Medical Lake, state dispute service contracts

If the most recent budget appropriations are any indication, Medical Lake may be losing a long-running battle of wills with the state for funding of municipal services provided to Eastern State Hospital.

The city and the Department of Social and Health Services, whose facilities — the Eastern State Hospital campus and Lakeland Village — take up about half of Medical Lake’s incorporated boundary, have been tied at the hip for decades for the delivery of nearly all the services a municipality typically provides its residents, including law enforcement, fire protection and wastewater treatment.

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