Tri-City Area and Real Estate Blog

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Facilities District, who is the public agency overlooking the construction of the Center found that another agency had withdrawn its request for funding and decided to request the legislature to redistribute the money to the Reach project.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 Kennewick City Council wants to see more progress made toward building a regional facility, and likes the idea of using a metropolitan parks district to pay for it.

The council discussed a possible regional facility during a workshop meeting Tuesday.

Such a facility could be an aquatic center or a performing arts center, but the council would like to see the Regional Facilities Oversight Committee step back and take a look at all possible projects.

The committee is made up of representatives from Kennewick, Pasco and Richland and has led the discussion of a facility all three would combine to build for the last few years.

But Kennewick council members are getting antsy that not enough is happening and agreed Tuesday to tell the committee they want something done.

Among the messages they plan to send is that they want the committee to find an independent third party, such as the League of Women Voters, to lead a public forum so Tri-Citians can say what kind of facility they want and how they’re willing to pay for it.

The council said it leaned toward wanting a parks district that would levy property taxes, than a regional public facilities district that would rely upon sales taxes.

Source: Tri-City Herald