Anne Kanter 

Good news! The HPCC’s capital budget grant request has been approved! Through the capital budget, Washington funds public-construction projects like school building, correctional facilities and infrastructure to support economic development and jobs. State Representatives can sponsor capital funding requests for local community projects that do not fit easily into the state’s existing grant and loan programs. Our Representative, Gina Mosbrucker, sponsored this year’s HPCC capital budget grant request (THANK YOU, GINA!). When the Washington legislature approved the state’s 2023-25 capital budget on April 22, included in it was funding for several HPCC and Fire District projects. 

The HPCC Board had applied to the State of Washington for a grant previously, and been disappointed. This time, in order to maximize our chances of having our request approved, we decided to make a few changes to how we applied. 

The most significant change to our grant request was the amount, which we scaled down drastically from more than $800,000 to a little less than $250,000. Upon consideration of the most important things HPCC and HPFD wanted to accomplish we decided we ought to be able to meet our goals within the smaller budget. We wouldn’t be completely remodeling the Community Center kitchen or adding a finished outdoor gathering space, but we could (hopefully) complete the items we had identified as being the most important from a public safety and public service standpoint. Additionally, any grant amount in excess of $250,000 would require a bond; we all agreed we preferred to avoid that. 

The other significant change to our grant request was how we characterized our goals for the grant money to the State. Everything we want to accomplish is geared towards public safety and public service: outfitting the HPFD with fire-proof cabinets, having a generator installed as back-up should the power go out, commercial washer and dryer for the HPFD, installing outdoor lights, upgrading the building’s electrical and HVAC systems so the building can be used as a warming/cooling shelter for the community during extreme weather events, and replacing the kitchen’s commercial range and dishwasher so that, should the building be activated in the event of an emergency, food preparation and clean-up would be much easier and more efficient than the current kitchen allows. If you’re interested, there’s a copy of the grant application at the Community Center, or ask Chris Sattem. 

The bylaws of the HPCC state that our objectives are,“to promote the health, safety, education, development and preservation of the High Prairie neighborhood…” and the HPCC specifically geared this grant request to help us continue to achieve those ends. It’s an exciting time! Now that our grant has been approved, the hard work begins of getting bids, planning the work, and executing those plans in the most effective and efficient way possible. 

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Erin Hartford 

Bingo Night returned to the High Prairie Community Center on Thursday, April 13. What an awesome kickoff night for our High Prairie Bingo event! It was a great turnout! It was a full house – around 45 to 50 people. Great friends, food and fellowship. Thanks to everyone who helped and all who came out to support! We had a truly successful evening. Hooray for our community!!! 

By the time you read this, we’ll have had a second wonderful bingo night, on Thursday, May 11. Be sure to join us for the next one on Thursday, June 8, at 6pm. The meal itself will be worth it. In April, we had ham, scalloped potatoes, and salad. May’s bingo night offered a loaded baked potato bar and ice cream sundaes. The June meal is still TBD, but it’s guaranteed to be delicious. Cost is $10 per meal. 

All proceeds from this recurring event support District 14 firefighters. Let us know if you are available to help with this event as many hands make light work. Volunteers are needed to help in the kitchen and with clean up. This is an awesome way to have some fun, meet your neighbors, and support community efforts. 

Come and join us! Second Thursday of each month, April through November 

10 games with increasing prizes 

1 set of boards (1 for each game) $6 

3 sets of boards (1 for each game) $10 

6 sets of boards (1 for each game) $15

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Tom McMackin / Chief Sarah Hancock

The High Prairie Community Council and other members of the com-munity coordinated their efforts to revive the tradition of presenting a Firefighters’ Appreciation Dinner for High Prairie’s Fire District volunteers and their families, invited guests from Lyle Fire, and High Prairie commu-nity members. This celebration had been canceled in 2020 by the onset of the COVID pandemic.
The dinner was held at the High Prairie Community Center on Satur-day, April 22. The Community Center and all the tables were beautifully decorated. A slide show played in the background, with photographs of Fire District 14 members and events over the years. An excellent lasagna dinner, catered by Beniventi’s, was served to the enjoyment of all. It was topped off by a self-serve (and non-judgmental) dessert buffet. It was delightful! In all, 75 dinners were served. Thank you to all those involved in organizing, decorating and preparing the meal in appreciation of High Prairie Fire’s volunteers.
Acknowledgments of service were presented at the conclusion of the dinner. (Photos on the right.) Chief Hancock used this opportunity to introduce herself to the attending members of the community. She presented each Fire District volunteer to the community members in at-tendance with her very personal commentary on each one. Fire Com-missioner and Fire Captain Philip Haner presented Chief Tim Darland with a handsome fire department plaque honoring and highlighting his almost 8 years of dedicated service as KCFPD #14’s Fire Chief. KCFD #14s Firefighter ot the Year Award went to Ron McDonald; Brenda Edin & Chris Roper were selected together as KCFPD #14’s Rookies of the Year; James Day was presented KCFPD #14’s Humanitarian Award for service to members of the community; Tom McMackin received KCFPD #14’s Fire Officer of the Year Award; and Dave Thom was cho-sen for the KCFPD #14 Mentor of the Year Award. New department T-shirts and an honor challenge coin memento were also issued to each firefighter in attendance. Administrative Assistant Glenna Scott was unable to attend, but will be acknowledged for her service to the department at the next Fire Commissioners Meeting on May 16, 2023.
All three High Prairie Fire Commissioners were in attendance: An-thony Perry, Philip Haner, and James Amery. Other guests included Lyle Fire Commissioner Kris Joy, Lyle Firefighter Elisha Neipp, and Lyle EMT Glenda Lovejoy. And, last but not least, there was a sizable crowd of community members, friends, and family members — the Fire District’s most important supporters.
As a special treat at the end of the evening, HPCC President Sharon Aleckson announced that the HPCC has been awarded a $248,000 grant to improve our community center for emergency shel-ter purposes. These improvements will include a permanent generator, an improved kitchen, air conditioning, and an extractor to clean our structure turnouts. Read more about the grant on page 1.

