The section of the Historic Columbia River Highway between Multnomah Falls and Angel’s Rest reopened Thursday morning, two days after a slide closed the road.  Oregon Department of Transportation geologists and hydrologists hiked up the hillside above the slide Thursday morning to inspect conditions before deciding to re-open the road.  ODOT does advise travelers to use caution in the Gorge, which is prone to slides under the best conditions.  ODOT will close that section of road again on Monday morning to complete slide cleanup.  This will include clearing a culvert blocked by slide material.

 

While The Dalles was not picked to be featured on the “Small Business Revolution” program, civic leaders are enthused about the amount of community involvement it generated, and believe it can lead to great things in the future.  Don Warren of The Dalles Main Street program, which helped lead the effort to get the community to campaign, says a lot of the business owners in The Dalles are now younger people bringing a new energy to move forward.  Warren says while the Main Street group is focused on downtown, they’ve been working with other groups in the community to better work together to advance economic development and continue to build civic pride.

Bids for a new Klickitat County Courthouse Annex in Goldendale have come in under the estimated cost of the project.  County Commissioners opened bids on Tuesday, and both of the qualifying bids were under the $30,000,000 engineer’s estimate, and Commissioner David Sauter says the apparent low bid was about one million dollars under that amount.  The County Public Works Department will now review the bids and come back to the Commission with its recommendation.  Sauter says the County is on track to break ground on the project this spring.

The Dalles City Council approved a contract with the local law firm Campbell Phillips to provide legal services to take over for retiring City Attorney Gene Parker.  Mayor Rich Mays says Diana McDougle will be the principal attorney serving the City, with Kristin Campbell also involved.  Mays says in his over 30 years involved in municipal government, he’s worked with both an attorney on staff and contracting with one, and the most important element is the quality of the people involved.  Parker is retiring in March after over 28 years in the City Attorney position.

The effort to do needed maintenance and reinvestment on the Riverfront Trail in The Dalles is continuing, with work to raise the estimated $315,000 to fix aging and damaged portions of the trail.  North Wasco Parks and Recreation District Executive Director Scott Baker says the City of The Dalles has committed $100,000 for the work, while the Port of The Dalles and the North Wasco PUD have chipped in $50,000 each.  Baker says the effort to fundraise for the rest is underway.  Baker adds they can start work this spring, and plan to start at the western end of the trail at the Columbia Gorge Discovery Center and move eastward.  For information on how to donate, go to nwprd.org.

Boys Basketball

Seton Catholic 64, Columbia 45

King’s Way Christian 88, Stevenson 49

South Wasco 71, Dufur 65

Sherman 48, Horizon Christian 37

Royal 85, Goldendale 74

 

Girls Basketball

Pendleton 75, Hood River Valley 27

South Wasco 55, Dufur 52

Trout Lake 60, Lyle-Wishram 30

A robust community effort to get The Dalles featured on “Small Business Revolution” has fallen short of its goal.

Program co-host and Deluxe Corporation Chief Brand and Communications Officer Amanda Brinkman announced Tuesday night that Fredonia, New York had been selected from among five finalists.

Voting had taken place over an eight day period that ended last Tuesday, and Fredonia had led in every update issued on the program’s Facebook page, with The Dalles in second.

A large crowd gathered in The Dalles Civic Auditorium to hear the announcement, and after a moment of disappointment, broke out in a loud roar saluting the community effort, and civic leaders also spoke about how the town had been brought together in the process, and the opportunity to do more with that unity.

The “Small Business Revolution” program and Deluxe Corporation will invest $500,000 in Fredonia to improve six small businesses over eight episodes during the fifth season of the program, which is distributed on Amazon Prime and Hulu.

Workers doing maintenance repairs at the Sorosis Reservoir in The Dalles have found leaky pipes underneath the tank that need to be fixed.  City Public Works Director Dave Anderson reported the need to the City Council at their Monday evening meeting, noting contractors who were painting the inside of the tank and doing some seismic upgrades found the damage.  He said the cost to fix them will run approximately $86,000.  Mayor Rich Mays says they City has the money to do it in their capital reserve fund without using general fund dollars.  Anderson added metal deterioration has been detected in the roof structure, and he will be coming back to Councilors for authorization to make those repairs.

Washington 14th District Representative Chris Corry is optimistic a bill to provide compensation to ranchers and farmers whose land leases are terminated early by the Washington Department of Natural Resources will pass this session.  Corry introduced a similar bill in 2019, and the Republican says he has worked with various groups and DNR to make adjustments to it and bring it back this year with a compensation plan that would give the farmer or rancher net returns for the remaining years of the lease that is being terminated.  State law allows DNR to use a non-default termination to replace a lessee with a higher-revenue tenant.  The terminations have been occurring as the state receives offers from companies interested in locating solar farms on DNR lands.

The Oregon Department Of Transportation says it will keep a two-mile section of the Historic Columbia River Highway west of Multnomah Falls closed until at least Wednesday afternoon while crews evaluate whether a small Tuesday morning slide indicates a more serious threat.   The road will remain closed between Multnomah Falls and the Angel’s Rest trailhead.  ODOT geologists and hydrologists inspected the area Tuesday morning and determined that the road should remain closed as a safety precaution.  The heavy rain forecast for the Columbia River Gorge could create further instability in an area prone to slides.  Crews will consider Wednesday whether to reopen the road.