By Dave Baumeister
SIOUX FALLS – At last week’s meeting, Minnehaha County Commissioners had to deal with something they thought would be taken care of at the end of this year.
The Link, formerly referred to as the county triage center, was supposed to be finished this year, before delays were incurred due to COVID-19.
One of the functions of The Link was to house a detox facility, but the construction delay forced the county to make other plans, for now.
Since commissioners felt strongly about the need to continue a detox center, but there was no place to house it, this Tuesday, the county entered into a temporary agreement with the Carrol Institute in Sioux Falls for those services.
The new detox center, at least through March, will be housed at the Carrol Institute’s New Horizon facility at 327 S. Spring Ave. in Sioux Falls.
For their service, they came to an arrangement with the county for a three-month contract that everyone is sure will be used, and after that, both sides will go into a month-by-month arrangement, until The Link is completed.
For providing eight beds at New Horizons, the Carroll Institute will be paid $126,480.
This price was arrived at based on $170 per day/per bed for the 93 days of the initial contract.
To offset these costs, Minnehaha County will be withholding its contribution to The Link for 2021 until the triage center is completed, at which time all detox facilities will be located there.
While the Dec. 15 meeting lasted more than an hour, most of the time was spent authorizing new contracts for 2021 services, including with the Coroner’s Office, the Sioux Falls Area Humane Society, Southeastern Behavior Health and county ambulances.
Because of the Christmas holiday, there will not be a commission meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 22.
The next time commissioners gather will be for the year-end meeting on Dec. 29.