Open Gorge: The Skamania Dispatch & Klickitattler

Kate
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Welcome to Open Gorge, your audio bridge to local government, infrastructure, and community news in the Columbia River Gorge. Hosted by the founder of Open Gorge, Kate Bertash, this podcast brings the in-depth, civic-minded reporting of The Skamania Dispatch and The Klickitattler newsletters straight to your headphones. We break down the public meetings you didn't have time to attend, track local infrastructure projects, and decode the regional policy decisions that directly impact your daily life. Whether you are a Columbia Gorge resident commuting across the river, following local elections, or tracking where your tax dollars are going, we provide clear, factual summaries of what’s changing and what’s coming next. Our unified feed covers the entire Gorge. Check the title of each episode to see if we are covering Skamania County, Klickitat County, or regional issues that impact us all. Listen to what matters most to your neighborhood, or stay tuned for the full regional picture. Subscribe to the written newsletters and join the community at SkamaniaDispatch.com.

  1. 10h ago

    [All-Gorge] 🌲 On National Public Lands Day, Stand Up for Public Lands Counties

    National Public Lands Day is September 26. Four days later, the law behind Secure Rural Schools, a critical lifeline for our Public Lands Counties, has been written to run out. A letter from the editor of the Skamania Dispatch on what that deadline means for public lands counties like Skamania, and one phone call anyone who loves public land can make. In This Episode National Public Lands Day and the September 30 Secure Rural Schools deadlineWhat the 2023 lapse cost Skamania County: nineteen cents on the dollarThe Levy Scissors: state tax caps and untaxable federal landThe call to action: ask Congress to renew SRS, then fix it for goodA habit for public-land lovers: look up the countyA permanent fix: a permanent trust for public land countiesResources & Links Read the full written letter, with every source linked, at skamaniadispatch.comFind your U.S. Representative by ZIP codeFind your U.S. Senators by stateThe Levy Scissors seriesHeadwaters Economics: Economic Profile System (look up any county's public land)Headwaters Economics: Endowing Federal Public Land CountiesStay 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.

  2. 1d ago

    [Skamania] ⚖️ The Delena Verdict - Skamania BOCC, PUD, and More - Sept '26

    A reported verdict in the killing of Candice Malave Delena, and why the news was forced to travel by Facebook. Plus the Skamania County Board of Commissioners and Skamania PUD in September: a smaller timber check from DNR, a new PUD commissioner, and a board split over a 2% rate increase. In This Episode The Delena verdict and the news desertDNR's lower 2026 timber forecastThe Roadless Rule: a resident's plea and a board letterFive closed-door personnel sessionsAn outside review of the Sheriff's evidence roomRoad 90 plowing and Drano Lake trafficDev Bell joins the PUD board2% or zero: the PUD's 2027 rate choiceThe Carson water plant, Cape Horn's transformer and a leaky Underwood tankThe PUD's wildfire shutoff policyResources & Links Read the full written Dispatch at SkamaniaDispatch.comRoadless Rule comments, open through October 6Skamania County commissioners' agendas, minutes and audioSkamania PUD agendas and minutesSkamania PUD Wildfire Mitigation PlanSkamania County Council on Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault and Crime Victims: 509-427-4210Stay 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.

  3. 2d ago

    [All-Gorge] 🛬 "Runway": Gorge Commission Reopens the Management Plan - Sept '26

    Sixty people came to a community center in Underwood to say what living inside the National Scenic Area actually costs them. Almost none of it ever becomes a court case. Meanwhile the Gorge Commission has been briefed on the 10-year rewrite of the Gorge Management Plan that could change that story, and the Forest Service says waiting until 2030 would be legal. Here is how the last rewrite worked, and where you get a say. In This Episode A half-inch pipe, a livestock well, and the permit that costs the same as a carwashWhy only four NSA application appeals in four years may not be the reassurance it sounds likeWhy "Gorge 2030" is not a process yet, and what the staff calendar actually recommendsSection 6(g): the clock opened in October 2025 and does not close until 2030What provably changed the words of the 2020 planThe two hearings the law guarantees, and the sixty-day county clock the packet prints as ninetyShe Who Watches, and a request the Chair answered on the spotResources & Links Read the full written Dispatch at skamaniadispatch.com, where every fact in this episode is sourced and linked.Gorge Commission meetings, agendas and recordings: gorgecommission.orgWritten comment: PublicComment@gorgecommission.orgStay 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.

