Columbia Area Transit says funds from the state are allowing a free bus pass program for Hood River County School District middle and high school students that have a valid school ID.  The funds for the passes are as a result of the Keep Oregon Moving Act that passed the Legislature last year.  It included an employee payroll tax dedicated to funding public transportation services expansion, and one percent of all funds allocated to transit agencies is to be spent on addressing the needs of young people.  CAT will be establishing a new transit stop at Wy’east Middle School at 3:35 p.m. for after-school activities in Hood River, and another picking up at 8 a.m. from the Rockford Grange and at 3:30 p.m. from May Street School.  For more information call CAT at 541-389-4202.

Washington 14th District State Senator Curtis King has proposed that the $196 million expected from Boeing in 2020-21 from the aerospace tax incentive reform bill be used to fund fish passage projects around the state.  Along with Senator Marko Liias of Lynwood, King is a co-sponsor of Senate Bill 6690, which would capture the projected $196 million from Boeing during 2020-21.   It is possible that the projected funds could be cut short if the bill’s trigger mechanism is activated through settlement of Boeing’s World Trade Organization dispute over subsidies, which led to the reform bill.  However, it is also possible that more fish passage could be remediated since the $196 million only accounts for expected revenue from the Boeing portion of the aerospace sector.  King is the ranking Republican member of the Senate Transportation Committee.

The Historic Columbia River Highway will be closed next week for rockfall work near the Oneonta Tunnel east of Multnomah Falls.  Starting Sunday crews will begin scaling the hillsides adjacent to the tunnel to bring down loose rocks.  The hillside was burned during the 2017 Eagle Creek Fire, destroying vegetation and increasing the threat of rockfall.  Work is expected to begin at 8 a.m. Sunday with flaggers controlling traffic around the tunnel.  At 4 p.m. Sunday the Historic Columbia River Highway will be closed around-the-clock to all users between Multnomah Falls and Interstate 84 exit 35 at Ainsworth State Park.   The road will reopen by 8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 28.  The Eagle Creek Fire badly damaged the tunnel, a part of the Historic Columbia River Highway State Trail.  The rockfall work is needed to begin the process of repairing and reopening the tunnel.

 

Friday should be the last day of a full closure of Monroe Street between East 2nd and East 3rd in The Dalles as part of the first stage of a sanitary sewer upgrade.  Early next week the project moves on to move a manhole and connecting to the existing sewer main at the intersection of Monroe and East 3rd, with traffic flagged to a single lane around the construction zone.  The final phase of the project late next week will see the sewer main installation on East 3rd between Madison and Monroe, which will close the south lane of East 3rd for up to six days.  No parking is being allowed within the work area due to heavy equipment use and the location of the trench.  No parking signs are being placed on the curb 48 hours before the project moves into each work area.

Boys Basketball

Redmond 47, Hood River Valley 37:  The Panthers eliminated HRV from state playoff contention.  Redmond’s defense limited the Eagles to 16 points over the first three quarters.  

 

Southwest Washington Class 1A Boys Basketball Tournament

Forks 65, Stevenson 59:  The Bulldogs were eliminated from the district tourney.

The Port of Hood River Commission has decided to proceed with a long-planned project from the Ken Jernstedt Airfield that received a one-point-eight million dollar allocation from the Connect Oregon program three years ago.  The project is centered on the aviation technology and emergency response of the airfield at the North ramp to accommodate emergency helicopters, staging for emergency response, and eventually a shift of the location of the fixed based operator.  Port Commissioners approved awarding the contract to Tapani of Battle Ground for just over $1.88 million after bids came in below engineer’s estimates.  Port Executive Director Michael McElwee noted several of the bids were under the estimate.  McElwee added the Port will negotiate with the company about including installing fuel facilities in the project.

Fishery managers from Oregon and Washington have adopted revised spring Chinook salmon and steelhead seasons for the Columbia River.  In the Columbia upstream of Bonneville Dam, the recreational Chinook season will be open from Wednesday, April 1 through Tuesday, May 5.  The open area for both boat and bank anglers is from the Tower Island power lines approximately six miles below The Dalles Dam upstream to the Oregon/Washington border (upstream of McNary Dam).  From the Tower Island power lines downstream to Bonneville Dam, only bank angling is allowed.  In the Columbia below Bonneville Dam, the modified recreational spring Chinook season will take place from Sunday, March 1 through Tuesday, March 31, then continue three days a week – on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays – from April 2 until the pre-season harvest guideline of 2,899 adult upriver Chinook mortalities is achieved.  The season-setting process was influenced this year by a lower than average forecast for upriver-origin spring Chinook of 81,700 fish and poor expected returns to the Cowlitz and Lewis rivers that are fewer than needed to meet minimum hatchery brood stock needs.

Stevenson High School and Wind River Middle School associate principal Carolyn “Suz” Clark-Bennett passed away Tuesday night after a motor vehicle accident in Hazel Dell.  According to the Clark County Sheriff’s Office, Clark-Bennett’s SUV pulled out of the King’s Way Christian School parking lot and was making a left turn onto 78th Street when it went directly in the path of a pickup truck driven by Kierstan Cormican of Battle Ground.  Cormican, along with three passengers in Clark-Bennett’s vehicle, were injured and taken to area hospitals.  The Sheriff”s Office did not have information on their conditions.  Law enforcement also indicated Cormican has been very cooperative with law enforcement, and no charges have been filed.  In a Facebook post, the Stevenson-Carson School District said school counselors and members of the local Trauma Intervention Program would be available throughout the day at their secondary schools.  Clark-Bennett was 54.

Hood River County Commissioners have voted to place a proposed public safety levy on the May ballot.  The Commission took the action after a public hearing Tuesday night on the five-year levy for 78-cents-per-$1,000 of assessed property value that is the second attempt to address the County’s budget shortfalls.  Both a local option levy and a prepared food and beverage tax for general county operations failed last year.  Some at the hearing were wondering how the levy would affect other County operations, and Commission Chair Mike Oates says they can’t guarantee anything beyond public safety.  Oates added while if the levy is approved those funds will go into the general fund, that money will be accounted for separately and be overseen each year by the County’s budget committee.

There will be intermittent, single lane closures on the Hood River-White Salmon Interstate Bridge beginning Friday at 9:00 a.m. for repair inspections of the lift span and replacement of a broken street light.  Flaggers will direct traffic around the moving work zone.  Delays of 10 to 15 minutes are expected, depending on traffic volume.  Work is expected to conclude by 11:00 a.m.