Bluefield Daily Telegraph, Bluefield, WV
May 17, 2012
Day Report Center: McDowell County officials looking for alternative funding
By KATE COIL
Bluefield Daily Telegraph

WELCH — With the doors to the McDowell County Day Report Center now closed, officials are trying to find alternative funding to get the center back up and running.

The board of directors for the center voted to close the facility due to a lack of funding. The day report center allows offenders to perform services in lieu of jail time as well as provides addiction counseling.

Georgia West, executive director of the day report center, said the doors to the center are closed even though county officials have not made any official lay-offs or notification of the closure to state boards responsible for day report centers.

“We have closed our doors,” West said. “They gave us a three-day notice that we would be closing. We are just doing what they told us because they refused to fulfill their obligation for the grant. We haven’t actually even received a letter concerning our clients. We have received nothing other than the directions to close. We haven’t received a lay-off letter. We haven’t received instructions. As of yesterday, they had not notified Community Corrections what their plans are. We have not been told what to advise our clients or our contractual workers. We have not received a letter from the commission or any county officials.”

According to West, grant funding that county officials are applying for wouldn’t come in until next July.

“If they aren’t going to continue to fund us for the next several months, it doesn’t make sense that they would be seeking a grant we wouldn’t get until next July,” she said. “Our staff is no longer employed. We have already closed the doors.”

West said she does not know what to tell clients who now have no local treatment center or employees who no longer have jobs now that the center is closed.

“The whole county is pretty much in a crisis with drug addiction and drug abuse,” West said. “The people seeking treatment have no other place in the county to go for treatment. We have counselors who come in who do group therapy and one-on-one therapy. There are no agencies in the area that can do this. There is no other facility in McDowell County to provide this service. A Suboxone clinic is not going to cut it. We have 24 folks in our program, and we don’t know what to tell them. We are left in limbo, especially our participants. It is a sad thing that the people running our county think there is nothing you can do for an addict. We have worked really hard and you can’t find a lot of addiction counselors. The two certified addiction counselors in our county work for the day report center. Now, they have lost their jobs.”

West said she has been before the report center’s board and the county commission several times in the past six months to address financial problems at the center, but heard nothing until the order was given to close the center last week.

“I think this is all politics,” West said. “If it wasn’t all politics, why would you wait until after the election to ask us to shut our doors when we have been to our board and the county commission since December, telling them about the funding. They wait until two days after the election to shut us down. We have paid the consequences for politics. Eight people have lost their jobs because of this. The number one focus at our day at the legislature was the drug problem in the county, and the day report center is the only one that provides these services in McDowell County.”

West said the people seeking treatment or therapy at the day report center are the ones who will suffer.

“Not many people can drive to Mercer or Wyoming counties for crisis counseling. They have to have therapy for behavioral changes,” West said. “A Suboxone pill doesn’t cut it alone. The majority of our clients are not on Suboxone. That is not the focus of the program. I don’t think officials know the seriousness of this. What is the liability if one of our clients dies?”

Gordon Lambert, president of the Mercer County Commission, said funding was the major issue with the day report center.

“It basically ran out of funds, and the board voted for a temporary closure until we get some new funds come the first of July, at the beginning of the new fiscal year,” Lambert said. “The center has been closed and is no longer serving clients. Tuesday was the last day it operated.”

Lambert said the day report center has filed for a grant to cover the cost of operations at the center.

“We have applied for a $100,000 grant from Community Corrections, and the county commission will do a match of $43,000 if we get that grant,” Lambert said. “There are no other grants they are looking into that I know of. There may be other sources of funding, but none that I know o