The Washington State House of Representatives unanimously approved a bill sponsored by 14th District Representative Chris Corry that seeks to compensate ranchers and farmers for financial losses when their state-owned land leases are terminated early.  House Bill 1199 would require the Department of Natural Resources to reimburse lessees when DNR exercises a non-default or early termination provision in a state-owned land lease.  The Department of Natural Resources has an interest in leasing to land-tenants who produce high revenues to provide funding for K-12 school construction and other projects throughout the state.   DNR can use a non-default termination to replace a lessee with a higher-revenue tenant, but when that occurs farmers and ranchers who frequently invest thousands of dollars in the property face financial uncertainty.  Corry’s bill would establish a compensation formula for agricultural and grazing leases, along with other obligations that would support both land lessees and state interests.  The bill now heads to the Senate for further consideration.  The 2021 legislative session is scheduled to end April 25.

Klickitat and Skamania counties will be among 26 in Washington that will move into Phase 2 of the state’s economic reopening plan on Monday, as five new regions meet the requirements necessary to join two others that have already seen a loosening of COVID-19 restrictions, including limited indoor dining.  Governor Jay Inslee made the announcement on Thursday.  In the second phase, restaurants can offer indoor dining at 25% capacity, and indoor fitness center can open with the same limit.  Sports competitions can resume with limited spectators, and wedding and funeral ceremonies can increase their number of guests.  Last month, Inslee announced that regions had to meet three of four metrics in order to advance: a 10% decreasing trend in case rates over a two-week period; a 10% decrease in coronavirus hospital admission rates in that same timeframe; an ICU occupancy rate that’s less than 90%; and a test positivity rate of less than 10%.  Only the South Central region of the state — including Kittitas, Yakima, Benton, Franklin, Walla Walla and Columbia counties — will remain in Phase 1 for at least another two weeks.

Google’s proposed Strategic Investment Program agreement for development of the former aluminum plant and rodeo grounds property it has purchased is now available for public review.  It includes a 20-year window for two potential projects estimated at $600 million each, both with a 15 year partial tax abatement, state prescribed taxes tied to the total investment in each project, a state prescribed community service fee based on 25% of full tax capped at $2.5 million, and a locally negotiated guaranteed annual payment.  The Wasco County Commission and The Dalles City Council will both hold joint public hearings this month to present the draft documents, answer questions and take testimony.  County Commission Chair Scott Hege says there should be more opportunity for public input than for past Google Enterprise Zone agreements.  The first online meeting will be Wednesday at 2:30 p.m. as part of a County Commission meeting, and the second on February 22 at 5:30 p.m. as part of a City Council meeting.  The documents are in the County Commission packet for this meeting on the Wasco County website.

The Hood River County School District is planning to begin to bring students back into classrooms on March 8.  The district made that announcement after a lengthy board meeting on Wednesday night that included some parents pushing for a reopening, and this week’s update of COVID-19 numbers for the County from the Oregon Health Authority put them in a position to move forward.  District Superintendent Rich Polkinghorn says they will use a phased approach and partial days of on-site learning, with kindergarteners and first graders returing March 8, second and third grades coming back on March 15, grades 4, 5, 6, and 9 returning on March 29, and the remaining middle and high school grade on April 5.  Polkinghorn notes the phasing will help train the youngest students in the protocols that will be involved in returning to classrooms.  The district will host online information sessions on reopening this coming Thursday in English at 5 p.m. and in Spanish at 6 p.m.  Go to hoodriver.k12.or.us for log-in information.

