Columbia Community Connection was established in 2020 as a local, honest and digital news source providing meaningful stories and articles. CCC News’ primary goal is to inform and elevate all the residents and businesses of the Mid-Columbia Region. A rising tide lifts all boats, hop in!
All in Hood River County
Voters in Wasco and Hood River County are slow to the polls this year. “This year we’re dragging behind in voter turnout and I’m not sure why,” said Lisa Gambee, Wasco County Clerk. “There’s a fair amount of candidates in the Governor’s race, so maybe it’s voters fatigue but still it’s been a little bit surprising.”
This is the Youth Empowerment Shelter or YES House, and it's making a comeback after the pandemic temporarily closed its doors. We are the only ones to have a shelter like that east of Multnomah County and East of Deschutes County all the way to the Idaho border. The YES house is our number one diversion from the juvenile justice system.” said Molly Rogers, Northern Oregon Regional Correctional Facilities Director.
Just a fledgling business some 12 years ago, Dirt Hugger now boasts 32 employees, a retail and industrial site, and it is pulling 55,000 tons of green waste from local landfills, providing major reductions in the greenhouse gas emissions through a reduction in methane in the Gorge. If you’re not buying their products, maybe, you should be.
Columbia Riverkeeper’s Board of Directors unanimously named Lauren Goldberg the organization’s new Executive Director starting August 1. Over the last two decades, the $3.5M organization has grown ten-fold while defeating over a dozen new fossil fuel terminals, reducing toxic pollution, and protecting salmon.
Flor makes an extremely rare appearance at Hood River’s River City Saloon on Saturday, May 7 after punching concert tickets in New York and L.A. RollingStone dishes on the band in a recent article.
Billy Bob Thornton is just the tip of the iceberg this week in local entertainment. TD kicks of its First Friday tonight at 5 p.m. with more than 20 businesses participating and music events abound in the Gorge. Read about all your choices here as well as upcoming shows. They include Bingen Theatre, Discovery Center, Bargeway Pub, Maupin Daze, Zim’s, The Pines, Red Carpet, River City Saloon, Ruins, Everybody’s Brewing, Double Mountain, TD Civic, Working Hands Beer, White Salmon Library, Goldendale.
The Dalles Kiwanis held a Q&A session with the 7th District Circuit Court Judge Position 4 candidates Incumbent Judge John Wolf and challenger attorney Caleb Berthelsen on May 5th at 12 p.m. Both candidates were given ten minutes to speak followed by a short Q&A session from the audience.
On April 28, 2022, Judge John Wolf and attorney Caleb Berthelsen spoke before the Hood River Rotary Club at a forum moderated by Senior Judge Paul Crowley. Both are candidates for judicial position 4 in Oregon’s Seventh Judicial District, a position held by Wolf since 2011.
Music and entertainment are on tap for this weekend with a plethora of events and music. Start your Friday with a free concert at The Dalles Art Center as Jenny Don’t and the Spurs will be rockin’ a block party complete with food and drinks. Streets are always open, but drinks and food start at 4:30 p.m. Music at starts at 5:15 p.m.
Elections are happening across Oregon on Tuesday, May 17 and the deadline for citizens to register to vote or change party affiliation is Tuesday, April 26. All Wasco County residents are encouraged to participate by registering or updating their current voter information. Click her to find out how.
This weekend and upcoming weeks are loaded with entertainment at River City Saloon, The Dalles Eagles, TD Library, Bingen Theater, Granada, Bargeway Pub, Working Hands Beer, Everybody’s Brewing, Grateful Vineyard, Double Mountain, Zim’s, The Ruins, The Pines, 64 Taphouse, HR Elks.
The grant will enable faculty support for the Medical Assisting program. It supports the college’s plans to offer nursing students a part-time option, creating a three-year program in addition to the current two-year program. And it will jumpstart the college’s development of paramedic and EMT training.
Entertainment abounds this month with shows on tap at Working Hands Beer, Zim’s, Bargeway, Ruins, TD Civic, Grateful Vineyard, Everybody’s Brewing, Easter Bunny, Mid-Columbia Car Club Cruise-in, Double Mountain, River City Saloon, Cider Fest, Paint Night, Rockford Grange Hall, Granada, TD Library.
Tough Enough? Mike Omeg said neither he nor any of his workmates can remember a snow when cherry trees were in blossom in the past 50 years. Local cherry trees hit with snow during the blooming season avoided freezing temperatures. Omeg said that bodes well for this summer’s crop. But it’s a long road to June.
Cary Lowe’s love of flight now has his family also elevating the vehicle that was at the center of so many great family memories. His 1963 Piper Cherokee 235 is being passed on to local college students for the expansion of their mechanical minds in the wake of Cary’s passing.
Across the state and in the Columbia Gorge, boys outnumber girls roughly three to one in engineering-related courses. Students of color are similarly underrepresented in those courses. Now over $200,000 of investment is headed to Hood River County and South Wasco County school districts in the Gorge to diversify access to engineering, computer science, and advanced manufacturing courses.
Whether you are new to the Columbia River Gorge, or have been here for a long while, you have probably heard about the Columbia River Gorge Commission and wondered who they are. This is the first of a series of columns to bring you up to speed and keep you connected with the Gorge Commission’s plans and actions and how they affect communities and lands within the National Scenic Area (NSA).
“I wrote this book to save myself.” said Keath Silva, transgender herbalist, bodyworker, medium, and writer from Hood River, OR. Keath’s moving and down-to-earth collection of poems titled Lady Death, and other poems venerating change is a window into the transgender experience, and can be a companion to anyone who may be on a journey of coping with loss, letting go of falsity and embracing authenticity. It’s also the perfect read for trans day of visibility.
“Oh!” exclaimed Karen Murphy, laughing, when I asked her what her and Steve Murray are planting this year. “How much time do you have?”
On March 25th, 2022 protesters gathered in Hood River, OR, and cities across the world to denounce government inaction on fighting climate change. The protests were inspired by Fridays for Future, a youth lead environmentalist movement founded by Swedish activist Greta Thunberg. The Hood River protest was led, in part, by several youth activists who said they wanted to do something “other than tweet and retweet” about climate change.
