Vandals cause thousands of dollars in damage to former Kennewick hospital
Plywood will go up and doors secured after a series of break-ins at a recently purchased former Kennewick hospital has cost thousands of dollars in damage.
Benton County signed closing papers with LifePoint Health to buy the facility for $1.6 million on Nov. 1.
And now vandals are causing about $3,000 to $4,000 a day in damage to the vacant buildings.
They’ve caused flooding, triggered fire extinguishers and broken cabinets in the past month at the former Trios Women’s and Children’s Hospital and nearby office building.
It started with people breaking in every couple days in early November, and increased from there. By the time it was Thanksgiving weekend, there were daily burglaries, said Matt Rasmussen, the deputy county administrator.
This week, Benton County commissioners declared an emergency, allowing the county to bypass the normal 30-day process to find and hire a company for repairs and security measures.
A company has agreed to cover the windows and make the doors more difficult to break into for $50,000, Rasmussen said.
County officials also plan to expand a contract with Phoenix Protective Corporation to have a security officer stationed at the building between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. — an increase from the regular patrols.
The Benton County Sheriff’s Office and the Kennewick Police Department also agreed to step up checks of the site in downtown Kennewick.
Vandalism Increases
The former owners reported that the break-ins started increasing after they moved out of the building in August, Rasmussen said.
The previous owners still only saw a few problems even after moving out, he said.
Something changed when the county finished buying the property, and they started seeing more broken windows and forced doors, Rasmussen told the Herald.
But it’s unclear if the break-ins are event connected.
County employees found copper pipes stripped from walls and piled in hallways or removed from the building. In at least one case, the sliced water pipes caused $12,000 in flooding damage.
In other cases, the burglars left behind smashed cabinets and discharged fire extinguishers triggering the smoke alarms. They also broke 15 windows and five doors.
The break-in have taken time away from the Kennewick police, fire and public works departments and cost the county overtime expenses as employees go there to fix the issues.
Rasmussen is hoping that having a constant presence at the building will deter more vandalism and thefts.
During the day, there are construction crews in the area because the Kennewick Fire Department is building a new station next door. Construction started in June and is expected to take a year.
Substance abuse treatment services
While county officials have stemmed the risk of more damage, the cost of the repairs will become part of remodeling of the building for its future use.
The county is working with bi-county behavioral health committee to decide what the building would be used for.
There have been discussions about housing a substance abuse treatment program, juvenile mental health services or, possibly, other programs.
At this point, the timeline for that decision and project is not clear.
Rasmussen said the construction is likely to happen in phases, and some could be done quickly.
The county agreed to buy the old 190,000-square-foot KGH facility with a stipulation that prohibits adult inpatient mental health care longer than 72 hours for adults on the site.
The county also will lease a part of the old Welch juice facility at 10 East Bruneau Ave. to serve as the future intake for people experiencing a mental health or substance use crisis.
It will serve as a drop-off point for law enforcement, or walk-in point, for people who need to detox or are in mental health crisis.
The Bruneau facility will service short-term stays with an estimated 32 beds on site. But before that, it will need to undergo substantial renovation that may take up to two years to finish.