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WEATHER
COOLER, SMOKE AND
CLOUDS, 20 PERCENT
CHANGE OF RAIN
Veteran Phil Chaperon celebrates
his 100th year
Page B1
Columbia Gorge News
HOOD RIVER | THE DALLES | WHITE SALMON
Wednesday,September16,2020 Volume1,Issue24
$1.00
WILDFIRES IMPACT GORGE
HR Saddle Club
assists with evacs
■ By Trisha Walker
Columbia Gorge News
Heavy wildfire smoke reduced visibility downtown The Dalles Friday afternoon
to about three blocks. Masks were made available for residents county-wide,
with distribution sites in The Dalles and outlying communities.
Mark B. Gibson photo
Smoke reaches hazardous levels
■ By Mark Gibson
Columbia Gorge News
Agencies throughout the
Columbia River Gorge are re-
sponding to hazardous smoke
blanketing the region and much of
the state.
Citizen Alerts were sent to resi-
dents of Wasco County Friday and
Saturday, warning of hazardous air
quality due to thick wildfire smoke
and informing residents that
protective KN-95 masks were being
made available at distribution sites
throughout the county Friday and
Saturday.
See SMOKE,page2
The first load of horses and hu-
mans arrived from Estacada to the
Hood River Saddle Club grounds
Tuesday night, Sept. 8.
On that day, all of Clackamas
County was under some kind
of evacuation notice due to the
Riverside Fire; Estacada was
officially elevated to Level 3 — “Go
Now” — orders Sept. 9.
Helen Hansen, Saddle Club
manager, said she received her first
phone call that day from a man
with five horses who had seen the
club’s information on social media.
Within hours, he arrived with his
family and horses.
The club is now housing three
families and their animals. Two
of the families have campers and
are staying on the grounds, while
a third, who arrived with only a
pickup and horse trailer, is staying
with Hansen.
In all, the club is now hosting
more than 10 horses, as well as
Horses find safety at the Hood River Saddle Club after being evacuated from
Estacada last week due to wildfires.
Photo courtesy Eloise Russell
chickens, a goat, cats and dogs.
“We’re just trying to help people
out,” said Hansen.
She said word got out that the
saddle club had space via social
media and veterinary clinics. To
make more pens, Hansen has bro-
ken down her own fencing. She has
had numerous calls from commu-
nity members wanting to donate
items such as hay, but as of now,
help is not needed.
Evacuation sites
Hood River County saw other
sites, both public and private, offer
their grounds for evacuees and
animals. They are as follows:
■ Hood River County
See ANIMALS,page3
'Under
Canvas'
review
begins
■ By Jacob Bertram
Columbia Gorge News
Hanging up the badge
that they lived through, he said, and
he doesn’t want to infringe on their
When Jeff Halter started college, privacy.
Fellow retired officer Dan Nelson
he was considering engineering,
said of Halter, “He’s a contrast to so
but soon worried it would be too
many of the things you think cops
boring. So he switched to law
are. Instead, he’s all the things you
enforcement.
Now retired after 29 years at The want cops to be.”
Nelson said Halter’s policing style
Dalles Police Department, Halter’s
is “logical, because he’s the smartest
demeanor might, ironically, lead
someone to peg him as an engineer. man I know. To say he’s extremely
He’s bright, mechanically inclined, logical in his approach would sell
and measured — and not one to tell short the emotional side he’s able to
bring too. He’s very thorough, very
cop stories.
methodical, attention to detail. He’s
Most cop stories are also a story
that guy, he’s the guy you want in
about someone’s bad experience
charge of things.”
■ By Neita Cecil
Columbia Gorge News
Among Jeff Halter’s hobbies are remote controlled air-
planes. He built the 12-foot wooden plane pictured here.
Contributed photo
Born in Wisconsin, Halter grew
up in Cove, Ore., a burg of about
500 souls. After starting college at
Oregon Institute of Technology,
he transferred to Western Oregon
University once he grew keen on
law enforcement.
After graduation and a few odd
jobs, he landed his first — and only
— police job at The Dalles in 1991.
He was a detective after just four
years, and made sergeant two years
after that.
He knew foregoing engineering
for law enforcement was a trade off:
He’d make less money, but the job
would be more varied, interesting
and meaningful. And the job has
at times proved a bit boring, “but
it can be kind of soul crushing in
different ways.”
In the early days the job was fun,
exciting and admittedly stressful at
times. “After awhile though, you see
a lot of dysfunctional people,” he
said, “and a lot of sad things and a
lot of waste. I don’t know.”
See BADGE,page3
Klickitat County will hear public
comments through Sept. 18 on an
environmental review of a develop-
ment proposal submitted by luxury
camping company Under Canvas
after the Klickitat County Planning
Department issued a prelimi-
nary determination of mitigated
non-significance.
Most public and private develop-
ment proposals must undergo an
environmental review by the lead
agency, in this case the Klickitat
County Planning Department, of
the ways in which a development
can impact its natural surround-
ings. Named after the State
Environmental Policy Act, a SEPA
review can result in either a deter-
mination of significance, non-sig-
nificance, or mitigated non-sig-
nificance, which can be taken into
consideration when a board begins
its deliberations on the outcome of
a permit application.
In this case, the planning
department issued a preliminary
mitigated determination of non-sig-
nificance on Aug. 27, meaning the
See REVIEW,page3
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