Articles by Wendy Culverwell
She was Kamiakin High’s ‘Most Likely to Succeed.’ So, did she?
Something about watching her dad pour over figures at night appealed to Darcy Kooiker. The lined green paper. The mechanical pencil. The orderliness of tracking the plutonium going into weapons production at Hanford, which was her accountant father’s job. Kookier, then Darcy Nelson, likes it when the math is correct. Her fellow members of the…
New restaurant to take flight in Richland
A long-empty restaurant at the heart of Richland will reopen as Flight Tap and Table in January. The husband-and-wife team of Amanda Thavone and Joey Casados leased the building that briefly housed Dupus Boomer’s Downtown at 530 Swift Blvd., at George Washington Way. Thavone is a nurse at Kadlec Regional Medical Center, and Casados is…
Seafood restaurant to open in old P.F. Chang’s spot
After standing vacant for three years, the former P.F. Chang’s China Bistro building in Kennewick will reopen with a new name, menu and owners. Hooked Seafood Boil and Bar, a new-to-the-area concept from Bing Wang and Vicky Lin, is set to open in early November in the former restaurant near Columbia Center mall in Kennewick.…
Pasco adjusts rules affecting downtown businesses
Pasco is sweeping away some rules downtown business owners say keep them from investing and thriving in a five-block area. A coalition of downtown business owners, frustrated by prohibitions that keep restaurants from putting sandwich boards on sidewalks, selling used bikes and computers, or opening fitness centers, successfully lobbied the city council to revisit the…
Richland’s HomeLink expanding to former Salvation Army center
The Richland School District bought an old church campus to serve as the second campus for its Three Rivers HomeLink program, an alternative education program that supports home-based learning and other student services. HomeLink will expand into the former Salvation Army worship center, 1219 Thayer Drive, as early as 2022. The Richland School District paid…
Old buildings pose costly challenges to downtown Pasco business owners
Leo Morales was pleasantly surprised Aug. 26, the day his Havana Café reopened in downtown Pasco after a three-month closure. A steady stream of customers came in for lunch, drawn by his post on social media. It was more traffic than he dared dream and validated his decision, for now, not to move Havana Café…
Pasco company supplies ingredients to bake Hanford waste into glass
A Pasco ag chemical firm is supplying the Hanford site with the ingredients it needs to bake radioactive and hazardous waste into borosilicate glass logs at the $17 billion Waste Treatment & Immobilization Plant. Two Rivers Terminal delivered a 35,000-pound load of lithium carbonate to Hanford this summer, the first of what promises to be…
Leader of downtown Pasco group out as board assesses next steps
Gustavo Gutierrez Gomez has left the Downtown Pasco Development Authority, the nonprofit group that operates the Pasco Specialty Kitchen, Pasco Farmers Market and puts on Cinco de Mayo, Pasco Fiery Foods Festival and more. Gabriel Portugal, president of the board, said Gutierrez Gomez departed effective July 31. Portugal praised his work but said his vision…
Retired federal employees group celebrates 50 years of advocacy and fellowship
The Tri-City chapter of the National Active & Retired Federal Employees Association launched its 50th year with a return to form and its first in-person event in more than a year. The local chapter met Sept. 1 at the Red Lion Hotel Kennewick Columbia Center – its usual spot – in a return to business…
Faith-led investor wants to rehab downtown, starting with old strip club
A casino-turned-strip club in downtown Kennewick will reopen as a Mexican grocery following a remodel by a faith-led investment group that is eager to play a role in the neighborhood. Jared Walther, a former nuclear industry executive and cybersecurity expert, is the driving force behind Walther CRE LLC and related investment entities. The Christian nonprofit…
