Klickitat County Commissioners met yesterday. Among the items on the agenda was a jail update from County HR Director Robb Van Cleave. He told commissioners that the staff had put the final touches on a resolution moving the jail from under the Sheriff’s Department and giving responsibility to a new county Department of Corrections. The idea was to prepare a resolution that dealt with the many details involving the transfer:
“Two new ones in the resolution will be the Americorps Grant, that any remaining funds in the Americorps Grant will move to the Department of Corrections, and the Re-entry Demonstration Initiative Grant that was applied for. Odds are that if they were awarded that grant it would be most likely after the transfer, and so it’s covered in the resolution as well.”
He also said he hadn’t spent any money in the process so far, but the time had come. He asked for permission to go ahead and get new patches for the uniforms of the jail personnel. He thought it would be a minor detail but it’s more than that as there are 16 people in the department, each with three or more uniforms.
Commissioners said there was no need to commission a redesign of the patch, agreeing with Van Cleave that the new patch could just be the county logo with “Corrections” written underneath it.
And there was some good news from Public Health Director Erin Quinn:
“The Public Health Department is now hosting a representative from the Veterans Administration. He’s going to be in Goldendale once a month and White Salmon once a month, and his role specifically is to connect with homeless veterans.”
She said it was rare to have someone come out of the Portland VA to help in rural areas, and hoped it was an indication of the future.