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About The Hood River news. (Hood River, Or.) 1909-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 28, 2015)
www.hoodrivernews.com Port hires Genevieve C HAMBER Scholl for new post Continued from Page A1 G e n e v i e ve S c h o l l tions and project man- joined the Port of Hood agement. This experi- River staff on Jan. 12 as ence will increase the Special Projects Manag- Port’s productivity and e r. S c h o l l f o r m e rl y is the ideal complement worked from 2001 – 2008 t o o u r e x i s t i n g P o r t as Destination Marketing team.” Director for the Hood Scholl had previously River County Chamber of served as Special Pro- Commerce, and has since jects Manager for the served as Outreach Man- Port intermittently since ager for the social enter- 2012, writing policy doc- prise nonprofit Farmers uments and operation Conservation Alliance manuals as well as grant (FCA), also based in Hood applications. Two suc- River. cessful g rant applica- This is a new staff po- tions to fund the Nichols sition at the Port, with Basin West Edge trail responsibilities to play a and open space develop- lead role in man- ment brought in aging the Port’s over $560,000 in inter nal and ex- total, and that pro- ter nal communi- ject will begin cation systems construction this and carrying out a spring. variety of unique “I am thrilled at projects related to the prospect of p o l i c y d e ve l o p - working to bring Genevieve greater awareness ment, project and Scholl legislative advoca- to the Port’s ef- cy, stakeholder re- forts to support a lationships and regional healthy economy locally collaboration. and throughout the “The Port Commission Gorge,” said Scholl. “As is increasingly engaged the development activi- in regional economic de- ties outlined in the Port’s velopment advocacy and 2014-2018 Strategic Plan collaboration with our continue to unfold, it will local and regional part- be crucial to have state- ners. Genevieve will play of-the-art communication a key role in these efforts systems in place to sup- for the Port as well as im- port dissemination of in- proving the Port’s overall formation and encourage communication and pub- much needed public feed- lic outreach functions,” back and dialog.” Scholl said Port Executive Di- and her husband, Travis rector Michael McElwee. Erdmann, have lived in “ G e n e v i e ve b r i n g s a the Parkdale area since b r o a d b a c k g r o u n d i n 1996 and have one son, communications, opera- Oscar. T IMBER Continued from Page A1 tenth of that: $5.9 million. What each county will re- ceive hasn’t been broken down by the USDA, but County Administrator Dave Meriwether expects it won’t be much at all. “Just based on the amount for Oregon, I’m guessing it will be in the neighborhood of $100,000 or less, but that’s just ballpark,” he said. “At that level, it doesn’t make a lot of difference (to the coun- ty budget).” The amount doesn’t exact- ly come as surprise to the county, which has seen fund- ing from the SRSA gradually dry up since the bill — co-au- thored by Sen. Ron Wyden — was signed into law 15 years ago. By the mid-2000s, Con- gress had fallen into a pat- tern of having to reauthorize the law on an annual basis, placing those funds in doubt as the amount disbursed has decreased over time. Thus, come budget time each spring, the county oper- ates as if it won’t receive the money at all. “The budget doesn’t in- clude it, so we act like it’s found money when we get it,” Meriwether explained. Which isn’t to say that less money doesn’t impact the county, because it does. Meri- wether said the majority of the funds from the SRSA pro- vide a boost to the public works department, allowing the county to pay for more road work that otherwise might not have gotten done. Hood River County School District also received $204,000 from the SRSA in 2014. The News emailed Su- perintendent Dan Goldman to see how the money was spent, but did not receive a response by press time. At the Hood River County Sheriff ’s Office, where their slice of the money is re- ferred to by the feds as Title III funds, English said an in- dependent budget is drawn up each year for SRSA dol- lars, but it’s difficult to antic- ipate how much funding the department will receive. Last year, the U.S. government sent $67,000 to the county, which was split evenly be- tween HRCSO and firewise programs. “We never know exactly how much we’re going to get ing him “the opportunity to lead this great board and great team.” Incoming president John Melesko also addressed the crowd and encouraged mem- bers to come to the board with any questions, con- cerns and ideas — “Come see me down at Dougs,” he said — and to keep doing things for and with the Chamber. Rep. Mark Johnson and Mayor Paul Blackburn each gave short speeches that cov- ered key points of their re- spective upcoming terms. For Johnson, that included work on guidelines to protect public safety with the legal- ization of marijuana, and the hope that all Oregon Chambers will come togeth- er to support legislation to create a new Mount Hood li- cense plate, the revenue from which will fund bike tourism campaigns. “It’s a pleasure to repre- sent Hood River,” he conclud- ed. Blackburn commented on Hood River’s “awesome brand” and the three main areas stemming from the city council’s recent vision- ing