photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

The Super 8 motel is pictured in August 2023.

A pair of area businessmen — a restaurant owner and a building contractor — have plans to convert a local motel into a new venture far from their own fields: a drug and alcohol treatment center.

Plans have been filed at Lawrence City Hall to rezone the Super 8 motel at 801 Iowa Street to a zoning category that will allow for an extended care facility on the site. Local businessmen David Hawley, an owner of the Papa Keno’s pizzeria enterprise, and Aaron Thakker, owner of a Eudora-based construction company, confirmed the type of extended care facility they have planned is a drug and alcohol treatment center.

Hawley said the center would be the type where most individuals would stay 28 days and would receive treatment ranging from medical detox to counseling and therapy.

“The biggest thing that works is a 12-step recovery program, and that is what we are going to build our program around,” Hawley said. “We will establish those foundations, so that when they leave, they are set up for success.”

Hawley knows the program changes lives because it changed his.

“I’m in recovery. I have 20 years in recovery,” Hawley said. “That’s my big motivation. I’ve been in this a long time and have experience, not from the professional viewpoint but from somebody who has been dealing with it and has helped other people achieve this. My understanding of this and how it has benefited me, and wanting to be able to give that gift to other people, is important to me.”

As for Thakker, he’s been active in local organizations that provide services to the homeless, and has seen how drug and alcohol addictions play a major role in many of those situations. Both men have seen how Lawrence is largely devoid of treatment centers. Many individuals end up trying to go to facilities in the Kansas City area or Wichita, but often find they have wait lists.

Hawley said he has professional and personal contacts with groups that have opened similar 28-day treatment centers around the country. He said he and Thakker have other investors in the project, and the group will hire professional administrators to operate the Lawrence facility.

But first, the project will have to win a significant round of approvals from both the city and the state. The city will have to approve zoning for the property, and the state will have to issue a license for the facility.

The project is tentatively scheduled to go before the Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Commission for zoning consideration in December. If approved there, it would need approval from the Lawrence City Commission.

Plans call for the motel building — which remains in operation while this deal progresses — to be completely remodeled, equipped with fire sprinklers and several new amenities to be added. The concept plan filed with City Hall shows about 40 rooms that individuals could live in while receiving treatment. The plan also shows a dining hall, a gym, a media and entertainment center, a spa area, and an outdoor sports court, plus the hotel’s existing outdoor pool.

“We want the facility to feel relaxing and calming,” Hawley said. “We don’t want it to feel institutional.”

The center also would have multiple areas for small and large group meetings. Hawley said he anticipates that some treatment will be provided on an outpatient basis, in addition to the inpatient services.

The facility will be set up to take insurance and receive private payment for services. That means the center won’t be a nonprofit facility that caters only to the homeless, even though both men said seeing the problems drugs and alcohol have created in the homeless community has been a motivating factor. Instead, the goal is for the facility to offer scholarships for a certain number of people to receive treatment at the facility, regardless of their ability to pay for the treatment.

Hawley said he expects the center to be complementary to services that are being offered in the community, such as by Bert Nash or DCCCA, which are both nonprofits that work with people with addictions.

“We feel like we would be filling a gap in the level of services that our community offers,” Hawley said.

Thakker said his group has a contract to purchase the motel property, but the sale is contingent upon the city approving the necessary zoning for the project. The application said if the project doesn’t proceed, plans call for the property to continue to be used as a motel.

Hawley said his group plans to talk with community members and provide information about how these treatment centers actually work and function.

“We know we will have to educate the public about what is involved,” he said.

He thinks the community will be supportive when it learns about the approach the center will take, which involves teaching abstinence from drugs and alcohol.

“It is large-group therapy, small-group therapy, meeting with their individual counselors to develop a treatment plan that is individualized to them,” Hawley said. “It is starting to get them back healthy both mentally and physically. And then it is about establishing a foundation of support and recovery as they leave so you get them out the door with a feeling of stability and support.”

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photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

The printing plant and headquarters for Allen Press are shown in East Lawrence on Jan. 10, 2023.

In other news around town, I do have some additional information about the pending closure of the East Lawrence printing facility that previously was known as Allen Press. When we reported on the closure on Tuesday, we didn’t have good information on how many jobs were being lost.

Now, we know the closing will result in the loss of 72 local jobs. The company — Minnesota-based CJK Group — was required to file a notice with Lawrence City Hall disclosing the number of job losses.

The other piece of news that has emerged also might be interesting to employees at the Lawrence plant. Just days after announcing it was closing the local printing plant, CJK has announced it is purchasing a publishing business in Wisconsin.

CJK announced on Friday that it has reached a deal to purchase Worzalla, a publisher of children’s books and trade journals. Terms of that deal weren’t disclosed, but it involved the purchase of a 365,000-square-foot facility that employs about 340 people in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, according to a press release from CJK.