The Athens-Clarke County Commission discussed adding $2 million to the budget of a residential mental health facility for the city’s underinsured this week.
At an agenda setting meeting Tuesday, the mayor and commission almost hit a roadblock in their discussion of funding for a new residential mental health facility that will be operated by Advantage Behavior Health in Athens.
Commissioner Carol Myers represents the 8th District in Athens and was present for the meeting. She says that adding a mental health facility has long been a priority for the local government, but the project has faced challenges.
“Because of construction costs and everything going up, we’re not able to build the whole project, so it’s divided into two phases.”
When both phases are complete, the facility will house up to 52 people. Local government staff asked the commission Tuesday to provide another $2 million to account for sewage disposal issues.
“Fortunately there were roadblocks, but we found solutions. There are some work arounds that were presented at our work session earlier in October. We’re going to try one of these work arounds with this mental health facility.”
The Commission is set to vote on this funding increase in early November.
This article comes to Now Habersham in partnership with WUGA News
