Open Gorge: The Skamania Dispatch & Klickitattler

 Overnight bridge closures are coming in August, and we've got the full schedule. Plus the Hood River-White Salmon Bridge Authority spent July untangling three separate insurance headaches at once, while the Port of Hood River made a real concession on handing over land.

In This Episode:

• Overnight bridge closures coming August 17 through September 11
• Kiewit takes the lead on test pile liability, ending a month-long standoff
• USDOT rules the INFRA grant construction-only, tightening the cash timeline
• One invoice stuck in federal review for 417 days
• The Port of Hood River signals it'll hand over land for construction
• The stalled Marina Park dispute with federal park officials
• Why "special district" status keeps coming up, and why the Authority still doesn't have it
• Whether rising construction insurance costs are a Gorge problem or a national one

Resources & Links:

• Read the full written Dispatch at SkamaniaDispatch.com
• Port of Hood River: Overnight Bridge Closures notice (schedule also posted in Spanish)
• HRWSBA meeting agendas & materials
• Prior coverage: Bridge Test Piles Halted by Insurance Hurdles (June)
• Prior coverage: $3.4M State Park Dispute Hits Bridge Project (March)

Stay Connected with the Gorge

The Skamania Dispatch and The Klickitattler are community-led projects of OpenGorge.org.

To stay updated on local news, governance, and community events across the region, you can sign up for both newsletters at SkamaniaDispatch.com. For real-time updates and to join the conversation, follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/OpenGorge.

July was quiet in the room at the Skamania County Board of Commissioners, and busy underneath. Commissioners closed the books on the county's old budget system, seated a batch of new volunteers, and watched two long-running fights inch forward: the Storedahl gravel quarry, whose public comment window closes July 30, and the arrival of the state's energy-siting council in the National Scenic Area.

In This Episode:

• Commenter pleas against the Storedahl quarry, and the July 30 comment deadline
• EFSEC, the state energy council, reaching into the Scenic Area for a transmission line
• Supplemental Budget #1: the first budget fix under the county's new finance system
• New faces on the Board of Equalization and the Homeless Housing Council
• Forest Youth Success survives another summer, with a donor shout-out (and a disclosure)
• Carson traffic, a hatchery guardrail, and 850 racers on the river

Resources & Links:

• Read the full written Dispatch at SkamaniaDispatch.com
• Comment on the Storedahl Draft EIS before July 30: see the county's project page at skamaniacounty.gov
• Skamania County Board of Commissioners agendas, minutes, and audio: skamaniacounty.gov
• Catch up on the quarry fight: our June BOCC recap
• The bigger EFSEC story: The Nuclear Plant Wants Power, Skamania Wants Answers

Stay Connected with the Gorge

The Skamania Dispatch and The Klickitattler are community-led projects of OpenGorge.org.

To stay updated on local news, governance, and community events across the region, you can sign up for both newsletters at SkamaniaDispatch.com. For real-time updates and to join the conversation, follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/OpenGorge.

Join us for the July round-up of the Washington State Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council, the board that decides where the Gorge's big energy projects go. A Skamania County councilmember asks who actually permits the underwater power line proposed for the Columbia, and the answer surprises. Plus a new director, two ownership transfers that drew zero public comment, a plan to make the state's one nuclear plant produce more power, and a correction we owe you.

In This Episode:

• Why there is no local county permit for the Cascade Renewable Transmission line, and where the real comment window is
• Marco Lowe steps in as EFSEC's new executive director, and there is no August meeting
• Columbia Solar and Goose Prairie Solar change owners, with a Norwegian sovereign wealth fund among the buyers
• A correction on Ostrea Solar's operating status
• Energy Northwest wants to uprate the Columbia Generating Station nuclear plant near Richland
• Horse Heaven's final turbine layout, and Badger Mountain's wait on the power grid

Resources & Links:

• Read the full written Dispatch at skamaniadispatch.com
• Our June EFSEC edition, for the resource-adequacy backstory: https://skamania-dispatch.ghost.io/the-northwest-is-nine-gigawatts-short-efsec-june-2026/
• Our special report on the Cascade Renewable Transmission line: https://skamania-dispatch.ghost.io/special-report-cascade-renewable-transmission-an-underwater-power-line-with-a-long-road-ahead/
• EFSEC agendas, packets, and project pages: efsec.wa.gov
• Comment on active projects: comments.efsec.wa.gov

Stay Connected with the Gorge

The Skamania Dispatch and The Klickitattler are community-led projects of OpenGorge.org.

