Commission OKs new home for counseling center

The Community Counseling Center and Health and Human Services now have the permit needed to move into a new building.

Operations should be relocated to the former Carson-Tahoe Hospital rehabilitation center site at 900 E. Long St. by mid-April, said Daren Winkelman, the city's health director. The Carson City Planning Commission approved the permit Wednesday.

"This is a great building for us," he said. "It's definitely the room we need for a couple of more years."

The two-story, 26,000-square-foot building is south of the Senior Citizens Center and west of Autumn Village, apartment buildings being created for lower-income seniors.

Up to 25 employees with Health and Human Services, and the Health Services Clinic, will occupy the bottom floor. The Community Counseling Center, formerly known as the Detox Center, will be on the upper floor.

The counseling center began offering alcohol and drug abuse counseling and rehabilitation at its current location in 1991, north of the city jail at Harbin Avenue and Musser Street.

It will continue to provide services around the clock at the new Long Street building, Winkelman said.

Some of the commissioners asked whether security issues have been addressed. Ensuring there are no problems with operating the health clinic and the counseling center in the same building is different from the current set-up next to the jail, for example.

The counseling center is expected to take in patients anytime, as it does at its current location.

Winkelman responded to concerned commissioners by saying that staff has thought through a lot of potential issues and will keep doing so as the move-in date nears. And, added John Peery, the chairman of the commission, most drug and alcohol facilities such as the counseling center are "very quiet places."

• Contact reporter Terri Harber at tharber @nevadaappeal.com or 882-2111, ext. 215.