Speaker, author, hiker and National Geographic Adventurer of the Year Jennifer Pharr Davis will make a special visit to the Tri-Cities on Monday, July 1. The community is invited to join her at Trailhead Park, located at 525 Queensgate Dr. in Richland, at 5 pm for a hike up Badger Mountain. At 7 pm, she will present a lecture at Kennewick library, located at 1620 S. Union St. in Kennewick. Books, including her newest will be available for purchase.

An “engaging and electrifying” speaker, Pharr Davis has covered more than 14,000 miles of long distance trails on six different continents. She has claimed the overall (male or female) fastest known time on the Appalachian Trail covering the 2,185-mile distance in 46 days, 11 hours, and 20 minutes. She is the author of five books, including “The Pursuit of Endurance,” and has been featured on NPR, CBS, ESPN, and more.

Learn more at midcolumbialibraries.org.

Beginning Monday, July 1st and continuing through Friday, July 19th, several Kennewick streets will be impacted by the City of Kennewick’s annual chip seal maintenance program. The construction is scheduled as shown on the attached sheet.

The initial placement of oil and rock will be followed by sweeping the following night. Approximately a week after the placement of the chip seal, the road will have a second application of oil applied in order to help keep the rock in place
Please allow extra time for trips as traffic may be delayed for up to 30 minutes. Inclement weather may delay the attached schedule. Slower speed s and your patience are appreciated during construction.

If you have any questions, please call 585-4419.

For additional information please go to the City web site at www.go2Kennewick.com.

Duncan Feldman will be presented with Scouting’s highest honor on August 3rd, the Blue Mountain Council, Boy Scouts of America has announced.

He is the son of Derek and Christina Feldman of Kennewick. Duncan is a member of Troop 126, chartered by West Highlands United Methodist Church. His Scout leader is Robert
Lindsay.

To achieve the rank of Eagle Scout, Duncan had to earn 21 merit badges and show leadership by planning, developing, and completing a community service project. Duncan also earned a Bronze Eagle Palm and a Gold Eagle Palm for achieving the completion of 35 merit badges by the time he achieved the rank of Eagle.

For his project, Duncan, his troop, and other volunteers, built cat trees for a local animal shelter. His entire project took 111 hours to complete.

Duncan attends Chiawana High School where he is active in marching band, Game N’ Tech Club and ASL Club. Duncan plans to become a cyber security analyst and remain active in
Scouting.

The rank of Eagle is earned by less than four percent of all youth who join Boy Scouts of America. In 2018, 121 boys in the Blue Mountain Council, Boy Scouts of America earned the Eagle Scout Award, providing over 17,124 service hours.

We are pleased to announce that the City of Kennewick was recently notified by the Washington Survey & Rating Bureau (WSRB), after their evaluation of the Kennewick Fire Department, our Protection Class Rating will be going from a 4 rating to 3 effective September 1st.The City is only .15 from obtaining a 2 rating.  There are currently no departments in the state of Washington rated  1, which is the highest rating attainable on the WSRB scale of 10 to 1.  This is rating is great news for our community as an improved rating can reduce insurance rates for businesses and homeowners.

The WSRB is an independent, non-profit public service organization that has been serving the State of Washington since 1911. As a data and information organization, WSRB is an authoritative resource for the property insurance industry. 
One of the services WSRB provides is determining the Protection Class of communities and the Protection Class Ratings of individual properties in those communities. Protection Class Ratings are used by insurance companies to help determine fire insurance premiums for properties. WSRB determines the Protection Class of cities and fire protection districts by evaluating their fire protection/suppression capabilities using a schedule approved by the Washington State Office of the Insurance Commissioner. As a result of this evaluation the communities are assigned a Protection Class of 1 through 10, where 1 indicates exemplary fire protection capabilities, and 10 indicates the capabilities, if any, are insufficient for insurance rating credit. WSRB evaluates communities in four major areas:

• Water Supply
  
• Fire Department – including stations, equipment, training, and personnel.
  
• Emergency Dispatch Communications
  
• Fire Safety Control – code enforcement and fire safety education.

