SPECIAL SECTIONS
Gorge
Gorge Business
Review, Health
& Wellness
Business
Columbia Rive
r
March 2015
Rev iew
Covering Gorge
Business
What’s goin
Rasmussen g on at
Farms?
Volume 7, No.
3
A tale of two
bakers: One
aspiring, (pg.
6) one retiring,
(pg. 14)
Page 10
W EEKEND E DITION
Vol. 109, No. 19
HOOD RIVER, OREGON
Official Newspaper, City of Hood River and Hood River County
■
SATURDAY, MARCH 7, 2015
75 cents
4 Sections, 40 Pages
www.hoodrivernews.com
CGCC lays off five workers City asks
Officials grapple
with projected
$2.4M deficit
By MARK GIBSON
The Dalles Chronicle
Columbia Gorge Community
College has laid off five employees
across multiple departments in an
initial schedule of layoffs designed
to help address a projected $2.4 mil-
lion deficit in the upcoming fiscal
year, according to college president
Dr. Frank Toda.
The layoffs will extend through
June.
Full time faculty staff have not
been reduced: Their bargaining
agreement with the college re-
quires a 10-month notice, and no no-
tice has been issued, according to
budget information provided by the
college.
The layoffs are part of a strategy
in effect for several months that
also include a voluntary employee
resignation incentive program and
holding open vacancies as part of a
“hiring freeze.”
Climate change:
HR council takes
input on Monday
See CGCC, Page A5
Creative
Rhythms
By KIRBY NEUMANN-REA
News editor
Art Week returns
to Mid Valley
BY TRISHA WALKER
News staff writer
Artistic expression in all forms
took center stage at Mid Valley Ele-
mentary this week.
Art Week was held March 3-6, and
students got to try their hand at all
manner of creative endeavors —
bookmaking, bucket drumming,
music, glasswork, clay birdhouses,
oil pastels, cooking, printmaking
and decoupage — all taught by
Gorge-area artists.
Principal Dennis McCauley said
Friday morning that the yearly pro-
gram is a way to “put in the pieces
that we’ve lost” in arts education —
programs that are often cut due to
budget or time constraints.
“We’re so focuses on academic
outcome that we forget how kids’
brains work, we forget that kids need
different experiences,” McCauley
said. “This brings that together for
the kids, lets them know that arts are
important — that all parts of the
brain are important.”
It’s a week students really look for-
ward to. “They don’t remember the
day they learned the hard C sound,”
he said, but they do remember Arts
Week.
Many local artists came to the
school to teach classes, like Shelley
Toon Lindberg, executive director of
Arts in Education of the Gorge and
S p o t l i g h t
See ART, Page A2
comments
on carbon
Photo by Trisha Walker
STUDENTS IN Tim Snyder’s bucket drumming class beat out a complex tune during Mid Valley Elementary School’s
Art Week March 3-6. Front to back: Dylan Maddox, Draven Bump, Johan Nava, Jesus Ibarra, Dameon Solorzano and
Hayden King. A variety of art-related classes were held, from cooking to printmaking.
a
t
u
r
d
a
y
A carbon pricing resolution, along
with affordable housing, wastewater
treatment plan funding, and public
art, make for a busy Hood River City
Council agenda on Monday.
The council, meeting at 6 p.m., in-
vites the public to comment on a pro-
posed resolution urging the State of
Oregon to implement a price on car-
bon emissions.
“The Council is considering the
resolution to actively encourage state
lawmakers to fight climate change by
altering the marketplace to provide
some disincentives to burning fossil
fuels,” said Mayor Paul Blackburn.
The city will hear a report from
Planning Director Cindy Walbridge
on the ongoing housing analysis and
buildable lands inventory, which will
be used to inform staff and council on
potential action regarding affordable
housing. Wheeler will report on a
$20,000 grant to help pay for a waste-
water treatment capital facility plan,
and the council will discuss a $5,000
grant for public arts planning, from
the Hood River cultural Trust Board,
and hear updates from Library Direc-
tor Buzzy Nielson on the Library spe-
cial District as well as a request for
council endorsement for Hood River
Reads, which starts March 15.
