Pasco School District leads charge to support electric bus fleet

By Sara Schilling sara@tcjournal.biz

A Tri-Cities area school district is planning to add three electric buses to its fleet next school year.

And the Pasco School District isn’t stopping there. As grant money becomes available, the district may add even more electric buses in the future – a step officials say would mean both cost savings and environmental benefits. The district is putting infrastructure in place for 20 electric buses.

“It’s exciting. It’s the next generation. (The world) is moving in this direction. We were fortunate to get a grant so we can try it ourselves,” said Raúl Sital, assistant superintendent of operations and supports.

The district is using about $1.2 million in grant money from the state Department of Ecology to buy the buses and install the infrastructure needed to operate them, including charging stations.

The Pasco district is one of several around Washington investing in electric buses thanks to state or federal grants. Pasco officials believe their district will be the first in the Tri-Cities with electric buses.

The three buses will come online in the 2023-24 school year. They’ll cost an estimated 17 cents per mile, compared to the 68 cents a mile for diesel buses, officials said.

Students won’t notice any difference between riding on the electric versus diesel buses, they said.

The electric buses will be able to travel about 120 miles on a charge, and the district’s longest route is 70 miles. So, the electric buses will charge midday, between the morning and afternoon routes. The drivers and mechanics who’ll work on the electric buses will go through additional training this summer.

The charging stations and other infrastructure is going in at the district’s new Richard L. Lenhart Transportation Center. A grand opening was planned May 11 at the facility, which is named for the Pasco School District bus driver who was fatally stabbed while on duty in September 2021.

The $10 million facility at 3410 Stearman Ave. was paid for with $3 million from a voter-approved bond in 2017, plus money from the state. It will serve the district’s 170 buses and 130 support vehicles.

The Pasco and Finley school districts also recently formed a transportation coop, so Finley’s school buses also will be worked on at the facility. Finley previously outsourced vehicle maintenance.

The new two-story, 29,000-square-foot transportation center has nine shop bays, plus staff offices and training, conference and meetings rooms and more. The transportation department has been working out of portables, with the shop housed in a cramped building that dates back several decades.

Mechanics have often had to work on vehicles outside in the extreme cold or heat, depending on the time of year, because of the limited space in the existing shop.

“On a nice day, fine. But when you have to be outside in the snow and the bus needs to be fixed – they do it and it gets done, but (it’s not ideal),” Sital said. “This will be more efficient and safer.”

Plus “we’re set for growth” with the new facility, said Ronald Sanchez, transportation supervisor.

G2 Construction of Kennewick was the general contractor, led by Project Manager Oscar Torres.

Jeff Lane of ALSC Architects of Spokane designed the facility.

The district purchased its electric buses from Schetky Bus & Van Sales in Pasco.

Pasco School District is the largest district in the Tri-Cities with more than 19,000 students, and it transports more than 9,000 students a day on its buses, not including sports and field trips.

The new transportation center and the electric buses will bring efficiencies that will allow the district to continue to be good stewards, Sital said – “good stewards of the environment, good stewards for the community and good stewards of the funding our community provides,” he said.

JONES, From page A14

Pasco) currently score in the “meeting expectations” range. WQI readings in 2021 for the two were 85 and 81, respectively. The same assessment, however, is not currently not true of the Yakima River at Kiona. Its 2021 WQI reading was 44, nearly in the red, or “highest concern” zone.

Plunging quality

Significantly, the WQI for the Yakima River has recently plunged. In 2019, its average score was 61. In the space of two years, its quality fell by nearly one third. What’s behind this dramatic decline? Rising temperatures.

Supporting detail from the state Department of Ecology put the WQI for temperature at 54 in 2020 and 32 in 2021. At those levels, the water is simply too warm for the health of the river’s flora and fauna.

Notably, warm temps are a lower river issue. Readings for the same years for the river at Cle Elum and Knob Hill (Yakima) were generally in the “meeting expectations” range.

The phosphorous WQI sub-index for the Yakima River at Kiona also has flashed yellow over these two years, with a value of 50 for both years. Phosphorous leads to accelerated growth of algae and plants, harming both vertebrate and invertebrate life. Sources include the underlying geology of the riverbed, but also wastewater plants, runoff from lawns and fields, failing

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septic systems and discharges from manure storage areas.

