August 2019

Volume 18 • Issue 8

Tri-City employers balk at state’s overtime proposal BY ANDREW KIRK

for Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business

Nonprofits

Boys & Girls Clubs now runs 27 Tri-City locations

Page 11

Science & Technology Telemedicine connects patients with specialists

Page 27

Real Estate & Construction

Cocktail bar coming to Richland’s Parkway

Page 49

NOTEWORTHY “You can fly out of the Tri-Cities just as cheap as anywhere, if you can be flexible in your schedule.” –Buck Taft, director of Tri-Cities Airport Page 3

Several Tri-City employers and nonprofit leaders criticized the state’s proposal to overhaul its worker overtime exemption rule at a recent public hearing, citing concerns about their bottom lines and ability to serve customers and clients. More than 50 people attended an Aug. 6 hearing in Kennewick—one of seven meetings held across the state—to provide feedback on Labor and Industries’ proposed changes to significantly increase the minimum amount employees must earn before they can be exempt from receiving overtime pay. The changes, which affect executive, administrative and professional workers, as well as outside salespeople, across all industries, would mean employers will have to provide minimum wage, overtime and paid sick leave, or increase salaries to those who were previously considered exempt. Joshua Grice, Labor and Industries’ employment standards program director, said employers would have to convert employees to a non-exempt status qualifying for overtime pay and receive sick leave, limit their hours to 40 per week, or convert salaried workers to hourly wages, or give a worker more responsibility and a raise to meet the new criteria. Many business owners said they were concerned the compensation laws they’ve been following for decades could change drastically in a matter of months. The new rule would take effect next year. Nolan Lockwood of Harvest Foods, an independent grocery store in Walla Walla, and Cindy Goulet, owner of two Richland restaurants, 3 Eyed Fish and LU LU Craft Bar + Kitchen, both said they use the law to pay lowlevel managers who appreciate the stability of a salary despite not making significantly more than coworkers. Both grocery stores and restaurants have slow and busy weeks depending on the season, and the exemption allows owners to keep experienced supervisors on site at all times, while hourly workers are called in or sent home—or even terminated—depending on demand. uOVERTIME, Page 38

Photo by Robin Wojtanik A new gas station and convenience store that will feature a fast-food chicken restaurant is under construction in the Badger Mountain South development, north of Rancho Reata, at 5151 Trowbridge Blvd., just off Dallas Road. The original plan put the housing development’s completion at 2030, but following a slow start, the revised date is now 2037.

Badger boomtown

Construction on south side of mountain points to more growth BY ROBIN WOJTANIK

for Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business

Signs of new construction on the south side of Badger Mountain—including a new service station and convenience store that will include a fast-food chicken restaurant—signal more growth coming to the planned development that’s been years in the making. Badger Mountain South’s owner and developer Nor Am Investments has an endgoal of building 5,000 household units, comprised of homes and apartments, filling nearly 1,500 acres in the high-growth area of Richland at the “back side” of Badger

Mountain in the next 18 years. Hundreds of homes have sprouted up in recent years and more are coming to the outskirts of Richland city limits, near the border of West Richland, east of Interstate 82 off Dallas Road. “The city of Richland is very pleased to see the progress and development that is taking place in the Badger Mountain South community. As of July 1, there were 553 permitted residential units, 276 of which are associated with the apartments currently under construction. Additionally, a development

uBADGER, Page 40

Benton County consolidates public services under one roof

3 departments merged near Tri-Cities, expanded services coming to Prosser BY ROBIN WOJTANIK

for Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business

The process of jumping through the required hoops to start new construction projects is set to run more efficiently in Benton County once a new “one-stop shop” opens in the Tri-Cities, replicating some services currently only available in Prosser. The move will merge the county’s building, planning and road departments together

under one roof on 10 acres at 102808 Wiser Parkway, which is visible from Interstate 82 near the Badger Road exit and across from Columbia Sun RV Resort. The county’s fleet and road maintenance divisions are currently located at the site. “If you’re building a house or building a business in Benton County, you’re going to interact with those three departments along the way,” said Matt Rasmussen, public works administrator for Benton County. “Currently one department is located on West Canal Drive (in Kennewick) and the other two are located in Prosser. It was inconvenient and we had some people who uBENTON COUNTY, Page 7

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Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business â€¢ August 2019

Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business • August 2019

Tri-Cities Airport eyes increased flight capacity BY ROBIN WOJTANIK

for Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business

Following a successful effort to land a daily, nonstop flight to Los Angeles, the Tri-Cities Airport is setting a course for adding capacity to existing routes. “I think that’s more realistic than trying to get some new market when you don’t have any grant dollars,” said Buck Taft, director of the airport. “Add capacity to the current market, like keeping the Airbus year-round to Salt Lake, or adding the second Minneapolis flight full time, or adding a bigger plane to Minneapolis. Or a second San Francisco (route). That’s what we’re working on, building capacity to our current markets.” The flight to Los Angeles is a “game changer for the Tri-Cities tourism industry,” said Michael Novakovich, president and chief executive officer of Visit TriCities. “The convenience of a direct flight is a great opportunity for us to increase travel to the Tri-Cities region.” Taft said much of that skews toward business travel. “We’re a business market so we’re a little bit higher fare. We have a very good fare for the airlines, and I think it’s a competitive fare when you look out there as a whole. You can fly out of the Tri-Cities just as cheap as anywhere, if you can be flexible in your schedule,” he said. The schedule for the daily, nonstop flight to LA uses a 76-seat Embraer 175 or 50-seat CRJ 200 aircraft. Only the larger aircraft has first-class seating. The flight arrives in Pasco about 3:30 p.m. daily and departs to LAX about an hour later. While Taft has more conservative expectations about the next service expansion for the airport, he’d still like to offer additional nonstop routes, including possible locations like Phoenix, Dallas and Chicago, in no particular order. Still, “we’re the second-largest airport in the U.S. that doesn’t have service to Phoenix,” Taft said. Allegiant flies from Pasco to Mesa, Arizona, which is about 32 miles outside of Phoenix. The process of getting a new route isn’t just a matter of requesting service from an airline. Taft likens it to “speed dating” at air service conferences. The Tri-Cities Airport contracts with Volaire Aviation, an air ser-

Courtesy Port of Pasco The first nonstop, daily flight to LAX arrived at the Tri-Cities Airport to much fanfare this past spring. The route addition was the result of years of effort on behalf of the airport and its hired consultant to offer a nonstop Southern California flight daily to and from Pasco. Now airport officials want to add capacity to current markets.

vice development consultant. “They know people in the airlines, they know how airlines work. They have relationships with those different airlines. We want to hire that experience,” Taft said. Many may assume the airline and airport industries have a lot of crossover, but Taft says this isn’t so. “You’re either airline people or you’re airport people. Sometimes they blend, but usually you choose a route and that’s the route you go down,” he said. Taft works with Volaire to line up meetings with airlines at conferences. Airlines have to agree to meet with the local team, which is then given 20 minutes to make a pitch for Pasco, which includes a presentation tailored for the particular airline. “We tell them about the community, what’s going on here,” Taft said. “We do a general overlay of where all the airports are around us and how we are pretty isolated. We try and build our case for why you would want to come to the Tri-Cities.” Taft also covers regional highlights, like the Manhattan Project becoming the nation’s newest National Historical Park, along with the millions spent for research at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and on Hanford cleanup. “That’s usually an eye opener. Between the lab and Hanford, the amount of money that comes into our economy gets people’s attention,” Taft said. PNNL has an increased travel demand between Pasco and Knoxville, Tennessee, with the national laboratory in Oak Ridge. “That’s stuff that we can show them.

ashington State University solicits proposals from innovative and experienced food services providers to operate the restaurant at Palouse Ridge Golf Club at Washington State University – Pullman, WA. This includes operating a full-service restaurant and bar/lounge, providing food and beverage services on the golf course with a cart service, as well as operating the adjacent pavilion as an event space. The University seeks a distinctive dining experience with high quality food in a comfortable, casual atmosphere. Full details of this RFQ can be found at https://pr-webs-customer.des.wa.gov/. Once registered and logged in, this opportunity can be found by searching posts by Washington State University and then RFQ number: 0772-MR00456. Responses are due in Pullman, WA no later than 5PM local time on August 28, 2019.

There’s a connection between the two,” Taft said. The airport director said when it comes to incumbent airlines like United, Alaska and Delta, the airlines are already aware of the market and the team can get right down to business about future routes: “Let’s talk about LA, let’s talk about Denver, let’s talk about San Francisco,” he said. For airlines not currently servicing the Tri-Cities, the presentation covers the growing population in and around the region. Totals from 2017 census figures estimate nearly a million people live within 90 minutes of the Tri-Cities Airport and about half of them within an hour’s drive. Still fewer than half of the available market is traveling out of the airport—what Taft refers to as “leakage.” “Right now we’re only capturing 42 percent of the market, where 21 percent go to Seattle, 10 percent go to Portland, 3 percent to Spokane. Others use Walla Walla and Yakima. So we’ll show there’s still passengers we’re leaking that we could capture if we had the

flights here,” Taft said. During the 20-minute presentation, the airport director also packs in details about fares. “Those are important to them because they want to make money as well,” he said. He provides updates on current passenger loads, which reflect the average number of seats filled on each flight. “Right now we’re at an 85 percent load factor for the third quarter of 2018. So that’s very high,” Taft said. He was unsure of how this compares to other airports of a similar size but knows it is considered “very good.” The “speed dating” style of air service conferences has its place for airports looking to add service, but Taft still would prefer to attend the annual meetings at an airline’s home base, referred to as “headquarters meetings.” Not all airlines provide this opportunity and not all airports are invited to these, but Taft finds “it’s more personal. You can sit down in their environment where they’re uAIRPORT, Page 4

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UPCOMING September: • Young Professionals • Leadership Development October: • Food • Education & Training • Focus: Construction + Real Estate in the Tri-Cities magazine

CORRECTION

LCR Construction of Richland is the general contractor working on the new Numerica Credit Union branch in Pasco. The wrong company was listed on page 15 in the July issue. The Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business, a publication of TriComp Inc., is published monthly and delivered at no charge to identifiable businesses in Pasco, Richland, West Richland, Kennewick, Prosser and Benton City. Subscriptions are $27.10 per year, including tax, prepayment required, no refunds. Contents of this publication are the sole property of TriComp Inc. and can not be reproduced in any form without expressed written consent. Opinions expressed in guest columns and by advertisers do not necessarily reflect the opinions of staff, other columnists or other advertisers, nor do they imply endorsement by staff, columnists or advertisers. Every effort will be made to assure information published is correct; however, we are not liable for any errors or omissions made despite these efforts.

comfortable and talk to them. They’re not overwhelmed by other airports and they’re focused on you. I think headquarters meetings go the furthest. The best bang for your buck.” Taft said just being invited to headquarters meetings is a reflection of Pasco’s strength in the market. The addition of the daily, nonstop flight to LAX was not just the result of a 20-minute presentation or a singular headquarters meeting. It came after the airport received a federal Small Community Air Service Development program grant. Local entities and businesses kicked in additional funding, which incentivized United Airlines to begin the service. Carl Adrian, president and chief executive officer of the Tri-City Development Council, said he wasn’t sure this would have happened if it wasn’t for regional collaboration and “broad base of community support to provide matching funding.” Still, when the phone call came from United to announce the service, Taft described the moment as “surreal.” “We had gotten a lot of, ‘It’s not you, it’s me.’ LA was having a lot of issues with construction and gate space. For them to throw a flight in here, they would have to get rid of another flight. Once the gates came open, United said it probably wouldn’t be for another year or so. And then they’re like, ‘Hey, we’re going to start in March.’ Huh? What? I didn’t know how to react. I was shocked,” Taft said. LAX had been the region’s largest unserved market, and with a flight now departing in the late afternoon, travelers can connect directly from LA to 32 other destinations including Hawaii, Mexico, Asia and Australia. The United service to LAX began in early spring, allowing the airport to celebrate first, and then focus on its next goals for service, including the potential priorities of increased capacity or new routes. This will be done through the use of the air service consultant, air service conferences and headquarters meetings, but there is no additional grant in place. “There’s not one single way to do this,” Taft said. “A bigger airport might have the staff to do it in house. Airports do things differently, like businesses do things differently. This is how we do it here.” More than 785,000 passengers flew through the Tri-Cities airport last year alone, marking its busiest year on record. The airport followed that up with a 17 percent increase year over year for outbound passengers between the first quarters of 2018 and 2019. This included a difficult winter with airport closures due to severe weather conditions. Global aviation database Official Aviation Guide named the airport one of North America’s busiest small airports for 2019, with 518,405 scheduled seats booked between June 2018 to May 2019. Taft said the airport is on pace to meet or exceed 2018’s overall figures. The airport is currently served by Alaska, Allegiant, Delta and United offering flights to Seattle, San Francisco, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Denver, Salt Lake City, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Phoenix-Mesa, Arizona.

Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business • August 2019

Judge rules against i-3 Global in one of three lawsuits BY ROBIN WOJTANIK

for Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business

A Benton County Superior Court judge has issued a decision against a Kennewick company in one of its three pending lawsuits. And the state Department of Labor and Industries has found i-3 Global owes more than $18,000 in unpaid wages to eight former employees. The business and its president, Kristopher Lapp, came under fire this spring with Kristopher Lapp the lawsuits and a tax warrant totaling nearly $2 million. Providing technology, multimedia and staffing services to federal and commercial clients, i-3 Global was celebrated as U.S. Department of Energy’s Protégé of the Year for fiscal year 2016. Judge Cameron Mitchell ruled in favor of Integrated Global Staffing, saying i-3 Global must pay $446,000 plus interest, following an order of default against the company and Lapp. Integrated Global Staffing said i-3 Global failed to make good on contracts and alleged Lapp “fraudulently spent, misappropriated, and/or diverted money from i-3 Global’s general contractor, (Mission Support Alliance), for his own personal benefit rather than on Integrated Global’s invoices,” according to court documents. The order included pre-judgment interest of about $6,000, plus daily interest since May 22 at a rate of $146 a day. The attorney for IGS did not respond to requests for comment. The state Department of Labor and Industries investigated complaints from eight former i-3 Global workers who claimed they were collectively owed $20,788 in unpaid wages, reimbursement for bad checks and unauthorized deductions. The state determined the actual amount owed is $18,046 for hours worked mostly in April 2019. For two findings, the wages and deductions covered time worked as far back as December 2018. The lowest amount due to a single former employee or subcontractor was $345 and the highest amount owed was $5,847. “Every worker in our state should get paid the amount of money owed them for the work they do. We help honest workers and businesses by cracking down on dishonest ones. The vast majority of employers do the right thing. Out of the more than three million people employed at more than 200,000 businesses in the state, we received 6,213 wage complaints in 2018. We investigate every one under the Wage Payment Act,” said Matt Erlich, Labor and Industries spokesman. Labor and Industries issued a “Notice of Assessment” for the eight cases July 19, requiring i-3 Global to pay the owed wages. An appeal must be filed within 30 days. The $44,000 tax warrant filed against

i-3 Global by the state Department of Revenue was paid in full in July. Lapp and his company face two other lawsuits, which are scheduled to be heard in Benton County Superior Court in the spring. One was filed by Columbia State Bank for $883,000 to cover a line of credit taken out in fall 2017. E2 Consulting Engineers sued for $515,000 in unpaid wages to employees who contracted with i-3 Global. Lapp has filed for personal bankruptcy, citing debts of $2.7 million in secured and unsecured claims and assets just under $1 million.

uBUSINESS BRIEFS Applicants’ salary history off limits to employers

Recent changes to Washington’s Equal Pay and Opportunities Act will prevent employers from asking for wage or salary history of job applicants, the state Department of Labor & Industries announced recently. The law also would make it illegal to request that information from previous employers. Additionally, current employees who are offered a transfer, new position or promotion must be shown the new job’s wage scale or salary range if they request it. “For too long, wage disparities have continued between individuals doing

equal work,” Gov. Jay Inslee said in a release. “The protections established in this law are the next step toward finally leveling the playing field.” Washington joins California and Oregon in passing the restrictions.

Benton County District Court office open for lunch

The Benton County District Court office began remaining open during the noon hour on Aug. 5. The change will allow people to conduct court business during their lunch break. The district court office—at 7122 W. Okanogan Place, Bldg. A in Kennewick —is open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business • August 2019

DATEBOOK

VISIT TCJOURNAL.BIZ AND CLICK ON EVENT CALENDAR FOR MORE EVENTS

AUG. 19

• Federal Affairs Summit: 5-7 p.m., WSU Wine Science Center, 359 University Drive, Richland. Tickets: awb.org.

AUG. 20

• Federal Affairs Summit: 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Discovery Hall, 902 Battelle Blvd., Richland. Tickets: awb.org. • Tri-Cities Hispanic Chamber Luncheon: 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., Red Lion Hotel, 2525 N. 20th Ave., Pasco. RSVP: 509542-0933.

AUG. 20-24

• Benton Franklin Fair & Rodeo: 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. Tuesday to Friday; 10 a.m. to midnight Saturday, 1500 S. Oak St., Kennewick. Go to: bentonfranklinfair.com

AUG. 22

• Goodwill Employment

Connection Center tour: 3-5 p.m., 3521 W. Court St. Suite B, Pasco. Go to: goodwillotc.org.

AUG. 24

• Prosser Beer and Whiskey Festival: 5-10 p.m., Prosser Wine and Food Park, 2840 Lee Road. Tickets are $30-$65. Go to: prosserbeerandwhiskey.com.

AUG. 26

• Marketing to the Government PTAC workshop: 9:30 a.m. to noon, Tri-Cities Business and Visitor Center, Bechtel Board Room, 7130 W. Grandridge Blvd., Kennewick. Register: washingtonptac.org.

AUG. 28

• Tri-City Regional Chamber membership luncheon: 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., Red Lion Hotel, 2525 N. 20th Ave., Pasco. Register: 509-736-0510.

SEPT. 3

• Prosser Chamber Member Luncheon: noon1 p.m., Jeremy’s 1896 Public House, 1232 Wine Country Road, Prosser. RSVP: 509-786-3177.

• Ask the Experts “Social Media:” 3:30-5 p.m., TriCities Business and Visitor Center, Bechtel Board Room, 7130 W. Grandridge Blvd., Kennewick. Register: tricityregionalchamber.com

SEPT. 4

SEPT. 12

• National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association #1192 monthly meeting: noon, Red Lion Hotel, 1101 N. Columbia Center Blvd., Kennewick. Call: 509-378-2494

SEPT. 7

• Riverfest 2019: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Columbia Park, Neil F. Lampson Pits, Kennewick. Go to: pascochamber.org.

SEPT. 11

• West Richland Chamber Luncheon: 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., Sandberg Event Center, 331 S. 41st Ave., West Richland. RSVP: 509-967-0521.

• Tri-Cities Tech Summit: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Uptown Theatre, 1300 Jadwin Ave., Richland. Tickets: tctechsummit.com. • Procurement Power Hour “Biggest Challenges”: 8:30-9:30 a.m., Tri-Cities Business and Visitor Center, Bechtel Board Room, 7130 W. Grandridge Blvd., Kennewick. Register: washingtonptac.org.

SEPT. 14

• Fiery Foods Festival: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., Downtown Pasco. Go to: fieryfoods.org. • Atomic Frontier Day: 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., Howard Amon Park, 900 George Washington Way, Richland.

SEPT. 16

• Pasco Chamber’s Annual Sunshine Business Luncheon: 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., Red Lion Hotel, 2525 N. 20th Ave., Pasco. Register: pascochamber.org.

SEPT. 17-19

• Assocation of Washington Business’ Policy Summit: Suncadia Resort, 3600 Suncadia Trail, Cle Elum. Tickets: awb.org.

SEPT. 19

• Dine OUT – Cancer Crushing Cuisine: 6-9 p.m., Walter Clore Wine & Culinary Center, 2140 Wine Country Road, Prosser. Go to: tccancer.org

SEPT. 24

• Washington Policy Center’s Solutions at Sunrise: 7:15-8:15 a.m., CG Public House, 9221 W. Clearwater Ave., Kennewick. Go to: washingtonpolicy.org.

Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business • August 2019 uBUSINESS BRIEFS TRIDEC CEO announces plans to retire in early 2020

Photo by Robin Wojtanik Construction on Benton County’s new $1.79 million Public Services Building for permitting and land use needs is underway at 102808 Wiser Parkway near Interstate 82.

BENTON COUNTY, From page 1 were not happy with that.” The plan to build a Public Services Building got underway about a year and a half ago. It took about a year for the county to receive its own permits, following the same process private citizens must. Banlin Construction of Kennewick is the general contractor for the $1.79 million project and is on schedule to finish it by the end of the year. “It really is going to become a lot more convenient for the public, and it’s also going to be a lot more interactive for the three departments,” Rasmussen said. “We’ll be able to work together immediately instead of via email or phone call or having to drive back and forth. There are a lot of efficiency gains. And I expect we’re going to see an uptick in person-toperson contact.” Since the county seat remains in Prosser, Benton County is not moving services, but splitting them across the two cities. No new hires are planned and staff members who live in Prosser will work there, while those commuting within the Tri-Cities will drive to unincorporated Kennewick. About 17 to 20 employees will be housed at the Tri-City location, with a “little less” in Prosser. The team issues about 1,500 to 2,000 permits annually across the three departments. Additionally, the building, road and planning departments in Prosser will be merged at the Benton County Courthouse on Market Street, allowing the county to surplus the Dudley Avenue annex, which currently houses the planning department. “Even though it’s a block away, it’s like, ‘I’ve got to go here, and then I’ve got to go here, and then this person said this and I’ve got to go back and ask again.’ This way, you can have representatives from all three departments right at the counter talking to you and you can get all the questions answered. There’s no

“We’ll be able to work together immediately instead of via email or phone call...” - Matt Rasmussen, public works administrator for Benton County more back-and-forth and that will be a whole lot better for everybody involved,” Rasmussen said. He said there’s already an interested buyer for the Dudley property and selling the building would lower the county’s operating expenses. The new building’s cost is split between the road department, building department and capital projects fund. Rasmussen expects the change to be immediate once the new building is ready. “Like a light switch moving from one to the other. We may even have to schedule moving over the weekend just to make sure. We really can’t interrupt services, especially with the homebuilding market the way it is. The building department is buried so they can’t afford to be closed at all,” he said. In the area near where the new building will be on Wiser Parkway, 400 new homes are expected in the next year. Shyanne Palmus, communications coordinator for Benton County, acknowledges that change can be difficult. “We want to make sure people are well aware before they think they have to drive all the way to Prosser and then get there and realize, ‘Oh, I didn’t have to go all the way here,’ and then be annoyed at that,” she said. Benton County intends to spread the message widely so the actual switchover will be “anticlimactic” when it happens, potentially by the end of the year.

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The Tri-City Development Council’s longtime executive president and chief executive officer has announced plans to retire. Carl Adrian told the TRIDEC Executive Committee he will retire at the end of January 2020 during a meeting Aug. 12. Adrian has been with TRIDEC for nearly 16 years Carl Adrian and is its longest serving president. “During his tenure the community has experienced unprecedented economic growth and prosperity. Carl and TRIDEC have played an important role in the community’s successes and that is only possible because of the support from you our members,” said Eric Pearson, TRIDEC board chairman, in a message sent to the TRIDEC membership. The executive committee is developing a process to initiate the search for a new president. As outlined by the TRIDEC bylaws, Pearson will be appointing a search committee in the very near future. Adrian and his wife, Rheta, plan to continue to make the Tri-Cities their home so there won’t be a farewell, but merely a changing of the guard, Pearson said. Established in 1963, the Tri-City Nuclear Industrial Council was formed for the purpose of promoting and advancing economic strength and diversity in Benton and Franklin counties. That council evolved into TRIDEC,

which is managed by a 39-member board of directors, comprised of representatives from the local business community, private sector leaders and organizations committed to creating and supporting jobs in the region.

Longtime restaurant family to open new eatery in Columbia Park

A longtime Kennewick restaurant soon will be serving golfers-on-the-go, as well as those who want to relax on a patio featuring river views in Columbia Park. CG Public House and Catering will open Bite at the Landing at the Columbia Park Golf Tri-Plex in late September. Construction of the city of Kennewick’s 2,600-square-foot Columbia River Landing facility was completed in June and will continue to host golf course operations in addition to the new eatery. The new $1.1 million building includes a full-service kitchen and 1,200-square-foot patio. Prior to serving patrons at its 9221 W. Clearwater Ave. location since 2006, owners Shirley and Steve Simmons operated the Country Gentleman and Wyatt’s Pancake Corral at Highway 395 and Vista Place dating back to 1979. The new restaurant, operated by their son Kyle Simmons, offers the restaurateurs an opportunity to attract a new audience, add menu items and host more events and activities. An application to serve local wines, beers and craft cocktails has been submitted to the Washington State Liquor Control Board. In addition to the restaurant, the rebranded golf tri-plex offers 18 holes of traditional golf on a 3-par course, foot golf and disc golf.

CIVIL ARBITRATION FOR BUSINESSES W

ashington’s old Mandatory Arbitration statute was modernized in the 2018 legislature. The former law, intended to reduce court congestion and improve access to civil justice, allowed for disputes of $50,000 or less to be heard by an arbitrator selected through local court administrators. This system has reduced the time and expense involved to put on “smaller” cases substantially, compared to trials by jury. It has worked well for contingency cases like what we handle. We’ve done over 250 of these hearings. Numerous business disputes, such as over commercial leases, sales of goods, property ownership, contracts, and so forth have been settled through the arbitration process; however, the hourly expert and attorney fee billings to the parties sometimes proved cost prohibitive. Some businesses started walking away from $50,000 disputes due to fees. The new law expands the process to disputes of up to $100,000, re-names it Civil Arbitration, and requires Civil Arbitrators to show either prior relevant experience or three professional ethics credit hours. In August of 2018, attorneys Allen Brecke, Mark Silverman of Bellevue and Sam Elder of Kirkland were selected by the Washington State Association for Justice to conduct 90 minute webinars, and combined, they trained 252 new Civil Arbitrators. The process is up and running in both Benton and Franklin Counties and may be of interest to the business community.

Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business • August 2019

uBUSINESS BRIEFS Pasco receives $3M grant to expand food processing

Pasco received a $3 million federal grant for water infrastructure improvements needed to serve food processing and other businesses in the region. U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross made the announcement Aug. 8. The grant will be matched with $3.9 million in local funds and is expected to help create or retain 700 jobs. It will generate nearly $36 million in private investment. The Pasco project involves building dual force mains and a pump station at Pasco’s process water use facility to increase capacity to serve the expansion and location plans of food processing and

other businesses. The grant serves a Tax Cuts and Jobs Act-designated Opportunity Zone to spur economic development by giving tax incentives to investors in economicallydistressed communities nationwide.