To stay updated on local news, governance, and community events across the region, you can sign up for both newsletters at SkamaniaDispatch.com. For real-time updates and to join the conversation, follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/OpenGorge.

Skamania County has two mining fights going at once. A Canadian company wants to drill toward an open-pit copper mine near Mount St. Helens, and a gravel quarry on the west end could put five hundred truck trips a day onto Highway 14. But underneath the copper fight sits a law from 1872 that almost nobody mentions, and it decides who gets paid. This episode covers recent discussions at the Skamania County Board of Commissioners, Skamania County Community Development, and the long history they're inheriting.

In This Episode:

• Why hardrock minerals on federal land pay no royalty, to anyone
• The Nevada senator who wrote the law, and why it never expired
• What happened the last time this promise met a place like ours
• Coal, oil and gas pay. Copper doesn't. Why the difference matters to the county budget
• Butte, Montana and the bill that outlasted the boom
• What three Montana councils actually won from a mining company, and what Skamania could ask for
• Which of these two fights Skamania can actually shape, and the July 30 deadline to do it

Resources & Links:

• Read the full written Dispatch: https://skamaniadispatch.com
• Comment on the Storedahl Quarry draft EIS (due July 30): https://www.skamaniacounty.org/departments-offices/community-development/storedahl-quarry
• The Stillwater Good Neighbor Agreement (Northern Plains Resource Council): https://northernplains.org/good-neighbor-agreement/
• Montana's Hard Rock Mining Impact Board, on making mines pay local government costs: https://comdev.mt.gov/Programs-and-Boards/Hard-Rock-Mining-Impact-Board/Hard-Rock-Impact-Plan-Information
• Prior coverage, "A Mine, a Closed School, and a County Locked in a Box": https://skamania-dispatch.ghost.io/a-mine-a-closed-school-and-a-county-locked-in-a-box-skaman/
• The law itself, 30 U.S.C. §22 (Cornell Legal Information Institute): https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/30/22
• GAO on hardrock royalties: https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-08-849r
• Interior's 2025 Critical Minerals List: https://www.doi.gov/pressreleases/interior-department-releases-final-2025-list-critical-minerals
• National Archives, Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868: https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/american_originals/1868.html
• EPA, Silver Bow Creek / Butte Area Superfund site: https://www.epa.gov/butte/background
• Failed reforms to outdated hardrock mining law https://www.hcn.org/articles/south-mining-2-democrats-kill-chances-of-reforming-the-outdated-hardrock-mining-law/

Stay Connected with the Gorge

The Skamania Dispatch and The Klickitattler are community-led projects of OpenGorge.org.

To stay updated on local news, governance, and community events across the region, you can sign up for both newsletters at SkamaniaDispatch.com. For real-time updates and to join the conversation, follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/OpenGorge.

Four summer meetings of the Klickitat County Board of County Commissioners, in one sitting. The Board maps out how a data center would actually get approved, weighs shrinking where solar can be built, gets its first real short-term-rental numbers, bets on a City of Seattle trash contract, and redraws the map of which rural roads get a painted safety line. Plus fire season, a "hiring freeze" fight, and a mid-year budget check.

In This Episode

• The county's new data-center permitting roadmap, and what "community benefit" could mean
• A Planning Commission move to shrink the county's solar zone
• The first hard short-term-rental data: 143 properties, and sixteen rented illegally
• The road-striping decision: Snowden, Bickleton, and Canyon Road for just under thirty-eight thousand dollars
• Republic Services, the Roosevelt landfill, and a Seattle-sized bid
• The "hiring freeze" that commissioners say is really "a conversation," and a calm mid-year budget report
• A hard fire weekend, new radio agreements, and a new 911 coordinator
• A shrinking public-health contract, a childcare workshop, and Dallesport wastewater rates

Resources & Links

• Read the full written Dispatch at skamaniadispatch.com
• Klickitat County agendas, Zoom link, and meeting recordings: klickitatcounty.org
• Submit written comment: [email protected]
• Open Gorge's Public Benefit Lab (mitigations and community-benefit options for data centers, battery storage, solar, wind, and transmission): opengorge.org/public-benefit-lab

Stay Connected with the Gorge

The Skamania Dispatch and The Klickitattler are community-led projects of OpenGorge.org.

