The Vashon Health Care District received approval last week to borrow up to $1 million from King County.

The funds, approved by the county’s executive finance committee on Jan. 16, are the first for the district since it was established in November when islanders overwhelmingly voted to have a public hospital district.

The elected members of the district’s board of commissioners sought out the interfund loan from King County to help make up for the fact the district won’t receive any funds until mid-2021 when the board will be able to set a levy rate on islanders’ property taxes. By January of 2025, the district is expected to have repaid the county for the loan with those tax revenues.

Two of the five members from the Vashon Health Care District’s board of commissioners, Eric Pryne and Don Wolczko, made the case to the committee in Seattle as to why the money is needed. Wolczko — who essentially drafted the proposed budget — spoke with The Beachcomber a day after the meeting was held, saying he was elated the funding was unanimously approved.

“They were just nothing but smiles and were very happy to help us out and loan the money under the terms I requested and there we go,” he said. “We started the meeting at 2 o’clock and by 2:30 p.m., we were walking out the door.”

John Jenkel is an island attorney who told commissioners during a meeting last month he thought the district should obtain an interfund loan. He told The Beachcomber in an email after the executive finance committee meeting that he was pleased with the decision.

“I think it is a good step forward made possible by the hard work of the Commissioners and great assistance from our County leaders,” he wrote in an email.

Wolczko and the other commissioners have repeatedly explained publicly that the up to $1 million loan is not coming in the form of a check and the district might not have to borrow as much as it asked for.

In an interview with The Beachcomber, Wolczko said the loan would be available for the district to draw on as it incurs monthly expenses, such as start-up and operating costs for the district, as well as paying the salary for a superintendent, who will be the chief administrative officer of the district.

“Out of that pot of $1 million, each month, we will incrementally take a fairly proportionately small draw — just enough to satisfy the current needs,” Wolczko said. “It’s not as if we were taking $1 million out all at once.”

Wolczko said he doesn’t know if the district will use the full $1 million, but is hopeful it won’t have to.

“But that much is available — a little bit of a cushion from what we would anticipate,” he said.

The loan’s availability means the commissioners can now turn their attention to other big-ticket items — including figuring out what it could pay Neighborcare Health, the nonprofit that houses the island’s biggest primary care clinic. In fact, Wolczko wrote in his letter to the executive finance committee that one of the reasons the district needed the loan is because “it is feared our current health care provider will leave us, and we will be without an on-island option.”

Neighborcare’s CEO has said a new funding model is needed to keep the clinic in operation, though the nonprofit did not campaign for a public hospital district and has not asked the district for money so far, according to commissioners.

Wolczko agreed in an interview that funding the clinic in the immediate future would be one of the district’s biggest priorities.

“That’s what we’re about — to support health care on the island,” he said. “We’re not about creating a structure for ourselves, but that’s a necessity that needs to happen for us to be able to do our actual mission.”

Michael Erikson, CEO of Neighborcare, told The Beachcomber in a prepared statement that essentially, it would be up to the district to make a funding request for the clinic.

“In our long experience with grants, the funder, especially when it is a governmental or quasi-governmental entity, puts forth a process for making requests for funding,” he said. “That typically includes the information and documentation the funder would like to see and how it should be presented. Whenever the board of commissioners is prepared to hear such requests we will present ours through the official process.”

The district’s board of commissioners is currently scheduled to meet every Wednesday at the Vashon Presbyterian Church.