ROAN MOUNTAIN — The proposed long-term drug treatment center for the region is a little closer to opening.
On Friday, Gov. Bill Lee signed the lease on the facility that will house the center.
Rep. Tim Hicks, R-Gray, was present when Lee signed the lease. Hicks said on his Facebook page that the governor’s signature “allows us to move forward in opening this new recovery facility.”
Carter County Mayor Patty Woodby said the opening is not far off.
“We expect to open it in April with 45 male inmates,” Woodby said.
The facility is certainly a secure location. It is the former Carter County Work Camp, a unit of the Tennessee Department of Correction’s Northeast Correctional Complex in Mountain City. The Roan Mountain annex of the prison was closed down a couple of years ago. The facility is located off Railroad Grade Road on 27.48 acres of land.
Hicks described the availability of the former prison as the answer to a search for a suitable place to start up the center.
“Several people from our area had a vision of starting a regional recovery facility in Northeast Tennessee. After several years of looking for the right facility, the Carter County Work Camp came available. Back in November of 2021 those individuals, along with others from our area, met with our governor, Bill Lee. We asked for that facility.”
With Lee’s signing of the lease, the facility may now become the drug treatment center.
“Thank you, Governor Lee, for making this happen,” Hicks said.
It has taken leadership from every county and municipality in Northeast Tennessee to make it happen. It was envisioned that the money to convert the building from a prison to a drug treatment facility and the money to operate the center would not come from the taxpayers. The leaders planned to use the millions of dollars that every county and municipality received in a settlement of the Baby Doe opioid lawsuit against major pharmaceutical companies.
Criminal Court Judges Stacy Street and Lisa Rice of the 1st Judicial District and Jim Goodwin of the 2nd Judicial District spent many evenings speaking at county commission and city council meetings throughout the region to convince them to earmark the settlement money for the treatment center.
Woodby said that because of this widespread commitment to creating and operating the treatment center, every entity that donated funds from the settlement will have a voice on the board that will oversee the facility’s operation.
The board is now in the process of getting the facility open in April.
