Representative Heaton Speaks.
Lawmakers from across the state gathered in Mount Pleasant today to call on Governor Terry Branstad to keep the Mental Health Facilities in Mount Pleasant and Clarinda open for the foreseeable future.
Senator Rich Taylor (D-Mount Pleasant) and Representative Dave Heaton (R-Mount Pleasant) were joined by Senator Tom Courtney (D-Burlington), Senator Amanda Ragan (D-Mason City) and Assistant Senate Majority Leader Joe Bolkcom (D-Iowa City) at a press conference at the Mount Pleasant MHI. They hope to urge Governor Branstad to sign the bipartisan Senate File 505, which would fund and keep open the Mount Pleasant Facility while seeking to privatize the facility in Clarinda.
Workers at the facility were given pink slips this week, and Branstad has made every indication that he intends to close the facility next week. Representative Heaton says that the Governor is refusing to bend to the legislature.
“He should respond to the legislative will and sign this bill and allow this facility to remain open.” Heaton said, “Why swim upstream? Why is it so important to [the Governor] to do what he’s proposing to do, when the whole state legislature and all the people in this area say that we need this facility open? It’s goofy.”
Senator Taylor told the audience of over two dozen that he was only able to meet with the Governor one time during the debate over the MHI, where Governor Branstad revealed that the closure of the MHI facilities has been planned for about three years.
“My feelings were that he had made up his mind, and it was going to be Terry’s way or the highway,” Taylor said.
Keokuk resident Larry Weber is a recovering Methamphetamine addict. He and his wife, Raelene, both were treated for addiction in 2012 at the Mount Pleasant MHI. Both currently volunteer at the facility about twice a week, working with recovering addicts. Weber says it’s a crucial service in Southeast Iowa that needs to remain open.
“I went through and immediately following that my wife went through it.” Weber told KBUR, “That was the beginning of a new life for us. Our life was completely different than it ever was before, and it began right here.”
Governor Branstad has until next week to either approve or veto down the agreement to keep the facilities open.
