Lakewood City Manager Andrew Neiditiz said Monday that the proposed downsizing of Western State Hospital would be a “terrible thing in this economy for the city.”

Neiditz and Jess Jamieson, the hospital’s chief executive, talked by phone last week following news that up to 150 patients could be released from the hospital.

“I felt assured that he was not putting of the safety of the community at risk,” he said.

Releasing patients from Western State Hospital is among the proposals the state Department of Social and Health Services has forwarded in response to Gov. Chris Gregoire’s call for state …

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Lakewood and cash-strapped Pierce County are scheduled to begin negotiations over how Fort Steilacoom Park should be managed the next five years.

The agreement that the city and county signed in 2006 – which required each to pay $240,000 annually to cover the 340-acre park’s maintenance and operations — expires this year.
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Could Lakewood soon manage the nine-hole golf course at Fort Steilacoom Park?

That’s what the Lakewood City Council talked about this week during a discussion of how to spend tourism dollars. The Fort Steilacoom golf course is owned by the state but managed by Pierce County.

The 2010 budget that City Manager Andrew Neiditz will propose to Lakewood leaders includes $15,000 for a feasibility study on the prospect of taking over the lease.

Councilwoman Claudia Thomas said she likes the idea, adding that if the course is in Lakewood, the city should run it.

Neidtiz said he believes the golf …

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