Groups to protest hospital

Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2003 | 10:58 a.m.

Neighborhood groups in the West Charleston area are rallying fellow residents to protest a proposed state psychiatric hospital at Jones and Oakey boulevards at a public presentation Thursday.

The state Public Works Board is holding a forum 5:30 p.m. at the Easter Seals of Southern Nevada, 6200 W. Oakey Blvd. near Jones to allow residents to see the design and answer questions about the proposal.

Juanita Clark, board member of the Charleston Neighborhood Preservation Corp., said her group and several others are walking door-to-door passing out fliers to inform residents of the meeting. The public works board sent announcements only to residents and businesses within 750 feet of the proposed site, about 328 people.

Clark said the neighborhood groups oppose the placement of a psychiatric hospital in so dense of an urban area, with dozens of schools and other community buildings within a three-mile radius of the location. She said mostly the groups fear what would happen if a mentally ill patient escaped.

"It just can't be there and it can't be in any urban area and that is our push," Clark said.

The Dini Townsend Hospital in Sparks, the Northern prototype for the proposed Southern Nevada Adult Mental Health Services hospital in Las Vegas, is in a rural suburb of Reno, Clark said. That hospital is located near the airport and the railroad tracks, where Canada geese wander about the roads.