Jody O’Connor, the Washington Procurement Technical Assistance Center (PTAC) Counselor housed at the Tri-City Regional Chamber of Commerce, helped a local client earn a government contract worth over $400,000.
Patriot Rooter & Irrigation, LLC secured the contract with The Northwest Fisheries Science Center at the Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration laboratory in Seattle. This is Patriot Rooter’s third federal contract award. “Securing Federal contract awards for a small business comes with a lot of hard work; PTAC has not only provided to us the opportunity to compete in this unfamiliar arena but more importantly actually win federal contracts,” said Francisca Garrison, CEO of Patriot Rooter & Irrigation, LLC. The Washington Procurement Technical Assistance Center (PTAC) helps businesses at no cost to find, bid, win and perform on federal, state and local government contracts. For more information, visit washingtonptac.org.
0 Comments
JOINT MEDIA RELEASE: Benton County Commissioners, Franklin County Commissioners, and Benton-Franklin Health District Contact: Benton-Franklin Health District PIO [email protected] 509-460-4200 July 2, 2020 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Benton and Franklin Counties were approved today to move to modified Phase 1 of the state’s Safe Start Phased Reopening Plan. Washington State Secretary of Health John Weisman’s approval of the counties’ applications allows limited and modified openings for some businesses and personal activities in Benton and Franklin Counties effective at midnight tonight. Activities allowed include:
The Benton-Franklin Health District Board of Health wants to remind the public to continue to follow all the precautions in Phase 1, including wearing face coverings in public, staying at least six feet away from other people, practicing excellent hand hygiene and staying home when they’re sick. More information on COVID-19 can be found on Benton-Franklin Health District’s website at www.bfhd.wa.gov/covid-19. ![]()
![]()
PPE Distribution for Small Businesses
DATES: Thursday and Friday, June 25 and June 26 TIME: Curbside pick-up from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. PLACE: Tri-Cities Business & Visitor Center – 7130 W. Grandridge Blvd., Kennewick The Tri-Cities Open & Coalition is rescheduling the personal protection equipment (PPE) distribution for small businesses to June 25-26 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Tri-Cities Visitor & Business Center at 7130 W. Grandridge Blvd. in Kennewick. The Tri-Cities community rallied to support local small businesses by donating face masks, gloves and hand sanitizer during the Coalition’s PPE Drive earlier this week. Many of the generous donations were provided in bulk, such as the hand sanitizer, and will be repackaged to distribute throughout the community. This caused a brief delay in distribution as smaller containers for repackaging are currently in transit. The Coalition expects to provide PPE packages to approximately 275 businesses, first come, first served. To be eligible, businesses must be located in Benton or Franklin Counties, provide a business card and sign the Tri-Cities Open and Safe Pledge. The Tri-Cities Open and Safe Pledge indicates their commitment to following public health district guidelines, enhanced employee safety protocols, frequent cleaning, using face coverings, complying with social distancing guidelines, and encouraging customer hygiene. Business can find and sign the pledge at tcopenandsafe.com. The Tri-Cities Open and Safe Coalition has launched “Tri-Cities Open and Safe,” a region-wide initiative to support and recognize local businesses as the Tri-Cities begins to reopen under the Safe Start Washington proclamation. The intent of the initiative is to protect public health and restore our local economy.
For small business owners the COVID-19 pandemic has presented many unexpected challenges. As our region prepares for the phased approach to reopening, the responsibility of providing PPE for employees falls on the business owner. In a time of uncertainty and financial hardship not all small businesses have the budget to provide the necessary equipment. The Tri-Cities Open and Safe Coalition recognizes the need and will be collecting items and distributing them to small businesses in need. The catalyst for the PPE donations for small business is a major donation of 10,000 face masks from UniFirst. UniFirst has been operating in the region for nearly 20 years; providing hygienically clean uniforms and quality business products to businesses. The Tri-Cities Open and Safe Coalition is seeking donations from those who may have an excess of masks, gloves, hand sanitizers and other PPE to help with this endeavor to donate what they can. DATES: Monday and Tuesday, June 15th and 16th TIME: Curbside drop off from 10 am to 2 pm PLACE: Tri-Cities Business & Visitor Center – 7130 W. Grandridge Blvd., Kennewick Regional Chamber Supports Inclusion of Liability Protections in Next COVID-19 Federal Aid Package6/2/2020 The Tri-City Regional Chamber of Commerce supports the inclusion of liability protection for businesses in the next COVID-19 Federal Aid Bill.
Chamber President & CEO, Lori Mattson, sent a letter on May 21 to U.S. Senators Patty Murry and Maria Cantwell as well as Congressman Dan Newhouse in support of the protections. “Many businesses and organizations are concerned about reopening due to the risk associated with being held liable if one of their employees contracts coronavirus after coming back to work,” the letter reads. “If we want to see businesses reopen, conditions must be created to provide some level of certainty. A myriad of lawsuits will pour salt in the deep wounds that employers have recently suffered. “As we begin to restart the economy, the Tri-City Regional Chamber of Commerce urges your support of legislation that will create legal protections for businesses and nonprofits who are in compliance with health guidelines.” The Regional Chamber supports liability protections for the following three reasons:
The Tri-City Regional Chamber of Commerce has established a new coalition designed to advocate for better care of the region’s senior/elderly population.
