Whitman County Must Find Funds For Juvenile Center

Whitman County, already short on funds, must come up with at least $78,000 per year more to pay its share of a planned Medical Lake juvenile detention center, a county official said Wednesday.

Voters on Tuesday rejected a proposal to add a one-tenth of 1 percent sales tax in Whitman County to pay for crimefighting. The vote was 2,903 to 2,176.

“We put that on the ballot, but we didn’t promote it. And it’s a raise in taxes, and people are fed up with taxes,” said Whitman County Commissioner Jim Potts.

“It just means that we have to continually rob money from other services to pay the escalating juvenile justice costs.”

Whitman County is one of nine counties banding together to fund a $5 million remodeling of Martin Hall on the Eastern State Hospital campus at Medical Lake. Whitman’s share of the cost, Potts said, works out to about $78,000 per year. The county would be paying for 2-1/2 beds in the 52-bed facility, proposed to open next summer.

Whitman County can hold juvenile criminals for 72 hours at a four-bed detention area in Colfax, he said. But for longer sentences, the youths must be shipped to Spokane or Bellingham, at a cost of about $110 per day.

“Kids are getting turned out that should be locked up,” Potts said.

The sales tax would have raised from $320,000 to $330,000, Potts said. The money would have paid the county’s share of Martin Hall’s renovation, as well as funding upgrades to the county jail and home monitoring of criminals.

Potts predicted the county will try again to get voters to approve the tax.

He won’t be around for the next try, however. He was outpolled by fellow Republican Hollis Anderson on Tuesday, thus losing his seat on the commission when the term ends in December. Jamison received 835 votes to Potts’ 660.

“I’ve certainly enjoyed my time here,” Potts said Wednesday. “I’ve been honored to serve the people of this county.”

, DataTimes