New art installed at Columbia Center Boulevard

Commuters along Columbia Center Boulevard and Fourth Avenue might be taking a second look. Installation of eight metal jackrabbits, each 5 feet tall, began July 20, with work provided by volunteers from LiUNA! Laborers’ Local 348. The jackrabbits are the solution from the Kennewick Arts Commission for vacant land leftover from a disbanded

homeowners association. The arts commission is funding the project and maintenance. Jason Watson designed the jackrabbits, which were fabricated at a local machine shop.

Digital Crush marketing summit set for Oct. 11

Digital Crush, an annual digital marketing summit, is set for Oct. 11 at the Three Rivers Convention Center in Kennewick. The one-day conference is designed to bring together and educate digital marketers and small business owners. Tickets are $199 for general admission and $224 to include VIP networking. For tickets and list of speakers, go to thedigitalcrush.com.

DOE to extend its two largest Hanford contracts BY TRI-CITIES AREA JOURNAL OF BUSINESS STAFF

The U.S. Department of Energy plans to extend two key contracts worth about $23 billion at the Hanford site. The Office of River Protection intends to extend the tank operations contract with Washington River Protection Solutions, and the Richland Operations Office intends to extend the plateau remediation contract with CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. DOE made the announcement in an Aug. 13 memo to staff. The tank contract, valued at up to $13 billion over a 10-year period, is held by WRPS. The plateau remediation contract, valued at up to $10 billion over a 10-year period, is held by CH2M Hill. Both yearlong extensions would run from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30, 2020. The current contracts were set to expire Sept. 30, the end of the current fiscal year. The bid process for the new contracts began in late 2018. The proposed extensions will allow the contractors to continue their work uninterrupted, DOE said. “Evaluations of proposals for both follow-on contracts, the Tank Closure Contract and the Central Plateau Cleanup Contract, continue in earnest. Extension of the current contracts would only be in force as long as needed after award of new contracts and transition periods to the new contractors,” DOE said in the memo. DOE did not provide a timeline for awarding the essential services contract, valued at up to $6 billion over a 10-year period, that is currently held by Mission Support Alliance. This contract was set to expire in late May but the company received a six-month extension through November. DOE said it is currently evaluating the solicitations for this contract. DOE awarded a contract July 31 of up to $4.6 million for the management and administration of workers’ compensation claims. The contract was awarded to Penser North America for up to five years. Penser is based in Lacey and will open offices in Richland. DOE said the new contract will have significant changes from the previous contract and includes requirements for improving and increasing customer support and service. Penser will be responsible for processing claims and working with all parties involved, including the state Department of Labor and Industries. The new contract includes requirements for improvements in communications with claimants and among the stakeholders involved in managing compensation claims, DOE said.

Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business • August 2019

Washington winemaker opens tasting room in West Richland One of Washington’s top winemakers has consolidated his operations in the TriCity area. Victor Palencia, owner of Palencia Winery and Vino La Monarcha, recently closed his Walla Walla operation to focus on a tasting room and winemaking facility in downtown Kennewick and a new tasting room in West Richland. Palencia, who was born in Mexico and grew up in Prosser, attended Walla Walla Community Andy Perdue College, where Wine Press he earned a Northwest winemaking GUEST COLUMN degree before returning to Prosser, where he took over winemaking duties at Willow Crest Winery. He later went on to become head winemaker for J&S Crushing in Mattawa, where he was head winemaker for Jones of Washington, a Quincy-based winery. With a day job in Mattawa and his own business based in Walla Walla, Palencia was a bit of a road warrior, living in Richland. With his main operation at the new Columbia Gardens Urban Wine and Artisan Village in downtown Kennewick, which he opened a year ago, he’s now

opened a second location, taking over the former Black Heron Spirits tasting room at 8011 Keene Road in West Richland. Black Heron Spirits was opened in 2010 by Joel Tefft, a former Yakima Valley winemaker who operated Tefft Cellars in the town of Outlook, until deciding to get in the emerging field of distilling, opening up on the back side of Red Mountain. In 2013, he sold the distillery to Mark Williams. In addition to his award-winning spirits, Williams makes a bit of wine under his Sugar Horse Cellars brand. Black Heron will continue to operate a tasting room in the distillery space by appointment only. Palencia is branding the new place as Bodega Palencia. He will put all of his Spanish variety wines, including his Tempranillo, Grenache and Albariño under this label. He also plans to add wines to the label, focusing on varieties found in Europe’s Iberian Peninsula, which includes Spain and Portugal. Palencia launched his own company in 2013, settling into a building at the Walla Walla airport meant for emerging wineries. However, the incubator requires wineries to move out in six years. With his move to West Richland, he has left Walla Walla behind. With his reduced role as a consultant at J&S Crushing, his commute now is limited to the Tri-Cities, a change uWINE, Page 23

Photo by Niranjana Perdue Victor Palencia, owner and winemaker of Palencia Wine Co., has opened a new tasting room in West Richland in the old Black Heron distillery building. This is his second Tri-City area location, joining his production facility and tasting room in downtown Kennewick.

Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business • August 2019

NONPROFITS

Boys & Girls Clubs runs 27 sites, sees a thousand kids daily BY JEFF MORROW

for Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business

The past year has been a wild ride for the Boys and Girls Clubs of Benton and Franklin Counties. The nonprofit took over the Richland School District’s before- and after-school child care program in June 2018. This meant more sites, children, staff and a bigger budget to manage. It also occurred while the nonprofit was in the middle of preparing to open a new $5.1 million clubhouse in Kennewick. Thrown together, the two projects have kept Brian Ace, executive director of the clubs, and his staff hopping. “It’s been quite a lot of growth,” Ace said. The Pasco-based agency earned the Richland program’s contract when the school district asked for proposals in May 2018. Only the Boys & Girls Clubs and Champions—which previously had held the contract—submitted proposals. The school district liked the Boys and Girls Clubs’ proposal better. The contract from the Richland School District was approved at the July school board meeting.

Courtesy Boys and Girls Clubs of Benton and Franklin Counties Within a year’s span, the Boys and Girls Clubs of Benton and Franklin Counties opened the new $5.1 million Kennewick clubhouse, pictured, and expanded into Richland to offer school-based child care.

Ace and his staff went into overdrive. “The budget went from $3.4 million to $5.8 million,” Ace said. “A lot had to do with payroll.” Ace said staff numbers jumped from 80 to 150 with the addition of the 12 sites in Richland, the club’s first foray into the city. “The contract was awarded in mid-June

of 2018, and we had a challenge,” Ace said. “We had a six-week window to open 10 school-age sites (with two preschools). But the staff did an amazing job.” Ace and his leadership team met weekly to keep things on task and to assemble the workforce. “Fortunately, Champions had a lot of

good people working for them, and we hired a lot of them,” Ace said. Ace said results from a recent parent satisfaction survey showed “they were pleased with the flexibility and quality of the child care,” he said. In normal years, Ace said the nonprofit would grow by one site a year in the Mid-Columbia. “Doing 12 is a much bigger lift,” he said. “Average daily attendance (in Richland) was about 350.” Meanwhile, the Kennewick clubhouse opened in January. Called the Eerkes Family Branch, it’s a 23,000-square-foot building at 910 W. Seventh Place. It’s named after capital chairpersons Craig and Marilee Eerkes. The couple and their family were instrumental in fundraising for the new facility. “They assembled a team filled with corporate people,” Ace said. “They are a couple passionate about kids. This was very much a labor of love for them.” The $5.1 million project was fueled through public and private donations from local individuals and businesses. uCLUBS, Page 12

Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business • August 2019

CLUBS, From page 11 “It was a local grassroots effort,” Ace said. “Actually they raised $6.1 million, so we had security upgrades.” The Game Room serves as the “spoke of the hub” for the building, said Luke Hallowell, branch director. Summer hours are 1-5 p.m. During the school year, it’s open later. Off to one side is a smaller Learning Center, where kids can work in a quieter environment to write stories, play chess, solve puzzles or read. Next door is an art center with plenty of supplies. The Tech Club features 19 computers. Kids can work on coding or robotics, play Minecraft, or flex their STEM learning muscles. The kitchen abuts the Game Room and

has a multipurpose room next to it that can be used as a dining area, karaoke club, or a place to hold ping-pong or four-square tournaments. The kitchen team serves lunch and dinner to about 90 kids a day, Hallowell said. This is important, Ace said. “In the six square blocks around the Kennewick building, there are 1,000 kids who are 98 percent qualified for the reduced lunch program,” Ace said. At one end of the building sits the nonprofit’s only full-size gymnasium. “We have an athletic director,” Hallowell said. “We play a lot of basketball, soccer, tag, lacrosse, hockey, volleyball and flag football in here.” In addition, a Club Discovery preschool— run by a private entity—is housed

Nonprofits in the building. On the north end of the building is the Teen Room. “It’s designed for older kids to be older kids,” Hallowell said. It includes a pool table, leadership development room, personal development room, foosball table, Nintendo and PlayStation consoles, and a store that sells Italian sodas, snacks and chips. “We wanted to serve more teens than we do at our other clubs,” Ace said. “So we made the shift in our focus to serve teens here. At our other clubs, it’s about 25 percent teens. Here, it’s about 50 percent teens.” The clubhouse is tucked into a corner adjacent to numerous apartment complexes. “It serves the most diverse neighbor-

hood in the Tri-Cities,” Ace said. “This is the most diverse clubhouse we’ve seen.” But Ace added that the slow growth of kids coming has been a surprise. “We get about 110 to 120 kids here a day. We could do 220,” Hallowell said. “We’ve registered almost 500 members.” So Ace and his staff reached out to families in the surrounding area. “Some of them told us, ‘It looked so nice, we didn’t know it was for us. We thought it was for other kids,’ ” Ace said. There are play areas outside on the property too. Altogether, the new location employs four full-timers and nine part-timers. Since 1995, when the Boys and Girls Clubs of Benton and Franklin Counties started, the nonprofit’s growth has been slow and steady—up until the last year. With the addition of 12 Richland sites and the Kennewick club, the nonprofit now operates 27 sites for kids ages 0-18 around the region: • Four traditional clubs – two in Pasco, one in Prosser and the new one in Kennewick. • School-based clubs – six in Pasco, eight in Richland and two in West Richland. • Club Discovery preschools – two in Pasco, one in Kennewick and two in Richland. • Nurseries – one each in Richland, Kennewick and Pasco. • A Specialty Club – the Music and Arts Center in Kennewick. The coming year’s game plan for Ace and his staff may not be as extreme as last year’s. The leadership team would like to finetune the additions made in the past 12 months. “Membership growth is there,” Ace said. Average daily attendance to all buildings last year was 700 kids. This year, it’s 1,200, thanks to the new sites in Richland, West Richland and Kennewick. Ace said he’s learned a few things. “For 20 years, we’ve expanded in a reactive way,” he said. “We’d see an area needed help, and we’d react to it. It’s time to be proactive. And we’re going to make it happen.” One area the clubs’ teams will concentrate on is child safety and program quality. “The board also has a commitment to reinvest by bringing in some more leadership,” Ace said. “And we’re going to keep doing some community needs assessment. So the board is demonstrating the desire to be proactive.” In a community of about 300,000 people, Ace said there is more to do to help people in need. “I think we’ve been surprised about the severity of those challenges,” he said. Also coming up is the clubs’ annual corporate fundraiser event, Dinner with Friends, which features Shaun White, a three-time Olympic gold medalist known for his snowboarding and skateboarding prowess. It’s Nov. 7 at the Three Rivers Convention Center in Kennewick. Though the event is open to the public, most of the tables are corporate sponsored. Tables for eight cost $1,500. Individual tickets are $200 each. Boys and Girls Clubs of Benton and Franklin Counties: 2110 W. Henry St., Pasco; greatclubs.org; 509-543-9980.

Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business • August 2019

Nonprofits

Ownership change won’t affect services, CEO says Cancer center mission to provide quality care remains focus BY ANDREW KIRK

for Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business

Despite recent ownership challenges, the Tri-Cities Cancer Center is not going anywhere and there will be no noticeable difference in its operations or the care it provides to cancer patients. That’s the message Chief Executive Officer Chuck DeGooyer is working hard to share. It’s an important message because a lot recently has changed. On Aug. 1, the nonprofit center’s owners went from three to one. To best serve area patients, the cancer center needs the support of all three health care systems, so making sure the two former owners still feel the center is worthy of their patient referrals is DeGooyer’s top priority. The two former owners are the Kennewick Public Hospital District (Trios Health) and Our Lady of Lourdes at Pasco (Lourdes Health). Trios and Lourdes now are owned by LifePoint Health, a for-profit company based in Tennessee. When the Tri-Cities Cancer Center opened 25 years ago, it was built with the intent to be an independent nonprofit clinic, DeGooyer said. To protect its mission, the cancer center’s bylaws state its owners must be nonprofits. Since that time when each of the three hospitals contributed about half a million dollars, none has contributed any new money, nor taken it out. Donations from community partners and fundraising has brought in more than $20 million to keep the center running and expand its operations and services. LifePoint Health’s “for-profit” status made it ineligible to be an owner. After brainstorming a variety of options, LifePoint Health announced Aug. 1 it would pull out, leaving Kadlec Regional Medical Center, which is owned by Providence St. Joseph’s Health as the sole owner. The ownership change requires Kadlec to buy the remaining shares, triggering a valuation of the center, DeGooyer said. It’s a process that could take up to 180 days. LifePoint Health was contacted for this story, but Michelle Augusty, vice president of communications, declined to comment. LifePoint Health issued the following statement: “Trios Health and Lourdes Health are committed to continue working with the Tri-Cities Cancer Center for the benefit of cancer patients, families and the community.” The ownership turmoil won’t affect patients, physicians or volunteers in any way, DeGooyer said. The three hospitals always allowed the Tri-Cities Cancer Center to run inde-

pendently and Providence will continue to do so, DeGooyer said. “We’re not being absorbed by Kadlec,” he said. It won’t even affect what services are in- or out-of-network for patients. The center has always negotiated its own contracts with insurance companies independent of Kadlec, Trios or Lourdes, he said. The center’s foundation has its own marketing team and they will continue to promote the foundation’s events, initiatives and programs as always, he added. Likewise, volunteers and financial support still are needed. What’s changed is the connection with two of the three hospital communities. “When you lose the connection, at least that ownership connection, that’s pretty significant,” DeGooyer said. “Will there still be that connection for how patients are referred from those two entities we’ve enjoyed for 25 years?” Referrals come from relationships, he said. Right now patients come from all over the region. Up to 25 percent of patients do not live in the Tri-Cities. Now that DeGooyer won’t be working as closely as he worked with the former top executives at Lourdes and Trios, he said he’ll need to strengthen business relationships with local managers. The Tri-Cities Cancer Center was created, and still operates today, to provide

comprehensive care close to home, DeGooyer said. The cancer center saves patients travel and lodging expenses, not to mention stress. Even driving around town for blood tests, Chuck DeGooyer pharmacy prescriptions, screening tests and treatment clinics can be a strain, he said. The center aims to be a “one-stop” comprehensive facility, making treatment as comfortable as possible. While physicians can refer patients to any number of providers, DeGooyer said he believes the cancer center is the best choice, regardless of what health network they belong to. As part of its effort to provide the best care, the center achieved the APEX Accreditation of Excellence for ASTR—a newly-created “gold standard” accreditation for cancer-treatment centers—in 2016. DeGooyer said his team is actively working to renew the accreditation in 2020. The breast cancer program is also accredited and the cancer center’s physicians are board certified. These are important qualifications to assure referring physicians their patients will receive state-of-the-art quality care at the center,

DeGooyer said. And as a nonprofit cancer center, the staff is also committed to providing services regardless of ability to pay. A small percentage of patients have their bills completely forgiven as a charitable write off, he said. It costs the center a lot of money, but not treating people who lack the ability to pay is not an option, he said. “We care for all people,” DeGooyer said. The center’s continuing nonprofit status and independence, and now having a sole owner that is nonprofit, means the center’s profits can be invested back into the facility, its equipment and offerings. That has been key to its success for the past 25 years and it will continue, DeGooyer explained. More good news is Kadlec has announced plans to upgrade the pharmacy it leases space for within the cancer center. The $935,588 remodel will update hoods for mixing the chemicals used in chemotherapy. Kadlec’s hematology and oncology clinic has leased space and provided its own pharmacy services to patients since 1999, DeGooyer said. The center also leases space to Tri-Cities Laboratory so patients can get blood tests in the same location as their treatment. Bouten Construction of Richland is the general contractor for the pharmacy remodel.

Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business • August 2019

Nonprofits

Focus on children leads Kadlec provider to Guatemala BY JEFF MORROW

for Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business

Athalia Clower has always wanted to help people. And she has done so for more than 25 years. “I have been a certified physician assistant (PA-C) since 1993,” said Clower in an email interview. “I started working for Kadlec during March of 2010.” For Clower, this has been a high calling. But so has her charity work. She said in January 2010, she and her husband Randy, also a PA-C, stayed in a remote village in the jungle of Guatemala, “training a team of Kekchi Indians on first

aid, assessment of conditions that need transport to the hospital (which is about six hours away by motorized vehicle), evaluation and treatment of dehydration in infants and adults, basic prenatal care, and other helpful medical/community health topics.” For several years, the Clowers have been part of a group of Tri-Citians and a Korean water engineer who have made multiple trips to the jungle of Guatemala to take medicines, eye care, the Bible and clean water. It became clear to the group that it needed more of a presence in the country to make a bigger impact. And for the Clowers, this became an

even higher calling. It’s called The Ezra Project, and it’s run in a small town in Guatemala. “One day in 2011, God told Athalia Clower me to start a nonprofit,” Clower said. “I thought it was to have medical missions to go to Sudan. Usually we had the medical missions through our church (Richland Baptist Church), but Sudan would be too much liability for anybody.” Guatemala became the goal. So in 2011, The Ezra Project was formed in the United States. At the same time, the group formed El Proyecto Ezra de Guatemala to have a legal identity in Guatemala. Guatemala is in Central America, and it shares borders with Mexico, Belize, Honduras and El Salvador; the Pacific and Atlantic oceans touch its beaches. It also is a poor country. Clower said she was offered at one point an abandoned baby to bring back from Guatemala, and she thought it would be better to have a home for many of these children. Many babies in Guatemala are abandoned after birth. They are found in fields, latrines or if they are born in the hospital, they are never picked up. Many infants and children die of pneumonia and diarrheal infections. “A guy offered our church a piece of land to build the home,” Clower said. “The church thought it would be too much liability to absorb, and we decided Ezra (project) could get the land to work on the home. The land fell through.” Clower said her group encountered opposition from indigenous groups who requested water, home and electricity in exchange of allowing use of the roads. “We decided they would never be satisfied and we left the land to go rent a house in town,” Clower said. “This is a very common occurrence. Roads are blocked, you are locked in and have to meet their demands.” The Ezra Project has four missions: • Get water into the village. • Set up medical and dental services there. • Open a home for mothers with children so babies aren’t left out to die due to a lack of money and a place to stay. • Teach people the Bible and give them the knowledge of salvation. The last seven years have been a grind. The group has worked with Guatemalan government agencies to obtain a license to be able to provide the home for abandoned babies and children—finally getting the license late in January. The paperwork and other requirements were quite extensive; and the daily administration of the home involves a lot of procedures and documentation. The license is very much needed to avoid accusations of kidnapping; and to have a legitimate, accountable, transparent, and legal presence in both countries. In May, the group was going to open the

doors, then found out there is no water in the entire town. “Water is used as a political weapon,” Clower said. “So, our water engineer friend, Daniel Kwon from ACOWI (A Cup of Water International) gifted us two well digging machines that we plan to use after elections are over. Primary elections were June 16 and a second round (took) place on Aug. 11. The political situation is another long story.” Clower said the group just bought a much-needed truck. “A mechanic friend checked seven trucks before we bought No. 8. We were looking to buy a used vehicle to go back and forth from our town to the city (Guatemala City),” Clower said. “Due to the roads, which are pretty steep and full of holes, we need a standard, diesel, 4-by-4. The weather is very hot. The traffic is crazy. Looking around, people work very hard, they are always smiling and friendly, although facing many hardships.” Yet the project is so close to reality that Clower left her job at the West Richland Primary Clinic in July for Guatemala. She says The Ezra Project is now in Guatemala to open The Isaiah 58 Home. “We will have to make more modifications to our small rental so we can store and purify large quantities of water,” she said. “In the home, we also have a very simple one-room clinic.” Clower said the group is licensed to house seven children up to the age of 10. “After the government sees how we are doing, they can allow us to have more,” she said. “We made the paperwork and arrangement with the government that if the children are or become 10, they can remain in the home.” While she will be spending most of her time at this clinic, Clower says she will eventually come back to the Tri-Cities for short stays. “We have a saying, ‘Guatemala, where plans go to die,’ ” Clower said. “Fortunately, God always turns things to better than we had planned. As of now, the main goal is to get the water system ready so we can have kids. “When people from our group can come and supervise while I am gone, I will go (back) to work,” she continued. “I have an amazing husband that hope is with me soon, either here or there.” Meanwhile, she knows this is what she was meant to do. “Anyone who comes to Guatemala and sees the situation some of the children face would have a heart to intervene,” Clower said. “The Ezra Project is not only me. We have a board of directors and many donors who believe, with God’s help, we can make a difference for the children, their families and community. “The Ezra Project is the result of God leading a group of ordinary people step by step to help children in our little town close to the mountains,” Clower said. “If it is one child he has in mind, it is OK. Giving one child a childhood, food, a home, love, and truth is worth our efforts, which are very enjoyable and exciting.”  The Ezra Project: ezra-Guatemala. org; Facebook.

Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business • August 2019

Nonprofits

United Way launches annual campaign, census outreach BY ELSIE PUIG

for Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business

United Way of Benton and Franklin Counties is kickstarting its annual fundraising campaign in September. And it is armed with hard data showing where the two counties it serves are falling behind. Last year, United Way recruited a group of volunteer analysts to identify key data points in hopes of measuring the overall health and safety—or areas of greatest need—in the community, like health, financial stability, basic needs, and childhood and youth success. The results serve as a community report card and way to allocate dollars and prioritize funding to nonprofits working in those areas. For example, 44 percent of students meet fourth-grade math standards, which is worse than the statewide average, and 42 percent of total youths arrested per 1,000 youths were ages 10-17. “If you look at these indicators, the more red lights we see are in children and youth,” said LoAnn Ayers, president and chief executive officer of the Kennewickbased United Way. “That doesn’t speak well for future employees, future customers and future voters.” And the need is great. United Way only has $1 to give for every $3 requested. “We have more need than money,” Ayers said. She said issues like hunger, homelessness and mental health do not appear in the report card because there are no publicly available data sources measuring those things—but there is still a need. “Public health and safety systems are reporting these things are a problem, but we don’t have a good way of measuring it,” Ayers said. Ayers said United Way’s mission is simple—to use people’s donations to fill

Courtesy Family Learning Center High school students from refugee families visit Three Rivers Place to tour and learn about a career in nursing as part of the Family Learning Center program. The center, which helps Tri-City refugees thrive in their new home, is one of the nonprofits supported by United Way’s fundraising efforts.

critical funding gaps in local services. “We’re like an investment firm for people’s philanthropy,” she said. United Way operates with 30 board members, a staff of 12, and an annual operating budget of $677,000. Last year it raised $3.1 million, which was slightly down from 2017, due to corporate changeovers from some of its biggest health care donors. This year, the goal is to meet or beat last year’s numbers. Ayers is worried that an upcoming presidential election might hinder efforts. “Hanford contractors may change. Philanthropy really depends on employee confidence, if they are worried about their job, they don’t give,” Ayers said. Last year’s campaign funded 23 local agencies and 38 programs helping more than 58,000 people in Benton and

Franklin counties through two-year community impact grants. More than 40 percent of the money raised goes to the programs in the areas of greatest need, while 43 percent represents money donors designate to one or more specific nonprofits. The current funding cycle runs through June 2020. Requests for proposals for the upcoming two-year cycle open in January.

United Way helped fund projects such as Senior Life Resources’ Meals on Wheels for Those Under 60 program, housing assistance for Domestic Violence Services, refugee high school support provided by the Family Learning Center and Benton Franklin Head Start’s school readiness program. “Many of our high school girls want to become nurses, so we took them to visit Nalina (DeLaMora) at Three Rivers Place to learn about working in an assisted living facility,” said a staff member at the Family Learning Center, who asked not to be named. “Nalina shared about her journey to her current job as the marketing director for the facility. She worked as a home care aide while working on her bachelor’s degree in college. Nalina was a great example for our girls, helping them better understand the work opportunities in the U.S.” This year, United Way set aside 10 percent of its total pool of donations to small nonprofits that may not have the means or budget to perform an audit on their finances but are still doing great work. An example of that is Therapeutic Riding for the Tri-Cities, which used money from United Way to buy a horse simulator for clients who aren’t physically able to get on a real horse. One of United Way’s flagship programs, Attendance Matters, aims to uUNITED WAY, Page 16

Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business • August 2019

UNITED WAY, From page 15 reduce absenteeism at local schools. Through the Lunch Buddy program, it pairs local mentors with students with high rates of absenteeism. Ayers said there’s a need for more volunteers.

A push for a complete census

United Way will spearhead efforts to get a complete count for the 2020 census. The agency applied for and recently received a $40,000 grant from the Washington Census Equity Fund to work on outreach, communication and training. “Federal dollars are driven by census counts. In 2010, we were 25 percent to 27 percent undercounted. We looked a lot smaller to funding sources,” Ayers said.

That percentage is expected to improve with intervention and a public awareness campaign. United Way will use the grant money to create public service announcements and multimedia campaigns to equip employers, pastors and leaders with the tools they need to educate. It also hopes to plan events to allow census takers to reach the homeless population. The Tri-Cities Counts committee launches this month. Fears concerning identity theft, a growing immigrant population, limited access to technology, shorter attention spans and distrust of the government could prevent people from filling out the census. “The hardest to count are families of

Nonprofits

$2,000

The amount the state could lose per person in federal program funding for every person not counted in the 2020 census. According to the Office of Financial Management

young children, those with limited language and education, and people who are refugees and immigrants,” Ayers said. The state Office of Financial Management estimates that for every person not counted in the 2020 census, the state would lose nearly $2,000 per person per year in federal program funding.

“If you’re an individual, or family, that affects Pell Grants, free and reduced lunch, WIC (a federal nutrition program for women, infants, and children) and SNAP (federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), and public housing. For business that could mean less money for public infrastructure and transportation, and business loans,” Ayers said. “We’re going to continue to grow, but have less access to money. It’s super important that people understand that,” Ayers added. United Way of Benton and Franklin Counties: 401 N. Young St., Kennewick; 509-783-4102; unitedwaybfco.com; Facebook.

Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business • August 2019

Nonprofits

Center for the blind director ready to address growing need BY ANDREW KIRK

for Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business

As Tri-City baby boomers age, the number finding themselves losing vision is expected to balloon. One in six Americans develop a visual impairment after age 70, according to National Center for Health Statistics. It’s a scary statistic people do their best to ignore, said Paul Shane, the new executive director at Edith Bishel Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired in Kennewick. In his view, it would be wise to prepare for visual impairment now. Formerly chief executive officer of the California Council of the Blind, Shane, who joined the Edith Bishel Center in May, said the center’s potential impact in Southeast Washington excites him. He has 25 years of experience working in social services with 12 as an executive director, and holds a master’s in nonprofit administration. Started in 1988 by families and physicians wanting more resources for retirement-age residents with vision impairment, the program found a home when Edith Bishel donated land and funding to build a facility across from Kamiakin High School. Today the center offers services for people of all ages in Benton, Franklin, Walla Walla, Columbia and Klickitat counties. The center offers programs for young people, too. It offers pre-employment transition workshops for students, oneon-one computer mentoring and support training for parents and siblings. Shane said his background running a YMCA and center for at-risk teens east of Sacramento will be an asset in expanding those programs. But it is Southeast Washington’s growing elderly population that presents the Edith Bishel Center a real opportunity to make a difference, Shane said. Shane said he often is introduced during community functions as someone helping “those blind people,” as if it is a small population of “others.” In reality, he said, the majority of people will become visually impaired or have a close relative who will. And if the country doesn’t curb its childhood obesity epidemic, the problem will only get worse, he added. Obesity increases rates of diabetes, which causes diabetic retinopathy, one of the fastest-growing causes of vision problems in the U.S., he said. “No one wants to think about it, but they’re going to need our services at some point in their lives. Right now we’re the only provider in a six-county region. We’re a grassroots provider and we struggle to keep the lights on day to day,” he said. The center operates on a $250,000 annual budget and employs three people. Shane has hit the ground running. He’s already secured a grant to bring two AmeriCorps volunteers to the center to assist the two staff members. He’s also booked a well-known blind come-

AT A GLANCE Annual budget: $250,000+ Number of volunteer hours:

744 hours in 2018 Value of volunteer hours: $90,000/year Clients served regularly on annual basis: 250+

More than 3,240 individuals have provided 26,000 services in past 29 years dian to perform at the nonprofit’s annual fundraiser in September. His No. 1 goal for 2019 is securing more diverse funding for the center’s most impactful service: teaching people who become blind or impaired how to live independently and possibly return to the workforce. A state grant currently funds this work across the six counties, but government funding goes up and down. Plus, only a fraction of the people who qualify for the center’s services are accessing them, Shane said. Increased funding would help volunteers and physicians reach more people—and it is an essential service for those who need it, he said. “In my experience in California, when a person loses sight it takes five to 15 years to reclaim your life on a psychological level,” he said. “You have to come to terms with who you are now, what you want and how you’re going to get there.” Dr. Mark Michael, president of the center’s board of directors, said in 40 years of practice in the Tri-Cities, he’s seen people become isolated after developing vision problems. “They lose their sense of worth. They think their life is over. We just want to prevent that kind of scenario from happening to anyone,” he said. “We do that currently without regard for their ability to pay.” Michael said the new executive director will be an asset to the center. “I am excited to have Paul Shane as the Edith Bishel Center’s new executive director,” he said. “His passion for the blind and low-vision population will help us to

Photo by Andrew Kirk Paul Shane is the new director of Edith Bishel Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired in Kennewick. As Tri-City baby boomers age, he predicts an increasing demand for the center’s services. The nonprofit serves more than 250 people annually.

expand the center’s services, improve the center’s sustainability and to position the Edith Bishel Center as the premier center for serving the blind and low-vision population here in Southeast Washington state.” Additional funding could allow the nonprofit to expand its existing youth offerings as well, Shane said.

Shane said he learned while working with at-risk youth that all youth are at risk in some way. All children are vulnerable if they decide to handle challenges in a negative way. “Throw blindness in in some way and it impacts the degree of risk that youth is experiencing,” he said. uEDITH BISHEL, Page 18

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Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business • August 2019

EDITH BISHEL, From page 17 More community partners also would help introduce businesses to how capable those with blindness or vision impairment really are. In California, Shane said his clients battled a stigma with employers assuming what they could or couldn’t do without giving them a chance to prove themselves. In other scenarios, capable workers were kept at entry-level positions long after they proved their worth because the employer viewed them as a charity case. Vanessa Pruitt of Kennewick uses the center often to get help with technology that allows her to use a computer. “(The center) provides a valuable contribution by enhancing the abilities

and lives of its blind members and partakes in essential work in our community,” she said.

Dinner in the Dark fundraiser

Comedian Tommy Edison is headlining the Center’s annual fundraiser in September. He pokes fun at stigmas and challenges people’s assumptions about the blind in a hilarious manner. The Sept. 28 fundraiser at the Pasco Red Lion Hotel and Conference Center, “Dinner in the Dark,” invites attendees to enjoy a meal and the evening’s entertainment while wearing a blindfold. Aside from the state grant to fund independent living services and several small grants, “Dinner in the Dark” is the center’s primary funding.

Nonprofits This year’s event will feature a VIP mingle before dinner at 6 p.m. allowing attendees to meet Edison and KNDU TV guest emcees anchor Melanie Carter and meteorologist Monty Webb. An online auction will be open prior to the event and a traditional silent auction will be held during the event. Dancing and drinks will be offered. Cost is $50 for adults, $22 for children 10 and under. To buy tickets, call the center at 509-735-0699. The Edith Bishel Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired: 628 N. Arthur St., Kennewick, 509-735-0699; edithbishelcenter.org. Hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Thursday.

Nonprofit doesn’t mean no profit

Someone recently commented to me how they didn’t want to donate to a charity event because the organization had a paid staff. Being from the nonprofit industry, I wanted to know more about why they felt this way. The answer: the organization was a nonprofit, meaning nobody should be paid (at least that’s the way they always understood it). Honestly, I was stunned. Are we still battling this misconception? One of the Michele Roth Michele Roth main differences Creative Services (aside from taxexempt status) GUEST COLUMN between forprofit and nonprofit organizations is purpose. A for-profit’s purpose is to make money and distribute any income exceeding expenses (profits) to individuals or shareholders. A nonprofit organization’s purpose is also to make money, but income is used to further a cause and provide a public benefit. Funds are either put back into the services it provides, a foundation, other nonprofit organizations or into program-related investments. So, why do people like the one I mentioned feel that nonprofits shouldn’t recruit, hire and compensate talented individuals or “make money”? As Dan Pallotta mentioned in his TED Talk, “The Way We Think About Charity Is Dead Wrong,” it might be due to the things we’ve been taught about giving, charity and the nonprofit sector. First, let’s talk about operating costs— also known as overhead—that includes utilities, rent, office equipment, supplies, etc. These are essential to running any business. So are staff members. Current challenges faced by nonprofits, quite honestly, mirror the for-profit world. They’ve been the same for several years: standing out in a competitive industry, establishing goals, reporting results with complete transparency, building a solid infrastructure, overcoming skepticism and continuing to grow all within a limited budget. This takes expertise. Let’s face it—most of us have been a part of that volunteeronly group. There is a place for this, but not when raising thousands or even millions of dollars for your community while adhering to the checklist above. Bottom line—qualified management and oversight and proper staffing can dramatically increase both effectiveness and outcome. This holds true for both nonprofit and forprofit business organizations. Secondly, let’s look at marketing. Another point of Pallotta’s is, the forprofit sector is known and accepted to “spend, spend, spend on advertising,” but when it comes to nonprofits, most don’t want to see any donation dollars go to marketing efforts, only to “the needy.” He uNONPROFITS, Page 22

Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business • August 2019

Nonprofits

Richland folk fest pays tribute to power of music BY LAURA KOSTAD

TUMBLEWEED MUSIC FESTIVAL

for Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business

The 23rd annual Tumbleweed Music Festival in Richland Labor Day weekend pays homage to a folk music legend who would have celebrated his 100th birthday this year. It seems fitting for the Tri-Cities to celebrate Pete Seeger, an American folk singer who won a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. The banjo-strumming Rock and Roll Hall of Famer is the inspiration for the birth of the Tri-City folk music advocacy group. Micki Perry and her late husband John Perry founded Three Rivers Folklife Society, or 3RFS, in 1988 after befriending Seeger in the 1970s. “It was such a magical time to get to know someone that we had always admired and looked up to and whose music we loved,” said Micki, who is now in her ’70s, but still serves as Tumbleweed’s program chair. John, who worked in the nuclear field, moved his family from Beacon, New York, to the Tri-Cities in 1976 to pursue a job with the Washington Public Power Supply System. The couple helped to form 3RFS after discovering there was no official folk-centered group in the area. Back in Beacon, the Perrys had been loyal followers and close friends of Seeger and his wife Toshi. The Perrys were directly involved in many environmental activism efforts, including the Seegers’ Hudson River Sloop Clearwater nonprofit, which advocated for the cleanup of the then heavily polluted Hudson River. In 1966, in association with the Clearwater Sloop campaign, the Seegers started an annual environmental music festival that is still held each summer; it’s now called the Great Hudson River

When: Begins at 6:30 p.m.

Aug. 30. Performances run from 11 a.m. to 6:45 p.m. Aug. 31 and Sept. 1 during Labor Day weekend. Where: Howard Amon Park, adjacent to Richland Community Center, 500 Amon Park Drive. Contact: tumbleweedfest.com; Facebook @tumbleweedfest; Instagram and Twitter @tweedmusicfest. Three Rivers Folklife Society: 3rfs.org. Courtesy David Carson Steve Ackerman and Mimi Geibel perform as Waterbound at last year’s Tumbleweed Music Festival. This year’s event is Labor Day weekend and they’ll be performing again.

Revival. The Tumbleweed Music Festival began in 1997. Folk music rose to popularity in the 1960s. Micki defines it as “a huge umbrella that embraces blues to bluegrass, Celtic to old-time, and singer-songwriters writing their own stuff.” Seeger, one of those talented musicians, died Jan. 27, 2014, at the age of 94. In honor of what would have been his centennial birthday, the theme of this year’s Tumbleweed Music Festival is “The Power of Song,” a nod to both the title of the 2007 PBS documentary on Seeger’s life and influence, as well as music’s ability to inspire social change. Several of the workshops at this year’s festival pay tribute to his legacy. Festivalgoers will have the opportunity to attend workshops such as “For Pete’s Sake: Singalong,” “Songs of Hope and Community,” “Pete Seeger Kids Songs,” and more than 30 others. This year’s Tumbleweed festival fea-

tures more than 100 free-to-the-public acoustic concerts taking place across two indoor and five outdoor stages. A variety of musical artists will perform, from amateurs to traveling professionals, with a new concert beginning roughly every 40 minutes on each stage. “If you come to Tumbleweed, you’re sure to find some music that you will love and not know you needed in your life,” said David Carson, who has been volunteering at the festival for about 16 years and is this year’s festival lead coordinator. Since almost all of Tumbleweed’s performances are free—except for the $14 Saturday night headliner concert fundraiser featuring Cosmo’s Dream, The Drunken Maidens, and Tom Rawson and Ellen van der Hoeven, and a $10 Sunday evening contra dance—Howard Amon Park will remain open to the public throughout the weekend, enabling parkgoers to go about their holiday activities with live music as their backdrop. The festival is put on by the nonprofit

3RFS “to support folk music and bring music and events to people,” according to Carson. 3RFS is all-volunteer-run. It organizes and sponsors non-smoking, alcohol-free monthly musical and artistic performances and open mics at local coffeehouses, as well as contra dances, song circles and more. “When it comes down to putting on the festival, our volunteers are the bedrock and the lifeblood,” Carson said. Volunteers can sign up on the Tumbleweed festival website. With an estimated 4,000 festival attendees per day and growing gradually year by year, Tumbleweed seems to be going strong, Carson said. For the first time, this year Tumbleweed will broadcast live footage from the free performances on Twitter and Instagram as part of an effort to connect with the younger generation. Tumbleweed organizers agreed that engaging youth has become an ever more pressing challenge as the years progress and the folk generation ages. uTUMBLEWEED, Page 23

Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business • August 2019

NONPROFITS

TOGETHER, WE CAN END ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE SUNDAY, OCT. 13 Columbia Park Bandshell Kennewick, WA Registration at 12 p.m. Ceremony at 1:30 p.m. Walk starts at 2 p.m.

Join the Tri-Cities and Prosser Edward Jones team as they Walk to End Alzheimer’s! To join the Edward Jones team or to donate, visit www.alz.org/edwardjones Team name: Tri Cities and Prosser Edward Jones • Team ID: 539977 Edward Jones serves as the exclusive Walk to End Alzheimer’s National Presenting Sponsor. Edward Jones has committed cash, in-kind support and associate fundraising that will exceed $12 million over ﬁve years to support the mission of the Alzheimer’s Association. Alzheimer’s Association Walk to End Alzheimer’s® is the world’s largest event to raise awareness and funds for Alzheimer’s care, support and research. The Alzheimer’s Association worked with Edward Jones to create the Edward Jones Alzheimer’s Research Fund, a targeted eﬀort to advance research toward methods of treatment, prevention and, ultimately, a cure at a quicker pace. The Alzheimer’s Association also provides educational programs to associates at Edward Jones and will work to ensure Edward Jones associates are equipped to share Alzheimer’s Association resources with their clients.

Local Edward Jones Financial Advisors and Branch Oﬃce Administrators participating in the Walk to End Alzheimer’s: Joy Behen Jan Ulmen Gabe Boruﬀ Ryan Brault, CFP® Ardette Sykes Travis Clifton Chrystie Billow Dustin Clontz

Robin Haller Trevor Fehrenbacher Gracie Bartoldus April Hulse Jay Freeman Susan Rector Arianna Harold Harper Jones III

Amy Kennedy Kriss Kennedy Mandie Leslie Tonia Godina Shelley Kennedy, CFP® Erica Clontz Shasta Meyers

Jeﬀ LaBeﬀ Irene Duncan Chad McDonald Lynne Antonson Ian Napier Steve Ricketts Laurie McDonald Sue Ann Melone

Aaron Russell Melinda Burchﬁeld Terry Sliger Terrie Wemhoﬀ Tom Steinert Wendy King-Hastings McKenzie Thompson Evan Tidball

Lori Baxter Harry Van Dyken Nicole Holgen Carson Willingham T.J. Willingham Bobbie Prescott Tara Wiswall Merri Buck

Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business • August 2019

NONPROFITS

Private family foundations can get donors, kids involved Financially successful people often contemplate the highest and best use of their assets. In some cases, those same individuals have decided that the natural objects of their bounty (i.e., the children) already have enough resources, or that mom and pop have otherwise adequately provided for their children. Alternatively, some of these successful people have no Beau Ruff apparent heirs Cornerstone to inherit the Wealth Strategies assets. If these GUEST COLUMN same successful individuals are charitably-minded, the private foundation is an excellent option to fulfill the individual’s objective. This column provides a primer on the private family foundation. How is the foundation set up? The donor works with his or her professional team—financial advisor, attorney, and accountant—to formulate a mission and vision for the foundation that will meet the tax-exempt criteria set out by the IRS. What is the legal and tax structure? A nuanced discussion of legal form and tax structure is beyond the scope of this column. But, in simple terms, a private foundation can be legally structured as either a charitable trust or a nonprofit corporation. Either form falls under applicable state law for the applicable form—trust law for trusts, or corporate law for corporations. Further, a private foundation can be structured as either an operating foundation or a non-operating foundation. After formation—as either a trust or a non-profit corporation—the entity must seek the tax exemption status with the IRS through application. If approved, the tax-exempt status usually runs from the date of application so that money or property contributed can be immediately booked as a charitable contribution with a corresponding tax deduction. Who runs the private foundation? The private foundation can be run by the donor, or it can be run by a professional staff, or both. Effectively, the donor can choose to what extent they wish to be involved. Sometimes, the donor is heavily involved in the management of the foundation. Other times, the donor finds paid professionals to take on some aspect of the administration of the foundation. For example, the private foundation might be established to provide scholarships. And, the donor may only want to pick the awardees and present the gifts to the awardees. That same donor would then pay a professional to administer the foundation, advertise the scholarship, develop the application process and packet, and deliver those same documents to the donors.

Get the kids involved. The private foundation can be a great way to get the donor and the children involved in the mission of the private foundation. The children can even have paid positions within the foundation, based on the child’s education, experience and job description. How much money do you need to start a private foundation? There is no magic number that determines whether a private foundation makes sense. But, practically speaking, the private foundation can be costly to set up—mainly attorney and accountant fees in setting up the organization and applying for the tax-exempt status. Additionally, it will typically have ongoing maintenance costs—again, mainly attorney and accountant fees. It might also incur other administrative fees if the donor wants to hire someone to tackle any of the administrative duties. Of course, the more of the workload handled by the donor, the less the fees incurred. As a very fluid number, this writer begins looking at a private foundation when the donor can contribute somewhere between $500,000 and $1 million. What are the alternatives to a private foundation? If a donor is not able to give the amounts described above or if the donor just doesn’t want the hassle of forming a new private foundation, great alternatives are available. A donor-advised fund, or DAF, is one option. A DAF allows an individual to donate to a charity (the DAF) and then control the distribution of funds from the DAF over time to one or more 501(c)(3) organizations. Like the private foundation, the donor can get his or her children involved and appoint them as “advisors” or alternate advisors to the fund so that the child ends up directing the charitable gifts from the DAF. Another alternative is a community foundation. Often, a community foundation can fulfill the charitable intent and mission of a donor for the donor without the private foundation. As an example, assume the donors from above want to establish a scholarship for a local college. Instead of setting up a private foundation, the donor can make a gift to a community foundation with instruction on how the scholarship should be administered. Then, the community foundation follows the instructions and implements the scholarship as instructed. Interested individuals should talk to their financial advisor, attorney, or accountant to see if the private foundation is a good option.  Beau Ruff, a licensed attorney, is the director of planning at Cornerstone Wealth Strategies, a full-service independent investment management and financial planning firm in Kennewick.

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Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business • August 2019

Nonprofits NONPROFITS, From page 18 then challenges us by stating, “as if the money invested in advertising could not bring in dramatically greater sums of money to serve the needy.” Every nonprofit needs to be a marketing organization. Are we OK with learning about the organization’s mission and goals and how we can help through donating or volunteering? Do we feel good when we hear a testimonial about a kid’s success through a program or service? Do we love hearing that our donations helped to feed struggling families or provided heath care for a veteran? Of course we do. Compassion is a human instinct. All of these examples are marketing. Another form of marketing is fundraising events. More and more, nonprofits are leveraging their for-profit partners’ marketing teams. These marketing budgets can help support a fundraising event through sponsorship; offsetting venue costs, hiring a guest speaker, décor, food, entertainment and other event-related costs. Marketing dollars are not charitable contributions; they are meant for marketing and must be used that way, therefore do not take away from charitable giving. Next time you hear about or attend a nonprofit organization’s fundraising event, don’t immediately assume that donor dollars are funding it. Lastly, I want to mention alternative revenue streams. Typically, we see nonprofits raising money through annual or capital campaigns, grants, donor support, foundations, endowment funds, planned giving and events. It’s a challenge to raise enough to meet the needs and manage day-to-day operations, so many nonprofits are looking to other sources to generate income. We’re beginning to see more of what’s known as an L3C, or low-profit LLC, which must have a nonprofit purpose, but may generate income. For years, we’ve seen similar models from organizations like Goodwill (retail store) and Girls Scouts (cookie sales) and more recently from Columbia Industries. We would never criticize a for-profit company for making money. Why would we not support an effort that is mission driven and socially beneficial? I encourage you to watch Pallotta’s TED Talk and to go to overheadmyth. com. Both (from 2013, by the way) are highly relevant and insightful. Imagine if the focus on our nonprofits could shift from just low overhead to high performance and research. Without adapting and investing in finding a permanent solution, we’ll never end the fight against hunger, homelessness, cancer, illiteracy, domestic violence… the list goes on and on. After all, isn’t that what nonprofits are here for?  Michele Roth is the owner of Michele Roth Creative Services, providing marketing and fundraising consulting and support for small businesses and nonprofits. She lives in the Tri-Cities and has worked in the nonprofit sector for 15 years in development, fundraising, communications and program management.

Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business • August 2019

Nonprofits uBUSINESS BRIEFS New nonprofit forms to focus on mental health

A new nonprofit dedicated to raising money to help meet the unmet needs of mental health in the community has formed. Called Heads Up Tri-Cities, it was founded in mid-June by a group of women focused on mental health and the need to make a difference. Formed by former Lourdes Foundation board members as well as former staff, Heads Up Tri-Cities aims to support mental health needs and will develop creative solutions through collaboration. Fundraising efforts, as well as educational outreach, will be the organization’s focus, said Wendee Bodnar, the group’s president. Two organizations the group will be collaborating with on its first of many fun-

draisers are Lutheran Community Services and Emmaus Counseling Services. Kicking off a season of fundraising, Heads Up Tri-Cities is planning a tailgate fundraiser Sept. 29 at the Benton County Fairgrounds in Kennewick. Patty Wagon Taps will deliver beverages and several food trucks will serve up food. This 21-and-over event has limited seating. Table sponsorships to seat eight are $500 and available by calling Bodnar at 509531-2401.

WSU fundraising hits $145.8M in fundraising

Washington State University has raised $145.8 million in fiscal year 2019, the third-highest total in WSU history and the most raised without the aid of a fundraising campaign. The money came from nearly 49,000 donors. Among the programs expected to

WINE, From page 9

TUMBLEWEED, From page 19

he welcomes. This has been a big year for Palencia. This spring, his company was named 2019 Pacific Northwest Winery of the Year by Wine Press Northwest magazine. While he was operating in tight quarters in Walla Walla, at about 1,600 square feet, he’s able to stretch out in the TriCities, with more than 4,500 square feet in Kennewick, which includes a production and tasting room. In West Richland, he has upward of 1,600 square feet, primarily in the tasting room, as production all takes place in Kennewick. The best part, Palencia says, is additional room for his visitors. “I love hospitality, and I was not able to have seating for my customers and really host them the way I wanted to until now. It’s really, really amazing. It’s a good feeling,” he said. He not only wants to have tasting room visitors sit instead of leaning up against a tasting bar, but to offer food service. At Bodega Palencia, he is considering serving tapas-style foods that will highlight the Spanish-style wines he features. With two other wineries within a distance of about one football field, Pacific Rim and Double Canyon, along with a dozen tasting rooms around the corner on Red Mountain, there should be plenty of traffic to Palencia’s new location. ••• A wine from a west-side winemaker using Mid-Columbia grapes won best in show at the annual Washington State Wine Competition. Amelia Wynn Winery’s 2016 Aragón Red Wine, a $40 Grenache using grapes from the Horse Heaven Hills south of the Yakima Valley, took top honors. Amelia Wynn is a small producer on Bainbridge Island, west of downtown Seattle. The judging, which dates to the early ’80s, is operated by Great Northwest Wine, a media company based in Kennewick. The competition also funds a scholarship for winemaking students at Yakima Valley College.

Micki noted that most of the performers also are older, in their ’50s and ’60s. “It’s something that most folklife societies are trying to deal with …,” Carson said. “Once (youth) do come, and experience Tumbleweed and hear something they like, they are more likely to come back.” “It’s why we started having Friday night concerts about four years ago,” Micki said. “(The) concert is made up of younger, up and coming performers…maybe as many as 10 groups performing this year,”

 Andy Perdue, founding editor of Wine Press Northwest magazine, is the wine columnist for The Seattle Times.

benefit are WSU’s College of Veterinary Medicine and the WSU Honors College.

uNEW HIRE Reading Foundation hires new executive director

The Children’s Reading Foundation of the Mid-Columbia has hired a new executive director. Elizabeth Barnes will begin her new role Aug. 30. Barnes previously served as the elementary and early childElizabeth Barnes hood principal at Colegio Interamericano in Guatemala. Carson added. “We’ve been trying to work out some ways to reach out to a younger crowd.” One way is by getting Tri-Tech Skills Center students involved. “We go to Tri-Tech and try to get people involved in their music and broadcasting audio visual program to help with the sound and be emcees and we have the open mic stage, which is run by the TriTech kids, and we have kids from the culinary classes helping in the kitchen,” Micki said. Carson said it costs about $35,000 to put on Tumbleweed each year, which

She has a bachelor’s in bilingual elementary education from Washington State University and a master’s in education in educational leadership from Concordia University in Portland, Oregon. Barnes’ focus for the past 13 years has been working with nonprofits to assist in providing high quality education globally for a range of socio-demographics. “With Elizabeth’s extensive knowledge and experience in bilingual education and her previous work with marginalized children around the world, we are confident that she will make a lasting impact on the Mid-Columbia community,” said Steve Palm, president of the Children’s Reading Foundation of the Mid-Columbia, in a news release. Barnes succeeds Sara Schwan, who led the organization for more than five years. goes to paying performers and overhead expenses. He said money is raised through a combination of sponsorships from the city of Richland, individuals and local organizations, as well as other fundraising efforts. In addition to concert revenues, Tumbleweed swag is sold at the information booth, and $5 raffle tickets are sold for a Fender guitar. A silent auction will be in the Richland Community Center. Attendees are encouraged to catch Ben Franklin Transit bus No. 25 to get to this year’s event, as parking will be limited due to a nearby construction project.

Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business â€¢ August 2019

Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business • August 2019

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

Telemedicine connects Tri-City patients to specialists BY ROBIN WOJTANIK

for Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business

Tri-City patients are connecting with medical specialists for more types of care, thanks to the growing use of telemedicine, or telehealth, which can allow a provider to make some diagnoses of a critical patient without even being in the same room. “Telehealth started as an access strategy to improve access to care in communities where patients wouldn’t otherwise have that and really it was around specialists to start,” said Dr. Todd Czartoski, a neurologist and chief executive of telehealth for Providence St. Joseph’s Health, the parent company of Kadlec Regional Medical Center in Richland. In the 12 years since the hospital network first incorporated telemedicine into its practices, the fields have grown to include stroke detection, Lou Gehrig’s disease treatment, speech therapy, psychiatry, dietetics, maternal fetal medicine, wound care and genetic counseling. These specialties are in addition to the Express Care service offered for diagnosis of routine illnesses like strep throat,

ear infections or pink eye. These are options available to patients using their own device to connect with a provider. “You could be anywhere. You could be sitting in your home or car. It’s incredibly convenient,” said Cassandra Bilodeau, a registered nurse and director of outreach and development for telemedicine at Providence. For conditions that require a specialist, patients would be seen by a provider at a clinic or hospital using a high-tech cart, which puts the clinician virtually in the room with a patient, similar to Skype or FaceTime, while remaining compliant with federal privacy laws to protect patients’ medical information. The telemedicine effort through Providence started with stroke diagnosis by keeping a stroke neurologist on call at all times to assess patients during the crucial initial minutes when it’s suspected someone may have suffered a cerebrovascular accident. “When Dr. Czartoski logs in to the software, we see his face pop up and there’s a nurse in with the patient because

A wellequipped cart allows health care providers at Kadlec Regional Medical Center in Richland to remotely connect with patients, diagnosing acute conditions or even emergency cases, like strokes, without needing to be in the same room, or even the same state, as the patient. Courtesy Kadlec Regional Medical Center

uTELEMEDICINE, Page 28

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Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business • August 2019

TELEMEDICINE, From page 27 this is a critical patient and you need medical personnel there to attend to them,” said Abigail Richardson, a registered nurse and telemedicine coordinator at Providence. With the help of a trained telepresenter, “You’re helping the physician finish the exam, so you’re testing for arm and leg weakness and those types of things, visual deficits. And then Dr. Czartoski, on his end, can make the assessment, how we’re going to treat this.” By using telemedicine, the hospital can leverage its expertise to get patients the necessary care or diagnosis as quickly as possible. “We like to call it moving knowledge, not people,” Czartoski said. This allows

two stroke-trained neurologists to serve 55 hospitals across the Providence St. Joseph system. “When you think about 50 hospitals it sounds like an awful lot, and it is, so we’ve had redundancy and backup built in for what we call the ‘jump ball’ model, and that’s been super helpful for the backup so we have quick responsiveness,” Czartoski said. “Our responsiveness 24 hours a day is two minutes, two seconds. That’s our average time it takes to get an answer from a stroke neurologist when they’re paged.” For some patients, the speed of seeing a provider isn’t critical, but rather a matter of convenience. Some patients appreciate the ability to see a specialist without traveling outside the region.

Science & Technology “Our responsiveness 24 hours a day is

two minutes, two seconds.”

- Dr. Todd Czartoski, chief executive of telehealth for Providence St. Joseph’s Health This is the case for patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, known as ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease. Prior to the use of telemedicine, patients often had to travel to Spokane or Seattle to see a specialist in the field. “These caregivers that are helping out have a huge burden for them to be able

to travel the patient over the mountains,” Bilodeau said. “We have wrap-around service where it’s very comprehensive with all of our ancillary services with a neurologist able to come in and see these patients and keep them local. So it decreases the burden for the family.” A visit with a patient diagnosed with ALS tends to last about three hours using a multi-disciplinary approach. The virtual visits are done only after the patient has had an in-person visit with an expert in Seattle who offers the initial establishment of care and diagnosis. “When they’re coming here, they have those direct caregivers in the clinic who go in teams,” said Lisa Braudrick, supervisor of therapy services. “One of the teams is comprised of the neurologist who’s on the cart, and then there’s the nurse in the room, as well as the respiratory therapist. So the nurse and the respiratory therapist might be doing hands-on with the patient, but the neurologist is also asking and getting an idea of what’s going on and what are the concerns.” The Kadlec team said telehealth can really mirror what could be done entirely in person. While telemedicine can allow patients in the Tri-Cities to be seen by specialists outside the area, it also offers the same opportunities in reverse, bringing local experts to more remote locations around the region and as far away as Montana, using the Providence network. “There are communities where we simply don’t have that ability to have a provider there each and every day,” Czartoski said. “The way I’ve described it more recently is, we’re essentially following in the footsteps of what some of the tech companies have done, like Microsoft and Amazon and Google, we’re building on a cloud. They built this cloud infrastructure that would allow you to only purchase the amount of server space that you needed instead of investing in an entire server farm with computer hardware. We’re building a clinical cloud that allows you to use and access world experts in different areas without investing in an entire team of stroke neurologists or psychologists or intensivists.” After more than a decade of building on this model, there remains a question of how else telemedicine can be leveraged to assist patients. “There’s a few services that make sense to scale because we’re never going to have enough stroke specialists and psychiatrists,” said Czartoski, who described what he calls the “secret sauce for success.” “When we vet new opportunities, the lens that our team uses, we really ask four questions: one, first and foremost, can we provide care safely doing it remotely using telehealth? And if you can’t answer that without certainty, we stop there.” When the team is confident the care can be provided safely, the next assurance is whether it can be offered with high quality. Czartoski said. “Is the quality of service and care that we’re delivering better or as good as we would be able to do with an in-person service? In uTELEMEDICINE, Page 29

Science & Technology TELEMEDICINE, From page 28 some cases that means stroke care to an outlying facility where we don’t have any stroke neurologists available, having a stoke neurologist available by video is actually better than the status quo.” The team also assesses whether the financial model for a new telemedicine setup will be sustainable. “We can get grants for telehealth, but if it’s not built in a way that allows us to at least cover the cost of the program, our experience has been that you won’t get it to take off and spread in scale and be used as much as we would want,” said Czartoski, who says the final piece of the “secret sauce” recipe includes a “provider champion” who believes in the system. Someone who will, “wake up every day and think, ‘I’m going to make this a successful telehealth program,’ ” said Czartoski. The telemedicine option also is beneficial to fill gaps in service, either due to a lack of demand or the time between recruiting a new provider. This includes speech therapy, which can be a gamechanger for rural communities where there aren’t enough patients to warrant a provider on staff full time. “It’s like the cloud model where they’re paying when they need it because they don’t need it full-time,” Bilodeau said. “It’s also hard for them to recruit specialists when someone leaves. Rather than go months and months, and having that gap, we’re looking at telemedicine to help meet the need.” The team said starting up a new telemedicine offering is not as simple as just supplying a cart. “It’s like setting up a new clinic, if you will. It takes a lot to vet it and ensure that we’re doing it correctly,” Bilodeau said. Kadlec sees telehealth services as an increase to the care that’s available and not a means of replacing true face-toface contact between a provider and patient. “It’s enhancing it and allowing us to meet the patient where they need to be met,” Bilodeau said. “I think the options really are endless and that’s scary for a lot of people, but I think we really need to think outside the box because telemedicine can really help our communities, our patients, and when you look at the social determinates of health and why people can’t get access to care, telemedicine can really help mitigate all those challenges. It can help reduce barriers.” Bilodeau said a patient or provider always has the option of requesting an in-person visit if either party feels they cannot capture what needs to be captured using a virtual appointment. But, she added, it has never happened. Trios Health in Kennewick uses telemedicine through its Urgent eCare service for diagnosis of minor illnesses. Media contacts for Trios and Lourdes Health did not immediately return requests for more information on their telemedicine offerings. Both hospitals are owned by Tennessee-based LifePoint Health.

Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business • August 2019

Tech Summit to shine spotlight on tech origins, future

When asking people for a word to describe the Tri-Cities, some of the answers that you hear might be wine, water sports, Hanford, agriculture or tumbleweeds. The last thing you would expect to hear is “technology.” What most people don’t realize is that the Tri-Cities has a long and storied past linked to technology. And today, there are some very innovative companies that are either using technology as their product or as a catalyst to better grow their business. The history of technology in the TriCities has been here since the beginning of the Manhattan Project 75 years ago. Since that time, we’ve had some amazing technology originate from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory: vitrification, acoustic holography, portable blood irradiators, the compact disc and personal screening equipment used in airports. But there is no monopoly on bringing new technologies to market, and there are many companies in our region doing just that. Organizations like Isoray, Cadwell Industries, Lampson International, Carbitex and SIGN Fracture Care International are just a few of the businesses that have enriched our community and have been built with technology as their starting point. But we’re in a new age now. Sometimes technology isn’t the product, but rather the backbone on which

work is done. And many businesses are using that technology to start and expand beyond what they could have done Byron Martin without it. Teknologize Because of the GUEST COLUMN internet, apps and social media, you no longer need a large capital investment or extensive team to develop a national or even global reach. In short, technology is allowing unprecedented growth. This equalizer of technology is one of the reasons we created the Tri-Cities Tech Summit: to create a forum of likeminded individuals who can network and talk to each other about using technology in new ways to grow their business more than ever before. Now in its second year, our theme for this year is Origins. Every technology, company and entrepreneur has a unique start. Tri-Cities Tech Summit 2019: Origins will give people the opportunity to highlight those stories, allowing individuals to share their own origins as they educate and inspire others to learn, do and invest in themselves, their ideas and their businesses. Our theme also coincides with the anniversary of the Manhattan Project, a

massive undertaking that helped a tiny community become globally recognized. Part of this year’s tech summit will Ty Mulholland highlight the Wildland technology that GUEST COLUMN came about because of the Manhattan Project and its greater impact on the Tri-Cities. Whether you’re interested in the past, present or future of technology in our region, the event is a great place for you to be on Sept. 12 to learn and be inspired. Join us and let’s continue to evolve the story of technology in the Tri-Cities! For more information, go to tctechsummit.com.  Byron Martin is the chief executive officer and owner of Kennewick’s Teknologize, an information technology consulting firm and IT service provider founded in 2011.  Ty Mulholland is the president of Richland’s Wildland, a custom software developer, and has more than 11 years of experience leading teams through large scale projects.

Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business • August 2019

Science & Technology

Put these top-rated mobile apps to work for your business BY ANDREW KIRK

for Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business

The multitude of desktop apps to help business owners run their companies are nothing short of miraculous, but how many of those apps have good mobile versions? And how many of those “there’s an app for that” ideas are actually worth the download and time to learn? You’re not alone in wondering. There are dozens of articles recommending apps for professionals—but you don’t have the time to read all of them. This is a topic the Tri-City Regional Chamber of Commerce knows is important to the business community. It invited Beth Ziesenis, author of “The Big Book of Apps,” to speak at its March annual meeting and also held a breakout session on using technology to solve productivity problems. Dallas DeCoria owns A Better View, which provides residential and commercial facility services in Tri-Cities. He said he loves Zubie for fleet management. He values how it automatically tracks his vehicles and provides a variety of data in reports. Ben Anderson, owner of cnctNOW, which provides social media management in Tri-Cities, said he uses several apps for managing various social media accounts, bank accounts and Google services. He recommends Canva for making images for social media, Keep Notes for staying

Photo by Andrew Kirk Dan Ostler is manager of A Better View, a window cleaning and pest control business in Kennewick. He and owner Dallas DeCoria use the app Zubie for fleet management and tracking.

organized and Google My Business to optimize his presence on Google business searches. Chris Nokes of Hot Mess Burgers & Fries food truck said he uses the Instagram and Facebook apps daily to promote his business and relies on Square Point-of-Sale for transactions. He also recommended Fiver for creating logos. There’s a reason Square is so omnipresent: people love it. More than 112,000 people have rated it in Apple’s app store

and given it an average of 4.8/5 stars. But perhaps you haven’t heard of PayPal Here POS. It’s slightly cheaper than Square and comes from PayPal’s stellar design team. With 4.5/5 stars (from more than 3,250 reviews) it’s less popular, but an option if you can’t or won’t use Square. For accounting needs, some entrepreneurs rave over FreshBooks Cloud Accounting. With a 4.8-star average, more than 7,400 reviewers find it to be a

useful app. Is it right for your business? Note the reviews praise its accessibility for users with minimal understanding of accounting. Also, that it has quite a few bugs, but they’re forgivable considering its ease of use. If one has a good understanding of accounting, the bugs are not worth the trade-off. Those who don’t need a simplified system much prefer the functionality and reliability of Quickbooks Accounting. Note it has 4.7 stars average from nearly 15 times as many reviewers. Quickbooks has a full suite of products with high reviews: Self Employed (4.6 stars), Go Payment Pointof-Sale (4.8 stars), Payroll (4.2 stars) and Connect (4 stars). Invoice by Wave has a small but enthusiastic fan base (4.6 stars). It doesn’t replace the desktop version, but this mobile app allows quick access to points of data. For this, Wave fans are grateful. Candid reviews say Wave’s concept for the mobile version is admirable, but execution is faulty, with too many bugs. For invoicing exclusively on a mobile device this may not be the best choice. If seeking a competent desktop program with an app to check data or a status, Invoice by Wave could be useful. Expensify: Receipts and Expenses (4.7 stars after more than 62,000 reviews) does something very difficult moderately well: it converts photographs of receipts into text documents. The transcription uAPPS, Page 36

Science & Technology Number of employees you oversee: About 4,500. Brief background of your business: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory is a U.S. Department of Energy national lab proudly operated by Battelle since its inception in 1965. PNNL’s talented scientists, engineers and support professionals draw on signature capabilities in chemistry, earth sciences and data analytics to advance scientific discovery, as well as to enhance energy resiliency and strengthen national security. How did you land your current role? How long have you been in it? I became laboratory director in April 2015. Previously, I served as PNNL’s deputy director for science and technology, a position Battelle recruited me to in 2008 after 21 years at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, or LLNL. What’s the most common question you get about PNNL? What we do. PNNL and the other DOE national labs don’t do a very good job of explaining what we do and why it is important. One of my primary goals as lab director is to elevate PNNL’s stature as a premier scientific research institution by delivering bold scientific outcomes and forging strategic partnerships with academia and industry. I also wish to raise the lab’s visibility on the west side and to be recognized as a regional resource for the state. Why should Tri-Citians care about science and technology? Scientific discovery and technological innovation underpin mankind’s greatest advancements, from Gutenberg’s printing press to Edison’s electric grid, and from Salk’s polio vaccine to Armstrong’s first steps on the moon. As Tri-Citians, we can take great pride in knowing that many of today’s important discoveries and inventions are being developed right here in our community, by our neighbors and friends. Science also plays a critical role informing decisions and policies that shape all of society; and technology fuels much of our local economy.

Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business • August 2019

Q&A

STEVEN ASHBY

Director, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory support the long-term research programs required to tackle our nation’s most complex challenges. We are asking our brightest citizens to make a commitment to the nation by working at PNNL and other national labs, and they want to see that the commitment is reciprocated. At the same time, scientists and engineers must do a better job of building awareness and support for the immense value that science and technology brings to our lives today and for generations to come. What is one characteristic that you believe every leader should possess? I believe that a leader’s role is to serve his or her institution and employees. If one does this with integrity and humor, things tend to work out for the best—most of the time! What advice would you give someone going into a leadership position? Create a vision that inspires others to follow—a common goal that brings focus, motivates action and delivers impact. Empower your team, encourage

them and thank them regularly. At the same time, hold them accountable— starting with yourself. In short, set an example for others to follow, especially with respect to work ethic and integrity. I also would advise a new leader to communicate more often than might seem necessary, especially during times of uncertainty. Don’t wait to have all the information; while you’re doing that, staff are creating their own narratives! Finally, don’t be afraid to step outside your comfort zone—it’s where great things happen. You will surprise yourself in some good ways—and occasionally in some not-so-good ways. You’ll learn something either way! Role models or mentors? I have had several terrific mentors throughout my career. My Ph.D. thesis advisor had a profound impact on who I am today and how I got here. He introduced me to some of the most famous numerical analysts in the world, sparking my interest in computational mathematics. He also introduced me to the nation-

Steven Ashby al labs. At LLNL, I was blessed with great supervisors, including a wonderful person who taught me the importance of vision and the real meaning of passion. How do you keep your employees motivated? I am continuously impressed with and thankful for the hard work and dedication I find in the staff at PNNL. They are deeply committed to their sponsors. Our collective motivation comes from a shared vision to understand and improve the world around us. I do my part by reminding them of the importance of their work and the difference they are making. uASHBY, Page 32

What is the biggest challenge or challenges facing scientists today? The nation’s research and development enterprise needs sustained funding to

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Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business • August 2019

ASHBY, From page 31 How did you decide to pursue the career you are working in today? When I was in college and graduate school, computer science was still an emerging field. I took several courses in it and in mathematics. I was intrigued by the ability to solve complex problems on supercomputers. This led me to my first job as a computational scientist at LLNL. Over time, I realized I had a knack for technical leadership and transitioned from research to management. A crucible moment for me was being asked to form a new research organization, which I am proud to say is still thriving today. I miss doing research, but I live vicariously through the accomplishments of my amazing colleagues.

Science & Technology

How do you measure success in your workplace? Impactful outcomes. Continuous progress. An engaged, diversified and inclusive workforce. When VIPs visit the lab, they invariably comment on the enthusiasm of the staff. This is a great measure of our success in the workplace.

many things, so I hold firm to accepting only the level of detail that equips me to make informed decisions without drowning in minutiae. This is hard for me because, as a scientist, I tend to dive into problem-solving mode. With respect to meetings, I insist that we come prepared, and I don’t allow the use of electronics.

Leadership style? I am a fast-paced driver-driver with high expectations for the laboratory, my team and myself. I seek and value the input and expertise of my colleagues, and I respect and rely upon a diversity of opinions and viewpoints.

How do you balance work/family life? Not very well! I love what I do and am genuinely passionate about PNNL and the missions of the department. Unfortunately, this means I have not always been fair to my family; and as my children have grown, the Harry Chapin song, “Cat’s in the Cradle,” haunts me.

Best time management strategy? I must know a certain amount about

Best tip to relieve stress? Delegate it.

What do you like to do when you are not at work? I like to play golf, which affords me a bit of exercise and is something I can do with friends and family. It takes my mind off work for a while, though it does present its own set of challenges! What’s your favorite podcast? Most-used app? Favorite book? I don’t listen to podcasts, but I am a news hound. I like to listen to the news in the car and often consult the CNN and AP apps on my phone. As for books, I will often read a couple books at once, usually a political thriller, a biography or history, or something about science. Some of my past favorites include “Longitude” by Dava Sobel, “Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage” by Alfred Lansing, and “Guns, Germs, and Steel” by Jared Diamond. Do you have a personal mantra, phrase or quote you like to use? I believe we need to make the most of our time on Earth and that we should leave it a better place for our efforts, whatever this means for you. When our time is up, the Lord will decide how well we’ve done!

uBUSINESS BRIEFS Tech summit scheduled for Sept. 11 in Richland

The second annual Tri-Cities Tech Summit is scheduled for Sept. 12 at the Uptown Theatre in Richland. A social for networking is Sept. 11. Keynote speaker for the event is Paul Jarrett, co-founder and CEO of Bulu Box. The summit coincides with the 75th anniversary of the Manhattan Project, and part of the theme will highlight technology that came from the project and its impact on the Tri-Cities. The summit is organized by Teknologize, Wildland and the Tri-Cities Research District. Early-bird tickets are $39, or $54, which includes a networking social, and can be purchased at tctechsummit.com.

Premera Blue Cross will pay $10M for data breach

Premera Blue Cross will pay $10 million for failing to secure sensitive consumer data, state Attorney General Bob Ferguson announced July 11. Premera will pay $5.4 million to Washington and another $4.6 million to a coalition of 29 state attorneys general that joined Ferguson’s investigation. Premera, the largest health insurance company in the Pacific Northwest, also was accused of misleading consumers about the breach that gave a hacker access to patient information for 10.4 million people over nearly a year in 2014-15. The company had been warned for years prior to the breach that it had inadequate security. After the breach became public, Premera’s call center agents told consumers there was no reason to believe their information had been accessed.

Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business • August 2019

Science & Technology

Tri-Cities boasts numerous science and tech workers but few firms

Most everyone knows that the tech pulse is strong in the Tri-Cities. The problem is, it’s hard to find the pulse in official data. The same challenge applies for presence of the technology sector in Benton-Franklin Trends. Where in the trends site might we find some coverage? Consider data from the “Share of Employment in the Top-5 Employing Sectors” chart. The graph makes it clear that the administrative and waste services sector ranks fifth. (It’s the top bar in the graph.) While this sector can include call centers, it really doesn’t for the two counties, so the emphasis should be on the latter part of the heading. In other words, the “waste services,” or Hanford sector. But does the cleanup effort on the Hanford site involve technology workers? Absolutely yes. According to a Washington State Employment Security data file “industry-occupation matrix,” two-thirds of the staffing in the local waste service industry consists of science, technology, engineering and mathematics workers. Hundreds of engineers are part of that mix, mostly civil. There is a further representation of science and tech in the Trends data, albeit a bit tucked away. Not shown in the graph is the sixth largest sector, by employment, “professional, scientific and technical services.” Online readers can find it via the download data tab. Not all firms in this sector are STEM-

heavy—for example, law firms, accountant offices and advertising agencies. But many are— architects, engineering D. Patrick Jones firms and, Eastern above all, Washington Pacific University Northwest GUEST COLUMN National Laboratory. The definition of STEM professions has several variants. For purposes of this analysis, we will include the usual components—but not health care. Earlier this year, the Tri-Cities Area of Journal of Business ran a column about that sector. This isn’t to say or deny that health care is based increasingly on sophisticated technology, only that it’s recently been covered by this column. If health care were to be added to the mix, as it often is in STEM definitions, the Tri-Cities would show three of the six largest-employing sectors with a tech tilt. This is unique among Eastern Washington metro areas. Besides considering the tech pulse through industries, we can take it through occupations. Occupations are not tracked in the trends data, but information is available, again from ESD. Generally, everyone who qualifies for unemployment insurance system in the

Benton & Franklin Counties - Government Benton & Franklin Counties - Heath care and social assistance Benton & Franklin Counties - Agriculture forestry fishing and hunting Benton & Franklin Counties - Retail Trade Benton & Franklin Counties - Admin & Waste services

Courtesy Benton-Franklin Trends

U.S. is given a six-digit standard occupation code, or SOC. These roll up to higher orders or categories. Let’s consider a few broad, unassailably tech or science SOC categories: computer and mathematical; architecture and engineering; life, physical and social science; computer and information systems managers; and natural sciences managers. What is the share of these professions in the two counties? In 2017, they claimed about 9.2 percent of the workforce. This is the largest slice of the employment pie in any Eastern Washington metro area. For Washington

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state that year, the analogous share was 9.9 percent. This result is no surprise, as it’s driven by the exceptionally large computer occupations category of King County. But has the wealth of STEM talent in the Tri-Cities translated into start-ups? This is difficult to tease out of the data, since the results are only available on a “net” (starts minus exits) basis. We do know from trends data that since 2003, a net balance of about 1,200 firms has been created in the two counties. uTRENDS, Page 36

Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business • August 2019

Science & Technology

3D technology supports Hanford design work

BY TRI-CITIES AREA JOURNAL OF BUSINESS STAFF

Mission Support Alliance is using industry best practices and 3D modeling software to help design a new water treatment facility on the Hanford site. The Hanford contractor’s 3D modeling is a vital design tool, enabling timely completion of complex projects. In this approach, also known as building information modeling, or BIM, the designers “build” the structure and process elements in a three-dimensional space, allowing personnel from various disciplines to “see” the potential facility and identify potential issues early in the design process, before any physical walls or components are put into place. “This use of 3D software has allowed us to achieve improved design and cost savings,” said Sharee Dickinson, director of infrastructure and services with the U.S. Department of Energy Richland Operations Office, in a media release. One example of cost savings resulting from this process was the removal of an auxiliary building. Initially, plans included a second building—about 1,500 square feet—to house backflow preventers and isolation valves for the water treatment plant. To provide adequate freeze protection, this second building would have had to be heated as well, resulting in additional capital costs and ongoing operational costs. Using the 3D software, MSA crews

were able to make some adjustments in the plans for the process room floor and with only a small expansion of the main building blueprint, bring those components inside the main building, eliminating the need for the second building. The use of 3D visualization also enables detailed and highly interactive design reviews with the MSA water and sewer utility operators, who will be the end-users. Operators can conduct virtual tours of the designed facility, allowing timely and efficient changes. The model also accommodates traditional drawing formats and “flat” construction drawing production by cutting virtual lines and projecting a traditional two-dimensional image. Dan Parr, who works with MSA’s reliability projects group, is the project manager for the water treatment facility. “With the ability to ‘remove’ the roof and look inside the facility during the design process, we’ve been able to evaluate how the operators will function in the new building, and make adjustments long before construction begins. This will reduce the number of costly last-minute changes during the construction process, and ensure a better functioning facility at the end of the project,” he said in a release. During one model review meeting, the future operations team wanted to look inside the pipe gallery area. One planner noted that while it was the appropriate design for construction, it might hinder maintenance operations in the future.

Courtesy MSA MSA uses software that allows a project team to identify and fix potential issues before construction begins. By virtually removing the roof, teams are able to explore the building and ensure both functionality and design. Several issues have been found and resolved during review meetings using the 3D software.

Operators were worried that if piping or pump components needed to be repaired or replaced, there would not be enough space for workers to do so. Working with the designers and engineers, they were able to adjust the spacing of the pipes, and placement of the light fixtures and the deck grating to provide adequate space for future maintenance needs. The software being used, a combination of both Autodesk Revit and Navisworks 3D, is used by municipalities and engineer-

ing firms worldwide. MSA contracted with HDR in Pasco to develop the facility design using this software. Design of the water treatment facility is now 90 percent completed and construction is expected to begin in early 2020, with the facility targeted to be in service in 2021. The $13.9 million project will provide reliable water to users in the center of the Hanford site.

Science & Technology

Time is running out for Windows support On Jan. 14, 2020, three widely-used Windows Operating Systems reach the end of their useful lives and will no longer receive updates and security patches from Microsoft: Windows 7, Server 2008 and Small Business Server 2011 (which is based on Server 2008). This socalled “end-ofsupport” George Hefter doesn’t mean TCT Computer that systems Solutions using this softGUEST COLUMN ware will stop working after that date, but it does mean that Microsoft will no longer attempt to solve problems or patch security vulnerabilities. While it might be tempting to keep using these systems after the cutoff date, that decision could be both dangerous and very costly.

What’s the risk?

Without updates and security patches, your systems will become more vulnerable to ransomware, viruses and hackers who may have malicious intent. And they will have plenty of time to figure out how to find their way into these systems because Microsoft will no longer be guarding the door and fixing new vulnerabilities as they are discovered. Home users risk losing personal data like photos, important home or business documents, and graduation or marriage videos. Depending on computer usage habits, home computers might even give hackers a direct pathway into bank or investment accounts. Business users’ risks are far greater. Beyond the loss of all the data on your server or workstations, and the inconvenience—not to mention the cost—of system downtime and loss of productivity, business owners also risk higher insurance rates and, like some financial service companies, an overall lowering of reliability or investment grade rating. That last consequence affected Equifax

uBUSINESS BRIEF Public comments sought for Hanford projects

Mission Support Alliance is seeking public comment on a pair of projects and also extending the comment period for a third. A public meeting is scheduled at 5:30 p.m. Aug. 27 at the Richland Public Library, 955 Northgate Drive, on plans to connect waste transfer lines at Hanford. The comment period runs through Sept. 16, and comments can be left at wt.ecology.commentinput.

after its cybersecurity breach resulted in a lowering of its Moody’s Outlook rating on top of the almost $700 million fine of the breach itself. And maybe you’ve heard about some of the breaches affecting local governments, such as in Atlanta or Baltimore, where a second ransomware attack in a year demonstrated how even municipal governments struggle to keep computer networks safe. This is especially true after the National Security Agency revealed it had lost control of one of its very effective hacker tools called EternalBlue, which has since been implicated in hundreds of cybersecurity attacks in the USA and around the world. Before jumping to the conclusion that only large businesses are targets, please keep in mind that these attacks are broad-based and typically not focused on a specific target. When a broad, “try every door” attack finds a vulnerability in an interesting system, then the hacker will drill down and try to see the size of the target and what the potential for ransom might be. But for every large system that is infected, there may be hundreds of smaller systems found that carry the potential that something on that system might be worth a few hundred to a few thousand dollars, and so those systems get targeted too. And when those are business systems, the risk is even greater. If your business system is affected, it’s not only your data that may be affected, but your customers’ information is at risk too. If you have customer data of any type on your computers or servers, you may find yourself shelling out thousands of dollars in identity theft protection for those customers, not to mention fines or loss of business because of your cybersecurity lapses. Attacks on Windows 7 and even Windows XP have escalated in recent months via a variant of last year’s WannaCry virus. Are you sure you want to risk using an outdated, no longer supported operating system?  George Hefter is president of TCT Computer Solutions in Kennewick.

com/?id=GU4pS. There is a second comment period for a proposed operating permit for the Low-Activity Waste and Effluent Management facilities. Comments will be accepted through Aug. 30 and can be left at wt.ecology.commentinput. com/?id=eRmW5. The public comment opportunity has been extended to Aug. 17 on an engineering evaluation/cost analysis evaluation for Hanford’s Plutonium Uranium Extraction complex. Comments can be emailed to PUREX_EECA@rl.gov or mailed to P.O. Box 550, H5-20, Richland, WA 99352.

Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business • August 2019

APPS, From page 30 saves time, but then the app categorizes and codes the receipts as well. This allows for automatic submissions for expense reimbursement or instant reports. Expensify is popular with large corporations with hundreds of road warriors, as well as small startups. There are several apps boasting photo transcription and Expensify is rated among the best. Slack (4.2 stars) is one of many apps offering office communication and collaboration solutions. No one app—either for desktop or mobile—seems to own the genre. Several offer similar features and it’s where they differ that people find their preference. Slack desktop and mobile allow the user to create several digital “rooms” for posting tasks, managing prog-

ress, communicating and sharing documents. This makes it a little tricky to set up, but once the right team members are together in the right place, the features are noted as easy to use. For communicating, Skype (4.4 stars) is by no means the only option, but it’s arguably still the most popular. Its video conferencing tools are easy to use for meetings and job interviews. It also has excellent chat and messaging features. If an office uses it frequently for conferencing, Skype’s other communication and collaboration features may be adequate. Asana: Organize Tasks & Work (4.7 stars) may be the most-recommended app by business bloggers. The desktop version is highly rated for task and project management and the app is fantastic for checking in. The few poor ratings appear to

Science & Technology come from teams who have tried to use the mobile app exclusively for project management and found its functionality limiting. Evernote Notes Planner & Organizer (4.5 stars) gets enthusiastic ratings from users for its note sharing, table-creation features, editing capabilities and text formatting. Some reviewers complain the company offers zero customer service, saying emails and messages are never answered. Yet the features are so good, according to the positive reviews, the app is worth the hassle when bugs arise. Some mobile apps are fantastically useful in personal lives, but lack features needed to use them for work, and vice versa. Trello Organize Anything (4.7) is beloved because it works for every situation. Reviewers report it’s great for man-

aging grocery lists, pet medications, family after-school activities, as well as work projects. Project managers praise it as shoulders above the plethora of reminder apps and to-do list organizers. Basecamp (4.7 stars), like Skype, has been around a long time and is considered “adequate” by hundreds of companies. It offers sharable to-do lists, message boards, chat rooms, schedules, documents, checkins and other features for tracking projects. Mailchimp (4.8) survives in the competitive field of marketing apps because of its ease of use. Originally a newsletter service, Mailchimp today is an all-in-one marketing app allowing you to monitor various campaigns and audiences. The high ratings reflect the ease of checking on campaigns and allowing users to make adjustments. Not every professional has to travel frequently, but those who do rave over Tripit: Travel Planner (4.8 stars average with 155,000 reviews). According to users, no other app beats its features for syncing every transportation, lodging and rental booking, confirmation and reservation into one place to manage all. Also popular: Fuze for Business (conference calls, messaging, video conferences), RescueTime (time management), Proven (hiring), Wunderlist (to-do lists and task managers), Toggl (track your work time for better time management or to bill work hours), Nimble (relationship manager for prospective clients or hires), and LogMeIn (access your various work and personal computers from your phone), Airtable (lets you create your own organizational databases), DocuSign (no more faxing documents back and forth), Layout (lets you make photo collages for social media with low stress), Hoopla, and Overdrive (library apps allow users to consume audio books for free to stay on top of bestsellers and the buzz in your industry).

TRENDS, From page 33 That’s a cumulative growth rate of 16 percent. The professional, scientific and technical services sector has actually done better, picking up more than 550 jobs, for a cumulative growth rate of 39 percent. But are those new firms securely in the technology space? Or are they largely accounting, advertising and law firms? We simply cannot tell from the official numbers. On the basis of a quick scan of names in the local marketplace, it would appear that not too many tech companies with significant revenues are present. A significant exception is Isoray Inc. Let’s hope that the good work of Fuse and the TriCities Research District will lead to several more. The talent looks to be present. Is the entrepreneurial spirit?  D. Patrick Jones is the executive director for Eastern Washington University’s Institute for Public Policy & Economic Analysis. Benton-Franklin Trends, the institute’s project, uses local, state and federal data to measure the local economic, educational and civic life of Benton and Franklin counties.

Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business • August 2019 uBUSINESS BRIEFS Immigrant artwork exhibit on display in Kennewick

The Tri-Cities Immigrant Coalition’s “Celebrating Our Immigrant Community through the Arts” exhibit runs Sept. 7-15. The artwork will be on display at Monarcha Winery, 421 Columbia Drive, Kennewick. The exhibit opening kicks off from 5-8 p.m. Sept. 7, when visitors may browse the art for free and talk to the artists. Martin Porras will sing and play his guitar, and Brandon Sullivan will read a poem he wrote for the event. Monarcha will sell wine by the glass, and you can buy non-alcoholic beverages and food from Fast and Curryous and El Taco Stop food trucks. All ages are welcome. Check the coalition’s Facebook page to see whose art will be in the show. In addition to the immigrant artists’ work, the coalition will display environmental portraits of Tri-City immigrants by local photographer and graphic designer Madison Rosenbaum. The art on display will be for sale.

Jacobs and Rhodes provides free HVAC for select families

Jacobs and Rhodes Heating and Air Conditioning of Kennewick is taking part in a program to deliver heating and cooling equipment to deserving families for free. Lennox’s Feel The Love program provides heating, ventilation or air conditioning equipment for free to local dealers across the country, who then donate instal-

lation materials and labor. In 2018, the program assisted homeowners from 19 states and five Canadian provinces by donating and installing more than 165 furnaces in recipients’ homes. The deadline for nominations is Aug. 31, and installations will be Oct. 5-6. Nominees are selected in part on community involvement, military service and financial hardship. For information or to nominate a family, go to feelthelove.com.

uGRANTS • United Way of Benton and Franklin Counties awarded grants totaling $42,448 to three agencies focused on services to improve parenting skills, provide support therapy for autistic children and prevent youth violence. Previously,

the funding was awarded to programs administered by Lourdes Counseling Services. The original two-year grant was through June 30, 2020. When Lourdes was bought last year by for-profit Life Point Health, the program became ineligible to receive the rest of grant. United Way and its board of directors requested proposals from local nonprofits offering mental and behavioral health services. The grants will support the following programs: Parent Child Interaction Therapy: $16,448. Catholic Charities Serving Central Washington will buy audio equipment and supplies for use in real-time coaching of parents of young children with behavioral problems. A therapist observes parent and child interactions through a one-way mirror and provides

recommendations and strategies to the parent through a connected earpiece. Child Developmental Training for Parents of Autistic Children: $15,000. The Children’s Developmental Center will use this funding to provide individualized treatment plans and therapies to address the needs of autistic children and provide training for parents to work with their child at home. Youth Violence Prevention Project: $11,000. Domestic Violence Services of Benton & Franklin Counties will provide weekly interactive education groups for at-risk youth, ages 10-18. The groups focus on helping participants make thoughtful decisions, improve self-confidence, and navigate peer pressure and conflict to prevent violence, victimization, depression, and anxiety.

Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business • August 2019

OVERTIME, From page 1 Carolyn Logue, who spoke on behalf of the state Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning Contractors Association, said such an arrangement is necessary in her industry for safety. Supervisors inspecting electrical work need to be free of time constraints. If they were worried about how much overtime they would be billing the company, they couldn’t be relied on to take their time. HVAC technicians are likewise subject to slow and busy months, resulting in hourly workers earning inconsistent paychecks. After-hour emergencies also mess up 40-hour work-week schedules and/or force a company to lose money on a job after paying the overtime, Logue said. “We don’t want someone who can do a

job quickly advantaged over someone who will take their time and do it right,” she said. Daniel Aspiri, executive director of Domestic Violence Services of Benton and Franklin Counties, said his office uses the exemption to provide salaries to trained professionals who respond to cases around the clock. Restricting them to 40 hours per week would limit the number of people served and result in paying overtime that would deplete the nonprofit’s operations budget, which relies on grants and donations. Representatives from several Tri-City area nonprofits—United Way of Benton and Franklin Counties, Mid-Columbia Mastersingers, Boys and Girls Clubs of Benton and Franklin Counties and oth-

ers—testified about how the exemption allows them to provide salaries to professionals who at times work more than 40 hours a week (such as during fundraising events) and how paying overtime would decrease the number of services they’d be able to provide. Larger nonprofits would have to follow the same rules as large companies, which could not exempt salaried workers making less than $49,100 next year under the proposal. Tami LaDoux, executive director of Tri-Cities Residential Services, works with adults with developmental disabilities and said some clients spend months in hospitals because area group homes don’t have enough staff to accept new clients. Lockwood said his store is not a large

company, but during the holidays it sometimes employs more than 50 people. He said if this policy is implemented, he will lay off at least one person and will not renew his lease to stay in business in 2021. “The Minimum Wage Act already forced me to go from 48 employees to 37… fewer employees means less customer service,” he said. Arlene’s Flowers owner Barronelle Stutzman said she’ll have to come up with an additional $24,000 to pay her novice florists next year and that much again additionally the following year. “The minimum wage was not meant to be a living wage,” she said. “If your office had to come up with $48,000 more in two years, how would you do that?” Joel Bouchey of Inland Northwest chapter of the Associated of General Contractors of America said he knows of several companies that plan to move their offices to Idaho or Oregon to avoid the new rule. Steve Simmons, founder of CG Public House & Catering in Kennewick, said the rule would make it extremely difficult to hire qualified managers. Goulet said she would have to eliminate her manager-training program and most current managers will make less as hourly employees. Kim Shugart of Visit Tri-Cities said those in the tourism industry definitely will raise prices for consumers to pay for the new rule, especially restaurants. Grice said after the hearing that many employers statewide have expressed concern about losing flexibility. The existing law allows them to offer employees salaries without other protections hourly workers enjoy. The new law will still allow flexibility, he said, but different strategies will have to be employed. “If someone becomes non-exempt, they may require more time tracking,” he said as an example. Tim Church, public affairs manager for Labor and Industries, said there are too many workers getting $25,000 per year and expected to work 60 or more hours a week. When the exemption was first implemented, 60 percent of salaried workers received overtime and now almost none do. The proposal increases the minimum salary to $35,100 next year for companies with 50 or fewer employees, with required increases every year to reach $80,000 by 2026, with updates annually to adjust for inflation. White-collar exempt workers would need to perform bona fide executive, administrative, professional or outside sales work and be paid 1.25 times the minimum wage by July 1, 2020; 1.75 times by Jan. 1, 2021; 2 times by 2022; 2.25 times by 2023; 2.5 times by 2026. Companies with 51 or more employees would have to pay exempt employees 1.75 times the minimum wage by July 1, 2020; 2 times by 2021; 2.25 times by 2022, and 2.5 times by 2025. The proposal also modifies the definition of outside sales, but not the salary threshold since sales wages vary month to month. The computer professionals definition also would be modified and have a separate pay-increase scale. uOVERTIME, Page 39

Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business • August 2019 OVERTIME, From page 38

Advocates applaud change

Not everyone had concerns about the proposal; some employees and worker advocates applauded its intent. Kenneth Buxton, who said he works in the hospitality sector, spoke in favor of the proposed changes. He said he seeks a promotion, but his supervisors regularly work 60 to 80 hours per week, filling in for staff who don’t show. Instead of hiring or scheduling more people, his employers save money by relying on the salaried workers to do the work they were supposed to be supervising. Two others commented they found statistics online suggesting the average salaried employee works 49 hours per week. That’s almost 20 percent “free” work employers receive. Jack Sorensen, who represented worker advocacy group Civic Ventures, said Washington’s booming economy belies claims the minimum wage increases are eliminating jobs. He asserted employers will adjust to the new regulations if they learn to balance their books in ways other than working people overtime while compensating them less than minimum wage. “Some employers depend on the free overtime,” he said. “The overtime protections fell so far behind we’ve forgotten how they work.” After the meeting, Sorensen, a member of the nonprofit sector, said he is aware of many large nonprofits finishing each year with millions in excess. And donors to even small ones expect the organizations to pay workers fairly. He said the assertion that

uBOARDS • Eric Pearson, president and chief executive officer of Community First Bank in Kennewick, was named to the Washington Bankers Association board of directors for the 2019-20 year. The board sets Eric Pearson policy for the WBA and manages its resources. Board officers are nominated by their peers. Pearson was one of seven bankers from across the state who received an appointment at the association’s annual convention July 10-12 at Suncadia Resort in Cle Elum. He is one of two members on the board from Eastern Washington.

uNEW HIRE

• Alexandra Mickelsen has joined PS Media Inc. in Kennewick as a digital account executive. She is a graduate of Washington State University and has a degree in strategic communication and a Alexandra Mickelsen minor in business.

Photo by Andrew Kirk More than 50 people attended an Aug. 6 hearing in Kennewick—one of seven meetings held across the state—to provide feedback on Labor and Industries’ proposed changes to significantly increase the minimum amount employees must earn before they can be exempt from receiving overtime pay.

nonprofit employees did not want to be paid overtime was audacious. Simmons said after the meeting that the hospitality and restaurant industries have too often overworked low-salaried employees, but the need to retain good workers counteracts the trend in the marketplace. Each new generation of workers is less willing to accept that arrangement and employers are adjusting on their own without new regulations. Simmons echoed what nearly every business owner said during the hearing: while the thresholds need to be updated, the state’s proposals are far too high. The U.S. Department of Labor is debating similar measures with thresholds less

than a third of what the state is proposing, Grice said prior to the hearing. “I have to believe that’s a salary level that’d concern even our friends at the Hanford area,” Simmons said. “This seems like a really big deal to me.”

History of exemption law

Grice provided some background on the nation’s exemption rules prior to listening to public comment. During the Ford administration, the government decided an employee making at least $13,000 per year ($58,000 adjusted for inflation) did not need a minimum wage guarantee, paid sick leave, overtime pay or tips, he said. It was called the white-

collar exemption to wage law, and the U.S. Department of Labor defined it as people making a certain salary for “executive, professional, administrative or outside sales” careers. Office assistants were “secretaries” in 1976 so “administrative” referred to university deans and similar positions. In the 1990s “computer professionals” were added to the list. In 1976 the state of Washington created a similar policy, with the caveat that businesses would have to follow whichever threshold was higher. When the Department of Labor increased the minimum salary for the exemption in 2004 to $23,600, that became the state’s new threshold as well. But annual salary on minimum wage is now about $25,000 and soon will be $28,000, making the salaried exemption for overtime wages less white collar—and less fair—every year, Grice said. “There hasn’t been a room that hasn’t been pretty full in five meetings so far. There is passion behind this issue and there are a lot of details to learn,” Church said.

Timelines and deadlines

Work on the proposal began in March 2018. The public comment period ends at 5 p.m. Sept. 6. The new rule would take effect July 1, 2020. Formal public comments may be submitted by email to EAPrules@Lni.wa.gov; by fax at 360-902-5300; or by mail to: Employment Standards Program, P.O. Box 44510, Olympia, WA 98504-4510. To learn more about the proposal, go to lni.wa.gov/ WorkplaceRights/Wages/Overtime/ OvertimeRules/default.asp.

Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business • August 2019

BADGER, From page 1 known as Goose Ridge Estates has recently received preliminary plat approval for approximately 103 residential units,” said Kerwin Jensen, Richland’s development services director. The $725,000 service station and convenience store now under construction is set to open this fall and plans are in the works for a mini-storage business on the west side of Dallas Road. The 76 service station will be at 5151 Trowbridge Blvd. at the corner of Dallas Road. The 4,000-square-foot building will feature a modern façade, a drive-thru coffee shop and a Chester’s restaurant. The Alabama-based fast-food chicken franchise is known for its bone-in fried chicken, boneless wings, chicken tenders

and several sides. Entrepreneur magazine ranked the franchise No. 110 on its top 500 list. In 2018, Chester’s operated 1,192 franchises. It often partners with convenience stores, travel centers, truck stops and supermarket delis, according to its website. The service station is owned by Ajsa LLC, based in Kennewick, which also owns gas stations in Pasco, Richland, Walla Walla and Burbank. Quality Backhoe Services in Pasco and Rapid Service of Spanaway are the contractors for the project. The service station is expected to open in mid-October and will be the second retail location at the master-planned community. Country Mercantile opened a second store on Ava Way in 2015.

Original vision

The original plan put the development’s completion at 2030, but following a slow start, the revised date is now 2037. The developer’s representative, Dan Bruchman of Windermere Group One in Richland, expects it will be completed well before that. “We actually re-upped a 20-year entitlement so we have 18 years left, and at the rate that we’re growing now, we will actually hit the 5,000 housing units far before the entitlement expires. Now we literally can’t get them constructed quickly enough,” he said. It’s an about-face for the pace of growth in the community with a vision of “residential neighborhoods that provide a variety of housing types, styles and densities to serve

a broad spectrum of incomes, ages, and life stages.” This includes higher-density housing, such as the $43.7 million apartment complex that got underway earlier this year along Bella Coola Lane. Copper Mountain Apartments will contain about 280 units intended for low-income tenants. Single-family homes in Badger Mountain South originally faced stringent restrictions on aesthetics, with garages facing an alley instead of the street. It was thought these guidelines, along with other limitations, were the reason for the lagging development seen about five years into the first phase. The city eventually removed some of the restrictions. Now, about 300 single-family homes are completed, with another 178 lots targeted for completion, and the start of new home construction beginning this fall. The new homes will be part of the West Village and West Vineyard neighborhoods. Future West Village homes are intended to be listed by spring and summer 2020, totaling about 131 lots, with another 110 lots ready before the end of next year, Bruchman said. Badger Mountain South is an “open plat” community, which allows any private party or homebuilder to buy lots there. “There’s such a backlog of builders,” Bruchman said. Some currently represented include New Tradition, Viking, Prodigy and Hammerstrom. There are about 1,000 acres remaining for development, and the density of a builder’s footprint mostly correlates with what it buys when lots come available after infrastructure improvements, like sewer and water access. “It’s just a matter of what they have in their war chest, as far as land acquisition at the time the phases come on as far as the size of the bite they take,” Bruchman said.

With homes, come schools

In addition to the home projects, the Richland School District owns 53 acres within the community, with plans to build an elementary school on the site. The future school project was included in a $99 million bond measure approved by voters in 2017. “Its construction is tentatively scheduled to begin in the next several years depending on enrollment growth,” said Ty Beaver, spokesman for the Richland School District. This would be the district’s 12th elementary school. Students living in the Badger Mountain South neighborhood currently attend White Bluffs Elementary School. The Kennewick School District also owns 14 acres within the Richland development, with the intention of eventually adding a school there also. Amon Creek Elementary was the first school to open within the Kennewick district’s boundaries that was also within Richland city limits. “We have no immediate plans to build on this property until more housing is built. Our current assessment, based on information we received from the city, suggests that our next school should be built along the Bob Olson Parkway. We have not determined the final site of elementary uBADGER, Page 41

Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business • August 2019 BADGER, From page 40 school No. 18 that was included in the 2019 bond that voters approved in February. The current timeline has it opening sometime between 2022 and 2025,” said Robyn Chastain, Kennewick district spokeswoman.

A park and places to worship

A 30-acre park is also in the “foreseeable future” and would include multipurpose athletic fields, creating another large park in Richland that would be about two-thirds the size of Howard Amon Park. Nor Am Investments said the company is master planning the fields with the Richland Parks Department and the Richland School District. Directly adjacent to the planned park and Richland school sites is the future location of a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints stake center. Bruchman said the stake center will be on the corner of Trowbridge Boulevard and Bella Coola Lane, on land purchased for $600,000. Additionally, Bruchman said land at Ava Way and Bellaview Avenue was purchased for $367,000 and is intended for a future Sikh temple. The construction timeline for both worship centers is still pending.

Future progress

Kadlec is expected to be an anchor tenant for the 43-acre neighborhood considered a “wellness campus.” The Richland health care provider owns a

five-acre parcel but has no immediate plans for development, according to Kadlec. Future development of the wellness campus is expected to begin next fall, and will include residential units intended for active adults and retirees, falling in line with the master-planned community’s vision to include housing options across all life stages. “Badger Mountain South is one of the fastest growing areas within the Richland city limits and this development has added a significant amount of revenue to the city’s tax base,” Jensen said. Bruchman said there are multiple commercial opportunities in Badger Mountain South still available immediately, with more on the way. Zoning varies for the commercial lots, which total about 200 acres, including about 84 acres along Dallas Road and I-82 zoned by the city as C-1 for “areas which primarily provide retail products and services for the convenience of nearby neighborhoods with minimal impact to the surrounding residential area.” Other newly-constructed commercial lots along Dallas and Trowbridge are expected to be available for sale this fall. Bruchman said the developer holds letters of intent for retail businesses intending to come to Badger Mountain South, but cannot yet disclose any specifics until a purchase and sale agreement is in place.

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Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business â€¢ August 2019

Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business • August 2019 uPROMOTIONS • STCU credit union has expanded its senior leadership team from seven positions to 11. The new senior leaders are: Robyn Galtieri has been promoted to vice president of retail services. Hired in 1998, she became director of the credit union’s Contact Robyn Galtieri Center and operations in 2016. Brian Scott has been promoted to vice president of accounting and finance. He came to STCU in 2003 and was promoted to director of accounting and Brian Scott finance in 2015. Rich Lentz has been promoted to vice president of consumer lending. He joined STCU in 2005 and was promoted to director of consumer lending in Rich Lentz 2015.

Scott Rabe

Scott Rabe has been promoted to vice president of digital development. Hired in 1993, he was promoted to director of project management and software

development in 2012. Four vice presidents have been promoted to new positions within the senior leadership team: Patricia Baughman’s new title is chief development officer. She came to STCU in 2018 as vice president of organizational Patricia Baughman strategy and product development, bringing 20-plus years of senior leadership experience. Tammy Fleiger’s new title is senior vice president of operations. Hired in 1990, she was promoted to vice president of operaTammy Fleiger tions in 2011.

Laura Wood

Patricia Kelly

Laura Wood’s new title is senior vice president of human resources. Hired in 1998, she was promoted to vice president of human resources in 2016. Patricia Kelly’s new title is senior vice president of information technology. Hired in 2000, she was promoted to vice president of information technology in 2016.

• Alma Carrillo of Focal Point Marketing has been promoted to media and finance director. She has been with the Kennewick business for more than two years. She began her career as a media specialist and quickly moved into the media buyer Alma Carrillo position. For the past nine months, she has worked closely with outgoing Focal Point Marketing founder

Theresa Long. Carrillo grew up in the Tri-Cities and lives in Pasco with her family. • Jill Adcock of Richland was recently promoted to director of compliance, privacy and quality at Chaplaincy Health Care in Richland. She also recently earned a certification in health care compliance, Jill Adcock or CHC, through the Health Care Compliance Association. Last year she earned a certification in health care privacy compliance, or CHPC, also through the association. She’s worked at the nonprofit for more than 14 years. • Billie Williams, former chief operating officer and human resources director at The Marcus Whitman Hotel & Conference Center in Walla Walla, has been promoted to general manager. She has replaced Dan Leeper, who left the company at the Billie Williams beginning of July to pursue other outside interests. She joined The Marcus Whitman hotel team in 2003.

Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business • August 2019

BUSINESS PROFILE

New RV business plans to service Hanford, growing area BY ANDREW KIRK

“Our dream is all about your family adventure starting here...”

for Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business

Seven members of Jim Godfrey’s family were working together at a familyowned business—but not their family’s. It was time to rectify that, he said, so he opened Horn Rapids RV Service & Sales Inc. on July 12. All three of Godfrey’s sons started working with him when they were 14 at the last dealership he worked at. Over a span of 21 years at that employer, Godfrey’s brother-in-law, son-in-law and daughter-in-law also came to work for him. One son, Jacob, stayed with him 11 years. Jordan served eight years in the Air Force and now works in parts. Josh served in the Army for nearly six years before coming back to work as lead tech foreman. Godfrey has worked with RVs for 27 years at a variety of dealerships. The family has lived in the Tri-Cities for 30 years. “All my kids were raised in it. They got to the ages where they could do all the jobs, so we opened,” he said. The business is set up as an S corporation with Jim Godfrey serving as the president. When he took over as general manager at his last job, there were under 50 employees. When he left, there were 130. Starting with a modest staff of seven

- Jim Godfrey, owner of Horn Rapids RV Service & Sales

Courtesy Horn Rapids RV Service & Sales From left, Sheila Godfrey, Jim Godfrey, Jordan Godfrey, Matt Roake, Brenda Godfrey, Josh Godfrey, Jacob Godfrey, Casey Boyles and Michael Jordan stand in the new Horn Rapids RV shop in the Horn Rapids Business Park at 2451 Henderson Loop in Richland.

doesn’t intimidate him, as he knows their work ethic and expertise and is comfortable managing a growing endeavor, he said. He chose 2451 Henderson Loop in the Horn Rapids Business Park in Richland because the area is familiar to many. It’s home to White Bluffs Brewing and the Hanford Reach National Monument office. The location also allows him to display

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his inventory to commuters along Highway 240. He hopes to service many of the campers and trailers of those who work at the Hanford nuclear reservation, as well as those belonging to residents in the growing Horn Rapids area. Godfrey said it felt like the right place to put down roots for a longtime family enterprise because it is one of the fastestgrowing areas in the Tri-Cities and he’s the only RV servicing and sales business in the neighborhood. Godfrey said he knows every aspect of the industry, having started as a shop foreman, then working up to service manager. He began taking business classes and earned a college degree. That helped him land a promotion as a service center manager and eventually general manager. From top-to-bottom, he’s done it all. He’s proud to say that at

his last employer he took them from 600 units per year in sales to more than 1,800 units sold four years later. Godfrey’s new facility has five inside bays and one outdoor for servicing. It’s taken three months to get everything just right, but he’s optimistic. He decided to feature higher-end brands under-represented at other area dealerships. Horn Rapids RV carries Travel Lite RVs, campers and trailers, including the new Evoke series; TAXA Crickets and the new Mantis trailers created by former NASA engineers; NeXus motorhomes; and the Forest River E-Pro. The inventory includes new and used vehicles and trailers. “We’re starting small with quality service and quality units,” Godfrey said. “Our stuff is a little bit different.” Godfrey said everyone—including himself—who chooses RVs as part of their profession is passionate about bringing families together to enjoy the outdoors. And RVs create memories and unique experiences like camping, hunting and fishing. “Our dream is all about your family adventure starting here,” he said. “There’s nothing like waking up together out there.”  Horn Rapids RV Service & Sales: 2451 Henderson Loop, Richland; 509375-7577; hornrapidsrv.com; Facebook. Hours: 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business • August 2019

Business Profile

Peddling pedaling Richland Greenies’ owner knows how to solve world’s problems BY KEVIN ANTHONY

for Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business

Darin Warnick has a five-word solution to all the world’s problems. “Just go ride a bike.” From global warming and bad traffic, to stress and bad health, all of it can be solved by climbing into the saddle, pushing the pedals, grinding the gears and basically biking away your worries. “The bike is a simple solution to complex problems,” the owner and manager of Greenies opined recently. “What are the No. 1 problems in America today? Pollution—so how does a bike fix that? Climate change? One less car. Overcrowding, traffic, parking. How about health care? Right? We could all probably use some more exercise in our lives, right? “So the bike fixes all those problems, and it’s a super simple solution. Forget about whatever diet fad or whatever diet pill they want you to take or whatever carbon offsets they want you to buy. “Just go ride a bike. Just ride a bike, it’s that easy.” Easy? Perhaps. Just like how easy it was for a Badger Canyon kid who graduated from Kiona-Benton City High School in 1995 and chased a snowboarding dream

down to Utah, then to Denver, and how it finally led him back to the Tri-Cities as a business owner. That business, Greenies, located in the Richland Parkway at 701 George Washington Way, was an interesting mix of bikes and organic health food when Warnick and his wife, Jenn, took over in 2008. It also was an opportunity to get back to the area with the couple expecting their first child and wanting to be closer to family—Jenn is from Portland. These days, Greenies is strictly about the outdoors, offering sales and rentals of bikes, kayaks and paddleboards. And it’s as much a way of life for Warnick as it is a business. “That’s the great part of it, it never feels like you’re going to a job,” he said. “We just come in here and help people find fun things to do or make healthy lifestyle choices or figure out a way to enjoy the area they live in. And who wouldn’t want to do that all the time? People are happy, they’re going out on the river, they’re getting a new bike.”

Building a business

Moving away from organic health food and strictly into outdoor sales and rentals was the plan from the start.

Photo by Kevin Anthony Greenies owner and manager Darin Warnick has gone from being the only worker at the business when he and wife Jenn took it over in 2008 to having eight employees selling, renting and repairing bikes, paddleboards and kayaks. Greenies is in the Richland Parkway at 701 George Washington Way.

Exclusive organic products were becoming less exclusive as big retailers like Target and Walmart moved into the organic sector. Moreover, Warnick’s background is in bikes and snowboards and the like. He spent four years working as a tech, assistant manager and manager at a bike and snowboard shop in Utah, then moved into the industry side of the business as a sales rep for Smith Optics, a high-performance sunglasses and goggles company. “I kind of figure that was my schooling,” he said. “I did that for three or four years before going into the rep side for

seven or eight years. So there’s 12 years’ experience on both the manufacturing side and the retailing side.” It didn’t take long before he found out managing and owning are two different beasts. “When you’re a manager, you clock out and you go home,” he said. “When you’re the owner, if you wanted to you could be answering emails at midnight, or working Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. for 10 years.” Make that 10-ish to 6-ish … at least uGREENIES, Page 46

Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business • August 2019

GREENIES, From page 45 according to the store’s listed hours, a perfect example of its owners’ relaxed outlook on life. “This morning I came in early to get the boats ready and left the doors unlocked,” Warnick said. “It was a quarter to 10 and people were coming in. Or if I have to close at 5:15 and go home, don’t be crabby because those are my hours.” Of course, no one is going home early on a Saturday, easily the store’s busiest day as people pick up paddleboard and kayak rentals to hit the river. Warnick figures the store will do 20 to 30 paddleboard rentals on any given Saturday, same for kayaks. There may be a couple dozen bike rentals over the course of a week. It helps that Greenies is located where renters have quick access to the rivers and

trails. Howard Amon Park is minutes away along with access to Riverfront Trail and the Columbia and Yakima rivers. “Within a two-minute pedal, you can go and ride 50 miles along the river,” Warnick said. “Developers come and want us to move over here, over there, and I’m like, ‘OK, can you find me a place that’s closer to the river and closer to the bike paths? Because I don’t think so.’ Think of anywhere else in the Tri-Cities that has this close of access to the river. There’s Columbia Park, but there’s no retail in there.” Greenies has been renewing a three-year lease with the property owner since the Warnicks took over with the right of first refusal if the property is sold. So far, there isn’t any indication the owner is looking to sell.

While rentals provide the best margin for the store, the biggest business is bike sales. But just like with organic supplies, how does a local shop compete with the big box stores or online retailers like Amazon?

Quality and service

It’s all about the service and selection. It boils down to selling high-end bikes compared to Walmart, and offering better service than Amazon, according to Warnick. Greenies sells used bikes from $10 to $2,000, and new from $200 for a kids bike on up to $10,000. Yes, $10,000 for a bike. Warnick said the store sold three or four of them last year. “You just have to be really into bik-

ing,” he said. “You don’t have to be a racer to appreciate a nice machine.” And have a lot a money? “Or ride your bike a lot. Bikes are only expensive if you don’t ride them. If it cost $10,000 but you ride it three hours a day, that’s not very expensive. It’s when you go and buy a Walmart bike for $150 and you ride it three times, that’s when it’s expensive. That’s 50 bucks every time you rode it. “I always tell people about that. You buy it nice or you buy it twice. That’s for anything in life, not just bikes. You buy a cheap one, then you come down here to get it fixed and then you’re paying twice what you paid for it just to get it fixed. Or if you buy it nicer, you just buy it one time and it hurts once, then you have uGREENIES, Page 47

Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business • August 2019 GREENIES, From page 46 quality for the rest of the time. You buy it cheap, and it hurts every time you ride it because it’s falling apart; it’s a piece of (junk).” For those doing the math, $50 a ride would be 200 rides on a $10,000 bike. Ride it 200 times a year for five years, hours at a time, and suddenly it might not sound so expensive—or at least put it into context. Warnick said he understands everyone has a budget, and you certainly wouldn’t want your first bike to be that high end. But again, it’s about competition. “Why would I carry bikes like that when you can find them at Fred Meyer or Target or Walmart?” he asked. “That’s fine that there’s that segment. We hope that those people get excited about biking and want to buy a real bike.” As for service, one recent customer said coming into Greenies was an easy choice for her. Bonnie Mitchell, a Richland wife and grandmother, took a ride on an e-bike while on vacation. E-bikes have electronic-assisted pedaling, with a small motor making it easier, especially going uphill. Mitchell loved it and thought it would be a great way to get back into biking. After some extensive online research from her husband, she wanted to go to a local shop. “I looked at Amazon, but it comes in a box and you have to put it together,” she said. “I don’t know how to do that. I wanted brick-and-mortar support.” She spent about half an hour with a technician, and it meant the world to her. “The first thing was the knowledge,” she said. “They have tons of knowledge here, and they spent a lot of time helping me figure out what I needed.” That turned out to be an Electra Townie Go! e-bike, and she said it was $2,700 well spent.

Watching Mitchell walk out of the store with a smile is a big deal to Warnick. “There’s more to life than money, that’s for sure,” he said. “No one gets into the bike industry thinking they’re going to make a ton of money. It’s more of a lifestyle. You just go through life, do what you like. You help people out, and it gets stressful because we get stacked up with repairs or it’s super busy on a Saturday. There’s a lot of rentals. There are days when it is stressful.” But it’s a better kind of stress than just working for a paycheck in a job you couldn’t care less about. “I think we’ve probably all had jobs where the alarm goes off and you’re just like, ‘ugggggghhh,’ ” he groaned. “Or you’re doing it, and you’re just counting down the minutes until it’s time to leave. And for me, that’s just not a way to live. I could probably do things where I could make more money. “There’s freedom and security. I don’t have a 401(k), I have to pay my own health insurance, I have to do my own retirement. I have to do all those things, but the freedom that it gives you …” And, of course, there’s all that problem solving, remember? Global warming, stress, traffic, health? “And then there’s the whole mental health thing too of just clearing your mind and getting out there and hearing the sound of the tires, getting fresh air, getting outside and feeling the sun on your skin,” Warnick said. “There’s a lot of benefits.” Greenies is open Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m.-ish to 6 p.m.-ish. Reservations: By phone, in store or online at greenielife.com/rentals.  Greenies: 701 George Washington Way, Richland; 509-9463787; Facebook: @Greenies.Richland; Twitter: 2GreenieLife; Instagram: @ greenielife.

uNEW HIRES • Dave McClure has been named Pacific Northwest National Laboratory’s chief audit executive. He has most recently been an auditor on PNNL’s Audit Services team. He has more than 25 years of Dave McClure experience, 17 of those with PNNL, in a variety of finance, accounting and audit positions. He earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Central Washington University and is a certified fraud examiner. As the chief audit executive, McClure will test that PNNL follows applicable rules and regulations. • Jhoanna R. Jones has joined Coldwell Banker Tomlinson Associated Brokers of Kennewick as a commercial real estate broker/ Realtor. She brings more than 15 years of banking and lending experience within the Jhoanna R. Jones commercial real estate industry. Originally from Colombia, South America, her business background began when she worked for a

technology company in Japan and the U.S. She has a Georgetown University master’s in real estate and is a certified commercial investment member candidate. • Austin Remington has been hired as a multimedia production artist at Focal Point Marketing in Kennewick. He has been in the industry since 2013, serving as a marketing Austin Remington coordinator and a visual communication manager. His skill set ranges from videography and photography, to graphic design and animation. • Patricia Hessler has joined Merrill Lynch in Kennewick. She has been a financial advisor for 12 years and holds a bachelor’s from Whitman College and a master’s in business administration from Washington State University.

uDONATION • McCurley Subaru donated gifts of blankets, arts and crafts kits and cards of encouragement to benefit cancer patients at Kadlec Clinic Hematology and Oncology in Kennewick on July 18 as part of a partnership with the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business â€¢ August 2019

Grocery store headed to Richland’s Queensgate area

Page 51

8 questions about sale of Richland’s old City Hall

Page 53

Ethanol facility expands capacity in Pasco

Page 57

REAL ESTATE & CONSTRUCTION August 2019

Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business

Construction on $26M box-making plant underway in Richland Packaging Corporation of America to hire 100 people, open in November BY ROBIN WOJTANIK

for Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business

Construction is underway on a $26 million cardboard box manufacturing plant that eventually will employ 100 people in the Horn Rapids Industrial Park in Richland. Packaging Corporation of America, an Illinois-based company, expects to open

the plant in mid-November. The city of Richland sold 42 acres of land at 3003 Kingsgate Way to PCA for $1.7 million. The plant will be nearly a quarter-million square feet with a steel frame. Its opening is expected to bring about 65 family-wage jobs to start. Starting pay is about $20 hourly for workers with no experience, up to $38 hourly, plus benefits. “We’re looking for highly-skilled maintenance personnel and people with shipping backgrounds who can operate mobile equipment to load products,” said

Katy Conlan, regional general manager for PCA. “We’re also hiring general associates who can start in assistant roles and move up to operating high-speed converting equipment.” The first wave of hiring started in April, with those workers visiting similar plants around the country and now assisting with the hiring process for the second wave. Those workers are set to begin Sept. 30. Conlan said the plant should employ “well more” than 100 workers when fully operational. The corrugated box manufacturer’s job

description for positions at the Richland plant said the company seeks to be “the leader in helping our customers—large and small—package, transport and display products of all kinds.” The general contractor for the project is Fisher Construction Group of Burlington, Washington. PCA, which also owns Boise Paper, operates a paper mill and full-line manufacturing plant, both in Wallula. Conlan declined to say how many boxes will be made at the Richland site annually, but said its purpose is much difuPCA, Page 52

Tri-Cities’ hot market attracts outside buyers BY ANDREW KIRK

for Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business

A woman from Hawaii recently bought a home in Tri-Cities with cash and outbid other buyers by $10,000. Real estate shoppers from Seattle, Portland, California and beyond are a growing trend in Tri-Cities, said Dave Shinabarger, president of the Tri-City Association of Realtors. Lance Kenmore of the Kenmore Team in Kennewick said his office is getting about 15 percent to 20 percent more calls from outside of the state than usual—for commercial, residential and property management services. Shinabarger said the buyers are selling property in their markets and buying here in cash. Not only can they “sell high, buy low” comparatively, but in the Tri-Cities they can expect healthy appreciation over 30 years. And in the meantime, they can collect reliable rents in the market, thanks to its 1 percent vacancy rate, he said. Commercial real estate agent Charles Laird of Tippett Company in Pasco said outside investors buying buildings here is not new. For years they’ve looked for opportunities in this area when they didn’t like what they saw in their own cities, he said. The amount of activity in the last two years is what’s different, he said. “I’m quite surprised by the amount and pace of activity that’s occurring,” Laird said. Making those national lists of “best uINVESTORS, Page 66

Photo by Robin Wojtanik Crews made quick work of a 1940s-era building in the Richland Parkway that was once home to The Brass Door. It’s been vacant for years. Work on a replacement building at 702 The Parkway should begin soon, with a targeted finish by spring.

Cocktail bar coming to Richland Parkway BY ROBIN WOJTANIK

for Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business

A high-end craft bar will open in a new Richland Parkway building next year after crews made short of work of demolishing the space that’s languished unoccupied for years. The site at 702 The Parkway—which shares a courtyard with Frost Me Sweet, near the fountain—is almost ready for construction planned at the site, which will include a high-end craft cocktail bar called Moniker. Work on a new $1.45 million building is expected to begin soon, with anticipated completion in late winter or early spring 2020. “This is a challenging project with a lot of variables to manage,” said Casey

Stratton, one of six local investors with Prospere Ventures, the group behind the project. “It’s a very old building with remediation efforts. The building was completely connected with Greenies. And it’s a tight space with George Washington Way and The Parkway on both sides.” Additionally, the Richland Farmers Market in The Parkway every Friday adds to the logistical challenge. “There are always a few unknowns,” Stratton said. In a prepared statement, the owners of Moniker said the cocktail lounge “aims to bring the best of cocktail culture into the Tri-Cities. The space itself is designed to be a community gathering place with a focus on people first.” It is being started by Tri-City natives

Tyler Stevens, Meg Stevens and Erin Stevens. The owners describe a vibe that is “simple and modern,” serving a curated cocktail menu that includes classics and originals with food offerings that are “seasonal, local and vegetable centric.” “For us, it’s about community. When we think about the places we’ve traveled and the time we’ve shared with friends and strangers alike, it’s always centered around great drinks. With Moniker, we want to provide that perfectly unique cocktail that sparks a conversation and a friendship. That’s our passion,” Stevens said. The cocktail bar has a targeted openuMONIKER, Page 51

Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business • August 2019

uAWARDS & HONORS • Participants in Leadership Tri-Cities Class 25 have been selected for the yearlong program. They are: Ivy Anderson, Kadlec; Jennifer Behrends, Kennewick School District; Deborah Burke, Richland School District; Michelle Coy, CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co.; Ubaldina Creek, Communities in Schools; Michele Crowley, city of Pasco; Jessie Dietrich, Lamb Weston; Danielle Dunigan, Energy Northwest; Keeley Gant, Columbia Basin College; Gretchen Guerrero, Visit Tri-Cities; Elizabeth Hernandez Osorio, Columbia Basin College; Melissa Hess, Benton Franklin Community Action Connections; Tom Kimball,

Cisco Systems; Jillian Klym, Green2Go; Neilan McPartland, Numerica Credit Union; Michael Peterson, NE Technical Services; Anneke Rachinski, Columbia Basin College Foundation; Dr. Bradley Sainsbury, Lifetime Dental Care; Eric Smith, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; and Dana Storms, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. • Pasco, Kennewick and Benton City wastewater treatment plants received outstanding performance awards from the state Department of Ecology. The state evaluated more than 300 plants operating in Washington to determine if they were meeting the state pollution limits and permit requirements, which include: monitoring, reporting, spill prevention planning, pre-

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REAL ESTATE & CONSTRUCTION treatment and operational demands. • Susan Mendenhall, local franchisee of the two IHOP Restaurants in the Tri-Cities, has been named the 2018 IHOP Northwest Franchisee of the Year. Mendenhall has been operating these restaurants since Susan Mendenhall 2001 and became the owner in 2010. Susan, her husband Russ, and their three children have lived in Kennewick since 1994. • Fat Olives restaurant in Richland was included in the August issue of

Wine Spectator magazine for being among the best Washington restaurants for wine selections. J.D. Nolan is the owner and wine director. • Knutzen Engineering of Kennewick has been recognized as a top-performing engineering firm for 2019. PSMJ Resources Inc., an advisory services group, highlighted successfully managed firms demonstrating outstanding achievements in areas such as profitability, overhead management, cash flow, productivity, business development, staff growth and turnover. The Circle of Excellence represents the top 20 percent of participants in PSMJ’s annual survey, based on 13 key performance metrics.

IBEW LOCAL 112 114 N. Edison St., Kennewick

he Tri-City chapter of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers has moved into a new building that nearly triples its space. IBEW Local 112 began moving at the end of July into the new $3.4 million union hall at 114 N. Edison St. in Kennewick, just south of Clearwater Avenue and east of Marineland Plaza. The new facility replaces the union hall that’s been at 2637 W. Albany Ave. near Kennewick Avenue and Vista Way since 1967. The 14,000-square-foot building serves 800 members in eight counties in southeast Washington and eight counties in northeast Oregon. The project included about 9,000 square feet of office space and classroom labs, and a 5,000-squarefoot auditorium, which will be available for rent to

the community as a means of offsetting the building cost. First established in 1947, Local 112 partners with the National Electrical Contractors Association, or NECA, to train apprentices who will work in the skilled trade as journeyman electricians. IBEW Local 112 and NECA jointly purchased the 3.5-acre lot on Edison Street with plans to also add

a new apprenticeship facility to the site in the next two to three years, moving its current electrical training center from 8340 W. Gage Blvd. in Kennewick. The general contractor was Total Site Services, based in Richland. Meier Architecture Engineering of Kennewick did the design work.

GENERAL CONTRACTOR It has been a pleasure working with IBEW in bringing your vision to life. May all that pass through the doors of your new ofﬁces and meeting hall add to your continued growth and success.

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Real Estate & Construction

Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business • August 2019

Grocery store headed to Richland’s Queensgate area California-based chain has stores in Pasco, Kennewick BY ROBIN WOJTANIK

for Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business

A third Grocery Outlet store is coming to the Tri-Cities, putting a “bargain market” in each of the three cities. The latest will be in the Queensgate area of Richland, next door to Party City near Target. Richland is reviewing a permit for the proposed project at 2901 Queensgate Drive in Vintner Square. Representatives with Grocery Outlet said the exact address is pending but expect to open a store there in mid- to late 2020. The permit lists an 18,000-square-foot building valued at $1.65 million. A spokesperson for Grocery Outlet said most stores range in size from 10,000 square feet to 25,000 square feet. The Richland shop would be similar in size to the 18,000-square-foot Grocery Outlet on North Road 68 in Pasco that opened in August 2018, but smaller than the one on West Fourth Avenue in Kennewick. A Grocery Outlet opened in Sunnyside in February. The project is spearheaded by Browman Development Co. of California. When asked about the likely number of

Photo by Robin Wojtanik A Grocery Outlet is planned for the Queensgate area of Richland and set to open next year. It will be next door to Party City, near Target.

employees planned for the location, a representative with the public relations firm hired by the store said, “Grocery Outlet stores are independently owned and operated and hire residents from within the local community. Typically, owner-operators hire 25 to 35 employees from the community.” The opening of the Pasco store brought about 30 new jobs along with it. Its grand opening included giveaways. There are more than 300 Grocery Outlet stores across Washington,

California, Oregon, Idaho, Nevada and Pennsylvania. The company boasts 1.5 million shoppers weekly, calling itself the “nation’s largest extreme value retailer.” Grocery Outlet stores are not operated like a typical grocery store. They have highly fluctuating inventory so may not carry the same products weekly. The company just held an initial public offering and is now traded on the NASDAQ, raising about $400 million from its debut in late June.

MONIKER, From page 49 ing of spring 2020 and the owners expect to hire five to 10 employees to fill its staff. Stratton said demolition on the 702 The Parkway building took a bit longer than planned because the group recycled all the wood and metal from the building for both environmental and economic reasons. Prospere bought the building for $288,000 in 2014 and had originally planned to renovate it. But it didn’t make financial sense to try to rehab the World War II-era building. The proposed replacement is a 5,500-square-foot, single-story structure that could hold three tenants. Architectural renderings show a brick façade and metal awnings on the new building. Besides Moniker, it’s expected a business or service organization will move into the largest space available and a coffee shop into the smallest. Prospere Ventures received $30,000 from the city of Richland through its commercial improvement program to put toward exterior improvements. Money from the city needs to be spent within the calendar year it is awarded, so the exterior is targeted for completion by the end of the year. The contractor on the project is Booth & Sons Construction.

Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business • August 2019

Real Estate & Construction PCA, From page 49

Photo by Robin Wojtanik A $26 million manufacturing plant that will make cardboard boxes in north Richland is under construction and expected to open in mid-November, bringing with it 100 new jobs.

ferent than the Wallula plants on Highway 12, which primarily serve the fresh produce and processed food and beverage markets. “People say, ‘Is it going to smell like the paper mill out in Wallula?’ No, it’s not,” Conlan said. “That’s the paper-making process, this is just a corrugated box plant. We take 7,000 to 8,000 rolls of paper and make corrugated containers.” Conlan said the Horn Rapids site was chosen for its location and for the pool of local talent and skilled employee base. “Richland is very strong in their economic development,” Conlan said. “I would give the city a lot of kudos for their willingness to work with us. We didn’t have a lot of time and they were very help-

“People say, ‘Is it going to smell like the paper mill out in Wallula?’ No, it’s not.”

- Katy Conlan, regional general manager for PCA

ful. They did what they said, they moved quickly, and I really appreciated that.” PCA is a publicly-traded company and North America’s third largest producer of containerboard products and uncoated freesheet paper. It operates eight mills and 94 corrugated products plants and related facilities.

uBUSINESS BRIEFS BIAW sues governor, state over building legislation

The Building Industry Association of Washington filed suit against Gov. Jay Inslee, the state of Washington and the Department of Fish and Wildlife over legislation that created new fines for builders. The suit, announced July 16, is over House Bill 1579, which implements recommendations from the Southern Resident Killer Whale Task Force. The BIAW contends the governor acted unconstitutionally when he vetoed a subsection of the bill. It maintains he can only veto an entire section, not just a portion of it. The suit also claims the Legislature overstepped by including a provision in the bill that was not a recommendation of the task force.

Richland receives $4M in public works loans

The city of Richland will receive $4 million in loans from the state Public Works Board for improvements to the Horn Rapids landfill. The Richland project was one of 30 from across the state included among $85 million in loans for pre-construction and construction activities. More than $248 million had been requested for 74 projects in the 2019 funding cycle. Connell was awarded $1.2 million for sewer work, and the Basin City Water District $495,000 for water meters.

Charming Charlie stores closing after bankruptcy

Charming Charlie women’s apparel and fashion accessories stores are closing nationwide, including the one in the Columbia Center mall, after the company declared bankruptcy July 11. Sales began July 13 in the company’s 261 stores. The store-closing sales are being conducted by Hilco Merchant Resources and SB360 Capital Partners.

Real Estate & Construction

Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business • August 2019

Q&A about sale of Richland’s old City Hall BY ROBIN WOJTANIK

for Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business

Now that the city of Richland has moved into its new City Hall, what’s going on with the property across the street where the old city complex is? The city is clearing out and demolishing its former City Hall at 505 Swift Blvd. and 975 George Washington Way. The site is expected to be fully cleared by November and will be nearly shovelready, with some old growth trees and parking lots remaining for use while the property is for sale. The city is selling up to 2.8 acres for the “right project.” The city has not provided an askMandy Wallner ing price for the City of Richland lot. We asked Mandy Wallner, marketing specialist for Richland’s economic development department, about the city’s plans to sell the property at what it considers to be a highprofile corner within the central business district. What is for sale? There are two parcels that can be divided up. A 505 Swift Blvd. address (about 1.5 acres) and there’s 975 George Washington Way (about 1.3 acres). The George Washington Way lot was intended to be the future fire station, but if it was the right project and someone wanted the whole space, we could sell up to the full 2.8 acres. We’re marketing it as a whole site, but it could be split with two buyers or two projects or one project. It can front either street. The traffic counts for the lot average about 55,000 daily trips between George Washington Way, Swift Boulevard and Jadwin Avenue. Why did Richland relocate its City Hall instead of rebuilding on the corner? The current building wasn’t intended to be multi-level besides the basement and the first floor. So for us to go up, we would have had to remediate the building and start over. To be able to leave that building open during construction, it was better to build on a different site. Additionally, we knew that it is a highlymarketable site and it made more sense for us to be here (625 Swift Blvd.) since there was so much parking here, so there wasn’t a gap in service. Since we are a full-service utility, it was important to us to be able to have that access. How is it being marketed? We started soft marketing while we were building the new City Hall and knew we were at least 18 months out. We took it to some conferences. We went to the International Council of Shopping Centers conference in Vegas and marketed the property to developers there nationally. We’ve done more grassroots marketing as far as meeting with real estate agents one-

on-one, taking any developer interests and building that relationship to market the property and get the right use. We have a pretty solid idea of what they (city council) want to see there, so that’s why it’s been approached that way, having those conversations.

