FISH Food Bank of Hood River County will mark 50 years of helping those in need with a celebration Friday evening at the Columbia Center for the Arts.  FISH board chair Marianne Durkan says the event is free and open to all in the community.  Durkan says FISH started with a notice in the Hood River News in 1969 that a group of churches had acquired a phone number to help people with a variety of needs.  FISH eventually evoled into the food bank that it is today.  Friday’s celebration will run from 5:30 to 7:30 at Columbia Center for the Arts, with snacks, music, and art.

Columbia Gorge Community College is expanding its community education offerings this summer.  CGCC President Marta Yera-Cronin says catalogs for summer offerings and previews of what is planned for the fall will be arriving in area mailboxes soon.  Yera-Cronin noted they want to increase engagement with the community and get more people onto their campus.  She added their Community Ed program emphasizes The Dalles, where there were fewer opportunities of this type available.  The catalog will also be available at cgcc.edu.

The Port of Hood River has cancelled today’s (Thursday) planned full closures of the Hood River-White Salmon Interstate Bridge. Electrical and engineering crews working overnight detected instrumentation issues that they were unable to resolve. The work will be rescheduled.

The Hood River County School District has selected a finalist for its superintendent’s position.  The district announced Tuesday that Dr. Sara Hahn-Huston is their lone finalist after interviewing four candidates on Monday.  Hahn-Huston is currently the executive director of secondary education at Gresham-Barlow School District, where she has worked since 2015.  She has nearly three decades experience as an educator, including 10 years as a teacher and experience as a principal in dual-language schools.  District board vice-chair Rich Truax says they were excited about Hahn-Huston’s success in diverse, multi-lingual, multicultural school communities.  The district has scheduled two meet-and-greet sessions this Monday for community members to ask questions and submit feedback.  The first will be from 3:30 to 4:30 at Wy’east Middle School, followed up with another session from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Hood River County School District board room.

A 30-day comment period for the City of The Dalles’ Americans with Disabilities Act Transition Plan is underway and will continue through May 22.  The plan focuses on developing a transition schedule for eliminating existing physical barriers with transportation system right-of-ways.  Planned changes include installation of curb ramps at intersections and accessible pedestrian signals to provide sound indicators along with lighted crosswalk signals where traffic lights are installed.  Implementation would occur over sixty years.  The entire draft ADA Transition Plan and a three-question survey are available online at thedalles.org/engineering or in paper format at the Public Works Department, Mid-Columbia Senior Center, and The Dalles-Wasco County Public Library.  The City of The Dalles booth at the Northwest Cherry Festival Community Fair will feature the ADA Transition Plan.

The Hood River County School District held its second community forum on changes in school boundary lines.  A committee has been working the topic for the last two months, dealing with buildings that are full in the Lower Hood River Valley and available classroom space in the mid- and upper-valleys, and much of the feedback from those impacted was not positive.  Superintendent Dan Goldman acknowledges the district won’t make everyone happy, but they have to address the enrollment disparities in the elementary and middle school buildings.  He does say they have gotten questions about keeping children in schools they are already attending, and different timelines for changes are being studied.  The committee will give a recommendation to Superintendent Dan Goldman to take to the district board, and that’s expected to be sometime in May.

Softball

The Dalles 12, Pendleton 11:  The Riverhawks’ Bailey LeBreton hit a grand slam to give The Dalles a 10-2 lead after three innings, but then they had to hang on as the Buckaroos came back.  The Dalles moved to 5-1 in the Intermountain Conference, staying tied for first with Ridgeview.

Hood River Valley 5, Redmond 0:  Lauren Decker pitched a five-hit shutout to give HRV its fourth straight win and keeping them within a game of the league leaders heading into a doubleheader in The Dalles on Friday.  Aunika Yasui homered and tripled for the Eagles.

King’s Way Christian 16, Stevenson 0

Mabton sweeps Lyle-Wishram 19-6 and 20-13

Baseball

Redmond 5, Hood River Valley 4:  The Panthers scored in the bottom of the seventh inning thanks to two hits, a hit by pitch, and a sacrifice fly.  The Eagles fall to 4-2 in the Intermountain Conference, but remain tied for first place with The Dalles and Pendleton.

Pendleton 12, The Dalles 2

Columbia split with LaCenter, winning 1-0 with Davis Koester and Dominic Raether combining on a two-hitter, but falling in the nightcap 6-4

Stevenson split with King’s Way Christian, losing 15-1 in the first game, but coming back for 6-4 win.

Sherman 16, Stanfield 6

Cle Elum-Roslyn 16, Goldendale 3

Boys Tennis

Hood River Valley 8, Pendleton 0

Redmond 7, The Dalles 1

Girls Tennis

Pendleton 7, Hood River Valley 1

Boys Lacrosse

Hood River Valley 12, Cleveland 3

Northwest Cherry Festival weekend kicks off Thursday evening with the Columbia Gorge Community College Foundation’s “Saddle Up and Celebrate” fundraiser.  The event is in its second year, and CGCC Foundation executive director Stephanie Hoppe says it features line dancing, a prime rib and chicken dinner, and a live auction.  The event will be held in the Fort Dalles Readiness Center.  The evening begins with line dancing lessons at 5 p.m., followed by dinner and dancing at 6 p.m., the auction at 7 p.m., and then more dancing at 7:30 p.m.  Tickets will be $40 at the door.

A bill authored by Washington 14^th District State Representative Gina Mosbrucker that would provide information to domestic violence victims about the signs and symptoms of traumatic brain injuries was signed into law by Governor Jay Inslee.  Under House Bill 1532, the Department of Social and Health Services will work with the Washington Traumatic Brain Injury Strategic Partnership Advisory Council to develop a statewide website for domestic violence victims with information regarding TBI.  An educational TBI handout will also be developed.  The measure also seeks to increase law enforcement training to recognize the signs and symptoms of TBI and encourages officers responding to domestic violence incidents to inform victims of the website.  Mosbrucker says battered domestic violence survivors frequently do not recognize the severity of their injuries.  The measure takes effect in late July.

The City of The Dalles Public Works Department will be flushing fire hydrants throughout the city over the next few weeks.  Fire hydrants are flushed in order to clean out deposits, sediments and rust from distribution pipelines, help minimize water quality problems, test fire protection water pressures, exercise hydrant valves, and identify hydrants needing repair or replacement.  Motorists and pedestrians are asked to avoid driving or walking through the water coming directly from a hydrant while it is being flushed.  Occasionally main flushing causes water flowing from a tap to be discolored from stirred up sediment or milky white caused by tiny air bubbles.  Although discolored water won’t make you sick, you might want to flush the pipe by running the water for several minutes before drinking or washing.