This was a special Benton County Commissioner’s meeting at 6 pm on 9/1/21 to informally
discuss matters regarding the creation of a Crisis Recovery Center (CRC) at the old Kennewick Hospital also known as the Trios Auburn property at 8th and Auburn in Kennewick.

The Meeting Agenda

The matters highlighted in the agenda included:

1, Discussing a .01% sales tax, a penny on every ten dollars spent in Benton county to help fund the CRC,

2. Creating an Advisory Committee for the CRC,

3, Discussing the Property Condition Assessment Report for the Trios Auburn Property.

I attended the meeting by video so I was not sure which commissioners were speaking at times because of face mask. When I refer to “the Board” I mean it in general. Not all of the Board agreed with everything I heard them say. It was hard to hear “who said what”. They were all there, Commissioners Shon Small, Jerome Delvin and Will McKay.

The commissioners shared that they were eager to move forward on the project and wished for
public input for almost all matters associated with the CRC.

Sales Tax

Concerning the tax, they know discussions need to be held but are in support of moving forward with the process because as they mentioned it will serve our community greatly.

If I heard correctly one of the Board supports a half of .01% tax increase if Franklin County gets involved. We heard an audience member support that value. Others that spoke agree with the full amount of .01% with or without Franklin Co.

While it is uncertain whether Franklin County will be involved, Benton is moving forward and all who
spoke this evening were in support.

It was also shared that revenue from the tax in our county should be about five million dollars a year. Since no budget was mentioned, it’s hard to understand if it’s fair.

Treatment for Children and Teens

Many people in the room and the Board want the CRC to deal with
children and teens. The board mentioned our juvenile justice center and jails are crowded with
people who just need mental attention. Helping younger children saves the community from
potential social unrest and improves everyone’s quality of life. The lack of services in our
community is stressing caregivers, our police officers and our small mental health community. It’s
clear the Board is listening to the community.

Mobile mental health team

The Board and some people in the audience want to see in the budget a quick response mobile mental health team to reduce officers’ time at a scene when they can serve us better elsewhere. Secondly the Board and some community members were clear on providing free services for the everyone who needs it in the first 24 hours.

The Advisory Committee

An Advisory Committee was discussed in some detail and both the Board and the attendees
were in agreement one should be created. The number 13 was discussed before the meeting
for amount of people needed on the committee, all with skills needed for task.

Several audience members offered to help, many very qualified it sounded. You can’t see them on the video stream. One gentleman with over 40 years experience and several degrees in counseling and
rehabilitative services mentioned it sounded like the board was evaluating some old data for inhouse detox/rehab. He said that more recent data has suggested that out-patient detox and rehab were more
successful.

Seems like a good thing to know. There was no discussion as to whether the Advisory Committee will
have the luxury of visiting other facilities as the Board did. It does seem apparent a
single provider is in the Board’s mind and that may be something the advisory committee will
help with.

Rehabbing the hospital building


Finally there is the issue of the old building’s health and what will it cost to get it
running. No one from a construction background opened up to being on the advisory board but I
am sure the Board will assign someone. The Wave Design Group did the assessment on the old
hospital and here is what they found. This is a copy from the weekly meeting held at 9 am this
same day.

Architectural Assessment of Building Façade
o Building Roof
o Interior finishes
o ADA Compliance


Structural Assessment o Foundations
o Building frames
o Water damage
o Recommendations


Mechanical Assessment
o HVAC Components
o Maintenance Costs
o Service Water


Electrical assessment
o Lighting and receptacles
o Utility Service
o Emergency Back-up power
o Electrical Power Distribution Equipment


Estimated costs
Could be phased construction and use of the building doors until ADA replacement – $1,000 per door
10 doors= $10K, Wave didn’t say how many. Restrooms – $25,000 per restroom, 4 restrooms = $100K, how many are there? Wave didn’t say. How many need reconfigured? It depends on over all design.
Investigation of water intrusion – $20,000. They could not give an estimate of the
cost of repair until the investigation report was complete, in my home owner experience it will
cost more!
Structural repairs – minimal – $10,000 for fire proofing
Mechanical – $1.4 million – complete like-for-like replacement – end of life (not
necessarily needed to be the same high level as a hospital, but this was “worst case
scenario”)
Electrical – replacement of outdated – $50,000
If this all holds true and we just do 10 doors and four bathrooms it will cost about $1,590,000. I
think the county has 2.5 million. then there is the water issue…..


In all the Board was pleased with the numbers. Now this is me thinking. Notice there is no
number for ambience like paint, lighting and other creatures comfort like chairs, and desk.
Rooms for people that may harm themselves, cameras and a way to process that data. Then
there is security and making areas inaccessible from patients and public. We need workers to
feel safe and able to practice without fear and in comfort. Some of this capital spending we need
upfront with security doors, hard-wired cameras and then bullet-proof windows. I’m not sure
security has been mentioned much.

There is easily another million or two they will need to get the building going before people are in it. It sounds like the .01% tax is just for operational needs. Staff and support staff for such a large facility needs discussion, maybe cities can pitch in. Cities will save resources in areas that the CRC will cover.

Who knows? This is what the planning meetings are for. There are more coming. We need a nice facility to help people move forward in a positive way.

Retraining facility?

Those were the three issues discussed during the meeting. I will add, a lady said she was
worried if we built this the Federal government may take it over and teach people what to think?
She said she wasn’t a conspiracy theorist. I have only heard of Retraining facilities in Russia, N.
Korea and China. No one confirmed this wouldn’t happen, so who knows maybe she is
right…..Everyone at the meeting was in favor of this project with or without Franklin County.

*Meet Mike

Hi, I am Mike Lowery and will be helping the Observer cover events in Benton County. I have
spent about 25 years of my 60 year life in the Tri-Cities, most in Richland. After Army and a
short career working on boats I went on to college at CBC. Then I worked 15 years on
commercial nuclear power plants. We moved back to Tri-Cities and been in Richland for 20
years. I tried to help Hanford for 18 years. I have three degrees from Columbia Basin College,
yes that’s weird. Studied economics and religion at Liberty University, St. Leos College in FL,
University of Illinois, University of Washington more at CBC. House dad now to my working wife,
two cats and a dog. Our boy’s all work and study in the northwest. I spend time riding my eletric
bike or crashing it, building small wood and metal projects, enjoying Electronic Music and
camping. Writing is something I love to do but not very good at it.