Officials of the Illinois Department of Human Services told Murray Center officials and State Representative Charlie Meier during a Friday tour that they can expect up to 60 additional residents as they are transitioned out of the trouble Choate Mental Health Center.
Murray Center Parents Association President Rita Winkeler says the timetable is uncertain.
“Given no timeline when the individuals from Choate will be coming. From what they are saying, they are trying not to have another debacle like when during Gov. Quinn they attempted to close Murray that they just moved people anywhere. They are trying to be very thoughtful about this and their plan is still a 2-3 year time frame.”
WInkeler says the tour included the recently renovated Apple Cottage as well as Berry Cottage.
“They were very impressed with the center. With how clean it was, how good it smelled, how well decorated it was. They were impressed with the staff and how they were engaged with the individual. They said you could really tell the staff had a very caring attitude. We went over to Elm Cottage which is now empty because those individuals just moved to Apple Cottage, and they were impressed with our painters who already has more than half the cottage ready to go within a week or two.”
Winkeler says Elm Cottage will house the new residents. She notes in addition to the staff, some of the residents also told them all about Murray Center and what they liked about living there. The visitors were also impressed with the Rain Forest Cafe.
Winkeler says two requests were made of the Human Services officials as they look into moving in additional residents.
“Last summer we had over 100 people who applied, but not all of them have definitely been called yet so hopefully we will see a big push to get staff so they can get trained and hired. That was a really big push. And another push for Rep. Meier and staff were to fix the roads around Murray Center, we’ve been waiting many years for that to be done. And they are assuring us that hopefully that will be getting done.”
Winkeler says the exact number of new employees is uncertain, but the center was already targeted for 48 new staff before the Choate transfers.
The two visitors were Senior Advisor for Special Projects Ryan Croke and Chief of Staff for the Illinois Department of Human Services Amanda Elliot.
