Franklin County commissioners approve a $3.4 million contract for new crisis center

The Franklin County commissioners signed off Tuesday on a $3.4 million-plus contract for design and other services for a new mental health and addiction crisis center on Harmon Avenue.

NBBJ LLC, a Columbus firm, will head the architecture and engineering work for the new facility, to be constructed at a site just southwest of where Interstate 71 splits south of Interstate 70.

The $50 million, 72,000-square-foot facility is an initiative of Franklin County,  the county Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health (ADAMH) Board and the Central Ohio Hospital Council. It will offer a walk-in clinic, inpatient treatment with short-term beds and other services, and will serve as “the cornerstone of a continuum of services for adults experiencing mental health and addiction-related crises and their families,” said ADAMH CEO Erika Clark Jones.

Commissioner Kevin Boyce said the facility will complement the county’s new $360 million jail, being constructed on Fisher Road west of Downtown, providing appropriate services for people dealing with substance abuse and mental health issues.

“Most times, people landing in our correctional facility are in crisis situations themselves,” he said. “And the idea that we can better triage the services or needs that they have and provide them not just with access to the courts and judicial system, but access to a better way of life, better choices, better access to resources, is what this represents.”

Commissioner Erica Crawley added, “At the end of the day, it doesn’t just help the individual, it helps the community… There are people who look just like me who just need an opportunity to get the help that they need to be able to live a productive life.”

The new crisis center is slated to open in 2024.

In other business Tuesday, the commissioners postponed a vote on funding for a new effort to help local women return to the workforce, after the head of the Columbus branch of the NAACP sought specific information about the program’s impact on Black women in the community.

The board was poised to approve a $2.5 million grant, backed by federal coronavirus relief funds, for the Women Back to Work program, noting the challenges local women have faced over the past year and a half. According to the Workforce Development Board of Central Ohio, more than 10,000 Black women have lost their jobs during the coronavirus pandemic.

The program was spearheaded, in part, by former interim Commissioner Dawn Tyler Lee, who said Tuesday that Black women have experienced the steepest drop in labor force participation and the slowest job recovery since January 2020.

“Black and Hispanic women aren’t sharing in the job market recovery,” she said. “… By most measures, Black women have been hit hardest by job losses from the coronavirus pandemic.”

All three commissioners voiced support for the new initiative Tuesday, but they deferred finalizing the grant after Columbus NAACP President Nana Watson raised questions about how the money would be used, specifically to help Black women.

“I welcome an opportunity to speak to the commissioners about this legislation,” Watson said, offering comments during Tuesday’s meeting. “… I do want to have a conversation, the NAACP does… We want to make sure that Black people are receiving what they’re supposed to be with county dollars, that’s it. I just have questions and would like to get those answered.”

The commissioners and county administration plan to meet with Watson, in advance of a vote on the grant planned for next Tuesday’s voting session.

mkovac@dispatch.com

@OhioCapitalBlog