ABOUT

The Tri-Cities Local Business Association was founded in 2003 with six companies as charter members. The primary goal was to persuade DOE and its prime contractors to use local businesses in contracted support to accomplish the Hanford mission.

Since its founding, member businesses have pursued win-win subcontracting that helps DOE and Hanford prime contractors succeed while building the capabilities and resumes of local businesses. We have worked to achieve a reasonable level of opportunity for local businesses, large and small, to compete for and perform Hanford work. TCLBA has emphasized that local businesses offer high-quality services for accomplishing cleanup goals with safety, efficiency and economy. Messages have focused on:

Competitive Distinction – Working with our customers and potential customers to create and maintain an environment that promotes local business participation in competitive ventures

Sustainability — Building a base of businesses that transcend Hanford and are relevant and engaged in the community’s post-cleanup future

Center of Excellence – Creating a center of engineering, technical support, and service excellence to augment the area’s already recognized scientific excellence

Local Business – Capitalizing on significant local resources to effectively address client needs; providing better, smarter service; and ensuring a vibrant and growing community

TCLBA  members include businesses and labor organizations who share several things in common:

• We belong to the Hanford technical community
• Our livelihoods are dependent upon Hanford
• We have a personal interest in seeing the DOE and Hanford succeed
• We want to see Hanford cleaned up and transitioned to a new long-term mission.

For its members, the TCLBA offers an effective means for productive interactions and helpful information. We have met with Hanford prime contractors, who have welcomed a collective interface to work on improving subcontracting – for them and for us. We have successfully convened members of the local business community, government officials, local leaders, and educational and training resources for open exchanges of information. These interactions have provided members with opportunities to learn about activities at Hanford, identify business opportunities, and determine resource needs across local organizations. We also have provided a forum for developing programs that enhance the economy of the region.

We meet regularly with our Congressional delegates who share our concerns about sustainability. They appreciate and will support actions to leverage the clean-up work to help build local businesses in a way that supports our post clean-up economy. We coordinate with TRIDEC, DOE’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), and others in a variety of ways to secure the economic future of the Tri-Cities.

The TCLBA operates under the leadership of an Executive Director working with an Executive Committee elected by the membership.