Breaking News
Business

Mountwood Park officials give tour of facilities

By Brett Dunlap 4 min read

VOLCANO -- County officials are hopeful a new tenant will be found soon for the White Oak facility at Mountwood Park.

Park officials hosted a tour Wednesday for representatives of Addiction Recovery Care of Louisa, Ky, The tour also was attended by state delegates and senators, a representative from the West Virginia Attorney General, a representative of U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito and others.

Pressley Ridge recently announced it will cease operations at the White Oak facility by the end of January. Youth served were sent to other facilities.

Pressley Ridge is removing equipment and other items from the facility.

Ric Renquest, senior director of program and service for Pressley Ridge in West Virginia, conducted the tour. He worked at the facility for 10 years and is in charge of the shutdown.

"It has been a hard thing from the standpoint of those of us who were in on the decision to pull the plug," he said. "We were also here at the beginning, worked here and are very invested in the program."

The main building at White Oak is 27,000 square feet. The building Pressley Ridge is using as a school, the old Nature Center, has 15,000-18,000 square feet. The facility also has nine cottages and sits on 50 acres of land.

Renquest showed the visitors the main building of the facility, including an indoor pool, an updated commercial kitchen, office space and more. In the last five years, the boiler system, a walk-in cooler and the roof have been replaced. Decking and porches have also been replaced.

"There are a number of false walls that could be removed and easily go back to the way it was," Renquest said of the main building where office space had been created over the years.

He showed the visitors some of the residence cottages and the old Nature Center to show how people lived at the facility and to show the facilities that were available.

Pressley Ridge paid over $300,000 in rent a year to the park, which used it to pay utilities, to Claywood Park PSD for services and for loan payments. The facility employs 75 people and is a major revenue source for Mountwood Park.

Reliance Treatment Centers, Recovery Point and Scioto Properties have also looked at the facility.

Tim Robinson, CEO of Addiction Recovery Care, said the firm was impressed with the facility.

"It is a beautiful facility," he said. "What we do is addiction treatment and West Virginia is definitely in need of more treatment facilities."

It is looking at a number of facilities.

"There are a lot of communities that want us to come," Robinson said. "We are really good at what we do. We have developed a whole continuum of care that starts from detox all the way to job training and employment. We have developed a one-year treatment program."

Addiction Recovery Care is the biggest treatment provider in Kentucky and is looking at sites in different communities in a number of states, including West Virginia, Ohio and Virginia.

"We are looking to see which state we will go into next," Robinson said.

Wood County Commissioner Blair Couch said although Pressley Ridge's announcement about a month ago was a shock, park officials quickly acted to find a new tenant. Couch is the county commission's representative on the Wood County Parks and Recreation Commission, which governs Mountwood Park.

"We acted quickly and made multiple contacts and we have had four different organizations take a tour of this facility," Couch said.

Addiction Recovery Care's tour was arranged by Brooke Albright, consumer representative and compliance specialist with the West Virginia Attorney General.

"We are thankful we have had these tours," Couch said. "We believe we are going to see our way out of this. We believe we are going to bring something in."

With the Mid-Ohio Valley experiencing an opioid epidemic, a long-term treatment facility seems like a good possibility for the property, Couch said.

"We are focused on recovery and addiction issues that have struck Wood County and our surrounding area," Couch said. "If we can find a tenant that can use this as a recovery center, we believe not only will we get rent, but everything else from addiction recovery to hope. We are going to have hope for Wood County if we can rent this to an addiction recovery center."

Starting at /week.