The Dalles City Council has selected Jason Corey as Interim Municipal Court Judge.  According to a written statement from the City, the permanent Municipal Court Judge position was offered and accepted by another candidate, who has since withdrawn from consideration.  The City Council will meet in executive session at a later date to discuss their options on the permanent position.  Corey is currently a partner at the local law firm Dick, Dick & Corey.  City officials say he has substantial experience in municipal courts, both in The Dalles as a prosecuting attorney and in Monmouth.

North Wasco County School District 21 officials have been using a state K-12 funding figure of eight-point-one billion dollars to prepare a budget for the 2017-18 school year.  That’s under the eight-point-four billion school advocates around the state have said is needed to maintain current programs, but slightly above the number in the Governor’s proposed budget.  Both D-21 Superintendent Candy Armstrong and Chief Financial Officer Randy Anderson say the number the district is using leaves them about a million dollars short of what they need.  State legislators have indicated there will not be significant movement toward finalizing a K-12 education budget until the state’s May revenue forecast comes out.

Work has been on-going in the Washington Legislature on a transportation budget for the 2017-19 biennium.  14th District Senator Curtis King is chair of the Senate Transportation Committee.  He says they have are trying to implement projects in the 16-year Connecting Washington plan approved in 2015, but money is an issue with gas tax revenues stagnant.  King says the proposal from Senate Republicans has added five million dollars to address winter road damage.  He says one of the new projects he would like to include is for safety improvements for the railroad crossing on Walnut Street in Bingen.

Baseball Hood River Valley 11, Tualatin 4:  Connor Coerper drove in five runs with a single, a double, and a triple…and also struck out 12 in four-and-two-thirds innings on the mound to lead the Eagles to the road win.  Caden Leiblien drove in three runs as the Eagles pounded out 15 hits in the game.   Softball Clackamas 3, Hood River Valley 0 Sandy 12, The Dalles 11   Boys Lacrosse Glencoe 15, Hood River Valley 14

Two students from Columbia Gorge Community College are among a select group recognized this spring in a national scholar awards program.  Chantelle Hickman is a 2017 Coca-Cola Community College Academic Team Silver Scholar and Jonathan Neptune is a 2017 Community College Academic Team Bronze Scholar.  The Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation sponsors the Community College Academic Team program by recognizing 50 gold, 50 silver and 50 bronze scholars, and providing nearly $200,000 in scholarships annually.  There were more than 1,800 applicants.

North Wasco County School District 21’s Long-Range Facilities Planning Committee will meet again Tuesday evening.  D-21 Superintendent Candy Armstrong says this meeting will finalize recommendations for how the district board should proceed toward a November bond measure to put before voters.  Armstrong says the panel is currently focused on building a new high school first, and that is the expected recommendation to go to the board.  Tuesday evening’s meeting begins at 6 p.m. at the Fairfield Inn on West 7th in The Dalles.

The Hood River County Chamber of Commerce’s annual celebration of Blossom Time will take place throughout the month of April.  The Chamber’s Ashley Huckaby-May says they have been receiving phone calls about when blossoms will arrive in the orchards.  It looks like the blossoms will be later than they have been in recent years, with Huckaby-May saying some orchardists are telling them it will probably be in the third week of April.  A list of Blossom Time events is available at the Chamber website, hoodriver.org.

The Dalles Mayor Steve Lawrence formally handed over the keys to the Granada Theatre to purchasers Chuck Gomez and Debra Liddell at a ceremony outside the historic facility in downtown The Dalles.  The Columbia Gateway Urban Renewal Agency purchased the property for $365,410 in 2010.  Gomez and Liddell are paying $60,000 and promising to make $300,000 in improvements over the next three years.  The pair own a similar theatre in Watseka, Illinois, and plan on a full historic restoration of the Granada to house what they termed “national acts.”  Gomez says they have not yet had a lengthy inspection of the building, so there isn’t a solid timetable for getting the renovation done, but he adds they do hope to have a grand opening in the fall.  Gomez says they feel there is a strong demographic to make the Granada successful.

Baseball Central sweeps The Dalles 10-1 and 9-5 Columbia 3, Fort Vancouver 0 LaCenter 13, Stevenson 5 Sherman 5, Oakland 4 Sherman 9, Joseph 5 Tri-Cities Prep sweeps Lyle-Klicktiat-Wishram 13-2 and 13-2   Softball Glencoe 11, The Dalles 0 Westview 11, The Dalles 5 Tri-Cities Prep sweeps Lyle-Klickitat-Wishram 15-0 and 14-3   Boys Soccer Washougal 2, Columbia 0

The City of Hood River will hold a public meeting on the future of the Children’s Park on Monday.  City Councilors received a report from the public works department that the play structure on Hazel Avenue built by volunteers nearly 25 years ago will be closing due to safety concerns.  Mayor Paul Blackburn says the issue is rotting wood beams, noting they were only supposed to last 20 years, creating a liability issue for the City, but he adds they want to replace it.  He says current Councilor Mark Zanmiller was part of the original effort to build the play structure and will be an important resource, and there are modern material play structures that he believes can be built at the park.  Blackburn says an early rough estimate for replacement is 300-thousand dollars, noting modern liability issues make it difficult to use volunteer labor.  He says options to pay for it include using systems development charges and fundraising.  The meeting will be at six Monday evening at the Hood River Fire Hall.