A regional substance abuse treatment center that must move to make way for the MGM Springfield casino will lease space in a closed nursing home in Holyoke. The announcement Thursday ended months of uncertainty about the future of the successful program operated by the Hampden County Sheriff’s Department.
Sheriff Michael Ashe said the relocation of the Western Massachusetts Correctional Alcohol Center to the closed Holyoke Geriatric Authority means the program will remain community based and can operate within the confines of his department’s budget.
" The big thing is the Howard Street facility has been about community corrections, so we are able to move this whole program here without it being, if you will, fragmented," he said.
Ashe said the sheriff’s department will lease the former nursing home for about $540,000 a year, depending on actual utility costs. That is about $100,000 less than the rent at the program’s longtime location on Howard Street in Springfield.
" We've made this cost-effective," he said.
The plan is to operate the program at the Holyoke location for 18 months while Ashe seeks a permanent site.
"We plan on trying to stay in Springfield. We are working hard on that. But, who knows? Right now this is a temporary plan for 18 months," he said.
The Howard Street building, where the corrections center opened in 1985 as a diversion program for inmates from throughout western Massachusetts convicted of multiple drunken driving offenses, is one of 19 buildings MGM plans to demolish to make way for an $800 million resort casino.
MGM set an original eviction deadline of March 1st, but extended it to March 31st and then to May 1st. Ashe said the Howard Street building will be emptied by May 8th.
" We worked together to make it happen. I think the May 8th date is very fair, very reasonable," he said.
Ashe had scrambled for months to find a suitable, albeit temporary, new home for the program, which he held out as a national model. Since its inception more than 17,000 inmates have been treated. The program was expanded 15 years ago to include treatment for non-violent drug offenders.
The Holyoke Geriatric Authority operated the nursing home on Lower Westfield Road since the 1970s. The facility closed a year ago after the authority declared bankruptcy. The city took possession of the property last fall for non-payment of taxes.
Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse welcomed the sheriff’s department as a tenant in the building, which has recently been a target for vandals and thieves.
" It is a win-win for Holyoke, the sheriff's department,and of course the people who need this program the most," he said.
Morse said his plan is to sell the property to a private developer.
" Through out the next 18 months we will have free reign to market the property, and often it takes 18 months-two years to go through the whole sale process," he said
Not everyone welcomed the announcement that Ashe and Morse made at a hastily called late day news conference. Edward Hurley, who lives across the street from the former nursing home, said he feared having a minimum security corrections center in the neighborhood will cause property values to plummet.
" The mayor said they are just going to use it short term and that will be fine. I obviously do not want a prison across the street from my house because my house will have no value," he said.
In the search for a new home for the corrections center Ashe looked at a former nursing home in Springfield and a motel in Chicopee that is being used by the state as an emergency shelter for homeless families.
MGM held a ceremonial groundbreaking for the Springfield casino last month that was attended by hundreds of people. But, the company is still waiting for state and local permits to be issued to begin the actual demolition work to clear the 14.5 acre site for the casino.
