Douglas County commissioners on Wednesday will consider approving a $1.6 million agreement with Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center to operate the Treatment and Recovery Center.
The commission will also consider a facility lease with Bert Nash for 2023-2027.
Neither the agreement nor the lease were included in meeting agenda materials as of Tuesday afternoon.
“County and Bert Nash staff will be available at the meeting to outline both agreements and the 2023 budget for the TRC,” according to the memo in the agenda.
The center, at 1000 W. Second St., held a ribbon cutting celebration to give the public a first glimpse at the facility in June 2022. Its opening has been complicated by operations changing hands, turnover in leadership, delays at the state level as the state transitions to a new mental health care model and more.
If all goes as planned, the center’s urgent care unit will open for walk-ins for 12 hours a day on weekdays and four hours a day on weekends on Monday, April 10. Services in that opening phase will include assessments, medication evaluations and prescriptions, referrals and more. Read more from the commission’s March 22 discussion of the TRC at this link.
The commission will meet starting at 4 p.m. Wednesday, April 5 for a work session on the K-State Research and Extension – Douglas County strategic plan. The regular meeting, when commissioners will discuss the TRC operating agreement, will start at 5:30 p.m.
Meetings are held on the second floor of the historic Douglas County Courthouse, 1100 Massachusetts St. See the full agenda at this link.
The commission hears public comment in person and virtually via Zoom on regular agenda items. Join the Zoom meeting at this link. Recordings of meetings are uploaded to the county’s YouTube channel.
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Mackenzie Clark (she/her), reporter/founder of The Lawrence Times, can be reached at mclark (at) lawrencekstimes (dot) com. Read more of her work for the Times here. Check out her staff bio here.
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