Tri-City Area and Real Estate Blog

Source: Tri-City Herald, John Trumbo, herald staff writer

Having a lush lawn wrapping around their South Kennewick home is a miracle, but being surrounded by so many people who volunteered to landscape it last year is even more gratifying, Navy Lt. Burke Jensen said a thank-you dinner Wednesday.

About two dozen people, representing some of the nearly 100 volunteers who helped with the landscaping project at the Jensen’s home in the Oak Hill Estates, enjoyed a meal provided by the Jensen’s.

Jensen recently returned from military duty in Kuwait, while his wife, Heidi, and their son remain in New Jersey. The family’s prolonged absence from their new Kennewick home began last year when Jensen received orders for a tour of duty in support of U.S. forces in the Mideast.

Their home needed landscaping to satisfy subdivision rules, and volunteers did it for them last October.

“Taking care of this landscaping took weight off me so I could focus and do my job over there,” Jensen said.

“Thank you for the time, energy and selfless work. I feel so lucky,” Heidi said in a text message Jensen read aloud at the dinner.

Jensen said coming home to the beautiful yard was special: “I didn’t see grass or smell grass for six months.”

The Navy reservist has special thanks for Tim and Teresa Montgomery, whose landscaping company coordinated the volunteer effort; Columbia Christian Fellowship Church Pastor Jeff Berry and his wife, Kathy, who checked on the vacant home weekly; Roger and Nancy Gregory, who also pulled weeds and kept close watch on the property; and Don Jensen, who mowed the lawn as needed all year even though he did not know the couple.

The thank-you dinner included a raising of a U.S. flag flown in Kuwait and a welcome home ceremony presented by Operation Thank You (www.waoperationthankyou.com) in Kennewick.

Jensen said he will go back to his new job at Energy Northwest to be trained as a nuclear operator. His wife, who is enrolled in college in New Jersey, and young son will join him early new year.

An energy conference in February could bring 800 people to the Tri-Cities and generate about $315,000 in visitor spending, officials with the Tri-Cities Visitor and Convention Bureau said Tuesday.

Climate Solutions, facilitator of the annual Harvesting Clean Energy Conference, decided to hold the event at the Three Rivers Convention Center in Kennewick because of the Tri-Cities’ concentration of clean energy companies, said Rhys Roth, Climate Solutions’ director of strategic innovation.

The conference should run February 7-9. The Tri-Cities Visitor & Convention Bureau learned about a month ago the conference will be in the Tri-Cities, but released the information Tuesday after contracts were finalized.

A local steering group with members from the Tri-Cities Visitor & Convention Bureau, Benton PUD, Energy Northwest, Franklin PUD, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and other organizations worked for about a year with Climate Solutions to bring the conference to the Tri-Cities.

By December, the group was confident Climate Solutions would choose the Tri-Cities, said Gretchen Strother, director of sales for the Visitor & Convention Bureau.

Roth described the conference, which is in its 10th year, as an opportunity to foster rural economic development by bringing agriculture and clean energy production entities together.

The speeches and breakout forums are geared toward farmers, ranchers, and other rural landowners; agricultural organizations; public and private utilities; rural economic development leaders; local, state, federal and tribal officials; clean energy firms, consultants and supporters.

Each year, the conference’s location rotates between Washington, Idaho, Montana and Oregon.

From a business and utility standpoint, Debbie Bone-Harris of Franklin PUD, who worked with the steering committee, said the conference provides an opportunity for companies, organizations and individuals to collaborate on future energy projects.

For example, Roth said landowners can learn how to work with energy companies to get wind turbines on their land. Or organizations can learn how to better utilize biomass or solar energy.

From a tourism and visitor perspective, Visitor & Convention Bureau CEO and President Kris Watkins said the conference will showcase the Tri-Cities. “We’re always looking to promote activities in the Tri-Cities,” she said.

She hopes the hundreds of visitors plan future vacations to tour the area’s wineries or spend a weekend golfing. “The best marketing tool you can use is word of mouth.” Watkins said.

The conference last visited the Tri-Cities in 2002, Roth said, drawing about 200 people. Roth said the 700 to 800 expected visitors to the 2010 event would be a record.  “It’s sort of gradually grown each year,” he said.

Source: Tri-Cities Herald    www.harvestcleanenergy.org/conference