Tri-City Area and Real Estate Blog

Hundreds of farmers and agribusiness professionals were drawn to the TRAC in Pasco for the Real Ag 2010 Show running today and tomorrow. With information and vendor booths, and tons of heavy equipment, the TRAC was booming with networking, window shopping and seminars providing ongoing education.

Ag experts were on hand to talk with farmers about new ideas and significant changes in today’s equipment. Many seasoned farmers were on hand to reflect upon the changes in farming from the horse drawn days to new 300-hp tractors.

Agriculture/agribusiness in the Tri Cities, and throughout Benton and Franklin counties are a mainstay of our economy and job growth. The fields have evolved and bring steady employment and diversity to our region.

• The Chamber of Commerce of West Richland is accepting nominations for its Outstanding Citizen of the Year award, which will be held January 22nd. Nominees should be be a Chamber member or work or live in the West Richland area. Call 967-0521 for more information.

• January 27 is the date for the 11th annual TRIDEC Regional Economic Outlook conference at TRAC in Pasco. The conference consists of business leaders and government officials. Call 735-1000 for details.

• $37 million was awarded to Tri City small businesses over 2009 through Washington River Protection Solutions, the Hanford Tank Operations contractor. Businesses in Benton, Franklin and Yakima counties benefited.

• A $500,000 donation to the Tri Cities WSU branch and Columbia Basin College to support local higher education, was recently made by Washington River Protection Solutions, the Hanford Tank Operations contractor, with the majority of the funding to go into science, technology and engineering programs at both facilities.

Again this year, the Tri-Cities Children’s Hospital Guild is presenting there wonderful Christmas Home Tour on Decemeber 5, 2009.

You can visit 7 beautifully decorated holiday homes, with all proceeds benefiting children from Benton and Franklin counties through the Children’s Hospital & Regional Medical Center’s uncompensated care program.

Tickets can be purchase at Beaver Bark in Richland; HL2 Accents in Pasco; Gadgets & Goodies in Kennewick, and Sister to Sister in Prosser, at a cost of $15.00.  For more information visit: www.tcchguilds.org

Benton City: A local winery is celebrating its 10th anniversary with a weekend of celebrations August 28-29.

Canon del Sol Winery, owned by winemaker Victor Cruz, will have a dinner Friday evening, which is sold out, and a party Saturday for 300 guests.

Tickets are $40 per person for the event, which will feature food catered by Aphonzo Villa Taco Wagon, music by Curtis Nettles and a pinata filled with corks offering discounts on wines.

Source: Tri-City Herald

Source: Benton REA – Ruralite August 2009 

10 ways you can be part of the solution

Here are 10 no-cost or low-cost strategies to help you to reduce your carbon footprint, conserve electricity and save money:

• Wash watch. Approximately 90 percent of the energy used to wash clothes is for heating water, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Reduce that cost b using less water and washing with cooler temperatures. The same goes for showers and baths.
• Reduce hot water waste. Hot water accounts for 13 percent to 17 percent of a family’s annual energy use. Setting the water heater thermostat to 120 degrees, and installing low-flow faucets and shower heads can cut water heating costs.
• Air dry dishes. Instead of using your dishwasher’s drying cycle, let your dishes dry naturally.
• Unplug unused or underused appliances and electronics. that includes the old pop and beer refrigerator in the garage, as well as battery chargers, shredders and other electronics that constantly consume energy in standby mode.
• Make conservation a habit. Turn off computers, monitors, televisions and lights every time you leave the room for more than a few minutes.
• Take control of your thermostat. Heating and cooling account for the majority of energy use in the average American home. Even a temperature change of 1 degree can add up to significant annual savings, reduce the setting to as low as you are comfortable in the winter and as high as comfortable in the summer. Also, programmable thermostats can help save as much as 10 percent a year on heating and cooling costs by simply adjusting temperature settings while you sleep.
• Clean or replace filters. A dirty filters airflow and can increase a system’s power consumption by 10 percent or more, Change filters once a month during peak heating and cooling seasons.
• Seal heating ducts. A heating system can lose up to 60 percent of its heated air – either through heat loss or leaks–before it reaches the registers if ducts are not sealed and insulated.
• Plus cracks and holes. Perhaps the quickest dollar-saving tasks you can tackle yourself are caulking, sealing and weatherstripping all seams, cracks and openings to the outside.
• Switch to CFLs. Compact fluorescent lights are 70 percent more efficient than incandescent lights. CFLs cost more, but they can quickly recoup the extra expense due to their high efficiency and long life. Get an even faster rate of return on a CFL investment by using them in light fixtures that are on for longer periods of time.

