Yesteryears: Golden Eagle Park approved in 1979

The members of the county court, together with Roadmaster Nichols, made a trip out to the Devil’s Punch Bowl last Wednesday to inspect the bridge across the west fork of the Hood river, reported by residents of Dee to be in an unsafe condition, as mentioned in these columns. The members of the court went out to the Mount Hood Railroad as far as Holstein station, where they were met with autos and taken to the bridge by W.R. Winans, R.A. Collins and W.F. Shannon.

 

The road leading to the bridge is not a county road and the bridge is not a county structure. It is used extensively, however, by visitors to the punch bowl and, while the county court did not believe in the county taking over the road and the bridge, members took a broad view of the situation and agreed the county would donate $100 towards the repairing of the bridge.

 

 

 

Tomorrow afternoon, the Rialto Theater is having the first real Easter egg hunt held in Hood River for some time. All the children from the surrounding communities and those from town will be invited to gather in front of the theater and wait for the starter’s whistle. They will then follow a route laid out for them and marked with arrows until they come to the grounds where the eggs are hidden, where they will be turned loose to hunt for the eggs. Later, they will have ice cream and cake, and games will be played.

 

 

Turfing of the Hood River High School football field will be begun on April 3, according to word received by city school officials this week from H.R. Landfare, district WPA supervisor who maintains headquarters at The Dalles.
Hopes are still high that the turf may be completed in time to allow games on it this fall, but the work must be rushed if this is to be done. The plan of turfing the field was originally started by the Hood River Breakfast Club. The organization, during the past three years, has raised approximately $500 toward that end. The bulk of the remainder of the cost will be carried by the WPA.

 

 

Service was restored Tuesday morning of this week on the main underground Columbia Gorge telephone cable, which was severed by a privately-owned bulldozer Monday afternoon. Press, emergency lines and circuits serving four radio networks were re-routed.

 

Some 484 long-distance lines and 200 telegraph lines were out of commission on Monday, however. Emergency cable splicing crews were rushed to the scene. They found five feet of cable ruptured and cable damaged on either side of the break.

 

 

“At first, a lot of people, especially the businessmen, were ready to throw in the towel. But now they’ve taken stock of this thing — and most of them figure we can make a go of it.” This, from a Cascade Locks businessman, pretty well sums up the attitude of a town about to be bypassed by its main link to economic health — US Highway 30.

 

The highway relocation problem that haunts every small community has been hanging over Hood River County’s western outpost since the new federal road program was first announced five years ago. Now, with the plans set, the people of Cascade Locks are beginning the organization efforts they believed necessary to preserve their community and ensure its growth.

 

 

It will be all or nothing for a proposed street and road renumbering plan, as far as the Hood River City Council is concerned. Council members voted Tuesday to favor the so-called grid plan. But they voted against cooperating to implement it in the city and on the west side alone. Effect of the council action was to deal a major setback in the County Planning Commission’s scheme for changing street and road names into a pattern of alphabetical and numerical progression in two selected areas (the city and west side). The same plan was proposed some years ago for the whole valley. It was voted down in 1966.

 

 

Golden Eagle Park near Hood River Valley High School has received the approval needed from state and local agencies and Superintendent Frank Lariza has outlined for the district what its contribution will be, translated in some cases from service to dollars. A guard rail will be donated by the school district, valued at $800.

 

There will be 34 utility poles with a donated value of $450 from power companies, and clearing will cost about $795 and be performed by students. Plants and picnic tables add to the school district contribution.

 

 

Construction work at Down Manor continues this week in preparation for a “sneak preview” coming up during Blossom Festival, April 15-16.
The new retirement center is located at 3260 Brookside Drive, adjacent to the Hood River Sports Club.

 

Next year will bring added heavy truck volume to I-84, following a decision last week by the greater Portland area’s Metropolitan Service District to award a trucking contract for solid waste transportation. Trucks will roll between Oregon City and Arlington, where Metro contracts with Oregon Waste Management.

 

 

The purchase of hood River Memorial Hospital by Providence Health System may include changes for the hospital’s independent foundation.

 

A draft proposal calls for greater interaction between the hospital and the foundation, with the HRMH administrator taking on a larger role in the organization’s affairs. Like the hospital, the foundation will add “Providence” to its name.

 

 

There’s a big change at the 13th and May intersection: No left turn — northbound — from May Street onto 13th. A crew from Oregon Department of Transportation made the changes Friday. Traffic on May Street can go straight or turn right, and the northbound “free right turn” is still in effect. Pedestrians now have a triangular “refuge” between the north and south lanes, courtesy of 6-inch concrete domes intended to impede cars turning left from May.
As part of the change, the north crosswalk was removed.