CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A move made by Charleston City Council this week to rezone property across from Capital High School for the T-Center project is in reality just the first of many big steps for the drug treatment facility.
“Now we have our work cut out for us,” T-Center Board Chairman Scott Miller told MetroNews. “We have about $15-20 million to raise. We’re finalizing our building. We’re looking at the architects for the education-resource center and finalizing our budget. So we have a lot of work to do.”
Miller said one the next steps for the residential drug and alcohol rehabilitation facility is to hire the right administrators that can help lead the effort.
“We’re meeting with a fella at the end of the month that is helping us locate the right folks. We want to get the universities involved, Marshall, UC, WVU and I think they can help us with that process. It’s a key component right now,” Miller said.
Miller said it could take 2-3 years to get everything done that needs to get done.
“Addictionologists are hard to come by,” he said. “We have to do a lot of research. We have to get an administrator in that will research with us and get the folks he wants in and that’s going to be a process within itself.”
The T-Center was given its 40-acre parcel by the Kanawha County Board of Education in August. Miller said the school system hears from parents everyday who are concerned about family members who have become addicted. He said the hope is the T-Center can not only one day help in treatment but also provide help through its education-resource center.
“We want to take our resource center and pull all of these entities throughout the state and tri-state and try to make a great resource center for parents, counselors, teachers, students, the whole world over,” Miller said.
Miller said the T-Center has momentum on its side because so many people have been touched by the drug addiction issue.
“We have not run into one person who has said, ‘we don’t want to help you.’ Every says, ‘How can I help? How can I help?'” Miller said. “We have some community leaders that are involved in this and it is so sorely needed.”