Former Maplecrest site will be new home for Bucyrus Salvation Army and ADAMH board

Funding from the OneOhio opioid settlement will help transform a former nursing home into a service center offering a food pantry, programs for children with academic deficiencies as well as mental health and addiction services.

The building at 717 Rogers St. that once housed Maplecrest Assisted Living will become the new home of the Bucyrus Salvation Army as soon as the lease is approved by the nonprofit's New York office, said Major Tom Grace, Bucyrus commander.

The move is the result of a collaboration between the Salvation Army, Crawford County commissioners and Crawford-Marion Board of Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services, or ADAMH.

Could be a 'game changer' for the county

"I think that working with the ADAMH board and having the additional services that we offer — pantry services, feeding services — could be a little bit of a game changer for not just our community, but the county," Grace said.

The total investment in purchasing the building and renovations will exceed $1.37 million, according to a news release from the Crawford Partnership.

Using opioid settlement money, commissioners purchased the 12,500-square-foot building, which the county will lease and ultimately sell to the Salvation Army at the end of an 18-year period, according to the news release.

Once its current lease expires, the Crawford-Marion ADAMH board also will move its office into the building.

"They will have space without our facility to help address addiction issues and mental health issues," Grace said. "Most importantly, what we're developing in this partnership is the ability to provide an expanded service to our client base."

The Crawford Partnership team provided support and consultation in the process of purchasing the building, Crawford County Commissioner Doug Weisenauer said in the news release.

“Crawford County will receive more than $366,000 from the OneOhio settlement funds and purchasing the facility meets the requirements set forth in opioid settlements," he said.

In addition to the mental health and addiction treatment services offered through the ADAMH, the new site will offer drug prevention and awareness programs — one of the requirements for the use of the OneOhio settlement money, Grace said.

The Salvation Army's prevention work will focus particularly on youth, said his wife and co-commander, Capt. Debbra Grace.

"Absolutely, as we put our new after-school education program in there, which will will target second- and third-graders, as a part of that, our staff will be teaching some prevention ideas," Tom Grace said. The ADAMH staff will be part of that as well.

Salvation Army hopes to move this spring

Once the lease is approved, hopefully within the next month or so, the Salvation Army will begin the process of moving from 224 E. Rensselaer St. to the Rogers Street building, Tom Grace said.

"Then we'll put this facility on the market to help defray some of the capital costs that will be required to do the renovations," he said. A capital campaign will help raise an additional $500,000 to $750,000 for renovations.

"There will be required renovations; most of them will be really knocking some walls down and shaping program rooms and some offices," Grace said. "The kitchen is going to have to be totally redone with new appliances, commercial appliances, and some other things so that we can carry on our feeding programs."

The building has two wings, so the Salvation Army will work out of one wing while the other is renovated, then flip to the other side when the first wing is done, Grace said.

"It will certainly expand our ability to serve the community and make it more effective when it's all done," he said.

The new building isn't significantly larger than the Salvation Army's current site, "but it's all on one level and it's much more usable space," Grace said.

"Handicap accessibility has been a huge issue for us here — for feeding, for bathrooms, for congregation," Debbra Grace said.

ggoble@gannett.com

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This article originally appeared on Bucyrus Telegraph-Forum: Bucyrus Salvation Army will move to former Maplecrest building