Track and Field Marlie Bloomster won three events as the Hood River Valley girls held off Hermiston 73-63 in a Columbia River Conference dual meet.  Bloomster won the high jump, 300 meter hurdles, and the 400 meters.  Hermiston topped HRV in the boys’ dual meet 70 1/2 to 65 1/2.  Sebastian Barajas and Parker Kennedy each took first in two events.   Goldendale’s boys and girls swept Cle Elum, Granger, and Highland in an SCAC West meet.  Rachel Disch and Ocean Bryan won a pair of events apiece for the Timberwolf girls, while Brian Golding swept both boys’ hurdles races.   Baseball Dufur sweeps Culver 13-3 and 19-2. Goldendale split with River View, losing game one 15-11 but winning the nightcap 4-1.   Boys Tennis Hood River Valley 5, The Dalles 3 Cle Elum/Roslyn 3, Goldendale 1   Girls Tennis Cle Elum/Roslyn 3, Goldendale 2   Boys Soccer Columbia 10, Castle Rock 0   Boys Lacrosse Hood River Valley 22, Century 3   Girls Lacrosse Hood River Valley 7, Cleveland 6

Columbia Gorge Community College released its proposed 2015-16 budget on Monday, which attempts to close a roughly 20 percent deficit through both cuts and new revenue, along with continued limited use of operating reserves.  In his budget message, CGCC President Frank Toda says the proposal will continue every academic program, degree, and certificate, but reduced course offerings will raise average class sizes from the mid-teens this year to the low twenties in 2015-16.  The budget does include a two dollar per credit tuition increase and three dollar per credit increase to general fees, the first raise in those since 2012.  Toda says the largest reductions in the budget are in the areas of administration, student services, and facilities.  Public comment on the tuition and fee increases is on the agenda for Tuesday’s CGCC Board of Education meeting, which begins at 6 p.m. in the board room at the school’s campus in The Dalles.  The proposed budget will be the subject of budget committee hearings on April 28, May 5, and May 7, all at The Dalles campus beginning at 6 p.m.

The Dalles City Council approved a resolution to establish guidelines for when residential street improvements take place.  The guidelines will apply only to one and two family homes constructed on individual lots.  Nearly all the discussion among Councilors centered on a clause for when a sidewalk must be installed.  Councilors eliminated a clause calling for property owners to sign a delayed development agreement if no curb line has been established.  There were some worries about creating island situations, but Councilor Russ Brown noted in the end it was best to keep it simple, adding he expected the question of how to pay for sidewalk installation to come back to the Council at some point.  The resolution does say commercial development, subdivision, and multi-family development shall meet the public improvement requirements found in the city’s land use and development ordinance.

The Dalles Mayor Steve Lawrence is proposing repaving Thompson Street between 10^th and 19^th Streets, but he may not have support from City Councilors to move forward.  Lawrence wants to use funds not used for the current Scenic Drive renovation to do the repaving on a base that would be strengthened by cement.  The process would cost over $86,000, and Public Works Director Dave Anderson said he would want to go ahead with a long-planned $250,000 extension of the stormwater line that funds are available for through the wastewater reserve fund.  Lawrence thinks the repaving of Thompson falls under a Council directive to focus street spending on maintenance.  But some Councilors weren’t as certain a Thompson project would fall under their street maintenance definition at least for the upcoming fiscal year, with Taner Elliott suggesting taking another look next year.  The subject will come before Council again next month, but Lawrence was not optimistic it would move forward.

Hood River has been named as one of a dozen locations in the Northwest to be added to an expanded list of U.S. Forest Service “listening sessions” on revisions to the Northwest Forest Plan.  The date and time of the Hood River session has not yet been announced.  It will deal with management plan revision plans for the Mt. Hood and Gifford Pinchot National Forest and the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area.  The sessions will include the Forest Service discussing its current thinking on plan revision and how science will inform the process and receiving ideas and thoughts on how to engage the public for plan revisions on each forest.  Only three sessions had been planned for the region initially, but many in the Northwest Congressional delegation called on the Forest Service to schedule more in forest communities.

