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Board of Mental Health and Addiction Services

Norwalk Reflector - 10/12/2018

Oct. 12--The Huron CountyBoard of Mental Health and Addiction Services (MHAS) has a new home, making way for Family Life Counseling & Pyschiatric Services to take over the space.

MHAS, formerly located at 130 Shady Lane, Building D, has set up shop in the Norwalk Economic Development Corp.-managed office spaces at 12 Benedict Ave. in downtown Norwalk. The move was effective Thursday.

Executive director Beth Williams said the MHAS board was asked in June if it would consider moving from the county commissioner-owned space when interest was expressed by another agency, which turned out to be Family Life Counseling.

Williams said the new location is a good fit for MHAS, where people can still visit for board and agency meetings or to find out how they can be linked with helpful services.

"We were in the Shady Lane space for more than 30 years I believe, so we had a lot (of furniture and filing cabinets we got rid of)," she said.

"The meeting room here is nice and it's bigger. That was a main requirement for our new location. We (had) to have a decent meeting room. The old building was so old and now the meeting room is a lot nicer than before -- it's all high tech."

While the Shady Lane Drive location was free and the new spot will cost the board $685 in rent, Williams said the expense is "not really" a hardship for the board.

The Shady Lane location also will remain rent-free for Family Life Counseling, Huron County Commissioner Terry Boose said. The commissioners had been in discussion with the non-profit organization since mid-summer. The contract was officially signed Tuesday.

"We have signed an agreement for Family Life Counseling to take over the whole building," Boose said.

He couldn't comment further on Family Life's intentions for the space until the organization made the announcement itself.

Supervisors couldn't be reached for comment.

Boose said asking MHAS to leave the space was necessary for the new plans to take place.

"It has to do with the purpose of what Family Life Counseling has in store," he said.

"It has to do with the whole building and they really will need the whole building for their plans. It also would not make sense to have them both (in the same building) with the purpose of the mental health and addiction services and the purposes of Family Life Counseling."

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(c)2018 the Norwalk Reflector (Norwalk, Ohio)

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