MHI reuse meeting draws support for mental health, substance abuse services to resume at vacant facility

July 27--MOUNT PLEASANT -- A handful of community members and state legislators gathered Tuesday night to express their desire for the return of mental health and substance abuse services to the Mental Health Institute that now sits vacant in Mount Pleasant.

Three members of Matrix Design Group held a public meeting at the Heatilator Performing Arts Center to hear from the community about how they would like to see the facility repurposed in the future.

"We don't have any preconceived notion of what those uses are," said Pat Small, Matrix Design Group lead planner for the Mount Pleasant project. "This property is, and as part of the recent planning process, is understood to be maintained by the state. So the state felt that this endeavor, this reuse plan or finding a tenant, was important enough to involve the community even though the state owned and operated the property."

The building could eventually house multiple tenants, including private companies and local, state or county agencies. Demolition or a complete remodel of the existing structure is also not out of the question, Small said.

Matrix is also preparing other reuse plans in the state, including a plan for the vacant Mental Health Institute in Clarinda. Vice president Rick Rust said the Clarinda facility has three tenants interested in the space so far, including the Iowa Department of Corrections, a private drug recovery agency and a school for adjudicated girls.

Gov. Terry Branstad shuttered the Mount Pleasant and Clarinda facilities last July through line-item vetoes in the state budget that stripped their funding. Prior to its closure, the Mount Pleasant Mental Health Institute served patients and supported local jobs for 154 years. The facility served patients with alcohol and substance abuse addictions, in addition to mental illnesses.

"I think that when we closed the alcohol and substance abuse unit, the dual diagnosis unit, we really created a void for eastern Iowa," said state Rep. Dave Heaton, R-Mount Pleasant. "Mount Pleasant was unique in the state in delivering those kind of services and we've been operating now for the last year with a really big need for dual (services). Eastern Iowa, I think, has a great need for a return to a same type of facility."

Ken Brown, director of the Fellowship Cup in Mount Pleasant, cited his organization's difficulty with housing the homeless, mentally ill and addicted populations that live in Henry County.

"We're having to put the burden on other counties because we don't have facilities here for treatment, transitional facilities or even shelters. There's no homeless shelters in Henry County," Brown said. "People don't look around Mount Pleasant and see homelessness as an issue because it's under the cover of darkness. They don't realize that there a lot of homeless people here."

"The Department of Corrections is the single biggest mental health provider in the state of Iowa, frankly," said Mount Pleasant Correctional Facility warden Jay Nelson. "And I think if you look at recidivism rates and you look at the reasons people come back to prison, often it is those folks that have mental health issues. They come out with their 90-day supply of meds, and then get lost in the system and the don't have anywhere to go. They don't have support."

State Sen. Rich Taylor, D-Mount Pleasant, agreed with the need for a comprehensive mental health facility in the area, but pointed to the pending lawsuit against Branstad for closing the Mount Pleasant MHI as a potential roadblock in repurposing the facility.

An appeal was filed against the governor with the Iowa Supreme Court in January by Danny Homan, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Iowa Council 61 and 20 state legislators. The lawsuit has yet to be heard by the Supreme Court, but if it rules against Branstad, the state may be forced to reopen the Mount Pleasant facility as a Mental Health Institute, Taylor argued.

According to Iowa Code, there "shall" be at least four Mental Health Institutes in the state, the senator said. But the law doesn't stipulate the facilities must be operational, leaving the code up to interpretation.

"I feel the governor illegally closed the facility in the first place, and the one in Clarinda," Taylor said. "I'm still very hopeful that the Supreme Court will read 'shall' the only way it's written in the dictionary."

Following interviews and meetings with the Iowa Economic Development Authority, Mount Pleasant Area Development Commission, Mount Pleasant Area Chamber Alliance, City of Mount Pleasant, Iowa Department of Corrections and other relevant stakeholders, Matrix officials will return to Mount Pleasant at the end of this year or early next year for another public meeting outlining their findings and possibilities for the site's reuse.

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