Old hospital site to be revived as a residential substance use treatment facility in Kennewick

At 2 p.m. on Tuesday, a groundbreaking ceremony was held at the site of the old Kennewick General Hospital to begin construction on a Residential Substance Use Treatment Facility.

Known as the Columbia Valley Center for Recovery, it will be an alternative to jail in the Tri-Cities and will be capable of providing:

Short-term treatment (Crisis Relief)

Crisis Stabilization

Withdrawal management

Residential substance use treatment

In a Facebook post, Kennewick police showed their support for the project since there are currently no local recovery centers.

The Benton-Franklin Recovery Coalition (BFRC) led the movement to secure funding and garner support from the community and local leaders.

BFRC received a $2.5 million grant and was able to raise an additional $41 million in private funds to support the project.

The center will have an evaluation and treatment unit, a crisis stabilization unit and a residential inpatient unit that can support up to 57 people at any time.

The center is expected to be ready by Dec. 2025 and will be open year-round.

To learn more about the center click here .

Former U.S. Rep. Michael Grimm, a New York Republican who resigned from Congress following a tax fraud conviction, is paralyzed from the chest down after being thrown from a horse during a polo tournament, according to friends who are raising funds to pay for the ex-lawmaker's medical care. Grimm, 54, suffered the devastating injury in September and is now being treated at the Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation in New Jersey, where the late actor Christopher Reeve was treated after a similar equestrian accident in 1995, according to Vincent Ignizio, a friend of Grimm's who is a former New York City Council member. "It was a passion of his and he suffered a tragic accident at the end of September," said Ignizio, who has set up a GoFundMe account to pay for Grimm's medical care.