Clip/tap images to view enlargement

First image: from L to R: Philip Haner, Tom McMackin, Brenda Edin, Ron McDonald,, Chief Sarah Hancock, James Day, Chris Roper, Tim Darland, Samuel holman, James Amery.

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Barb Parrish

Sometime last year, I had an idea to put a “Little Library” at the old firehall (704 Centerville Hwy). Fire Chief Tim Darland approved the site, so the idea was off to a good start. Megan McCamy took the plans to her husband, David, who is a cabinet maker, and in a very short time he had the library built, using heavy ma-rine grade plywood. Jessie Schneider put a coat of var-nish on it, Arlen Aleckson put a metal roof on, Barb Parrish contacted “call before you dig” to see that no utilities were in the way, and Ben Parrish put it on a metal pole, dug the hole and put it in place using 2 bags of ce-ment. A new neighbor, Paul Radke, was driving by, stopped, and helped lift it into the hole and level it. Voilà! Thanks to everyone who helped, the new Little Library is ready for use.

The community is invited to stop by and
“TAKE A BOOK, LEAVE A BOOK”

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Josh Harrison 

The High Prairie Farmers Market is up and running! The market will be open from 10am to 4pm on the 1st and 3rd Friday of every month, May through September. It’s located at the High Prairie Community Center at 701 Struck Road. Our opening day was May 5th; the next market day will be May 19th. Here are our vendors so far: 

1) The Hillbilly Farm (Christopher Kroeskop) (https://www.facebook.com/Thehillbillyfarm) selling baked goods, jams, syrups, eggs, veggies, melons, tomatoes, plants & herbs 

2) Upon High Prairie (Terry Harmon) selling homemade baked goods, bread, cookies, pickled eggs, crafts, flower pots, homemade designs & towels 

3) Patrick’s Eggs (Patrick Hartford) selling farm fresh eggs and maybe garden veggies later in the season. 

4) Homestead Wellness (Joshua Harrison) https://www.etsy. com/shop/HomesteadWellness?ref=profile_header selling ice cream, kombucha, coffee, eggs, jams, pie filling, canned juice, homeopathic remedies, jewelry, pottery, and his artwork. 

5) Bobby Koffler selling handmade hats, sweaters and other crocheted items. 

We have two more 10×10 indoor spaces available for May 19th. Spaces are filling fast! If you’d like to be a vendor, call/text Josh at (509) 281-0971.

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Bill Weiler 

Thanks to the mighty efforts of Joy Markgraf, her tenth “Wild About Nature” series recently returned to White Salmon. These fascinating natural history talks were held on the four Fridays in April and the first Friday in May. Each evening featured two speakers. The first Friday’s (outstanding) presentations this year focused on western pond turtles and the Pacific fisher, both now found in the Columbia River Gorge. These were inspiring and hopeful wildlife talks. 

Even just 25 years ago, the last stronghold for northwestern pond turtles in Washington State was a handful of ponds near Lyle, WA. Now there are six populations with growing numbers, including two sites in the Puget Sound region. The turtle population has grown from 150 individuals to more than 800. 

The Pacific fisher was actually extinct in Washington; but through successful releases in three locales including just north of the Columbia Gorge, the porcupine-eating, forest dwelling carnivore has returned. 

I took my grandson Allen to the event, and it was simply fun greeting, meeting, and catching up with many familiar faces. Allen noticed my conversing and asked me whether I knew everyone there. Great question, and I replied, “It feels that way.” And it did. 

The mood at the multi-generational meeting was utterly relaxed, positive, and represented an outpouring of common purpose, intellectual curiosity, and even detachment. Of course, there were initial “technical difficulties” with the power point system, but no one seemed to mind the delay. The wall-based projection screen fell down, and many rushed in to ensure the safety of the person, who ended up being fine. 

