West Richland Real Estate Blog

Richland School District needs a new bus route policy

Matt McGee — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 21:39:31 +0000

Did you catch this story last week about a “mixup” involving a Richland School District bus and some students from Tapteal Elementary here in West Richland?

In short, several Tapteal students didn’t arrive home via bus at their normal time last Monday. They had gotten on the wrong bus, and the bus driver wasn’t answering radio calls from the dispatch center.

Why’d this happen? Because last Monday was the first day that some drivers were allowed to take over new routes based on seniority.

What the…????

Here’s how the Herald paraphrases the explanation from transportation manager David Conrad:

“Conrad said the first school day in November is when the drivers can change to new routes, which has the potential to create confusion.”

Yeah, I’ll say! Listen, all due respect to bus drivers … totally understand changing routes so that drivers with seniority get routes they like … etc., etc. But here’s an idea for Richland School District:

How about letting drivers change routes before the school year starts to avoid this “potential confusion”?

Who on earth would ever think it’s a good idea to go changing bus routes/drivers while school is in session? And these people are educators. Unbelievable.

End of rant. But seriously, am I wrong? I don’t think so.

This is a post from the West Richland Real Estate Blog by Cari and Matt McGee.

Richland School District needs a new bus route policy

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We’re Too Big for Our Trash Pickup

Matt McGee — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 23:41:10 +0000

If you live in the affected area, you should already know this … but just in case:

Seems West Richland has outgrown its garbage collection services. Yep. Due to the growth of the city, Ed’s Disposal is changing its collection date for about 125 homes east of Bombing Range Road — across from the Bird Hill neighborhood. Here’s the city’s map of the affected area.

If you live in the dark area above, your trash pickup is Monday mornings instead of Thursday mornings. Don’t say you didn’t know!

This is a post from the West Richland Real Estate Blog by Cari and Matt McGee.

We’re Too Big for Our Trash Pickup

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West Richland Veteran’s Day Parade this Saturday

Matt McGee — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:00:58 +0000

This one kinda snuck up on me, what with all the travel and craziness happening in my life lately: The annual Veteran’s Day Parade in West Richland is this Saturday. Yikes. They say it’s the biggest and best Vet’s Day Parade in all of Eastern Washington, so if you’ve never been, why not check out this year’s edition? Looks like the weather will be pretty good — bit chilly, but not wet.

The parade starts at 9:30 am at the Van Giesen/Grosscup intersection, and will head east along Van Giesen into the downtown area before ending at the City Hall complex on 38th avenue. There’s always a lot of floats, bands, horses, cars, and so forth — and they’re usually tossing out candy for the kids along the parade route, too.

You can stick around, too, for the awards ceremony and chili feed after the parade at Flat Top Park.

Road Closures

Even if you’re not gonna watch the parade, be aware that Van Giesen Street will be closed for a few hours on Saturday morning.

From 62nd to Grosscup, closed between 7 and 11 am.
From Grosscup to 38th, closed between 9:30 and approximatey 11 am.

Don’t say you weren’t warned…

(That photo above is one that we took at the 2006 Veteran’s Day Parade.)

This is a post from the West Richland Real Estate Blog by Cari and Matt McGee.

West Richland Veteran’s Day Parade this Saturday

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Local Politics & Knocking on Doors

Matt McGee — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 05:30:50 +0000

Benton County has posted the first set of election results.

It looks like we’re going to have a new mayor (Donna Noski), and it looks like one incumbent council person (Mark Hanneman) is going to lose his seat. Granted, these are early results and anything can change, but bear with me on this point I want to make.

Those green stars I added up in that graphic on the left side? Those are the candidates that knocked on our front door to introduce themselves in the last 4-5 weeks. And each one of them is winning. (Note: I believe Angie Tyree knocked on our door during the primary race, but not during this final election.)

I’m not saying that knocking on doors is why these folks are ahead in their races, but I think it says something about the power of getting out and pressing the flesh with the people you want to elect you. I wish there was a way to poll the voters to find out what was the impact of meeting candidates face-to-face like that.

This is a post from the West Richland Real Estate Blog by Cari and Matt McGee.

Local Politics & Knocking on Doors

Merry Christmas, West Richland!

Club 24 Fitness coming to West Richland

Matt McGee — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 23:12:05 +0000

This is good news: Club 24 Fitness is coming to West Richland, perhaps as soon as next month! If you’ve been in the Yoke’s/Paradise Place shopping area on Bird Hill, you may have seen the signs in the windows:

From what I could tell, the fitness club is taking up the spaces that used to be occupied by three separate businesses. So it should have a nice amount of space for equipment and such.

