Vegetable and nut oils brought fierce flames at the Azure Standard warehouse and main office in Dufur on Monday, April 18th, when the building caught on fire for reasons that are yet unknown.

On April 20th, Wasco County Commissioners will consider approving an Intergovernmental Agreement with 11 different taxing districts to share Google community service fee dollars which comes to 25% of Google’s property tax savings with a maximum payment of $2.5 million annually.

Strong, confident people are not born. They are raised and nurtured and mentored and loved. Case in point: Gabriella Haskins - 2022 Distinguished Young Woman for Wasco County. Her path trails back to when she was a toddler watching her older sister on the balance beam and the strong girls that surrounded her.

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.

Bees have returned to the orchards around The Dalles after a historic snowfall on Monday, April 11. Orchard View Farm’s Mike Omeg was right. They’re showing up for work.

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.

Darcelle XV & Co. will perform two evening drag shows at Route 30 in The Dalles on Monday, April 11th, to sold out crowds.

The Wasco County Commissioners Meeting held their regularly scheduled meeting at 9 a.m. on April 6th, 2022.

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.

Mid-Columbia Community Action Council has helped Colton Perry, a shelter guest at MCCAC shelter get access to employment and healthcare services and Colton says he couldn’t be happier to be back on his feet. “I’ve been able to stand tall again.” said Colton Perry.

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.

“Making the Final Four of the U.S. Open is definitely something to be proud of and there will be some new hardware for the trophy case at TDHS on Friday.”

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).

For a decade local volunteers have been reaching out to D21 students with offerings of food to help them during the weekend and better prepare them for school come Monday morning. It’s a well-oiled machine and one that The Dalles can point to with pride. Learn about some of the people that make it happen.

The Next Door’s Youth Drop-In Center is now open at its location in The Dalles at 1113 Kelly Avenue. What started as an idea to help young people in the Gorge who are experiencing or are at risk of houselessness, or who just don’t feel safe at home, has become a beautiful and hope-filled reality.

The Oregon Department of Transportation has announced that The Dalles Bridge repair project is behind schedule and will not be completed by May 30th as originally planned. In light of this, ODOT has assured the public that there will be no weekend closures of the bridge during peak season for cherry harvest in June and July.

The City of Maupin and more specifically several rafting guides from competing rafting companies will be featured in a new series on Discovery Plus, slated to air on Wednesday, March 30. And it looks raucous from the trailer. Check it out here.

“We recognize that food insecurity is a big issue in our town and we’re more than happy to do our part to help alleviate that in any way we can,” said Rachel Carter, Marketing Coordinator for Columbia Gorge Toyota.

Gorge robotics students from The Dalles took top honors at the Oregon State VEX Robotics Championships recently and will advance to the World Finals in Dallas, Texas, May 5-7.