Join us Wednesday, January 12th from 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm at the Mayfield Gathering Place & Gardens.

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Brock Long is our guest speaker. Brock has been with Columbia Dive and Rescue since 2014. He was a Member of the Year in 2016. He became Operations Director at the end of 2018.  He is a rescue diver as well as a rescue swimmer. Brock also volunteers for Benton Fire District 1 as a Fire Fighter/EMT and acting Lieutenant. His hobbies are working, coaching his boys in soccer, hiking, and camping.

WRCC Annual Report

Exciting Times in West Richland

When a pandemic can’t slow a community down, you know you’re amidst some exciting times. While we may not have been able to completely leave COVID-19 in the rear-view mirror in 2021, West Richland sure hit the ground running with some exciting growth in 2021, and there is no signs of slowing down anytime soon.

The residential growth is astounding! Last year was a good year for residential single family home growth in West Richland, but in 2021 the community has already exceeded last year’s single family home permits with more than a month to go. Plus, multi-family permits have gone from zero to 75 so far in 2021.

This significant uptick in residential growth in West Richland is spearheading commercial and industrial growth. West Richland is already experiencing just the tip of that spear. Sun Market & Firehouse Subs is under construction, HAPO Community Credit Union has purchased property, Red Mountain Event Center has brought the Tri City Raceway back in a big way, Richland School District is finishing up both Tapteal Elementary School and its Teaching Learning and Administration Center, West Richland Police Station is opening in December, plus an industrial business is in the process of purchasing property near the Red Mountain Event Center. There is little doubt that this uptick in commercial and industrial growth
in West Richland is just the beginning and as residential growth in the community continues, so with the commercial and industrial growth.

The West Richland Area Chamber could not be more thrilled with the how the West Richland community is growing and are even more excited to help these new community members and businesses thrive. After all, its right in our mission statement to promote growth and economic vitality
for our members and our community through collaborative business to business interactions. The chamber is doing exactly that and with a renewed effort. This collaboration is happening through several different avenues and include both in person and electronic interactions. The West Richland Chamber membership luncheons continue to be a member favorite as businesses come to a friendly atmosphere to interact with fellow businesses and hear presentations by local leaders and businesses. Electronic interactions have picked up through social media, email blasts, and other online and web content.

The West Richland Chamber also promotes economic vitality and quality of life through its community events, which take place both in West Richland and surrounding communities. The most high-profile examples include the Hogs & Dogs Family Festival, Cool Desert Nights, and the West Richland Veterans Day Parade.

These events bring in thousands of people into our communities, giving our local businesses new opportunities be in front of potential new customers.

The future success of the West Richland community is not dependent on one entity, like a chamber of commerce. Our success is dependent on our ability to work together, collaboratively, for the betterment of the entire community. Citizens, businesses, civic groups, and local agencies all benefit by working together. At the West Richland Chamber, we take that very seriously. We take pride in our close working relationship with various local entities and citizens. We cherish our close working relationship with the City of West Richland, its elected leaders, and its staff. We are honored that we work hand in hand with the West Richland Police Department and Fire District #4. We have built strong partnerships with local businesses and civic groups to leverage our resources and maximize their impact.

Yet despite having all these positive things to include in this column, there is much more we can and will do. We will welcome our new citizens and businesses with open arms and work with them to help ensure the success of this community. The Chamber must continue to work with the city and other local economic development partners to help attract new businesses and industries to our community and the quality jobs that comes with them. It truly feels like we are at the cusp of making some giant leaps forward.

The West Richland Chamber Board just finished a retreat and have identified several fresh ideas on how to improve and enhance our service to our members and the local community. While the last couple of years has been challenging for many of us, it has also shown has that we must adapt if we are to success. We must embrace these challenges and find the opportunities that exist within them. It’s exciting times in West Richland and surrounding communities!

Additional Chamber Activities:

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• Monthly Chamber Luncheon: Secure the speakers, set up and organize and track all lunch payments

• We provide networking and educational opportunities through our monthly luncheons, Alliance of Chambers, and any workshops we have through the Chamber

• Work & Manage the Alliance of Chambers (West Richland, Benton City, Tri-City Hispanic Chamber and Pasco Chamber) collaborating with our Communities, Chambers & Cities.

• Working annually with several large businesses to secure extra funding for the WRCC, below are a few examples:

  • Lamb Weston - $8,500 annual donation

  • City of West Richland - $4,500 annual donation

  • Green2Go - $5,000 annual membership

• Chamber hosted Ribbon Cuttings for new member businesses in the region. We are looking forward to the upcoming Ribbon Cutting Ceremony on January 25th, 2022, of the new West Richland Police Department Facility

• WRCC continues to work hard to keep amazing relationships with local West Richland Police Department, Fire Departments, City of West Richland, Mayor, City Council Staff and West Richland citizens to keep the Chamber moving forward in an incredibly positive manner

• WRCC has been collaborating with the Community Care Foundation to support the West Richland Police Department to be able to support citizens in need through the Community Care Program. We will be assisting with other fund-raising opportunities with the Community Care Foundation. We also work with the West Richland Police Department with their Citizens Academy Class

• WRCC continues to invest in upgrading many of our forms of media including:

  • Monthly Postcards

  • New WRCC Website

  • New Hogs & Dogs Website

  • New Cool Desert Nights Website

  • All forms of social media including, Facebook, Instagram & LinkedIn

  • Weekly Email Blasts each Thursday

• The West Richland Chamber works on selling memberships, luncheon sponsorships, and event sponsorships to help support the Chamber and all its activities

• We collaborate closely with our Bookkeeper, Dianna Lopez and CVI with the Gambling Commission in tracking all motorcycle raffle tickets

• WRCC works closely with ChamberMaster a program that helps keeps all our members in one database to have access to and to keep all our records current. Keeping all dates and events posted through ChamberMaster to keep members and non-members up to date

• The Chamber puts together agendas with information needed for all our monthly Board meetings to help keep all Board members up to date on Chamber issues

I am looking forward to all the things we are going to achieve in 2022!

Best to you always,
May Hays – Executive Director/West Richland Area Chamber of Commerce

Congratulations to all of you! We look forward to working
together to enhance our Chamber and our Community to achieve

our goals and expectations for the new year.