As with temperatures, high pH values have been a lower river phenomenon. For readings of the river taken in Cle Elum and Nob Hill, the phosphorous WQI sub-index values were all above 90.

While the drop-off in the water quality of the Yakima River has been pronounced recently, the long-term trend is one of decline. As the Trends graph shows, its WQI value at Kiona in 2000 was 65. Despite concerted efforts of the state and local officials to raise quality levels over the years, by 2019, the WQI had slipped to 61.

Declining trends

It is worthwhile noting that water quality of the other two rivers also has slipped over the same 20 years. The quality of the Snake River’s water at Pasco was roughly the same in 2021 as in 2000. The water quality of the Columbia, however, has declined from 94 to 85 over the same interval.

What to do to arrest the declines, especially in the Yakima? Efforts to remediate are ongoing and could fill the entire issue of this paper. Human

BADGER, From page A13

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Badger and Little Badger. In the longerterm, the group aims to extend the trail system from the top of Little Badger east to Claybell Park in Richland and extend the trail system at Candy from Kennedy Road to Red Mountain and eventually Benton City.

Friends of Badger Mountain will celebrate its 20th anniversary at its annual meeting on May 20. The event is spacelimited and therefore is by invitation only.

Bass said the group is looking for volunteers to help with everything from intervention has been the cause for some (most?) of the impairment of water quality. Consequently, policies to boost water quality components such as phosphorous, dissolved oxygen, fecal coliform bacteria are likely to move the needle, if only slowly. fundraising to trail building and maintenance. Look for more information on the website, friendsofbadger.org.

A more challenging push on the needle is posed by temperature. Rising air temperatures across the Inland Northwest do not bode well for traditional life in all our water bodies. Yet even here, some steps may offer improvement for the Yakima, such as flow maintenance or shading strategies. Let us hope that over the next decade, the trendline for this iconic river at least recovers to earlier levels. Might it also approach the water quality of its two larger neighbors?

 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.

For Bass, the work of Friends of Badger Mountain is vitally important – for people’s health, for the environment, for the community and for the future.

“Our mission is to give the community access to these jewels,” he said. “Not many communities have a 1,500-foot mountain in their backyard. We want to preserve our ridges and our hills. We want the public to make use of them and enjoy them. It’s a win-win for the environment and our health.”

Go to: friendsofbadger.org.

Institute for Northwest Energy Futures receives state funding

The state has earmarked $7.7 million for the 2023-25 biennium to hire researchers and staff and secure a new facility to house Washington State University Tri-Cities’ Institute for Northwest Energy Futures, or INEF.

INEF soft-launched last year as a new institute to use energy assets from across the WSU system and serve as broker for helping address the complexities of the changing energy landscape.

Researchers in this institute will use a systems approach to integrate existing and developing knowledge in engineering, earth sciences, economics, business, and society to help answer society’s most pressing questions about energy.

A systems view will help determine how clean energy technologies work together or compete, assess the impact of action or inaction, and address the intended and unintended social consequences of any planned interventions. Researchers will use this knowledge to develop policies, programs and projects to bring about more sustainable and socially equitable results.

Eight scientists and engineers will be funded. Five, including the director, will be located at WSU Tri-Cities, and three will be at WSU Pullman.

Jonathan Male will serve as interim director of INEF. Male recently joined WSU as assistant vice chancellor for research and director of the Office for National Laboratory Partnerships in the Office of Research.

INEF joins three WSU joint research institutes working to address global energy challenges – the Bioproducts Institute, the Nuclear Science and Technology Institute and the Advanced Grid Institute, as well as the Bioproducts Sciences and Engineering Laboratory on the WSU Tri-Cities campus.

Survey: Agents, brokers find value in promoting energy efficiency in listings

A majority (63%) of agents and brokers nationwide said promoting energy efficiency in listings is very or somewhat valuable, according to a new report from the National Association of Realtors.

The 2023 Realtors and Sustainability Report-Residential examines sustainability issues facing the real estate industry.

Half of Realtors surveyed said they were directly involved with a property with green features – on the buyer or seller side – in the past 12 months. Thirty-two percent of agents and brokers reported that their multiple listing service had green data fields, 37% of whom used those fields to promote green features, 24% to promote energy information and 14% to promote green certifications.

Vandalism, trash dumping prompt city to close road

The city of Richland has closed access to Bushwhacker Trail Road to unauthorized vehicles because of a significant increase in vandalism and trash.