It was the combination of education and social engagement that made the night so special. There was plenty of time before the first presentation, and between the first and second talk, to view artwork and just be relaxed in conversations that were not political or divisive, but instead, endearing and light. 

Besides learning about the fascinating biological traits of pond turtles and fishers, what moved me was the incredible number of people who work tirelessly on behalf of these wild animals: A large team of utterly dedicated people spend most spring and summer days removing the main threat to pond turtles…bullfrogs. They have been amazingly successful after their multi-year efforts. Biologists track the turtles using radio telemetry, and veterinarians from universities across the country are trying to figure out the cause and cure of turtle shell disease. The Oregon and Washington Park Zoos, and prisons involved in the Sustainability Project, take in baby turtles through a head start program and raise them until they are large enough not to be consumed by the bullfrogs. 

With fishers, I tip my hat to the scientists in subzero temperatures tracking the movements and behaviors of these endangered mammals, and to the non-profit organizations, Tribal Interests, federal and state agencies in Canada and the US who respectively raised funds, lent their support, and actually conducted the live trapping to return an important ecological piece back to Washington State. 

There were approximately 80 folks who attended the April 7 Wild About Nature program, yet many more are directly involved in ensuring a bright future for two of Washington’s wild creatures. Wild About Nature is about community and conservation. 

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Lori Sweeney 

“I don’t have false teeth. Do you think I’d buy teeth like these?” 

~Carol Burnett 

The pearly whites. At my age, like Carol, I’m glad to still have them, given what I’ve invested in their maintenance. Yet, of late, I seem to be finding more and more stuff stuck in my teeth. It’s like those ridiculous bugs dying by the thousands in our windowsills: embarrassingly evident. Who hasn’t had a piece of lettuce from lunch that is still stuck up there between your gum and lip, or, worse, in between your teeth? Stuck fast like the squirrel that got caught in our empty cylinder of a bird feeder. Flailing to get out. (We have a picture of this – the squirrel, not the lettuce.) 

And hey, I floss. I am one of those who was shocked into flossing in my 20s by a fiery dentist who threatened that I would lose all my beautifully straight teeth. He was cute and fiery, so I became a BELIEVER right then and there. I even perfected a technique of subtly asking my dates if they flossed or not; I would not kiss them goodnight if they didn’t have good dental hygiene. This may be one reason I didn’t marry until I was 36. 

But it was an important question to ask. Gums count. 

Growing up, I could not understand the proliferation of toothpicks in restaurants like Denny’s. And then recently I had a Chinese chicken salad with sesame seeds. Evidently those seeds lodged in my pearlies right across the front, like ebony on ivory. And I didn’t know it. Went through the whole day and not a person said a word (what is with that? hello! take the plunge and whisper “honey, you have something the size of Gibraltar in your teeth and, and you need to swish and swallow”). Geez, now I carry toothpicks AND a floss card and yes, I take an immediate gander in the rear view mirror the minute I get in the car, like everybody else over 60. 

THEN, I began to wonder about whitening. Talk about does she or doesn’t she. But unlike with my gray hair, I decided to go first class. Thanks to the influence of another cute dentist, I had trays made and fill them with some goop every quarter and wear them around like night cream, talking with what I imagine is a pretty sexy lisp, sort of like Lauren Hutton. I do this religiously every quarter, right after getting my 401(k) statement. Whiter teeth and good retirement savings, that’s my motto. 

Because of these good habits, we are all going to have our teeth longer. That’s the good news. The bad news is that there is going to be a shortage of dentists to take care of all these teeth we own. You think social security is a problem. Try finding a dentist when we’re 85. 

I tell you it’s enough to make one think about skipping the flossing while camping, but then I think, with my high standards, what if I also need a date when I’m 85? 

Lori Sweeney is a new full-time resident to High Prairie and will be the first to tell you if you have something in your teeth.

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Chris Sokol 

I have been working on repopulating some of the open grasslands that may have once been grazed with Balsamroot seed collected and sorted after blooming. These plants do not take well to transplanting because of their long tap root and do best direct-seeded into the ground ½ inch deep in full sun and well-drained soil. I sow thickly, and germination rates are still generally low. I plant the seeds and mark the area with small red popsicle sticks to check for propagation Some plants have a lifespan to between 40-80 years old. As I am working hard to cultivate them, I do not personally forage them. 

Below: Stages of Balsamroot Growth

Click/tap image to for an enlarged view

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High Prairie Wildflowers, Photos by Gwen Berry

Click/tap for an enlarged view

Row 1 (L–R); Apple Blossom, Arrowleaf Balsamroot, Ballhead Waterleaf, Cluster Lily
Row 2: Hounds Tongue, Larkspur 1, Larkspur 2, Barestem Biscuitroot
Row 3: Desert Parsley, Lupine, Oregon Grape, Woodland Star
Row 4: Yellow Violets

Mt. Hood over Canola Fields Photos by Jason Eatwell