To stay updated on local news, governance, and community events across the region, you can sign up for both newsletters at SkamaniaDispatch.com. For real-time updates and to join the conversation, follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/OpenGorge.

The Columbia River Gorge Commission just rewrote its own open-government rulebook, over a protest from Friends of the Columbia Gorge and a lone no vote. This episode covers what the new rules actually give you, the one-year Burdoin fire rebuild scorecard, a commissioner's on-the-record dissent about tribal voice and two energy projects, and a new Gorge spider with a Sahaptin name.

In This Episode

• The Commission adopts its first full rules overhaul in decades: what changed for records requests, meeting notice, and executive sessions
• Friends of the Columbia Gorge's notice objection, and why the Commission voted anyway
• Disaster-recovery rules become ordinance: the no-application RV process and the rebuild size ladder
• One year after Burdoin: who has rebuilt, who is still waiting
• Commissioner Pah-tu Pitt's dissent on Pushpum and Cascade Renewable silence, and a commissioner-pay equity proposal
• A farewell to Barbara Bailey, and a live fact-check on the resolution
• Gorge 2030, the 40th anniversary, and the $80,000 farm-income test

Resources & Links

• Read the full written Dispatch at skamaniadispatch.com
• Gorge Commission agendas, Zoom links, and the new rulemaking notice list: gorgecommission.org
• Next full Commission meeting: September 8, 2026
• Budget deadlines: Oregon July 31, Washington September 15
• Disclosure: during the Executive Director's report, Commissioner Fowler praised a public comment on accessory dwelling units "from Kate Bertash," saying she'd "done a spectacular job of setting the stage of where we are in the Gorge right now." That comment, a regional ADU policy brief, was submitted by the author of the Skamania Dispatch, who hosts this podcast and maintains the Open Gorge Public Meetings Archive. It is independent analysis, speaks for no government, and you can read it in the meeting record.

Stay Connected with the Gorge

The Skamania Dispatch and The Klickitattler are community-led projects of OpenGorge.org.

To stay updated on local news, governance, and community events across the region, you can sign up for both newsletters at SkamaniaDispatch.com. For real-time updates and to join the conversation, follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/OpenGorge.

Every spring, reassessment notices land in mailboxes across Skamania and Klickitat, and every spring they get misread as a bill. This episode explains what your assessment actually is: your share of a fixed check, capped by Washington's one percent levy limit, the same in both counties. We use real Home Valley numbers to show why your bill can climb while the county still runs short, and why the two facts do not cancel out.

In this episode

• The dinner-check idea: why your assessed value is a seat at the table, not a bill
• What a $100,000 reassessment really does to your bill, and to the county's budget
• The one part that surprises everyone: your bigger share is your neighbors' smaller share
• The 1% cap versus the roughly 5% real cost of running a county (Skamania and Klickitat both)
• The December decision each Board of Commissioners makes (Skamania skipped it once; Klickitat took it every year)
• The two ways a county's bill can actually grow, and why one wears everyone out
• Why this is on ballots across the country this November

Resources & Links

• Read the full written explainer at skamaniadispatch.com
• Skamania and Klickitat County Assessor certified levy sheets (public record)
• Washington Department of Revenue: how the 1% property tax levy limit works
• Washington State Auditor filings (county operating costs)

Stay Connected with the Gorge

The Skamania Dispatch and The Klickitattler are community-led projects of OpenGorge.org.

To stay updated on local news, governance, and community events across the region, you can sign up for both newsletters at SkamaniaDispatch.com. For real-time updates and to join the conversation, follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/OpenGorge.

 Klickitat County is picking a new sheriff for the first time in a decade. Longtime Sheriff Bob Songer is retiring, and three career lawmen (John Bruce, Tony Warren, and Dwayne Matulovich) are running to replace him. We walk through two candidate forums, dig into the campaign-finance filings (including who the outgoing sheriff is funding), and cover the three-way County Commission race and the quiet PUD contest almost nobody is watching.

