Non-Profit Planning New St. Cloud Detox Building

ST. CLOUD -- The non-profit organization that runs the crisis and detox building in north St. Cloud is planning on building a brand new facility on that same site.

Richard Lee is the Executive Director of the Central Minnesota Mental Health Center. He says CentraCare helped them apply for a $5 million grant using state bonding money to pay for the project.

He says replacing the existing 45-year-old building will allow them to potentially expand their residential crisis program.

Because the service itself is evolving from a licensure standpoint, the services will be substantially upgraded from what they are currently in terms of their level of medical sophistication and what we can handle there.  The partnership currently informal with CentraCare we think will go a long way toward providing for these folks in a more effective way.

Lee says once the new crisis and detox building is done they will repurpose the existing building into a counseling building, and the existing counseling building will be torn down.

The new building is being designed to accommodate 16 beds for detox and 12 beds for crisis.

The detox facility at been at the location along 13th Street North for almost 45 years.

A public hearing on the proposed project will be held during Tuesday night's St. Cloud Planning Commission meeting.