Sources: US Department of Energy; National Rural Electric Cooperative Association; Energy Star.

Federal stimulus money and a warm spring helped the Tri-Cities show some job growth at a time when other Washington communities are losing jobs.

Since May 2008, the Tri-Cities has gained 500 jobs in professional and business services, education and health services, leisure, hospitality and food services, said regional labor economist Dean Schau.

And since April, the local economy added 1,200 jobs — some of them seasonal — to bring the total nonfarm jobs to 95,200 in May.

That was thanks largely to Hanford and the construction, food processing, wholesale and retail trade areas, Schau said,

And though the number of workers in the community grew by 5,640 to a rate in Benton and Franklin counties dropped from 7.7 percent in April to 7.2 percent in May.

That’s a testimony to the fact that the Tri-Cities is continuing to grow, Schau told the Herald. “If you create 1,000 jobs, you’ll have 1,200 workers come in. That’s been like that for years.”

Several areas of the economy benefited from the federal stimulus money and the warmer weather that helped produce a good asparagus crop and drew tourists particularly from Western Washington.

Local employers including those in agriculture, food processing, retail and hospitality businesses, lately have come to WorkSource looking for employees for the season ahead, said Candice Bluechel, business services outreach manager at WorkSource Columbia Basin.

Many companies are even offering full-time, long-term jobs in security and transportation, she said, adding it could be a spinoff of stimulus projects.

“I’m feeling optimistic,” she said.

In contrast, Washington’s unemployment rate increased to 9.4 percent in May from the revised April unemployment rate of 9 percent, as the state lost 6,700 nonfarm jobs mostly in construction, information, financial and government areas last month.

In the Tri-Cities, the food services industry added about 100 jobs last month, and about 300 jobs since last May, said Schau, who is staying on with the state Department of Employment Security indefinitely despite his recent announcement of plans to leave the agency.

He said he suspects people are spending their money locally instead of vacationing far from home. Warm temperatures, wineries and outdoor activities may have lured many of them to the Tri-Cities.

Also, professional and business services, which includes engineering and wastes services, added 100 new jobs in May and about 400 for the year, Schau said.

For the next two to three years, Hanford cleanup will provide new jobs and save positions that were supposed to be eliminated, said Carl Adrian, president and CEO of Tri-City Development Council.

But the Tri-Cities is also being discovered by corporate America, which will help the area in the long run to diversify economically, Adrian said. For example, Cascade Natural Gas recently announced plans to move its main office to the Tri-Cities from Seattle.

Last month, the local government sector added 100 jobs as cities hired workers for summer recreational programs. But job growth in federal government has remained flat since April 2008, when it peaked at 1,300, Schau said.

The availability of a lot of fresh produce helped the warehousing sector gain 300 positions in May, compared with April. Growth in the financial services industry, which includes banking and real estate, remained stagnant. May saw a loss of 200 jobs compared with May a year ago. The health services industry also gained 100 positions in May.

Good weather helped create seasonal agricultural jobs, pushing the number of hires from 8,500 in April to 11,800 in May, Schau said. He said he expects seasonal ag hiring to continue because the cherry crop is expected to be good.

In late June and early July, workers will be needed for taking care of onions, peaches, apricots, watermelons and cantaloupe, said Bluecheel of WorkSource.

But no one is yet talking about an immediate recovery from the recession.

The state lost 116,000 jobs in the last year, a 3.0 percent decrease. “We’re still losing jobs, but at a lower rate than before,” said Mary Ayala, chief economist for the state Department of employment Security Department.

Source: Tri-City Herald