session: Obtainable hous- ing, ongoing commitment to ecology, and a transparent government body. He was also excited about the nearly completed bathroom and bike hub facility on State Street — the last of the State Street construction project — near established down- town bike shops. (It is sched- uled for completion on Feb. 22 – see page B7 for a photo of the work in progress.) The Walker Family — Eric, Trisha and Abby, 15 — until the spring,” English said. “We certainly use it sparingly since we know it’s finite. We’ve seen our Title III money drop significantly over the past several years. “Obviously we’re going to take whatever we can get be- cause we need it,” he added. And there are strict para- meters to how those funds can be used. English ex- plained that HRCSO can only spend the money to reim- burse personnel after a search, to repair and main- tain equipment, and to buy equipment during a search operation. English said he was looking for ways to both find more funding and ex- pand the way in which it is used. He noted that as more and more people come to the county to recreate, the need for search and rescue mis- sions and the money to fund them has increased as well. “It’s an immediate need that will never go away that’s only increasing in our coun- Queen Size Mattress Sets Starting at $ 249 LOOK! This size ad in the HRN 9 times for only $117! Call Kirsten at 541-386-1234 MURRAY’S FURNITURE & SLEEP CENTER 981 Tucker Road • Hood River (541) 386-3915 Hood River Weather Forecast Date Forecast Mostly Cloudy 56° / 43° Thurs. Jan 29 Partly Cloudy 51° / 40° Partly Cloudy 52° / 37° Sat. Jan 31 Partly Cloudy 50° / 39° Sun. Feb 1 Showers 52° / 43° Fri. Jan 30 received the Don Benton Award for their volunteer work with the chamber over the course of 2014. The New Business of the Year Award went to Laughing Mountain, a small business collective located on May Street. Mem- ber of the Year went to Aaron and Suzanne Baum- backl, owners of Solstice Wood Fire Café. Full Sail Brewery received the Business of the Year award for the many local jobs created by the company as well as the 300-plus commu- nity organizations it regular- ly supports. Accepting the award on behalf of Full Sail were Lisa Merkin, Sandra Evans and Angie Walker. The evening ended with the crowing of the prom king and queen — honors given to King Kelly Govro, of Servpro Hood River, and Queen Luann Taylor-T rotebas, Goodwill Boutique Manager — and dancing. Photos by Trisha Walker and Chelsea Marr AWARD winners at the Chamber’s Membership Appreciation Dinner Friday were, at top, Full Sail Brew- ery, Business of the Year, accepted by Lisa Merkin, Sandra Evans and Angie Walker; above, Eric and Tr- isha Walker, Volunteers of the Year (not pictured, Abby Walker); and left, Prom Queen Luann Taylor- Trotebas, Goodwill Boutique Manager, and Prom King Kelly Govro, of Servpro. ty,” English said. Though Hood River Coun- ty has managed to do with- out, other counties that rely more heavily on the SRSA payments are in a worse situ- ation. Meriwether said coun- ties in the southwestern re- gion of the state have been the ones most notably hit and have had to drastically cut both non-essential and essential county services. In the Gorge, Skamania County is impacted especial- ly hard as 80 percent of its territory is comprised of na- tional forestland and all but 12 percent of its land is tax- exempt, according to the county’s website. In October, the Skamania County Board of Commissioners passed a strongly-worded resolution declaring a state of emer- gency due to the economic situation. The resolution also lambasted the federal government for its “misman- agement” of federal forests and for not creating a system that allowed for the annual reauthorization of the SRSA. For 2015, Skamania Coun- ty budg eted to receive around $1.55 million from the SRSA and other federal forest funding, but added language to its budget reso- lution that the county’s board “reserves the right to supplement the 2015 current expense budget to balance the lack of, or timely receipt of, these funds in order to re- duce expenditures.” The Enterprise reported last week that due to the re- ductions in funding, Skama- nia County had planned to Cascade Yoga at Cascade Locks School 300 Wa Na Pa Street Gas Appliances Electrical Repair Get your RV road ready! 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Feb 2 close the Underwood Com- munity Center, and may sell the building in order to re- coup the loss. Closure of the facility was planned at the end of this week. The future of SRSA may look grim long-term, but there is a chance of reautho- rization for this year. Though the SRSA failed to make it through Congress this past fall — whose fault that was depends on which political party you talk to — both Democratic and Repub- lican legislators, including Re p. Gre g Walden, have voiced support for extending SRSA during the first quar- ter of 2015. Gentle, beginner-level class. Tues. & Thurs. - 3:45-5:00 pm Daytime / Overnight High / Low (°F) Today Jan 28 P A9 Hood River News, Wednesday, January 28, 2015 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 - - - - - - - 50/37 48/33 37/30 41/34 43/36 62/39 59/41 Mostly cloudy, with a high near 46. Winds light and variable. Updated Tuesday, Jan 27 at 10:30 a.m. PST Data from www.weather.com HOOD RIVER 3140 W. CASCADE •541-386-1123
