The Dalles Community Action Team will be headed to Washington, D.C. next week for its biannual visit to pitch local projects and issues to federal officials.  Wasco County Commissioner Scott Hege says one of the topics on this year’s trip will be to advocate for forest policies to allow for sustainable harvests.  Hege says that would help keep forests healthy along with bringing needed revenues to county governments and creating employment.   Another Community Action Team focus for this trip will be the long-discussed issue of allowing for an expansion of The Dalles urban growth boundary within the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area.

Hood River County is working with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife on the problem of elk coming onto orchard lands and damaging them.  County Commission Chair Mike Oates, who also operates an orchard, says elk numbers in the Hood River Valley have increased since controlled hunts of elk were discontinued in 2011, and trail development in the Riordan Hill area has also contributed to the elk coming onto the orchards.  Oates says the state plans to reinstate the controlled hunts in 2020, but they will be different than in the past by spreading it out from August to December in an effort to move the elk to find new range to graze in.  He adds some orchardists have tried to use audio “booms” to try to drive away the elk from their property, but that led to complaints from people being awakened at night by the noise.

Boys Soccer

Livingstone Adventist Academy 5, Horizon Christian 1

Volleyball

Mabton def. Lyle-Wishram 25-19, 25-19, 25-19

The Columbia Gateway Urban Renewal Agency board will hold a special meeting Wednesday to consider bids for demolition of the westerly portion of the Recreation Building in downtown The Dalles.  Community Development Director Steve Harris gave an update to The Dalles City Council Monday evening on the situation involving a buckling of the roof and its supports, which came to light after heavy rains on August 9.  Harris says engineers report they’ve received indicate when the bowling alley was put in the building in 1958, some of the supporting columns were removed.  The roof has been failing in that portion of the building, and Councilor Russ Brown noted references in the reports that the rains were not the cause of the failure.  Harris said the cause is still under investigation, adding the engineers representing the URA’s insurance company wants to do a post-demolition investigation.  Harris says they have received three bids to demolish the building.

The Dalles City Council voted to amend the municipal Transportation Systems Plan to add a project to attempt to improve safety at the intersection of West 2^nd and Cherry Heights and have staff begin to design the project.  There have been nine traffic accidents at that intersection in the last five years, and traffic engineers found attempting left turns onto West 2^nd from Cherry Heights caused significant delays.  Public Works Director Dave Anderson says this project will involve channelization with raised concrete medians that will eliminate the left turns and straight-through movements from Cherry Heights and the Auto Zone business onto West 2^nd.  Cost is estimated at $295,000, and with the Council putting the project in the Transportation Systems Plan it can be paid for with funds from systems development charges the City already has.  Anderson said just painting stripes would not accomplish the safety improvements they want, installing signals would be more expensive and would actually increase the expectation of accidents, and there is not enough room for a roundabout.

Nighttime travelers who use the Bridge of the Gods, which connects Highway 14 in Washington to Interstate 84 in Cascade Locks, should plan to use an alternate route during intermittent full closures of the bridge in late September and early October.  From September 23 to October 9, crews will close the Bridge of the Gods nightly for deck rehabilitation work.  Closures from Sundays through Thursdays will begin at 9:30 p.m. and last until 5:30 a.m., while on Fridays and Saturdays the closures will be from 10:30 p.m. to 6:30 a.m.  The Bridge will be closed to all pedestrian and vehicle traffic during those times.  It will be open at all other times, with single-lane closures.

The Port of Hood River will re-grade and repair deteriorated asphalt on portions of the Waterfront Trail near the Marina fuel dock and the Port offices beginning Tuesday, forcing a closure of the trail in that area.  Port crews will remove all paving from the small section of trail and a branch that leads to the Port office parking lot and prepare for re-grading the relatively steep section, paving with new asphalt, and installation of a railing for the stairs leading to the fueling dock.  Barricades will be placed, closing the trail in the project area.  There are no paved trail detours around the project site.

Hood River County is going to receive a substantial donation for its forest trails system from a developer receiving an easement to put a fiber optic cable along a road in the County forest.  Administrator Jeff Hecksel says in addition to the usual compensation to the County for receiving an easement in the forest, the developer has agreed to donate $100,000 for the trails program, which has been threatened during the County’s current budget crunch.  The easement still must be approved by the County Commission, which will consider it at its meeting next Monday.

The annual Get Ready The Dalles emergency preparedness fair will take place this coming Saturday.  The event is put on NW Natural, Mid-Columbia Fire and Rescue, the American Red Cross, and a number of other emergency service organizations.  Tonya Brumley of NW Natural says September is Emergency Preparedness Month, and the goal is to help people prepare and plan for various emergencies.  The event will be from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday at Mid-Columbia Fire and Rescue on 1400 West 8th in The Dalles, with interactive presentations beginning at 10:30.  The first 100 families to attend will receive a free preparedness item.

Fire crews were kept busy in the region over the weekend.  On Friday afternoon, Mid-Columbia Fire and Rescue crews dealt with a large grass fire in the area of 16^th and Kelly.  Saturday in the Tygh Valley area a fire in the vicinity of J Hix Road west of Highway 197 burned just over 19 acres.  And on Sunday there were a number of fire starts reported in Klickitat and Skamania counties in the aftermath of Saturday night’s major thunderstorm after numerous lightning strikes.  No major fires were reported as a result.