By the
Trout Lake Newswriters
Sandi Thygesen, 395-2318
Terry Scott, 395-2760
Pat Arnold, 395-2233
Bonnie Reynolds, 395-2527
Great coverage on the Fair last week. Here are some last minute bulletins. Potluck hamburgers and hot dogs will be ready on the grill at 5 p.m. Don't forget to bring your potluck contribution. The talent show starts at 6.
The famous Dairy Fair run, the only race anywhere that offers shirts featuring cows, wonderfully done by Marjorie Mitchell, starts at 8 a.m., registration at 7. Lots of age groups, lots of recreational runners, and a one-mile fun run or walk. This year's picture is on the cover of your fair program and not only features cows but many actual Trout Lake buildings. Even if you don't want to run, you'll want a shirt.
Veggie and flower entries can be dropped off before and during the run (on the run, if you must). Bring anything you have -- squash blossoms, or squash, wildflowers, hot house flowers, hats with flowers, green tomatoes, ANYTHING. Blueberries are especially appreciated by the organizer. It would be especially neat to get some native edibles.
There are two fundraisers at the Fair. The Fair board runs raffles for useful and beautiful items, including firewood, gravel, hay, and a locally made quilt. Saturday afternoon the baked goods and veges are auctioned off. This is the Fair's only fundraiser, and there is no entrance fee for the Fair or for any events, so it's an important event for the financial health, and continuing existence, of the Fair.
The Trout Lake Community Foundation also holds a silent auction. Dave Sherburne has donated a fountain, one of his wonderful works, and many other artists and businesses have donated dinners, trips, and arts and crafts. This is a great opportunity to support the Foundation in its fundraising for scholarships for Trout Lake students. The auction will be located in tents outside the gym and will be held between 11 a.m. and 2:45 p.m.
Thirty-four students are five weeks into the summer reading program, which includes individual recognition for those reading at least 100 minutes per week and a chance to decorate Superintendent Dearden's truck if the cumulative total is 20,000 minutes. Without counting every minute, I'd have to say the students have a good start -- at this time they must be at least halfway there, and there are still four weeks to go.
Maybe eight years isn't long enough to start reminiscing, about the Arts Festival, but one thing I remember about the first few years is Joe and Eula Smith running the Volkswalk. They sat patiently in the heat smiling and signing in walkers and dealing with the dogs who inevitably joined the walk somewhere along the route. Joe was such a cheerful presence, just always brought out smiles. Volkswalk is no longer a part of the Festival, but it continues to grow and this year's Festival was the most successful yet. More than 40 artists participated, and sales of art increased substantially over last year. Attendance was good, with many people coming from Portland.
Two weekends ago a car drove in my driveway and asked to see the house. They were Stan Kiles and his sister, Ruth Kiles Fergen, and Erma Pearson Libby. Stan's dad had been superintendent of schools here in the early 1940s. When they moved into the house there was neither electricity nor an indoor bathroom, although electricity arrived while they lived here. Erma, a first cousin to Monte and Orin, thought that the house had been built by her uncle Orin who had been killed in the 1930s in a logging accident. The tree I had to cut in 1994, had 80-plus rings, and I had been told that a Pearson resident of the house had planted those trees.
In any event, my visitors were in town for the Trout Lake School reunion, which was limited to years through 1964, although was not limited to graduates. The earliest class represented was 1929, and people came from all over, including Alaska, Mississippi, Maryland, and North Carolina. The reunions have been held every five years, but the next one may be in three. They served dinner at Elk Meadows to 195 people, and there were others who came earlier but left before dinner. This is quite a crowd, especially given class sizes at Trout Lake, which were pretty much the same then as now. The population here is more transient than it first appears -- the 1997 class graduated fewer than 10, but had included more than 30 students between fifth and twelfth grades.
The Gifford Pinchot National Forest has released a Draft EIS for the "Gotchen Risk Reduction and Restoration Project." Since 1994 nearly 20,000 acres of forest have been defoliated by western spruce budworm, although mortality of trees has been low. This is a knotty problem and I think this is the second Draft EIS that has been issued. Public meetings are scheduled for Thursday, July 31, and Saturday Aug. 9, beginning at 9 a.m. at the ranger station and including a field trip to the area. If you plan to attend, or want further information, please call 395-3390, Bruce Holmson.
Good reading: You can get a free subscription to the Klickitat County Chit Chat, published by the WSU-Klickitat County Cooperative Extension. We are blessed with a wonderful Extension office, and the Chit Chat has many items of interest. Recently, for example, it profiled an organization that offers information on water quality to owners of small wells, and it includes a calendar of meetings and events of interest to rural residents and farmers. Call (509) 773-5817, or visit www.klickitat.wsu.edu
The Community Council will meet on Wednesday, Aug. 6, at 8 p.m. primarily to discuss the Nelson proposal to rezone six-plus acres from ag forest to rural residential.
Energy Overlay Zone. It appears that the long-awaited draft of the Energy Overlay Zone Draft Environmental Impact Statement will be released in early August. The Community Council heard from Don Struck this spring that Trout Lake will not be included in the zone, primarily because the zone is intended to cover two kinds of locations: where the natural gas pipeline that crosses the county intersects with significant electrical transmission lines, such as at Northwestern Lake; and in areas where windmills are likely, primarily in the eastern part of the County. Interested citizens will probably be able to get a copy of the EIS on a CD, or in paper format at a substantial cost.
This hot dry weather makes me nervous about water, which reminds me that the landscaping at the Columbia Gorge Discovery Center is a great place to see native landscaping.
There is an on-going series of meetings about the replacement of the Hood River Bridge, to announce a draft EIS for the remaining four alternatives for the future of the bridge. I believe you can still make comments on this draft, and even if you just want to leave it in the hands of the experts, the literature is interesting. The project manager will make a presentation to neighborhood, civic, or business groups. www.rtc.wa.gov/studies/sr35. I think that last is for State Route 35 in Oregon.
Whew. See you at the vegetable and flower booth this weekend. And don't forget the Klickitat County Fair Aug. 21-24. Pat Arnold
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