Michael Sullivan, Medfield's town administrator, tells GlobeSt.com that the state's decision about this hospital that serves the mentally disabled is "still up in the air" but according to Anna Chinappi, a spokesperson for the state's Department of Mental Health, the decision has been made.
Chinappi attributes the closing to budget constraints as well as the progressive treatment of mental illnesses that allows more patients to live within the community. The hospital now has 110 patients. At its height, in the 1950s, it had 1,500. She notes that the hospital also needs major repair at a cost of $15 million, which is in addition to its annual operating costs of $20 million. The hospital campus currently has 86 buildings, only 15 of which are in use. This year, the House recommended budget cuts for the department of mental health of $12.8 million.
"The House budget that was passed for the next fiscal year is predicated on the department consolidating Medfield State Hospital," she tells GlobeSt.com. "We have begun the process." That process could take one to two years because Chinappi says that it takes that long to find appropriate placement for the hospital's 110 patients.
But the disposition process for the land promises to take up to 10 years, say both Sullivan and Chinappi. Chinappi points out that if the state has no use for the land and wants to sell it, it has to file a Land bill that has to be passed by the legislature and then signed by the governor. Chinappi emphasizes that "selling state property is a very open process." She notes that Amherst State Hospital is just nearing the completion of its disposition which was started in 1991. Similarly, the disposition is taking nearly that long for state hospitals in Danvers, Waltham and Northampton.
Sullivan says that the land on the Medfield side--37 acres of the property is in Dover--is zoned for business and industrial space. In the likely event that the state does not keep the land he says that the town would like to see some revenue-producing facilities developed on the site. "We are 94% residential," he says. "We need tax revenue or at least something that wouldn't burden the town."
Chinappi says that her department has an interest in having employment possibilities or housing developed on its former hospital site for people with mental illness. But she is quick to emphasize that the community "has a say in what will happen."
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