(Spirit Lake)– Talks over the future of the Oak Haven Care facility took a new twist at Tuesday’s Dickinson county board of supervisors meeting.
The supervisors have given Season’s Center, which currently leases Oak Haven from the county and operates the facility, until March 9th to vacate the premises after tests conducted by the county turned up what’s said to be unhealthy levels of mold and mildew in the building. Officials with Seasons Center are questioning the findings and have hired a firm on their own to conduct a study, in addition to an inspection sometime this week by OSHA.
Meanwhile, the supervisors Tuesday heard from officials with a non-profit group called PRIDE, which operates facilities for mentally ill patients in several northwest Iowa counties, including Cherokee and O’Brien counties. Spokesman Mike Porter told the supervisors PRIDE is interested in operating Oak Haven, saying the region can’t afford to lose another such facility. He said PRIDE is willing to pay to have its own certified inspection done on the building. But Assistant County Attorney Lonnie Saunders said PRIDE must first get permission from Season’s Center and its attorney, since that agency is still in a lease with the county to operate the facility.
Many of the residents at Oak Haven have already been relocated. Porter told the supervisors once the final resident leaves, the facility, under Iowa code, will automatically lose its license and will be closed. At that point, he says the facility would be required to be brought up to code before it could be re-licensed and opened again. He says that likely will be very costly. Porter added that if that does turn out to be the case, that PRIDE would no longer be interested in pursuing the matter.
The supervisors took no action on the issue Tuesday. Porter and PRIDE’s attorney were advised to contact Season’s Center officials and their attorney to see if they’d be willing to allow an inspector hired by PRIDE onto Oak Haven grounds.
