A proposed residential treatment facility planned for the old Mark Reed Hospital building in McCleary got a green light from the city’s hearing examiner on Oct. 24.
The proposed facility has been met with some local opposition.
Background
The city has been seeking guidance regarding the facilities in the past several months after it was announced last fall that Great Rivers Behavioral Health Organization (BHO) had received grant funding to repurpose the old Mark Reed Hospital into a residential treatment facility.
Residential treatment facilities offer inpatient services to people suffering from severe mental health and addiction issues. Patients are generally brought to those facilities on an involuntary basis by either law enforcement or local hospitals.
Concerns have been brought forward by the residents of McCleary and city council members. Those opposed to the facility say they worry the facilities will bring dangerous people or criminals to the city, and the facility will create large workload for the already thinned city police department.
Organizers for the facility have said there have been few or no incidents requiring local law enforcement at similar facilities throughout the state. At past public meetings in McCleary, proponents of the facility have said the patients are more likely to be victims of crime. Patients treated at the facility would be transported back to their home communities after treatment, according to organizers.
The city’s hearing examiner, Neil Aaland, in June recommended that the city allow residential treatment facilities.
Conditional use
With the hearing examiner’s recommendation that the city allow residential treatment facilities, the city then had to send the matter before the hearing examiner for another public hearing to determine what, if any, conditions might be imposed on the potential facility.
The conditional use permit was approved by the hearing examiner with conditions recommended by the city staff report and the State Environmental Police Act mitigated determination of nonsignificance (MDNS).
Staff made nine recommendations for the conditional use permit, including:
• an appointed liaison between commercial and residential neighbors, city staff and the residential treatment facility;
• the facility will need a security plan (a recommendation for 24-hour security personnel was reworded by Aaland to be “24-hour supervision of patients”);
• a visual and noise buffer between the facility and residential areas;
• drainage improvements at the property (Aaland altered this recommendation to allow the facility to improve drainage after operations are up and running).
The other recommendations were related to lighting, review of the facility by city staff, complying with city standards for design and construction, and patients being released back to their community of origin (the facility organizers have said from the beginning that patients are transported back to their home communities).
Water and storm water issues were the main recommendations from the MDNS. The MDNS also included a recommendation that parking be re-evaluated if the facility ever is used as anything other than a residential treatment facility.
The public hearing for the conditional use permit was held on Oct. 10. The MDNS was issued Sept. 22.
When the BHO completes renovations of the facility, they plan to contract with Telecare to provide treatment services. Telecare has more than 50 years of experience in behavioral health care, and the company operates 92 locations in eight states (five similar facilities in Washington state).
