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SENIOR TIMES • OCTOBER 2020
OCTOBER 2020 Volume 8 • Issue 9
POPP buys building, aims to end pet overpopulation By Wendy Culverwell editor@tcjournal.biz
Senior Times Vendor Showcase Page B1
Kadlec, Tri-Cities Cancer Center commit to ‘brand’ Page A2
Halloween shootout ends with deaths of lawmen, outlaw Page A8
MONTHLY QUIZ What was the name originally planned in 1905 for today’s prominent Benton County city of Richland? Answer, Page A8
A Tri-City nonprofit aims to turbocharge its efforts to end pet overpopulation after buying a former dental office in Pasco to serve as a spay and neuter clinic. Pet Overpopulation Prevention TriCities, or POPP, paid $325,000 for the medical building at 1502 N. Road 40 in a deal that closed Aug. 17. It is converting the space to a clinic focused on spaying and neutering cats and dogs. It recently completed a donation drive to pay for the cost of a chuteshaped surgical table. Supporters can help out by going online to sponsor specific items such as scissors, forceps, clamps, IV stands and other surgical items through a bridal registry-style link at popptricities.org. With the new clinic, POPP flips its old model of subsidizing the cost of spaying and neutering pets for those who couldn’t afford the $200 and more that local veterinarians charge. Instead of providing vouchers to pay for private services, POPP and its staff veterinarian will do the work themselves, said Christina Coughlin, office manager and veterinary assistant. Dr. Ashley Rice, who has a background in high volume spay and neuter programs, has joined POPP as its new veterinarian. With the new approach, POPP aims to beat the 700 spay and neuter procedures it underwrote last year, Coughlin said. “Our focus is always going to be uPOPP, Page A6
Photo by Wendy Culverwell Brian Kinner, food services manager at Mid-Columbia Meals on Wheels, prepares volunteers on Sept. 23 to pass out hot and frozen meals in Richland for the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic started.
Meals on Wheels returns to serving up curbside hot lunches By Wendy Culverwell editor@tcjournal.biz
Kristi Thien and the staff and volunteers at Mid-Columbia Meals on Wheels paced nervously in the parking lot. Would anyone come for hot meals, the first since the pandemic began? Senior Life Resources Northwest, which runs Mid-Columbia Meals on Wheels, was about to pass out hot meals to seniors in a drive-thru format. The nonprofit has delivered frozen meals but no fresh ones since Covid-19 forced it to alter how it provides meals to seniors 60 and over. “We’re getting hot meals out the door again,” said Brian Kinner, food services
manager, clearly pleased. Kinner walked staff and volunteers through the safety measures to keep them and guests safe from contagion. Masks for everyone, at all times. Gloves for volunteers, changed as need be. Sanitizing clipboards and pens between guests. An outbreak tied to Meals on Wheels would be a disaster. Thien and Kinner weren’t taking chances. “We want to be showing how good we are with PPE,” he said. The drive-thru hot meal event on Sept. 23 marked a return to providing ready-toeat meals to seniors at its Fowler Street uMEALS ON WHEELS, Page A4
Who is that Mask Man? Prosser winemaker pivots to PPE sales By Robin Wojtanik for Senior Times
From award-winning winemaker to N95 mask supplier, Ron Bunnell took a circuitous route to his new business venture, The Mask Man. Bunnell, co-owner of Prosser’s Wine O’Clock and The Bunnell Family Cellar, is using his contacts in China to meet the increasing demand for disposable masks, gloves, infrared thermometers and other personal protective equipment, or PPE. “I have learned a great deal about PPE technology and importation,” said Bunnell, who started the small business this spring, offering personal delivery of PPE to the Tri-Cities and the lower Yakima Valley. Bunnell’s link to China began back
in 2016 when he connected with a Portland-based exporter who was part of his wine club. On his first of three trips to China, Bunnell’s wine won the grand prize at a trade show and he was able to make a number of new contacts during the multiweek visit. “There seemed to be a lot of interest in getting different products to the U.S.,” Bunnell said. Fast forward to 2020, when the demand for PPE began to ramp up with the outbreak of coronavirus, which leads to the deadly Covid-19. Bunnell leaned on the contacts he’d made who knew how to get exports moving quickly. This included one entrepreneur he described as having “an amazing talent for uMASK MAN, Page A12
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