WSP Investigating Fatal Crash On Highway 97, New Businesses Near Airport, More Briefs

The Washington State Patrol is investigating a crash that killed two people riding a motorcycle north of Wapato Thursday night.

Troopers say 28-year-old Chet Jensen of Toppenish crashed his pickup truck into a motorcycle at the intersection of State Route 97 and Jones Road. Paramedics took the two people on the motorcycle to the hospital where they were pronounced dead.

Troopers say 17-year-old Omar Delgado of Union Gap, and the passenger, 21-year-old Yaritza Lopez of Yakima had both been wearing their helmets. Jensen was wearing a seatbelt and was not injured.

The Washington State Department of Transportation reopened SR 97 around 12:30 Friday morning, about two and a half hours after the crash.

A new business complex at South 24th Avenue and Washington Avenue is expected to be open soon and change the look of that corner in west Yakima.

President of Advanced Real Estate Jerry Maggard says they will soon improve the look at the corner that faces the airport.

We’re going to landscape that corner and create kind of a welcome to Yakima area as people drive out of the airport.

The opening is driven by the businesses themselves says Maggard and he expects a mixed use facility with both office space and local businesses.

Maggard says it is the first of a two-phase project. The second phase will be larger complex on the west side of the current building.

The range at 1450 Sun Targets Road cost the county nearly $200,000 to build on county land.

The deputies and corrections officers used to train at the Yakima Training Center but they did not have exclusive access because it was also used by the training center. Now the deputies and corrections officers have a range of their own.

The Yakima Police Department is now talking with the county to see if Yakima officers could also train at the facility.

Yakima County's Development Association New Vision wants to know if a commercial kitchen mixed use incubator would work in Yakima.

New Vision Director Dave McFadden tells KIT News, “We grow a lot of food here. We have a lot of emerging smaller food producers, food growers and processors and we think there’s potential to bring them together in a shared production space.”

New Vision is funding a feasibility study with the city of Yakima to gauge the demand for such a facility that are popular around the state and the nation.

Mcfadden says an incubator in the Pybus Public Market in Wenatchee is a big success.

The study is expected to be completed by the end of the year.

Yakima Police Capt. Rod Light has been placed on administrative leave.

It happened Monday after Light returned from vacation. Police Chief Dominic Rizzi will only say that the Captain and spokesperson for the department is on leave because of a claim of misconduct.

An investigation by an outside agency is underway.

No other details have been released about Capt. Rod Light.

The Fourth of July was busy as always for Yakima area firefighters, but they say the good news is that fireworks were not responsible for any major fires.The most serious damage occurred early Saturday morning, when Yakima firefighters were called to a shed fire in the 800 block of South 15th Avenue.

The fire was reported at about 3:30 a.m. Saturday, and when firefighters arrived they quickly doused the flames and blamed the fire on fireworks. They found an area near the shed where people has been lighting fireworks.

Lower Valley firefighters put out some small brush fires, but no major fires were reported in the valley as a result of fireworks.

A teen was rescued from an island in the Naches River Sunday afternoon.Officials from the Yakima County Sheriff's Office say the 15-year-old boy was swimming in the river with his family when he was swept downstream while riding on an inner tube around 1 p.m. The boy was able to get to an island in the river but couldn't make it back across the waterr. His mother told him to stay on the island while she called for help.

Officials used a rope to rescue the teen from the island. He was not injured.

Personnel from the Yakima County Sheriff’s Office, Naches Heights Fire, Gleed Fire and ALS Ambulance Service responded to the incident.