Leaders of the town of Sequim and the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe reached a memorandum of understanding earlier this month, allowing town staff to begin recruiting a clinical social services navigator for the clinic. Tribe’s Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) center on South Ninth Avenue.

The 16,806-square-foot Jamestown Healing Clinic will tentatively open in the coming months, according to tribal leaders, and once open doctors would dispense daily doses of methadone, Suboxone and Vivitrol to patients with addiction-related disorders. the use of opioids while providing comprehensive services such as dental and general health care, behavioral services and child care.

Sequim city councilors unanimously accepted the contract on January 10, with the tribe agreeing to provide $100,000 per year for three years to the city to provide services through the Sequim Police Department.

Sequim Police Chief Sheri Crain said at the Jan. 10 city council meeting that this followed a decision by the city’s then-appointed hearing examiner, Phil Olbrechts, for an appeal of the project.

She said her findings led to the navigation process.

“(The tribe) provides the funding, and we figure out how to make a navigator,” Crain said.

“(You are) authorizing to accept the money,” she told councillors, “and to go ahead with a (request for proposals).”

According to the memorandum, a navigator “will connect people in Sequim to community resources that may be needed to address social, medical, and behavioral health challenges.”

This person will “engage customers, assess and identify customer needs, assist and refer customers, and track referrals and services used by customers,” the agreement states.

Through their efforts, municipal and tribal leaders hope the post will do the following:

• Reduces law enforcement responses involving people in crisis or struggling with addiction who are engaged by the navigator for services;

• improve the behavioral health conditions of people hired by the Navigator;

• improve public security and public order;

• improve connection to appropriate health and social services; and,

• reduces the likelihood of involvement of the criminal justice system by persons hired by the browser

City staff must hire the position no later than March 1. The position will also submit detailed quarterly and annual reports to both entities, including items such as the number of people engaged by the navigator, the number of people who left the facility without completing treatment, and the number of people requiring a transport to the clinic.

Recruitment continues for a city resident to join a mandated advisory committee which, according to Olbrechts, is to “develop a monitoring and evaluation program for the clinic and develop a contingency plan to identify corrective action if the clinic has impacts on public services through increased demands on law enforcement and other emergency services.

Clallam County Sheriff Bill Benedict, Councilman William Armacost, and Loni Grinnell-Greninger, Vice Chair of the Jamestown Tribal Council, formed a subcommittee to determine the community’s seat.

For more information about the clinic, visit jamestownhealingcampus.org.

Swisher Hall OK

City councilors also unanimously approved on January 10 the expansion of the practice space at the James Center for Performing Arts, Swisher Hall.

Members of the Sequim City Band previously said the rehearsal room, built in 2005, comfortably seats around 35 people, but they have up to 70 players now and other bands are using the space, including the Sequim Community Orchestra and the Strings Kids music education program.

Band members report that the nearly 2,500 square foot venue will easily accommodate up to 75 musicians, add another bathroom, improve acoustics, lighting, a heating/ventilation system and preserve the collection of band music and the storage of instruments in the current space.

Architect Steve Zenovic of Zenovic and Associates said the group’s intention was to begin construction this summer after submitting a conditional use permit, tendering and building tentatively from June to November.

Debbi Soderstrom, chair of the group’s board, said they plan to fully finance the project at just over $1 million before completing the project without taking out a loan. She said they raised about $919,000 and another $44,000 in uncollected pledges.

City attorney Kristina Nelson-Gross said the city council would not be able to provide city funds for the project because it would then become a public works project and fall under certain guidelines that could affect grants. received, bids and other parts of the project.

Sarah VanAusdle, Sequim’s acting director of public works, said once the addition is complete, the city would be responsible for maintenance; this would include regular cleaning of its facilities, she said.

VanAusdle added that during his tenure they had repainted the headband once, so it wouldn’t be needed for a while.

Donations to the Sequim City Band, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, for its project can be made at sequim cityband.org under the “Rehearsal Hall Expansion” tab, or mailed to: PO Box 1745 , Sequim WA 98382; designate “Rehearsal Room Expansion” or “Building Fund” to direct a donation specifically to the project.