Commissioners address varied issues

Wahkiakum County commissioners addressed issues ranging from health care alliances to the forgotten comprehensive plan at their meeting Tuesday.

Health and Human Services Administrator Sue Cameron told commissioners that coming re-alignments for mental health, chemical dependency and physical health services could have important implications for county services.

The state legislature has mandated changes to alignments, essentially calling for a minimum population in contiguous counties.

Wahkiakum is part of Timberlands Regional Support Network for mental health services and part of the SW Regional Health Alliance (RHA) for health services.

Timberlands includes Wahkiakum, Pacific and Lewis counties, and the RHA includes Wahkiakum, Clark and Skamania counties and the Cowlitz tribe.

Timberlands would need to pick up other counties to meet the 250,000 population requirement.

Cowlitz had talked of joining, Cameron said, and Grays Harbor County could join, too.

"But the state has indicated that a larger region is better, which may require the inclusion of Thurston and Mason counties," she said.

If Cowlitz were to leave the RHA, Wahkiakum would have to leave, too, for it wouldn't have a contiguous border.

The RHA has been preparing for the full integration of mental health, chemical dependency and physical health for two years, Cameron said, and Wahkiakum has been an active part of that work.

"Timberlands does not appear to be prepared to address the physical health inclusion for quite some time," Cameron said, "and does not have the players at the table or relationships with them."

Brian Cameron, executive director of Timberlands, said the county could sign a non-binding letter of intent to join the larger service area. Timberlands would have until 2016 to expand its service, and if it didn't work out, he said, Wahkiakum and Cowlitz could join with Clark and the southern counties.

Commissioner Blair Brady said governance is his major concern.

"We've made pretty good headway for 'one county, one vote,'" he said.

"There are so many contingencies," said Chris Holmes, county mental health director. "We have a good relationship with Timberlands; that wouldn't change with the addition of chemical dependency services. "We don't want to get hooked up with something that didn't work."

Commissioners agreed to sign a letter of intent but they asked Brian Cameron to add his pertinent points. The board will act on the letter next Tuesday.

In other business, commissioners dusted off the draft update of the comprehensive plan that has sat on a shelf for four years.

The update was almost finished, said Planning Director Chuck Beyer. He will review the draft to see that the final changes proposed by commissioners in 2009 are included and bring it back to the commission at the end of July.

Commissioners also asked Beyer to review the Critical Area Ordinance for needed revisions and report on June 10.

Beyer said the documents need to be updated, or the lack of any current plan will hurt the county's ability to receive grants for a wide variety of projects.