Great news for local businesses – the boats are back. Last night’s city council meeting ended with an announcement after an executive session that an agreement has been reached with American Cruise Lines to lease the city’s docks for five years. Earlier this year, that cruise line, which has five ships on the Columbia, cancelled its intended stops in The Dalles. With a lease agreement approved by the city last night, the company will resume at least 60 cruise stops in The Dalles this year, starting on May 7. They also agreed to pay the city $65,000 per year. They will get first pick of docking dates but will also allow competing cruise lines to dock on dates they don’t need. City Manager Matthew Klebes explained that a similar lease had been negotiated with the Port of Cascade Locks, and the practice is used on other rivers.
In other items, councilors heard a report from the joint city/county climate change resiliency committee. Debbie Ferrer noted how the area was already being affected by climate change:
“I’m sure you all remember when The Dalles hit a state record of 118 degrees two summers ago. You might not realize, though, that the number of days over 100 degrees has been increasing. In 2021 we had 20 such days over 100 degrees. Last year we had 22 such days, compared to generally fewer than 10 such days in most of the past years.”
Coiuncilors will take up the committee’s recommendations at their next meeting on May 8.