PORT ANGELES — Children involved in 4H are getting ready for the Clallam County Fair, the board of commissioners heard on Monday.
“We were at about 290 kids and close to 90 volunteers pre-COVID,” Melanie Greer, the county’s 4-H program coordinator, said during the commissioners’ work session. “During COVID, we dropped down to 100 kids and just 14 volunteers. We’re up to about 200 youth, but we’re at about 40 volunteers.”
Many of the 4H clubs are at max capacity and can’t take any more kids due to lack of volunteers, she said.
Although the main event the kids prepare for is the fair, 4H is a year-round activity, Greer said.
“They spend the whole year learning about their project,” she said.
Commissioner Randy Johnson commended 4H as being one of the few youth organizations that teaches children basic economics.
Participating in the fair, where members are required to ask people if there’s anything they want to learn about, helps build confidence and the ability to talk to people of all ages, Greer said. Participants also are two or three times more likely to participate in activities and three times more likely to be actively, positively engaged in their community as adults, she said.
“We’re growing fast with the youth. We’re bringing back a lot of members,” Greer said.
One area where 4H is lacking this year is with high school participants, she said. Those numbers haven’t recovered since COVID, but the fair has many people signed up to participate.
Members of 4H and FFA get first placement when it comes to participating, she said.
This year’s fair is set for Aug. 14-17.
In other business, the sheriff’s office will partner with North Olympic Healthcare Network to provide medical services to adults and juveniles. The partnership is another step along the way in the sheriff’s office’s new Medicaid Transformation Program.
“It will reduce our costs in nurses’ and doctors’ wages and also medications,” Sheriff Brian King said.
NOHN’s bill department will take care of billing and coding, which is a great relief for the sheriff’s department, commissioners were told.
Also, commissioners heard from Pamela Rushton regarding a backlog of work at the county assessor’s office.
The office requested an extension of an hours change to keep the office closed on Fridays to work on the backlog.
Commissioners agreed to a 60-day extension so Rushton can get figures on what work is backlogged.
“It will be helpful to know how much progress we’ve made,” Commissioner Mark Ozias said.
Finally, the commissioners plan to sign a letter to the state Department of Ecology to support plan SL-5 to clean up the Rayonier Mill site.
“Your letter is very much in line with what the city would like to see,” Port Angeles City Manager Nathan West said. “We want a permanent solution and timely results from Ecology.”
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Reporter Emily Hanson can be reached at emily.hanson@peninsuladailynews.com.
