The two major issues before the Klickitat County Commission yesterday were thoroughly aired, but not decided. And there’s still time for people to comment. The public hearing
on a franchise agreement with Carriger Solar, LLC and the public meeting on an aggregate resource zone overlay for James Dean Construction were both continued to the next meeting on December 24th. While oral testimony was closed, commissioners left the written record open until Monday. December 23rd at 5 pm.
It was an unusual meeting in that those attending by Zoom were not able to see people in the meeting room, since the video showing the meeting room was down. Without video ID, we were not able to definitively identify the person making this report, which was a nice bit of news for commissioners and the county:
“We just got the letter today stating that we officially been awarded the $2.2 million dollars in additional funding to produce the project down there.”
The project he’s referring to is a major upgrade to facilities at the Columbia Gorge Regional Airport in Dallesport, capped off with the construction of a new hangar that will also serve as teaching space for a whole new aircraft maintenance training program through Columbia Gorge Community College. The project got stalled in delays during Covid, and the construction costs including material prices went beyond the amount of the original grant, and this $2.2 million is intended to cover the cost inflation on this $7.5 million project.
The airport is owned jointly by Klickitat County and the City of The Dalles.