North Central Public Health District is hosting multiple vaccine clinics this week.  Pfizer clinics for students 12 and older and their families will be held Wednesday at Dufur School and Saturday at The Dalles Middle School, and for an appointment go to ncphd.org.  Thursday, the district will take walk-ins for the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine at our clinic at the Fort Dalles Readiness Center from 9 a.m. to 2:15 p.m.  On Friday, NCPHD will be at the Bargeway Pub from 5-7 p.m. for its second “Take a Bite Out of COVID” event.  Get the Johnson & Johnson vaccine and $10 in tokens toward your food bill, with no appointment needed.  And on Saturday there will be a walk-in Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson clinic at the Mid-Columbia Senior Center from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. with ice cream and live bluegrass music.  Appointments can also be made for that clinic by calling the senior center at 541-296-4788 or the health district at 541-506- 2600.  

The change in mask wearing guidance last week from the Center for Disease Control won’t lead to any operational changes for the Hood River County School District for the remainder of this school year.  District Superintendent Rich Polkinghorn says the Oregon Department of Education has indicated it won’t be making any operational guidance changes until the end of this school year.  Polkinghorn says the impact of the CDC guidance change is more impactful on planning for next school year, when he believes they will definitely have full days of classes.  Polkinghorn says at this time, the district is planning to have high school graduation ceremonies this year at Henderson Stadium by invitation only on June 11, with all graduating students together and receiving four tickets for admission.

Community input has led the City of White Salmon to move a joint City Council and Planning Commission meeting on comprehensive plan revisions back to the end of June and planned adoption to July.  Mayor Marla Keethler was happy to see the community engagement, and much of it centered around the perception of changes in the land use designation map means there would be zone changes.  She noted they are not saying they will take an established single-family neighborhood and making it an R-2 zone, but rather indicating there is a flexibility for medium density development where appropriate.  Keethler said the City needs to do a better job of communicating how the land use designation map actually works with the comprehensive plan and informs zoning.

Intermountain Conference Baseball Tournament First Round Ridgeview 4, The Dalles 2:  Riley Brock struck out seven over six innings on the mound for the Riverhawks, while also driving in a run at the plate. Redmond 11, Crook County 5:  Redmond advances to play Hood River Valley in the semi-finals tomorrow at 4:30 at Traner Field.   Intermountain Conference Softball Tournament First Round Hood River Valley 17, Redmond 3:  Molly Routson homered, doubled, and drove in three runs, while Reese Leiblien had three hits and also had three RBI.  The Eagles visit Ridgeview for an IMC semi-final tomorrow. Crook County 13, The Dalles 5:  The Cowgirls jumped out to an early lead, and the Riverhawks could not catch up.  Jeliane Stewart and Amyrah Hill drove in two runs apiece for The Dalles.   Boys Basketball Open Door 58, Horizon Christian 47 Mitchell-Spray 57, Trout Lake 51

This weekend provided a reminder of an early fire season, as Mid-Columbia Fire and Rescue crews dealt with two grass fires.  The Wasco County Sheriff’s Office says on Friday night crews were at the scene of a brush fire on Highway 30 on the west side of The Dalles that closed Interstate 84 for a short time.  Then on Sunday afternoon there was a grass fire on the 4300 block of Cherry Heights Road.  That one burned about an acre and a half, and was caused by a burn pile.  The Oregon Department of Forestry declared the start of the fire season on the lands it protects over the weekend, and both Wasco and Hood River counties are planning burn bans to begin on June 1.

Businesses are awaiting word from the state on what the guidelines will be for the lifting of mask requirements in certain indoor and outdoor settings if people are fully vaccinated.  The Dalles Area Chamber of Commerce CEO Lisa Farquharson says the state Chamber organization is asking the Governor’s office to provide liability protection to businesses and not make them be “vaccination cops.”  Farquharson says she is asking people to continue to wear their mask in businesses until they can adjust their operations for whatever the requirements turn out to be.

North Central Public Health District is setting up COVID-19 vaccine clinics aimed at youth 12 and up and their families at four schools in the health district’s three-county service area of Wasco, Sherman and Gilliam counties.   Pfizer clinics are planned at Dufur School on Wednesday, The Dalles Middle School Saturday, Arlington High School May 25, and Sherman County High School on May 26.  To sign up for the Dufur event or the event at The Dalles Middle School, please visit ncphd.org/book-vaccine and select “Schedule Pfizer Vaccine Appointment” to book your own appointment.  Select either the Dufur School event or The Dalles Middle School event.  To register for the Pfizer clinic in Arlington, call the school at 541-454-2632.  To register for the clinic at Sherman County High School, call the school at 541-565-3500.  If you have questions, call NCPHD at 541-506-2600.  Those families who were signed up on a waiting list will be emailed a link to the booking system.

Ballots in Oregon’s special districts’ election are due in County election offices or designated drop-boxes by 8 p.m. Tuesday.  In Wasco County, ballots can be taken to the County Courthouse in The Dalles.  The Dalles Rotary will be hosting the Ballot Drive-Thru collection from 7 am – 8 pm on Election Day, which is the same hours the County elections’ office is open.  Wasco County also has ballot boxes in Dufur, Mosier, Maupin and Simnasho.  In Hood River County, ballots can be dropped at the County Election Office on 601 State Street in Hood River or at Cascade Locks City Hall.    

A full week of lift-span inspections on the Hood River-White Salmon Interstate Bridge was completed, and Port of Hood River Executive Director Michael McElwee says the results were good.  McElwee says this was the first year in a significant amount of time that all the ropes were fully inspected.  McElwee did say there were a couple of anomalies, including a deformation of a small portion of one of the northeast corner cable ropes, that will be monitored.

The City of Hood River will hold a community meeting on its City Manager recruitment process on Thursday, and a community survey is available through Friday.  The survey and community meeting are facilitated by Jensen Strategies, the recruitment firm selected by the City to help with the process.  The community input meeting will be held Thursday at 6:00 p.m. on Zoom.  Community members may register for the virtual meeting by sending names and email addresses to sandy@jensen-strategies.com by Wednesday.  A link to the online survey is available in English at surveymonkey.com/r/HR-community.