April 2009  

Kathy Ruggles named “2008 Downtowner of the Year”

The Historic Downtown Kennewick Partnership with the help of Washington Trust Bank held its annual Downtowner Banquet “An Evening for the Arts” on Tuesday April 14th at the Clover Island Inn. About 110 people were on hand to see Kathy Ruggles honored as the 20th recipient of the "Downtowner of the Year" Award.  Gary Earp , last year's recipient, presented Kathy with this year's award.

The "Downtowner of the Year" award honors a person who has been instrumental in promoting the improvement of the downtown area over a number of years.  Kathy Ruggles has been involved in the downtown revitalization starting 1999. In 2007, Kathy went to work for Washington Trust Bank outside of the downtown, but still continued to care about the downtown and volunteers countless hours to the promotion of the downtown. Kathy and her husband Paul were active in the success of the Downtown for Three. Kathy has served on the Organization Committee since 1999 and chaired many event such as Membership Drives and Downtowner Banquet, this is in addition to being appointed to the Board of Directors in 2006 and serving as Secretary in 2008.

Other honors during the evening included naming Mark Blotz as the 2007 recipient of the “Ralph and Jo Benton Volunteer of the Year” Award for his of service and dedication to downtown efforts.  This award recognizes the contributions of an individual through the course of a year. In 2008, Mark served as President of the Board and assisted with a number of promotional projects.

The City of Kennewick 's Block Grant Advisory Committee presented two awards at the banquet recognizing excellence in downtown’s revitalization. Stuart Logg, owner of Basin Department Store at 111 W 1st Ave. received the 2008 Restoration Award for his worked restoring the façade of the storefront. Stuart removed the old cedar siding and replaced it with a new brick veneer.

The second award for 2008 Revitalization Award went to Mark & Todd Jones for the work they did revitalizing the corner of Auburn and 1st Ave home of Sandstone Café and Metro Screenprinting.  Mark and Todd with help from the Community Development Block Grant fund took a rundown corner of the downtown and brought new life to it. 

This year the Partnership also honored Ray Poland and Sons as the 2008 Business of the Year. Ray Poland and Sons stepped up to assist the Historic Downtown Kennewick Partnership with the creation of the Downtown for Three. Dennis Poland and his crew were instrumental in helping make this event as successful as it was. Dennis Poland is also in the process of building a new office building on Columbia Drive

The Partnership also recognized Banner Bank, Dr. Matt Smith, Ti Sports, and Farmers Exchange for their contributions to the downtown revitalization process through the Main Street Tax Incentive Program. The Partnership recognized Dr. H. Matt Smith for his third year of contributing to the Downtown.

May 2009  

Historic Downtown Kennewick Partnership Receives “Excellence in Downtown Revitalization” Award

The Historic Downtown Kennewick Partnership (HDKP) was recognized for an “Outstanding Achievement in Promotion” at the 23rd Annual Downtown Revitalization Training Institute awards banquet last night in Vancouver , Wash. The HDKP was recognized for their “Downtown for Three” basketball tournament and was among eight projects honored.

“The Historic Downtown Kennewick Partnership’s achievement represents the hard work taking place across the state to strengthen our downtown communities,” said Rogers Weed, director of the Washington State Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development (CTED). “I congratulate them on their dedication and commitment to creating vibrant communities and growing Washington ’s economy.”

For a number of years, the HDKP had been searching for an event that would bring young people to downtown, benefit downtown retailers, and attract a new volunteer base to the organization. Various community youth groups and local businesses approached the HDKP about hosting a downtown 3-on-3 basketball tournament, and the organization decided it would be a perfect fit.

With only eight weeks to plan the event, the HDKP remained loyal to local businesses when seeking sponsorships and commissioning the construction of basketball frames and backboards.  The Partnership also created a Web site for the tournament and worked with a local design company to create registration brochures, flyers, and posters for the event. In addition, rather than waiting for players to discover the event and sign up, the HDKP took the information on the road to other nearby tournaments. 

The HDKP hoped for 50 teams to sign up for this first-year event, but the final tally of 85 teams playing on 16 courts, truly speaks to the event’s success. The tournament had a huge economic impact on the district with restaurants seeing a major jump in sales. Many businesses extended their hours to accommodate the number of new downtown visitors. Furthermore, the event attracted more than 80 new volunteers to the organization including an entire girls basketball team.
“The Historic Downtown Kennewick Partnership had been looking for a promotion to spotlight downtown and bring energy to the district. This event really filled that niche,” said Executive Director Tim Dalton.