City of Ocean Shores Mayor Frank Elduen presided over a special City Council meeting Monday at the Ocean Shores Convention Center with the purpose of voting to award a contract to Tumwater-based general contractor Christensen Inc., for the construction of the “Ocean Shores Walk-In Clinic.”

The city of Ocean Shores plans to partner with Harbor Regional Health to operate the clinic, which will also be responsible for providing staffing, supplies and equipment for the facility. The clinic will be located at Ocean Sunset Plaza located at 171 E Chance a La Mer NE Unit 1.

The 1,900-square-foot property, owned by Ocean Sunset LLC, which once served as locations for Buck Electric ACE Hardware and Beach Bum Fitness, respectively, will be leased to the city of Ocean Shores for three years with annual rent of $100 as an “in-kind charitable contribution,” and subleased to Harbor Regional Health, who will pick up the tab for the rent.

Mayor Elduen made it a point to thank Jackie Fisher of Ocean Sunset LLC for helping make the clinic a reality.

“(Fisher) has bent over backwards to work with us on this, it’s very important for her, she lives here in town, she wants a clinic also,” Elduen said. “She has been a big part of this clinic and making it be able to be a reality, so I just want to thank her publicly for what she’s done.”

Groundswell for the development of a walk-in clinic in Ocean Shores started in earnest with a town hall held at the Ocean Shores Lions Club in 2019, which drew more than 120 people. Even at that time Fisher put the Ocean Sunset Plaza location forward as a candidate for a clinic as Ocean Sunset Drug was under construction.

Elduen said in an interview that a clinic was the “number one request that we had when we had our first town hall when we asked the public what (they) wanted to see from me and from the city, the clinic had the most requests from people.”

Currently, the nearest emergency room services are 35 minutes away from Ocean Shores in Harbor Regional Health Community Hospital in Aberdeen, with many residents often choosing the one-hour drive to Elma to Summit Pacific Medical Center. The only medical facility in town is the Sea Mar Ocean Shores Medical Clinic, which is open Monday — Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Elduen believes the clinic’s planned expanded offerings over time will prevent Ocean Shores residents from leaving the city for locales denser in medical services and that the clinic will provide a more convenient option for some residents.

“I think long-term it will, we’re starting off with a walk-in clinic type care, if people use it, and I believe they will, that they will expand their types of care, and they’ve said that, they just need people showing up and using the facility,” Elduen said. “I think people north of us, up the north coast, will be stopping here instead of driving into Aberdeen.”

During the public comment portion of the meeting, several residents spoke of excitement, appreciation and anticipation for the new clinic project. The meeting concluded with a rousing round of applause.

The clinic is being financed by unused American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds awarded to the city of Ocean Shores by the United States federal government. Christensen’s bid came in at $466,843, roughly $18,000 below the remaining ARPA funds. The Ocean Shores City Council voted unanimously to award the contract to Christensen Inc., which was to be signed by the end of day Tuesday.

According to their website, Christensen, a family-owned business established in 1982, has completed nearly 2,400 commercial, industrial and residential projects. They are a Better Business Bureau (BBB) accredited business and carry an A+ rating from the BBB.

Start and completion dates for the Ocean Shores Walk-In Clinic have yet to be determined.

“We are having a construction meeting to determine (start date) next week,” Elduen said. “I’d like to see it done in six months, it depends on the contractor’s schedule.”

The Ocean Shores Walk-In Clinic is not the only health care facility initiative in the works for the city of 7,500. Janet Needham is spearheading a project called Ocean Shores Urgent Care which is in the nascent stages of development.

According to Needham, who is the founder and director of Ocean Shores Urgent Care, her efforts to work with the city of Ocean Shores were rebuffed.

“One of the grants I applied for would not accept our application but suggested that we go through the city of Ocean Shores because it had to be initiated by a municipality. I did ask (Mayor) Frank (Elduen) to help in getting a grant and he refused probably because he was going to start his own own project, which I am in support of,” Needham said. “We are still working on finding grants to get it operational. I got my 501(c)(3) approved about a year ago and I have been submitting to various foundations and applying for various grants, but nothing yet.”

Needham added she is trying to secure funding before seeking a property for a clinic.

“I am in support of the city taking this step toward having at least a walk-in clinic,” Needham said.