[T]he Middlesex Selectboard has unanimously rejected a proposal from the Agency of Human Services to keep a temporary psychiatric facility in the town open two years longer than scheduled.
The seven-bed secure residential facility, located near the Vermont State Police barracks, opened in 2013 after flooding from Tropical Storm Irene forced the closure of the state psychiatric hospital in Waterbury.
“We are pushing back against the state a little bit,” said Selectboard Chairman Peter Hood in an interview Thursday. “They’ve already had one extension, and now they want another one for two more years.”
Human Services Secretary Hal Cohen said Thursday that the attorney general has told him the state could keep the facility open, if necessary, even if the Selectboard was against it. The permit for the temporary facility has no expiration, Cohen added.
“We would be able to continue there if we needed to, but I don’t want to do that unilaterally,” Cohen said.
The Middlesex facility is due to close by Jan. 1, 2018. Now the agency is seeking to delay that because it needs more time to build a permanent facility elsewhere.
Hood said the rejection came after the state could not offer concrete answers on when the temporary facility would close and another would open. He said there have been no issues concerning the facility or its residents.
“We are not saying we would not do an extension in the future. We are just saying we want more information now,” Hood said.
“The ball is in the state’s court,” Hood added.
Cohen said he viewed the rejection as temporary. “I’m not viewing it as a final decision, and I would like to come in the fall and have further discussions with the board,” he said.
Cohen said the lack of details about a new permanent facility is the result of a capital bill and state budget with little wiggle room. He said the agency has issued a request for proposals for a new facility and hopes to have more details in the fall.
Mental Health Commissioner Frank Reed said early this month that many decisions still needed to be made about the new facility, including which patients it will serve and whether it will be entirely state-run, or run through a public and private partnership.