  4. 4d ago

    [Klickitat] ✂️ Between Budget Gaps & Data Centers - Klickitat BOCC 8/19-9/15

    About 150 people, by Columbia Gorge News's count, came to a September 3 workshop to ask the Klickitat County Board of County Commissioners to pause data centers, and the Board took no action. We start on August 11, with the moratorium motion the Goldendale Sentinel reported and the county's own minutes did not, then follow the question through September 15. Plus the 2027 budget gap, and the levy limit running under both. In This Episode August 11: the moratorium motion the Sentinel reported and the minutes left outSeptember 3: a full room, no motions allowed, and three sentences of minutesStaff's best-case 90 days to an ordinance, with or without a pauseKlickitat PUD's Dan Gunkel on siting, studies and who pays for upgradesSeptember 8: "punt, punt, punt," and the case for an ordinance insteadSeptember 15: an October 1 draft target, and a dispute over how the request arrivedThe battery storage pause, extended a fourth time to March 4, 2027The 2027 budget opens $3,752,084 short in the general fundThe levy limit under both, and what it did to the 2025 levyThe RV park rewrite, and 500 to 2,000 workers over ten yearsOn the calendar: September 22, 24 and 28, October 1 and 6, and March 4, 2027Resources & Links Read the full written Dispatch at skamaniadispatch.comKlickitat County Board of County Commissioners: 115 West Court, Room #201, Goldendale, Washington; 509-773-4612; bocc@klickitatcounty.org; Zoom meeting ID 586 587 651The county's Data Center Information page: https://klickitatcounty.gov/1710/Data-Center-InformationGoldendale Sentinel on August 11 (https://www.goldendalesentinel.com/news/animal-shelter-starts-agenda-at-county-meeting/article_c88e4126-3cbc-4f3a-8c6d-03fa459f0e96.html) and on the September 3 workshop (https://www.goldendalesentinel.com/news/residents-urge-county-to-slow-down-on-data-centers/article_488526ae-7f64-4bf2-80be-31240af19757.html)Columbia Gorge News on the September 3 workshop: https://www.columbiagorgenews.com/news/data-center-moratorium-fails-during-klickitat-county-commissioners-meeting-despite-public-support/article_cc7187c4-b33e-4b0f-ae77-663d836b7b85.htmlGorge Country Media on the September 8 meeting: https://gorgenewscenter.com/2026/09/09/9-08-klickitat-county-commissioners-meeting/Our last Klickitat edition, "The County That Didn't Pause Data Centers": https://skamania-dispatch.ghost.io/the-county-that-didnt-pause-data-centers-klickitat-bocc-7-28-to-8-18/Open Gorge's Public Benefit Lab: https://www.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.

