Headlines & History since 1879 Goldendale, Washington
WEDNESDAY, MAY 27, 2026
Vol. 147 No. 21
$1.00
Victor Baca for The Sentinel
MEMORIAL DAY: Monday marked ceremonies at three area locations honoring those who fell in combat in service of their country. Top: the honor guard firing a salute at Stonehenge. Above: flags placed at individual grave sites at the Mt. Adams Cemetery in Goldendale. Right: the serenity of early morning at the Centerville Cemetery.
Local teen missing Catherine Couture For The Sentinel Early in the morning of April 24, Chris Viers ran from his home. A few hours later, his father and stepmother, Josh and Sherry Viers, reported him as a runaway to both the Goldendale Police Department and Wasco County police in Oregon. There is an active investigation ongoing in both Wasco and Klickitat counties. Chris Viers is 16. According to Sherry Viers, Chris is a troubled youth with a history of significant mental and other health problems. She says she is worried for Chris’ safety and fears he may be a danger to himself and others. There is speculation that Chris went to the home of his biological mother—who
WHEREABOUTS UNKNOWN: 16-year-old Chris Viers is reported missing.
has no custodial rights—in The Dalles. The Dalles Police Department and the Klickitat County Sheriff’s Office were both contacted for comment but declined because the investigation remains ongoing. To date, Chris’ whereabouts remains unknown. Sherry and Josh say they are worried sick about their son and want nothing more than to bring him home safely. If anyone has any information on Chris’ whereabouts, call (509) 773-4545.
County Health Department facing major money crisis Rodger Nichols For The Sentinel
Klickitat County Commissioners had a busy time of it at their May 19 meeting. In the morning workshop session, chair Ron Ihrig reported on a meeting of the Washington State Association of Counties (WSAC) that involved choosing lobbying priorities for Olympia. He said the group started with 22 proposals submitted from various counties, with the goal of whittling them down to a half-dozen. After much discussion, he said, the group decided to adopt four that applied to all counties, plus one from an urban county
and one from a rural county. The four all-county proposals included one that would correct a Department of Revenue tax miscalculation that cost counties a total of $110 million, $2 million of that for Klickitat County. Ihrig had submitted one of the rural counties’ proposals. Currently, the state mandates that counties collect sales tax on wind and solar projects, then rebate it, at a cost to the counties of millions of dollars of lost revenue. He said a number of counties were concerned that EFSEC was pushing through projects against local opposition and spoke in favor of Klickitat Coun-
See County page B1
Cushman & Wakefield
WHAT IT WOULD LOOK LIKE: A detailed representation of a proposed data center near Dallesport was viewable on the Cushman & Wakefield website just a week ago. It has since been taken down.
Data center proposed for a Dallesport site Lorrie Fox For The Sentinel Dallesport, a community of roughly 1,600 residents on the Washington side of the Columbia River north of The Dalles, Oregon, still feels like small-town America. Drivers rarely pass another car. Cows graze the rolling hillsides. Homes and a few orchards dot the landscape, and a small airport sits just above the river. However, the rural community has seen change before, and recently news of a potential large-scale data center on privately owned farmland has quietly emerged. Public records obtained by The Sentinel from the Klickitat County Public Utility District (KPUD) indicate early-stage feasibility studies are underway for a proposed data center project in Dallesport, with some movement on it projected for as early as this
December. The proposed 345.96acre site is located near the intersection of Highway 14 and State Route 142 on land owned by Webster Orchards, the Williams Ranch. Mike DeMott, KPUD director of finance and power management, explained the utility’s role in the study process via email. “At this stage, KPUD has submitted Line Load and Interconnection Request (LLIR) forms to Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), which allows BPA to begin studies related to the requested project,” DeMott said. “KPUD is the BPA customer, and our role is to submit requests to BPA on behalf of the projects at these early stages.” Public records also detailed supporting electrical infrastructure proposed to meet the data center project’s significant power demand. An LLIR Project One-Line
summarizes the request: “We are offering to connect directly to Big Eddy at 500 kW or 230 kV or construct a new 230 kV substation near the southwest corner of our property on the existing Big Eddy–Chenoweth 230 kV line, based on KPUD/BPA’s recommendation. Our initial data center load is expected to be 300–350 MW, with additional expansion.” (The site referenced is 1.65 acres owned by KPUD north of Lyle on Substation Road, within roughly four miles of BPA’s Big Eddy Substation.) The projects are currently in BPA’s feasibility study phase. “After this study phase is completed and if the project seeks to continue forward, the next study phase could take multiple years to complete,” DeMott said. KPUD does not currently plan to issue a public statement regarding the proposal. “As these
See Data page B1