Building business
JOEL MARTIN | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 1 year, 6 months AGO
A family checks out exhibits at last year’s Moses Lake Business Expo. This year’s event is March 4.
JOEL MARTIN/COLUMBIA BASIN HERALD
Pedro Barreras, safety coordinator for Okanagan Specialty Fruits, gives a packet of apples to Laura Silvers of Avamere at the Moses Lake Chamber of Commerce’s 2024 Business Expo. More than 80 businesses are expected to have displays at this year’s event.
A boy holds still for face paint at the 2024 Moses Lake Business Expo.
Joel Martin has been with the Columbia Basin Herald for more than 25 years in a variety of roles and is the most-tenured employee in the building. Martin is a married father of eight and enjoys spending time with his children and his wife, Christina. He is passionate about the paper’s mission of informing the people of the Columbia Basin because he knows it is important to record the history of the communities the publication serves. | February 24, 2025 3:30 AM
MOSES LAKE — It’s hardly a secret that Moses Lake is growing, and that’s why this year’s Business Expo on March 4 will have a construction theme.
“We’ve got a lot of construction going on,” said Debbie Doran-Martinez, director of the Moses Lake Chamber of Commerce, which hosts the show at the Grant County Fairgrounds. “We’ve got a new hospital underway. There’s a Mexican market going in on Third Avenue … We’ve got a lot of housing (construction) going on. In the industrial sector, we have Sila (Nanotechnologies) doing a buildout; we’ve got Group14 doing a buildout. There’s lots of things happening.”
The theme is “Building our Economy for a Prosperous Future,” and the expo promises to be a big one, taking up both the 4-H Building and the Commercial Building. There are 85 businesses coming, and last year’s event was attended by more than 700 people, Doran-Martinez said. The premier sponsor, the Moses Lake Elks Club, will have a station set up for the club’s youth ID program, which lets parents register information on their children for law enforcement in case a child ever goes missing or needs to be identified. Bud Clary will be the spotlight sponsor and will have vehicles all along one wall of the 4-H Building. In between there are vendors for everything under the sun, as well as food and beverages. The event coincides with the chamber’s monthly Business After Hours, so pre-registered chamber members will also receive complimentary beverage tokens. The event is free and family-friendly, Doran-Martinez added.
The Business Expo itself has grown over the years from about 20 booths in the early 1990s to filling two buildings the last three years, and it could grow even more, Doran-Martinez said.
“We're at capacity, so I can't fit anymore into the space,” she said. “So as soon as I'm turning away enough that I can fill half of another building, then we'll launch into a third building.”
Besides the wide range of businesses on display, there will be some fun activities, Doran-Martinez said. In keeping with the construction theme, there will be some Jenga games for attendees to play, and a blackout bingo card game.
“People go around and if they visit 25 of the predetermined vendors that are on the card … they get put into a drawing for a Skylight Calendar photo frame,” she said. “That's kind of a cool, techie item that everybody can use in their household or office.”
An event like the Business Expo goes a long way toward fostering local commerce, Doran-Martinez said. In an age when it’s easier to go online than across town, money spent at local businesses has a ripple effect.
“It's critical that we shop local,” she said. “If we want to have stores here, we have to support those entities. And shopping local builds our economy. It builds our quality of life. As we shop local, we pay our local taxes which benefit the municipality that offers products and services for our community … the Amazons aren't sponsoring the Little League baseball team here. They're not donating to the Cancer Foundation. They're not doing those things that local businesses do.”
Moses Lake Business Expo
March 4, 4-7 p.m.
Grant County Fairgrounds
3953 Airway Drive NE, Moses Lake
More information: www.moseslake.com
Pedro Barreras, safety coordinator for Okanagan Specialty Fruits, gives a packet of apples to Laura Silvers of Avamere at the Moses Lake Chamber of Commerce’s 2024 Business Expo. More than 80 businesses are expected to have displays at this year’s event.
A boy holds still for face paint at the 2024 Moses Lake Business Expo.ARTICLES BY JOEL MARTIN
Quincy National Night Out scales down
QUINCY — Quincy’s National Night Out was more compact this year, which worked out well, said QPD Sgt. Joe Westby, who’s in charge of event planning for the Quincy Police Department. “National Night Out is a big event, and the fact that we’re able to shrink it up is like a breath of fresh air,” Westby said. “If you're always doing the same thing, it's kind of nice to switch things up and see how it works.” National Night Out took place Thursday on the block of C Street next to the police station, a shift from previous years when it was held at Lauzier Park. The smaller space meant fewer emergency vehicles for children to explore, but it also meant less walking for attendees. Grant County Fire District 5 brought a fire truck, and the Grant County Sheriff’s Office had a patrol boat. Renew, the Grant County behavioral health agency, had a booth and so did Quincy Partnership for Youth. Veterans Operation Creation sang the national anthem, and the Quincy Animal Shelter brought kittens that piled over each other making friends with passersby. As before, the QPD served grilled hot dogs.
Quincy Police retirements leave big shoes to fill
QUINCY — There are some big shoes to fill at the Quincy Police Department. “We’re losing 48 years of experience between them,” Quincy Police Chief Ryan Green said at the retirement party for Capt. Jorge Trujillo and Det. Damon Powell Thursday. Trujillo, who grew up in Sunnyside, has been with QPD for 19 years, he said, coming on as a patrol officer fresh out of the military. From there he served as a field training officer, a detective and finally captain. “I consider him my left-hand man,” Green said. “He runs the operations side of the house … He knows the agency very well, and he knows the community.” Trujillo has some projects around the house to tackle now that he’s retired, he said.
Big fun on a small scale
Wheat Land Communities’ Fair opens Thursday
RITZVILLE — The Wheat Land Communities’ Fair isn’t as big or as flashy as some of the county fairs around central Washington, but the folks who keep it going like it just the way it is. “It’s somewhere you can go and get an old-time traditional feeling, and you’re comfortable letting your kids roam the grounds and experience all that it has to offer,” said Board Member Lori Williams. “It’s more of a feeling than (one) specific thing,” The fair starts Thursday in Ritzville and runs through Sunday. Starting Friday, the 56th Ritzville Rodeo will take place alongside the fair at the rodeo grounds. This year the entertainment budget was expanded, Williams said, to be able to offer more fun that’s covered by the cost of admission. For the kids, there’s face painting, balloon art, Lego crafts, races, contests and games. Children can also ride on a little train towed around the fairgrounds behind a tractor.