Here is a Tri-City Herald article on the Tri-City economy. We need not listen to the national news, and just keep on living. We are in a good place in Kennewick, also Richland, Pasco and W-Richland. The rest of the outlying area is coming along for the ride.
http://www.tri-cityherald.com/2010/05/03/1000321/economy-tri-city-cost-of-living.html
Connect to Canyon Lakes on right hand side of this blog (Canyon Lakes Home Owner Association) read the latest newsletter and Board of Directors meeting.
Canyon Lakes in Kennewick is doing better in Real Estate Sales, after a long sleep. The market has been very slow, and still is but improving.
Armed Forces Day is being celebrated in the Tri-Cities Saturday May 15th with a BBQ event at the Community of Christ Church in Richland, at the corner of Swift & Long. Veterans and their families are being honored as well as the members of local troop support group, Washington Operation Thank You, starting at 11:00am. The barbeque and silent auction proceeds will be donated to Washington Operation Thank You for their continued efforts in sending care packages to our troops. Call 845-2009 for more information.
The City of West Richland Animal Shelter will be hosting a “Yappy Hour” event on May 13th from 5pm – 7pm at the Sandberg Event Center. Owners and their dogs (on a leash please) can attend the gathering, with the admission costing only puppy, kitten or dog /cat food (canned or dry). People beverages & snacks will be available for purchase as well as special dog treats from 4 Paws Bakery. For more information call (509) 430-3920.
4000+ students from Tri-City elementary and middle schools gathered in Columbia Park to wish a fond farewell to the salmon fingerlings they have watched grow in their classrooms for the past 3 months. The 10th Annual Salmon Summit was held at Columbia Park in Kennewick on May 4th near the blue bridge. Throughout the period when the students were watching the fish, they learned about the stages of life for the salmon and about what the name “salmon” means, which is “jumping fish’. Each of the past 10 years the Benton and Franklin Conservation Districts have established this release event, with students putting the fish into small cups and then releasing them into the waters of the mighty Columbia River. It will be approximately 4 years before the salmon return to this area after their long and arduous trip down the river to the ocean.
A subcontract of nearly $7 million was awarded to a team of 2 Tri City companies for the design and build phases for support buildings out at the Handford Site. Richland’s Fowler General Construction and Kennewick’s ELR Consulting joined forces to become ELRFowler and won the contract with Washington Closure Hanford. Their work will be performed at the Hanford landfill for low level radioactive waste. ELRFowler is in the design phase of the buldings and construction will begin sometime this summer. Congratulations ELRFowler – way to keep it local!!
On Tuesday a $500,000 boost came to the Hanford Reach Interpretive Center from the state supplemental budget. This funding came from the Heritage Capital Projects Fund, a program run by the state Historical Society. The Richland Public Facilities District, who is the public agency overlooking the construction of the Center found that another agency had withdrawn its request for funding and decided to request the legislature to redistribute the money to the Reach project.
The Center is a proposed 61,000 square-foot interpretive center which will tell the story of the Hanford Reach National Monument and the surrounding plants and wildlife, geology and historyof the region. The location for the Center has been in flux from the start after objections from area tribes. However, a proposal to place the building at the west end of Columbia Park is under consideration by both the Kennewick and Richland city councils, as they work on the master plan for Columbia Park as a whole.
The Tri-Cities has been so fortunate to have escaped the housing bust throughout the nation, however, the large price jump for lumber is something we can’t avoid. The rising lumber costs equates to rising costs for builders and thus, rising housing costs. Lumber prices have doubled and then quadrupled over the last year which has been a shock for builders and contractors. With the lowering of production comes laying off of employers and eventually the closing of mills. As the housing market returns production is having a tough time keeping up.
All of this means higher home prices for buyers, at least for awhile. The local Home Builders Association believes that mid-summer the lumber prices will drop again which in turn should drop the home prices. There is, however, a gamble in waiting for the right home because if you wait for the lumber costs to go down, you might face higher interest rates as they slowly climb upward.
One of our Agents had the need to contact the Tri City Herald subscriber services department recently, and was surprised to learn that the Tri City Herald is now outsourcing their customer service to people in the Phillipines!!! So if your paper is late and you need someone to bring it to you – you must first make a call to the Phillipines and the information will be routed to the Herald. What is wrong with this picture?
Has the Herald forgotten about all the local vendors and subscribers they serve? Their constant push for more advertising dollars from local vendors seems more than a little tainted when we find that some of those dollars are being spent across the globe instead of right here at home in the Tri-Cities. They also outsource their renewal services call to several places across the country, as one of our secretaries experienced over the course of more than a year.
There is something very wrong here for a local newspaper to profess it’s commitment to the community, yet won’t provide jobs to local folks who can obviously do the job – because they have in the past. Somebody needs to explain this to us!