Maryhill Museum of Art will open for the season on March 15 with an expansive survey of contemporary Indigenous art of the last four decades.  Most of the works in the exhibition Northwest/Southwest: Indigenous Art After 1980 are drawn from Maryhill’s own holdings and are emblematic of the museum’s commitment to collecting and exhibiting work by Indigenous American artists.  The museum will also present the concurrent exhibition Navajo and Pueblo Jewelry: Silver, Turquoise, Coral, and Shell, featuring silver and turquoise jewelry by Diné (Navajo) and Pueblo artists.  Ornithology: Avian Imagery from the Permanent Collection will showcase artworks with birds as the subject matter.  In 2022, all or part of three different Théâtre de la Mode sets will rotate onto view.  The museum will also present a range of exhibition-related programming either in-person or virtually, as necessitated by the pandemic.  Program information can be found on the museum’s website at maryhillmuseum.org.

Home at Last Humane Society announced its Clear the Cans event has been extended.  Home at Last originally planned to hold the event for one day only on Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. but has now added a second day at the same time on Sunday as well as new volunteer shifts from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. every Saturday through the end of April.   Volunteers can go to homeatlasths.org and click on the big green button to sign up to volunteer.  The Clear the Cans events are the kick-off to an expansion of Home at Last’s bottles and cans redemption drive to raise $250,000 for the shelter in 2022.  Donors have contributed many bags that must be processed and cleared to make way for the continued expansion of the program.  Funds will be used for animal control, shelter facility improvements, maintaining a highly trained staff, subsidizing a successful spay/neuter program, veterinarian procedures and its popular rescue and adoption operations.

Boys Basketball

Hood River Valley 78, Pendleton 53:  The Eagles gradually pulled away to get the victory and clinch a spot in the Oregon Class 5A playoffs. Tommy Ziegler scored 16 points and Clayton Cook 15 to lead HRV.  Grayson Sams topped Pendleton with 12.  The Eagles will play a first round game in the Class 5A playoffs on Friday, March 4, most likely on the road.

  The Dalles at Crook County, cancelled due to weather, rescheduled for tonight.

  Girls Basketball

Pendleton 52, Hood River Valley 35:  Muriel Hoisington scored 16 points to lead the Buckaroos into the state playoffs with the win.  Marina Castaneda led HRV with 15.

  The Dalles at Crook County, cancelled due to weather, rescheduled for tonight.

  South Wasco learned last night it will play Mohawk in the second round of the Oregon Class 1A Boys Basketball Tournament on Friday.  A game time has not yet been announced.

The bill in the Washington Legislature that would pave the way to create a bi-state commission to oversee construction and operation of a new Hood River-White Salmon Interstate Bridge has passed the Senate, and is currently in the House Transportation Committee.  14th District State Senator Curtis King says the bill will get a committee hearing on Thursday, and he plans to testify for it.  Similar legislation is pending in the Oregon Legislature, and has passed the Senate Transportation Committee.  King said both legislatures have to make changes in their statutes to allow the commission to go forward.

City officials in The Dalles are encouraging citizens to sign up for virtual town hall on March 9 to help shape The Dalles Vision 2040 document.  An initial community survey was done in November.  Mayor Rich Mays says the responses are helping to shape the March 9 discussion.  Six broad categories came from the first survey, including enhancing education, creating economic vitality, providing recreation and open space, improving governance and infrastructure, fostering cultural enrichment, and strengthening and sustaining community life.  The meeting will be on Zoom from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. on March 9, and to register go to thedalles.org.

South Wasco County School District closed Sherman County School District closed but operating remotely Lyle School District two-hour delay, no morning pre-school, morning buses on snow routes   Mid-Columbia Children’s Council Head Start Tygh Valley center will be virtual today.

The Hood River-White Salmon Interstate Bridge will be closed from midnight to 5 a.m. on Friday to do work on a structural support on the bridge’s lift span.  It’s the first of a few bridge closures that are upcoming this year.  Port of Hood River Deputy Executive Director Genevieve Scholl says this spring asphalt replacement will need to be done on both approach ramps, and could require three to four full days of closure.  The project will go out for bid in a couple of weeks.  Then in the fall, replacement of the wire cables that raise and lower the lift span will be done.  Scholl says they don’t know what kind of closures will be required when that work takes place.

The Dalles Area Chamber of Commerce attended the Pacific Northwest’s Sportsmen’s Show last week to promote the community to potential visitors seeking outdoor activities.  Chamber CEO Lisa Farquharson says there is a different feel heading into the upcoming tourist season, with the potential for an ease in the COVID-19 pandemic leading people to plan to get out and enjoy themselves.  Farquharson says the Chamber will also attend the Central Oregon Sportsmen’s Show in Redmond during March.

Swimming

Hood River Valley took fourth place in the Oregon Class 5A girls swimming championships at Tualatin Hills Aquatic Center.  HRV’s Sarah Arpag finished second in the 100 yard butterfly and fourth in the 100 backstroke, while Emma Titus was fourth in the 100 freestyle and fifth in the 200 freestyle.  Titus and Arpag were joined by Nora Sandoval and Michelle Graves to finish third in the 200 freestyle relay, and Titus, Arpag, Sandoval, and Abby Tomlinson were third in the 400 freestyle relay.  Lydia DiGennaro of The Dalles was fourth in the 50 freestyle.

In the boys’ 5A swimming championships…Hood River Valley’s Lucas Elliott was eighth in the 100 backstroke and The Dalles took eighth in the 400 freestyle relay.

Wrestling

Goldendale’s Bryce Waddell finished second in the Class B 126-pound division at the Washington Mat Classic in Tacoma.  Waddell defeated Carson Borden of Willapa Valley by first round fall in the quarter-final and then topped Noah Cormier Higgins of Muckleshoot Tribal School 7-0 in the semi-final, before dropping the championship final to Granger’s Jose Toscano 7-5.

Other area highlights from the Mat Classic included third place finishes by Goldendale’s Matthew Gray at Class B 132 pounds, and fourth place finishes by Kali Watson of Goldendale at Girls 130 pounds and Solomon Mahoney of Stevenson at Class B 132 pounds.

Boys Basketball

Ridgeview 60, Hood River Valley 42

The Dalles 73, Pendleton 41:  The Eagles and the Riverhawks are tied for second in the Intermountain Conference, and both will advance to the state 5A playoffs with wins on Tuesday…HRV at home against Pendleton and The Dalles at Crook County.

  Big Sky League Boys Basketball Tournament

Championship:  South Wasco 42, Ione-Arlington 40:  The Redsides will have a bye in round one of the Oregon Class 1A tournament, and host a second round game on Friday.

  Girls Basketball

Pendleton 55, The Dalles 31

Ridgeview 54, Hood River Valley 17

  Big Sky League Girls Basketball Tournament

3^rd Place Game:  Trout Lake 44, South Wasco 38:  The Mustangs move on to visit Powder Valley in a first round Oregon Class 1A tournament game on Wednesday.

The White Salmon City Council approved ordinances and amendments to regulate short-term rentals.  Councilors, along with municipal planning commissioners, have spent a number of months working on the new STR regulations.  In approving the seven different motions to codify the package, Councilor Jim Ransier said he felt the rules fit White Salmon as a community.  All portions of the package passed unanimously.  The only change made during the meeting clarified that the cost of a short-term rental application fee will be $75 per application.