Latest news with #Rickert
ABC News
26-04-2025
- General
- ABC News
Newman's 'retro house' celebrates outback town's mining history
The mining town of Newman, 1,170-kilometres north-east of Perth, is an iron-ore powerhouse. Today, the mines that surround it are worth more than $24 billion a year in revenue. But like many towns in WA's remote Pilbara, it does not have a local museum. And it means there's nowhere that publicly celebrates the human stories behind the immense mineral wealth. "When I walk down the street of this town, when I walk past buildings; they're full of stories, they're full of history," local historian Lisa Rickert said. "And they're worth preserving." The 'snake man' Twelve years ago, Ms Rickert, who has lived in Newman almost her whole life, decided to do just that. Lisa Rickert has recorded more than 100 interviews with current and former Newman residents. ( ABC Pilbara: Charlie Mclean ) Using more than 100 interviews with current and former residents, and an ever-growing collection of archival photos, she built One of her favourites is the late Charlie Snell, a man who came to Newman in 1966, when it was just a collection of tents supporting the construction of the Mt Whaleback mine. "He was known as the 'snake man,'" Ms Rickert said. "Back then there were two men to a tent but no-one would share with Charlie because he usually had a reptile on his person. "He, along with the help of the local First Nations people, collected seedlings and started Newman's first nursery ... to grow plants in the town." Charlie Snell (right) was known as the "snake man" for his love of the reptiles. ( Supplied: Lisa Rickert/Newman History 6753 ) From an early age, Mr Snell had helped his grandfather, in south-west WA, grow flowers and vegetables for the Perth market and he used that knowledge in Newman. Photos of Mr Snell are now hung on the walls of an original, "1968" home Ms Rickert has restored for her latest project: the Newman "retro house". Joint effort to create 'retro house' At the end of the "tent city" era of the 1960s, Mt Newman Mining Company (bought out by BHP in the early 90s) built a series of identical cottages for its workers. In 1966, Newman was a tent city as the country's biggest open-pit iron-ore mine was being established. ( Supplied: Lisa Rickert/Newman History 6753 ) Ms Rickert bought and restored one of the first homes built in the remote mining town, to celebrate the formative years of WA's mining industry. She has set up the home exactly as it would have looked in the late 60s by sourcing original furniture and other common items from her childhood. But she hasn't had to do it alone, with past and present Newman residents donating old belongings for the project. "I've even had people bring things back from out of town," Ms Rickert said. "Other people have posted things up [online] when they've found them. "They think, 'Oh, will I throw this out? Or will I donate it to the history project?'" In 2022, Ms Rickert bought a worker's cottage built in 1968 and has recreated its original interior design. ( Supplied: Darren Field Photography ) Earlier this year, Ms Rickert made the home's three bedrooms available to travellers or workers on short-term contracts needing a place to stay. "[When] they are ex-residents of Newman, they will go crazy for these old 70s or 80s pieces of furniture because they have that connection with it," Ms Rickert said. "It brings back memories of their time here." Love-letter to mining life Ms Rickert hopes the stories laid out in the house and on the website challenge the view that mining towns are places only to work, not to live. She said right from the town's opening, its isolation and extreme temperatures bonded people together. Ms Rickert's collection of archival photos capture the spirit of Newman's formative years. ( Supplied: Lisa Rickert/Newman History 6753 ) "I think it was an exciting time [in the 60s] for those young people and they looked upon it as a challenge. "Being so isolated back then and so far away from family, which we are today … the people, the friends that you make in town, they sort of become your family. "The bond between Newman people is so strong they actually have an annual reunion every year in March." Some of Ms Rickert's items poke fun at Newman's isolation and reputation for being a tough place to live. ( ABC Pilbara: Charlie Mclean ) But she recognises not everyone is up for the "challenge". "There's the other side," Ms Rickert said. "When Dad first came to town in March of 1970 the average stay was two weeks. "So a lot of the men that came here took one look around and just said 'No, I'm not bringing my family here' and jumped on the next flight home."