Softball Hood River Valley 9, LaSalle 6:  HRV mounted a huge comeback in a game that had been suspended in the 3rd inning two weeks ago with LaSalle ahead 6-0.  The Eagles won for the fourth time in five games to run their record to 6-7. The Dalles 11, Mountain View 8:  The Riverhawks banged out 16 hits on the way to the win in Central Oregon.  The Dalles scored six runs in the fourth inning to take a 10-1 lead, then had to hang on through a Cougar comeback that saw the home team score five runs in the bottom of the seventh inning.   Baseball The Dalles 9, Mountain View 8, 9 innings:  Colin Noonan’s double in the top of the ninth brought home the game winning run.  The Dalles had scored a run in the top of the seventh to force extra innings in a contest the Riverhawks trailed in most of the way.   Boys Golf Goldendale defeated Horizon Christian by 24 shots in a nine-hole match at Goldendale Golf Club.  The Timberwolves’ Andrew Bigcheck carded the low score of the match, coming in with a 43.

Port of The Dalles and Columbia Gorge Regional Airport officials will be in Kent later this week for a trade show bringing together representatives of companies in the Northwest involved in developing unmanned aerial vehicles.  Port Marketing Director Kathy Ursprung says they are seeking tenants for both the Port’s new Columbia Gorge Industrial Center and the new industrial park near the airport in Dallesport.  She says with Insitu in the area, the Gorge region is well positioned to realize the benefits of further growth in the UAV industry.  Ursprung says the eastern part of the Gorge can offer a good workforce supply along with land that isn’t available further to the west.

Hood River County Commission Chair Ron Rivers expects a study of the current County Courthouse and whether it should be replaced or renovated will take about six months to complete.  The study will be a part of the County’s 2015-16 fiscal year budget, and will be partially paid for by the state, which in a study a few years ago ranked Hood River’s courthouse near the bottom, particularly in the area of security.  Rivers says the County study will include the County Administration Building, and what other facility needs it might find.  The state report put a price tag of over 20 million dollars for a new courthouse.  Rivers says renovation is an option, but added if it is found a new courthouse is needed, it would probably require a bond measure to pay for construction of a facility.  

Washington Third District Congresswoman Jaime Herrera Beutler has been appointed vice-chair of the Financial Services and Government Oversight Appropriations Subcommittee.  That panel sets spending levels for a number of federal agencies, including the Internal Revenue Service, Federal Trade Commission, and Federal Communications Commission.  It also has jurisdiction over numerous departments, including the Postal Service and the executive office of the President.  Herrera Beutler has been on the Appropriations Committee since January of 2013.

Track and Field Hood River Valley’s boys were second and girls third at the Sandy Invitational.  For the boys, Justiin Crosswhite won the 1500 meters, Sebastian Barajas the discus, and Parker Kennedy the pole vault, while South Wasco’s Loreto Morelli won both the 100 and 400 meters.  HRV’s Jestena Mattson won both the girls’ 200 meters and the high jump, while Emily Viukhola was first in the 400 meters, and the four by 100 meter relay team was victorious.   The Dalles’ girls were eighth and the boys 11th at the Willamette Falls Invitational at Oregon City.  Katie Conklin led the Riverhawk girls’ effort with a second place finish in the triple jump and a third in the 100 meter hurdles.  Sant Strassheim was third in the boys’ 300 meter hurdles.   Goldendale’s won both the boys and girls team titles at the Dick Hornya Invitational in Stanfield.  Brian Golding won the boys’ 400 meters, 110 meter hurdles, and 300 meter hurdles, while Ocean Bryan won the girls’ 400 meters and 300 meter hurdles.   At the Meet of Champions in Salem, Dufur’s Taylor Darden won the girls’ discus.   Baseball Hood River Valley 10, Mountain View 0:  Kam Walker pitched a no-hitter in the six inning win. Sherman sweeps The Dalles Freshmen 13-8 and 14-4 Cle Elum/Roslyn sweeps Goldendale 6-1 and 9-3   Softball Reynolds 7, The Dalles 3 Cle Elum/Roslyn sweeps Goldendale 27-1 and 12-0   Boys Lacrosse Bend 12, Hood River Valley 4   Girls Lacrosse Newberg 11, Hood River Valley 8   Boys Tennis Naches Valley 3, Goldendale 1   Girls Tennis Naches Valley 5, Goldendale 0