Baseball

Seton Catholic 6, Stevenson 3

  Track and Field

Hood River Valley’s Simone Tillman won three events, while Zoe Dunn of The Dalles and Ashley Bailey of Dufur won two apiece in a seven-school meet at Henderson Stadium.

Jessica Polkinghorn swept the throws as Columbia’s girls won a five-school meet at LaCenter.  Chanele Reyes and Ella Zimmerman won the hurdles races for the Bruins.  In the boys portion of the meet, Calvin Andrews took first in the 300 meter hurdles.

Wasco County Commissioners voted to approve a multi-governmental agreement on distribution of Community Service Fees that will be due from Google when it constructs new data centers on former aluminum plant property as agreed to in a Strategic Improvement Plan.  The agreement calls for the payments to be divided between the taxing districts involved based on each jurisdiction’s proportionate share of their non-debt tax levy or levies in the current tax year.  But County Administrator Tyler Stone noted that negotiations did lead to including North Wasco County School District 21, which by state regulations on Strategic Investment Plans was not required to be a part of the disbursement.  D-21 will receive a 30 percent share, which Stone said he hopes the district can use the dollars to leverage a future bond measure.  Mid-Columbia Fire and Rescue and the Wasco County Library District approved the agreement this week, with other agencies to follow, including The Dalles City Council, which will address it at their Monday meeting.  Payments do not begin until the projects are completed.

Deputy Oregon state epidemiologist Dr. Tom Jeanne said a press conference today that COVID-19 cases are showing a steady rise in large part due to the BA.2 variant and the lifting of mask requirements, but he also said any peak will be substantially lower than seen with Delta or Omicron variants.  Jeanne says that’s because the state is in a much different situation than a year ago, with a large part of the state vaccinated.  He added Oregon Health Sciences University modeling at this time projects only a slight increase in hospitalizations.  Jeanne also said the proportion of cases reported has likely declined in recent weeks with the wide-spread availability of in-home testing.

Wasco County Commissioners Wednesday approved a memorandum of understanding with the Columbia River Gorge Commission and the Port of The Dalles, calling on the three agencies to meet at least once a year to discuss growth management planning, particularly in regard to The Dalles urban area.  County Commissioners expressed hope the agreement can create a pathway toward a future working relationship, with Commissioner Steve Kramer noting much has changed since the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area was established in the 1980’s.  Local officials were unhappy with NSA management plan revisions that they feel severely limited options for growth of The Dalles’ urban area.  The agreement also calls for Wasco County to join the Gorge Commission in seeking funding for a review of The Dalles Urban Area if it is not provided in the Gorge Commission’s biennial budget from the Oregon and Washington legislatures.

The White Salmon Valley School District has established a set of district priorities for the 2022-23 school year.  They are focused in six areas:  academic success, college, career, and post-secondary success, the whole child, fiscal management, resource management, and taking actions through a lens of equity.  District Superintendent Sean McGeeney says the priorities are meant to be long-term visions.  The priorities are posted on the district’s website:  wsvsd.org.

One of the goals of this year’s Northwest Cherry Festival in The Dalles is to get people into area businesses.  Part of that is the Little Music City listing in the festival schedule.  The Dalles Area Chamber of Commerce CEO Lisa Farquharson says a number of locations are hosting live music throughout the weekend, and the Chamber is using its community calendar to provide a schedule.  Farquharson is encouraging music venues to inform the Chamber of their schedules this weekend to be placed in their on-line community calendar.

Home At Last Humane Society is gearing up for an upcoming walkathon fundraiser.  The animal shelter in The Dalles will hold its Dimes for Dogs Walkathon on May 21 to help meet the rising costs of operating the facility.  But the organization’s Erin Foote Morgan says before that, they are planning a major volunteer clean-up day of their facility at 200 River Road on Saturday, April 30.  To take part in the clean-up that will take place from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on April 30, go to homeatlasths.org to get signed up.

Klickitat County is establishing a ban on outdoor burning for Klickitat County Burn Ban Zone One as of May 1. That zone is defined as lands east of the Klickitat County Fire District #7 eastern boundary to include but not limited to Klickitat County Fire Districts #2, 9 and 10, and outside the jurisdictions of the Yakama Indian Nation and the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission. The ban prohibits the issuance of burning permits except for authorized agricultural burning. Residential barbecues will be allowed. The ban will continue through September 30. Information for Klickitat County Burn Ban Zones 2 and 3 will be released as soon as the 2022 dates are finalized. Burn ban maps can be viewed online at klickitatcounty.org.

Baseball

Hood River Valley 8, Ridgeview 4: Joe Reitz hit a three-run homer, Trenton Hughes drove in two runs, and Jordan Webber had two doubles as the Eagles completed a three-game sweep of the Ravens.

Pendleton 15, The Dalles 5:  The Riverhawks’ Braden Schwartz went three for three and drove in two runs, but it wasn’t enough to prevent Pendleton from sweeping the three-game series.

Kennedy 1, Dufur 0

  Softball

Pendleton at The Dalles, ppd. to Thursday at 4:30

Ridgeview 10, Hood River Valley 6:  Reese Leiblien had two hits and a homer for the Eagles.

Stevenson splits with Kalama, winning game one 13-9 and falling in the nightcap 15-7.

  Boys Tennis

Hood River Valley 7, The Dalles 1

Goldendale 5, White Swan 0

  Girls Tennis

Goldendale 4, White Swan 1

  Boys Lacrosse

Grant 11, Hood River Valley 2

The Port of Hood River is searching for employees to help maintain its recreation sites this summer.  Port Executive Director Michael McElwee says how to staff operations this summer is a big question heading into the upcoming season, noting they typically hire ten to twelve high school and college students, but they had almost no interested people the last two years.  McElwee says they do have advertisements out and have had a couple of applicants, but difficulty in finding the labor leads to uncertainty on how many trash receptacles and restrooms can be opened on the Waterfront this summer.