T
he Clinton County Council approved a $50,000 donation to One80 Recovery Resources Inc. Tuesday morning for a facility that will provide mental health, counseling and treatment, vocational training and job placement for men.
“This is a pro-active way to try and deal with this issue in the community,” said County Council President Alan Dunn. “We did decide to invest $50,000 in addition to the city’s $100,000 investment to help get this project started.”
The proposed facility would be on County Road 200 West that is surrounded by the Industrial Park. The original plan is for 16 beds with phase two scheduled to go to 32 beds with the hope of getting to 60 beds somewhere down the line.
One80 Recovery Resources Board Member Rich Reck made a presentation to the county council on Tuesday. He said they have been working on this since last November. Reck said this facility will take in individuals from other counties as well as Clinton County.
Reck added they are trying to raise $850,000 by November 8 and they had received $206,209 in private donations of the $350,000 needed before the county added their donation to the total. They have also applied for some grants.
Reck said there would be three people on staff to handle the facility including a director, administrative assistant and a part-time employee who would live at the facility. He added that job placement is a huge part of the project.
“What we’re trying to is stay within our budget as passed last year,” said Dunn. “We did have one line item that had some available funding that we knew would be available. We’re willing to commit more as we get further into the year and see that we may have some other funds that may not get expended for their originally budgeted purpose. We’re hoping we can go beyond the 50, but 50 is where we felt comfortable with as we sit here today in August.”
Dunn added the council is viewing this as an investment and not an expense.
“As our Health Officer Rodney Wann said to us today we’re spending the money anyway as a community whether it’s in incarceration costs at the jail or community corrections costs,” said Dunn. “People who are struggling with addiction problems cost the community or way or the other.”