Delaware County moving forward with mental health and addiction rehab at Justice Center

Delaware County commissioners will soon ask for proposals to construct and run a mental health and addiction rehabilitation center at the county’s justice center.  IPR’s Stephanie Wiechmann reports.

When the former Wilson Middle School on Tillotson Avenue on the city’s west side was built out as the new Justice Center, space was left for an addiction treatment center.   But it hasn’t yet been built out.  Now using federal coronavirus recovery funds, the county will pay to finish and run the space.

John Brook is the attorney for the Delaware County Commissioners.

“I think I put in the ‘request for proposal’ about $1 million for the remodel.  That’s some of the estimates that Commissioner [James] King has received.”

Commissioners previously allocated a total of $1.5 million in funds for the project.  The city of Muncie also set aside $2 million from its pot of federal funds for addiction services – to be spent in 2022 or later.  Locales have until 2024 to spend money from the American Rescue Plan.

Commissioners approved sending out two “request for proposals.”  One will be for construction and the other will be for treatment services.  The commissioners agreed with Brook that both companies chosen should work together from the start.

“While you can build it, you need to have the services provider also involved in the building process, so that what gets built is something that they can use.”

Commissioners plan to put a February 18 deadline on those proposals, so they can consider the offers at their February 22 meeting.