PORT ANGELES — Eight signs with a suicide hotline phone number will be planted on the two Eighth Street bridges by the beginning of April.
Port Angeles City Council members Tuesday directed Craig Fulton, public works director, to move forward with the project.
The bridges, about 100 feet tall at their highest points, have 4-foot, 6-inch railings and have been the site of 19 suicide threats between 2009, when the replacements for spans built in 1936 were opened, and mid-October 2014.
Council members began discussing suicide prevention options for the bridges after Oct. 11, 2014, when Stephanie Diane Caldwell, 21, of Port Angeles became the third person to jump from the bridges since 2009.
The signs, each about 12 inches by 18 inches, will be placed on all four corners of each bridge and will include a 24-hour crisis line, Fulton said Wednesday.
“The big thing is putting out the 24-hour hotline that someone can call if they are in some kind of crisis,” Fulton said, adding that the signs will be manufactured by the county’s sign shop at a cost of about $1,000 total.
Fulton said he is still working with Peninsula Behavioral Health on the wording of the signs.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
