Over 30 people voiced their opposition at the public hearing, not just against the behavioral health facility, which they say is more like a psychiatric prison, but also the way it is moving ahead.
According to state documents, the facility would house people who plead not guilty by way of insanity or who need further evaluation before they go to trial.
Cynthia Claudt is a member of Laurel CARED, a group of citizens that organized earlier this year when they learned the state had selected their community for the site.
“We all here want mental health resources in our society,” Claudt said. “I don’t know how many times we have to say it. This is not it.”
The state advertised the public hearing as a way to give input to the Board of Investments and Department of Health and Human Services on the facility’s environmental assessment.
Jody McKay is in her third year on the Laurel City Council and spoke directly to Board of Investments Director Dan Villa, who sat at the front of the room with a Department of Public Health and Human Services staff attorney.
“This process has been messy at its best and downright questionable at its worst,” McKay said. “This community has begged for meaningful engagement and an opportunity to be heard and respected. While I appreciate your presence today and this opportunity, we all know this whole thing has not been done right.”
The selected property is over 100 acres. It is located just outside Laurel city limits and the area where Jeremy Lavold says his family works and goes to school.
“I definitely don’t want it in the location that you have your buy-sell on, because that is less than 500 yards from my wife’s location of work,” Lavold said. “It is less than 500 yards from my child’s education facility. I do not want something like that that close.”
Kathy Herr says she feels like the state is proceeding regardless of community objections.
“What part of no don’t you understand?”
Villa declined to speak with Yellowstone Public Radio until after the end of the public period.
Villa said the state shared the wrong deadline for the comment period when advertising the public hearing, and the end of public input for the facility’s environmental assessment is Friday, June 5, at 5 p.m..