What is the idea or vision for the site? It’s hard to describe as far as, “this is the project we want.” But it definitely is going to be a mixed-use development. It’s going to contribute to the vibrancy and walkability of downtown. The city council has a clear vision about wanting to energize the core of the city to make that a walkable, vibrant, energized core. That’s, in part, where the Park Place development (650 George Washington Way) comes in, bringing more residents downtown. We also have the 1100 and 1200 Jadwin projects that are in the process so that will bring residents downtown also. By adding those residents down here, that changes the look, feel and energy, and we want to be sure to complement that with multi-use buildings and facilities. Additionally, central business district is how it’s zoned, so there’s some restrictions there. But also has a lot of benefits that aren’t available in other places in the city. Has there been interest so far? We did do an RFQ (request for quotation) on the property and it didn’t really render the responses we were looking for. So that’s probably when we started the

actual marketing push, if there was an official start date. We’ve had people look at groceries there, we’ve had people look at residential there. In the central business district, you can build up, with 110 feet as the limit. The Federal Building is a good gauge for how tall that is, which allows for about six stories. We definitely want to see some taller buildings in the downtown so that’s a desirable use, but it doesn’t have to be. Why did the city turn down a proposal for a performing arts center there? The committee reviewed the project and decided that wasn’t what they wanted to see there. In part because there’s historical proof that performing arts centers typically aren’t programmed during the day. They offer mostly weekend or evening activity, so it would need to be combined with some other kind of a use to energize that all the time. We’re looking for kind of a 24-hour energy there that is retail, commercial, could be office space, it could be restaurants, it could be all kinds of things. Unfortunately, I think the message ended up that Richland doesn’t want a performing arts center, which I don’t think is the message we’re sending, it’s just not the right space. What is the current status of the effort to sell the lot? We’ve had a lot of interest in whether we’re going to do another RFP (request for proposal). That is forthcoming but

we’re not sure when that will happen. We do maintain a list of people we will notify when that comes, and people can always sign up to be notified or email info@richlandbusiness.com to be added to the list or ask questions. As long as we don’t have an open RFP, we can direct negotiate with someone at any time. During an RFP process, we still have to honor that process. But we could always close it and direct negotiate, and that’s up to council. But typically, we try to follow those guidelines. Outside of that we are free to entertain any offer at any time. It just needs to come in with something formal like a rendering and letter of interest. Why hasn’t Richland shared an asking price for the property? We have an appraisal, so we know what the land is worth. For the right project, that’s somewhat flexible. That’s the benefit we have to owning our land. We haven’t really wanted to say it’s this much money, because if there’s the right project, and it’s a highly-desired use, there may be some flexibility in that. But we’d like to stay close to the appraised value. Since this has George Washington Way, Swift Boulevard and Jadwin Avenue access, and those are our three busiest streets in Richland, that tends to make it a highlymarketable area for all kinds of things. It’s a really exciting time for us, making sure there’s appropriate access and appropriate use. There has been interest, but just not the right project so far.

Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business • August 2019

REAL ESTATE & CONSTRUCTION

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AMISTAD ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, PHASE 1 930 W. Fourth Ave., Kennewick

ennewick School District’s first phase of the new Amistad Elementary expansion project is a 43,500-square-foot building. The new addition features 22 classrooms, plus a gym and offices, at 930 W. Fourth Ave., near the district’s Administration Center. Students in grades 3 to 5 will occupy the building when school starts Aug. 27. The $18 million first phase addition is funded by a K-3 class size reduction grant from the state, awarded in 2016. In the second phase that is currently underway, the original school building, which dates to 1992, will be replaced with a new 20-classroom building that connects to the first phase addition. Students in grades K-2 will occupy the second phase building when it is completed in August 2020. The second phase is part of the 2019 bond that voters passed in February and is being built by general contractor Chervenell Construction of Kennewick. Amistad’s total classroom count will be 42 when both phases are done. Kennewick is the largest school district in southeastern Washington, with nearly 19,000 students. Bouten Construction of Richland was the general

contractor for phase one, with Bob Byrd on site as the superintendent. Alliance Management & Construction Solutions provided construction management, with Earl Eastman as the owner’s representative.

ALSC Architects of Spokane was the architect. Ken Murphy was the principal-in-charge/design principal, with Steve Walther was the managing principal.

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Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business • August 2019

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Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business • August 2019

Ethanol facility expands capacity Tanks will allow Tidewater Terminal Co. to deliver ethanol-petroleum throughout region BY ROBIN WOJTANIK

for Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business

A $12.5 million ethanol facility is coming online in August at the Tidewater Terminal Co. in Pasco. “Right now we’re going through our testing phase to make sure all our set points are where they need to be,” said Mark Davis, general manager of Tidewater. The testing is being done on the pump system created for two massive tanks, standing nearly 60 feet tall and 90 feet in diameter at 671 Tank Farm Road. Each can hold 65,000 barrels of liquid. They will be used for storing ethanol and petroleum, and then blending the two for use as fuel around the region. “We’re a fuel station for fuel stations,” said Nigel Stevenson, Tidewater’s capital projects manager. “We fill up fuel trucks the way you’d fill up your car at Costco or 7-Eleven.” The blended fuel is required under a state mandate for biofuel to produce cleaner emissions. The new Snake River Terminal Ethanol Facility includes 720-foot long unloading and loading racks to fill train cars. “It’s a fairly automated system,” Davis said. “You hook the cars up and hit the button and the pumps slowly ramp up and pump it into the tank, and when it’s done, you just reverse the process.” The 128-acre terminal was already capable of blending biofuel but not at the capacity the new facility will allow. “We bring 96 cars in on a unit train,” Davis said. “That unit train will land

here and we’ll discharge it in 24 hours now. It used to take six days instead of one day.” Construction on the project began last summer. “Almost all of that money was spent using local contractors with local materials and local suppliers. A very large part of that money stayed here in the community. It gives us an opportunity to increase employment at Tidewater here as well,” Davis said. The company employs 36 people at the terminal, but Davis doesn’t know how many new terminal operators will be needed to run the new facility. “I’d be throwing darts,” he said. Davis said the positions will be “good-paying” jobs with salaries north of $25 an hour. “We have an idea of how the market’s going to respond, but if it responds in a really positive way, we could be looking for more people,” he said. Founded in 1952, Tidewater also operates barge lines that run along the local rivers as far west as Astoria, Oregon. It ships dry products like wheat, wood chips and corn, and liquid products like fertilizer and petroleum. It has facilities in Pasco and Umatilla. “For all intents and purposes, it’s like two separate companies. One is the barge line and the other is the terminal,” Davis said. The increased capacity for ethanol and petroleum storage at the Pasco terminal was built to meet market demand. Straight, denatured ethanol also can be dispatched by the terminal for sale in other markets. A ribbon-cutting celebration is set for Aug. 27 at the new facility.

Courtesy Tidewater Terminal Co. Tidewater Terminal Co.’s two new storage tanks at 671 Tank Farm Road in Pasco mean the company is ready to store ethanol and petroleum for offloading onto train cars more quickly, expanding its capacity.

Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business • August 2019

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QUEENSGATE STORAGE AND RV 2373 Jericho Road, Richland

ueensgate Storage and RV’s new addition gives the Richland business room to grow. It bought two adjacent acres from the Church of Nazarene and doubled its footprint from two acres to four acres. Located at 2373 Jericho Road in Richland, Queensgate Storage and RV added sixteen 14-by40-foot heated commercial buildings that also can be rented as 28-by-40s, twenty-one more 10-by-10 driveups, twenty-one more 10-by-20 drive-ups and outdoor

RV and boat parking. It also added a U-Haul dealership that offers rentals and packing supplies. Completed in July, the facility is near Queensgate Drive and Keene, between Tri-Cities Battery and B&B Trailers. The land cost $320,000 and the building project was $800,000. Lori and Jeff Wenner own Queensgate Storage and RV.

The original facility was built in 2005. The addition was needed to meet the “huge demand for more self-storage and garage-style units and outdoor RVs. We are trying to serve the growing Tri-Cities’ needs,” said Jeff Wenner, also owner of Aura Homes, which served as the general contractor. Teton West of Pasco erected the buildings. TTap Construction Services of Kennewick was in charge of excavating. DKEI Architectural Services of Richland was the architect.

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Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business • August 2019

Housing becoming an issue for state’s long-term economic health We hear about skyrocketing home prices in places like Seattle, San Francisco and New York and shake our heads. Modest three-bedroom ramblers going for $1 million or more. Hopeful homebuyers engaging in bidding wars, sometimes buying houses sight-unseen, or skipping inspections to ensure someone else doesn’t close the deal first. But the lack of housing of Kris Johnson Association of all types is realWashington ly a nationwide Business crisis, according GUEST COLUMN to U.S. Rep. Denny Heck. Heck, D-Washington, was one of the speakers at a statewide housing forum put on last month by a coalition of 10 organizations, including the Association of Washington Business. The country is at least 5 million homes short of what’s needed, Heck said, and the case could be made the shortfall is more like 7 million. “Supply is not keeping up with demand,” he said. It only gets worse as Washington is expected to add 1.5 million people by 2040. State Sen. Andrew Barkis, R-Olympia, another speaker at the event, said people are moving further away from their jobs so they can afford to live. A few weeks before the forum, Redfin named the Tacoma metro area the country’s hottest housing market as priced-out Seattle homebuyers increasingly look south. Nearly half of the houses sold in May went for more than the asking price, and the median home was on the market for just eight days. “This is a crisis, and crisis prompts us into action,” Barkis said. What does action look like? Based on the discussion at the forum, it’s clear there are no easy answers. Possible solutions include rethinking state land-use rules like the Growth Management Act to allow more space for new home building and changing local requirements to make it less expensive to build new homes, apartments and condominiums. The state Legislature adopted the Growth Management Act in 1990, and most observers of Washington’s housing issues agree it’s due for an update. Similarly, attendees pointed to the cost of building requirements as a contributing factor to the state’s housing crisis. As the number of conditions has increased, profit margins for builders have decreased, and the cost of new homes has gone up. Housing is not a partisan issue and solving Washington’s housing crisis will take a group effort. That explains the diverse and unprecedented coalition behind the forum. AWB helped convene the coalition, which included a mix of public and pri-

vate-sector nonprofits. Representatives came from urban and rural communities in eastern and western Washington, and associations representing home builders, homebuyers and renters. In addition to AWB, the organizers included the Association of Washington Cities, Building Industry Association of Washington, Greater Spokane Inc., Rental Housing Association of Washington, Seattle Metropolitan Chamber, Washington Public Ports Association, Washington Realtors, Washington Roundtable and Washington State Association of Counties.

If it’s clear there are no easy answers, it’s just as clear that we must act. Without a concerted effort, Washington faces the same kind of housing crisis that has prompted many Californians to leave the state in search of more affordable housing, said keynote speaker James Young, director of the Washington Center for Real Estate Research at the University of Washington. That’s not good for employers, employees or communities. For employers, the availability of high-quality, affordable housing is a critical factor in the ability to attract

and retain skilled workers. For employees, finding housing within the same communities as their jobs mean shorter commutes, more time spent with families and better work-life balance. And for communities, all these elements contribute to the quality of place we all desire.  Kris Johnson is president of the Association of Washington Business, the state’s chamber of commerce and manufacturers association.

Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business • August 2019

REAL ESTATE & CONSTRUCTION

FG BUILDING

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1953 Fowler St., Richland

he new 34,000-square-foot metal building, known as the FG Building, at the east end of Fowler Street wasn’t the original plan Greg and Amy Ford had in mind. The couple had been looking for a small piece of land to build a small metal warehouse for a shop and storage space. They wanted to be in close proximity to their other businesses, Brashear Electric and Columbia Park Marina, but as they searched for property, they found limited options. The Fords liked the location at 1953 Fowler St. adjacent to Highway 240, but it wasn’t for sale and it was a lot more land than they were looking for. Greg reached out to the Rupp family, who owned the property at the time, and after several months of conversations and negotiation, they bought the two-acre parcel. That’s when the plan evolved. They planned for their small shop and storage space but also space for multiple tenants. “We needed to build a building big enough to make the land purchase pencil,” Greg said. The building has great highway frontage, so they wanted to make sure the building would pop, have character and great curb appeal, the Fords said. Western Restaurant Supply & Design is one of the building tenants, leasing 9,430 square feet for its showroom. The company will stock and sell professional restaurant equipment, kitchen tools and supplies, chefware, and showcase a mobile test kitchen

food truck. Its new space will include a 500-squarefoot design center where customers can choose from samples to design tabletops, furniture, tables and chairs for their dining space. It also features a stateof-the-art conference room to meet with customers about design-build projects, including food trucks or trailers. TVs mounted throughout the store will play educational videos. The FG Building layout was designed to house up to seven tenants in spaces about 4,800 square feet each, with the flexibility to increase the size for larger tenants. The building’s seven storefronts feature a 12-by14-foot overhead roll-up door in each bay at the front

and back of the building and a loading dock on the east end of the building. The building has 22,000 square feet available for lease. The remaining space can be built out for one tenant or up to four tenants. Wave Design Group of Kennewick served as the designer, architect and engineer for the project. CRF Metal Works of Pasco and Watts Construction of Kennewick were the major subcontractors who played a huge role in the project’s successful completion, along with many other subcontractors’ hard work, the Fords said. For leasing information, call Amy Ford at 509-531-2329 or email amy@fordgroup5.com.

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“Thank you to all the subcontractors for your hard work and dedication to this project!” - Greg & Amy Ford

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Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business • August 2019

REAL ESTATE & CONSTRUCTION

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Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business • August 2019

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THREE RIVERS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 3901 Road 84, Pasco

hree Rivers Elementary School is the Pasco School District’s 16th elementary school. The two-story school features 72,842 square feet of space at 3901 Road 84 Pasco, north of Chiawana High School. It also is home to a new inclusive playground that will ensure all students can engage in playground activities. It will be the first inclusive playground at an elementary school in the state and will be designated as a national demonstration site for the state of Washington, according to the school district. The new school uses the same design as

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Marie Curie STEM Elementary School, which saved the district money in the design process. The school is expected to serve about 800 students. The $27.3 million school is part of the district’s 2017 $99.5 million bond, which also will pay for more new schools, safety and security improvements, roof replacements, land purchases for future schools sites and other building improvements. Fowler Construction of Richland was the general contractor. Design West Architects of Kennewick was the architect.

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Real Estate & Construction uBUSINESS BRIEFS BlankSpace event venue closing Sept. 2

BlankSpace, a business designed to be an event venue and creative hub in the Southridge area of Kennewick, will close its doors Sept. 2, three years after it opened. Owner Olivia Berg made the announcement on Facebook, citing long hours, time with her family and time for other businesses as reasons for the closure. “While it is bittersweet to say farewell, we leave with full hearts,” Berg posted. The business opened in September 2016 with a goal to “encourage creativity, local industry, charity and sustainability in a way that is relevant to consumers.” During that time, the venue at 5453 Ridgeline Drive hosted more than 600 events, from art shows to baby showers, weddings to retirement parties.

Little Caesar’s coming to Kennewick strip mall

Remodeling work at a Kennewick strip mall on Gage Boulevard is underway to welcome a Little Caesar’s pizza restaurant. The nationwide franchise will be at 8530 W. Gage Blvd., sharing the strip mall with The Local, Graze, Edible Arrangements and Noodle Thyme. The $650,000 in improvements include remodeling, plumbing and mechanical work. Contractors are Buehner Construction of Salt Lake City, Silverline Electric of Kennewick and Jacobs and Rhodes Heating and Air Conditioning of Kennewick.

Homebuilding adds $8.4 billion to economy

New home construction added $8.4 billion to Washington’s economy in 2018, according to a report from the National

Home Builders Association. The report, commissioned by the Building Industry Association of Washington, examined the impact of construction of 24,000 single-family homes built in the state in 2018. It examined the direct and indirect impacts of the construction industry itself, employee income within the industry, and money from construction activity spent within the state. The $8.4 billion is employee income from 103,315 jobs created. That is in addition to $2.2 billion in state and local taxes. The report also shows another $4 billion in “ripple effect”—spending of income and taxes—and $1.6 billion from occupancy.

Benton County jail gets $3.7M in improvements

Benton County is spending nearly $3.7 million to improve plumbing issues at the jail. The project will replace failing plumbing in the older section of the jail, which sits directly above the Benton County Sheriff’s Office. County officials said the old boilers will be replaced and work will be done in the restrooms to eliminate water intrusion. The recreation yard above the office area will receive surface treatment to eliminate water intrusion as well. Banlin Construction and BNB Mechanical are the contractors for the project at 7122 W. Okanogan Place.

uDONATIONS • Piton Wealth of Kennewick raised $5,005 for Tri-County Partners Habitat for Humanities during its third annual Kennewoodstock backyard benefit concert featuring singer-songwriter James Lanman. More than 100 people attended. Piton Wealth matched all ticket sales from the concert. • Dutch Bros Pasco and Richland raised $3,726 for the Allergy and

Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business • August 2019 Asthma Network in honor of Colby Prince, a Dutch Bros employee who died in June following complications related to asthma. Pasco and Richland Dutch Bros locations donated $1 from each drink sold on July 8.

uAWARDS & HONORS • John Miller, a supervisor at Lourdes Counseling Center for 25 years, has been recognized as the hospital’s 2019 LifePoint Mercy Award winner for demonstrating compassion and unwavering commitment to help others. The award recognizes one employee from each of LifePoint Health’s hospitals who profoundly touches the lives of others and best represents the spirit and values on which the company was founded.

• A&E Towing Plus LLC of Kennewick was honored as one of the largest towing and recovery fleets by American Towman Magazine during a special luncheon at the seventh annual American Towman Showplace-Las Vegas in May. The winners received a customcrafted commemorative coin featuring original artwork celebrating their Towman 100 status. • Petersen Hastings of Kennewick has been included in the listing of Financial Advisor Magazine’s Top RIA Ranking with $670 million assets under management at the end of 2018. The ranking is based on total discretionary and nondiscretionary assets reported on Form ADV. Petersen Hastings is the only firm in Eastern Washington to be recognized in the survey, according to a news release.

Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business • August 2019

REAL ESTATE & CONSTRUCTION

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RICHLAND SCHOOL DISTRICT ELEMENTARY NO. 11 2100 Sunshine Ave., West Richland

he Richland School District’s newest elementary school doesn’t have a name yet, though it opens for students on Aug. 28. The school off Belmont Boulevard at 2100 Sunshine Ave. in West Richland will temporarily house students and staff from Tapteal Elementary School this school year, and potentially Badger Mountain Elementary the following school year, before gaining its own students, staff and name. Tapteal Elementary is moving into the new build-

ing while its school at 705 N. 62nd Ave in West Richland is rebuilt and replaced—a $19.9 million project that’ll be completed in August 2020. The $17.5 million Elementary No. 11 is two stories with 65,000 square feet of space. There are 24 regular classrooms, four classrooms for special education services, designated spaces for music and art, a gym, multipurpose room, administrative offices and a playground. This is the district’s 11th elementary school and

will serve students in kindergarten through grade 5. The school is included in the $99 million bond approved by voters in February 2017. The bond, plus state assistance, will pay for new schools, replace existing schools and pay for other facility improvements. Chervenell Construction of Kennewick was the general contractor. Design West Architects of Kennewick was the architect.

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Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business â€˘ August 2019

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Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business • August 2019

INVESTORS, From page 49 places to live” and “cities with lowest costs of living” grabs the attention of investors who are looking for multi-family dwellings or commercial property, said Ben Murphy, a property manager with SVN Retter and Company in Kennewick. Partly it’s the region’s strong economy but also it’s just a sign of growth, he said. In the 1990s, the majority of building owners were local. Now it seems most are regional, he said. More office buildings and shopping centers from regional and national developers comes with population growth, said property manager Jerry Abrams of Jerry D. Abrams Company Inc. of Richland. “We’re on the map. We’re getting noticed,” said Mark Trout of Retter &

Company Sotheby’s International Realty. “They cite our economy, the potential for appreciation, the favorable vacancy rates for rentals. It makes good business sense.” Vista Pointe Developments has taken notice of the area. The company is building Windsong at Southridge—a 56-bed, $6.1 million memory-care facility on Quillan Place and 24th Avenue off Highway 395 in Kennewick. Vista Pointe owns memory-care homes in Colorado and Oregon. This is their first project in Washington state. “We do a thorough look-around to see where we want to grow,” said Don Harris, a developer with Vista Pointe. “Tri-Cities is growing and it’s not oversaturated. … I like the area.” Wes Romine, development services

Real Estate & Construction manager for city of Kennewick, said there’s definitely an uptick in outside firms seeking applications to build commercial buildings. It’s always happening—like the national chain At Home taking the place of Shopko on Columbia Center Boulevard. He said there’s been a definite increase, and many are seeking permits to build and service the health care industry serving the area’s growing senior population. Holly Logan, communications and marketing manager for city of Richland, said she has no data on where applicants are from, but agreed there’s been a noticeable increase in applications in 2019 alone. It’s interesting that people turned homes into rentals during the great reces-

sion out of necessity, and now it’s a trend for investment purposes, said Michael Erickson of Crown Property Management of Kennewick. But the only significant increase in out-of-area clients he’s seen is for smaller-scale commercial properties and multi-family dwellings. He believes there are fewer options for those investments in Seattle, Portland and California right now. What does all this mean for Tri-City residents? Kenmore said it’s definitely having a “creeping” effect on the median sale price. In May, the median home price was $302,900. When out-of-state developers compete with west side firms for commercial property, or out-of-market investors compete with locals and transplants for homes, the supply-and-demand result is median prices creep up, he explained. The local real estate market is so hot right now because the population is growing, but the supply of housing isn’t keeping up with demand. That means there are only 500 to 600 homes for sale most months and turnaround is fast. The Tri-City Association of Realtors reported the median sale price in August 2016 was $229,000. A year later it was $250,000. Last year it was $292,000. “The market began heating up three years ago,” Shinabarger said. “It’s still double-digit appreciation and that’s expected to continue through June 2020.” This time next year the market is predicted to cool a little, and some evidence of that is already showing this summer, he said. But year-to-year appreciation could still exceed 7 percent in the near future. “A lot of equity was created in the last three years,” Kenmore said. Erickson said the present market puts his mind back to the previous decade and the recession. But even though current levels of appreciation aren’t sustainable, he was quick to clarify he is not pessimistic about the future. The people who could be adversely affected are those making $20 an hour or less and hoping to save up for a home with 1,500 square feet, Shinabarger said. Those properties are up to $250,000 right now. The solution is city and county incentives for creating the right kind of affordable housing, he said. Too many people seeking public office think affordable housing means tall apartment buildings and smaller lot sizes, Shinabarger said. This isn’t what the TriCity market is calling for, he said. Incentivizing owners to renovate lessdesirable properties in older neighborhoods is a good option, as is tearing down old homes and building anew on the lots. Considering the need for inter-generational housing in Tri-Cities, allowing more auxiliary dwellings to be adjacent to or behind existing homes is another solution, he said, adding that making smart decisions while respecting market trends is how more people can get in on the current appreciation.

Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business • August 2019

PUBLIC RECORD uBANKRUPTCIES Bankruptcies are filed under the following chapter headings: Chapter 7 — Straight Bankruptcy: debtor gives up non-exempt property and debt is charged. Chapter 11 — Allows companies and individuals to restructure debts to repay them. Chapter 12 — Allows family farmers or fishermen to restructure finances to avoid liquidation for foreclosure. Chapter 13 — Plan is devised by the individual to pay a percentage of debt based on ability to pay. All disposable income must be used to pay debts. Information provided by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Spokane.

CHAPTER 7 Mario B. Soria and Leticia R. Garcia, 2009 E. Third Ave., Kennewick. Juanita Depweg, 1138 W. 10th Ave., Kennewick. Maria D. C. Martinez, 3703 W. Kennewick Ave., Kennewick. Susan Paramore, 560 Wisteria St., Richland. E-Mac Corporation, 7200 W. Brinkley Road, Kennewick. Eldon L. and Sherry L. McDaniels, 111003 E. Windward Lane, Kennewick. Amanda H. Jamison, 8220 W. Gage Blvd., Kennewick. Lupita Martinez, 5518 Concord Drive, Pasco. Jose Cabezas Jr., 716 W. Yakima St., Pasco. Ricky Graham, 508 S. Fillmore St., Kennewick. Joshua A. Rutherford, 405 Seventh St., Benton City. Ricky L. and Kim J. Cleavenger, 1342 Deleware Ave., Richland. Martin M. Dirksen, 10616 S. 2058 PRSE, Kennewick. Sara Stratton, 110251 Ridgeline Dr, Kennewick. Felicia Darwen, 9 N. Newport St., Kennewick.

Jerry L. Payseno Sr., 102 E. Fifth Ave., Kennewick. Yolanda Espindola, 1311 W. 26th Ave., Kennewick. Santiago Hernandez, 1505 S. Road 40 E, Pasco. Maria I. Labra, 1505 S. Road 40 E, Pasco. Theresa M. Alder, 5289 E. 638 Highway, Posen, Michigan. Trinidad and Veronica Ramos, 415 N. Garfield St., Kennewick. Zachery Sifuentez, 3713 W. Margaret, Pasco. Keith E. Hilde, 6855 W. Clearwater Ave., Kennewick. Kayla Lytton, 530 Doubletree Court, Richland. Cheryl Schwarzwalter, 2303 Dallas St., Richland. Alice Satoh, 3517 Road 84, Pasco. Linda Santos, 3002 W. 46th Ave., Kennewick. David Closner, 2645 Dornoch Place, Richland. Kevin R. and Adara L. Olson, 451 Westcliffe Blvd., Richland. Florentino Cardona, 1712 N. 24th Ave., Pasco. Whitney A. and Kelly D. Sheehan, 2320 W. 20th Ave., Kennewick. Samuel and Alexis DeLeon, 6203 Three Rivers Drive, Pasco. Keith G. and Susan K. McDaniel, 1701 Putnam, Richlnad. Patricia Wallace, 4619 Appaloosa Ln, Pasco. Alan Trinidad, PO Box 4959, Pasco. Miguel Pacheco, 704 N. Seventh Ave., Pasco. Roswitha Gleed, 3008 W. Wernett, Pasco. Jessica L. Gregory, 35403 N. Redstone Drive, Benton City. Brian J. Ball, 200802 E. Game Farm Road, Kennewick. Carena L. Campanelli, 1708 S. Ranier Place, Kennewick. Cesar Fernandez, 605 Pradera Court, Pasco. Benjamin Hart, 1900 Stevens Drive, Richland.

CHAPTER 13 Joann Walker, 6626 Chapel Hill Blvd., Pasco. Victor B. Mascorro, 1006 Angeline Blvd., Benton City. Robert Rife, P.O. Box 4385, West Richland. George I. and Lynda R. Zucker, 5301 Pasco Kahlotus Road, Pasco. Laura Ruiz, 6404 Robinson Drive, Pasco.

uTOP PROPERTIES

Top property values listed start at $500,000 and have been rounded to the nearest hundred figure.

