DELIVERING NEWS TO MID-COLUMBIA SENIORS SINCE 1982
AUGUST 2023
Vol. 11 | Issue 8
New veterans clinic coming to the Tri-Cities
work that includes the Richland clinic. The new clinic is planned to open in 2028. The need is clear, Wondra said. “The Tri-Cities area has more veterans seeking care than other locations within the Walla Walla catchment area, and it is important to bring needed specialty care services to the Tri-Cities area so these veterans can access and receive more VA services closer to home,” she said.
By Sara Schilling sara@tcjournal.biz
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs plans to open an expanded outpatient clinic in the Tri-Cities. A specific site hasn’t been selected – in fact, the selection process is in the early stages. But Vista Field in Kennewick is one of the areas that’s drawn interest from potential developers as a possibility. The new clinic will replace the existing one in the Richland Federal Building, and it’ll add an array of specialties for veterans on top of what’s currently offered locally, from dental to pharmacy. The VA is looking to locate the new clinic in a roughly 34-plus-square-mile area of west Kennewick and south Richland bounded by interstates 82 and 182, Highway 395 and State Route 240. The clinic could be a new build, or it could move into an existing facility that fits the VA’s criteria, according to an advertisement from the agency seeking expressions of interest from developers.
Vista Field as a possible site A map showing the general area of west Kennewick and south Richland where the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is looking to locate a new veterans clinic in the Tri-Cities.
That’s where Vista Field comes in. Three developers approached the Port of Kennewick – which owns the former municipal airport that’s now envisioned as a regional town center with a mix of commercial and residential development – about listing Vista Field as the clinic location in their submissions. Because the port is a public agency, discussion among port commissioners
about whether to give the OK to that initial step happened during a public meeting, where details about other sites being eyed by developers wouldn’t necessarily make it into the public sphere in the same way. A site for the new clinic will be selected by January 2025, said Linda Wondra, public affairs officer for the Walla Walla VA Medical Center, a net-
Port of Kennewick staff brought the developer requests to port commissioners at a special meeting in June. The staffers reported that a clinic at Vista Field wouldn’t be consistent with the master plan as approved by the port and the city of Kennewick and may not be consistent with city zoning. They also noted that it’s unclear if Vista Field meets the VA’s criteria for a suitable site, based on the limited information included in the agency’s advertisement. But, after lengthy discussion, comuVA CLINIC, Page 2
For one Tri-City family, a misplaced photo brings loved one back to life By Sara Schilling sara@tcjournal.biz
I didn’t know the photo was missing until I heard from Patti Wagner. I’m not sure I even remembered it existed. I’d certainly seen it before – an image of my paternal grandmother, Merlyn Putnam Schilling, taken when she was a teenager. She’s wearing a light-colored dress and a jeweled necklace, and she’s holding a bouquet of flowers. The photo sat on a bookshelf in my childhood home in Kennewick for years, one of many on display. But I didn’t spend a lot of time
looking at those old photos or learning the stories behind them as a kid, and I never met Merlyn, who went by Mynn. She died before I was born. So, the photo wasn’t at the top of my mind when Wagner contacted me about it. She found it at the Goodwill on West Court Street in Pasco, with Mynn’s name written on the back. It was there by mistake, inadvertently left in a frame my parents donated when they downsized and moved across the river. Wagner figured it may have ended up at the store in error, and some online sleuthing led
her to me. In no time, the photo was back with my family. It’s not the first time Wagner has reunited loved ones with a lost item. The 68-year-old retired nurse is an expert thrift store shopper, even regularly meeting up with friends to thrift together. She’s an avid reader and is often on the hunt for books. But sometimes she comes across items that seem too personal and too special to be left on thrift store shelves. She’s found military discharge papers and a college girl’s diary from the 1940s. uWAGNER, Page 6
Photo courtesy Schilling family Merlyn Putnam Schilling smiles in an undated photo.
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
Senior-focused agency welcomes new leadership Page 3
MONTHLY QUIZ
Grape festivals give way to bicounty fair, which turns 75 this year
Page 7
Who was the Academy Award-winning cinematographer from Pasco? ANSWER, PAGE 9
Senior Times 8524 W. Gage Blvd., #A1-300 Kennewick, WA 99336
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