Story by Rodger Nichols for Gorge Country Media
Wasco County Commissioners had a busy day of it yesterday. Among the items discusses was a grant received by the District Attorney’s office to help with children who have been abused. District Attorney Kara Davis said there is a test measuring adverse childhood experiences that goes by its acronym ACEs. She shared an unusual scientific finding in regards tot he test.
“The higher your number or score on the ACEs exam, the more impacted your future is. And I mean, we’re talking the more likely you are to have cardiovascular disease, the more likely you are as an adult to have strokes. If you have an ACEs score of, I think it is six or above, you are 400 times more likely to become an intravenous drug user.”
The county planning department reported on the status of the latest proposed solar power project. Senior Planner Daniel Doherty said the company has submitted an application for the project, but the application is far from complete
“At the end of the day, the application materials really don’t directly address land quality impacts that may occur over the facility’s 30-year lifespan. We would like to see the applicant address potential drought. Thirty years is a long time. That’s literally a whole generation. We know we’re going to have droughts. Because they haven’t provided where they’re going to get the water from clearly, we’d like to see them address that.”
And Commissioner Jeff Justeson shared his thoughts about the ongoing restoration work after the Rowena fire.
“One thing I’d heard for years about the Gorge Commission was ‘It’s put in place because we don’t want the Gorge to look like California.’ The fact that we’re helping Rowena build back, my thought was ‘The residents of Rowena don’t want the Gorge to look like California, either. They want it to look like Rowena.’ And this is helping them get back to where they want to be. Not only where they were, but even better.'”
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