North Central Public Health District says as of now, it is planning to hold COVID-19 vaccine clinics scheduled for Thursday and Saturday at the Fort Dalles Readiness Center even though snow is in the forecast.  The District says it is coordinating with the City of The Dalles and Columbia Gorge Community College, and the college will clear the parking lots at the readiness center and the entrance to the college off Scenic Drive for the Thursday and Saturday events.   In addition, the City will increase the frequency at which crews will drive along Scenic to keep the roads clear for the clinics.  The three main roads that will be prioritized for snow removal leading to Scenic Drive are Trevitt Street, Dry Hollow Road and Kelly Avenue.  The District says if clinics are cancelled due to inclement weather, they will publicize the decision through the NCPHD Facebook page and ncphd.org, along with the agency’s e-mail list, and through local media.  If some clients do not feel comfortable attending a clinic due to the weather, they may call the District on the day of the clinic only at 541-288-3374 to cancel.  The phone is not monitored except during clinic hours.

Klickitat County Search & Rescue volunteers were honored Tuesday at the group’s annual appreciation ceremony.  In 2020 the Klickitat County SAR volunteers donated a total of 2,638 hours, including 644 hours on 13 missions and 1,994 training hours.   Special recognition was given to 2020 “Rookie of the Year” Jim Jones and “Volunteer of the Year” Deb Ireland.  Eleven new members were recognized with commemorative SAR pins.  SAR Program Coordinator Jeff King recognized the two newly certified K9 search dogs, Griffin and handler Maija DiSalvom and Ellie and handler Jim Jones for their hundreds of hours of training to achieve certification.  Those who would like information about joining the Klickitat County Search & Rescue Team contact the County Sheriff’s Office at 509-773-4455 or go to klickitatsar.org.

Oregon Governor Kate Brown’s office announced on Tuesday that Hood River County’s COVID-19 risk designation will be moved from extreme to high risk on Friday.  Hood River County is one of twelve counties that are improving in risk level during the next revision that occurs every two weeks, with ten moving from extreme risk to high risk, including the three Portland metro area counties.  Restaurants in “high risk” level counties will be allowed to open for indoor dining and gyms can increase the amount of people inside.  The capacity for both restaurants and gym can’t exceed 25% maximum occupancy or 50 people, whichever is smaller.  Hood River County officials say practicing basic prevention measures is more important than ever — wearing masks, physical distancing, avoiding gatherings, staying home if sick — and must continue, particularly with new variants of the virus spreading.  Wasco County is one of fourteen counties remaining in the “extreme risk” level.  

The Wasco County Commission and The Dalles City Council will hold a joint hearing on February 17 to discuss a draft of a strategic investment document for a future phase of Google building more facilities in The Dalles.  The first three phases of Google development saw the company employ the state’s Enterprise Zone provisions, but County Commission Chair Scott Hege says under the Strategic Investment program a significant amount of project value will go directly onto the tax rolls.  Hege says details will be in the meeting packet that will be available on the Wasco County website by Friday.  He also said the February 17 meeting will be the first of a number of opportunities for public input.  

Hood River City Councilors got some ideas of what sort of policy options might be available to them for affordable housing during a Monday evening worksession.  The Council heard from EcoNorthwest vice-president of operations Lorelei Juntunen, who said Hood River’s housing market will need help to take care of its middle and low end.  She pointed out that the market doesn’t build affordable housing…and traditional policy changes may be insufficient, so partnerships and resources available for the City to use as leverage are important.  Juntunen emphasized not underestimating the importance of the market environment, and bringing up the number of units being constructed to the number of people moving into the City is a critical piece of bringing down price increases, and zoning, parking, and infrastructure are important pieces to moving in that direction.

The Dalles City Council got its introduction into work currently being done at the municipal planning commission level in response to state legislation adopted in 2019 to provide more opportunities for what is called “middle housing.”  That is duplexes, triplexes, quadplexes, town homes, and cottage clusters.  The Dalles Community Development Department Director Alice Cannon says the state law requires every single family residential lot in the City has to be available to these kinds of development.  Cannon says a clear and objective path for residential development is required…adding the City addressed that during October 2019 housing code revisions.  Cannon said a consulting team has worked on writing code amendments to meet housing groups over the couple of months.  She noted the goal is to finish by June 30, but she added she doesn’t want to wait until the end of the process for the Council to weigh in.