Richland Parks and Public Facilities coordinated with the Army Corps of Engineers to close vehicular access. The closure begins just west of the Wye Park parking lot at Columbia Park Trail near Bateman Island.

The trail remains accessible to pedestrian traffic, including those accessing the river for recreational use such as fishing or kayaking.

There is no plan to reopen access to vehicles in the near future, the city said.

Sign up to make community a better place on June 16

Tri-Citians and area businesses are encouraged to work on a community service project of their choice from 8 a.m. to noon June 16 as part of George and Pat Jones Community Service Day. Retter & Company | Sotheby’s International Realty will provide a picnic lunch at noon at Columbia Park, near the bandshell area, for the first 500 people who RSVP.

Here’s how it works: Your company picks a community service project. A variety of opportunities can be found at communityserviceday.com.

If you need additional people, make a note of that in the notes section of your reservation and the committee will try to see if it can help.

In 2019, more than 200 people came together to participate in the event, completing more than 20 projects in and around the Tri Cities.

Who are the Joneses? They are longtime community leaders and volunteers.

George moved to the Tri Cities in 1947 and was an avid community volunteer and fundraiser. In 2004 he married Pat Johnstone and the two of them enjoyed volunteering together. He was named Kennewick Man of the Year in 1978 and Tri-Citian of the Year in 1997. Pat also moved to the Tri Cities in 1974. She’s served on the boards of Trios Health Foundation, Second Harvest Tri-Cities, Benton Franklin Volunteer Center, Kennewick Housing Authority the Community Development Block Grant board for the city of Kennewick, Tri-Cities Cancer Center Guild, Hospice House and Safe Harbor Crisis Nursery.

She was named Kennewick Woman of the Year in 2007.

Nuclear plant hires 1,200 workers to support refueling

More than 1,200 skilled, temporary workers were hired locally and from across the country to support refueling and maintenance projects at Columbia Generating Station north of Richland. The extra workers join the plant’s normal workforce of about 1,000 employees.

Energy Northwest operators disconnected Columbia from the Northwest power grid as part of its 26th refueling outage on May 5.

The biennial refueling is an opportunity to add fresh nuclear fuel to Columbia’s reactor core, as well as perform maintenance projects that can be accomplished only when the reactor is offline.

The Northwest’s only nuclear power plant, which produced a record 9.8 million megawatt-hours in 2022, is scheduled to be offline for 35 days.

During the refueling outage, crews will swap out 248 of the 764 nuclear fuel assemblies in Columbia’s reactor core with new fuel. Fuel assemblies that have been in the reactor core for six years are removed and placed in Columbia’s used fuel pool, which removes residual heat. After a minimum of five years in the pool, the assemblies are moved to Columbia’s on-site dry-cask storage.

In addition to refueling, maintenance projects include inspecting the highpressure turbine and moisture separator reheaters; replacing a reactor feedwater drive turbine and pump; replacing backup transformer oil circuit breakers; and various valve replacements, refurbishments and diagnostic testing. In all, regular and temporary employees will complete more than 7,500 work tasks.

Concerted, rigorous planning efforts begin two years prior to each refueling, and long-lead planning starts many years in advance.

Energy Northwest and the Bonneville

Power Administration time the station’s refueling to coincide with spring snow melt and runoff that maximizes power output from the region’s hydroelectric dams and minimizes the impact of taking the plant offline.

Former PNNL director named 2023 Tri-Citian of Year

A former Pacific Northwest National Laboratory director who has served the community in a variety of ways was named the 2023 Tri-Citian of the Year.

Lura J. Powell joined as director of PNNL in Richland in 2000 and served for about two years. She previously worked as director of the Advanced Technology Program for the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Washington, D.C.

The Tri-Citian of the Year award, now in its 51st year, is given by the Tri-Cities’ Rotary and Kiwanis clubs to honor service to the community. It was presented April 27 during a banquet at the Three Rivers Convention Center in Kennewick.

Powell’s community service includes working with Washington State University Board of Regents, Kadlec Regional Medical Center, United Way of Benton-Franklin Counties, Tri-City Industrial Development Council, Three Rivers Community Roundtable, Washington Technology Alliance Board, U.S. Department of Energy’s Nuclear Energy Research Advisory Council, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center Board of Trustees, Bioengineering and Environmental Health Committee at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Chemical and Engineering News Advisory Board and the Junior Achievement of the Greater Tri-Cities Honorary Board.

