Open Gorge: The Skamania Dispatch & Klickitattler

The Hood River-White Salmon Bridge Authority bid out its test-pile program and got a price under half its estimate. Plus a federal grant deadline finally settled in writing, a schedule that slipped and came back, and a calmer conversation with Friends of the Columbia Gorge. In This Episode Test piles go to Advanced American Construction Why a bid this low got extra scrutiny The October 2027 window...

The Goldendale City Council adopted its first parks plan since 2000, and the state signed off two weeks later. The council also saw wildfire modeling for town and Observatory Hill, heard a resident describe being bitten twice by a neighbor's dogs, and started rewriting its sidewalk rule over cattle panels on Main Street. In This Episode The parks plan passes, and what it leaves out Wildfire m...

Bingen City Council spent October on money: a proposal to raise the lodging tax from 2% to 3%, and a vote to drop the service that polices vacation rentals. Plus a request to the state for 20 mph through town, a creek ordinance headed to its first hearing, and an e-bike library with every bike checked out. In This Episode The lodging tax proposal, and the case against it Cancelling Granicus Dry Cr...

North Bonneville’s October was money month. A 10 percent water and sewer rate increase had its first reading, the city got its first look at the 2027 budget, and Councilmember Emily Sabo said she is stepping down. This episode covers the North Bonneville City Council and the North Bonneville Planning Commission for October 2026. In This Episode Sabo steps down, and the search for her replacement A...

Stevenson's Planning Commission sat down for what it thought was a workshop and found a county public hearing on stream and wetland rules. We follow the critical areas update from the Planning Commission to City Council, plus a five-year jail contract and a plaza grant that's moving to Walnut Park. In This Episode The joint city-county critical areas update The hearing that wasn't n...

White Salmon's planner found 131 parcels whose zoning doesn't match the city's 2040 plan, and Upper Wyers neighbors pushed back. The Hood River-White Salmon Bridge Authority is still waiting on its federal grant, the 2027 budget margin is thin, and City Council made one contractor the sole source for its water controls. In This Episode The neighborhood rezone map and Upper Wyers Bri...

A Halloween true story from Skamania County. Before the bridge, Underwood's road to the world was a ferry. We meet the ferrymen, from Amos Underwood's sailboats to Otis Treiber, and the stormy night around 1910 that ended with a man walking off into the dusk, never to be seen again. In This Episode When the river was the road Amos Underwood's salmon-boat ferry Otis Treiber's fl...

Skamania County opened its 2027 budget about a million dollars short and asked every department for 8%. We walk through what's driving the gap, the county commissioners' letter on the federal Roadless Rule, a six-month extension of the data center pause, and why Road 90's snowplow money runs thin. In This Episode The 2027 budget gap and the 8% ask Why the gap is structural: the Levy...

Klickitat County commissioners adopted neither a data-center moratorium nor the interim zoning they backed in September. Both went to lawyers, and the next draft swapped its distances for X's. We also cover a pulled ADU ordinance, the October 15 budget workshop and a wind farm's longer life. In This Episode Draft 3.0 of the data-center ordinance The interim rules on paper, and what happe...

All six candidates in Klickitat County's contested county races met twice in two nights: at the Goldendale Grange on October 14 and at a League of Women Voters forum in Lyle on October 15. County commissioner, sheriff, and Klickitat PUD. Data centers dominated two of the three races. We walk through where each candidate stands and who is paying for the campaigns. In This Episode Commissioner...

A special Skamania election edition. PUD Commissioner Liz Green passed away in July, but her name is still on your ballot, and the county Republican chair is asking you to vote for her anyway. Plus Underwood's candidates night, the KOIN congressional debate, and who is paying for the mailers in the 17th District. In This Episode The PUD race with one living candidate What happens if Liz Green...

Everyone in the Columbia's hatchery fight says they want to save salmon. They disagree on how. We follow that argument from a federal courtroom in Portland to Congress's budget to the Skamania Hatchery on the Washougal, and ask what it means for anglers, gillnetters and the tribes whose treaty fishery depends on hatchery fish. In This Episode Why the Skamania Hatchery is closing, and wha...

