PLANNED TREATMENT FACILITY NEAR BRENHAM RAISES CONCERNS

  

A new Residential Treatment Facility under construction on Highway 36 south of Brenham has a lot of people talking, including county and state officials.  Foundation work has begun on a 7 acre tract of land on the west side of Highway 36, just past the entrance to the State Supported Living Center.  County Judge John Brieden says he became aware of the facility Friday of last week.  Brieden says the facility is being built by Randall Bryant, and will be similar to one he is connected with in Wallis, in Austin County. Brieden has set up a meeting for next Wednesday morning with Bryant to learn more about the facility:

Also invited to the meeting with Bryant are Washington County Sheriff Otto Hanak, Brenham School Superintendent Walter Jackson, and State Senator Lois Kolkhorst.

Sheriff Hanak said that he is obviously concerned about the facility after the problems that the Austin County Sheriff’s Office has had with the Five Oaks Achievement Center in New Ulm.  There have been numerous runaways from that facility in recent years and last week, a runaway is accused of burning down a nearby home.  Judge Brieden said he has been told the facility planned for Brenham will house a different type of client than the Five Oaks Facility and would be more like the Miracle Farm operation near Independence.

State Senator Lois Kolkhorst said that she has meet with the Texas Health and Human Services Commission and that no license application for the facility has been received.  She said that the Commission will not even begin the licensing process until the facility is built. Kolkhorst said that public hearings would be required as part of the licensing in counties our size.  She added that she does have concerns about the facility and its location:

Kolkhorst said that most of the troubled youth in Residential Treatment Facilities are placed there by Child Protective Services because of their inability to be an a family situation.

Senator Kolkorst talked with the Austin County Judge and Sheriff as well as the owner of the home that was burned last week.  She says she is very concerned about the Five Oaks Facility:

Kolkhorst added that Residential Treatment Centers have traditionally been built in urban areas, but they are now moving to rural areas do to the price of land.