Story by Rodger Nichols for Gorge Country Media
Klickitat County and the City of The Dalles held a joint meeting yesterday for the first time in decades. The meeting was held in the training hanger at the Columbia Gorge Regional Airport in Dallesport, which is owned and operated jointly by The Dalles and Klickitat County. Klickitat Commissioner Lori Zoeller questioned why in their 2002 joint operating agreement, the airport was listed as “an Oregon airport located in Washington.”
Airport Manager Jeff Renard says that goes back to when the airport was originally established in 1941:
“The Dalles was the nearest community to operate this airport, so it’s federally recognized through the FAA as an Oregon airport in the state of Washington.”
This unique status has allowed the airport to receive funding from both Oregon and Washington as well as through the FAA.
Klickitat County Prosecuting Attorney David Quesnell [kwi NELL] said that from a lawyer’s perspective:
“There is definitely a significant need to re-evaluate the current operating agreement. It has simply strayed pretty far from the letter and the spirit of the operating agreement. We need to make an effort to return to the intent and spirit of the operating agreement and we need to sit down and re-evaluate where we’re going with that.”
Fortunately, as Klickitat Commissioner Lori Zoller said, it would be a fairly easy fix:
“There was just some very small things like when budgets are presented and how they’re functioning debt. Nothing glaring, nothing I felt was bad; just some housekeeping issues.”
In the end, the city and county agreed to set up a joint committee to rewrite the agreement, with a commitment to meet again in 6 months and to meet yearly from here on.
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