By KATHY PLUM
The Dominion Post
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The Preston County Commission is asking the state to consider an alternative use for Hopemont Hospital, if it stops using it as a long-term care facility.
In Charleston on March 21 for Preston and Monongalia County Day at the legislature, the county administrator and commissioners spoke about converting the facility to inpatient drug rehabilitation.
The proposal to close the facility, “really concerns us,” County Administrator Kathy Mace told House Minority Leader Tim Miley, D-Harrison.
“We do kind of have an idea that we think would assist a lot of people, and that is to turn Hopemont into long-term care for substance abuse,” Mace said.
There is, “an acute lack of substance abuse long-term care facilities,” she noted.
Three bills specifically addressing Hopemont’s future are before the legislature.
HB 3102 closes Hopemont and sells it. SB 201 calls for studying the future of all six state long-term care facilities, and HB2736 would close all six.
Mace said what is being looked at is a public private partnership. Hopemont already leases space to United Summit Center for the John D. Good substance abuse unit.
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