Rainier School has partnered with Lindquist Dental Clinic For Children to provide affordable dental work to children in the Buckley area once a week. Under terms of the agreement, a dentist and hygienists from the nonprofit clinic sublet the space for $50 every Friday to utilize the Residential Habilitation Center’s dental facility.

Dr. Sherwin Shinn and Wrandi Williams took their first appointments Friday morning.

Lindquist Dental’s mission is to provide accessible dental care to children up to 18 years old from low-income families in the South Sound area of western Washington.

“No child is turned away due to an inability to pay,” President and CEO Carolyn McDougal said.

The origin of the idea for community dental service out of Rainier School came out of the December meeting of an ad hoc committee supporting the RHC in the face of a recommended closure in the governor’s 2011 budget proposal.

A Rainier School closure is conspicuously left out in the current draft of the legislature’s budget bill, in favor of closing Frances Haddon Morgan Center in Bremerton. The current draft also requires the Department of Social and Health Services to report back to the Legislature Dec. 1 with another chosen RHC to close by 2015.

Because of the four-year timetable for a closure, Rainier School Director Neal Crowley said he feared that the largest RHC in the state would be the likely candidate for the chopping block.

Lindquist is aware of the possibility and isn’t deterred, McDougal said.

“At this point there’s no immediate threat, and even if that happens we’re looking at four years down the line,” she said. “The important thing is that we manage to expand our coverage to provide service to the Buckley area.”

Lindquist Dental has been in operation since 1936 and has operated out of its current office in Parkland since 2005. To make an appointment, call 253-539-7538.