The Club 24 web site only says “December 2009″ about a grand opening date for the West Richland location. Perfect. Just in time for everyone (like me) who’ll surely be over-eating during the holidays.

There’s no information on their site about pricing at the West Richland location, but the Richland facility pricing runs $25 per month with a year-long contract, or $35 per month with no contract. All of the Club 24 locations have that same pricing, so our local one might, too. Unfortunately, there’s also a one-time $69 “membership fee.” Ugh. I much prefer the fitness clubs that skip the membership thing and just charge a monthly fee (like River Walk Fitness in Richland does). But I may still give some thought to signing up at our local Club 24 when it opens.

This is a post from the West Richland Real Estate Blog by Cari and Matt McGee.

Club 24 Fitness coming to West Richland

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KEPR-TV reports on West Richland growth

Matt McGee — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 21:45:45 +0000

KEPR-TV ran an interesting news report last night on West Richland’s growth — and how sales tax revenues are still lagging behind other sources. I think “poised for growth” is probably the best phrase to use. We’ve seen a lot of growth in recent years, including the new Bird Hill retail development, but city officials are saying we still don’t have balance. Here’s the KEPR story link, and I’ll put the video below.

West Richland: Triple the Population, But Not Triple the Revenue

This is a post from the West Richland Real Estate Blog by Cari and Matt McGee.

KEPR-TV reports on West Richland growth

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Spectacular West Richland Scene

Matt McGee — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 05:19:56 +0000

Strange weather tonight, wasn’t it? Don’t know about you, but here on Bird Hill we heard one loud, kinda long thunderclap … and that was it. No other thunder. No lightning. But plenty of rain, which is a Good Thing as far as I’m concerned.

Before the sun went down, I was lucky enough to run outside and catch this scene:

First, the sunset…

…which produced these streets of gold:

Have I mentioned lately how much we love living in West Richland, and particularly up here on Bird Hill?

This is a post from the West Richland Real Estate Blog by Cari and Matt McGee.

Spectacular West Richland Scene

West Richland Post Office: Saving Money? Energy? Both?

Matt McGee — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 16:03:13 +0000

When I walked into the post office yesterday, I couldn’t help but notice how unusually dark it was inside. Looked around and, sure enough, most of the main overhead lights were turned off. These pictures don’t really do it justice, but here goes…

Are they trying to save money? Be enviro-friendly, perhaps? I don’t know. I was the only customer inside, and as I approached the clerk, I said “It’s so dark and cool in here” in a sort-of questioning tone, but she didn’t reply. It was all very strange. The post office system as a whole is having all kinds of money trouble, and I can’t help but wonder if lights are being turned off to save money.

(BTW, despite the headline of that ABC News article, I’m not suggesting our post office is in danger of being closed. I’ve seen nothing of the sort.)

[where: West Richland Post Office, 4801 W Van Giesen St, West Richland, 99353]

This is a post from the West Richland Real Estate Blog by Cari and Matt McGee.

West Richland Post Office: Saving Money? Energy? Both?

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Lightning in West Richland

Matt McGee — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 06:20:46 +0000

Did ya catch that electrical storm last night? Had to be one of the best we’ve had in years. The rest of the McGee family doesn’t like thunder and lightning too much, but I love it. One reason why? Cuz I get to go outside and try to shoot a cool pic or two. I got lucky last night with this one, taken from the back yard patio at Casa McGee.

There are a couple more good lightning shots on Flickr: here and here, but I can’t tell if they’re in West Richland, or not.

This is a post from the West Richland Real Estate Blog by Cari and Matt McGee.

Lightning in West Richland

Merry Christmas, West Richland!

West Richland City Council candidates in the TC Herald

Matt McGee — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 21:37:36 +0000

Politics is a bit outside of the zone of stuff we like to write about here on the West Richland Real Estate blog, but I don’t think we need to avoid it altogether, right? You’ve probably already received your ballots in the mail, and they need to be postmarked by August 18. So time’s running out to learn about the candidates. The Herald is trying to help with a couple articles that have short bios of the folks running for city council:

West Richland City Council Position 4 – Mark Hanneman (incumbent), Susan Fahey, & Richard Bloom

West Richland City Council Position 1 – Angie Tyree, Craig Sloughter, & Brent Gerry

There’s a not a lot of depth in there, but it’s better than not knowing anything about the people who are running for office this year.

This is a post from the West Richland Real Estate Blog by Cari and Matt McGee.

West Richland City Council candidates in the TC Herald

Local Politics & Knocking on Doors