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SENIOR TIMES • SEPTEMBER 2020
SEPTEMBER 2020 Volume 8 • Issue 9
Community foundation marshals best of the Tri-Cities By Wendy Culverwell editor@tcjournal.biz
Covid-19 may affect fall property tax collection Page 3
Nonprofits turn to road trips, drawings and more Page 5
Eisenhower dedicated McNary Dam 66 years ago Page 10
MONTHLY QUIZ What year was the first Kennewick High School graduating class, how many graduates were there, and how many were girls? Answer, Page 9
When Kennewick’s Trios Health was sold to a for-profit company in 2018, the managers of the Trios Foundation were left in a pickle. The nonprofit had $2.2 million in assets, lots of worthy targets for donations, and no home. Led by Pete Toolson, the board considered its options. Several worthy charities wanted the cash, but not the strings that came with it. In the end, it chose the Three Rivers Community Foundation as the new home. Trios Foundation became the Family Health and Wellness Foundation and its money was deposited into the Three Rivers’ investment fund. Its mission to support eight specific charities with the interest it earns stayed intact. “We felt 3RCF was a good home for the money,” Toolson said. The hospital foundation disbanded after the money was transferred. Three Rivers Community Foundation, or 3RCF, is the foundation’s foundation. It was created in 1999 by civicminded Tri-Citians who united to create a unique organization to manage a pool of donations to support the MidColumbia’s nonprofits in perpetuity and to help would-be philanthropists carry out their wishes. It’s also stepped up to help during the pandemic by launching an emergency response fund to support nonprofits affected by the coronavirus u3RCF, Page 8
Photo by Wendy Culverwell Ruben Rojas, Richland’s chief arborist, retired Aug. 28 after 42 years with the city. Rojas oversaw the city’s 5,800 trees and replanted Howard Amon Park with the durable trees the public enjoys today after a damaging 1989 windstorm. Above, he stands by a row of oaks that were planted in anticipation of removing a pair of aging elms.
Longtime arborist says goodbye to Richland and its 5,800 trees By Wendy Culverwell editor@tcjournal.biz
It was a hot August afternoon and Ruben Rojas was three days away from retiring as Richland’s chief arborist — the man in charge of the 5,800 trees that dot city parks and properties. It was fitting that he took a final interview at Howard Amon Park, social distancing at a picnic table not far from the Lee Boulevard turnaround. A silver maple with a trunk more than three feet across cast a wide shadow. The maple is an impressive specimen
occupying pride of place in the city’s premier park. It’s not his favorite species, but he pronounces it healthy. It’s also a marker of Rojas’ legacy in Richland. The towering maple survived a 1989 windstorm that toppled trees across the city. Plenty did not survive and the resulting mayhem led Rojas and his team to replant the city’s parks with more durable varieties than the ones available to the people who originally planted elms and black locusts that split and drop branches. uROJAS, Page 15
Residential adult family home bridges care gap between assisted living, nursing home By Laura Kostad for Senior Times
A nurse with a heart for geriatric care has transformed her former Kennewick home into an adult family home, realizing a longtime dream and goal that took shape after losing her grandfather. Called Cherry Creek Adult Family Home, the single-family house built in 2018 in the Cherry Creek Estates neighborhood east of Canyon Lakes has been converted to accommodate six adult residents. LeAnn Touchette, owner/administrator and resident manager, said the facility bridges the gap between long-term care and housing options for ailing family members who need more care than assisted living can provide, but who aren’t ready for the nursing home. Most residents will share a bed-
room with one roommate in the wellappointed 2,590-square-foot home and have free use of the house’s living areas, landscaped yard and covered patio. Private room options are available. Though not the first facility of its kind in the Tri-Cities, Cherry Creek plans to offer best-in-class service. Touchette, a registered nurse, works in outpatient procedures at Trios. Prior to that, she worked as a nursing assistant providing one-onone in-home health care. “Cherry Creek will be set apart from other adult family homes because of the focus on building personal connections with each resident,” she said. Four full-time and two part-time caregivers will be employed, in addition to Touchette. The staff-to-resident ratio will always be 1-to-6 or better, compared to uCHERRY CREEK, Page 4
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