Pasco Real Estate Blog

Children’s Museum has a new home

We can happily update this post from a couple weeks ago with news that the Three Rivers Children’s Museum has a new home, and it’s staying right in the Broadmoor Outlet Mall facility. The new location is right across the parking lot, on the side where the Van Heusen outlet store is housed.

They’ve just started relocating their stuff this weekend, and the plan is to reopen in August. Excellent news!

[where: Broadmoor Outlet Mall, 5274 Outlet Drive, Pasco, WA 99301]

Pasco High Honored by Newsweek

Congrats to the Bulldogs!

Pasco High is ranked at No. 853 in Newsweek magazine’s list of the top 1,500 high schools in the U.S. Pasco’s been on the list the past four years, but this is their highest ranking yet.

Here’s how Newsweek describes the ranking system:

Public schools are ranked according to a ratio devised by Jay Mathews: the number of Advanced Placement, Intl. Baccalaureate and/or Cambridge tests taken by all students at a school in 2008 divided by the number of graduating seniors. All of the schools on the list have an index of at least 1.000; they are in the top 6 percent of public schools measured this way.

[where: Pasco High School, 1108 N 10th Ave, Pasco, WA 99301]

Can You Help the Children’s Museum?

Update: The Children’s Museum has a new home. Details are here.

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You may have heard the news today — the Three Rivers Children’s Museum is losing its current space at the Broadmoor Outlet Mall and needs a new home. According to the museum’s web site, they have until the end of the month in their current spot and then a neighboring tenant — Charter College — is taking over that space.

Our kids have been to a few birthday parties and such at the museum over the years, and they’ve always said good things about it. There’s not exactly a ton of stuff for kids to do in the Tri-Cities, so we need places like this to stay open as a fun, safe place for kids to play and learn.

The good news is that, in KNDU-TV’s story, museum director Jolene Hatkey says she’s already been getting calls of support. Have a look:

If you want to help out, there’s more information on the museum’s web site. Let’s hope we can update this post soon with good news!

[where: Broadmoor Outlet Mall, 5274 Outlet Drive, Pasco, WA 99301]

Pasco Fire Department in financial trouble?

KEPR-TV ran a story last week suggesting that the Pasco Fire Department could be looking at a $300,000 budget shortfall this year. Why? Because people are spending less and the fire department gets most of its funding from sales tax revenue.

Fire Chief Bob Gear says the department is being more careful about monitoring work hours, not spending as much on training, and holding off on replacing certain pieces of equipment.

“At some point, there has to be some impact from that because you have to use equipment longer than you should or can,” he said. “There’s no free ride.”

Indeed. Kinda scary to think about how the budget problems are affecting all city services, but especially primary things like firefighting. I’ve heard lots of people saying the economy is at its worst or already getting better, so hopefully this won’t go on too long and emergency services won’t take too much of a hit in the long run.

Free Movies at Fairchild Cinemas in Pasco

School is almost out, and just like they’ve done in the past, Pasco’s Fairchild Cinemas is helping save the summer with free movies! The showings start in late June and run for almost two months, and it’s all thanks to sponsor American West Bank.

Each week, the theater will offer two free kids’ movies on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Doors open at 9 am and the movies start at 10 am. They’ll also have a $4 “Kids Tray Special” available.

Here’s the 2009 summer free movie schedule at Fairchild Cinema:

June 23-24-25: Bee Movie / Nim’s Island
June 30, July 1-2: Paul Blart: Mall Cop / Horton Hears a Who
July 7-8-9: Kung Fu Panda / Surf’s Up
July 14-15-16: Barnyard / Igor
July 21-22-23: Coraline / The Tale of Desperaux
July 28-29-30: Shrek the Third / Madagascar 2
August 4-5-6: Charlotte’s Web / Flushed Away
August 11-12-13:Monsters vs. Aliens / The Spiderwick Chronicles
August 18-19-20: Hotel for Dogs / “Surprise Film TBA”

So there ya go! A full summer of free movies in Pasco at Fairchild Cinemas. If you’re new to the area, the theater is located at 5020 Convention Drive, right across from TRAC. Use the map below if you need help.

[where: 5020 Convention Drive, Pasco, WA 99301]

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Tall Ships in Pasco

Yes, the tall ships are in Pasco, and no, the McGee family is not out there (yet).

The Lady Washington (pictured in San Francisco recently) and the Hawaiin Chieftain are here for the rest of the month, docked at Cascade Marina on 4th Street. There are scheduled tours and a few different kinds of sailing adventures you can go on. Tickets and information are available at LadyWashington.org.

Too Many Pasco Restaurants Closing

Couldn’t help but notice that there’ve been a few notable restaurant closings in Pasco lately:

Lil’ Pardner’s Restaurant closed up shop back at the end of March.

In April, Quiznos and Nick-N-Willy’s pizza both shut their doors.

I don’t know if this is just coincidence or if the economy is hitting Pasco hard, but with all of the famed growth, it seems strange for three restaurants to close within just a couple months. Maybe too much growth, especially out near Road 68 where both Quiznos and Nick-N-Willy’s were located?

What do you think?

CBC Hit Hard by State Budget Cuts

Ouch. CBC has just announced what I’d call massive cuts to both staff and educational programs based on decreased state education funding.

For 2010, the school’s operations budget has been cut by almost $3.5 million. Here’s what that means:

• enrollment will be cut by “up to one thousand” FTE students
• 55 staff and faculty positions will be eliminated - nine are F/T faculty, 27 are F/T staff positions, and 19 are part-time positions
• four educational programs will be discontinued - Autobody, Paralegal, Human Services, and daytime Fire Science

CBC is also losing almost $17 million from its capital construction budget. The Social Science and World Languages Center, which was due for construction in 2011, is history. Not gonna happen. The funding is completely gone. Other construction projects had their budgets cut, so CBC will have to make up those losses in other ways.

Wow. Can’t even imagine what the campus is gonna be like tomorrow as the news spreads around.

[where: Columbia Basin College, 2600 North 20th Avenue, Pasco, WA 99301]