Kennewick Real Estate Blog

WSDOT has announced some closures related to the ongoing Blue Bridge construction project this week:

“Drivers traveling on southbound US 395 will not be able use the SR 240 westbound off ramp. Drivers on SR 240 eastbound will not be able to access northbound US 395.”

These closures will be in effect from Thursday (April 2) at 9 p.m. until Monday (April 6) at 5:30 a.m.

You can read the WSDOT alert for more information.

[where: Blue Bridge, Kennewick, WA 99336]

After coming with one percent of having their school bond measure passed earlier this month, the Kennewick School District has voted to put the matter back in front of voters. And the next try at getting the bond passed will happen on May 19th.

KSD has posted this statement on their web site:

The bond amount and projects included have not changed. The bond measure received 59.3% approval in the last election, just shy of the 60% required to pass. However, less than 50% of the registered voters who received ballots returned them. The district hopes to engage more voters in the process in the May election. Your vote counts.

So, expect a PR blitz in the next couple months. The district will have to move quickly — ballots will start to arrive in mailboxes in late April, essentially one month from now.

If you’re not familiar with the bond measure, you can read the information site that KSD has put together. There’s an email address listed there if you have specific questions, too.

The westbound Edison St. off-ramp on Hwy. 240 is no doubt one of the busiest (and most annoying) stretches of roadway in Kennewick. During the morning and afternoon work commutes, it’s not unusual to see cars backed up all the way down the exit and sitting still on the highway.

It finally looks like WSDOT might be ready to do something about it: plans are in place to install a traffic signal to improve the overall traffic flow. First step is a traffic study to make sure the interchange meets federal requirements. Then it’s a matter of finding the money to pay for a traffic signal — and that may not be easy in light of the current state budget problems.

WSDOT told the Herald that they may put in a temporary signal at significantly lower cost, and wait until budgets improve to install a permanent light.

Either way … let’s just get a signal in and make that interchange more bearable to all drivers.

[where: Edison St. & Hwy 240, Kennewick, WA 99336]

Here’s our latest roundup of Kennewick business news. Please use the contact link below if you have something we should be sharing on the Kennewick real estate blog!

• Good to Gro has opened up on Clearwater Avenue. It’s an indoor gardening store selling equipment and supplies for hydroponic gardening.
• Prospect Mortgage is now open for business at 320 Johnson St., Suite 100.
• Cedars Inn, a new 60-room hotel, is coming to North Young Street, near the Toyota Center and Tri-Cities Convention Center. It’s slated to open in February 2010.

If you have some Kennewick business news we should write about, please contact us!

Did you see this on Forbes.com?

It says “Kennewick” in the bold headline, but the description itself mentions PNNL and farm jobs, so by “Kennewick,” they actually mean “Tri-Cities.” Still, very cool for this area to be No. 2 on a listing of areas with the best jobs outlook this spring. Yakima, by the way, was number one. Forbes explains that its rankings come from a quarterly survey done by an employment services company called Manpower.

Here’s KNDU’s report on this, which does a good job of going into the Kennewick WorkSource building and getting some comments from people who are knee deep in the job hunting situation.