photo by: Journal-World

The west side of the Douglas County Courthouse, 1100 Massachusetts St., is pictured on Sept. 23, 2021.

Douglas County leaders this week will consider accepting the final piece of the funding agreement for the county’s new behavioral health crisis center — a $6.2 million grant from the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services.

The Douglas County Commission approved most of the agreements necessary for Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center to run the Treatment and Recovery Center of Douglas County in early April, and it’s been operating since April 10 out of its home at 1000 W. Second St. But county leaders had to hold off on approving the facility’s funding agreement as the county waited to hear back from KDADS about the grant, which will provide up to $3.1 million for each of the 2023 and 2024 fiscal years to offset the center’s startup and ongoing operating costs.

At its meeting on Wednesday, the County Commission will consider authorizing County Administrator Sarah Plinsky to accept the grant award and sign its funding agreement with Bert Nash.

The grant agreement with KDADS is included as an attachment with this week’s meeting agenda, and it outlines the scope of work, deliverables, key performance indicators and reporting requirements the center must adhere to.

The agreement’s terms allow for the KDADS funds to be the first source of funding used to offset operating expenses, leaving county sales tax dollars to be used last. According to the agenda report, that arrangement allows Bert Nash to maximize the impact of its status as a Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic and from commercial insurance payments while the county leverages the funding generated by its quarter-cent behavioral health sales tax toward other elements of the county’s system of care.

According to the agreement terms, the grant funding is intended as a “pass-through” to help cover the unreimbursed costs of operating the TRC, primarily for crisis care provided to uninsured Kansans. The county will need to ensure that the TRC provides equal access to treatment regardless of level or type of insurance coverage or the patient’s ability to pay, a tenet that’s already outlined in the county’s operational agreement with Bert Nash.

According to the scope of work section of the grant agreement, KDADS is expecting the full facility to be open within 90 days of when the agreement is executed. Right now, only the center’s front-of-house urgent care unit is open, but Bert Nash plans to open the other half of the TRC — the observation and stabilization unit for patients who need to stay for 23 to 72 hours — at partial capacity starting May 25. As the Journal-World reported, caps on the observation and stabilization unit’s capacity will increase during a pair of later phases set for July and October.

The agreement notes that KDADS expects the center to provide services for approximately 237 “episodes of care” per month while operational, a figure based on the Crisis Resource Need Calculator. The county will also need to produce monthly written reports detailing performance metrics.

According to the agenda for this week’s meeting, this isn’t the first funding support KDADS has granted the TRC during its development. The department has partnered with the county to provide such support since 2021, including $750,000 annually in 2021 and 2022 to offset construction costs and another $1.5 million granted in January of 2022 to offset development and startup costs.

•••

The County Commission will also consider authorizing a nearly $1.7 million purchase agreement and remodeling budget for a satellite site for the Douglas County Treasurer’s Office.

The county is looking to purchase a property at 2601 West Sixth St., previously an office building not far from Centennial Park. The building purchase is covered by $650,000 in already-awarded American Rescue Plan Act funding, but the ask from county staff calls for a total budget of $1,696,651 for that purchase and the remodel costs. The other roughly $1 million in that budget would come from the county’s Capital Improvement contingency fund.

photo by: Google Maps

Douglas County is looking to purchase a property at 2601 West 6th St., previously an office building, to be used as a satellite location for the Douglas County Treasurer’s Office.

According to this week’s agenda, the treasurer’s office needs the new space for a number of reasons. One of them, listed in the county’s application for ARPA funding, is the need to adequately provide a larger waiting area in preparation for possible future pandemic operations.

Other reasons include that current operations at the County Courthouse often lead to overflow into other areas of the building, and the purchase and remodel project is anticipated to significantly reduce the amount of public traffic in that building.

If purchasing and remodeling the new space is approved, the county would close its current satellite location at 31st and Iowa streets permanently. County staff says customers at that location have very limited waiting space and often must wait in their vehicles or outside of the office on the sidewalks.

Wednesday’s meeting will begin at 5:30 p.m. at the Douglas County Courthouse, 1100 Massachusetts St. The meeting will also be available by Zoom. For meeting information, visit the county’s website: dgcoks.org/commissionmeetings.