GGHI’s Business Forum Lunch focuses on health and well-being

On the heels of Friday’s Grays Harbor Showcase tour of North Beach, Greater Grays Harbor, Inc., (GGHI) held its September Business Forum Lunch at the Rotary Log Pavilion in Aberdeen on Tuesday.

The event featured presentations and remarks from Grays Harbor County Public Health Director Mike McNickle, District 1 Commissioner Georgia Miller and County Administrator Sam Kim on the topics of health and well-being.

After welcoming everyone to the luncheon, GGHI CEO Darrin Raines introduced McNickle who started his presentation with a recap of what Public Health accomplished during and post-COVID between 2022–2024. McNickle highlighted Public Health’s strategic plan, behavioral health and youth services gap analyses, crisis triage and third spaces plans, the new mobile medical van, the partnership with Summit Pacific Medical Center, school-based health centers including North Beach and Oakville, homeless housing initiatives, in-person visits with the WIC program and reproductive health and diabetes programs.

Next, McNickle discussed what Public Health is currently working on including the community health assessment that will result in the community health improvement plan, the recompete project with GGHI which aims to address the prime age employment gap, the housing summit that was held in August, and the 3rd Annual Health Symposium, which is scheduled for October 10.

The health assessment and improvement plan process began in May with Rural Health Innovations with 344 surveys returned, 18 key informant interviews conducted, and five focus groups convened (one in Spanish). The initial results will be presented at the Health Symposium. As for the recompete project, 334 community surveys have been returned so far, 10 key informant interviews have been conducted, and five focus groups are scheduled. Draft results will be presented to GGHI by the end of November. The deadline for the public to submit recompete surveys is Oct. 31.

McNickle then recapped the housing summit that was held on Aug. 26 at Grays Harbor College where 60 participants from across the spectrum of housing in the state of Washington and Grays Harbor County took part in the first of a multi-pronged approach to understand the challenges, identify the problems and create solutions when it comes to increasing housing at all levels In Grays Harbor County.

He then wrapped up his presentation with an overview of the upcoming health symposium set for Oct. 10 at Grays Harbor College. Panels will focus on chronic disease and illness and mental health and substance use disorder. State Health Officer Dr. Tao Kwan-Gett is scheduled to be the keynote speaker.

Raines then introduced Miller who gave an overview of recent Grays Harbor County initiatives including the Board of County Commissioners strategic planning retreats, the hiring of Thomas O’Connor as the County’s first-ever chief operations officer, housing issues, land use and possible rezoning. Miller encouraged everyone in attendance — business and civic leaders — to participate in the recompete project’s key informant interview survey.

Miller mentioned working with the County’s building and planning department and permitting to find ways to entice developers to build housing in the County. She also said that housing of all types at all income levels is needed.

She then updated the assembled guests about the County’s reorganization which is focused on efficiency and culture, and addressing deficiencies, and went into detail about the separation of fairgrounds and event and tourism into separate departments with Mike Bruner leading tourism. Miller added that interviews are ongoing for the fair and events manager position. She commended Ocean Shores and Westport for working together on destination marketing initiatives and talked about what’s happening now and what is planned for what is now known as Straddleline Park.

Kim was the final speaker for the day and he touched on efforts to transform local government while introducing O’Connor to the attendees. Kim discussed his work history with O’Connor and their focus on increasing efficiency in Grays Harbor County government.

The October GGHI Business Forum Lunch is set for Oct. 28 at the Rotary Log Pavilion in Aberdeen.