Powell has a Bachelor of Science in chemistry and doctorate in analytical chemistry from the University of Maryland.

Veterans Therapeutic Court hits milestone

The Benton County Veterans Therapeutic Court celebrated the graduation of its 49th and 50th veterans on May 2 in a ceremony at the Benton County Justice Center.

The program is voluntary and aims to “transform the lives of justice-involved veterans by reframing the traditional legal process through treatment and mentorship,” its mission statement says. The program provides judicial accountability, supervision, structure, mentorship and access to resources.

“I’m incredibly proud of the Veterans Court team. Through their support, 50 veterans have faced their demons and come out powerfully on the other side to resume their life of service to the country they love. It wasn’t easy, but these men and women are showing immense strength and courage and I am honored to be there to witness it,” said Benton County District Court Judge Dan Kathren, the program’s presiding judge, in a statement.

The program started in 2019 with six participants.

Veterans participate in mental health counseling, substance abuse treatment (if applicable), regular drug testing, community service, attend regular court appearances and are monitored closely. They’re also paired with a mentor through the Columbia Basin Veterans Center.

The program is paid for through the Benton County public safety sales tax.

Commissioners to hold more meetings in Kennewick

Benton County commissioners plan to begin meeting once a month in Kennewick, rather than holding almost all of their weekly business meetings at the county seat in Prosser.

The change, which is expected to start around July, follows a new state law granting counties greater flexibility in where to hold commissioner meetings. The law was sponsored by state Sen. Perry Dozier and state Reps. Stephanie Barnard, April Connors and Skyler Rude.

Commissioner meetings currently are held at 9 a.m. on Tuesdays at the Benton County Courthouse in Prosser and videocast to the county administration building in Kennewick.

People also can watch the meetings online.

Heartlinks uses Covid-19 grant to expand grief services

Heartlinks has received $60,000 from the Board of Yakima County commissioners through the Yakima County American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 to provide more no-cost grief support services to the community, including in Benton County.

Heartlinks will use the funds to increase family recovery through grief support services.

In addition to supporting the salaries of its two part-time grief support specialists, Heartlinks will use the grant to fund additional grief support groups, development of a new Blooming Hearts children’s grief program, community education workshops, advanced care planning seminars and a free monthly grief-support e-newsletter.

Heartlinks hosts five free, monthly grief support groups throughout Benton and Yakima counties. In Benton County, there are two grief support groups: the Tri-Cities group meets from 10:30-11:30 a.m. the fourth Tuesday of each month at the Richland Community Center; and the Prosser group meets from 1-2 p.m. every second Tuesday of the month at the Prosser Community Center.

Contact Heartlinks at 509-837-1676, or go to HeartlinksHospice.org/GriefSupport.

Congratulations to Stacy and Josh Carter! Stacy located the Golden Egg after putting the clues together. Stacy and her family won a 3 night stay in a beautiful Sunriver home.

Thank you so much for the fun adventure! My husband and I had a great time sleuthing this last month. We cant wait for the next one. Thank you to all you contributed their time and made this event happen. My family can’t wait to relax and enjoy time away together.

Golden Egg Hunt email us at kiwanisclubrichland@gmail.com.

Kiwanis members dedicate more than 18.5 million hours in service and raise more than $100M for local and international causes each year. Join the Kiwanis Club of Richland and be a part of the nearly 150,000 service projects that make a difference in kid’s lives each year. Contact our club to learn about our specific projects and the organizations we support by emailing kiwanisclubrichland@gmail.com. We meet the 2nd and 4th Wednesday of each month at noon at Anthony’s Restaurant.

Led by Scott’s daughter, Jacqueline Musser Gering, and her husband, Bryson Gering, and Scott’s wife (also Jacqueline’s mom), Teresa Musser, the operation is a tech-powered hybrid of the classic estate tag sale and an in-person auction.

“It’s a lot easier to move a check than a moving company,” Jacqueline quipped.

Estate Details’ format is similar to eBay, but there are limits on the size of items that can be shipped.

The business has quickly gained traction since turning on the bid buttons for its first lots three years ago.

Currently all on-site auctions operate out of Scott’s airplane hangar at the office of Trucks and Auto.