In this episode:

• Why the sheriff's seat is suddenly open, and how the three candidates differ on the posse, Flock cameras, and "constitutional sheriff" politics
• Follow the money: who is raising what, who is self-funding, and the out-of-state donors
• How the retiring sheriff is helping fund both a successor and a commissioner candidate
• The County Commission, District 2 race and the Dallesport data-center split
• The contested PUD race with no forum, and the rest of the ballot
• How and when to vote in the August 4 primary

Resources & links:

• Read the full written round-up at skamaniadispatch.com
• Candidate sites: johnbruceforsheriff.com · tonywarrenforsheriff.com · dwaynematulovich4sheriff.com
• Campaign-finance data: Washington Public Disclosure Commission (pdc.wa.gov)
• Sheriff retirement and the new posse law: OPB
• Watch the League of Women Voters of Klickitat-Skamania sheriff forum on their Facebook and YouTube pages
• Register to vote and check your ballot: klickitatcounty.gov

Stay Connected with the Gorge

The Skamania Dispatch and The Klickitattler are community-led projects of OpenGorge.org.

To stay updated on local news, governance, and community events across the region, you can sign up for both newsletters at SkamaniaDispatch.com. For real-time updates and to join the conversation, follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/OpenGorge.

Bingen City Council had a packed June. The new Hood River-White Salmon Bridge reached sixty-percent design, the city hired an engineer to push its long-awaited railroad Quiet Zone forward, and Olympia's latest housing rules landed on the council's desk. Here's your plain-English guide to what it all means for you.

In This Episode:

• The new bridge at 60%: the roundabout, the overlooks, and the toll-and-TIFIA math
• Quiet Zone: Gray and Osborne hired, the BNSF agreement signed
• Which of the state's new housing rules Bingen has to follow, and why it can't require affordable units
• Free e-bikes coming to Daubenspeck Park, plus new stop signs and a possible 20 mph limit
• TextMyGov emergency text alerts
• An early wildfire season, and lead paint at the Gorge Heritage Museum

Resources & Links:

• Read the full written Dispatch at skamaniadispatch.com
• Bingen City Council agendas and minutes: bingenwashington.org (AgendaCenter)
• Hood River-White Salmon Bridge Authority: hrwsba.gov

Stay Connected with the Gorge

The Skamania Dispatch and The Klickitattler are community-led projects of OpenGorge.org.

To stay updated on local news, governance, and community events across the region, you can sign up for both newsletters at SkamaniaDispatch.com. For real-time updates and to join the conversation, follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/OpenGorge.

Your 2026 primary ballot is about to arrive, and the Skamania County Chamber and both county parties put the contested candidates on one stage in Stevenson to preview it. In this special edition we walk the whole ballot: the nine-way race for Congress in District 3, both 17th District statehouse seats, and the county races for Commissioner, Assessor, and Clerk. Then we follow the money, and it tells a story of two very different elections stacked on one ballot.

In This Episode

• Congressional District 3: a top-two field of nine, and the two themes that dominated (election rules and timber)
• 17th Legislative District: how redistricting reshaped it, plus the mail-in voting split and the state capital gains "millionaire tax"
• County Commissioner District 3: both candidates reject the automatic 1% levy
• County Assessor: a real fight over how your property gets valued
• County Clerk: the friendly race
• Follow the Money: $80,000 statehouse races on top of $0 county races
• Every date you need for the August 4 primary

Resources & Links

• Read the full written edition at SkamaniaDispatch.com
• Check your registration and see your ballot: voter.votewa.gov
• Official state voters' guide (candidate statements): voter.votewa.gov
• Campaign finance filings: Washington Public Disclosure Commission, pdc.wa.gov
• Skamania County candidate Q&A: skamania.org

Stay Connected with the Gorge

The Skamania Dispatch and The Klickitattler are community-led projects of OpenGorge.org.

To stay updated on local news, governance, and community events across the region, you can sign up for both newsletters at SkamaniaDispatch.com. For real-time updates and to join the conversation, follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/OpenGorge.