Commissioner Don Dixon asked Rasmus if he consulted the city about the plan. Rasmus said an ad hoc committee of his 18-member board “vetted” the project. He said they were told Mindful Healing Centers said the city is fine with the plan. He told the Journal-News he had an appointment with Middletown’s assistant city manager Monday morning but it was cancelled.
“From my perspective you’re too far out front because you have not touched base build the people who make the decisions, who get to vote, who are directly affected and has to either to pay for it or not pay for it, live with it or not live with it before you move forward,” Dixon said. “I think it’s crazy, I think it’s the wrong way to do it, I think it’s being disrespectful of local government and if they think me as a county commissioner is going to push something they don’t want that’s not going to happen.”
Middletown City Manager Paul Lolli told the Journal-News “absolutely not,” they will not approve the expansion of transitional living center “we don’t have the resources to deal with it.”
“Some people will say, well, you’ve got this group who is running it, these types of facilities cause an increase in city services, in police, fire, EMS and public works,” Lolli said. “We just don’t have the capability to absorb the issues and problems they do create.”
Mindful Healing Centers already has a location in Middletown on 1st Avenue and Rasmus told the Journal-News the plan was to expand their services with the location on Clinton Avenue. The MHARS board intended to spend $287,422 to help with capital costs to fix some issues like asbestos.
Minutes from a city planning commission meeting in December 2021 show Mindful Healing was seeking a conditional use permit to relocate all but its administrative offices to 1009 Grove Avenue, which is very close to Hope House. Staff recommended denying the permit — because of its proximity to Hope House — but the majority of the plan commission approved it because they felt the services were needed. The project apparently never went to city council for approval.
Rasmus told the Journal-News Mindful Healing pitched his agency both the Grove Avenue and Clinton Avenue buildings. The Journal-News tried calling Mindful Healing but it went straight to voicemail and the mailbox was full.
Rasmus said it appears Mindful Healing might have been relying on the plan commission recommendation when they told his committee there were no issues with the city. If the city council doesn’t want the project, they can get out of the contract.
“That was, I guess, their evidence, now it sounds like that’s not the case, it hasn’t gone through everything,” Rasmus said. “Even if the contract has been signed there is a clause that basically says you’ve got to get Middletown approval including zoning and there needs to be evidence to support that.”
Dixon was also peeved Rasmus didn’t give them a heads-up since the commissioners control the MHARS board levy. Commissioner Cindy Carpenter disagreed saying the mental health board makes the decisions about spending levy dollars “do you want us to do our business and their business.”
“I’m not going to vote to raise taxes and let him go vote to spend it somewhere where I don’t think the community wants it,” Dixon said.
Dixon and Carpenter also clashed when she said, “I feel that what we’re talking about here is what’s unsaid and it is society’s discrimination against mental health and addiction issues.”
Dixon exploded, saying, “that’s not true, absolutely not true, we spend a lot of money, put a lot of effort in it, we put a lot of money behind those illnesses to get them treated, for you to use that as some sort of discriminatory trademark is foolish.”
She asserted Dixon has repeatedly said Hamilton and Middletown “doesn’t want them.” Dixon corrected her, saying, “we don’t know where they want them, that’s the difference.” Middletown is in the throes of many redevelopment projects, especially downtown. Dixon said, “we should know if he’s touched base with the local government and not gotten crossways with some of their development plans downtown.”
“They understand there’s a need and they want to be part of the solution but it has to work for everybody,” Dixon said, adding there is a concern if Butler County builds a lot of housing for the homeless and creates the mental health crisis stabilization center and other solutions to help the less fortunate, the cities will become “magnets” for non-county residents with issues.
He shared a story he heard recently from Hamilton City Manager Joshua Smith that a police agency dropped off a homeless man from another county in Hamilton “because that’s where you take the homeless people.”
Smith told the Journal-News, “he and I have talked in the past about the cost burden of ‘increasing’ our homeless population, which includes costs associated with our already taxed public safety forces.”
He said since he was not at the budget hearing he did not feel comfortable commenting further.
Middletown has launched a new initiative to deal with their homeless problem in downtown after about 100 people came to a meeting to discuss their concerns about the homeless accosting people and damaging property. They have stepped up police patrols and have counselors who are engaging with people in the homeless camp and other initiatives.
Lolli told the Journal-News they made contact with 25 and 18 of them “absolutely refused help and stated this is how they wanted to live.”
“We are aware that the homeless situation involves people who have addictions and mental health issues and we are doing thing we can to get those individuals in the direction to get help,” Lolli said. “What we won’t tolerate is people who don’t want help but they make it difficult for our citizens, our business owners, and patrons of businesses especially in our downtown district to operate.”
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