“As the Fire Department works on staffing alignment, equipment, training and community outreach, each and every year, we feel confident our continued efforts will be factored into future WSRB evaluations,” said Fire Chief Vince Beasley.

​The 4th of July means one thing in Washington’s Yakima Valley—cherries. The first tree fruit to hit the market, cherry sales spike as peak cherry season coincides with cookouts and picnics. For Chukar Cherries, the 4th of July means trucks laden with sweet Bing, Rainier, and Montmorency Tart cherries will soon roll into the company’s factory headquarters in Prosser for pitting and drying. 

The 2019 cherry season has shaped up to be a good one. Orchards won’t surpass 2017 yield—the largest cherry season on record—but the mid-June estimate called for 23.8 million boxes. Growers across the Inland Northwest hope each year that their cherries will be ripe for market before the 4th of July. As the lead sweet cherry producer in the nation—Washington growers will ship cherries to be enjoyed across the US on the 4th. 

“In July we’re in a frenzy of meeting with growers, testing the brix of cherries bound for Chukar, and drying cherries ‘round the clock,” says Chukar’s General Manager Tim Oten. This year the company will dehydrate over 175 tons of cherries grown exclusively by local orchards. Chukar does not add preservatives or sugar to their dried cherries which means that the cherries must be fully ripe before they are picked. To maximize the natural sugar content of the cherries, local growers allow cherries bound for Chukar to hang on the tree longer. This technique yields a riper, sweeter cherry but also means the cherries must be processed soon after picking. Growers deliver cherries directly to Chukar where the cherries are washed, pitted, and dried immediately on site. 

In 1988 Chukar Cherries was launched on the largest family-owned cherry orchard in Washington located just outside Prosser. Grower Pam Montgomery was passionate about finding ways to share Washington’s agricultural riches with more people, which led her to pioneer cherry drying without adding sugar or preservatives during the drying process. Dried Bing cherries were Pam’s first product. From there she started drying other varieties of cherries and dipping them in chocolate. Dehydration allowed cherries to be enjoyed year ‘round and demonstrated the versatility of the fruit. 

Chukar’s dried cherries and Northwest gifts are available online at CHUKAR.COM, at the company’s flagship store in Prosser, in Seattle’s Pike Place Market, and at a host of premier retailers. 

Presenters Paul Casey, Judy Jones and Rick Peenstra will be presenting a workshop on Home Business Roundtable on July 16th, 2019. Home Business roundtable is to encourage and resource anyone who runs their business out of their home.   The workshop will be from 8:00 am to 11:00 am Tuesday, July 16th at Sandberg Event Center 331 S 41st Ave. West Richland, Wa. This seminar is the latest in a series of workshops provided to the business community by SCORE, Mid-Columbia Tri-Cities Chapter. 

​To register, contact Janice Vesper at jmvscore0590@gmail.com.

Presenter Tim Reed will be presenting a workshop on Maximize your General Business Expenses from A to Z sponsored by the GESA Credit Union. This is an Overview of General Business Expenses with Tim Reed and CPA Bruce Jorgenson plus an audience Q&A session for specific questions about your business. The workshop will be from 11:45 am to 1:45 pm Wednesday July 10th at the Bechtel Board Room 7130 W Grandridge Blvd Ste A Kennewick, WA. This seminar is the latest in a series of workshops provided to the business community by SCORE, Mid-Columbia Tri-Cities Chapter. 

For more Information about the workshop & to register, click here.

Registration is being accepted for Camp Trios, a three-day summer camp program for children diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes hosted by Trios Health.

Registration is open for children ages 6 to 14 and mentors ages 15 to 18. The goal of the three-day camp, the first of its kind in the Tri-Cities, is to teach participants about their diagnosis and provide them with tools for managing it in a way that doesn’t limit their daily lives.
“Often we gets kids in who have been newly diagnosed and they aren’t sure about what they can do,” said Christy Kuhn, Trios Environmental Services Director. “But when they see all these other kids running, playing, eating, and doing all the stuff they want to do, it makes them see that it’s possible.” 

The three-day camp is July 23-25 from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. each day at the Southridge Sports Complex. Camp Trios features educational activities, healthy meals and snacks, and physical activities. Trained physicians and other healthcare providers are on site with campers at all times.

