Last modified: Wednesday, August 20, 2008 10:18 AM PDT Residents voice safety worries regarding Vale facility By Katie Pizza Argus Observer Vale — A proposed secure residential treatment facility for mentally ill patients along the John Day Highway has generated controversy among Vale residents regarding security, safety and the amount of money Lifeways stands to make from building the facility. A number of Vale residents attended a planning and zoning session Monday night and expressed their frustration with elected and appointed officials. The proposed facility — to be operated by Lifeways, an Ontario, non-profit agency that offers mental health and crisis treatment programs — is currently scheduled to be near the 900 block of Campbell Street in Vale.  The mental health center wants to build a 6,528-square-foot living facility designed to house eight residents from state mental hospitals under constant supervision. Lifeways Executive Director Greg Schneider said the facility would offer long-term care, with patients from state hospitals receiving treatment at the site because they have difficulty performing the day-to-day tasks needed to survive on their own. Vale area residents at the meeting expressed concern about how much money Lifeways would stand to make from caring for the patients. Schneider said Tuesday the state of Oregon will be obligated to give the facility a $325,000 grant, with the remainder of the $800,000 price tag for the center expected to come from loans from local banks. “It’s a mortgage we will pay over time,” Schneider said. The money to pay off the mortgage, he said, would come from funds the state will pay Lifeways for patient care. “They ask us to determine all of our expenses,” Schneider said. “Then they add all that up and divide by the number of patients.” Schneider said this number would fluctuate in the future because of inflation and would not vary from patient to patient based on the amount of care needed. The state is currently seeking to alleviate the strain on state mental hospitals by looking toward more residential care, Schneider said. “It’s not like we can go to the state and say, ‘We need this much money for patient care,’ then go out and have a big party,” he said. Schneider also said the state will give the facility $67,000 to $68,000 to “get the facility operational” by adding furniture and other necessities. However, some local residents at Monday’s meeting in Vale appeared to believe Lifeways was only looking at the bottom line financially. “The suspicion is that we’re only in it for the money,” Schneider said Tuesday. “The fact is we’re a non-profit. We like to maintain a little bit of money because you really need a little bit of a cushion for unexpected expenses for things that happen with personnel or insurance. But it’s a slight percentage. A little cushion.” Schneider could not offer a number showing how much the facility would stand to make per patient. Residents also expressed concern Monday about how property values would be impacted by the community’s potential new addition. Vale resident Roy Campbell, who lives near the proposed site, said he believed letters mailed to nearby residents insulted their intelligence by telling them their property values would go down when the facility comes to town. However, Schneider asserted property values go up when new improvements go into an area. Schneider also spoke about the building itself, which would have a 21⁄2-to-3- foot deep hole filled with gravel around a 6-foot vinyl fence to discourage residents from leaving the facility. Schneider said the leap would be very difficult for residents, but not impossible for someone who was athletic, which he said did not apply to the residents of the potential facility. However, some residents were still concerned asserting “a former pole vaulter” could plot an escape and make the leap. Last week, Schneider said the patients were not “escape-prone.” Schneider also said the facility’s potential residents could opt not to go to the new care center. “They do have some choice,” he said. “If they say, ‘I don’t want to go to that facility in Vale,’ they aren’t forced to.” Mike Singleton, a Lifeways employee, spoke Monday night about community perception of the potential patients. “We’re not bringing Hannibal Lecter,” he said. Residents were also concerned about power outages, because such an outage could disable alarms around the fence and security cameras situated near the doors of the facility. Schneider, though, said if a power outage were to occur, the patients would not be allowed outside. Throughout the meeting, residents expressed concern for their own safety and the safety of elderly residents in the area. One resident, whose 90-year-old mother lives across the street from the proposed site, asked an interesting question. “Which one of you would be willing to have this built across the street from your mother?” Fred Child asked the project’s proponents. Another resident said he was concerned about what the facility will look like in the future. “What’s to keep them from expanding it?” Vale resident Lyle Isbell said. Schneider said there were no expansion efforts planned for the facility, and he did not know how Lifeways would go about such a task. He also said manufacturing a second building would have to be approved by the state. At the meeting Monday, Vale Planning and Zoning Chairman Dan Kelly originally planned to reconvene on the issue in two weeks, but opted not to after learning Sept. 1 was Labor Day. “No use dragging it out,” Kelly said. The commission will reconvene on the issue at 7 p.m. Monday.