Yahoo
22-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Local towns offering $5K for people to move there
(WKBN) – Would you MOVE for money? Make My Move helps you find a place and the incentives available to get you to move. Mercer County is involved in it and is already seeing success. Mercer County wants to grow. Three of its communities are participating in a program that pays people to move here. 'We really need people. We got to bring people in that want to work and give back to our community and really help drive Mercer County forward,' said Jack Rickert, associate executive director of Penn-Northwest Development. Hermitage, Sharon and Greenville are offering $5,000 right now. There are some other incentives raising the value to nearly $7,000. The first guideline is you have to live over 100 miles away.'We wanted to recruit from further out, outside communities that you know, no one quite in that Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Erie region, and see who would be attracted to our area,' Rickert said. Rickert believes the deal is perfect for a remote worker to come enjoy life in Mercer County. Over 100 applications have been made already. Penn-Northwest put up the seed money to get the program going. The application is to make sure people moving here will fit in.'Those are kind of our target audience that want to move into a safe community with great connectivity, great education systems and someone that can really benefit from everything Mercer County has to offer,' Rickert said. Not everyone gets picked. The short-term goal is to see five families move here. At least two have already been picked. The next step is to have them start looking at housing and find out that Mercer County is a place to live, learn, work and play. 'And one of the ways to do that is to really bring in people who have the same values we do. So we're excited about it. We're excited to try to build Mercer County up and put us on a national platform,' Rickert said. Other communities in Mercer County can participate, too. It's not just limited to Greenville, Hermitage and Sharon. The two applications that have been accepted are families from Arizona and New Jersey. If you know someone who could be interested, they can apply online. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
22-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Tri-Cities food banks, already hit by federal cuts, bracing for record surge in need
Until recently food banks across Washington state were receiving robust deliveries of fruits, vegetables and shelf stable foods thanks to federal programs. But after recent cuts some Tri-Cities food banks are getting in only frozen blueberries and bread. Many smaller community food pantries have extremely limited capacity to store frozen food, sometimes just a single household refrigerator or chest freezer. 'The (deliveries) are greatly reduced, they're severely different in the content, and the content that is available is just what is not moving at all in the way of food,' Tri-Cities Food Bank board President Howard Rickert told the Herald. Demand already was spiking after federal pandemic aid ended for individuals, and now the food bank is preparing for a new surge of families in need as federal budget negotiations look to slash billions from SNAP, direct food aid and potentially even Social Security. On top of those hits to families and food aid programs, more will likely come from the fallout of a myriad of difficulties impacting local farmers and growers. Several key U.S. Department of Agriculture programs that bought produce for food banks directly from farmers and growers were eliminated this week. The cuts could impact summer programs to feed children after the school year ends. All of those factors could also have far reaching secondary impacts on expenses for farmers, grocers, suppliers and other industries with an estimated economic loss in Washington that could exceed half a billion dollars. About 1-in-6 Tri-Cities households rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for food stamp benefits, according to 2023 USDA data. On top of that, Rickert said the need at Tri-Cities Food Bank's locations has grown significantly as inflation, rising rent prices and economic uncertainty leave more working families asking for help. With rent prices so high that the cheapest available apartments are over $1,000 per month, he said ends just aren't meeting for many working families in the Tri-Cities. 'People are just flat out of money at month's end,' he said. Of those nearly 17,000 Tri-Cities area households receiving SNAP benefits, about 60% include families with children under 18 and almost half are households with someone living with a disability. About 1-in-3 recipients have an elderly person in the home. Franklin County has the second highest rate of SNAP recipients in the state, Benton ranks 12th out of Washington's 39 counties, according to USDA data. Veterans in the Tri-Cities also are vulnerable. Of the more than 16,000 veterans in Benton and Franklin counties, 40% are over 65 years old and 1-in-3 receive disability benefits, according to 2023 Department of Veterans Affairs data. Rickert said that smaller food pantries, which don't have the storage and freezer capacity of the Tri-Cities Food Bank simply can't keep up with demand. 'The little pantries, they're out. They run out. You can count on them running out (of food) by the third week of the month,' he said. 'The big driver is disposable income and people's ability to pay, rent was a huge number that went up.' He estimates that 80 percent of food pantries simply cannot handle another surge in demand. 