How Haymarket answered Itasca mayor's questions
Itasca Mayor Jeff Pruyn recently asked Haymarket DuPage officials 19 questions - with some subsets - about issues surrounding the project. Here are some of his questions and the nonprofit group's responses. Both have been edited for space. The full Q&A is available on the village's website.
Q. How many people do you expect to treat?
A. (We expect) to provide substance use and mental health treatment to about 4,750 patients a year through treatment and recovery programs, including outpatient programs. Nearly 2,000 residents from DuPage and the collar counties were patients at Haymarket in 2017-2018.
Q. How would the building be secured?
A. The building will be secured 24/7 and Haymarket will have trained security at all times. Security staff is not armed, but they and all other staff are trained in nonviolent crisis intervention mental health first aide. Haymarket also intends to have video surveillance of the interior and exterior monitored by security staff in real time.
Q. Are people using your facility allowed to leave?
A. Yes. The center is proposed to provide inpatient and outpatient treatment; certain patients will not remain on premises at all times.
Residential: These patients are not permitted to leave except when medically necessary. They will be accompanied by a staff member.
Recovery Stay Patients: Those in inpatient recovery programs are permitted to leave for specific reasons as approved by staff (work, medical treatment and educational). Such leave is prescribed, detailed and monitored by case workers and/or other treatment staff.
Q. How did you come up with the Itasca location?
A. The demand for our services continues to rise due to an increase in opioid fatalities and overdose reversals in DuPage. The Holiday Inn was identified as a location that might be available. The hotel is easily converted to a health center use. Haymarket learned it had previously been for sale as a hotel and received no offers. The owner plans to discontinue it as a Holiday Inn. Haymarket learned the site is zoned B-2 where health care facilities are allowed as special uses. It is not adjacent any residential neighborhood and is immediately south of an industrially zoned area. The site is in a business park with ample parking, surrounded by major highways. Its surrounding green space is consistent with a health facility.
Q. Who do you think is going to help Itasca fund public safety services needed by Haymarket?
A. While Haymarket is cognizant that funding for public safety is derived from property taxes, which Haymarket will not pay as a nonprofit property owner, it intends to contract with a private ambulance service to offset any burden on Itasca and is open to continuing to discuss the village's financial concerns.
Haymarket is firmly committed to bringing to Itasca a much-needed health center facility, which will support the treatment needs of residents in DuPage and neighboring communities. Haymarket intends to bring a positive economic benefit to the village by partnering on grant opportunities, employing more than double the existing employee population at the planned site and purchasing (when available) local goods and services.