The City of White Salmon has hired its first full-time land use planner.  Brendan Conboy is a 2015 graduate of UMass-Amherst with a Masters degree in Regional Planning,   Mayor Marla Keethler had sought adding the position in her 2021 budget proposal that was adopted by the White Salmon City Council, adding it’s a good time for Conboy to arrive with the City nearly finished with its comprehensive plan.  Conboy most recently worked in Park City, Utah, as a Senior Planner, and prior to that spent time as an Associate Planner in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.  The White Salmon Council is holding a public hearing on a comprehensive land-use plan next Wednesday at 6 p.m. in a hybrid format, both in-person at the Fire Hall and online via Zoom.

Klickitat County Health Department announced the County’s 1,000th confirmed COVID-19 case on Sunday.  In a statement, the department said that just under 1 year ago, on July 27, 2020, Klickitat County had only 100 confirmed cases of COVID-19.   The County Health Deparatment announced last week the highly transmissible Delta variant was detected in Klickitat County.  Current research supports that the vaccines available to the public are effective against preventing severe symptoms and hospitalizations caused by the Delta variant.  Klickitat County health officials say it is still important to wash your hands and stay home when you are sick, and recommends that residents who are unvaccinated continue to maintain social distance, and wear a mask that covers their nose and mouth while in public.  The department says it will continue to respond to COVID-19 with its current course of action, including encouraging community members to get vaccinated in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

The Dalles Public Works Department will be painting the center and side lines on several streets throughout the community next Monday through Thursday beginning at 6:00 am each day, weather permitting.  Motorists are asked to watch for the crews and avoid driving on the wet paint.  The paint truck will be preceded and followed by warning vehicles, with signs calling attention to the wet paint.  The trucks will be spaced according to the necessary drying time of the paint.  Attempting to pass or drive between the trucks will result in a messy striping job and paint damage to the motorist’s vehicle.  The purpose of this project is to provide clear lane and bike path designations for the safety of the traveling public.  Motorists are strongly advised to avoid the wet paint because it cannot be easily removed from vehicles.

A 38-year-old Georgia man was found dead on Hood River’s Indian Creek Trail after running through the town Saturday morning throwing fireworks, running with a shotgun, and firing at streetlights as he ran from police.  According to the Hood River Police Department, officers responded to a nuisance call at about 3:17 Saturday morning regarding a person yelling and throwing fireworks in the 100 block of East State Steet.  Police found the man. eventually identified as Herbert Victor Blount of Tyrone, Georgia, running with a shotgun.  He began running in the downtown, firing at streetlights while police attempted to give the man verbal commands.  Officers located Blount near 7^th and Sherman, and he continued to fire rounds.  One deputy was hit by shotgun pellets, but a police statement said he was uninjured.  Officers lost sight of Blount, but he was located by a Hood River County Sheriff’s Office airplane on the Indian Creek Trail at 5:41 a.m. and was found deceased from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.  Police say no shots were fired by law enforcement during the incident.  The investigation is on-going, and anyone with information is asked to call Hood River Police at 541-387-5256.

Tourism in The Dalles appears to have picked back up this summer.  The Dalles Chamber of Commerce CEO Lisa Farquharson says lodging statistics for the last few weeks indicate room stays are up, with larger hotels full on weekends and smaller lodgers at 70 to 80 percent of capacity.  Farquharson says they aren’t seeing long-term stays, and walking and vehicle traffic in town is good.  But she adds what is still to be determined is whether those visitors are spending money in the same manner as in years past.

The effort to replace the Hood River/White Salmon Interstate Bridge received a financial boost during legislative sessions in both Oregon and Washington.  Port of Hood River special projects director Kevin Greenwood says both states appropriated five million dollars in American Rescue Plan Act funds to go along with a similar amount from a federal transportation build grant to help move past the current environmental impact statement process and into engineering work.  Greenwood says they have most of the environmental impact work done, with the last area to be worked through is the cultural, recreational, and historic structures impact.

A study commissioned by the Klickitat County Childcare Committee has underscored the lack of child care options in the county.  The recently released reports shows In Goldendale, licensed childcare availability meets the needs of just 30 percent of children under age six.  There are zero licensed providers for infants and toddlers and one Head Start program for preschoolers.  That percentage is even worse from a county-wide perspective as only 15 percent of children under age six have access to a licensed childcare provider.  The total unmet need in Goldendale was 175 children under age six who have parents in the workforce.  Across the county, that number increased to 659, including 329 infants and toddlers and 330 preschool-aged children.  The childcare committee has been working to promote the opportunity to become licensed and create new in-home care options and centers to support families and businesses.

The Oregon Department of Forestry says the Industrial Fire Precaution Level (IFPL) for private, state, and municipal lands protected by ODF west of Highway 35 within the Central Oregon District boundary has been moved up to Level 3.  ODF protected lands east of Highway 35 within the District boundary were already at Level 3.  Information regarding fire season requirements for industrial operations is available at https://gisapps.odf.oregon.gov/firerestrictions/ifpl.html, or contact The Dalles Office at 541-296-4626.  A regulated-Use Closure is in effect for the Central Oregon District.  Fireworks and campfires, including cooking fires are not allowed within the district boundary.

Klickitat County Fire District 3 says Thursday’s brush fire in White Salmon was contained at about seven acres.  In a Facebook post, the district indicated the majority of the fuel for the fire was uncut grass, Scotchbroom and blackberries.  One structure that had heavy fuels up against it started to burn, but that was stopped.  Fire officials note Scotchbroom is an oily organic and can be explosive in hot and windy weather.  They emphasize the need to have defensible space on properties to protect structures.  Along with Fire District 3, crews from White Salmon, Bingen, Trout Lake, Skamania County Fire Districts 1 and 3, the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area, and the Washington Department of Natural Resources were all involved in the firefighting effort.  The Facebook post said the cause of the fire has been determined to be human caused and the investigation is closed.  

Washington Senator Patty Murray has included a number of local projects in her Congressionally-directed spending requests for the upcoming fiscal year.  Among them, $2.5 million for Columbia Cascade Housing Corporation to help leverage state and local resources for the construction of a 52 unit assisted living facility in western Klickitat County.  Also on the list:  $2.5 million for Klickitat Valley Health in Goldendale to modernize its central utility plant, $200,000 for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to study construction of tribal housing in the John Day Pool, and $100,000 to the Corps to study tribal housing in the Bonneville Pool.  She also joined with fellow Washington Senator Maria Cantwell and Oregon’s Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley requesting $1.2 million for the Corps of Engineers to identify a suitable location to build a tribal village near The Dalles Lock and Dam.  The Senate Appropriations Committee, on which Murray is the second-ranking Democrat, will make the funding decisions, with a total cap of about $1.5 billion.