“Scott wants his hangar back,” Jacqueline said.

Soon the business will move out of mom and dad’s proverbial garage and into its own 6,500-square-foot headquarters across the street from Trucks and Auto Auctions in Pasco.

LCR Construction of Richland broke ground in January.

Devin Geisler of DKEI Architectural Services of Richland is the architect.

Jacqueline said the project should wrap up on schedule in July. The bulk of the exterior is up and next comes filling out the inside space.

The building project

Estate Details will occupy the first story of the building, on the corner of Rickenbacker and Morasch Lane, north of Columbia Basin College.

The second floor will be dedicated to offices for the Musser Brothers realty team.

Scott and Bryson are both Realtors, but they’ve brought on more staff, including Linda Craig, wife of Rick Craig, who previously ran Craig Estate Sales.

The Craigs recently retired from their estate liquidation tag sale business based in Kennewick. Rick is now a referral agent for Estate Details.

The neighboring building will house a vehicle detailing tenant to serve Trucks and Auto as well as other customers.

It will offer three other spaces for lease, two of which tentatively might become restaurants.

The development will feature about 15,000 square feet between the two buildings.

Scott said it’s a great time to be expanding since the city of Pasco is planning to widen Argent Road, and the Port of Pasco is preparing to start receiving bids for an expansion of Rickenbacker to connect with Varney Lane near the Circle K gas station and convenience store.

He said if the tenant spaces fill up quickly, he might look at building another down the road.

“I like the buildings themselves, they’re really iconic. I like landmark architecture – something like the flashcube building or twin towers on Gage Boulevard. I think we accomplished that when we built Trucks and Auto. All have their own personality and are distinctive, but also look like the parent building,” Scott said. Room to grow

Jacqueline said the new building will give Estate Details more space to accommodate more auctions.

“Once we’re over there, we’ll be doing a consignment auction per week,” she said, referring to when people bring in individual items to sell. The concept has become so popular that they’ve started waitlists.

They also will host one or two estate auctions per week.

Estate Details is hiring part-time workers to help with processing estates and facilitating pickups in anticipation of their increased capacity.

In their makeshift space in the hangar, Jacqueline brought in shelving to replace the folding tables they were previously using to store items. This increased the amount of available space and the same concept will be replicated in their new space.

Estate Details also plans to invest in a larger safe to store more firearms, precious metals and other high-value items.

More space also will be devoted to a shipping station.

“Every auction, we ship at least one item, sometimes many,” Jacqueline said.

“Twenty percent to 30% of firearms get shipped out,” Bryson added.

In general, smaller items are what tend to be shipped, such as collectible stamps, vintage toys and coins.

Estate Details attracts international bidders, but shipping rates can often be a barrier in those situations.

Though many locals and others across the Pacific Northwest enjoy browsing the sales, the team uses targeted online advertising strategies to bring far-flung buyers to the virtual auction block.

“One thing that’s nice is people can go online and browse our catalog and there’s still a hunt in that,” Teresa said. Unlike a tag sale, people don’t have to show up in person at a specific time to have a chance at getting items.

“It gives everyone a fair opportunity to buy the item, which creates competitive bidding,” she said.

It’s all in the details

“We sell 90% to 95% – everything from the garbage cans by the sink, to the art on the wall, to the couches and furniture. We sell everything, not just the good stuff,” Jacqueline said.

Clients receive an itemized list with photos of everything sold and what price each item brought.

It also gives estate clients the opportunity to review what will be going into the auction ahead of time so that they can reclaim sentimental items.

Scott said that this comes up more often with those seeking their services who live out of state and who haven’t had the chance to go through the estate contents themselves first. Sometimes people just don’t realize what their loved ones have tucked away.

The price for services varies when it comes to estate auctioning, with size and complexity being major factors in the equation. Consultations are free of charge.

On the consignment side, there is a $1 insertion fee per lot, plus Estate Details takes a 35% commission.

After the auction closes, buyers sign up for a pickup slot and collect their items at Trucks and Auto for off-site auctions or at the estate for on-site auctions.

“We take care of every detail for you,” Teresa said, quoting the Estate Details slogan.

Search Estate Details: 3125 Rickenbacker Drive, Pasco; estatedetails.com, Facebook. Call 509-581-5390 or email info@estatedetails.com to set up consignment drop-off appointments.