By Paul Gottlieb
Special to the Peninsula Daily News
OLYMPIA — A $13 million appropriation for a 16-bed mental health crisis clinic in Sequim tops the Clallam County projects in an $8.7 billion 2023-25 capital construction budget that Gov. Jay Inslee will likely sign by mid-May.
Senate Bill 5200, unanimously approved by the House and Senate, was delivered to Inslee on Monday with a 30-day window for his signature. The legislative session ended Sunday.
It contains $43.5 million for 40 Clallam County projects from Neah Bay to Sequim that range from on fish barriers to theater-related Ghostlight Productions in Port Angeles.
The Jamestown S’Kllallam Tribe’s psychiatric evaluation and treatment facility would be built in Sequim near their medication assisted treatment clinic on the 20-acre Healing Campus.
Rep. Steve Tharinger of Port Townsend said Wednesday the crisis center is on course to receive another $13 million in the 2024 legislative session, which would to cover the entire cost of the project.
Brent Simcosky, Jamestown health services director, said construction on the lockdown facility is expected to begin in April 2024 and be completed in April 2025.
Construction will require a city of Sequim conditional use permit and public input because the property is not zoned for in-patient treatment, Simcosky said.
He did not know the maximum allowable stay in evaluation and treatment facilities like the one planned, but said the average is 10-14 days.
Patients would receive treatment and be evaluated for a next step.
“It could be to go home to a family or to a long-term psychiatric hospital or a medical facility,” he said. “There are all kinds of different options.”
The spending plan also includes $2.15 million for infrastructure and building repairs and renovations for Peninsula College.
Below is a list of Clallam County capital construction projects contained in SB 5200, the text of which is at leg.wa. gov, and listed in detail for all 39 counties in Washington at fiscal.wa.gov.
Clallam projects
• $13 million: Jamestown S’Klallam Behavioral Health Center, Sequim .
• $10.4 million: Quillayute River Historic Oxbow Project to restore natural floodplain conditions by reducing flood risks to infrastructure and improving habitat for salmon and other species.
• $5.75 million: Clallam joint public safety facility, Port Angeles.
• $3.9 million: Johnson Creek fish barrier removal.
• $2 million: Port Angeles Waterfront Center dba Field Arts and Events Hall, from the Building for the Arts Program.
• $2 million: Increase capacity for early learning programs that participate in Early Achievers or Early Childhood Education and Assistance programs at the Clallam County YMCA, Port Angeles.
• $1.9 million: Coastal restoration Quillayute River reaches.
• $1.86 million: EF Dickey Bridge, from funding for repairs, replacement or decommissioning of structurally deficient forest road bridges.
• $28,000: Modernization, Cape Flattery School District.
• $1.4 million: Coastal restoration, Pulling Together in Restoration, Phase 5.
• $1.2 million: Sol Duc Hatchery modifications to increase salmon production and enhance fishing opportunities by adding rearing capacity.
• $1.4 million: Fire pump replacement, Clallam Bay Corrections Center.
• $1.1 million: Twin Rivers Nearshore and West Twin, funding provided for grants for land protection and outdoor recreation projects.
• $1 million: Sol Duc River access, funding provided for grants for land protection and outdoor recreation projects.$544,000: Wisen Creek fish barrier removal.
• $980,000: Clallam Bay Corrections Center, warehouse roof replacement.
• $942,000: Peninsula College, minor works program improvements to renovate or upgrade program areas.
• $861,000: Sappho site infrastructure to modernize and renew Department of Natural Resources facilities.
• $729,000: Sequim Bay Park entrance improvements, with funding that may not be used for planning, predesign or design costs resulting in a request for construction funding in a subsequent biennium.
• $623,000: Peninsula College, minor works program improvements to renovate or upgrade program areas.
• $600,000: Port Angeles Civic Field, infrastructure improvements that must be combined with local funds.
• $421,000: Mid Valley Farm, Sequim, funding provided for grants for land protection and outdoor recreation projects.
• $401,000: Sequim City Band, from the Building for the Arts Program.
• $375,000: City of Sequim park acquisition.
• $350,000: Spartan Field upgrades, Forks, funding provided for grants to get youth through age 18 to participate in outdoor athletics.
• $300,000: Peninsula College, minor works-preservation, provided to establish an emergency reserve fund for use by colleges with catastrophic failures that exceed financial capability and other expenditures including allocating a small emergency fund to meet unforeseen capital issues or emergencies.
• $300,000: Correction of 10 fish barrier culverts on state grant and state forest lands, two of which are on the U.S. v. Washington culvert injunction list.
• $246,000: Forest Riparian Easement Program, Olympic Peninsula Region 6 south of Neah Bay, for 50-year conservation easements from small forest landowners to mitigate economic impacts of buffer regulatory requirements.
• $230,000: Peninsula College, high-priority building repairs.
• $200,000: Ghostlight Productions nonprofit theater group, Port Angeles, from the state Building for the Arts Program.
• $174,000: Forest Riparian Easement Program, Peeshbad region 3 south of Noah Bay, for 50-year conservation easements from small forest landowners to mitigate economic impacts of buffer regulatory requirements.
• $160,000: Makah Community Gym, funding provided for a Building Communities Fund, a competitive grant program for social service and multipurpose community center construction projects in a distressed community or serving low-income individuals.
• $138,000: The Dungeness Hub Nash’s Organic Produce, funding provided for grants for land protection and outdoor recreation projects.
• $100,000: Environmental cleanup to bring Department of Natural Resources into compliance, Cassidy Road target shooting site, Sequim.
• $100,000: Erickson Playfield Tennis Court upgrades, Port Angeles, funding provided for grants to get youth through age 18 to participate in outdoor athletics.
• $78,000: Modernization, Quileute School District.
• $71,000: Two DNR buildings in Port Angeles, electrical work.
• $61,000: Forest Riparian Easement Program, Olympic Peninsula Region 8 south of Noah Bay, for 50-year conservation easements from small forest landowners to mitigate economic impacts of buffer regulatory requirements.
• $54,000: Peninsula College, high-priority infrastructure repairs.
• $50,000: Funding for youth shelters and housing, Serenity House, Port Angeles.
• $20,000: Forest Riparian Easement Program, Olympic Peninsula Region 7 south of Neah Bay, for 50-year conservation easements from small forest landowners to mitigate economic impacts of buffer regulatory requirements.
________
Legislative Reporter Paul Gottlieb, a former senior reporter at Peninsula Daily News, can be reached at cpaulgottlieb@gmail.com.
