As Seattle begins its new plan of attack on the fentanyl crisis, King County continues its help for people affected.
With the dramatic rise in the number of phony pills on the street, and the overdose deaths they cause, County Executive Dow Constantine, in a one-on-one with Northwest Newsradio’s Ryan Harris, says the King County sheriff’s office taking 750,000 pills off the street and making Narcan widely available are part of the County’s work, but he says he’ll support Mayor Bruce Harrell’s initiative with more help from county human services and public health. “I do think that while we’re making progress,” Constantine says, “this is a more serious addiction challenge, drug problem than we’ve seen in the past, and we’ve seen some serious ones.” Constantine also says if more direction to county agencies is needed, he will issue an executive order just like Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell did April 17th.
Constantine says he wishes the city had worked out transferring ownership of City Hall Park to the County as was planned when the park was closed because of a troubled homeless encampment, but he says he’s pleased with the plan for 24-hour security to make the area safer for people who have to work or attend other business at the adjacent courthouse.
With the vote next Tuesday on a $1.25 billion, 9 year levy to pay for new mental health crisis care centers, Executive Constantine says they’re absolutely critical to get people into treatment. Constantine says, “There’s no place for people to go right now, where you can walk in and get help in a crisis and then move into the residential treatment system.” Constantine says it’ll help get people off the streets and out of jails when they don’t belong there and at a scale that meets what’s needed. He points to crisis care centers in Arizona, operated by a company set to open one in Kirkland, where Maricopa County law enforcement were able to take 28,000 people in 2022. The Executive says the problem here is on a similar scale, and those centers would provide capacity to help meet that challenge. If it’s passed, in 2024, the levy would cost the owner of a median-priced home about $120.
Northwest Newsradio spoke to Constantine after he toured the $17.9 million “Riverbend” project, where a mile-long stretch of the Cedar River between Renton and Maple Valley was restored, both for salmon habitat and reduced flooding. The people behind the restoration say juvenile salmon are already being spotted in that section of the river, which includes flood plains off the main channel, where salmon can safely lay eggs and young salmon fry can “chill” in a spot where they can grow and thrive. You can learn all about that project in the video below:
