The Counseling Center will now pay $5,000 a month to lease the Hughes Center in Franklin Furnace after years of paying the county just $1 a year.
Scioto County Commissioners unanimously approved the new three-year lease, which will send the money directly to Green Township fire and EMS services.
Commissioner Merit Smith said the county had been working on the agreement for quite some time.
“When I came in, I found out the Hughes Center was leased to The Counseling Center,” Smith said. “The Counseling Center paid a dollar a year lease.”
Smith said the county originally offered the building at that price because officials believed there was a serious need for opioid treatment and counseling services.
“The county felt there was a real need for the counseling and the treatment of people with opioid addiction,” Smith said. “We gave it to them at the best price we could, a dollar a year.”
But Smith said the arrangement created a problem for Franklin Furnace emergency services.
The Counseling Center is a nonprofit and sits on public property, meaning the property does not generate tax money for the township. At the same time, Smith said local fire and EMS crews have made frequent runs to the facility.
“The rescue and fire people in Franklin Furnace have complained because they have to make runs over there quite often,” Smith said. “They say that’s the most active place they make runs to, especially EMS runs.”
Smith said the township’s complaint was simple: crews were responding again and again, but the facility was not contributing tax money to support those emergency services.
Commissioners said they discussed the issue and worked out a reimbursement system with The Counseling Center.
Under the new lease, The Counseling Center will pay $5,000 per month for the Hughes Center. That money will go to the Green Township Trustees, with $3,000 per month going toward EMS and $2,000 per month going to the fire department.
That turns a $1-a-year lease into a $60,000-a-year agreement.
Smith said The Counseling Center initially said $5,000 per month seemed like a lot, but he said he pointed out that the township had gone years without receiving anything.
“We finally got the lease together,” Smith said. “It’s been approved by the lawyers. All it needs now is our signature.”
Commissioner Scottie Powell asked whether the county would have a way out of the lease if needed.
Smith said The Counseling Center had originally asked for 120 days’ notice, but the sides ultimately agreed to 90 days. If The Counseling Center wants to leave, it must give 90 days’ notice. If commissioners want to end the lease, the center would also have 90 days.
Commissioners said The Counseling Center had also wanted a promise that the county would not terminate the lease for one year. Commissioners declined that request, saying they did not want to tie the county’s hands if another entity became interested in buying the property.
The Hughes Re-Entry program originally offered partial hospitalization and outpatient addiction treatment in Franklin Furnace for people transitioning out of the justice system. The partial hospitalization services have since been consolidated into Portsmouth, while the Franklin Furnace campus has shifted toward residential services and medically staffed withdrawal management.
Commissioners approved the lease unanimously.
