INDEX
Fighting wildfire with trust
— A3
Classifieds
B8-9
History
B6
KidScoop
B1
Obituaries
A7
Opinion
A4
PoliceLogs
B5
PublicNotices
B10-12
SeniorLiving
B3
Sports
A13-15
ThroughtheEyesofanElder B14
What'sHappening
B5
Sports — A13-15
What's in the Sky? — B3
Weather
Heatadvisoryinplaceuntil
Thurs.evening-high90son
Wed.Weekendtocooldown
withchanceofshowersSun.
Odell student heading to
Harvard for Ph.D. — A6
www.columbiagorgenews.com/enespanol
Columbia Gorge News
HOOD RIVER | THE DALLES | WHITE SALMON
Wednesday,June2,2021 Volume2,Issue8
Remembering The Fallen
$1.00
Residents
challenge
HR 'middle
housing’
codes
Gail Oberst
■ For By Columbia
Gorge News
Members of White Salmon American Legion Post 87 and Carson Legion Post 137 present the colors, with honor guard,
above, during a veterans memorial ceremony on Memorial Day, May 31, at the White Salmon Cemetery on Snowden Road
(Mark B. Gibson photo). Gorge communities honored veterans in a variety of ways over the weekend: At left, top to bottom,
some scenes from the weekend: Flags wave in the morning at Idlewilde Cemetery, Hood River, as visitors prepare graves
(Trisha Walker photo); A family cleans up and decorates a grave at the Odd Fellows Cemetery in The Dalles amid sprinklers
and flags (photos courtesy Flora Gibson).
Columbia High School students win
first for communication invention
Jacob Bertram
■ By Columbia
Gorge News
“I am super beaming with pride,”
Gorge MakerSpace founder Jack
Perrin said of the students. “There
A group of six Columbia High
School students invented a device, are lots of really natural-born lead-
through extracurricular work with
ers in this group.”
local afterschool program Gorge
The students have been working
MakerSpace, that helps a third-
since last fall under the mentor-
grade student with a speech disor- ship of Perrin to create something
der communicate in the classroom. tangible that would solve a need for
The invention scored the group first someone in the community. Enter
Aiden Dennis.
place May 16 at Project Invent’s
Aiden has a speech disorder
Demo Day, an annual convention
called Childhood Aproxia of
where student groups across the
Speech. According to the Mayo
country pitch original invention
ideas to industry leaders and com- Clinic, children diagnosed with
pete for funding to further invest in Childhood Aproxia of Speech, or
CAS, have difficulty making accu-
their creation.
The group, composed of juniors
rate movements when speaking.
Dylan Durand, Madison Swanson,
“As a result, he often knows what
CC Ahrens, Cin Ahrens, Wyatt
he wants to say,” but can struggle
Sheaves, and sophomore Henry
with verbalizing his thoughts, often
Kirkwood, won the grand prize of
only able to speak one or two words
$1,000 for further development of
at a time, the students told the
their invention. The students intro- panelists.
The students met Aiden last year
duced their device in a five-min-
for the first time and have been
ute presentation to panelists and
working with him during their free
answered questions about their
time to understand his needs and
design process.
develop a device that eases the
burdens he faces. After working
with him to identify his needs, the
group decided to focus on helping
Aiden have the ability to express
his thoughts to his teachers in a
manner that was more comfortable
for him.
When they first met in Aiden's
classroom at Whitson Elementary
School, the students realized
that he "is a super cool kid."
“He genuinely likes people
and seems like any other
third-grader,” the students
said. What they discovered
was that, without any
assistance, Aiden can have
a difficult time expressing
himself in the classroom,
where “it is vital that
students be able to com-
municate with teachers
and classmates alike
and participate in class
discussion.”
SeeINVENTION,page2
Riverbend Community School: New
digs, and second chances for students
Mitchell
■ By For Ben
Columbia Gorge News
F
OR ASHLYN JONES, ATTENDING THE
Dalles’ Riverbend Community School has
been nothing short of life-changing.
Jones, 16, of The Dalles, says she used to strug-
gle with her grades. She didn’t get along with her
teachers. She didn’t think college was a viable
option for her.
Not anymore. Since enrolling at Riverbend in
November, Jones is thriving, loves her classes,
and is thinking of attending culinary school — a
dream she had previously deferred because she
didn’t think she would get good enough grades
to get in.
“Riverbend completely changed how I feel
about school, and teachers, and everything,” she
says.
While there are all different kinds of students
who attend Riverbend, Jones' story is not an un-
common one there, nor is her level of passion.
Although, to be fair, Riverbend’s students are
extra excited these days.
For one, Riverbend, a public charter school
that is part of North Wasco County School
SeeRIVERBEND,page12
Unhappy with “Middle
Housing” changes to Hood River’s
zoning and building codes, Brian
Towey and four other city resi-
dents say they will appeal the city’s
decisions to a higher court. The
City of Hood River did not give
residents adequate notice for the
March 8 public hearing on the new
codes, Towey said in “Intent to
File,” an appeal to Oregon’s Land
Use Board of Appeals (LUBA), the
state’s highest tribunal for land-
use decisions. As of publication,
LUBA had received, but not yet
agreed to hear, the case.
Hood River Mayor Kate McBride
said she welcomed LUBA’s
opinion.
“In addition to holding more
than 14 public meetings on this
particular legislation (between
the Planning Commission and
the City Council), we received
SeeCODES,page2
Songer
sued for
cougar
policy
Jacob Bertram
■ By Columbia
Gorge News
A lawsuit seeks to declare
Klickitat County Sheriff Bob
Songer’s cougar sighting response
program illegal.
Songer had announced the
creation of the program in a post
on the Klickitat County Sheriff’s
Office Facebook page dated Aug.
27, 2019, calling cougar sightings
in the communities of Goldendale,
White Salmon, Glenwood, Husum,
and other neighborhoods in the
county a “serious PUBLIC SAFETY
CONCERN.”
The program, which was later
published under the sheriff’s di-
rective titled “Dangerous Wildlife
Policy and Procedures” (DWPP),
gives sheriff’s deputies as well as
members of the volunteer com-
munity policing program, Klickitat
County Sheriff's Posse, the au-
thority to “respond to all reported
dangerous Wildlife conflicts that is
a risk to human safety or domestic
pets and livestock.
“A fully commissioned deputy
will be in charge of the incident
SeeCOUGAR,page3
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The Riverbend multi-use science classroom is housed at Columbia Gorge Community College.
Photo courtesy Sean O'Connor/Story Gorge