Show love to your loved ones and your community by celebrating love locally this Valentine’s Day.

The renovation project on The Dalles Bridge over the Columbia River is nearing its completion. ODOT has announced that full weekend closures, which extended into the winter months due to falling behind schedule, are expected to end by the end of February 2023, pending any winter weather delays. 

The Mid-Columbia Community Action Council (MCCAC) has acquired the Oregon Motor Motel, located on the edge of downtown The Dalles, Oregon, with the aim of converting it into transitional housing and shelter. The $3.25 million acquisition was made possible through a $4.27 million grant from the Project Turnkey 2.0 program, which MCCAC applied for at the end of the summer of 2022.

This Saturday night, Feb. 11th celebrates the return of Tommy and Saundra O’Sullivan to Old St. Peter’s Landmark. Currently, on a west coast US tour, the O’Sullivans bring songs and stories from the west coast of Ireland. 

Pearls abound in this week’s most inclusive listing of music, entertainment, comedy and literature in the Mid-Columbia as more shows have been announced and a bevy of Cupid-inspired activities are on tap.

With the recent devastating earthquake striking Turkey and Syria, local Lora Helmer is calling out to anyone that can contribute to providing shelter food, and other necessities for people in those countries finding themselves houseless and lacking food and water.

With several key aspects of the renovation now complete, the vision of a true Community Food Center is finally coming to fruition — offering a significant boost to efforts to end hunger and its root causes throughout Sherman, Wasco and Hood River counties.

Columbia Gorge Community College board members agreed Tuesday, Jan. 31, to engage a professional search firm as the college prepares for the departure of Dr. Marta Yera Cronin, CGCC’s president in June.

We are coming down the home stretch for the Winter Sports season, as we have teams preparing for the postseason as early as this week, while other programs are finishing their final couple of weeks of regular season play with the hopes of qualifying for state competition!

Leads on the possible identification of this individual were received by the Sheriff’s Office in the following days and weeks; numerous reporting parties indicated they believed the remains to be that of David West, Jr., a man who had disappeared from Sherman County trying to cross the John Day River during a large flooding event in 1964.

CyberMind Gaming, a PC gaming and eSports center in The Dalles, which opened it’s doors in March of 2022 will close it’s doors on February 17th, 2023.

When an active shooter incident began in Hood River this past week, Hood River County School District was ready to respond immediately to maintain student safety. While the threat was on Cascade street, one mile from the closest public school, the district immediately placed lower valley schools in “secure status” and notified parents via email and text messages.

Travis Fox of Springfield, Oregon, is just one of the dozens of workers brought into The Dalles to work indirectly or directly on projects related to Google’s new data center. The site at 3500 River Road is being prepped for construction and City Planning says they are expecting a building permit any day now.

When Police arrived to meet with the man he explained his son, identified as Simeon Hill, 42, of Hood River, was a combat veteran with access to multiple firearms. The man also advised the officers Simeon had fired a gun in their residence shortly before Police arrived. 

Wonderworks Children’s Museum is up and running again and the agencies future is looking brighter than ever thanks to multiple grant awards totaling $110,000.  

This year more children in Hood River and Wasco Counties will start the year with books thanks to First Book of Hood River and Wasco County. Keep reading to find out how to recieve books or particpate in this years challenge for local book clubs.

The couple had been searching for the right spot for more than two years when the former Pho Saigon restaurant space in The Dalles came up for rent. “We saw this location through social media,” Deepak Bamba said. The restaurant is centrally located in town and has excellent visibility in the business core in the retail level of the Commodore II apartments. The building is inviting with easy pedestrian access. “We very much liked it, right away.”

Did you know that when you hear something negative, your brain is wired to react to it even if it affects you negatively later? Donna Henderson offers us some interesting insight into this completely normal human response and then shows us a way to own it.

Lloyd DeKay of White Salmon will concentrate on the Ice Age Floods that developed some of the geologic wonders and beauty we marvel at today. The History forum will take place Feb. 4, at the Original Courthouse in The Dalles at 1:30 p.m. The stunning beauty of the Columbia River Gorge is the result of 50 million years of volcanic arc eruptions, massive fissure eruptions of flood basalts, catastrophic sediment-saturated Ice Age Floods, huge landslides, and massive earthquakes.  

TD Kiwanis February Programs — Feb. 2 speaker is Amanda Lawrence from Next Door.— Feb. 9 Wasco County Clerk Lisa Gambee will give a presentation about elections. — Feb. 16 Beatriz Lynch of Safe Space will explain the Hood River program that hopes to expand to The Dalles.