HALFWAY HOUSE PROPONENTS PLAN APPEAL OF CITY VOTE

Gibson Center officials won't be going down without a fight on a controversial proposal to operate a halfway house for Missouri parolees.

Dick Decker, the center's executive director, wants a public hearing on the special use permit and rezoning the center has requested in order to operate the halfway house.

Decker said he wants the zoning issue resolved "so we know what we can do out here."

"We're either properly zoned or we're not," Decker said. "In my opinion it's a matter that has to be cleared up. We built in this area to do the things we're trying to do and that's where the city directed us before we moved here in 1990."

Then-mayor Gene Rhodes suggested the Linden Street site when the center wanted to expand, because the Gibson Center's old site at Park and Main was no longer suitable for a residential treatment facility, Decker said.

"Now it's all happening again," he said.

The City Council voted Tuesday night to file the Planning and Zoning Commission's recommendation to deny the Gibson Center's requests.

If the Gibson Center had not opted to request a public hearing, the issue would have died Monday night without ever going to the City Council for a final vote.

The proposal calls for housing up to 20 inmates from the Missouri Division of Probation and Parole in a now-unused wing of the Gibson Center.

The inmates, who would be within up to 90 days of their release dates, would receive treatment for drug or alcohol abuse, job training and other services.

The Gibson Center, 1112 Linden St., is located next to the Parkview State School for the Severely Handicapped, an apartment complex for senior and disabled adults and the Head Start day care center.

Parents and teachers at the state school are concerned halfway house inmates might escape and try to attack one of the handicapped students.

More than half of the center's current clients are now receiving treatment as part of their probation requirements or through court-ordered sentencing for drug- or alcohol-related criminal offenses, Decker said, so the center is already performing the services the opponents are objecting to.

He said opponents are "sort of engaging in fear-mongering. That's the same sort of process that was used in the past because of race, because of handicaps."

The Gibson Center owns 5.5 acres at the Linden Street site, "and we can't afford to move," Decker said.

"We're not a wealthy agency. Nobody has endowed us. We don't have someone that's just going to come up with the money, and even if they did, I'm not sure where they would want us to go to," he said.

Decker said the Gibson Center depends on state and federal contracts. Last fiscal year, the center billed the state nearly $650,000 for treatment services.

The halfway house contract would mean approximately $400,000 a year more for the center for each of the contract's three years, he said.

Losing the contract would "create a financial crunch for us," Decker said.

He is also concerned because the state is moving its mental health care services to managed care contracts, which will require agencies like the Gibson Center to set up computer systems to track billing and insurance.

"It cuts into our ability to do services that we're doing," he said.

And the agency's caseload keeps increasing, he said. In FY1995, the Gibson Center admitted "about 500" clients, Decker said. Last fiscal year, more than 1,000 clients were admitted.

As methamphetamine addiction increases, the caseload could increase more, he said.

"Right now, our current state contract isn't going to support all that," he said. "I've got half a facility that isn't being utilized. We're paying for that and not getting any revenue off of that."

Clarence Ackman of the Division of Probation and Parole in Cape Girardeau said the state won't be getting involved in the process "until it's resolved in Cape Girardeau."

Two community meetings were scheduled to explain the halfway house program but were cancelled after the state learned rezoning the Gibson Center property would be necessary, Ackman said.

"The department didn't see any use in having a public information hearing unless there was a good chance it was going to happen," he said.

The halfway house at Gibson Center, if approved, would be the first in Southeast Missouri.