Editorial: We welcome super news for childcare

Published 12:34 pm Monday, April 25, 2022

South Pacific County communities are learning of remarkably good news when it comes to childcare, along with bad news when it comes to youth care.

With a combination of good timing, ideal community involvement, and great support from elected leaders and agencies, ambitious plans for the important initial phase of the Dylan Jude Harrell Community Center will be able to commence.

This major expansion of licensed childcare spots for our area’s earliest learners — those 5 years old and younger — will set many peninsula youngsters on a surer path for academic success and good lives.

At the same time, it will make life easier for families with younger children — families who now often struggle to find affordable and dependable childcare. This is a huge social and economic advantage, one that will be the envy of countless communities nationwide. You only have to look across the Columbia River to see convoluted efforts to address a sore need for childcare options in Clatsop County.

Many of us remember Dylan Harrell and the heartbreaking yet inspirational struggle she and her family went through after a rare cancer diagnosis. It’s heartwarming that her memory has inspired this crucial community asset.

Sen. Maria Cantwell, center Executive Director Claire Bruncke, citizen committee members and many others deserve praise for quick success on a project that may have struck some as overly aspirational when it was first announced. Sometimes, lofty ambition is well rewarded. It will be interesting to see how efforts proceed on the project’s next two phases, including a community swimming facility.

In other news this week, it’s not particularly surprising that Naselle Youth Camp operations will wind down by mid-September. With no new placements allowed under last-minute legislation pushed through the 2022 legislative session under rather shady circumstances, NYC was fated to simply run out of things to do long before its official closure date of June 30, 2023.

An effective and humane avenue for diverting troubled youths onto successful paths, the camp was well worth the state’s relatively modest expenditure. But it became increasingly clear starting two decades ago that agency officials believed it to be an anachronism that should be closed.

As a practical matter, there was little chance that the agency and legislators would change direction on the camp in the 2023 session this coming winter, and this much quicker closure is a certain death knell for it.

Congratulations and thanks are in order for the two generations or more of local people who played roles in salvaging and redirecting young lives. And we must also recognize the good work done by the youths themselves, many of whom did go on to become law-abiding adults.

With deep attachments to the Naselle-Grays River community and surrounding areas, it doesn’t appear that employees are departing in droves. Word is that all who can do so are intending to stay in the area, which is surely welcome news.

As we’ve observed before, the next critical step in this saga will be finding a good, sustainable use for the soon-to-be surplus Naselle facility. An outdoor school for surrounding school districts or a training camp for wildfire fighters are two possibilities. Either would be a welcome addition to the county, assuming the state provides genuine ongoing support.

Our District 19 legislators, who failed to stem the tide against the youth camp, should get an early start on building effective alliances to ensure a happy ending for this potentially useful facility.