Looking back at his three-decade career as a state legislator, Sen. Jim Hargrove lists the Becca Bill, crime prevention initiatives, working with veterans’ groups and efforts to shore up the timber industry on the North Olympic Peninsula as his most cherished accomplishments.

“That is kind of my legacy,” he said.

Hargrove, D-Hoquiam, announced March 10, on the Senate floor in Olympia, he will not seek re-election following the completion of his current term at the end of this year.

Hargrove — along with Rep. Steve Tharinger and Rep. Kevin Van De Wege, both Sequim Democrats — represents the 24th District, which covers Clallam and Jefferson counties and part of Grays Harbor County.

Hargrove, 62, has been a member of the state Senate since 1993. He previously had served in the state House of Representatives from 1985-1992.

“I just felt like the direction I was getting from God was that this was the time to change chapters and do something else,” Hargrove said March 11 over the phone when asked the reason for his decision to leave office.

“I don’t have any regrets. I think that I have a fairly good career,” he said.

“I’ve had the privilege of a lifetime of serving in the Legislature, basically, and I have still got a little miles left on my engine.”

Hargrove said the decision was “obviously very difficult.”

He will return to his job as a private business owner and forester after leaving office.

“The thing that I have really been most proud about getting done — that I think has had the most impact and will continue to — is the Becca legislation we passed in 1995,” said Hargrove, who was the original Senate sponsor of the legislation.

Following the death of Rebecca Hedman in 1993, the state Legislature passed the Becca legislation, a set of laws aimed at addressing status offenses, including truancy, at-risk youth and children in need of services.

The laws are meant to keep at-risk children from falling through the cracks, according to the Center for Children & Youth Justice of Settle.

The Becca Bill “has resulted in the juvenile crime rate coming down in the state dramatically,” Hargrove said. “We have even closed a juvenile prison because of that — Maple Lane in Lewis County — and the number of kids we have in juvenile prisons right now are under 500. It was 1,500 when we started back in 1995.”

There are “a lot of other kids’ lives that have been improved by helping them stay in school, (and) helping them deal with problems they are having with their families,” Hargrove said.

Hargrove has spent the current legislative session working to restore funding for the Becca legislation. Funding for the law was cut during the Great Recession, Hargrove said.

Fighting crime

Hargrove said he has spent most of his career working on crime-prevention measures.

“By doing mental health, drug and alcohol treatment, and working on prevention, we have been able to make steady progress on our violent crime rate in the state to where it is one of the lowest in the nation,” he said.

According to the Global Peace Index 2015 report, Washington was the 22nd lowest state for violent crimes in the nation, with 289.1 incidents per 100,000 residents. The national average for violent crime is 367.9 incidents per 100,000 people.

Hargrove said one area that still needs attention is the prevalence of property crimes.

“Hopefully, they will fix that up in the next couple of years,” he said.

“Doing things right to keep people from committing crime is, I think, way better than creating victims and just putting people in prison for a long period of time. If you can avoid the crime in the first place, you save the victim also.”

Just 258 people out of every 100,000 Washington residents were incarcerated in 2015 versus close to 500 of every 100,000 Americans, according to the Global Peace Index 2015 report.

The state’s incarceration rate, which was the eighth lowest in the country in 2015, also was down from 273.6 in 2009.

Job-centric

“I spent an awful lot of time working on economic development in and around the Olympic Peninsula’s timber industry and we passed legislation that (provides) tax credits for new jobs in the industry,” he said.

Hargrove singled out the .09 Grant Fund as having had a major impact.

The fund provides counties with the funding necessary “to spend on infrastructure and economic development,” he said, adding the fund “was a peace of legislation that I dreamed up and sponsored.”

All in all, the state has “had a few successes and then some things that have temporarily helped” the economy, Hargrove said.

One such success was the reopening of a pulp mill in Cosmopolis that had shut down in 2006, he said, costing the local community about 245 jobs.

“Our Cosmopolis pulp mill down in Grays Harbor is now up and going again and doing fairly well,” Hargrove said.

Cosmo Specialty Fibers, Inc., an affiliate of The Gores Group, was created to restore, restart and operate the shuttered mill, which now provides 200 direct jobs and contributes about $150 million annually into the state economy, according to the company.

Resources key

Speaking to the entirety of the state’s natural resource industry, “there are lots of little pieces” of legislation that have been implemented during his tenure, Hargrove said.

“Unfortunately, we are still kind of struggling, but it is not for lack of effort,” he said. “We have tried to maintain some of our base industries, though it is has been difficult under the current regulatory climate.”

He said he also has worked to support the Port Townsend Paper Company in Jefferson County and Nippon Paper Industries USA Co. in Port Angeles.

“I guess if the legislative delegations from our area hadn’t been working on that, it could be a whole lot worse than it is and I still think those are some of our biggest assets — our natural resources,” Hargrove said.

Hargrove has been lauded for his service by his colleagues on both the state and federal levels.

“Jim Hargrove has been an amazing difference maker and a good friend,” Congressman Derek Kilmer, a Democrat from Gig Harbor who is a native of Port Angeles, said. Kilmer represents the 6th Congressional District, which includes the North Olympic Peninsula.

“Whether fighting to strengthen our safety net, reduce recidivism in our criminal justice system or create jobs in rural Washington, Jim has always had a strong ethic as a servant leader,” Kilmer said. “As a legislator and as a dad, I’ve appreciated his advice and the lasting impact he’s had on our future.”

Said Tharinger, “It is a big deal that he is retiring. He (is) a true statesman who worked tirelessly on a lot of issues that didn’t get a lot of big headlines like corrections reform, mental health, juvenile detention and a lot of health and family service stuff that really made a big difference for a lot of peoples’ lives and saved the state billions of dollars.”

Said Van De Wege, “Senator Hargrove has been tremendous and wonderful for the district. I hate to see him go. I wish he would stay for a little bit longer, but I think he has legitimate reasons to move on.

“He has given this district so much that it is going to be tough to replace him and have that type of representation after he is gone.”

Chris McDaniel is a reporter with the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which is composed of Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News, Sequim Gazette and Forks Forum. He can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56650, or cmcdaniel@peninsuladailynews.com.