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The nation’s banking meltdown has stalled plans by Porter-Starke Services to build a new mental health facility in Portage. Porter-Starke said in reaction to the current market upheavals, its lender had to alter the financing terms for the approximately $1.5 million facility, making the project fiscally unfeasible for Porter-Starke at this time. Porter-Starke was in the process of completing its construction plans and had planned to have a groundbreaking this fall. Bob Franko, vice-president of marketing and development for Porter-Starke, said the agency definitely intends to build the facility at some point. “We’re just waiting for the market to correct itself,” he said. Possibly by next spring, after the government rescue plans are implemented and after the markets stabilize, the Portage facility will move forward, Franko said. “The timing is just not right,” he said. Porter-Starke announced in March its plans to build an 8,000-square foot facility on south Willowcreek Road near Porter Hospital’s Portage campus. The new building would expand Porter-Starke’s presence in the county’s most populated community, by offering day treatment, addictions programs and other mental health services. In a statement, Porter-Starke President/CEO David Lomaka said if the agency went ahead with the construction based on the new terms, it would have to cut back in other areas, an option deemed unacceptable. “The tragedy of all of this is that during times of economic distress, the need for mental health and addictions treatment significantly increases,” Lomaka said. “It just doesn’t seem logical to have to limit expansion and access when all the projections show that more people are going to be seeking help.” Lomaka said he plans to meet with the county’s leaders about possibly using the interest earnings from the sale of Porter Hospital for local health programs, including mental health. Porter-Starke has previously urged the county to use part of the hospital interest money for its inpatient mental health hospital; county officials have not yet decided how to spend the approximately $5 million annually in interest earnings from last year’s sale of the county hospital. “The fact that our local leadership had the vision to negotiate the sale and that they’re such careful stewards of those dollars should really be applauded,” Lomaka said. “But there are some strong established health and wellness programs here in the county that could really be saved and enhanced with those dollars and that would save the taxpayers from footing any more of the cost.”
Posted 9/29/2008
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