The Skamania Dispatch

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Latest — 15 Sep 2026

🔨 Putting the Old Bridge to the Pile-driving Test - HRWSBA August '26

Federal reviewers cut the bridge project's benefit score nearly in half, and the Authority filed its answer on September 4. Meanwhile a price fight over 18 test piles sent the board into a closed session, and a $404,548 invoice has sat at Federal Highways for 448 days.

More issues

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

Goldendale's retail sales tax came in $285,000 under last year, and the council talked out where the money went. It gave two old fire rigs to up-county districts, and heard a resident ask it to keep livestock out of R1.

🗺 Who Actually Plans Stevenson? - August '26 Round-up

Stevenson ended a three-year sewer fight on a quiet voice vote, then hit a harder question. The county planner's study says the city does not need more apartment-zoned land. The Planning Commission recommended more anyway, and Council handed its 2027 housing work to the county.

🎨 A Door Through the Mural - Bingen August '26 Round-Up

Bingen's city attorney is leaving for two judgeships, the city filed a breach-of-contract complaint over a door cut through a community mural, and after four months the flood ledger is closing for some businesses and not others.

🧾 A City w/o an Operator & Council w/o a Contract - North Bonneville August '26

North Bonneville lost its only certified water operator with a day's notice, declared an emergency, and hired a contractor. Then the first bill arrived: $14,200 for two weeks. The council spent August trying to get its hands back on a decision it never voted on.

🥬 Dollar Store Showdown - White Salmon August '26 Round-Up

White Salmon spent August lining up its biggest decisions without making them. Council pulled its dollar store moratorium before anyone spoke, the Tree Board valued one big oak at about $7,000 instead of $1,000, and a storm ratification exposed a shortfall of at least $998,500.

🧭 "One of the Two Purposes": A Dispute Inside the Gorge Commission - August 2026

The Secretary of Agriculture signed off. The Gorge Commission's post-fire rebuilding rules take effect around October 1. Plus: a vineyard warning about prescribed fire, and commissioners arguing over whether the agency has forgotten half its job.

🔌 The Utility We Create: A Field Guide to Skamania PUD

You own a piece of Skamania PUD, and this year it made decisions that touch your bill, your property and the county's tax base. Here is what it actually controls, what it doesn't, and why Underwood is closed to new business while Carson has room to spare.

🖥 The County That Didn't Pause Data Centers - Klickitat BOCC 7/28 to 8/18

Yakima, Spokane and Skamania all hit pause on data centers this month. Klickitat took up a moratorium request and chose something else. Plus: the county's land use map still dates to 1979, a mental health program that can't open for want of one hire, and $380,000 gone from public health.

✨🧁 A Spider Called Sparkle Muffin - Skamania BOCC, PUD, & Weed Board 7/28 - 8/4

The PUD froze new commercial water hookups in Underwood, and its own paperwork gives three different answers about when they resume. Plus: a Title III pot $74,000 short, timber money that runs out after 2030, and an emergency stockpile the state says cannot be used.