Prairie View moves to Hillsboro
Staff reporter
When it came right down to it, it was a tough decision for Prairie View.
For the past 40 years, Prairie View has provided community mental health services to the residents of Marion County in an office in Marion. Prairie View was a part of the Marion community and one assumed it always would be.
Unfortunately, businesses are like chickens and are tempted to cross the road from one community to the next.
St. Luke Hospital needed more room for a new doctor and other medical providers, so it made sense to officials to use existing facilities on the hospital campus. Unfortunately, it meant terminating a contract with longtime tenant, Prairie View.
However, Prairie View was considering greener pastures even before the contract ended.
The expanding agency had outgrown the Marion office area many years prior but was making do with what they had.
Richard Archer of Prairie View had said that losing the contract with Marion County Hospital District #1 was a "blessing in disguise" because it was requiring the agency to look at other options and make long-range plans.
Jessie Kaye, president and chief executive office of Prairie View, said, the company could not find the necessary accommodations in Marion to meet their needs for office space, activity areas, and parking in an appropriately-zoned location, so it is moving operations to Hillsboro Heights.
"Our obligation as a community mental health center is to provide programs and services to all county residents. We want to be as accessible as possible to our clients," she said in a telephone interview.
With the short amount of time find an appropriate location without interrupting programs and services, it came down to a location that was available. And Hillsboro had it.
Marion was in the process of having an area rezoned for the possible construction of a building. The area was a little more than an acre in size, located near Butler Community College on North Second Street, the former Bown-Corby School building.
Judging from previous expansion projects that Prairie View has completed in McPherson and Newton, it was clear to the agency that an area with potential for future expansion was important.
The location Prairie View chose in Hillsboro is in Hillsboro Heights, a retail park off U.S.-56. Portable, modular buildings will be erected on a corner lot in the park, just south of Country Haven Inn at Hickory Street and Western Heights Circle. The agency will have a two-year lease on the temporary accommodations, Kaye said.
Hillsboro Mayor Delores Dalke said the city's proposal was for two lots in the development subdivision. Those lots are 100-by-200-feet each for a total of 40,000 square feet, just less than an acre.
The city owns the property and will lease the land to Prairie View.
Ironically, community mental health regulations are undergoing major changes, Kaye said. The time frame for the changes is two years.
"Two years from now, our system will be in another transition," she said. "When two years pass, we'll be in a better position to know what direction it will take."
During those two years, the service provider will move toward a permanent structure.
Luck is on Prairie View's side throughout this transition because St. Luke Hospital does not need the office building currently occupied by Prairie View until later in July. Originally, Prairie View was to vacate the building by June 30 but now have an extension of a week.
"We're trying to minimize 'down time'," Kaye said.
Other times Prairie View has moved from one facility to another, the moves have occurred on weekends or at the most, the office was closed for one day. She hopes this move will be as smooth.
Some of the services provided by the agency are mobile, Kaye said, which won't change.
"The only thing that will change is the location of the office," she said. "Nothing else will."
Prairie View employs more than 30 people at the Marion office, with many commuting from outside of the Marion area.
The target occupancy date is July 8.
