Tri-City Area and Real Estate Blog

Tonight March 8th at 6:30 pm in the Richland Public Library gallery room will be a meeting for Richland residents and business representatives to meet and discuss potential ideas for the Master Plan being developed for future changes to John Dam Plaza, located along George Washington wya and Jadwin Avenue. The Richland Parks and Recreation Department will be sponsoring the meeting.

Former Republican Congressman from Spokane, George Nethercutt Jr., is giving a presentation on March 9th in Richland, entitled “How Green In our Valley: Streategies for Creating a Sustainable New World.” The free program will be at the Richland Community Center from 7:15 pm to 8:30 pm. contact Teresa Claar at 375-2068 for registration and more information.

Liberty Tax Services are offering free tax help to Pasco & Richland educators, school employees and bus drivers for “Educator Appreciation Days” at their offices on Road 68 and queensgate from March 1-7.  Most educators spend their own money on supplies for thier classrooms and they could be eligible for a tax break for 2009 taxes.  Those eligible are educators teaching kindergarten through 12th grade teachers, instructors, counselor, principal or aide who spends at least 900 hours in a private or public school.

A beautiful, spacious home in coveted Hills West. Impeccably maintained. This home features soaring ceilings, tile and hardwood flooring, beautifully crafted maple cabinetry and two gas fireplaces. This home is perfect for entertaining with a swimming pool, butler’s pantry, fabulous kitchen with subzero refrigerator, solid surface countertops, Thermador cooktop and dual ovens. The backyard is lovely, the bedrooms are large and spacious, the hot water heater is extra large and there’s a 3-car garage. Take a moment and view the Virtual Tour below to get a real feel of this lovely home!  MLS# 166603

http://www.distinctiveprop.com/tours/166603/?MLS=166603

Pacific Northwest National Labs have created a device to monitor for radiation and that device has now been installed at 850 locations along the Canadian and Mexican borders where US Custom Agents are stationed.

As vehicles drive slowly through the border, they pass a monitor that can detect radiation in small amounts, as the instruments are highly sensitive. Vehicles that register a suspicious reading will be stopped and searched for contraband.

Around 400  people work on this project in the Richland labs, and they report a satisfaction for the type of work they do to help protect our nation. The focus now for this project will be start installation of these devices at airports and seaports and is a portion of a $1 billion Department of Homeland Security program.

Creating an environment of cooperation among the 4 cities that encompass the Tri-Cities is the theme that local officials want to encourage, as they addressed the group that attended the 8th annual State of the Cities meeting on Wednesday, at the Tri City Regional Chamber of Commerce offices. Growth of the cities has put our area on the map, so to speak and each individual city has outlined the projects that they feel will add to the growth while benefiting it’s citizenry.

Richland has plans of widening Keene Road from Queensgate to West Richland, and adding a spray park to the Badger Mountain Community Park along Keene. They will also work in cooperation with Kennewick to reconstruct Steptoe Street and make a decision about the future location of the Hanford Reach Interpretive Center, among other projects.

Pasco, Kennewick and Richland will work in partnership on the studying the best location for the next bridge crossing the Columbia River.

Pasco officials and the Port of Pasco are looking into the development of the river shoreline east of the cable bridge, additional infrastructure as a support of future growth and industrialization, a $9 million water treatment facility, and the creation of a new overpass at Lewis Street.

Kennewick officials are looking for increased private development of the Vista Entertainment District and to the development of the Southridge area, which they expect will include 60% of the cities future growth.  The city is planning the Bridge-to-Bridge, River-to-Rail effort with the Port of Kennewick, which consists of a major overhaul of the property that lies between the blue and cable bridges.

West Richland is looking to expand the economic base and expand infrastructure between Red and Badger Mountains, and invest in tourism with regards to the wine industry as a way to add to the regional vision, and increase growth in that community.

In a time when costs to each municipality are increasing, funding from the state faces cuts, and the residents want more metropolitan projects, the officials in each city are optimistic about continued growth.  Let’s be optimistic along with them – Time will tell……..