Three generations of Erstad family worked at Burger Factory before owning itRhonda Erstad grew up in Connell. So did her husband, Mike.They’ve lived in the Connell area pretty much their whole lives, and Rhonda wouldn’t have it any other way.“I love Connell,” she said. “Our kids always had someone looking...

Job’s Nursery celebrates 80 years in business next yearAs the calendar flips to October, families begin to visit the region’s pumpkin patches.Many head to Job’s Nursery in Pasco.“We have two acres of pumpkins in our pumpkin patch,” said Alex Job, who has been a co-owner of the business since 2012,...

SAGECollegePrep Services offers test prep classes, private tutoring, college counselingWhen Rich Quadrel retired from his research and development manager position at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in 2015, he thought he’d return to something he really enjoyed years before—teaching.He and his wife Marilyn started SAGECollege Prep Services four years ago and have been...

As a family advocate for the Richland Early Learning Center, Lisa Thompson has been on a mission to help as many children as she can.Because whether or not people believe it, there are a lot of people in the Tri-City region who don’t get enough to eat—and many are young...

Joe Gonzalez never wanted to be a business owner.He was happy being an electrician.“I was really comfortable in what I was doing,” he said. “And then sometimes you need to get out of your comfort zone.”That’s what Gonzalez finally did back in the early 1990s.“My old boss who I worked...

Sage Brewing Co. will serve up multiple IPAs, hop-fed pales, easy-drinking beersWhen Tyson Crudup and Ben Grogan met each other while working at Yakima Chief Hops a few years ago, little did they know at the time they would eventually become business partners.This fall, the men expect to open Sage...

Esprit Graphic Communications will become Minuteman Press by year’s endSkip and Shannon Novakovich began Esprit Graphic Communications in downtown Kennewick in 1989.They’ve long been active in the Tri-City business community, as well as involved in local charities over the past 30 years.They’ve received numerous awards over the years—including Kennewick Downtowners...

The past year has been a wild ride for the Boys and Girls Clubs of Benton and ranklin Counties.The nonprofit took over the Richland School District’s before- and after-school child care program in June 2018.

Athalia Clower has always wanted to help people.And she has done so for more than 25 years.“I have been a certified physician assistant (PA-C)since 1993,” said Clower in an email interview. “I started working for Kadlecduring March of 2010.”For Clower, this has been a high calling.But so has her charity...

The first detection of gravitational waves from deep space were recorded at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, or LIGO, out on the edge of the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in September 2015 and announced in February 2016.Ever since that announcement, people from all walks of life — manyof them students —...