Lutheran Community Services' long-delayed plan to bring social and health care services to the residents of SeaTac and the surrounding community has been long delayed but it is finally almost here.

The three-story Lutheran Community Services Building at South 188th Street and 42nd Avenue South will house an extended-hours childcare, family center, full-service medical center, immigrant and refugee services, home care assistance for seniors and people living with disabilities, and administrative offices.

The campaign to raise money for the center kicked off in the fall of 2001. The closeness of the kick-off to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks added an extra year to the fund-raising effort, according to Roberta Nestaas, Lutheran Community Services president and CEO.

This winter's wind and snow storms also delayed final construction and landscaping.

The building's central location is expected to attract a wide range of volunteers for activities housed there.

Angle Lake Court, an 80-unit apartment complex for low-and middle-income seniors, is just to the west of the building. It is operated by Lutheran Alliance to Create Housing.

Across 42nd Street to the east is Chinook Middle School, adjacent to the Tyee High campus.

Four unique programs will be housed at the community building.

Easter Seals will open a child development center on Feb. 5 with room for 98 daycare children ranging in age from 6 months to 12 years. Fifty-five slots are reserved for low-income kids.

"With lots of airport and Boeing workers in SeaTac, it will not be a 9 to 5 child care center," Ileana Ruelas, Lutheran Community Services community developer emphasized. "It will be open 16 hours a day."

The SeaTac Rotary helped set up a colorful playground.

Nearby will be a community garden patch.

Ruelas pointed out the colorful koi floor decoration that adorns the center's entry.

The Family Support Center shares the first floor with the childcare center.

The family center already provides free income-tax preparation help in Spanish and English.

Lutheran Community Services, which operates the family center, has a different approach than most traditional human services agencies, according to Ruelas.

Traditional agencies are needs based with the agency providing everything to clients in a hierarchical manner, she noted.

But her agency looks to families to help provide services and ideas for the center.

"We talk about what I'm good at and what you are good at and we meet up with our talents," Ruelas said.

The center is sparsely furnished in the hope that community members will help provide furniture, she added.

A second-floor community health center is scheduled to open in March.

SeaTac has no physician offices, so the center will serve as the only health clinic in the city for families.

Community Health Services of King County will operate the clinic along with a student health clinic at the Tyee High campus.

A dispensary will provide prescriptions.

According to Ruelas, bus service in SeaTac, especially in an east-west direction, is sparse, so it is difficult especially for low-income people to go to a traditional drug store.

The health clinic will provide full family service, including for those without insurance, Ruelas noted.

Interpreters will be available.

Another office on the second floor will house immigration counseling, refugee resettlement and home-care assistance.

Although the first two floors contain four distinct sections, Ruelas expects collaboration between them.

"I hope we are not just four autonomous agencies," she added. "I hope we can work together."

The regional administrative headquarters for Lutheran Community Services is already operating on the third floor. The staff moved over from leased space in Burien.

Lutheran Community Services CEO Nestaas said staffers are pleased to be in the brand new offices "but what is really exciting is what's happening on the first two floors."