'We're in a position where we can continue to work and serve even in these difficult times, but that is really unusual for food banks,' Rickert said. That's because the food bank invested in expanding their storage capacity at the beginning of the pandemic. Their leadership anticipated that increased demand was not going to dwindle. It's a good thing they did. The demand at the food bank plateaued during the pandemic thanks in part to 2nd Harvest's mobile food pantries. As those began to wind down, clients were back at the local food banks. The number of families they're helping is now as high as during the Great Recession of 2008-09, Rickert said. 'Now as soon as the pandemic officially ended and the subsidies for workers ended, then we saw the rise and the rise continues. We're going to exceed 2008 levels once again, we will be at record territory once again,' he said. 'We knew it was coming, we could see it coming. So the Tri-Cities Food Bank planned for facility expansion to expand storage and bulk.' Washington state could lose more than $415 million in SNAP funding, according to an analysis by The Century Foundation. The organization notes that the loss — $20 billion nationwide — would also lead to a loss of jobs and demand for agricultural products, further hurting farmers. Those figures are based on estimated cuts, it doesn't account for how the state might have to cut benefit eligibility if they're expected to cover more of the cost. The Department of Agriculture is targeted for $230 billion in cuts, according to a resolution passed by Republican lawmakers. Shifting more of the burden to states is one way lawmakers could achieve those cuts at the federal level. For Washington taxpayers, that could amount to hundreds of millions of dollars. States currently pay half of the administrative costs to operate the programs. If the state had to pay 10% of benefits, that would amount to $191 million in 2026, according to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities. They predict that states would struggle to cover costs, likely leading to a reduction in benefits. Those reductions could come from reducing total benefit amounts or narrowing program eligibility by changing income requirements. Washington, like many other states, is currently facing a budget crunch due to a number of factors, including loss of federal pandemic aid, inflation and increasing labor costs. Lawmakers in Olympia are currently working to find billions of dollars in savings, with estimated impacts to services across the state. While 2nd Harvest only receives about 5% of its funding from federal programs, they rely heavily on the generosity of farmers and growers. Those farmers and growers are facing uncertainty themselves. Farmers took a big hit last week as a federal program that buy products for food banks directly from producers was cut. Central Washington growers and food production companies make up a significant portion of the Local Food Purchase Assistance program, according to the Washington Department of Agriculture. Eric Williams, 2nd Harvest community partnerships director, said all of their partner food banks and pantries are continuing to see an increase in demand. 'We always say, 'It's the first harvest that makes the second harvest possible.' It is the generosity of the farms and ranches and orchards that make it all possible,' he said. 'We only shudder to think what it would be without that generosity.' 'Orchards, potato farmers, lots of donors make it possible for us to weather these sorts of storms and more importantly get the food to help folks weather these sorts of storms.' Those donations might be at risk if farmers are unable to plant or harvest as much of their products due to backlash from tariffs and loss of federal purchasing contracts. Washington Tree Fruit Association President Jon DeVaney told the Herald that growers are having to figure out what to produce for the season now, without answers about what's on the horizon. He expects many will err on the side of caution. 'It is a challenge given the high cost of production right now, most producers are struggling to put as much constraints as possible,' DeVaney said. 'There is a lot of pressure on producers to not pay the cost of harvesting product they can't sell. Many producers have been more selective about what comes out of the orchard, there's not a mechanism to get that unharvested product to a processor.' These donations from farmers and growers across the Columbia Basin are one of the primary sources of food coming in for 2nd Harvest. On top of that, Williams said that shelf stable foods have dropped from about half of their incoming donations to just 15% to 20%, which makes it harder for them to keep smaller food pantries stocked without directly purchasing goods. 'Some of our partners are quite small and they might only have a fridge or two, they're constantly telling us they can use a lot more shelf stable food,' he said. 'We're doing everything we can.' Food bank Executive Director VJ Meadows said the organization has been able to help Tri-Citians in need since 1975 because of the generosity of the community, and that every penny donated stays in the Tri-Cities. 'We never forget we exist because the community supports us, and we depend on that,' she said. Rickert said that local food banks and pantries are always in need of monetary donations, with about 60% of food being purchased now. He said that whether it's the Tri-Cities Food Bank or your church's food pantry, every dollar will go a long way. Volunteers also are in high need. He said that people with administrative skills, forklift certifications or who can drive trucks would make a big difference. Volunteers driving box trucks do food 'rescues' on days the food bank isn't open, going to local grocery store partners to pick up donations. Those grocers also are under pressure to reduce the amount of unsold products. People with experience in logistics also help keep costs down, because they reduce the need for full-time employees required to track data for grants and other programs. As food insecurity grows, every bit of help local food banks and pantries can get will make a difference. To volunteer or donate, visit For a map of food pantries near you, visit