The Tri-City Senior Care Support Coalition is made up of industry and community leaders, including: Carol Moser (Executive Director, Greater Columbia Accountable Community of Health), Roy Wu (Owner, Advent Care & Home Instead Senior Care), LoAnn Ayers (President and CEO, United Way of Benton & Franklin Counties), Johannah Weeks (Co-Owner, Chinook Home Care), and Kirk. F. Williamson (Program Manager, Benton-Franklin Community Health Alliance). On Wednesday, May 13, the coalition sent a letter to U.S. Senators Patty Murray, Maria Cantwell and Representative Dan Newhouse. The letter outlined three issues for consideration:
“As the voice for business in the Tri-Cities, the Regional Chamber strives to bridge the divide between businesses and available resources. Sometimes during this process, gaps in service and resources are revealed – and we help fill them,” said Lori Mattson, President and CEO of the Regional Chamber. All In Tri-Cities is a locally-organized effort to connect people who feel called to help with those most in need during the COVID-19 crisis. It mirrors a similar effort called All in Seattle which has raised over $27 million to provide immediate assistance for people impacted by COVID-19.
“Our community is struggling. Many businesses are facing uncertainty, many people have lost their jobs, some have lost loved ones, and others their sense of connection. We didn't just want to hunker down in our houses and wait. We wanted to help, but didn't know where to start, where to contribute, or even who needs help the most in our area. All in Tri-Cities came from there" said Lori Mattson, President of the Tri-City Regional Chamber. “It’s going to take a while for us to recover and we need everyone helping to get our community back to where we were.” A diverse range of community leaders—informed by input from the cities, state and private sector— have identified trustworthy, local non-profit organizations who have an established track record of delivering high quality, inclusive services, hyper locally. These organizations are already on the ground and are quickly deploying resources to help our neighbors. All in Tri-Cities looks to serve as a catalyst to get everyone in the community who can donate or act in some way to help these organizations supporting those across our community who are impacted by the COVID-19 crisis. Currently, they have curated organizations for:
For more information on All In Tri-Cities, visit https://www.allintricities.org/. Eighth District Sen. Sharon Brown and Reps. Brad Klippert and Matt Boehnke, all R-Kennewick, will be hosting a telephone town hall this Thursday, April 23, from 4 - 5 pm.
During the hour-long call, the lawmakers will provide their thoughts on this year's 60-day legislative session and the ongoing coronavirus crisis. They will also take calls from constituents and ask a number of survey questions. To participate, 8th District residents can call (509) 207-7114. For more information, contact: Sen. Brown at (360) 786-7614 or [email protected] Rep. Klippert at (360) 786-7882 or [email protected] Rep. Boehnke at (360) 786-7986 or [email protected] The Tri-City Regional Chamber of Commerce was awarded a contract from the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries (L&I) to plan and execute a monthly education series aimed at increasing employer and employee knowledge of L&I rules and regulations.
The 21 planned workshops will target small businesses and nonprofit organizations with 50 or fewer employees throughout the counties of Benton, Franklin, Walla Walla, Columbia, Grant, Yakima, and Klickitat. The workshops will be free of charge to those who wish to attend. Workshop topics will vary county by county. The Regional Chamber will work with the state and local L&I offices to develop the workshops to ensure the material is relevant to the audience. The workshops will be scheduled through June 2021. All workshops will be held in-person or delivered via Zoom. More information on the workshops will be released once plans are finalized. Information on the workshops will be posted on the Chamber’s Facebook page as well as here on tricityregionalchamber.com. Congressman Dan Newhouse will discuss the federal response to COVID-19 on an upcoming webinar hosted by the Tri-City Regional Chamber of Commerce.
“The Federal Response to COVID-19 with Congressman Newhouse” webinar will take place on Friday, April 10 from 11 am – 12 pm. Rep. Newhouse will brief attendees on what the Federal Government is doing to combat COVID-19 and how they’re assisting small businesses. The congressman is also expected to answer questions. All questions must be submitted prior to the start of the webinar. Questions should be e-mailed to [email protected]. The webinar will be free to view on Zoom and Facebook Live. The “Ask the Experts: Responding to COVID-19" series is one of the resources launched by the Tri-City Regional Chamber of Commerce in order to help the Tri-Cities business community during the COVID-19 pandemic. In March, the Chamber launched the Tri-Cities: Open for Business initiative, featuring a comprehensive website featuring special service offers, food and drink pickup options, small business resources, and much more, in order to help Chamber members get the information they need during this crisis. The website, which is updated daily, can be found at tcopenforbusiness.com. |
Categories
All
Archives
July 2024
|