Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary is expected Wednesday to present a check for $5 million to the Tri-Cities with a promise of $6 million more if the money is used to create jobs that outlast Hanford cleanup.

The Tri-City Industrial Development Council asked for $13.8 million for fiscal 1996 and fiscal 1997 to help replace jobs lost as Hanford moves away from nuclear weapons production.

O'Leary is expected to announce formally that TRIDEC will receive $5 million and could receive a total of $11 million if TRIDEC's diversification efforts are working.

TRIDEC's board plans to meet May 25 to discuss how to allocate the money.

It is to be spent on programs to help diversify the Tri-City economy and reduce the area's reliance on Hanford payrolls. Those efforts range from bolstering tourism, to improving the river shore for commercial development, to helping laid-off workers start new businesses.

O'Leary's presentation is scheduled during a reception with community leaders Wednesday evening at the Pasco Red Lion.

Members of Washington's congressional delegation went to bat for TRIDEC, sending a letter to O'Leary urging her to allocate money from DOE's 3161 Community Transition Program. That program has $82.5 million available to defense-dependent communities like the Tri-Cities to help them shift to environmental cleanup.

The delegation's letter argued that while Hanford lost about one-third of the jobs cut by the Energy Department since 1995, it hasn't gotten a proportional share of money provided to diversify the affected regions' economies.

As part of O'Leary's whirlwind 24-hour trip through the Tri-Cities, she also plans to participate in a Hanford cleanup celebration, meet with federal workers and have lunch Thursday at Hanford with contractor and union officials.

O'Leary will be in Seattle on Wednesday to address the National Forum for Black Public Administrators, at the request of President Clinton.

"So, she's taking advantage of the opportunity to come to Hanford and recognize the progress that has taken place here since her last visit at Hanford Summit II in 1994," DOE Hanford manager John Wagoner said Monday.

After talking to DOE workers Thursday morning in the Federal Building, O'Leary will travel to central Hanford to view construction of a new building to store 2,300 tons of spent nuclear fuel from the K Basins near the Columbia River.

That storage building "represents the fulfillment of her commitment to the governor and the delegation to put more authority into the hands of field managers, and the K Basins project may be one of most successful examples of that that you can point to," Wagoner said.

Overall, that effort is four years ahead of schedule. "This gives the secretary a chance to recognize that progress made by that team during an environment in which we've really had to tighten our belt,"Wagoner added.