Matheny Medical and Educational Center might have a new home soon

PEAPACK AND GLADSTONE - For more than 75 years, Matheny Medical and Educational Center and the borough have become entwined in history, community and infrastructure.

But five years from now that may all be changed.

And that is a good thing, Matheny President and CEO Bill Kent said. There is no drama − it's just time for the world-respected facility that serves children and adults with special needs and medically complex developmental disabilities to continue growing.

And it cannot do that at its current mountaintop site.

There is nowhere to grow.

What's next for Matheny?

According to Kent, Matheny has started the process of finding a new home.

"I think there are a few things in play," Kent said. "Finding the site − determining a location or two that are technically feasible to enable us to move a hospital and the school and other programs, making sure the site is located in a township that would be welcoming to Matheny and then determining how we would finance the move. Those are the big next three steps."

Comprised of a medical center, school, community residences and Art Access and adult day programs, Matheny mission's is to provide exceptional care and an optimal quality of life for the children and adults who reside and/or go to school there.

The Matheny main campus has approximately 140,000 square feet of buildings and more than 80 acres atop a mountain only accessed by a long and winding road. The mainly residential road sees a steady volume of traffic to to the Matheny campus.

A nonprofit, Matheny was founded in 1946, a few years after Walter and Marguerite Matheny’s son Chuck was born with cerebral palsy in 1941.

Chuck Matheny became the inspiration for the concept of Matheny as his parents felt the world "was not equipped properly to care for children with special needs."

The need for a school like Matheny proved to be huge, with a national and international community of students and families. To keep up, the facility moved to its present location on Highland Avenue in 1954. A few decades later, in the 1970s, Matheny received state approval as a special hospital.

And, as time went on, the number of residential students nearly doubled, and services were greatly expanded.

For most of his life, Chuck Matheny made his home on this campus until his death in December 2017.

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Today, Matheny is a fully accredited special hospital, five community group homes, an adult day center, a non-profit private special school for children ages 3 to 21, a fine arts program and outpatient clinics that serve the community. Matheny patients have a diverse range of medical conditions such as cerebral palsy, spina bifida, Lesch-Nyhan Disease (LND) and a wide range of rare diseases.

Kent calls Matheny a "joyful place." While he came to Matheny as a "later career move" nearly three years ago, Kent said it has been "the greatest joy of his career" to join Matheny.

"I have a special needs son with autism," he said. "This was a personal calling for me and it has been the greatest honor to work at Matheny."

Soon after Kent joined Matheny, one of the first tasks the new leadership team began tackling was a strategic plan.

Quickly, one area of focus of the strategic plan became the main campus.

"It was clear that this was a real opportunity for us," he said.

Matheny’s main campus is home to 100 children and adults with developmental disabilities. Its five group homes, located in Somerset and Warren counties, provide a home for 30 adults.

The need is there

The need is much greater than what the campus is legally allowed to hold., Kent said

Back in 2008, Matheny attempted to expand its facilities by 49,000 square feet, increasing both the number of hospital beds and parking spaces. Neighbors, especially those on Highland Avenue, were not keen on the proposal citing traffic and safety issues.

After nearly 50 hearings over three years, the borough's Land Use Board denied Matheny's application in late 2011.

In turn, Matheny sued, but the denial was upheld by a higher court in 2013 and again in 2017.

Another lawsuit − alleging discrimination − was settled in 2017, but the agreement further tied Matheny's hands with more restrictive zoning requirements and new traffic controls.

The 2017 settlement agreement between Matheny and the borough stipulated not only that the organization hold its growth, but it had to reduce the allowed beds down to 71.

Matheny wanted to add two pediatric group homes at the site, but that plan had its own complexities and was not approved as helping the borough with affordable housing requirements.

The agreement also required Matheny to create a monitoring system that would track daily traffic volumes. As Matheny relocated 30 staff members off site and the pandemic added a hybrid work schedule, traffic was reduced.

The pandemic added an additional set of challenges.

But the facilities at Matheny have outgrown current needs.

"There are limitations to what we can do to rebuild, renovate, and/or expand that facility because of the settlement agreements between the Matheny and the borough from years back," Kent said. "We're in a facility that was built in the 1960s to the 1970s. And it is really in need of updating. One of the callouts in the strategic plan was to develop a master facility plan. This would be exploring how and when Matheny might be able to consider relocating to a new facility."

'Everybody is on board'

The new Matheny facility would be "into a retrofitted existing facility" that would be able to provide more convenient access to highway systems and public transportation," Kent said.

"We've just begun to explore that," said Kent, who presented the plan at a Borough Council meeting in late May. "And we are looking at a number of potential options. But our timeline for relocation is probably a good four and a half to five years out."

While the Peapack and Gladstone campus is beautiful, Kent said it also is isolated.

"It's challenging to be up on a hilltop," he said. "Up a private road. That can be challenging to recruit new employees. It can be difficult to get to in inclement weather. Even though change will be difficult, in the long run. everybody is on board for it. And we have involved hundreds of people and voices in the master facility planning process, so that people can feel confident and comfortable, ultimately, when we are able to make the move."

The price tag for a new Matheny also is a serious question. It is going to take many many "Miles for Matheny" fundraisers to foot this bill. Matheny may need to consider selling the hilltop property but no decision has been made on a sale or the timing.

"Obviously figuring out how we're going to pay for it is something that we're looking at in the near term, in a considerable way from a variety of mechanisms," Kent said. "There'll be significant fundraising and there may be an element of borrowing. There may be other assets that we can tap into. Matheny does have an endowment that could be leveraged in some careful way. But we are just beginning to look at the financial planning for such a move."

Leaving Peapack-Gladstone will be challenging on a number of fronts, Kent said.

"We're in a very positive place and we cherish the broader Peapack-Gladstone community greatly," Kent said. "We've been looking at sites within a 20-mile radius, ideally, so that the impact operationally and to families will not be problematic. We also are looking at options that will have some significant green space, though nothing will replicate an 80-acre hilltop campus, like we have currently. But we're very mindful of outdoor activities and green spaces, and we're finding some options where we can replicate those outdoor activities in a meaningful way. That with state-of-the-art hospitals, a school space that enables us to potentially grow the school and maybe even grow the hospital − that's a very exciting potential benefit for us."

email: cmakin@gannettnj.com

Cheryl Makin is an award-winning features and education reporter for MyCentralJersey.com, part of the USA Today Network. Contact: Cmakin@gannettnj.com or @CherylMakin. To get unlimited access, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: Matheny Medical and Educational Center might have a new home soon