ccplansc.html

The Goldendale Sentinel, Goldendale, WA., May 29, 1975, page 1

Sends boys home
CAMP COLUMBIA PLANS CLOSURE
By David Weston

Action taken Sunday by the board of directors of Camp Columbia near Husum in western Klickitat County, may spell the demise of that facility by summer's end. All 10 boys currently at the camp will in leaving June 12 for a planned 10 day leave; however, the directors have announced the closing of the camp at that time.
Plans presently call for retention of camp director Merrill Hightower and program director Jim Johnson until August 1. If adequate private or public support is not found by that time, the camp will close permanently and the facilities be offered for sale, Hightower informed the Sentinel Tuesday.
For western Klickitat county, the immediate loss can be calculated in the form of $70,000 that the camp brings into the area for operations annually. In the longer term the loss to the entire county, and state is better appraised by county juvenile officer Jim Spalding, "In emergencies we rely on Camp Columbia, eight or nine times a year to house juvenile boys, now we'll just have to find foster homes -- even in the middle of the night. The only other place in the county is the jail."
In a letter to Skamania county prosecutor, Robert K. Liek, Spalding and Superior Court Judge Ted Kolbaba stated: "We consider Camp Columbia a valuable service in our area. In these days of ever-increasing stress on family life and the need to care for many youngsters outside their own home, Camp Columbia fills a desperate need."
Hightower cited a number of reasons for the camp's condition emphasizing, "it's impossible to stay in business without being able to handle more kids." Presently only 10 people can be assigned to the home permanently due to fire regulations. The state Department of Social and Health Services would license the facility for 12 youngsters but the fire marshal won't allow it, Hightower noted.
"We could care for as many as 24 youngsters if we had a larger facility. We could do this without adding a great deal to maintenance costs, and so it the per capita cost of keeping a youngster in the camp," Hightower explained. For the 10 people currently at the Camp, there are five employees.
The state pays the camp $406 per month for each boy referred there. The director noted it cost $695.40 per month for each child at the camp last year. Effective July 1 it is expected the state will reimburse the camp at a rate of $521.56 or 75 percent of the cost per child a year ago.
Even with 75 percent funding from the state, the camp is falling short some $1500 per month in meeting its operational obligations. Hightower said the camp has borrowed some $21,000 from banks to keep the doors open. In addition it owes some $15,000 to the former owner of the property on which the camp is situated.
Donations from people throughout the community have assisted Camp Columbia but offered no way in which it could build an enlarged facility and, hopefully, someday escape from its chronic high per capita operating costs.
A solicitation of 97 or 98 foundations throughout the country was, according to Hightower, "very disappointing." Other sources of funding will be sought by Johnson and Hightower from now to August 1. Among those sources would be federal matching funds routed through the Mid-Columbia Economic Development District and technical assistance grants for planning buildings.
An average length of stay for a youngster at the Camp is six to nine months. During that time the boy is enrolled in local public schools and is provided a good living environment. "We feel when a boy leaves our program and returns home, he is much less likely to get in trouble than if he hadn't spent the time with us," the camp director stated.
"We estimate that if the state must institutionalize a youngster it will triple the cost for the same period of time," he added. One of the reasons that costs are kept under control is the camp's program of raising much of its own food. "We aren't equipped for raising our own meat right now, but we could be," Hightower elaborated.
Under its present director and board of directors for only two years, the camp was founded about 1950 by Major F. H. Blake, His son, John, serves the camp today as an advisory board member. In its early days the camp spurned state support as Major Blake provided a home for as many as 35 youngsters.
Today's residents, who will be leaving June 12, are from southwest Washington and the Puget Sound area. Three of them will be going home permanently. One will go to a group home elsewhere in the state, one to a foster home and the rest may be sent back to the state court system and, at present, an uncertain future.
The camp's board of directors is headed by Columbia high school shop teacher Bob Snyder with John Nickols and Merle Driver, both of White Salmon also serving. Lee Wheelhouse and Harold Lucas of Hood River are on the board as are Dale Snider of Walla Walla and Chuck Haight of Ellensburg.