State searching for community to build teen addiction houses.

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By NANCY HICKS / Lincoln Journal Star

The state will start searching this fall for a community willing to construct buildings for two teen addiction-related programs.

One building would house a chemical dependency treatment program for 50 teenagers sentenced to the Kearney Youth Rehabilitation and Treatment Center.

The other would house a secure program for 25 more violent teens with addiction problems, said Scot Adams, director of the Division of Behavioral Health, part of the Department of Health and Human Services.

Negotiations with Hastings for construction of the buildings failed recently, Adams said, so the state will open up the process to other towns and cities.

For more than a decade, a smaller, 40-bed addiction treatment program for teens has operated at the Hastings Regional Center campus.

But the old buildings are expensive to operate and were built in a different era for a different reason, Adams said.

“Quite simply, all of the buildings are very old. The newest one was built before 1950. Some were built as (tuberculosis) sanatoriums.” he said.

Last year, the state spent at least $5.5 million on the 40-bed youth treatment program — or about $138,000 per bed.

This cost includes the “albatross” of paying a portion of the more than $2 million in maintenance and utility costs for the Hastings campus, Adams said.

Hastings has been a good home for the teen treatment program, with a dedicated staff and supportive volunteers, he said.

But negotiations failed. The state refused to enter into a long-term agreement that would ensure the building debt was retired by the end of the lease agreement, according to a news release from the Hastings city administration. 

The state will develop general plans for the two buildings by September, then “see if other communities would like to participate in the conversation,” Adams said.

The programs could be run by the state, by a private company or some combination, said Jeanne Atkinson, HHS spokeswoman.

Reach Nancy Hicks at 473-7250 or nhicks@journalstar.com.