The new executive director of the Bridge Center hopes to finalize contract talks by the end of the year with the private firm that will run the behavioral health crisis stabilization facility.
Charlotte Claiborne, who was named as the center’s first executive director in October, says negotiations with Phoenix-based RI International should be completed in the coming days and that the Bridge Center board, which does not meet again until January, could vote by phone to approve it.
Until that happens, however, the location for the planned center—which will serve as a psychiatric treatment and detox facility— remains up in the air. Though RI International representatives toured several facilities earlier this fall, they are not moving forward with site selection until their five-year, $30 million deal with the city-parish is finalized.
“If the contract is approved by the end of the year, we would probably have a location chosen by January or February,” Claiborne says. “Then, which location we choose will determine when it will be open.”
A tentative opening date has been scheduled for mid-spring. Claiborne says that’s still a possibility though it’s too soon to say for sure.
Baton Rouge General’s Mid City campus remains high on the list of possible sites, though Claiborne declines to discuss specifics. The hospital’s vacant 25,000-square-foot emergency department on Florida Boulevard was considered the favored site for several months until the Bridge Center board decided to hire a private provider to run the center and give that firm a say in the site selection. The BRG site is already built out with many of the facilities the Bridge Center would need, though it would require some renovations.
BRG CEO Edgardo Tenreiro says he hasn’t heard anything from Bridge Center or RI International officials in recent weeks.
Another site on the list is the former Dollar General location at 3939 Choctaw Drive near N. Acadian Thruway and N. 38th St.
“We looked at that because it was completely empty and it would be a simple build out,” Claiborne says. “So that was just in case. We just wanted to give them enough options to choose but we haven’t discussed anything more about it.”
Voters in late 2018 approved a dedicated 1.5-mill property tax that will generate some $6 million to fund the Bridge Center.
