By KHI News Service, December 07, 2009
TOPEKA — An advisory panel studying which state facilities might be closed or consolidated has submitted its final report to the governor.
The report by the Kansas Facilities Closure and Realignment Commission recommends the phased shut down of Kansas Neurological Institute in Topeka and its merger with Parsons State Hospital. Both facilities serve the severely developmentally disabled.
"The decisions which were made were very difficult as they dealt with some of the most fundamental decisions affecting people’s lives and the commissioners felt their responsibilities deeply," Rochelle Chronister, the panel’s chairwoman wrote in a cover letter to the governor.
Chronister is a former head of the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services and also served many years in the Kansas House.
The commission recommended that 49 KNI residents and 62 Parsons residents be moved into community settings and that the remaining 108 KNI residents be moved to Parsons if they could not be placed in community programs.
The panel also suggested the governor write a strongly worded executive order directing any savings from closing KNI into funding for community services.
The commission also recommended merging as much as possible the administrative and food service functions at Kansas School for the Deaf in Olathe and Kansas State School for the Blind in Kansas City, Kan. Commissioners said the limited merger could save the state $400,000 to $500,000 per year. The panel also recommended the two facilities be dealt with as a single entity for purposes of budgeting.
As an alternative recommendation, the commission recommended that the school for the blind be closed and the savings used to improve outreach services for blind persons.
The panel recommended that the Rainbow Mental Health Center in Kansas City, Kan. remain open but that it pursue collaborations with community hospitals and mental health centers with an eye toward reducing the number of persons housed in state mental hospitals.
The closure commission was created by former Gov. Kathleen Sebelius. If the governor accepts the recommendations, then they will be carried out beginning July 1, unless a majority in the Kansas House or Senate votes to overturn them.