West Richland Real Estate Blog

Roscoe Slade from the city’s Public Works department sent us a note about this upcoming road closure on South Highlands Blvd.:

S. Highlands Blvd between Keene Road and Glenbrook Loop will be closed from about 9am on Monday March 15th through 5pm Friday, March 19th to allow the City to make a repair at this location.

Now you know…

No doubt you’ve seen the blue election signs around town: It’s almost time to vote again on a levy for funding emergency services in West Richland. The Benton County Fire Protection District has a detailed web page that explains what the vote is about and why it’s needed. It includes this chart that shows 50% of the district’s calls in 2009 were for medical/EMS reasons.

So far in 2010, a whopping 93% of the district’s calls have been EMS-related.

The levy is asking for 50 cents per $1,000 of assessed value to be added to residents’ property taxes. For a home valued at $150,000, the levy would cost about $6 to $7 per year. Unlike the 2008 election that included a bond measure, this year’s vote is only for an EMS levy.

Benefits of Approving the EMS Levy

If the levy passes with 60% of voters saying “yes,” BCFD #4 will begin providing round-the-clock trained staffing of local EMS/ambulance services. No more waiting for an ambulance to arrive from Richland or Benton City.

Local ambulance service will have “low/no direct costs” for people living within the district.

The funds raised will pay for purchase of the ambulances, related medical equipment to provide EMS, and remodels of the stations to house the ambulances.

Just as in we did in 2008, Cari and I will be voting for this levy this year, too. God forbid something happen at home … I don’t want to wait 15 minutes for an ambulance to get here. No thanks. West Richland is growing. We need ambulances nearby.

The election is set for April 27.

Yes, if you were driving around Bird Hill this afternoon, you may have seen me out in the yard … cutting the grass! In February! The first lawn-cutting of the year usually happens near Cari’s birthday, which is in early April. Today’s lawn-cutting happened before my mom’s birthday, which is next week.

What on earth happened to winter? Actually, I’m not complaining. I’ll take a winter like this any time. And there’s two bits of good news: The tulips seem to still be alive despite the overnight freezes, and the lawn looks pretty darn good for February.

If you’re a Facebook user and would like to be able to quickly get in touch with Cari about any real estate questions or needs you may have, you can connect with her at this facebook page:

Cari McGee Real Estate

She’s on Facebook quite a bit more often than she’s blogging here, so that’s the best place to keep up with what’s going on the West Richland real estate market.

Here’s an update to our post from a couple weeks ago about an upcoming closure on Keene Road. The city’s original plan was to do the closure in late February, but Public Works Director Roscoe Slade says it’ll start on March 1st:

Keene Road will be closed from the Bombing Range Road round-a-bout to West Lattin Road from about 9am on Monday, March 1st through 5pm Friday, March 12th to allow the City to make several repairs to Keene Road. During this time, traffic will be able to cross Keene Road at S. Highlands Blvd. Access to the LDS Church will be off of West Lattin Road via the gravel portion of Watkins Way.

Message Reader Boards will be installed on Keene Road starting February 22nd informing the traveling public about the upcoming closure. The flyer will also be included in this month’s utility bill, on the City’s website, and hopefully the Tri-City Herald will print a brief on the upcoming closure.

Residents with questions about the closure can call the Public Works dept. at 967-5434. Slade also sent the map/flyer below that you can see below, and you can also download it in PDF form.

The tulip bed in our front yard is already growing. I haven’t even had a chance to get out there and pull the weeds and clean-up the branches and other debris in there.

This isn’t supposed to happen in early February! The tulips usually look like this at the end of February or in early March.

Guess this is what happens when you’ve had as mild a winter as we’ve had. I’m certainly not gonna complain about that — love this weather! But, it’s only February 11th. If we have a couple nights of frost before spring, those flowers are toast. Goners.

On the bright side, I’m looking at 10- and 15-day forecasts for West Richland, and there’s no sign of winter anywhere to be found. Whew….