The draft carbon pricing resolution
can be viewed at the City’s web site
ci.hood-river.or.us. Oral comments
can be made at the March 9 Council
meeting at City Hall or in writing to
the Mayor at Paul.Blackburn@city-
ofhoodriver.com.
Blackburn and city councilor Peter
Cornelison, along with city manager
Steve Wheeler, discussed carbon pric-
ing legislation with Hood River legis-
lators Chuck Thomsen and Mark
Johnson during the Feb. 26 City Day
A weekly series about a day in the life ...
See COUNCIL, Page A2
Pastor Judy Zimmerman living her dream
BY TRISHA WALKER
News staff writer
Photo by Trisha Walker; submitted
Pastor Judy Zimmerman will be installed today, March
7, as minister of The Mid-Columbia Unitarian Universal-
ist Fellowship. Last week, installation committee members
Jay Larsen and Cindy Allen met with Zimmerman at the Rock-
ford Grange to go over last-minute details.
The Mid-Columbia Unitarian Universalist Fellowship is
holding a special ceremony today, March 7.
At 3 p.m., the congregation will install Pastor Judy Zim-
merman as their new minister. The church meets at the
Rockford Grange on Barrett Drive in Hood River.
Zimmerman describes the church as “a younger con-
gregation,” and said the installation “is a formal public af-
firmation of the covenant between the minister and the
congregation they serve,” a process that is “uncommon in
most Protestant denominations,” she explained.
“(It symbolizes) an ongoing commitment, a deeper level
of connection between minister and congregation,” she
said. The installation will be “a fancier church service,”
with Unitarian officials attending: Representatives from
the Regional Association body, and ministers and reli-
gious educators from the Northwest.
Civic leaders from around the Gorge have also been in-
vited, as the church serves the Washington side of the Co-
lumbia from Stevenson to Goldendale, and in Oregon from
See JUDY, Page A5
Four To Go
Gorge on Tap talks trains, trails
Forum on hunger issues March 31
On March 11 Friends of the Columbia
Gorge will present Gorge on Tap at
Springhouse Cellar Winery, downtown
next to Mt. Hood Railroad. Doors open at
6:30 and the talk runs from 7 to 8 p.m.
The program will include an update
on the oil and coal train threat, the
Gorge Towns to Trails program and a
new hike challenge for Friends 35th an-
niversary. This is a free event, no RSVP
is needed.
The Oregon Hunger Task Force (OHTF) is
hosting a listening session on issues surround-
ing hunger and food systems in The Dalles on
March 31, 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the Columbia
Gorge Community College Lecture Hall.
Community members from the Gorge are in-
vited by the OHTF to share their experiences
and thoughts on hunger and food systems in
their communities, and recommend policy im-
provements that help reduce and solve hunger
in the Gorge and across Oregon.
OHTF members will be present to hear com-
munity presentations and policy recommenda-
tions. See more at oregonhunger.org/blog.
7
05105 97630
3
Dyslexia Gourp ‘Big 5’
event March 10
“The Big 5: What Parents and Teach-
ers Need to Know about Learning to
Read,” will be held March 10 from 6:30 to
8 p.m. at the Hood River Hotel. Presenter
Cheryl Anthony, Successful Learning
Educational Services, will talk about
comprehension, phonics, phonemic
awareness and fluency. The event is free
and sponsored by Decoding Dyslexia.
Educators can earn 2 CEU credits
from Lewis and Clark College for $20.
For more information, email columbi-
agorge@decodingdyslexia.org.
Women’s Chamber Choir March 12
The Master’s College Department of Music
presents the Women’s Chamber Choir in con-
cert at Faith Bible Church, 1889 Belmont Drive,
on March 12 at 7 p.m. The Women’s Chamber
Choir is an auditioned group of 15 to 20 women
who perform both on and off campus through-
out the semester, as well as on a tour over
spring break.
They perform a variety of styles from every
major period, including sacred, classical and
madrigal. The group has toured through vari-
ous parts of the country and has sun at the
Lincoln Center in New York City .They have
produced three recordings, the most recent ti-
tled “The Mighty Power.”