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Facilities District, who is the public agency overlooking the construction of the Center found that another agency had withdrawn its request for funding and decided to request the legislature to redistribute the money to the Reach project.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.