Hood River Valley High School won the Class 5A Championship of the Oregon School Activities Association Speech and Debate competition over the weekend.  The Eagles’ Jacob Kaplan was a finalist in two categories, and Melanie Glatter in one.  The competition was held virtually this year.  

As Wasco County moves into the high risk category in Oregon’s COVID-19 metrics, North Central Public Health District on Thursday reported sixteen new COVID cases.  According to a district spokesperson, the 16 cases are either sporadic, meaning where they contracted it is not known, or they are a close contact of a known case.   They stem from social gatherings or spread within households, and are not connected to a workplace or a long term care facility.  The Hood River County Health Department Friday morning reported it has had 15 new COVID cases in the last three days.  Hood River County moved up to the moderate risk category Friday.

Klickitat County has seen a dramatic increase in COVID-19 cases in the last week.  As of Friday, there have been 27 new cases since this past Sunday, bringing the total number of active cases in Klickitat County to 28.  Klickitat County Public Health Director Erinn Quinn says the County has not seen this many cases since late January, and it jeopardizes the ability for the County to stay in Phase 3 of the state’s reopening plan.  In order to stay in phase 3, Klickitat County will need to maintain a case count of less than 100 cases over a 14 day period and less than 3 hospitalizations in a 7 day period.  The next phase evaluation will be completed on May 3.  At this time, there are no known COVID-19 hospitalizations of Klickitat County residents.  Vaccinations are readily available for anyone 16 and older at a variety of locations within Klickitat County.  All vaccines are available by appointment only and can be booked by calling Skyline Health, Klickitat Valley Health, NorthShore Medical, or Klickitat County Health Department.

Klickitat County is establishing a ban on outdoor burning for Klickitat County Burn Ban Zone One, defined as lands east of the Klickitat County Fire District #7 eastern boundary, starting May 1 and continuing through September 30.  The ban prohibits the issuance of burning permits except for authorized agricultural burning.   Residential barbecues will be allowed.  The public is asked to check with the appropriate authorities concerning burning restrictions within the corporate limits of any city or town.

Oregon Senator Ron Wyden announced he will hold an on-line town hall for Wasco County on Sunday, May 2.  People’s Town Hall will host the event.  Wyden holds at least one town hall each year in each of Oregon’s 36 counties, but has postponed in-person town halls until there are clear-cut public health guidelines that a large open-to-all public meeting poses no unusual health risk for Oregonians.   The Town Hall for Wasco County residents will be Sunday, May 2 at 3:30 p.m.  Go to wyden.senate.gov for a link to watch the town hall.  

An online open house and survey has been set up to gather community input on the City of The Dalles Housing Code update.  The update is to bring the City into compliance with state law and to continue to implement recommendations from the City’s Housing Strategies Report prepared in 2017.  In 2019, the Oregon Legislature adopted a bill requiring cities to provide more housing choices, especially housing choices more people can afford.  The Code Update project is funded in part by an Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development grant.  Links to the open house and survey are available on the City of The Dalles’ website.

Registrations are being taken for various COVID-19 vaccination events in the area.  North Central Public Health District is hosting an event in which Pfizer vaccine will be distributed to 16 and 17 year olds and their family from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Friday at the Wahtonka campus field in The Dalles.  As of this morning, the district had 40 slots remaining for vaccination at the event, go to ncphd.org or call 541-506-2600 to register.  One Community Health will hold a Moderna vaccine party at its Hood River Health Center on 849 Pacific Avenue on Saturday, including tacos from Paco’s Tacos and live music.  OCH hopes to administer more than 1,000 vaccinations at the event that is open to all Gorge residents age 18 and up.  To get an appointment, go to onecommunityhealth.org or call 541-386-6380.  In addition, One Community Health’s School Based Health Center at Hood River Valley High School is taking sign-ups for Hood River Valley High School students age 16 and older to receive the Pfizer vaccine.  Call 541-308-8345 or go to onecommunityhealth.org and click on the link to the school-based health center under locations.  

Track and Field The Dalles won the girls competition in a three-school Intermountain Conference meet with Hood River Valley and Redmond on Wednesday in Central Oregon.  Emily Adams won two events for the Riverhawks, while Chloe Bullock did the same for HRV.  Redmond won the boys’ half of the meet.   Boys Tennis Redmond 8, Hood River Valley 0   Girls Tennis Pendleton 7, The Dalles 1

The Wasco County Commission will wait until its May 5 meeting to decide whether or not to have planning staff move forward with incorporating revisions to the Columbia Gorge National Scenic Area Management Plan into their land use development ordinance, or instead pursue a repeal of the County’s Scenic Area ordinance and turn over permit management in the Scenic Area to the Columbia River Gorge Commission.  The primary issue revolves around money, with some County officials feeling they are not receiving enough in funding to cover the cost of processing Scenic Area land use applications and the workload placed on County planning staff.  Commission Chair Scott Hege during Wednesday’s meeting encapsulated the pros and cons of handing the process over, saying he felt there would be benefits to the County’s overall planning effort to relinquish the Scenic Area oversight, but at the same time he didn’t want to see County residents in the Scenic Area face delays in getting permits.  Commissioner Kathy Schwartz said she felt there were benefits to County residents in the management plan revisions, and wanted a Measure 56 notification process on the issue to be done, which the other commissioners felt was not necessary.  

As Oregon this week opened up COVID-19 vaccine availability to all those age 16 and up, local public health officials are emphasizing vaccinations are the best tool available to end the pandemic.  North Central Public Health District interim director Shellie Campbell told the Wasco County Commission they are working with chambers of commerce and other community partners to do a push for people to sign up to get the vaccine.  Campbell noted they have appointments available for their vaccination clinics, and sign ups can take place at ncphd.org.