PORT ANGELES — Clallam County commissioners said they will renew a one-year contract with Correctional Health Care Management to provide medical services to jail inmates today if the prosecutor’s office signs off on the language.

Correctional Health Care Management would continue to staff the Clallam County jail with two nurses, each working 40 hours per week, with on-call service available at all hours.

The $200,000 contract is a $1,433 increase from last year.

Greenwood Village, Colo.-based CHCM specializes in providing health care to prisoners. The agency was hired last year because Olympic Medical Center raised its annual fee for home health nursing services from $200,000 to $264,000.

“We really wanted to have someone local provide this — home health out of OMC,” Sheriff Bill Benedict said Monday.

But OMC’s rate, which had been rising about $50,000 per year, was “unsustainable,” Benedict said.

“We now have more coverage at a stable price,” Benedict said. “We’re real happy with it.”

All inmates pay a $20 co-pay to see a nurse.

“Probably one of the biggest cost savings that we’ve realized is in our emergency room runs, which have gone way down,” Jail Superintendent Ron Sukert said.

“We have an evening nurse three days a week, and that’s contributed quite a bit towards reducing those runs to the [emergency room].”

Meanwhile, commissioners voted 2-0 to uphold a Clallam County hearing examiner’s decision to deny a land development application filed by Diane and Ken Gaydeski.

Commissioner Steve Tharinger, who is working simultaneously as a state legislator, was absent.

County Administrator Jim Jones said Tharinger wanted to participate in the deliberations — and had reviewed testimony from a March 15 closed record appeal on the matter — but had to attend a state budget meeting Monday.

Tharinger had participated in every Monday Clallam commissioners’ work session this legislative session via speakerphone. He has phoned in to all but two of the weekly business meetings at the county courthouse.

The Gaydeskis were almost finished with their application when the Western Washington Growth Management Hearings Board ruled in April 2008 that the county’s rural zoning was invalid and noncompliant with the Growth Management Act.

Landowners who had been allowed to put one dwelling on 2.4 acres of property were suddenly told they would be restricted to one home per 4.8 acres.

A decision was postponed March 15 to give commissioners time to gather legal advice on whether they have the authority to provide equitable relief to the Gaydeskis.

Mark Nichols, Clallam County’s chief deputy prosecutor, said they do not.

Commissioner Mike Doherty seconded Commissioner Mike Chapman’s motion to uphold the hearing examiner, noting that he was prepared to do so two weeks ago.

“I just did not find enough reasoning to overrule the hearing examiner,” Doherty said.

“But also, we’re setting a precedent for other folks coming in with a less than perfect application. I understand the theory of equity, but setting a precedent that could affect other — and even pending — developments is pretty risky for the county.

“So unless we’re on firm ground, which we have to be by rule, to overturn the hearing examiner, I’m not prepared to do that either.”

The Gaydeskis can file an appeal in Clallam County Superior Court.

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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.