After years of hard work, and tens of millions of dollars invested by the community, the Tri-Cities’ first public recovery center for addiction and mental health crisis treatment is almost ready to open.
Benton County will host an official ribbon cutting and grand opening event at the Columbia Valley Center for Recovery from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on April 17 in Kennewick. Then the center will officially open its doors around May 1.
The event will include guided tours and remarks from local officials and partners who helped bring the project to life. It will start from the main entrance at 216 West 10th Ave., which is the circular blue entrance that was formerly called the Spalding Medical Building.
Public parking will be on the north and east side of the old Kennewick General Hospital Campus, with access from West 8th Ave. and South Auburn Street. Attendees are asked not to park on 10th Ave., in order to keep the street clear for the neighboring fire station.
Comprehensive Healthcare was selected by the county to run the facility and is busy training staff in preparation for the tiered opening of services.
The recovery center is expected to be operating at full capacity by late summer.
The Columbia Valley Center for Recovery, located at 216 W. 10th Ave. in Kennewick, is on track to open soon. Bob Brawdy bbrawdy@tricityherald.com
The recovery center is a yearslong project championed by city and county officials, as well as a group of community members making up the Benton Franklin Recovery Coalition and the Benton Franklin Behavioral Health Advisory Committee.
It will be a “no wrong door” facility, which means anyone who comes in for treatment will be taken care, even if they do not have health insurance.
Benton County is also hosting a related Drug Court Open House on April 10 at 11 a.m. at their new office at 901 S. Auburn St., directly across from the recovery center. Attendees can meet the Drug Court team, tour the office and learn more about the expansion of treatment-focused justice services.
A colorful logo wall and a sign listing treatment areas is displayed in the public entrance to the Columbia Valley Center for Recovery in downtown Kennewick. Bob Brawdy bbrawdy@tricityherald.com Services it will offer
Short-Term/Sobering — A 23-hour observation unit that focuses on stabilization and sobering up. This unit will be structured like a living room setting with pods for recliners. Patients will be assessed here to determine longer care needs.
Crisis Stabilization — This unit is designed for clients whose primary diagnosis is mental illness related. Services will include assessment, diagnosis and treatment for those without the need for longer stays. Typically, they’ll spend five days or fewer here, but longer stays can happen voluntarily or by court order.
Withdrawal Management — This unit will provide secure withdrawal management and stabilization services. Patients will be assessed, stabilized and cared for while detoxing. There will be two levels of detox, one with monitoring and patient administered medication and the other with 24-hour medical care by nurses and doctors.
Co-occuring Residential Substance Use Treatment — This unit will be for longer-term substance use treatment, often for patients who also need some mental health treatment. The length of the stay will depend on ongoing assessments and progress toward treatment goals.
Visitors tour the Columbia Valley Center for Recovery in downtown Kennewick to see the construction progress of the facility. Bob Brawdy bbrawdy@tricityherald.com
The residential wing will fully open in May, along with half of the crisis stabilization beds and about half of the recliners used for short term/sobering care.
Then in June, they plan to fully open the remainder of the beds and recliners for crisis stabilization and short-term/sobering care.
At that point, the plan is to open half of the withdrawal management beds, with the rest opened about a month later.
Comprehensive Healthcare hopes to have about three-quarters of the roughly 144-person staff already in place by the time doors open in May.
A mattress base and closet fixture have been placed in a room of the residential substance use treatment unit at the Columbia Valley Center for Recovery in downtown Kennewick. Bob Brawdy bbrawdy@tricityherald.com How is it being paid for?
Construction was expected to cost $23 million to $27 million, with another $11 million already approved for “betterments,” which are quality of life improvements and will allow for more of the treatment rooms to be built for single occupants, and add a commercial kitchen.
Recent updates given to Benton County commissioners indicate the cost of the facility is coming in right on budget at around $23 million.
That doesn’t include the estimated $9 million for design and construction of the recovery housing, which commissioners expect to finalize this week. That includes the $1.2 million the county paid for design, a $3.8 million grant from the Washington Department of Commerce, $1.9 million in affordable and transitional housing funds from the county and $1.3 million from the Benton Franklin Recovery Coalition.
Those housing units will be built on the same campus as the hospital, near the civic campus ball fields.
Washington state’s congressional delegation also secured $3 million in federal funding, which could help pay for a second phase of housing.
Operational funding will be paid for through mental health and chemical dependency sales taxes in Benton and Franklin counties, as well as supplemented by state opioid lawsuit settlements which send annual payments to cities and counties.
The county paid $1.8 million to buy the old hospital and another $5 million was spent on a building at the old Welch’s Juice plant downtown. The county ultimately chose to set the second building aside for other uses.
The total project is nearing $50 million in committed funds, with funding recently announced for new projects. Most of that came from local and state funding. There have also been several large, private donations.
The Columbia Center Rotary Charity donated $250,000 to build a family room at the recovery center.
Matt Rasmussen, Benton County deputy administrator, stands in a family room of the Columbia Valley Recovery Center in downtown Kennewick discussing the construction progress of the facility. Bob Brawdy bbrawdy@tricityherald.com
The Family Room will serve as a reconnection room to help with healing and support recovery for individuals, according to an announcement from the organization.
The Benton Franklin Recovery Coalition also launched a fundraiser for its donor wall, which will recognize individuals or organizations who have donated $1,000 or more.
Darrel and Melody Otness gave $1.1 million to build a commercial kitchen and dining area for the recovery housing, in honor of their son Daniel.
The hospital is 198,000 square feet and so far only about one-quarter of that space has been allocated for confirmed projects. The county hopes to eventually add more services for people in recovery, as well as for juveniles.
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Cory is an award-winning investigative reporter. He joined the Tri-City Herald in Dec. 2021 as an Editor/Reporter covering social accountability issues. His past work can be found in the Tyler Morning Telegraph and other Texas newspapers. He was a 2019-20 Education Writers Association Fellow, and has been featured on The Murder Tapes, Grave Mysteries and Crime Watch Daily with Chris Hansen.