West Richland Complex Information & Comments Form
In 2021, Benton REA purchased 17 acres of land for future development. The land is located in West Richland on Cooperative Way, just off Keene Road.
Aging facilities require improvements in both West Richland and Prosser.
- Increase costs to address maintenance and repair issues
- Current HVAC failing - increased frequency of service calls and cost
- Electrical issues causing internal loss of power, overloading circuits
- Run down facilities due to age and increased traffic
All members benefit from future property improvements.
- West Richland complex results in several properties in Prosser and West Richland that are surplus and can be sold
- District office and crew will remain in the Prosser area to serve members closer to it
- Will consolidate district office facilities and eliminate crews stopping at 2-4 locations to get material before they leave for the outage or job site
- Operational efficiencies result in more work time, faster response time = better service
- Improves service to everyone, not just those closer to West Richland
All comments will be posted on this site for members to view. Please refrain from using profane language. All comments will be reviewed for such language prior to posting.
Appears to me everyone is reaching for reasons to build an expensive new facility. 30 million is a whole lot of money. A new facility would maybe nice but not necessary. I personally know a lot of employees, and rumor has it that many are disgruntled with current upper people. Don't use poor management as an excuse to try to make employees happy with a new building. Treat them how you want to be treated. First thing. Why was the 24 million from the sale of the Yakama Indian infrastructure not saved for this, as you should have seen it coming. Part was sent to the rate payers and now you're wanting to borrow and pay interest. Holding the rates down appears to me to be shooting yourself in the foot before the race. Why have no gate openers been installed on all these gates previously? If 30 million is borrowed at 4.3% it has an interest payment of $107,000 MONTHLY. That will do a lot of HVAC, electrical upgrades. Keeping the Prosser facility is still going to require a lot of $$$$ for repairs, and which property would get sold for miniscule amounts? Run down facilities still need attention and repairs. What the REA has needed for a lot of years is their own maintenance facility. There is not enough owner equity to borrow that much money at this time. It is a huge financial burden that does not need to be taken at this time.