Union Pacific Railroad’s plan to add roughly four miles of new track near Mosier might not have been controversial several years ago. However, times have changed, primarily due to several derailments involving trains carrying crude oil that exploded and burned and — in one particularly horrific accident in eastern Canada — took the lives of dozens of people.
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., held a private debriefing session Sunday morning with Mosier firefighters about the June 3 oil train derailment in their community. Wyden then held a public meeting that was attended by emergency responders from multiple agencies, government officials, tribal leaders and interested residents.
Exhausted panelists took sharp questions from a standing-room-only crowd at a special Mosier City Council meeting Thursday about the handling of the June 3 oil train derailment.
During the month of January, the Columbia Center for the Arts hosted an art exhibition in the Gallery titled Women of Substance: The Art of Judith Cunningham and Ellen Dittebrandt. The Center pledged their portion of the sales from cards from these two artists to be donated to the Mosier Fire Department, in honor of artist Ellen Dittebrandt’s volunteer work in Mosier.
Ellen Dittebrandt — artist, firefighter and triathlete — died Sunday after she was struck from behind by a vehicle while riding her bicycle on Interstate 84.