  5. Sep 17

    [Skamania] 🖥 The Data Center Moratorium Next Door - Skamania BOCC August '26

    On August 18 the Skamania County Board of Commissioners adopted a moratorium on data center development, first by motion and then as Resolution 2026-22, both unanimous, after eight people at public comment asked for a pause. A week later, Public Works Director David Waymire told the Board the county had received zero applications for a data center. We walk through the two votes, what the Board heard before them, and what Washington law asks of a moratorium adopted before a hearing. In This Episode The data-center moratorium: a motion and Resolution 2026-22 on August 18, both unanimousEight voices for a pause at public comment, and a separate request about the Assessor's OfficeWhat state law requires after a moratorium adopted without a hearing: a public hearing within 60 days, and findings of factThree fires on the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, and emergency management costs and the citiesThe Wind River Trust on stacking small thingsA five-year, $442,800 Motorola Flex subscription for the Sheriff's OfficeTwo new Planning Commissioners, Paul Goins and Billy WenzA failed striping machine, a boat-launch parking map, a new interim health officer and the stream-buffer caseThe Forest Service's roadless rule proposal, and its September 21, 2026 comment deadlineFrom August 11: what the 2027 through 2029 labor agreements and the Northwestern Lake Park letter of understanding sayOn the calendar: October 17, 2026, the 60-day mark; county budget meetings at the end of September 2026; and January 1, 2027Resources & Links Read the full written Dispatch at skamaniadispatch.comSkamania County Board of Commissioners agendas, minutes and meeting audio: https://www.skamaniacounty.gov/departments-offices/commissioners/agendas-minutes-meeting-audioSkamania County Commissioners' resolutions page: https://www.skamaniacounty.gov/departments-offices/commissioners/resolutionsResolution 2026-22, in the county's 2026 resolutions folder: https://www.skamaniacounty.gov/departments-offices/commissioners/resolutions/-folder-807RCW 36.70.795, on moratoria: https://app.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=36.70.795RCW 36.70A.390, the Growth Management Act's version: https://app.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=36.70A.390Columbia Gorge News on the moratorium vote: https://www.columbiagorgenews.com/free_news/skamania-county-board-of-commissioners-pass-data-center-moratorium/article_acfe853d-ed41-41f7-aac2-97fc73ec2c30.htmlGifford Pinchot National Forest fire information: https://www.fs.usda.gov/r06/giffordpinchot/fire/infoWind River Trust: https://windriverwa.org/wind-river-trustClark County Board of Health appoints Dr. Brianna da Silva Bhatia interim health officer: https://clark.wa.gov/public-health/board-health-appoints-dr-brianna-da-silva-bhatia-interim-health-officerCapital Press on the stream-buffer rule being put on hold: https://capitalpress.com/2026/09/04/judge-halts-washington-forest-buffer-rule-for-timberlands/Federal Register, the roadless rule proposal (comment deadline September 21, 2026): https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/08/20/2026-16965/special-areas-roadless-area-conservationJoin a Board meeting (Tuesdays at 9:30 a.m.) on Zoom: https://us04web.zoom.us/j/6276698258, or by phone at 1 346 248 7799, meeting ID 627 669 8258This episode's written report was cross-checked against notes from Columbia Gorge Documenters, powered by Uplift Local, CC BY 4.0: https://upliftlocal.news/columbia-gorge/columbia-gorge-documenters/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.

  6. Sep 15

    [All Gorge] 🔨 Putting the Old Bridge to the Pile-driving Test - HRWSBA August '26

    The Hood River-White Salmon Bridge Authority got its first real look at how the federal government scores its billion dollar grant application, and the news was mixed. Reviewers cut the project's benefit score nearly in half over a single assumption about earthquakes. Meanwhile a price fight over eighteen test piles sent the board behind closed doors, and one unpaid invoice has been sitting at Federal Highways for four hundred forty-eight days. In This Episode Why "Recommended" is good news and also an argumentThe one assumption that cost the project half its benefit scoreWhat a forty-four mile detour has to do with a grant applicationEighteen test piles, one closed session, and a contractor standoffThe project is under budget and behind schedule at the same timeA fight over what color the new bridge should beWhat Kiewit learned at Oregon City that changes the plan hereResources & Links Read the full written Dispatch at skamaniadispatch.comBridge Authority agendas, packets and meeting recordings: hrwsba.gov and hoodriverbridge.orgNext board meeting: Monday, September 14, 2 to 4 p.m., White Salmon and Zoom. Public comment is taken at every regular meeting.Federal Highway Administration, Bridge Investment Program: fhwa.dot.gov/bridge/bipGovernment Accountability Office review of the grant program: files.gao.gov, report GAO-25-107227Stay 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.