BENTON COUNTY 475 Bradley Blvd., Richland, 10,174-squarefoot, commercial building on 1.6 acres. Price: $3,200,000. Buyer: Visible Spectra. Seller: Columbia River Group. 22nd Avenue, Kennewick, 10 lots of undeveloped land. Price: $578,800. Buyer: Hayden Homes. Seller: undisclosed. 3660 Windsor Court, Richland, 2,270-square-foot, residential home. Price: $516,000. Buyer: Norman and Traci Barlow. Seller: Shawn and Brianne Kelley. 39th Avenue, Kennewick, 18 lots of undeveloped land. Price: $1,350,000. Buyer: AVEC CK Inc. Seller: undisclosed. Tranquil Court; Gentle Court; Serenity Court; and Westhaven Court, West Richland, 10 lots of undeveloped land. Price: $550,000. Buyer: Community Housing LLC. Seller: Green Plan Construction.

Eastridge Park Homes. Seller: Angel and Angelica Torres. 581 Ringold Road, Pasco, 159.1 acres of agricultural land. Price: $2,505,000. Buyer: Paul and Leah Miller. Seller: Maynard Bailie Bypass. Athens Drive; Sidon Lane; Melita Lane and Tyre Drive, Pasco, 40 lots of undeveloped land. Price: $2,740,000. Buyer: Viking Builders. Seller: EE Properties. 804 Road 56, Pasco, 961-square-foot, residential home on 6.44 acres. Price: $655,000. Buyer: Story Family Five. Seller: HFG Trust Trustee. Lodgepole Drive, Pasco, 5 lots of undeveloped land. Price: $576,000. Buyer: Hayden Homes. Seller: Sunbelt Homes.

uBUILDING PERMITS

Building permit values have been rounded to the nearest hundred figure.

BENTON CITY Pawar NW, 505 Ninth St., $10,000 for commercial remodel. Contractor: Ron’s Heating & Air. BENTON COUNTY Goose Ridge Winery, 63615 E. Jacobs Road, $809,000 for commercial addition and $37,200 for a fire alarm system. Contractors: CRF Metal Works and Fire Control Sprinkler Systems. Crown Castle, 174502 E. Jump Off Joe Road, $85,000 for an antenna/tower. Contractor: Crown Castle. FRANKLIN COUNTY

FRANKLIN COUNTY 5421 W. Leola St., Pasco, 1,998-square-foot, residential home. Price: $590,000. Buyer:

Ronald Worsham, 202 Pepiot Road, Mesa,

uPUBLIC RECORD, Page 69

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Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business â€¢ August 2019

Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business â€˘ August 2019 PUBLIC RECORD, From page 67 $5,000 for a commercial addition. Contractor: Nexius Solutions. Jay Petty, 5400 Selph Landing Road, $110,000 for new commercial construction. Contractor: T&S Sales. Ronald Worsham, 202 Pepiot Road, Mesa, $20,000 for commercial addition. Contractor: D&R Communications. KENNEWICK Spectrum, 1102 N. Columbia Center Blvd., $485,000 for tenant improvements and $25,000 for plumbing. Contractors: Market Contractors, Divco and Riggle Plumbing. Hollister Co, 1321 N. Columbia Center Blvd., $266,900 for tenant improvements. Contractor: Solex Contracting. Sherwin Williams Paint Store, 3936 W. Clearwater Ave., $20,500 for commercial remodel. Contractor: 1st Choice Restoration. Tamaki Law Offices, 8900 W. Tucannon Ave., $5,200 for HVAC. Contractor: Bruce Heating & Air. Tokyo Sushi, 3617 Plaza Way, $7,300 for a sign. Contractor: Cascade Sign & Fabrication. Kennewick School District, 4901 W. 20th Ave., $214,000 for plumbing. Contractor: BNB Mechanical. Word of Faith Center, 1350 S. Rainier St., $10,000 for HVAC. Contractor: Apollo Sheet Metal. Benton County, 7122 W. Okanogan Place, $2,755,900 for commercial remodel and $977,800 for plumbing. Contractors: Banlin Construction Co. and BNB Mechanical. C C West Properties, 8390 W. Gage Blvd., $28,000 for commercial remodel, $5,000 for HVAC and $12,000 for plumbing. Contractors: owner, Chinook Heating & Air and Riggle Plumbing. Columbia Industries, 900 S. Dayton St., $7,000 for commercial construction. Contractor: owner. The Law Properties, 3617 Plaza Way, $58,300 for tenant improvements, $7,000 for HVAC and $11,700 for plumbing. Contractors: Cliff Thorn Construction, Dayco Heating & Air

and Columbia Basin Plumbing. Fortunato, Inc, 6500 W. Clearwater Ave., $15,000 for commercial remodel. Contractor: General Dynamics Information Telecommunications. Sisters-Tucannon, 8904 W. Tucannon Ave., $210,000 for commercial remodel. Contractor: AJ Development Company. City of Kennewick, 213 N. Nutmeg St., $25,000 for new commercial construction. Contractor: Merrell Bros. Lakeside Tri-Cities, 5100 W. Clearwater Ave., $216,000 for commercial reroof. Contractor: Silver Bow Roofing. The Condominiums at Canyon Lakes, 3710 Canyon Lakes Drive, $12,000 for commercial remodel. Contractor: JD & Sons. Heatherstone, 1114 W. 10th Ave., $27,000 for tenant improvements. Contractor: Northwest Renewables. Tri-Cities Cancer Center, 7360 W. Deschutes Ave., $649,600 for tenant improvements, $279,000 for HVAC and $7,000 for plumbing. Contractors: Bouten Construction Co. and Apollo Mechanical Contractors. McCardle Trustees, 8530 W. Gage Blvd., $9,600 for a sign. Contractor: Mustang Sign Group. Adam Evans, 7514 W. Yellowstone Ave., $25,000 for tenant improvements. Contractor: Jones Building & Design. South Hill Plaza, 4303 W. 27th Ave., $5,500 for tenant improvements. Contractor: Mac Daddy Construction. Haining Wang, 5040 W. Clearwater Ave., $30,000 for tenant improvements. Contractor: owner. Public School Employees, 410 N. Neel St., $8,200 for HVAC. Contractor: Dayco Heating & Air. Ronald Burt, 530 W. Kennewick Ave., $6,000 for commercial construction. Contractor: owner. Gage East, 1922 N. Steptoe St., $8,000 for a sign. Contractor: Shoreline Sign & Awning. McCardle Trustees, 8530 W. Gage Blvd., $450,000 for commercial remodel, $75,000 for plumbing and $125,000 for HVAC. Contractors: Buehner Construction, Silverline Electric and Plumbing and Jacobs & Rhodes. Bank of the West, 6917 W. Grandridge Blvd., $30,000 for commercial remodel. Contractor:

AJ Development Company. Kennewick School District, 560 W. Sixth St., $411,200 for commercial addition. Contractor: Pacific Mobile Structures. Doty Properties, 3607 W. Kennewick Ave., $5,500 for HVAC. Contractor: Bruce Heating & Air. PASCO Bobby Gilbert, 1330 E. Broadway, $8,000 for a sign. Contractor: Eagle Signs. Yesmar Properties, 8425 Chapel Hill Blvd., Suite 103, $40,500 for tenant improvements. Contractor: W McKay Construction. Pasco School District, 9507 Burns Road, $192,700 for fire alarm system. Contractor: Fire Control Sprinkler Systems. Hogback Sandifur, 5802 Road 68, $15,000 for a sign. Contractor: Cascade Sign & Fabrication. Yesmar Properties, 8425 Chapel Hill Blvd., Suite 104, $77,300 for tenant improvements. Contractor: W McKay Construction. MB Smith Properties, 2705 St. Andrews Loop, $7,000 for tenant improvements. Contractor: AJ Development Company. Walmart, 4820 Road 68, $30,000 for commercial remodel. Contractor: Place Services Inc. Pasco School District, 8125 W. Argent Road, $38,600 for commercial addition and $12,200 for an accessory building. Contractors: Vincent Brothers and Dotson Fine Finishings. Gaylord Real Estate, 115 S. 10th Ave., $6,000 for a sign. Contractor: Eagle Signs. Compass Investments, 2145 N. Commercial Ave., $42,000 for a fire alarm system. Contractor: Cascade Fire Protection. Medelez Trucking, 3275 Travel Plaza Way, $30,000 for a sign. Contractor: Quality Signs. Devin Oil Co, 2601 W. Court St., $81,900 for commercial addition and $13,000 for plumbing. Contractors: LCR Construction and Columbia Basin Plumbing. Port of Pasco, 3702 Stearman Ave., $7,600 for HVAC. Contractor: Bruce Heating & Air. Pasco Assembly of God, 1800 Road 72, $9,300 for HVAC. Contractor: Welch Heating & AC. Franklin County, 6600 Burden Blvd., $10,000 for a fence/brick/retaining wall. Contractor: Huesitos Co II.

C&J Coleman Properties, 8823 Sandifur Parkway, $144,600 for tenant improvements. Contractor: Vincent Construction. Second Harvest, 5825 Burlington Loop, $12,500 for tenant improvements. Contractor: Industrial Constructors. Port of Pasco, 3005 E. Ainsworth Ave., $9,800 for HVAC. Contractor: Bruce Heating & Air. Ainsworth Holding, 1319 W. Ainsworth Ave., $10,000 for commercial remodel. Contractor: Iron Star Industries. Jesus Higareda Diaz, 720 N. 20th Ave., $27,300 for commercial addition. Contractor: owner. Court St. Holdings, 3603 W. Court St., $30,000 for a sign. Contractor: Mustang Sign Group. Tim Corwin, 1225 Autoplex Way, $60,000 for demolition. Contractor: LCR Construction. PROSSER Brian Dreher, 556 Wine Country Road, $9,000 for a sign. Contractor: Eagle Signs. Whitstran Realty, 1427 Wine Country Road, $35,000 for a sign. Contractor: YESCO. U.S. Post Office, 1101 Meade Ave., $78,000 for commercial reroof. Contractor: Palmer Roofing Co. RICHLAND Sagebrush Montessori, 304 Thayer Drive, $9,300 for tenant improvements. Contractor: Roberts Construction. David Berg, 353 Greenbrook Place, $19,700 for commercial reroof. Contractor: A&A Roofing Services. Copper Mountain Apartments, 2555 Bella Coola Lane, $28,000 for fence/brick/retaining wall. Contractor: Padilla Masonry. Packaging Corp of America, 3003 Kingsgate Way, $26,000,000 for new commercial construction. Contractor: Fisher Construction Group. Kadlec Regional Medical Center, 888 Swift Blvd., $715,000 for tenant improvements. Contractor: Bouten Construction Co. Department of Social and Health Services, 1661 Fowler St., $7,000 for tenant improvements. Contractor: Childers Contracting Services.

uPUBLIC RECORD, Page 70

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Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business • August 2019

PUBLIC RECORD, From page 69 Banner Bank, 1221 Jadwin Ave., $36,000 for commercial reroof. Contractor: Columbia Basin Sheet Metal. Windsong Apartments, 850 Aaron Drive, $17,000 for commercial reroof. Contractor: Real Roofing. Yakima Federal Savings & Loan, 1007 Jadwin Ave., $6,000 for plumbing. Contractor: Precision Plumbing. Port of Benton, 2105 Butler Loop, $357,700 for new commercial construction. Contractor: Zero Gravity Builders. American Tower, 1565 Georgia Ave., Suite A, $20,000 for tenant improvements. Contractor: Ericsson. McDonald’s, 1275 George Washington Way, $8,000 for a sign. Contractor: Shoreline Sign & Awning. Tim Bush Trustees, 9025 Center Parkway, $80,000 for new commercial construction. Contractor: Baker Construction & Development. In Slide Out, 3200 Duportail St., Suite 101,

$175,000 for tenant improvements. Contractor: W McKay Construction. Uptown Vision Center, 1335 George Washington Way, $8,200 for HVAC. Contractor: Chinook Heating & Air. Phillip Barnard, 700 George Washington Way, $30,000 for tenant improvements. Contractor: Shoemaker Excavation. Phillip Barnard, 702 George Washington Way, $40,000 for tenant improvements. Contractor: Shoemaker Excavation. Lex Richland, 2800 Polar Way, $763,000 for tenant improvements. Contractor: Victory Unlimited Construction. WEST RICHLAND Grace & Truth Community Church, 1301 Bombing Range Road, $5,500 for HVAC. Contractor: Delta Heating & Cooling. City of West Richland, 3110 Belmont Blvd., $78,000 for HVAC. Contractor: Banlin Construction.

Business Owners: You Need Your Own Retirement Plan

uBUSINESS LICENSES

Business Licenses can be found online at http://bit.ly/TCPublicRecord

uJUDGMENTS The state can file lawsuits against people or businesses that do not pay taxes and then get a judgment against property that person or business owns. Judgments are filed in Benton-Franklin Superior Court. The following is from the Franklin County Superior Court Clerk’s Office.

D & S Concrete, unpaid Department of Revenue taxes, filed July 1. Talon D. Wicks, unpaid Employment Security Department taxes, filed July 1. James Pavlicek, unpaid Employment Security Department taxes, filed July 1. Lorena A. Rodriguez-Mercado, unpaid Employment Security Department taxes, filed July 1. Trevor L. Hanson, unpaid Employment Security Department taxes, filed July 1.

Member SIPC

www.edwardjones.com

As a business owner, you can’t afford to ignore your competition. You can’t afford to miss out on the trends affecting your industry. You can’t afford to alienate customers. And here’s one more item to add to the list: You can’t afford not to create a retirement plan for yourself. Of course, you might think that, one day, you’ll simply sell your business and live off the proceeds. But selling a business isn’t always simple, and there’s no

JOY BEHEN (509) 542-1626

guarantee you’ll receive enough to pay for a comfortable retirement – which is why you should strongly consider

Joy Behen

6115 Burden Blvd., Ste. A, Pasco

509-542-1626

creating a retirement plan now.

Ryan Brault, CFP®

3616 W. Court St., Ste. I, Pasco

509-545-8121

Here are some of the most widely used plans: • SEP-IRA: You can contribute up to 25 percent of your compensation — as much as $56,000 in 2019 — to a SEP-IRA. Your contributions are tax deductible and your earnings grow tax-deferred until withdrawn. This plan offers you signiﬁcant ﬂexibility in making contributions for yourself and your employees. Plus, as an employer, you can generally deduct, as business expenses, any contributions you make on behalf of your plan participants. • SIMPLE IRA: In 2019, you can put in up to $13,000 — or $16,000 if you’re 50 or older — to a SIMPLE IRA. As is the case with the SEP-IRA, your earnings grow tax deferred. You can match your employees’ contributions dollar for dollar, up to 3 percent of compensation. If you work for yourself, you can combine employee and

Dustin Clontz

1060 Jadwin Ave., Ste. 325, Richland

509-943-1441

Jay Freeman, AAMS 16 W. Kennewick Ave., Ste. 101, Kennewick

509-783-2041

employer contributions, so if you use the 3 percent matching rule, and you earn enough to fully match employee contributions, you can put in up to $26,000 per year (or $32,000 if you’re 50 or older). Alternatively, you could contribute 2 percent of each eligible employee’s compensation each year, up to a maximum of $5,600, regardless of whether the employee contributes. Contributions to your employees are tax deductible. • “Owner-only” 401(k) plan: If you have no employees other than your spouse, you can establish an “owner-only” 401(k) plan, which functions similarly to a 401(k) plan offered by a large employer. Between salary deferral and proﬁt sharing, you can contribute up to $56,000, in pre-tax dollars, to your owner-only 401(k), or $62,000 if you’re 50 or older. Like a SEP-IRA and SIMPLE IRA, a 401(k) provides the potential to accumulate tax-deferred earnings. However, you could choose to open a Roth

Shelley Kennedy, CFP® 767 Williams Blvd. Richland

509-946-7626

Terry Sliger 1329 Aaron Dr. Richland

509-943-2920

401(k), which can be funded with after-tax dollars. With a Roth 401(k), your earnings can grow tax-free, provided you’ve had your account at least ﬁve years and you don’t start taking withdrawals until you’re at least 59-1/2. Which plan is right for you? The answer depends on several factors, such as whether you have any employees and how much money you can contribute each year. But all the plans mentioned above are generally easy to establish, and the administrative costs are usually minimal. Most important, any one of them can help you build some of the resources you’ll need to enjoy the retirement lifestyle you’ve envisioned. To select an appropriate plan, you may want to consult with your tax and ﬁnancial advisors. In any case, don’t wait too long. Time goes by quickly, and when you reach that day when you’re a “former” business owner, you’ll want to be prepared. This article was written by Edward Jones for use by your local Edward Jones Financial Advisor.

T.J. Willingham

1020 N. Center Pkwy, Ste. F, Kennewick

509-735-1497

Tara Wiswall

6855 W. Clearwater Ave., Suite C, Kennewick

509-783-2042 Paid Advertising

Michael R. Torres, unpaid Employment Security Department taxes, filed July 1. Eli Johnson, unpaid Employment Security Department taxes, filed July 1. Baldemar Soto, unpaid Employment Security Department taxes, filed July 1. Patricia A. McFadden, unpaid Employment Security Department taxes, filed July 1. Salvador Ortiz, unpaid Employment Security Department taxes, filed July 1. Kohl R. St. Peter, unpaid Employment Security Department taxes, filed July 1. Socorro Sandoval, unpaid Employment Security Department taxes, filed July 1. Maria C. Diaz, unpaid Employment Security Department taxes, filed July 1. Victor M. Ulloa, unpaid Employment Security Department taxes, filed July 1. Tina M. Swindoll, unpaid Employment Security Department taxes, filed July 1. Wireless Perfection Flooring, unpaid Department of Labor and Industries taxes, filed July 3. Lonestar Innovations, unpaid Department of Labor and Industries taxes, filed July 3. Wolfpack Grills, unpaid Department of Labor and Industries taxes, filed July 3. Christina M. Franklin, unpaid Department of Labor and Industries taxes, filed July 3. Luis A. Chavez, unpaid Department of Labor and Industries taxes, filed July 3. Lauriano Garcia, unpaid Department of Licensing taxes, filed July 3. Rock-N-Pools, unpaid Department of Revenue taxes, filed July 5. Moclips Grocery, unpaid Department of Revenue taxes, filed July 11. Absolute Wireless, unpaid Department of Revenue taxes, filed July 11. Josue I. Mejia, unpaid Department of Revenue taxes, filed July 11. Matthew D. Owens, unpaid Department of Revenue taxes, filed July 19. Edgar G. Gonzalez, unpaid Department of Revenue taxes, filed July 19. Thomas J. Emery, unpaid Employment Security Department taxes, filed July 19. Michael R. Torres, unpaid Employment Security Department taxes, filed July 19. Ezequiel Rivera Jr., unpaid Employment Security Department taxes, filed July 19. Hector E. Trujillo Jr., unpaid Employment Security Department taxes, filed July 19. Maria de la Luz Saucillo, unpaid Employment Security Department taxes, filed July 19. Dominik S. Miles, unpaid Employment Security Department taxes, filed July 19. Maria E. Mariscal, unpaid Employment Security Department taxes, filed July 19. Enrique Granados, unpaid Employment Security Department taxes, filed July 19. Christopher B. Tate, unpaid Employment Security Department taxes, filed July 19. Arnoldo Ortiz, unpaid Employment Security Department taxes, filed July 19. Andy A. Estrada, unpaid Employment Security Department taxes, filed July 19. David R. Valencia, unpaid Employment Security Department taxes, filed July 19. JMZ Farm Ag, unpaid Employment Security Department taxes, filed July 22. Prestige Trucking, unpaid Department of Labor and Industries taxes, filed July 22. Philip J. Forzgalia Sr., unpaid Department of Labor and Industries taxes, filed July 22. Wireless Perfection Flooring, unpaid Department of Labor and Industries taxes, filed July 22. Rodman Electric, unpaid Department of Labor and Industries taxes, filed July 22. Gabriel M. Lopez, unpaid Department of Labor and Industries taxes, filed July 22. Kindra Bistro & Café, unpaid Department of Labor and Industries taxes, filed July 22. Arnold’s Painting, unpaid Department of Revenue taxes, filed July 22. U Need Us Construction, unpaid Department of Labor and Industries taxes, filed July 24. Superior Clean Services, unpaid Department of Labor and Industries taxes, filed July 24. ABC Multiple, unpaid Department of Labor and Industries taxes, filed July 24. Essential Planning Incorporated, unpaid Department of Labor and Industries taxes, filed July 24. VL Construction, unpaid Department of Labor and Industries taxes, filed July 24. James E. Kinsey, unpaid Department of Labor and Industries taxes, filed July 24. Justin M. Kasparek, unpaid Department of

uPUBLIC RECORD, Page 71

Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business • August 2019 PUBLIC RECORD, From page 70

APPROVED

Revenue taxes, filed July 29. Tacos Palomino Corp, unpaid Department of Revenue taxes, filed July 29. Omega Sheet Metal HVAC, unpaid Department of Labor and Industries taxes, filed July 29. Christine K. Cunningham, unpaid Department of Revenue taxes, filed July 29. Tres Pueblos Meat Market, unpaid Department of Revenue taxes, filed July 30. Saul Mendoza, unpaid Department of Labor and Industries taxes, filed July 30. Kathryn Tate, unpaid Department of Labor and Industries taxes, filed July 30. Azucena H. Villafana, unpaid Employment Security Department taxes, filed July 31. Joshua M. De Mers, unpaid Employment Security Department taxes, filed July 31. Miguel A. Sanchez, unpaid Employment Security Department taxes, filed July 31. Susana M. Herrera, unpaid Employment Security Department taxes, filed July 31. Miguel de la Mora, unpaid Employment Security Department taxes, filed July 31. Adan Estrada, unpaid Employment Security Department taxes, filed July 31. Ciera E. Valdez, unpaid Employment Security Department taxes, filed July 31. Dana A. Baldwin, unpaid Employment Security Department taxes, filed July 31. Erick P. Flores, unpaid Employment Security Department taxes, filed July 31. Angelica M. S. Amaya, unpaid Employment Security Department taxes, filed July 31. Jacob Knight, unpaid Employment Security Department taxes, filed July 31. Carefree Meats, unpaid Department of Labor and Industries taxes, filed July 31. Sign Pro NW, unpaid Department of Labor and Industries taxes, filed July 31. D&R&G Roofing Partners, unpaid Department of Labor and Industries taxes, filed July 31.

Chapala Express Mexican Restaurant, 7704 W. Clearwater Ave., Kennewick. License type: spirits/beer/wine restaurant service bar. Application type: new. Anelare, 19205 N. McBee Road NW, Benton City. License type: domestic winery <250,000 liters. Application type: alcohol permits. Mr. G’s Bottle Works & Food Shop, 325 S. Union St., Kennewick. License type: grocery store beer/wine. Application type: new. Whitstran Steaks & Spirits, 1427 Wine Country Road, Prosser. License type: 1427 Wine Country Road, Prosser. License type: spirits/beer/wine restaurant lounge. Application type: new. Roxboro Vineyard, 590 Merlot Drive, Suite B, Prosser. License type: domestic winery <250,000 liters. Application type: new. Springhill Suites by Marriott – Kennewick, 7048 W. Grandridge Blvd., Kennewick. License type: direct shipment receiver in/out of Washington. Application type: renewal. Tokyo Sushi & Teriyaki, 3617 Plaza Way, Suite B&C, Kennewick. License type: beer/ wine restaurant with taproom. Application type: new. Wingstop, 121 Gage Blvd., Richland. License type: beer/wine restaurant. Application type: assumption. Winco Foods #2, 4602 W. Clearwater Ave., Kennewick. License type: grocery store beer/ wine. Application type: change or corporate officer.

uLIQUOR LICENSES

DISCONTINUED Mid-Columbia Wine & Spirits, 1711 George Washington Way #299, Richland. Application type: direct shipment receiver in/out of Washington. Shopko Hometown #556, 471 Wine Country Road, Prosser. Application type: spirits/beer/ wine restaurant lounge. FRANKLIN COUNTY NEW APPLICATIONS

Information provided by the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board.

BENTON COUNTY NEW APPLICATIONS Hogue Cellars, 3090 W. Wittkopf Loop, Prosser. License type: domestic winery >249,999 liters; farmers market wine sales. Application type: assumption. Prosser Foodmart, 1303 Wine Country Road, Prosser. License type: grocery store beer/ wine. Application type: assumption. Pizza Hut, 818 W. Vineyard Drive, Kennewick. License type: beer/wine restaurant; off premises. Application type: new.

Middleton Six Sons Farms, 1050 Pasco Kahlotus Road, Pasco. License type: direct shipment receiver in Washington only; beer/ wine restaurant. Application type: new. APPROVED Pasco Grocery Outlet, 5710 Road 68, Suite 103, Pasco. License type: combo grocery off premises. Application type: in lieu. Bleyhl Farm Service, 6705 Chapel Hill Blvd., Pasco. License type: direct shipment receiver in Washington only. Application type: new.

The real innovation is the way we treat you! VA Loans • Conventional Loans • FHA Loans Purchase or Refinance – Locally Owned 509-737-2000 • innovativemortgage.org 7015 W. Deschutes, Ste. B Kennewick, WA 99336 NMLS MB 35988

MARK RUNSVOLD

Loan Originator/Branch Manager 509-430-4456 | NMLS #118101

LARA FRICKE

Sr. Loan Originator/Designated Broker 509-366-9840 | NMLS #872839

Tortilleria Las Palmas, 1108 W. Sylvester St., Pasco. License type: direct shipment receiver in Washington only. Application type: new. Thompson Hill Cellars, 410 N. Newport Drive, Mesa. License type: domestic winery <250,000 liters. Application type: new.

uMARIJUANA LICENSES

Information provided by the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board.

BENTON COUNTY NEW APPLICATIONS Crusher Weed, 15505 N. Webber Canyon Road, Suite G, Benton City. License type: marijuana producer tier 2; marijuana processor. Application type: change of location. APPROVED Pure Tran, 233757 E. SR 397, Kennewick. License type: marijuana producer tier 3. Application type: assumption.

uBUSINESS UPDATES NEW BUSINESSES Academy Mortgage has opened at 8033 W. Grandridge Blvd., Suite A in Kennewick. The company offers of home loan options including FHA loans, VA loans, USDA Rural Development loans, fixed-rate and adjustable rate mortgages, reverse mortgages, refinancing and more. Contact: 509-737-0088, academymortgage.com. Acme Powder Coating has opened at 927 Lindsey St. in Pasco. The business provides powder coating and sandblasting services for small and large scale projects. Hours: 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. Contact: 509-412-1860, acmepc.net, Facebook. Horn Rapids RV Services & Sales has opened at 2451 Henderson Loop in Richland. The business sells new and pre-owned RVs and provides service, parts and repairs. Hours: 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Contact: 509-375-7577, hornrapidsrv.com.

Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business â€¢ August 2019

Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business/Senior Times

Published on Aug 16, 2019

Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business -- August 2019

Published on Aug 16, 2019

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