Camp Trios was originally started in 2012 as Camp KGH and has grown since its inception from about 20 participants to more than 50. More information can be found at this link: http://www.trioshealth.org/news-events/camp-trios/?fbclid=IwAR0XQEhnGvr0534H2qWMnnLZI39Tq8S7aofITG1JVb0F1v-LkeGjTthKh0Q

Trios Health operates two hospitals to accommodate the area’s fast-growing population: Trios Women’s and Children’s Hospital at its downtown Kennewick location and Trios Southridge Hospital, a state-of-the-art hospital, which opened July 15, 2014. Trios Medical Group, comprised of nearly 100 employed physicians and providers, serves as the core of a growing medical staff network of 325+ providers throughout the Tri-Cities and includes practices and services at nine Care Centers and four Urgent Care Centers.

For more, visit Trios online or follow us on Facebook.

Attendees to Kadlec Foundation’s ninth annual Kidz Dig Rigz event on May 18 were welcomed to Columbia Park with warm weather, a cause to support and a huge variety of equipment from a helicopter and emergency vehicles to heavy construction equipment. The event drew in over 4,000 members of the community to climb on the equipment and enjoy the entertainment and food  – all in support of raising funds for pediatric services at Kadlec.

Kidz Dig Rigz, a fundraising event of Kadlec Foundation and presenting sponsor Numerica Credit Union, has continued to receive generous community participation around this impactful event including grossing over $80,000 from sponsorships and attendance in 2019.

“Kidz Dig Rigz is a big event to plan and coordinate and, year after year, we continue to be humbled by the generous support from our numerous sponsors and community attendees as we raise funds for pediatric services at Kadlec,” said Rebecca Thornton, Manager for Kadlec Foundation. “We are grateful to everyone who donated time, money and energy to make this event a success for the benefit of our smallest and most vulnerable patients.”

Items purchased with previous event proceeds have included:

• Sparkle and Shine Pageant – a non-competitive pageant celebrating the talents of kids with special needs
  
• Transcutaneous Monitoring System – to monitor real-time blood gases of infants in the Neonatal ICU, reducing the number of pokes and lowering risk of infection
  
• Bendy Bumpers – to properly position and ensure the utmost safety for premature infants hospitalized in our Neonatal ICU
  
• Mamaroos – used by our smallest, hospitalized infants to mimic the mother’s movements when baby was in the womb
  
• Winter Party – for pediatric patients receiving chemotherapy and IV therapy in a safe, clean environment
  
• Stadiometers – to more accurately measure premature infants for proper medication dosing
  
• Toys, giveaways and celebrations – to make life a little easier for pediatric patients hospitalized during holidays and birthdays; and to celebrate our chemotherapy graduates

For more information about Kidz Dig Rigz, visit https://www.kadlec.org/foundation/events-and-news/kidz-dig-rigz. 

Changes are afoot at Wildhorse Resort & Casino as contractors begin to move equipment on site and fence off areas where construction will be under way.  Visitors to the resort will see changes to traffic flow for pedestrians and drivers, both inside and outside the main building.

Chief Executive Officer Gary George recommends that the public watch for signage.  “Our goal is to make this expansion as seamless as possible for our guests,” George acknowledged.  “We’ll have ample signage in the parking areas and inside the resort to direct guests and make it easy for them to reach their destination.”

While some parking areas will be consumed by the construction, new parking areas will be constructed.  The added parking will remain after construction ends.

Customers are encouraged to utilize shuttles and valet service to avoid lengthy walks at those times when the resort is busiest.

The main entrance to the Cineplex will be relocated and once inside, moviegoers and hotel guests will find the family friendly walkway rerouted and clearly marked.  Even so, moviegoers may want to arrive earlier than usual.

The work beginning this month is the first phase of the expansion which will add a new 24-lane bowling center, food court and new arcade.  It includes expansion of the Children’s Entertainment Center and Cineplex concession area.

The second phase of the expansion, a new hotel tower and events center, is expected to begin in a few months.

The general contractor for the $85 million expansion is Lydig Construction whose offices are based in Washington.