Port of Hood River officials are keeping an eye on two pieces of legislation that could impact efforts to eventually fund a replacement of the Interstate Bridge.  One is a regulatory authority bill that has recently received key approvals and is headed to the Senate floor, and will head back to the House for concurrence if approved by the Senate.  Port Executive Director Michael McElwee says this bill would open up options for bringing private money into the project.  The Port is also watching the overall transportation bill, which includes the bridge on a list of various projects to be funded.  McElwee says they have requested $5,000,000 to complete an environmental impact statement and do financial analysis and geo-technical work.

The Dalles Area Chamber of Commerce is putting together welcome bags for the families of swimmers taking part in this coming weekend’s Ted Walker Invitational swim meet, and businesses are invited to get their materials into those bags.  Chamber CEO Lisa Farquharson says they are taking coupons, stickers, and other items until Wednesday, when the bags will be put together.  Businesses in The Dalles that want to place materials in the welcome bags for swim meet participants should call the Chamber at 541-296-2231.

A 25-year-old man from The Dalles died early Sunday morning in a vehicle fire on Interstate 84 between Hood River and The Dalles.  According to the Oregon State Police, troopers and additional emergency workers responded to a vehicle fire on I-84 near milepost 73 at about 1:45 a.m. Sunday.  A preliminary investigation indicates Jason M. Degeus was traveling eastbound on the freeway when his vehicle veered off the right shoulder, struck a highway sign, and was engulfed in fire.  Emergency workers put out the fire and found Degeus deceased as a result.  He was the only occupant of the vehicle.

The board of the Northern Oregon Regional Corrections Facility will discuss its future relationship with Immigration and Customs Enforcement at a worksession in July.  That after hearing from members of the public concerned about how ICE detainees are treated when the federal agency contracts with NORCOR for bed space.  Hood River County Commission Chair and NORCOR board member Ron Rivers says the panel learned during from that comment the jail in The Dalles does not have the same resources the ICE facility in Tacoma has, and he believes that is a problem.  Some of the differences include the amount of time clergy is allowed in the facility, visitation capabilities, and lack of an immigration library at NORCOR.  The NORCOR board will discuss the subject at a July 20 worksession, when they will also discuss whether to go out for another operations levy after their initial attempt failed in May.  Rivers noted ICE only had five or less detainees a day at NORCOR in the past month, but the number has been larger at times.

The North Wasco County School District 21 board has decided to target November 2018 to go out for a bond measure to renovate facilities.  That after receiving polling results that showed while the majority of respondents rated the condition of the facilities as fair or worse and see the district in a positive light, only 48 percent said they would be willing to vote for a long-term capital improvement bond at $2.98 per $1,000 of assessed property value to handle all of D-21’s building needs, and only 44 percent for a smaller short-term bond to build a new high school.  Superintendent Candy Armstrong says the board is going to seek a consultant to help them do an education campaign on the district’s capital facility issues.  In other business, the district board approved a budget for the 2017-18 school year.  Armstrong said they will make adjustments to the fiscal plan once the Oregon Legislature finalizes the state school funding amount for the upcoming biennium.

The White Salmon City Council has decided to go with a design-build process to build a new swimming pool rather than a total bid process.  The City is following the lead of how the community of Tonasket in central Washington got their pool built, and Mayor David Poucher says that should save the City quite a bit of money on the project.  Poucher noted the design-build process makes it easier to use volunteer and in-kind resources.  The Council also decided they wanted to have staff look at creating a metropolitan park district to help pay for the pool.  Poucher says the boundaries would be similar to those of the White Salmon Valley School District.  The City is looking at borrowing 800-thousand dollars to put toward construction of the new pool.

The Hood River County School District Board adopted a budget for the 2017-18 school year, and also discussed what may still happen in the Oregon Legislature.  Superintendent Dan Goldman says the latest estimate from Salem has 400 million dollars more going into the state school fund than the number the district used to develop the budget.  But there are still a number of unknowns, so Goldman says the board felt they needed to more forward and the district will adjust as they learn more from the Legislature.  He adds the first priority is to maintain as much staff as possible, and he says they have been able to do that through attrition rather than layoffs.  If the Legislature can move the state school fund number up another 200 million dollars, Goldman says the district can avoid spending reserve funds, which is currently called for in the district budget.

The Klickitat PUD says there will be a planned power outage taking place late Saturday night and early Sunday morning to allow the Bonneville Power Administration to perform critical line maintenance to the Lyle substation.  The outage will begin at 11 p.m. on Saturday, and is expected to continue until 8 a.m. on Sunday.  It will affect all customers in Lyle, High Prairie, Timber Valley and Appleton.  This includes Old Highway 8, Highway 142 to milepost 6, Lyle-Snowden Road, Canyon Road, McGowan Road, Appleton Road, Fisher Hill Road, the Centerville Highway to milepost 12, High Prairie Road, Struck Road, Hartland Road, Schilling Road, and surrounding areas.  Klickitat PUD does say the times stated for the planned outage are based on the best information they have available ahead of time, and the power could come back on at any time without prior notice.

Drivers traveling between North Bonneville and Bingen on Washington Highway 14 should prepare for daytime delays beginning Monday.  Washington State Department of Transportation maintenance crews will work to repair several sections of damaged pavement along the highway through the end of the month.  On Monday and Tuesday both directions of Highway 14, between East Steuben and Courtney Road will alternate through a single-lane daily, from 6:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.  On Wednesday and Thursday work moves to between North Bonneville and Rock Creek Drive, with traffic again alternating through a single-lane from 6:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.   Additional work will occur the week of June 26, between Skamania County and North Bonneville.  During construction, drivers should watch for flaggers and a pilot car and expect delays through the work zone.  

Northern Wasco PUD says a vendor’s machine malfunction has led to some customers not receiving bills, and others finding multiple bills in their envelopes.  The PUD says they were made aware of an issue with bills mailed last week.  The PUD adds if you have not received your bill yet, and should have, or if you received other customers’ bills with yours, contact them at 541-296-2226, or e-mail to billing@nwasco.com.  The PUD also says the vendor has assured them the machine in question has been repaired.