  7. Sep 14

    [Klickitat] 🐂 Running of the Bull - Goldendale August '26 Round-up

    Goldendale's quietest month of the year still managed to leave the City Council with a question about its own rulebook that nobody at the table could answer. A resident asked for livestock to be banned from R-1 neighborhoods with no exceptions, and the discussion that followed turned on a 4-H permit the council believed sat outside its ordinance. It doesn't. We read the chapter. In This Episode Why a $285,000 drop in Goldendale's retail sales tax probably isn't about the price of cereal in Hood RiverThe 4-H livestock exception, and where it actually lives in the city codeOne thing in that same chapter that nobody at either meeting raisedTwo old fire command vehicles head to the Trout Lake and Wahkiacus fire districtsThe fire the city's own record never named, and why it won't be reimbursed for itTwo weeks after the ADU code passed, the next housing fight opens on single-wide mobile homesWhat's next: a Tuesday council meeting, an October ordinance, and a November grant decisionResources & Links Read the full written Dispatch at skamaniadispatch.comGoldendale Municipal Code chapter 6.08, livestock, fowl, wild animals and animal traps: https://ecode360.com/47077496#47077608RCW 82.08.0293, Washington's sales-tax exemption for food and food ingredients: https://app.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=82.08.0293Washington State Patrol, state fire mobilization for the Red Sky Fire: https://wsp.wa.gov/state-fire-mobilization-authorized-for-the-red-sky-fire/Washington State Patrol, state fire mobilization for the Lyle Hill 2 Fire: https://wsp.wa.gov/state-fire-mobilization-authorized-for-the-lyle-hill-2-fire/Transportation Improvement Board, 2026 Call for Projects: https://www.tib.wa.gov/tibinfo/NewsItem.cfm?stid=397Goldendale City Council agendas, packets, minutes and meeting video: https://www.ci.goldendale.wa.us/your-government/city-council/agendas-minutesStay 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.

  8. Sep 11

    [Skamania] 🗺 Who Actually Plans the City? - August '26 Stevenson Round-up

    Stevenson's county planner counted the city's apartment-zoned land and reported back that in his opinion Stevenson does not need more of it. The Planning Commission recommended a rezone anyway, then asked to be put to work on a comprehensive plan nobody at City Hall can explain. Ten days later the City Council ended a three-year sewer fight and handed most of its 2027 housing work to Skamania County. In This Episode The Attwell Road rezone, and the build-out study that said the city has 132 parcels already zoned for apartments and 22 of them sitting emptyWhy the commission attached a design overlay the applicant never asked forThe state-mandated planning update Stevenson is already inside, with a comment deadline of September 20 and a December 31 completion dateWhat the new sewer ordinance actually means if you own a working septic systemThe 2027 work plan, and why four of its seven policy projects belong to the countyA failed city administrator search, new settlement authority for the mayor, and engineering standards last revised in 1999The volunteer fire department's recruitment problem, and why the chief calls it demographicStevenson's median home price against the 2020 housing study's own definition of attainableResources & Links Read the full written Dispatch at skamaniadispatch.comComment on the critical areas ordinance before September 20: the draft, the science memo and the flood chapter are all on Skamania County's update page. Comments go to Josh.Neblock@Skamaniacounty.govStevenson agendas, packets and meeting schedule, with meeting recordings at vimeo.com/cityofstevensonThe city's proposed sewer ordinance page, where the signed and numbered version should appearThe January 2020 Skamania County and City of Stevenson Housing Needs Analysis, the study the city's own follow-up work is marked "On Hold"Prior coverage: The Sewer Rewrite Gets Its Escape Hatch, Stevenson July '26 and Parking Reform Comes to Stevenson, June '26Stay 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.

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About

Welcome to Open Gorge, your audio bridge to local government, infrastructure, and community news in the Columbia River Gorge. Hosted by the founder of Open Gorge, Kate Bertash, this podcast brings the in-depth, civic-minded reporting of The Skamania Dispatch and The Klickitattler newsletters straight to your headphones. We break down the public meetings you didn't have time to attend, track local infrastructure projects, and decode the regional policy decisions that directly impact your daily life. Whether you are a Columbia Gorge resident commuting across the river, following local elections, or tracking where your tax dollars are going, we provide clear, factual summaries of what’s changing and what’s coming next. Our unified feed covers the entire Gorge. Check the title of each episode to see if we are covering Skamania County, Klickitat County, or regional issues that impact us all. Listen to what matters most to your neighborhood, or stay tuned for the full regional picture. Subscribe to the written newsletters and join the community at SkamaniaDispatch.com.

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