A black locust in my yard became a Washington noxious weed this January. The healthiest native ground on our place is underneath it. Here's what years of pulling ivy taught me about a word I had been using without thinking, and why I'm starting a series about owls and salmon with a tree. In This Episode The ivy, the collapsed burrows, and the day the robins came back Braiding Sweetgrass,...

Washington's energy siting council, EFSEC, got its first look at 772 comments on the power line that would run along the bed of the Columbia. A Scenic Area fight, a notice that never ran in the Skamania County paper, and a hearing decision set for October. Plus a plain look at what the science says about cable heat, magnetic fields and fish. In This Episode The 772 comments, sorted Does the S...

Klickitat County commissioners backed drafting interim zoning instead of a data-center moratorium, and the permanent draft ordinance asks for less on buffers, power and water on its second try. We also cover the ADU decision, a Husum short plat appeal, 911 and senior services in budget season, and the Bear Creek Bridge closure. In This Episode Interim zoning, or "moratorium light" Draft...

Goldendale's City Council heard its first comprehensive parks plan in 26 years, then tabled it until the mayor is back. Plus the mayor's ask for data center impact fees, the end of the Kiwanis Club, and a police chief who wants one court for every case. And before all that, the Timmerman curse. In This Episode Cabinet of curiosities: the Timmerman curse The parks plan, its $2.8 million w...

First, a Halloween-month tale of the night Skamania County's records left town. Then: North Bonneville formally ended its water emergency in September. The same month, the City Council paid a second contractor bill it said came with no breakdown, and voted down an independent review of how the city lost its operators. This episode covers the North Bonneville City Council and the North Bonnevi...

For the second year running, Bingen's City Council heard that state science calls for wider buffers along Dry Creek and Jewett Creek, and said no again. Plus a council resignation, a mural dispute that turned into a collaboration, and a 1963 sewer line that turned out to belong to White Salmon. In This Episode Cabinet of curiosities: the depot sign The Critical Areas Ordinance workshop and th...

Stevenson's City Council turned down the Attwell Road rezone its Planning Commission had recommended. Nobody spoke in favor, and the owners never came. Plus a plan to share planners with Skamania County and North Bonneville, a water system with about 40 hookups left, and a pump that didn't start. In This Episode Cabinet of curiosities: the man with the lantern The Attwell Road rezone, fr...

White Salmon's City Council voted down the dollar store moratorium with one vote in favor, then reset its budget around a one million dollar storm grant. The Planning Commission read its code to allow two duplexes on one lot after a hearing examiner ruling, and the Tree Board started writing its own ordinance. Plus: Jewett needs nine volunteers to close for Halloween, and how to get certified...

In 1949 someone drilled for oil just west of Beacon Rock, and the state's record never says the hole was sealed. Open Gorge is using public records and 1950s aerial photos to find it, and next heading to Klickitat and Dufur. Here's how you can help. In This Episode A 1949 oil test well near Beacon Rock Why old wells matter for water and air Tracks in 1950s aerial photos 17 old test holes...

National Public Lands Day is September 26. Four days later, the law behind Secure Rural Schools, a critical lifeline for our Public Lands Counties, has been written to run out. A letter from the editor of the Skamania Dispatch on what that deadline means for public lands counties like Skamania, and one phone call anyone who loves public land can make. In This Episode National Public Lands Day and...

A reported verdict in the killing of Candice Malave Delena, and why the news was forced to travel by Facebook. Plus the Skamania County Board of Commissioners and Skamania PUD in September: a smaller timber check from DNR, a new PUD commissioner, and a board split over a 2% rate increase. In This Episode The Delena verdict and the news desert DNR's lower 2026 timber forecast The Roadless Rule...

Sixty people came to a community center in Underwood to say what living inside the National Scenic Area actually costs them. Almost none of it ever becomes a court case. Meanwhile the Gorge Commission has been briefed on the 10-year rewrite of the Gorge Management Plan that could change that story, and the Forest Service says waiting until 2030 would be legal. Here is how the last rewrite worked,...

About 150 people, by Columbia Gorge News's count, came to a September 3 workshop to ask the Klickitat County Board of County Commissioners to pause data centers, and the Board took no action. We start on August 11, with the moratorium motion the Goldendale Sentinel reported and the county's own minutes did not, then follow the question through September 15. Plus the 2027 budget gap, and...