PORTLAND DRIZZLE

🐷Monday: Seventy degrees, nearly no rain in sight, get those flip-flops out. Your Oregon primary ballot is due tomorrow. Drop it off, don't mail it. Portland's top public safety official cleared out his desk today. And the Gorge road you've been missing is back open.

The Historic Columbia River Highway east of Multnomah Falls reopened Friday evening, closing out a two-year project to restore both viaducts on either side of the falls. The East Multnomah Falls Viaduct, which dates to 1914 and is a National Historic Landmark, had been closed since October while crews patched original decorative concrete, reinforced structural supports, and poured a new road surface. About 4,000 vehicles use the stretch daily. If you're heading out to the Gorge this summer: starting May 22, you'll need a timed-use permit to use the I-84 Exit 31 parking lot between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. Get it before you go. KGW

Oregon's primary is tomorrow, and if your ballot is still in the kitchen somewhere, that is the news. Election officials have spent weeks warning voters not to mail it, USPS cuts mean a mailed ballot may not get postmarked by Election Day. Drop it in an official ballot drop box instead; they close at 8 p.m. Tuesday. Find the closest one at multco.us/dropsites. On the ballot: governor (Republican primary between state Rep. Ed Diehl and former Trail Blazer Chris Dudley), congressional seats, Metro Council, and statewide judicial races. Oregon has closed primaries so unaffiliated voters, you'll sit this one out.

Bob Cozziee, the deputy city administrator overseeing Portland's police, fire, 911 and the broader public safety budget, is gone as of today, 11 months into the job. He told KGW he was "a little bit caught off guard." The announcement came down on May 5, while Cozzie was literally presenting the public safety budget to city council. City Administrator Raymond Lee will take over the portfolio while a national search begins. Cozzie walks with $276,000 in severance. That’s about a year's pay. He is the latest in a long run of city hall exits under Mayor Keith Wilson, following the directors of Portland Parks, the Housing Bureau, the Bureau of Emergency Management, and Prosper Portland. KGW

May 18, 1980. Mount St. Helens erupted, killing 57 people and blanketing Portland in ash. The deadliest volcanic event in U.S. history. Forty-six years ago today.

Cozzie's out. The Gorge is open. Your ballot expires tomorrow. Portland keeps moving.

by Michael Simpson Contact: [email protected]