Whatcom continues security for COVID-19 quarantine site, despite these questions
Private security will continue at Whatcom County’s COVID-19 isolation and quarantine site at the former Motel 6 on Byron Avenue in Bellingham.
County Council members authorized a $71,726 contract with Pacific Security for service through September, paid for with funding from the federal CARES Act for pandemic relief, according to a memo from Health Director Erika Lautenbach.
Vote on the contract was 4-2 on Tuesday night, June 2, with council members Tyler Byrd and Ben Elenbaas dissenting and Kathy Kershner absent.
Issues surrounding the need for security at the Byron Avenue facility were discussed at a committee meeting Tuesday afternoon.
“We’ve consistently had security support there, not just for the people that were staying at Byron, but also to make sure that people who aren’t authorized to be there don’t end up coming through the gates and interacting and potentially exposing themselves (to the virus),” Lautenbach told the council’s Finance and Administrative Services Committee.
At the full council meeting Tuesday night, Byrd and Elenbaas cited the facility’s recent low rate of use and questioned the need for security.
“When I had COVID and I had to quarantine, there wasn’t security here, making sure that nobody — that I didn’t leave my room or that nobody showed up to visit with me,” Elenbaas said of his experience at home.
“To me, it sounded like the security was there because we were holding people against their will, almost as if they were in jail,” he said.
“I think that facility needs to be closed down and if it stays open, it definitely shouldn’t need security. And if it does need security, I feel like we’re doing something wrong,” Elenbaas said.
Whatcom County opened its isolation and quarantine site in late April as part of statewide guidelines for Washington counties to open more businesses and ease social-distancing requirements established in late March 2020 as the new coronavirus pandemic worsened. The site has 57 rooms with a capacity for 77 guests daily, according to earlier reporting in The Bellingham Herald.
Through May 5, the facility provided “2,639 bed days of service for 291 community members, primarily individuals from congregate living environments such as (homeless) shelters that do not have spaces for isolation or quarantine,” Deputy Whatcom County Executive Tyler Schroeder told The Herald in a May 6 email.
“The needs are unpredictable and can change quickly,” Schroeder said. “This week we went from a census of six on Thursday to 27 on Friday. The occupancy as of yesterday, May 5, was 27 guests.”
Councilman Todd Donovan said that decreased use of the facility shouldn’t be seen as a failure.
“The state required us to have an isolation and quarantine facility so that we could reopen and get out of Phase 1 and get into Phase 2,” Donovan said.
“The fewer people there, the better, which means we’re doing better and we need less of an isolation and quarantine facility,” he said. “I do know that we’re going to need to wind this down soon.”
