PORT TOWNSEND — Olympic Community Action Programs is working up designs for a new Port Townsend-based dental clinic to serve Jefferson County’s poor, the nonprofit agency’s executive director said Monday.
A two-chair cubicle was being used in the middle of Port Townsend OlyCAP’s administrative office to serve needy dental patients, but it was distracting for employees working nearby.
The dental program, however, has been successful, offering patients major work at an average $80 instead of $400, said Tim Hockett, OlyCAP executive director.
“People were asking, ‘What are you doing, Tim?'” he told about 50 attending Monday’s Port Townsend Chamber of Commerce lunch eon meeting at Fort Worden State Park Commons.
“What did the dentists say? They loved us, because they know there’s no competition in poor people.
“I am happy to say we’re going to be building one in Port Townsend.”
Dentists contribute
Hockett said dentists offered money to help build the clinic, but more money had to be raised.
Hockett said the clinic would be located in about 1,000 square feet of space adjacent to the agency’s Working Image store, where women are dressed in professional-looking attire for job interviews.
“The dental clinic depends on the level of community support we can get,” he said.
The existing clinic takes patients three days a month, but a new clinic in larger quarters could operate on a weekly schedule, depending on demand.
A dentist must be recruited, and more OlyCAP staff would have to be hired, Hockett said.
He said he would not know the cost until the clinic was open in two weeks, but he figures it will be as much as the agency’s Port Angeles clinic, which cost about $400,000.
320 employed
OlyCAP employs about 320 people on the North Olympic Peninsula, and its food banks, operated mostly by volunteers, serve about 800 households in Jefferson County.
The agency contracts with Jefferson County to run its community centers in Port Townsend, Tri-Area, Quilcene and Brinnon.
Food banks operate out of the community centers except in Port Townsend, where the food bank is in OlyCAP space adjacent to its offices in the Port Townsend Business Park.
Hockett said federal economic stimulus dollars are going to home weatherization so needy people can save on their power bills during winter months.
“We help more than 2,000 families,” he said of that program.
“And it helps save money as green jobs. We are hiring people in construction where jobs are needed now.”
Needs of the poor
Hockett said OlyCAP has invented programs, such as the dental clinics, to meet the needs of the poor.
“Our intention is to help those at the bottom of the economic ladder,” he said.
A Community Building Fundraiser for OlyCAP is scheduled for 6 p.m. Saturday, offering a free dinner at Port Townsend Aero Museum, 105 Airport Road at Jefferson County International Airport, off state Highway 19 south of Port Townsend.
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Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
