This year’s Northwest Cherry Festival will include a fun event called “I Spy The Dalles.”  That’s the theme of this year’s festival.  The Dalles Area Chamber of Commerce CEO Lisa Farquharson explains they will be creating an entrance, similar to something they did a few years ago for “Follow the Cherry Brick Road,” this time using different shapes, symbols, and other things around town, and people can track them and have fun with small prizes available.  The Chamber is partnering with Farmhouse Factory to put the activity on.  Complete Cherry Festival information is available at thedalleschamber.com, and a Cherry Festival guide can be downloaded from gorgeradio.com.

The Hood River County School District is in the midst of its drive to get kindergarten and new students enrolled for the 2022-23 school year.  Superintendent Rich Polkinghorn says this year they have automated the process on the district website.  He says parents only need to type in their information, and then school personnel will contact them to finish up documentation.  The district website is hoodriver.k12.or.us.  For more information, call the district at 541-386-2511.  Elementary schools will offer special informational events for kindergarten families in May.

The Hood River County Commission held a fairly light meeting on Monday, focusing on commissioner and staff reports as the panel gets back to holding in-person meetings. Commissioners did vote to continue the Hood River Saddle Club’s partial property tax exemption as currently in effect for portions for used a public park. The Commission also approved submitting a Community Development Block Grant application on behalf of the Hood River Valley Adult Center, as that facility seeks a $750,000 grant for a kitchen renovation and upgrades.

The U.S. Supreme Court has denied Klickitat County’s claim to Tract D in the southwest portion of the Yakama Indian Reservation.  The Court made the denial without comment, likely ending the over century-long dispute.  Tract D is 121,465 acres including the eastern half of Mt. Adams and the Glenwood Valley.  Klickitat County claimed the tract was not included in the reservation, noting ambiguous language in the Treaty of 1855 between the Yakama Tribe and the federal government.

The countdown to the first Northwest Cherry Festival weekend in three years is underway, and for The Dalles Area Chamber of Commerce it has featured some challenges in preparation.  Chamber CEO Lisa Farquharson says the biggest challenge has been labor shortages limiting how much businesses can volunteer to help out.  She points out people want the festival to happen, but businesses don’t have the bandwidth to do the different things they have in the past.  Farquharson says they have been figuring out what has to be done to make sure all of elements of the Festival are manned, adding new volunteers have stepped up to help.  A complete Cherry Festival guide is available online at Gorgeradio.com.

The Port of Hood River’s recent spring planning session included considering what the agency would look like once the a new Interstate Bridge is in place and the Port is no longer receiving revenues from the current bridge.  That may be seven years away, but Port Executive Director Michael McElwee says it’s important to start considering it now.   Level of service, size of the agency, and areas to manage and areas to give up are all issues McElwee says need to be addressed in the upcoming years.  Without the bridge, the Port still has its real estate holdings that are leased to area businesses, the Ken Jernstedt Airfield, and recreational locations on the waterfront to operate.

Baseball

Hood River Valley sweeps Ridgeview 6-3 and 10-6

Pendleton sweeps The Dalles 9-7 and 6-2

Columbia 15, Castle Rock 14

Stevenson 6, Onalaska 4

  Softball

Hood River Valley sweeps Ridgeview 7-6 and 6-5

Pendleton sweeps The Dalles 5-0 and 3-1

Castle Rock sweeps Columbia 10-0 and 15-5

Napavine sweeps Stevenson 12-1 and 12-2

  Track and Field

Both The Dalles boys and girls finished second to Kelso at the Canby Invitational.  Connor Blair and Jaxon Pullen won two events apiece for the Riverhawk boys, and The Dalles girls won all three relays.

  Alden Williams won both the 800 and 1500 meters to help Goldendale’s boys to a second place finish at the K-Valley Rally in Kittitas.  Emma Olson won the triple jump and was second in the long jump for the Timberwolf girls.

  A third place finish from Elliot Hawley in the boys’ 1500 meters highlighted the Hood River Valley effort at the Wilsonville Invitational.

  Horizon Christian’s boys were second at the Catlin Gabel Invitational.  Alex Whitaker finished second in two events for the Hawks.  Augustina Decker was second for the Hawk girls in the 1500 meters.

  Boys Lacrosse

Oregon Episcopal 10, Hood River Valley 5

 

Columbia Gorge Community College will receive $1.2 million in federal CARES Act Recovery funding to expand healthcare workforce training across the region.   U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina M. Raimondo announced the award Tuesday.  CGCC Dean of Nursing and Healthcare Occupations Lorie Saito says the grant will enable the college to upgrade healthcare training equipment and facilities.  Funding will provide faculty support for the Medical Assisting program, allowing the college to increase class capacity to 24 students and address an urgent need for medical assistants in the region.  The grant also supports the college’s plans to offer nursing students a part-time option, creating a three-year program in addition to the current two-year program, helping students who are not able to commit to full-time studies.  Finally, the grant will jumpstart the college’s development of paramedic and EMT training.  The proposed paramedic degree will be a nine-month, hands-on, skills-based program providing students with the technical skills for emergency medical and trauma situations.  The degree will prepare students for the Oregon State and National Registry of Paramedic exams.

North Central Public Health District and One Community Health are urging parents to schedule appointments for the long-established Human Papilloma Virus vaccine for their children and adolescents.  The vaccine can prevent nine types of cancer in later life.  Boys and girls ages 9 to 14 should get two doses, which are given 6 to 12 months apart. If waiting until over the age of 15, it takes 3 doses to be fully immunized.  While age 9 to 14 is the ideal age timeframe, the vaccines can be given up to age 26.  Every year in the U.S. there are 5.5 million new cases of HPV. Immunizations are available at NCPHD and OCH in The Dalles and Hood River, at the Hood River Valley High School-Based Health Center and at most healthcare clinics.  For more information, contact North Central Public Health District at (541) 506-2600, or One Community Health at (541) 386.6380.

Community members will be able to be directly involved in the fabrication of  a sculpture over Cherry Festival weekend.  Local artist Macrae Wylde and The People’s Forge Project will lead 250 community members working with blacksmiths to forge iron components of the project during the festival.  The pieces will be used in the final sculpture to be placed in a new pocket park on the corner of 2nd and Washington Streets.  This past fall artists in the Columbia Gorge from Cascade Locks to Biggs Junction were invited to participate in a Call for Artists to design the sculpture.  The Peoples Forge was founded in 2019 by Kellen Bateham, a highly skilled Oregon blacksmith.