalles on Friday morning at 11 a.m. The Gloria Center will serve as a one-stop resource hub to combat poverty and houselessness in the Mid-Columbia. Services being offered at the center include housing assistance, homelessness prevention, case management, Veterans services, utility assistance, home weatherization, physical health, behavioral health, and Native and Latinx specific services. The center is also a Community Resiliency Center in the event of a natural disaster or power grid outage, thanks to a solar energy resiliency grant from the Oregon Department of Energy. Additionally, Community Action will operate a 36-bed severe weather shelter on the site. The Friday event will include speakers from many of the project funders and partners along with the ribbon cutting. There will be tours of the Gloria Center site after the ceremony.
New Signal Lights In Hood River
New signal lights are coming online at both ends of Hood River. Downtown, the signal light at 2nd and Oak went into operation late last week. City Manager Abigail Elder says the project was able to be finished before Memorial Day. And at the west end of the city, the long-discussed signal light between Rand and Cascade will be put into service this week. That light should provide a location to make easier left turns onto Cascade at that end of the city.
Turtles Returned To Gorge
Summer came early last week for 11 northwestern pond turtles reared at the Oregon Zoo. With the help of volunteers and wildlife officials, care staff returned the endangered reptiles to the Columbia River Gorge. Since last spring, the turtles have basked in the warmth and light of a simulated summer at the zoo’s conservation lab, growing large enough to have a fighting chance in the wild. Once the turtles weigh about 50 grams, they’re taken to ponds along the Columbia River Gorge, where a team of conservationists returns them to their natural habitat and monitors them for safety. In one study, scientists estimated that 95% of the turtles released back to sites in the Gorge survive annually. The American bullfrog, native to the eastern United States but considered invasive here, and has been driving pond turtles and a host of other small, vulnerable aquatic species to the brink of extinction. The northwestern pond turtle, also known as the western pond turtle, is listed as an endangered species in Washington and a sensitive species in Oregon. The Western Pond Turtle Recovery Project is a collaborative effort by the Oregon Zoo, Woodland Park Zoo, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bonneville Power Administration, U.S. Forest Service and other partners.