By KIRBY NEUMANN-REA
News Editor
January 23, 2008

Paint cans held up a projector for a PowerPoint display and local leaders used broad brushes to sum up news from their corners of the county.

But some specifics did emerge at the Heights Business Association’s second annual “Impact Meeting” Jan. 17 at Wy’east Vista Apartments meeting room. About 40 people attended the 90-minute gathering.

Topics included finding industrial land on the Port property, a possible new fire hall, school construction, renewable energy, the Hood River delta, and affordable housing.

Speakers included City Manager Bob Francis, Schools Superintendent Pat Evenson-Brady, County Administrator Dave Meriwether, and Port of Hood River executive Michael McElwee.

• The city is considering placing a $5 million bond on the November 2008 ballot to construct a new fire hall.

• The center of downtown will be torn up this summer for the final Urban Renewal Project, with major improvements planned on Oak Street between Third and Fifth streets.

• Evenson-Brady gave a 20-minute PowerPoint presentation on the current condition of the schools, which all date to 1969 or before, enrollment growth trends (averaging one percent, or the equivalent of two classrooms, each year) and the school’s projected requests for taxpayer bond and levy approvals.

• The school construction bonds approved in 1993 will be paid off by the end of the year.

• The district continues to seek public input on construction and expansion options including a possible bond request (for construction) and renewal of the Local Option Levy (for operations).

• Renewal of the bond and levy would mean no increase in taxpayers’ current school tax bills, according to Evenson-Brady.

• Bids will be opened by this spring and work should start this summer on the long-awaited Windmaster Sewer District.

• A wind power generation feasibility study has been started to determine whether to place up to five turbines on Middle Mountain near Dee.

• Installing wind turbines could put the county in the business of selling energy on the grid via PacifiCorp, according to Meriwether.

• “We are actively involved” in pursuing an affordable housing project this year, according to Meriwether. “This is something we’re all going to have to work on,” he said, referring to government agencies in Hood River County. “It’s a growing problem that’s going to take all our efforts,” he said. The county recently bought property on West Cascade with the idea of developing it for affordable housing.

• Expo Center lease: the Port is still talking with Full Sail about use of the building, according to McElwee.

• Finding developable industrial land, or creating such lots, will be a Port priority this year. He said the one existing legal lot, as it now stands, covers 250 acres and stretches from the Hook to the bridge, and to the middle of the Columbia River.

“You’ll see significant progress on this in the coming year,” he said. Getting utilities to buildable lots is the main challenge, he said.

• The delta: “We dealt all last year with this and we’ll deal with it this year. It is here to stay, and it is moving eastward, closer to the entrance of the marina,” McElwee said. A $100,000 Corps of Engineers matching grant will help predict the impacts of the delta’s growth, according to McElwee.

• The Port executive also told the Heights Association that the agency is looking for ways “to assist your efforts up here. Hopefully we can talk about it this year.”

Also speaking at the Impact Meeting were Columbia Gorge Community College President Dr. Frank Toda, Providence Hood River Memorial Hospital Chief Executive Ty Erickson, and Jeremy Young, director of Western Antique Aeroplane and Automobile Museum (WAAAM).

The Heights Association plans to invite a speaker from each agency or organization to future meetings to provide additional details on projects and issues.