Massachusetts gaming industry regulators pledged Thursday to help save a drug treatment program for jail inmates that is being forced to move to make way for construction of the MGM Springfield casino.
Hampden County Sheriff Mike Ashe asked the Massachusetts Gaming Commission to expedite a request for as much as $4 million from a mitigation fund the board controls.
The building where the regional treatment center has operated for 30 years is to be torn down soon for the construction of the casino. Ashe said he is struggling to find a new location for the program that is within his budget.
Acting commission chairman James McHugh said the board will do whatever it can to help.
" You have our full support in the effort to keep this very valuable and very important program alive," McHugh assured Ashe during a meeting of the commission in Boston.
Two dozen requests have been filed with the commission for mitigation payments. A decision on most of the requests will be made by July.
