PORT ANGELES — City Council members will consider giving Councilwoman Cherie Kidd the go-ahead to seek grant funding for suicide barriers on the Eighth Street bridges when the council meets Tuesday.
The council is scheduled to vote on a resolution that would have Kidd, a former mayor, lead the search for money “to seek a grant or grants that provide 100 percent funding for installation of an augmented safety railing system” for the two spans, which stretch across the Tumwater Truck Route and the Valley Creek gorge.
The meeting begins at 6 p.m. at City Hall, 321 E. Fifth St.
Mayor Dan Di Guilio said he will likely vote for the resolution.
“I probably will support it,” he said Friday, adding he prefers funding suicide-prevention programs rather than fences.
Di Guilio acknowledged that funding for fence construction — estimated at about $1 million for the 100-foot-tall bridges — would come from a different source as a capital project.
“If the only option we have is to put fences up, I would certainly support that,” he said.
Four deaths by suicide have occurred from the spans since 2009, when they replaced bridges built in 1936 that contained higher barriers than the present 4-foot, 6-inch wall-railings.
The most recent deaths were of a 21-year-old woman in October and a 76-year-old woman in March.
There also have been 22 suicide threats, which did not result in death, at or within a block of the bridges as of April 8 since the spans were built six years ago, according to police records.
The railings on the new spans are lower than those on the original, which had been raised to prevent people from throwing objects onto the road below, Kidd said.
The council rejected the idea of building taller fences when the bridges were built and after they were constructed, citing the cost to the city.
Instead they opted for signs with crisis-hotline phone numbers that have been posted on the bridges urging those contemplating suicide to call Peninsula Behavioral Health, located just three blocks east of the spans.
Kidd argued for the resolution at the council’s April 7 meeting.
“There is a critical need for higher fencing on our Eighth Street bridges,” Kidd said at the session.
“A resolution is necessary for me to take the next step to approach other federal and state agencies [to say] that we are looking for funding.”
Dr. Joshua Jones, Peninsula Behavioral Health medical director, told council members at a Nov. 25 meeting that Clallam County has the second highest suicide rate in the state.
At the same meeting, Wendy Sisk, clinical director at the facility, suggested the fences would have a minimal impact.
She told council members that higher railings “might have some impact on a very small number of people.”
Clallam County has more than 100 bridges, but the Eighth Street spans are unique.
Jumping off the bridges “is a thing people say when they are in distress,” Sisk said.
“It’s something we hear often.”
Councilman Lee Whetham had similar thoughts at the April 7 meeting, saying that the bridges hold an attraction for those who want to do themselves harm.
“When a person talks about someone jumping off a bridge in this county, it’s the Eighth Street bridges that are the ones that they are drawn to,” Whetham said.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
